valerie
April 3, 2025 - saw this fuzzy thing in the corner of the outhouse for a few days. Not sure if it was a caterpillar or cocoon or something else. I wanted to touch it, but seems like most bugs that look fluffy are not actually meant to be touched
April 2, 2025 - one of the few bowls of holodets that my host mom made. Google and Wikipedia translate holodets (Russian: холодец) into English as ‘aspic’, but I’ve never heard this word before
March 31, 2025 - found an abandoned puppy on my run yesterday AM. First tried to run away because I assumed (rightly) that my host family wouldn’t want a puppy, but it started running after me 😔💔 luckily, with Eid, there were a lot of people out. It ended up going somewhere else, but idk with who
March 30, 2025 - Happy Eid! Our table for guests. On this day, people say Айт маарек болсун! to each other in Kyrgyz. It’s a day for visiting neighbors and family and eating way too much
March 29, 2025 - it was very foggy yesterday, so much that I could only see a faint outline of the small mountain close to my village
March 28, 2025 - spent the afternoon with my host mom and host sister after a busy week. We made samsy (but they did most of the work) and took care of the sheep. Then we had the samsy and ramen for iftar 😊
March 26, 2025 - 2 pics in a display at my school with information about different kinds of kalpaks (a white, traditional Kyrgyz hat for men). I had no idea some kalpak variations actually mean something. 1st pic shows a kalpak for boys, and 2nd pic is for men 60+
March 25, 2025 - another morning walk picture from two days ago. This is looking southeast (my village is to the south)
March 24, 2025 - the most unusual gift I have ever received as a teacher. From two 6th grade boys. Maybe it was a prank (they just put it on my desk), but I know they like me as a teacher and they were adamant that I take it 😂 maybe it’s defective? (other than the missing leg and pen marks)
March 22, 2025 - was grading tests that my students took before spring break. First, I was using a pink pen, and then it ran out of ink. Then I changed to this purple pen. It had an oopsie, but luckily not on any test papers
March 21, 2025 - ad for an art museum in a village outside of Bishkek. Seen at a cafe
(also, Happy Nooruz!)
March 17, 2025 - at the park where I took the squirrel picture yesterday. The sign says “Kyrgyz-Korea Friendship park” in Kyrgyz (and I assume in Korean too, but I can’t read Korean)
park has been here a while but only recently (in the past year?) was it given this friendship name/status
March 15, 2025 - I guess the chips which come in a tin at this store are not for short people like me. (Was on an unsuccessful hunt for original Pringles?! Didn’t see any at 4 stores…so bought paprika Pringles and original Spar ‘pringles’ instead)
(btw, does the US have paprika Pringles?)
March 14, 2025 - International Women’s Day gift (late because we weren’t in the same place until today)
March 13, 2025 - more USAID materials (the Kyrgyz book on the left is a translated version of the English book on the right). Both books are pretty hefty, so the translation work must have been a big project
