valerie
June 19, 2025 - you can buy sumac at a Turkish store in Bishkek. This bag of sumac was 77.88 Kyrgyz som (a little less than 1 USD). 0.088 kg of sumac in this bag times 885 (som for 1 kg of sumac) equals 77.88
June 16, 2025 - phone couldn’t focus on both, so had to choose one item to be blurred. I opted for the machine that I got this small art souvenir from (it was a small single piece ornament in the shape of a matryoshka)
last month in Las Vegas
June 15, 2025 - this is the string that my host mom uses to tie our cow’s back legs together while she is milking her (so the cow doesn’t kick)
June 12, 2025 - English teacher club in another village. A teacher in that village brought small cakes and pizza that she and her daughter made. She asked me to take the last piece of pizza home, but we had no bags, so she wrapped it in a piece of paper that she didn’t need, and then it was hidden
June 11, 2025 - strange but beautiful sunset with brick fences in front of our house and the neighbors’ house across the street
June 10, 2025 - dog standing next to a rail outside of a Spar
the dog was tied to a different fence further away from the entrance before we went into the store, but when we came back, it had gotten loose and seemed to be looking for its owner to return
June 9, 2025 - Zaya standing by a piece of wood
(yes, my family has started calling Zoya’s sister Zaya 😁)
June 8, 2025 - two days ago (Friday), I traveled 5km down the road to my colleague’s village because his coteacher invited us for Kurman Ait (Ait maarek bolsun!). I went with two English teachers from my school, and we had a nice time 🙂
June 7, 2025 - if I turn on the light switch in my room, a white light turns on (the unlit circle in the middle). If I turn off the light, and turn it on quickly again, I get this blue light setting. I think these lights are cool…don’t think I’ve ever seen any like this in America?
June 4, 2025 - Two weeks ago, I gave my weekend taxi driver a Buc-ee car scent hanger as a gift from the US (and a Hershey’s bar). Last weekend, I saw that he had put Buc-ee on his mirror. Bit of nostalgia for the US, but mostly pride that now there is a Kyrgyz driver with Buc-ee in his car
June 2, 2025 - clocks seem to be a popular gift this year! From the teachers at my school. The text inside says “to the volunteer Valerie” in Kyrgyz
and because it’s in the shape of a yurt, it has curves 🙂
June 1, 2025 - a local teacher invited me to lunch this past week to thank me for how I’ve helped her over the past two years 🥺 she ordered so much food for just two of us (it’s not all pictured) and then of course wouldn’t let me pay
May 29, 2025 - we have a new baby calf! Our cow gave birth on Tuesday. It was my first time seeing the whole process. The calf is sisters with another young cow of ours, Zoya, but since Zoya isn’t home now, my family has been calling this new calf Zoya, too 😂
