valerie
April 25, 2025 - after our lesson yesterday, a student handed me a folded piece of paper as she left the classroom. At first, I thought it was just trash. But when I opened it, I saw this message 😭🩷 the students are 1000% the best part of this job
April 23, 2025 - despite being ‘fried with salt’, I find these almonds to be too sweet… will try different almonds next time
April 22, 2025 - I really don’t like rain, but at least these storms in the mountains pass through quickly (and it still doesn’t rain that much volume-wise anyway - this is a relatively dry area)
April 21, 2025 - a lot of future potato fields in my village have looked like this for the past month, with piles of poop sitting in piles and then spread to be used as fertilizer. My host mom said people use poop from their own animals, but that a few people also buy some
April 20, 2025 - a pot of something boiling. I’m not sure exactly what my mom was cooking, but it was for workers we had at our house last week who helped to sort our potatoes
April 19, 2025 - we noticed that a few trees have been chopped down in the small central Kochkor park. There was another being cut down when I was in town today
April 18, 2025 - the good/bad potatoes have been sorted and my host family is ready for potato planting season
April 16, 2025 - I forgot to share that I saw a rainbow this past weekend! Not very vibrant, but a rainbow nonetheless
April 15, 2025 - there is water in the village canal again. Finally some green grass and leaves, and some fruit trees are starting to bloom. Feels like spring is here
April 14, 2025 - open field right outside of Kochkor, Kyrgyzstan, where it seems some farmers bring their animals to graze
April 12, 2025 - moon set at the beginning of my run this morning. I know it doesn’t look like the moon, but 🤷♀️ ..
April 9, 2025 - a stairwell has been adorned with proverbs in English/Kyrgyz. Someone printed the same proverb two times on different papers and put them next to each other
(Actually, I don’t agree with the English translation…it’s more like, “The best kind of wealth is good health”)
April 7, 2025 - Mecca Cola. On the side, in white, in Russian, it says that it was made with zam zam water. I don’t know if I believe that, but it tasted like sweet, watery coke
April 6, 2025 - let’s play a game: why was a new car bridge built and opened next to this old one? do you seeeeee it?
Kochkor, Kyrgyzstan
April 5, 2025 - I’ve brought a few avocadoes home (meaning to my host family’s house) during my service. (Pretty expensive here.) Once, my host mom took an avocado seed and tried to make it grow. I don’t remember when she started taking care of this seed, but here is its progress! (in front)
April 4, 2025 - visited another village this past Wednesday, and the students there put on a Little Red Riding Hood puppet show in English. It was so impressive!
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
