valerie

January 7, 2025 - yesterday’s strange cloud cover. The forecast showed a chance of snow, but alas, it did not. There’s another chance tonight, but I’m not convinced that we will see any

dark cloud shortly before sunset over snowy mountains

January 6, 2025 - dough was too thick, but otherwise our pizza yesterday turned out not bad, especially for Kyrgyz style pizza. The peace sign covering part of the pizza is my host sister

baked pizza on a black oven shelf with a peace sign on the left

January 5, 2025 - relatively new sculpture in Kochkor’s small central park, located in front of the cinema, honoring a Kyrgyz film director who worked during the Soviet Union named Gennedy Bazarov

square-shaped structure with the square standing on a corner. thick, black stripe of film decorated on right side with a man's face on it

January 4, 2025 - Christmas tree in Bishkek Park shopping mall. Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan

two floor high Christmas tree in the center of the ground floor of a mall

January 3, 2025 - leftovers from a Chinese fast food restaurant. things like this are part of what make Kyrgyzstan so funny to me. As I’ve heard other volunteers say, “copyright law basically doesn’t exist here”

brown rice carton with a sticker labeled "Mr. Ping" and a picture of a crane (Po's dad) from Kung Fu Panda

January 2, 2025 - Christmas tree near ЦУМ (Tsum) shopping mall. Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan

Christmas tree structure made of metal and decorated with ornaments

January 1, 2025 - New Year shenanigans. Ala-Too Square, Bishkek

crowd of people by a tall Christmas tree and building