valerie

September 6, 2023 - my host sister makes blinchiki (Russian pancakes) well!

a plate of blini/blinchik, (thin) Russian pancakes, but the stack is short so you can really only see the top 2

September 5, 2023 - found it hard to believe my colleague when she first told me that my village is forested because one of the words in the name means ‘sand’. But there are a surprising amount of trees here. View from the third floor of my school, from the hall outside my classroom

houses along a dirt road with trees behind them and mountains in the distance

September 4, 2023 - there’s some orange on this rug in my host family’s kitchen. sitting in the kitchen as I wait for chickpeas to roast in the oven since I didn’t have a chance to eat lunch during the day

zoom-in of a patterned rug with orange, brown, red and green

September 3, 2023 - precious, probably the most wholesome graffiti I’ve ever seen.
Kochkor, Kyrgyzstan

green spray paint graffiti on the wall (of a house, maybe??) which reads "Nari and Butik, the best friends!", a picture of a heart with wings and antennae, and a cartoonish man with a hat

September 2, 2023 - buildup of broken plastic frisbee shards from two different frisbees (one pink, one yellow) that I have been collecting as my host sister and I play with and apparently destroy these two frisbees. They are very cheaply made and thin plastic frisbees

about 7 rounded, pink and 4 rounded, yellow plastic pieces in a pile on the floor

September 1, 2023 - grew up in cities so agriculture has mostly been an abstraction for me, but now I live it. Host sister, host mom and I unfolded bags today that will be used for upcoming potato harvest. Was told some kids will miss school to help out. Potatoes are the main cash crop in my town

unfolded orange mesh bags in a pile under a plank of wood since it's windy here; in the background, bags filled with more bags that have yet to be unpacked

August 31, 2023 - weird cloud cover today, with white clouds over the mountains in the distance and dark gray clouds closer to my town. It rained a bit this morning and it was very windy today. The power even went out for about an hour. But ended up being nice and warm in the afternoon

view of roofs in a small town; mountains in the distance with white clouds over them, dark gray clouds closer to the foreground, and blue sky in between

August 30, 2023 - my host family took me to a family friend’s house out in the country. My host sister and one of their daughters went walking around where they live

brown mountains against a blue sky with some thin, white cloud cover on the left side

August 29, 2023 - my 10 yr old host sister keeps making little crafts for me and it’s so adorable. I don’t know if she likes that I display them or she gets enjoyment out of the creation process (or both), but I love it and it reminds me that I need to do more for pure enjoyment without inhibition

one paper with colored pictures of different fruits labeled in English; picture of a boat on an ocean at sunset; paper bouquet of paper roses with a blue paper butterfly on it; real, small yellow flower in a paper bouquet; I L O V E, each letter in a different colored heart; a drawn dinosaur holding a pink paper envelope which reads 'open' in Russian

August 28, 2023 - my classroom! The school year starts on September 1st (Friday) but my main coteacher said that there will only be a start-of-school ceremony on that day. Lessons start next Monday, but I’ll only be observing for the first two weeks, then teaching together with my coteachers

classroom with 4 rows of desk, each desk being for two students, room for about 30 students. some wall decorations and a coat rack in the back

August 27, 2023 - potato plants at another house in the village. apparently that’s the popular crop to grow here. on that note, my host mom and grandma were preparing potato sacks today (the kind made of mesh-y material with a ribbon-like thing working as a drawstring)

field of potato plants, those in the foreground under shade and those behind in the sun. a small building (which might be an outhouse) visible in the top left. trees behind the field

August 26, 2023 - my 10 year old host sister and I burned a cake today 🤣 the oven temperature was too high so the outside burned but the inside didn’t cook all the way. I let her deal with the oven since I’ve never used it before, but didn’t pay close attention to what she was doing. Next time!

heart-shaped cake in a heart-shaped baking pan. the whole top of the cake is dark, but the top half is significantly darker than the bottom half

August 25, 2023 - I moved to Naryn oblast today as an official volunteer and will live here for 2 years!

view from a second story window of a house in a small town with a view of colored metal roofs and mountains in the distance

August 24, 2023 - at Orto-Sai Bazaar. the sign reads ‘make keys’ in Kyrgyz (top) and in Russian (bottom).

red sign with white text on the top reading 'make keys' in Kyrgyz, white text on bottom with the same in Russian, and pictures of keys in the middle

August 23, 2023 - do you think we overpacked? (to be fair, the blue and red bags are medical bags which were provided to us)

suitcases, bags, and backpacks of 26 people all piled together in the corner of a room

August 22, 2023 - view of southern Bishkek from the hotel we are in as we prep for swearing-in

trees in the foreground, buildings behind them and a blue sky. view from 5 floors high

August 21, 2023 - pizzaaaaaaa

fresh pizza on the oven pan with mozzarella cheese, italian sausage, tomato sauce and cherry tomatoes

August 20, 2023 - host mom of a colleague makes traditional Kyrgyz slippers. She made a pair for him as a gift. I asked if she could make me some and was quoted a price. But since my host mom and his are friends, my host mom heard that I wanted slippers and paid for them herself as a gift to me 😳

red felt slippers with traditional Kyrgyz motifs embroidered(?) on them

August 19, 2023 - got home late in the evening after watching Napoleon Dynamite with colleagues. Forgot that I had scheduled a call with my mom, so my host mom gave me a plate of food to take to my room 😶 (I usually eat dinner together with them at the table they have outside)

noodles with fried meat and vegetables including cucumber, tomato, potato and onion with a little bit of broth/oil

August 18, 2023 - view of Ala-Too Square, the National History Museum, and some of Bishkek from the ferris wheel in Panfilov Park

building which resembles a big mausoleum with a square and statue in front of it seen from slightly higher elevation; other buildings and mountains visible in the distance

August 17, 2023 - chalkboard after an English lesson I observed from one of my colleagues. He did a great job!

chalkboard with 3 parts - 2 folding sides and one main board in the middle. some black and white pictures taped to board and sentences with blanks written on the board

August 16, 2023 - the family of one of my colleagues made fried chicken and fries for all of us for lunch. it was delicious, especially the fries

white circular plate with ketchup in the top left corner, chicken wing in the top right corner, and fries on the bottom half

August 15, 2023 - 10 ruble bill from the USSR. One of my colleagues had it - I don’t remember where he said he got it from

old, creased pink bill that reads '10 rubles, USSR' on it in Russian

August 14, 2023 - this little dude was nibbling on his acorn while hanging onto a tree with his back legs/claws. I have to say, I think squirrels are one of my favorite animals to photograph (not that I’m a professional 😆)

brown squirrel with a gray tail on a tree with its head pointed towards the ground, holding an acorn to its mouth while hanging on to the tree with its back feet/claws

August 13, 2023 - today we discussed the legend of Burana Tower (Wikipedia) in Kyrgyz, and this is how one of my colleagues depicted it. You can read the legend on the linked Wikipedia page

whiteboard with pictures of a tower, a girl, a man, a spider, grapes, and a fortune teller, with a few Kyrgyz words for these things on the board