valerie

March 13, 2024 - it was cloudy and we got a tiny bit of snow today, and I thought the mountain view from the school looked cool

cloudy, gray day. snow-capped mountains with a cloud running through the middle of them

March 12, 2024 - Ramadan calendar in Kyrgyz for the largest town in our region

March 11, 2024 - classroom was in disarray because apparently new lights were installed in all classrooms yesterday (which is funny because we don’t really need them now, the school is bright enough the whole day with our daylight). fun day of moving desks and chairs while beginning Ramadan fasting

desks along walls of classroom to clear the center of the room, chairs haphazardly on top of or around the desks. one desk in the foreground with old, circular fluorescent lights on it

March 10, 2024 - flowers from my Kyrgyz teacher on International Women’s Day

flowers with light and dark pink petals and green leaves

March 9, 2024 - I, uh, may have walked to the next volunteer’s village without telling my fam, which I thought would be closer, but maybe it took longer due to walking through a field part of the way rather than on this paved road the whole time and because of stopping to take pictures like this one

March 8, 2024 - Happy International Women’s Day! We have no school today, but here’s a picture of decorations at school that one of the vice directors and some students arranged to take pictures with

[old] Kyrgyz flags on either side of an "8" made out of colorful paper flowers on the wall. paper pictures of teachers while at the school hanging from the ceiling

March 7, 2024 - International Women’s Day celebration since there is no school tomorrow. Kyrgyz people are so committed to taking leftovers home after parties in plastic bags that when a local teacher couldn’t find a bag for me in the cafeteria, she gave me the leftovers in a sheet protector 🤣

bread bun with potato filling, apple, tangerine and candies inside a plastic sheet protector

March 6, 2024 - periodic table board in Kyrgyz which is sitting in the teacher’s room for some reason

white board showing a periodic table with groups of elements in different colors set against a wall

March 5, 2024 - horses chilling in the dried-up canal in my village during my walk on Sunday

4 horses - one black, two dark brown, and one white - standing near each other in a shallow, dried-up canal with snow all around

March 4, 2024 - when even the rest of your family has no idea what is on their dinner plates, you know you’re in for an interesting evening

some kind of thick-looking intestine thing which is on a plate cut open with meat and vegetables inside

March 3, 2024 - back in my village and it snowed while I was gone. this is the most snow I’ve ever seen here

dirt road mostly covered with snow and brown trees on the side of the road with a thin layer of snow on their branches

March 2, 2024 - cafe in Bishkek

cafe with a teal accent wall, white tables and chairs, tan flooring and a counter in the same teal and white colors

March 1, 2024 - I feel like this is either the first or one of only a few times I’ve seen any kind of syrup in Bishkek

Fabbri brand maple syrup bottle on a store shelf, with a 667 som price sticker on it

February 29, 2024 - KFC Kyrgyzstan has chosen an unfortunate product name, according to my American English self

4 items on a screen at a KFC kiosk with one of them named "twister wedgie"

February 28, 2024 - small cafe in Bishkek with good khachapuri. I took a picture of the cafe while waiting for the food but apparently forgot to take a picture of the actual food

inside a small cafe with a couple booths and a couple tables

February 27, 2024 - sunrise

light pink/orange sunrise over mountain silhouettes, but a few power lines running across the pic in front of the mountains

February 26, 2024 - the neighbor’s horse, which has an interesting black and white mane

brown horse tied to a fence with a rope; mane that alternates between black and white

February 25, 2024 - a few weeks ago, I asked my sister what happened to the nozzle of the vacuum, and she said it broke. it’s inconvenient to vacuum the big rug in my room like it’s the interior of a car 😅

small vacuum with what's left of the nozzle taped to the tube, and no floor brush

February 24, 2024 - old chemistry equipment at my school

an old fume hood-looking piece of equipment amongst other things in a small storage room

February 23, 2024 - today’s a holiday, so I stayed home for most of the day and finally got a picture of the trash truck! 😂

small trash truck with the back half full of orange and white bags

February 22, 2024 - saw this delightful bird picture in a book about Arslanbob that I read with my Kyrgyz teacher. It is called дрофа in Russian and Great Bustard in English

circular picture of a Great bustard bird, which looks a little bit like a small turkey or pheasant with the Kyrgyz name (тоодак) underneath

February 21, 2024 - today is Mother Language Day, and this classroom had some quotes in Kyrgyz about languages/mother languages on the board. the most interesting to me is элсиз тил болбойт, тилсиз эл болбойт (without people language isn’t possible; without language humanity isn’t possible)

classroom with "21st February Mother Language Day" letters taped the wall and top of a smartboard; to the right a TV on the wall; below the TV an old brown chalkboard with colored papers taped to it with quotes in Kyrgyz

February 20, 2024 - fear me, I am dinosaur 🦖

looking down at a light brown sheep with its mouth open, caught mid-"baa"

February 19, 2024 - I got to watch an open lesson today, and I took this picture as a reference for how this teacher used the projector. not sure if those are her own cords or if those get left in the classroom (the laptop is hers, though). this is 1 of only a few projectors in our school

laptop hooked up to a projector that is projecting onto a smartboard

February 18, 2024 - Valentine’s Day gift (there were 3 but now there are 0)

chocolate muffin with chocolate chunks in a white paper muffin cup with a golden rim