valerie

July 8, 2023 - factory in my village which is undergoing renovation

half finished concrete building behind a tall, gray brick fence

July 7, 2023 - we had homemade pizza, coca-cola and cake to celebrate my host brother’s birthday which was yesterday

a small glass of mug of coca-cola on the left, plate with two small pieces of pizza on the right

July 6, 2023 - sunset

two black tree silhouettes against a cloudy, pale pink sunset

July 5, 2023 - Russian cemetery in my town

grave mounds, some decorated with flowers, with short wrought-iron towers as headstones and all but one surrounded by fence

July 4, 2023 - came home to this and was told that it was a grain used for feeding chickens and could also be used to make some kind of bread? My host sisters were playing in it like it was a pile of dirt while my host dad shoveled it into sacks

pile of yellow grain on the ground behind a car (almost as high as the top of the trunk) and next to an orange house

July 3, 2023 - cucumbers from my host family’s garden

long, bumpy cucumber lying on the dirt under cucumber leaves still attached to the plant with one half of another cucumber visible

July 2, 2023 - mountain view today from my PST village. was the clearest view of the mountains I’ve seen since I’ve been here

gray mountains with white peaks against a light blue sky

July 1, 2023 - all the trainees in my village got together for a movie night but it didn’t work out the way we planned 😅

room with a TV hanging on a wall over the rails of a wooden staircase leading downstairs

June 30, 2023 - my fellow trainees and my Kyrgyz teacher laughed at me today when I told them I carry a stick as my key to open my host family’s gate. This was not a personal choice - my host mom literally picked up a stick off the ground and gave it to me to use. I assumed this was normal

keys on a carabiner with a small stick lying above it

June 29, 2023 - I don’t remember the number, somewhere between 30 to 50 liters of kompot in the basement of one of the trainees who is in the same village as me

about 30 jars with cherries and red kompot (fruit juice drink) inside on a wooden table in a cellar with brick walls

June 28, 2023 - Аит Маарек Болсун! (Happy Eid! in Kyrgyz) Just a small portion of a table in one of the seven houses we went to 🥴

tabletop set with cutlery, napkins, sliced watermelon, melon, carrot and cucumber salad, candy, cookies and small pieces of fried bread

June 27, 2023 - table set with fresh boorsok that my fellow trainees and Kyrgyz teacher made in preparation for Eid (Аит in Kyrgyz). I would have helped, but I have a cold and thought it would be better to just watch

small pieces of fried bread spread out along a long table which also has sugar, jam, honey, a couple dessert trays and some spoons set on it

June 26, 2023 - helped my host mom make Быжы this evening, sausage made with sheep meat, rice, carrots, garlic, onion and pepper stuffed in sheep intestine and then boiled. Thinking about the source too much makes me a bit squeamish because it’s not something I normally eat, but I liked the taste!

plate with a filled sausage before boiling mid-left; bowl filled with mixed ingredients for stuffing on the bottom right

June 25, 2023 - evening walk in the village

rocky, dirt road with tall, brick residential fences on both sides just before sunset. power lines down the left side of the road and trees close to the horizon point

June 24, 2023 - beshbarmak for lunch

plate of chopped beef mixed into noodles with a portion of beef on a bone to the side

June 23, 2023 - learning and reviewing verbs in Kyrgyz

June 22, 2023 - lagman for lunch

bowl of noodles, chicken and chopped veggies including cabbage, pepper, tomato and onion

June 21, 2023 - host family’s gate at night

blue gate adjacent to a red brick wall with tree branches visible over the top. picture taken at night, one star and a crescent moon in the sky

June 20, 2023 - cow eating leaves from a tree on my host family’s road

mostly black cow standing on a dirt road eating leaves from a low-hanging branch of a tree

June 19, 2023 - my host mom made cherry kompot today!

tea cup filled with hot, dark red kompot made from cherries

June 18, 2023 - train going through Ivanovka Station

green and light yellow-ish petrol train(?) moving towards left side of photo with a brown train parked on a different rail behind it

June 17, 2023 - Training Host Family Matching Day! Met my interim host family and I’ll be living w them for the next 3 months during training, the majority of which will be Kyrgyz language learning. Starting to understand why some people consider parts of this country as being in the “posh corps” 😅

large bedroom with a river in forest wall mural on the back wall. shelf and bed on the left side of the room and a table and chair on the right side

June 16, 2023 - mosque near our guesthouse

small white building with a gray roof, two small green and white domes and crescent moon pinnacles

June 15, 2023 - dining room of our guesthouse

open-air deck area with wooden floor and roof and two rows of mostly wooden tables and chairs

June 14, 2023 - evening walk

gravel road curving slightly towards green mountains in distance with a light pink cloud above at dusk