September 11, 2023 - in retrospect, I’m pleased that I had half of this candy left to eat after work today. I was so hungry but it was at a weird time of day in between meals π₯² my little brother/cousin gave the candy to me randomly a few days ago
September 9, 2023 - sign in the Kyrgyz language with local emergency numbers.
Σ©ΡΡ ΠΊΡΠ·ΠΌΠ°ΡΡ - fire service
ΠΌΠΈΠ»ΠΈΡΠΈΡ - police (a Russian word, but I heard Russians in Russia use a different word for police)
ΡΠ΅Π· ΠΆΠ°ΡΠ΄Π°ΠΌ - ambulance, literally ‘fast help’
September 8, 2023 - my family’s horses are back from yonder! ‘Yonder’ actually refers to jailoo (ΠΆΠ°ΠΉΠ»ΠΎΠΎ in Kyrgyz), which are mountain valleys where Kyrgyz people traditionally take their animals in the summer
September 7, 2023 - pretending that this picture taken at .5 zoom is a panorama shot since my actual panoramas don’t seem to want to upload. this is I think the fanciest of my family’s two dining rooms, and the one most often used for guests. my host father had some guests here today
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
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
September 3, 2023 - precious, probably the most wholesome graffiti I’ve ever seen.
Kochkor, Kyrgyzstan
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
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
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
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
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
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
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)
August 26, 2023 - my 10 year old host sister and I burned a cake today π€£ 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!
August 25, 2023 - I moved to Naryn oblast today as an official volunteer and will live here for 2 years!
August 24, 2023 - at Orto-Sai Bazaar. the sign reads ‘make keys’ in Kyrgyz (top) and in Russian (bottom).
August 23, 2023 - do you think we overpacked? (to be fair, the blue and red bags are medical bags which were provided to us)
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 π³
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 πΆ (I usually eat dinner together with them at the table they have outside)