valerie

January 23, 2024 - there was an earthquake not too far away at 12:09 am this morning and the shaking woke me up. Luckily, everything seems to be fine, even for the volunteers who live closer to the epicenter. I didn’t feel any aftershocks. I saw that the actual magnitude was updated to 7.0 later

Android Earthquake Alert screenshot showing my location compared to the epicenter of a recent earthquake (which appears to have been in Kyrgyzstan, but was actually in China)

January 22, 2024 - yesterday my sister and her friend tried to bake a cake but it didn’t bake evenly. this also happened the very first day I moved in because they set the oven too hot & the outside cooked faster than the inside. no idea about this time, was in a different room when this happened

pastry in a heart shaped baking pan with a brown top but cut open to reveal pale, uncooked batter inside

January 21, 2024 - sauna room in a new banya in my village. apparently it opened last month

January 20, 2024 - hello

sheep with brown wool and a black head, looking slightly upwards with it's mouth open

January 19, 2024 - discarded cigarette pack on the ground outside our house. pretty sure it was my host dad because he smokes. Google translates the Kyrgyz text as “a painful death”

slightly crumpled Winston pack lying on the ground with a picture of what looks like a malnourished chest and Kyrgyz text over it (азаптуу өлүм)

January 18, 2024 - lunch break during a regional English speaking competition that I was a judge for. Despite how chaotic it was (especially by American standards), I enjoyed getting to hear local students speak English. And I’m excited to work with my school’s participants to prepare for next year!

typical Kyrgyz table set up with pastries, candies, cheese and sausage slices, and hoshan (a kind of oily, fried Kyrgyz bun with meat and onions inside) as the main course

January 17, 2024 - classroom left in disarray (not by me)

side of a classroom with a couple of desks and chair visible. flower pot on the windowsill, and a small area of dark soil scattered on the floor

January 16, 2024 - mural near Lighthouse Coffee in Karakol

mural on a tan wall of a 4-story building with a young Kyrgyz boy wearing a Kyrgyz hat, orange t-shirt, and jeans; and a little pale, blonde girl wearing a white strap dress. the two children are holding hands and both holding a bunch of flowers, skipping through grass

January 15, 2024 - back to work today, but no interesting pictures, so here’s one from our guesthouse in Karakol. the plant on the left was so tall - I took the picture while standing on a stairway. my host family has a plant like it in our kitchen, but it’s not super tall

house plants in a line against a pink wall next to a staircase. white radiator on the wall above the plants, and a window on the wall above the radiator

January 14, 2024 - we were approached by Korean missionaries in a restaurant in Kochkor today who very loudly asked if we are “Christian????”

hand holding a purple bandaid case with a white sticker in front that reads "Jesus loves you" in English, Kyrgyz, and Korean

January 13, 2024 - Issyk-Kul Lake shore near Karakol, Kyrgyzstan

light gray-blue lake next to a brown shore with snow-capped mountains in the background

January 12, 2024 - Karakol, Kyrgyzstan

sign with big, red block letters that reads 'I (heart) Karakol', but only a thin, white A where the second A should be. above and behind Karakol are two white swans in the same block style as the sign, facing each other so that their heads make a heart

January 11, 2024 - Christmas/New Year’s tree in Karakol

tall, decorated Christmas tree and light decorations around

January 10, 2024 - watched my host parents feed up today. it was actually my first time since they usually do it when I’m at school. This is what they gave to the sheep, and the cows got something similar. it’s a mix of barley feed, potatoes and salt

pale orange plastic bucket of potatoes mixed with feed

January 9, 2024 - from today’s walk in my village

snow-capped mountains with long, dark shadows from thin overhead clouds streaking across; a few brown trees and yellow grass among a field of mostly dirt

January 8, 2024 - went to FixPrice hoping to find any flavor of dairy-free milk that was not chocolate to make Thai tea…had to go to another store

sliding door fridge with 3 shelves (out of 4 in the picture) filled with nemoloko dairy-free chocolate milk

January 7, 2024 - how to fit 50 people on the road (in Russian and in Kyrgyz)
Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan

three pictures painted on a concrete wall showing the space requirement for 50 bicycles vs 1 bus vs 50 cars on a road

January 6, 2024 - returning to Kyrgyzstan. at the Kazakh-Kyrgyz border but on the Kyrgyz side while waiting for our bus to pass through the border

white stray dog, dark gold stray puppy and black stray dog, waiting patiently in case we had food

January 5, 2024 - Almaty, Kazakhstan

Christmas and New Year decorations. big 2 0 2 4 in front of a building with columns and lights on the columns. Christmas tree on the right side

January 4, 2024 - my boyfriend: “Almaty is better is Bishkek, I don’t smell any air pollution here!”
me: takes this picture

bottom fourth of the picture covered by a gray haze with city buildings barely visible; above, a blue sky

January 3, 2024 - one of my requests for this trip was to try Wendy’s. my spicy chicken sandwich was pretty good. I don’t remember the American Wendy’s menu well enough to know how the selection differed between the two countries. Almaty, Kazakhstan

January 2, 2024 - this was our view outside of the bus for about 40 minutes. we were stopped on the side of the highway because of a blowout. Bishkek –> Almaty

white, snowy hill underneath an afternoon sun

January 1, 2024 - from yesterday’s adventure - close-up of the frozen lake surface that my host family and I ice skated on

ice with ski mark cracks running through it; teal water underneath

December 31, 2023 - fun way to end the year by ice skating on a frozen reservoir/lake with my host family. Ara-Kol, Naryn region, Kyrgyzstan

frozen lake with some ice skaters, a brown hill above with parked cars, and snow-capped mountains in the distance

December 30, 2023 - trash day means seeing bags like this outside. I don’t know where the trash goes…there’s a small dump outside my village, so maybe there. I’ll ask my family. No official trash vehicle from what I’ve seen, just a normal car that drives around town and honks relentlessly

three orange mesh sacks and one white sack leaning against a two-color brown brick wall and blue gate of a house