valerie

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

August 12, 2023 - a cute house in Krasnaya Rechka village. My colleagues and I agreed that we’re all in love with the old style balcony on the second floor. It seems like a decent number of village houses in this area have them

reddish-brown brick home behind a teal wrought-iron fence, white window panes and a wooden roof and balcony on the second floor

August 11, 2023 - Also on yesterday’s adventure, while we were reading the plaque, a group arrived in a van. We thought they were tourists, but they were archaeologists from China. My colleague and I spoke to them with our limited Chinese, and they let us come with to this other nearby site

looking down at a site of old, rock walls from a higher up vantage point

August 10, 2023 - went to a UNESCO designated place today of Buddhist building/monument remains which were once located along the Silk Road (it’s listed on this webpage)

plaque with a map of each point within the larger site and information about the site in Kyrgyz, Russian and English

August 9, 2023 - street in Bishkek

cars parked along both sides of a not so wide street, building visible down the street on the left side, mountains visible at the end of the street

August 8, 2023 - in one of the classrooms where some of my colleagues teach during our practicum..

diagram of the parts of a kalashnikov rifle in Russian on a board on a classroom wall

August 7, 2023 - barely trying to hide that this is a Choco Pie knock-off

red box with a picture of a layered chocolate and cream cookie and text "Choko Pay" on it; able to see cookies through plastic in middle which are topped with chocolate cream and powdered sugar but look nothing like the box's picture

August 6, 2023 - Kyrgyz cemetery

from afar - tombstones inside fenced plots and three small mausoleums. mountains in the background

August 5, 2023 - I don’t know what this bird is, but it looks so cool

bird with black and white striped wings, brown body, black and brown striped crest and a long beak standing in dry grass next to a dirt road

August 4, 2023 - green apple slices sitting on a table outside at a coworker’s host family’s house. I assume they are going to be used in cooking, but not sure for what

green apple slices on a wooden table in an enclosed concrete porch area

August 3, 2023 - moon in the sky

at night, roof of a building visible. tree on the left, full moon shining in the sky, and clouds to the right of the moon

August 2, 2023 - cows walking down the road while I was on transport

5 brown/white and 1 black cow and 1 sheep walking to the left of the photo

August 1, 2023 - entrance to the local school from inside

two open doorways, one with a few stained glass-looking windows above it

July 31, 2023 - first day of my short teaching practicum! I had students work in groups and make this at the end of a lesson on ‘I like’/‘I don’t like’. Not a v productive production activity, but oh well. I’m biased, but I think it’s an interesting visual. Maybe w more time could’ve done more w it

paper chart. rows labeled with names (3) and columns labeled with food/drink (6). Each cell has a happy or sad face, correlating with 'like' and 'don't like' respectively

July 30, 2023 - Was confused because I saw this guy from a distance so I could only see the black moving…was talking with someone at the time and couldn’t help but to turn away and say, “what IS that creature?” I don’t know exactly what it is or how it got there, but I hope it’s safe 😥

brown baby bird with black wing tips and spots of yellow resting on a ridge on bark of a tree

July 29, 2023 - There’s a phrase in Kyrgyz, Эл эмне дейт? (What will people say?) It encourages people to stick with societal expectations and community-approved actions. This cafe is called Эл эмне жейт which rhymes but means ‘what the people eat’. My sense of humor is so boring, I find this funny

July 28, 2023 - Kyrgyz grammar chart made by a past trainee/volunteer. There is a separate word for ‘if’ in Kyrgyz (эгерде), but it’s not always necessary to use. To show ‘if (someone) (verbs)’, you need to put a С between the verb stem and the possessive ending of the subject

grammar chart on a piece of paper called "If Chart" demonstrating how to form 'if' in Kyrgyz using verbs

July 27, 2023 - line of sinks out in the open in the entrance hall of the local school. I don’t know what the purpose of this is, maybe because appearances are important?

row of 8 white sinks against a wall, each with a small rectangular mirror above it