valerie
October 26, 2024 - going to my regional center in my taxi, sitting in the backseat. My taxi driver has a төшөк (a Kyrgyz blanket/pad thing, for sitting or sleeping on) on the backseat
October 25, 2024 - best dry erase markers I know of in Kyrgyzstan, but can’t get them in my regional center 😒 We use makeshift whiteboards (white paper in a sheet protector) in our lessons a lot, but we go through so many markers that I highly doubt my coteachers will keep them up after I leave
October 24, 2024 - found this on the back of a paper that a group of students used to draw a map of our village during English Club. I’m going to assume it is addressed to me 😛
October 23, 2024 - on the hike to Song-Kul, in early August. By the time we made it to the lake shore, a storm had rolled in and it was raining
October 21, 2024 - about sunset time yesterday with a plane in the sky. I usually check them on FlightRadar when they are passing through. I don’t remember about this particular plane, but a lot of planes between Kuala Lumpur and Almaty fly above here
October 17, 2024 - coteachers and I hosted a training yesterday for homeroom teachers and directors at our school. They identified safe/not safe/“50-50 safe” places at school (hence the school maps with different colored sticky notes on the wall) and brainstormed ideas of how to make school safer
October 16, 2024 - went to another school this morning to give a training with another volunteer. That school was really big, and they have a nice assembly hall (at least compared to my school)
Kochkor, Kyrgyzstan
October 15, 2024 - my host grandma literally put these fruit in a bag and told me, “take them to your room and eat them. If you leave them here in the kitchen, then your host sister will eat them” 😂
October 14, 2024 - a volunteer has found a Eurasian forest dormouse in her outhouse. Meanwhile, I have this, and it’s not the only one 🙃 The outhouse is nicer than our old one, but can’t help but wonder if it would be nicer to NOT see the spiders (old outhouse had no light and had dark wood and tin)
October 12, 2024 - just some cookie things that I really liked. I think I bought them at Fix Price in Bishkek
October 11, 2024 - instructions and questions in Kyrgyz for a training that my coteachers and I will give next week. I’m in ‘teacher with no life’ mode right now because I’m pretty tired after I get home from school, so my camera roll is a little sparse 😕
October 10, 2024 - host family has turned my bike into a clothes rack since there’s a flat tire that I need to take care of 🙄
October 9, 2024 - small legal representation office in Kochkor. Wonder if anyone actually works here
October 7, 2024 - yesterday’s sunrise in the neighborhood. Sadly, it was gray and cloudy for the rest of the day
October 5, 2024 - one of the few things I got during yesterday’s Teachers’ Day celebration at school. This was from the school student council. Google Translate translates the words as, “you are a uniquely unique person”, which I think sounds funny
October 4, 2024 - small sports center in my village. Never been inside
(actually, I didn’t know this place existed until a taxi drove me past it once… it’s not far from my house, but there’s no reason for me to come this way)
October 3, 2024 - We did a review of clothes in today’s English club (since the last three clubs have been somewhat related). Then I gave each pair of students a blank person template that they had to make clothes for 🙂 made a display afterwards of their work (on a board that no one looks at)
