valerie
July 6, 2024 - my boyfriend only wanted one souvenir from Uzbekistan - a plate. We bought one at Chorsu Bazaar and then we were set…until he put the bag with the plate on a bench and I accidentally knocked it over 😢 he says he will just glue it, but I still feel really bad about it!!
July 5, 2024 - met a friend yesterday. It took him a few minutes to understand the concept of cat treats
July 4, 2024 - when the marshrutka (van/minibus transportation available in Kyrgyzstan) breaks down on the way back to your village 🙃 all ended up okay, we just had to sit and wait for an hour for a different marshrutka to pick us up. it could have been worse
July 2, 2024 - making our way back to Kyrgyzstan. got on the train yesterday evening from Urgench to Tashkent. Now it’s the next morning and we’ll be arriving to Tashkent in about an hour
July 1, 2024 - bride receives gifts (scarves, money, household necessities) during a part of the wedding ceremony for both men and women (though men and women still generally sat at different tables)
June 30, 2024 - only a brief part of the few day-long Uzbek wedding I’ve been witnessing. at a banquet hall to celebrate the bride. I went only with female relatives and kids, no men
June 27, 2024 - where we spent last night, an overnight train from Tashkent to Bukhara. hot when we first boarded. luckily, the AC kicked in as the train chugged along, and it got surprisingly cool during the night. we were given white bedsheets to use and had to return them before disembarking
June 25, 2024 - isn’t it so satisfying when you have all of your chickens in a row? that’s how the saying goes, right? 😉
June 23, 2024 - went on a walk to a hill/small mountain last week and narrowly escaped rain. Luckily, most of the rain was passing through the northern side of the mountain (or at least the rain there was moving through faster), the side farthest away from me
June 22, 2024 - our calf Zoya left with her mom yesterday to go to a summer pasture (jailoo). My host mom said it’s because we don’t have enough grass for them here. Even though Zoya and her mom will return in fall, I’m still sad about it 😥 I said goodbye yesterday and took plenty of pics
June 21, 2024 - went to a toi (party) yesterday, a түшөө toi, which people celebrate when a child turns 1. It was what I call a 3 course toi - first we sit in a room and eat desserts and salad, then soup, and finally (in Naryn oblast, at least) beshbarmak in a diff room (pictured here)
June 19, 2024 - progress on the new outdoor toilet. it’s deeper than the old one, which is good, but now I will be even more worried about dropping something in it 😬 the hole seems smaller than our current one, which doesn’t seem wise. at least the toilet will be more stable than our old wooden one
June 18, 2024 - flowers in front of my school yesterday. went to school but it was a holiday, so the guard refused to open it
June 17, 2024 - double rainbow in my village yesterday evening. I took a picture when there was more rainbow, but I didn’t like the way it came out with the top of one my host family’s vehicles, lots of powerlines, and the roof of our outdoor kitchen
June 16, 2024 - yesterday helped the women in my host family prepare boorsok and set the table for Eid today
June 15, 2024 - back wall of a neighbor’s stable. My sister and I were playing with a flying toy and she accidentally got it stuck on the stable’s roof. I managed to climb up where the bricks jut out a bit and retrieve the toy. I almost knocked over one of the (concrete?) shingle pieces
June 13, 2024 - it’s so nice to be back in my village after burning in Istanbul and Bishkek. 20°C was the high yesterday, and it’s been raining a lot (though the rain rarely lasts longer than 30 min). Feels amazing. Definitely no regrets about being placed in Naryn oblast 😊
