School & other pics

Hello! School has started and I'm officially a teacher. It's a little hard to get into the swing of things but overall things are good. The weather is still pretty nice but I'm nervous about the winter. Planned electricity outages are going to start in October... oh boy! Here are some pics from our first day of school and other village happenings.

The first day opening ceremony of my school was the hottest ticket in town. Here are some of our rockstar village elders:





My host mom, little bro and sis.



The view from a second-story window. I wasn’t hiding in my second-story classroom because I felt awkward and out of place; I just thought it would be a good picture, geez. And also I had to, like, make sure my chairs were all straight and other important stuff.



The bows and pinafore uniforms were compulsory during Soviet times. Now they’re just… amazing? An eyesore? Spectacularly horrific? You can decide.



It got really dark and started raining, but it’s okay because there was plenty of room for us all to comfortably enjoy the two-hour ceremony in the lobby…



Women from my village and guests who just came to enjoy the festivities.




A beautiful double-rainbow outside our front gate. My gang: Zarina, Adilet, Beggai, and Adelia.




Helping at a summer camp in a neighboring village.


I usually take a bucket bath in this place, but on this day I would have had to step over a dead sheep. I, um, decided not to. This poor sheep. A worm got into its ear and then its brain and it went crazy and it started walking around in circles all the time. I’m pretty sure we didn’t eat it; at least that’s what they told me. I pushed the meat to the side of my plate for the next week, just in case. No crazy sheep for me, thanks. Sometimes I covertly drop meat back into the serving bowl when no one is looking because if I don’t eat my meat at dinner I get in trouble.



Have you ever had a nightmare where you’re at a middle/high school dance in a neighboring village and standing there really awkwardly, not dancing, and then everyone forms a giant circle and then the DJ on stage goes “And now the guest from [your village] will dance!” and then the circle opens and everyone turns and stares at you…
It can still happen to you. Even if you’re like 24. Yup.



On my way home from school I saw these guys just, you know, hanging out in a wheelbarrow.



It’s apple season now! We spent hours salvaging the good parts from the bad apples. That's my host sister Aayzat. In the second pic you can see my host mom (on the right) and a neighbor and the apples they're going to sell when the apple-buying man comes 'round.







Looking out over a valley behind Cholpon Ata, another town on the north shore of the lake



All kinds of honey for sale. Our region is famous for it. And you can always sample it. Want to taste many kinds? No worries, you only need one spoon and you can dip it wherever you like. Once I bought honey on the side of the road and the woman who sold it to me spoke a little English. “Is it fresh?” I asked. Her face lit up. “It’s tomorrow’s honey,” she said proudly. (I think she meant to say “yesterday’s honey” but of course I like to pretend that I eat special honey from the future.)



Brooms for sale at the bazaar. My family doesn’t own a vacuum cleaner so this is what I use to clean the carpet in my room. In related news: my carpet is dirty.



My host sister Noorbuhbuh making plov (rice, carrots, onions, meat). Yes, my sisters are amused/annoyed when I take so many pictures of them cooking. They see me coming with the camera and go, “Karen, again?!” And I’m like guys, chillax, it’s not like I’m putting them on the internet where anyone in the world can see them. [wink]




Another sister, Noorjan, making pasta. Delicious! They think it’s hilarious that I always buy pasta at the store in America. Of course, so many of my norms seem absurd to them. My friend Alyson was giving an English club, teaching about household objects, and one of her students asked, “How many toilets did you have in your house in America?” and she said, “Um, three.” And they go, “Oh my god! How many people did you live with?!” probably thinking you’d have to live with like 20 relatives to require that many toilets.



Introducing my family to the magic of chocolate chip cookies, via Josh, via America, via Betty Crocker. Everyone liked them except for my cousin Beggaim.
Repeat: My cousin did not like chocolate chip cookies.



I think I was a Kyrgyz sheep in another life. I’ll let you guess why.



Spices at the bazaar:



The apricots are all gone now but for a while we were swimming in them. My little bro Kyrot mashes the apricots in this contraption as Noorjan and I try to pit them fast enough to keep up. Then it becomes sludge. Then they make fruit-roll-up-like substances. I was like, it’s left outside to dry? And they said yes. And I’m like, but what about the dirt, and the wind, and the chickens, and the bugs? Last pics: Apricots drying in the sun, apricot jam.