Life around the village

In Kyrgyz culture, the youngest daughter or the daughter-in-law does most of the household chores. Since ВеНЕРА is one year older than me, I feel awfully awkward having her wait on me. No one around here gets up to help her; they just let her wait on them hand & foot. I could not imagine taking on the workload that she has. She cooks, cleans, does laundry, milks the cows and sells the milk. She also farms a field of sugar beets. Soon it will be time to harvest, and she has to cut down each plant by hand. I plan to help her, though I don’t know if that will be good or bad. I’ve also started helping with the baby and the dishes. It’s not much, but it helps a little bit.

We have an outhouse too. It’s not very fancy, but it gets the job done. It doesn’t have a seat – just a hole in the ground. Its tricky to aim in a hole in the ground while squatting and trying not to hit your leg. And it’s a drafty outhouse. I don’t know what I’ll do in winter. I think I’ll have a damned cold bum.

Bathing is interesting. There's a bathhouse called a БАНЯ (pronounced baña). Once a week they light a fire that heats up a tank of water. The water tank is inside the bathhouse, with the fire accessible from outside. The water heater has stones sitting on top of it. When the water is hot the whole БАНЯ is hot, and they splash water on the hot stones to create steam. Then you sit in there for as long as you can take it, and sweat like crazy. Its like a sauna, but reminds me of the temazcal in Mexico. To wash up, we bucket bathe by putting warm water in a bucket and using a small container to scoop it up and pour it over ourselves. No more long, hot showers for a while.

Last night АЗИЗ (Azees), the son, had his cousin АЗИM (Azeem) and a friend over for dinner and drinks. I hung out with them outside while I did my homework and practiced the language. At the end of the night I was explaining to АЗИM that in the U.S. people hug and kiss on the cheek to say goodbye; and in Mexico men kiss women on the cheek. ВеНЕРА freaked out and explained that they don’t do that in Kyrgyzstan and my Ata would get upset if he saw that. Ok, I can dig that. But she explained it to me over and over again. I was very irritated. I was still upset when I woke up this morning and consequently had my first bad day. I realize now that there was a lot of frustration built up behind that.

That’s the shortened version of the lowdown. There’s more, but I’m super tired right now. I’ve made a list of the things I could use. If anyone’s feeling charitable you can make a little care package. And things take a while to get here, so keep that in mind.

• Fleece or sweat pants – wide leg, size L
• Any good books you’ve read – and I recommend Life of Pi by Yann Martel
• Long sleeve t-shirts – thick ones that will keep me warm and last a while
• Instant oatmeal – take it out of the box so it takes up less space, and I like the fruit & cream variety pack -> this would be good because the food here is greasy and I’m STARVING
• Febreze
• Cayenne pepper, garlic, Valentina Extra Hot Sauce, cinnamon, oregano, salt, pepper and anything else that you think would make bad food enjoyable
• Tootsie rolls – the flavored ones and fancy suckers from Aunt Tina
• My hiking boots – mom, they’re in the bag I sent with you in Philly and I could really use them for the spring
• A small 3 hole puncher and a binder
• Hacky sack & Frisbee
• Chili Cheese Fritos
• Any other kind of food, especially junk food

I didn’t say it was a small list 

I love everyone and miss you sooooo much. XOXO.

P.S. Everyone was asking me this before I left. We started with 66 volunteers. After our first week in country, we’re down to 62. Its been TEFL volunteers that leave, not SOCD (which is what I am). We business volunteers appear to be much tougher ;)