Travel and host fam
Hey everyone,
I just wanted to elaborate on my last blog and update you all. I got a few messages asking about Istanbul. Unfortunately I did not go into the city that day. We only had a few hours to travel into the city, grab lunch and get back through security at the airport. I would love to go back and see the sites. Good news is that I’ve heard the Kyrgyz I’m learning is closer to Turkish than Russian, so I could probably get around better later anyways.
I have been staying with a host family in a smaller city. Ther is a mom (ata), a dad (apa) and a younger sister, Jibek. She is 17. They have had volunteers before, so they know the drill. I have a room that locks and they let me study and encourage me to rest. My host mom finally let me do the dishes with Jibek. There is an indoor toilet, hot water, a banya (sauna), and an outhouse. I feel really lucky and spoiled!! The family is nice to me. My sister speaks pretty good English and my host mom is a good teacher. Her job is to teach culture at a secondary school.
We usually meet for language classes 3-4 days per week and rotate who’s host family we eat lunch at. It seems like the host mom’s all kind of know each other and are planning to out-do each other on the menu 
We eat a lot of bread (nan – HAH), chai, rice, potatoes, and a mix of tomatoes, peppers, onions, garlic. Even as I write these words, the Kyrgyz terms are coming to my mind. We have been focusing on food vocab. this week ! Must be a good sign. I actually enjoy the food. For anyone whose had Uzbek food, we have plov and some other culural dishes. Good news! I haven’t been any kind of sick or making mad dashes to the outhouses. Praise for that because it would not be fun.
Current events- Some of you may have noticed Kyrgyzstan in the news recently. I can’t really talk about any kind of politics nor where we are right now. But all volunteers are safe and in secure places. We were moved and are hanging tight right now. Emotionally we are doing okay too. I may not have easy internet access again for a while–it was out in the whole country the other day. So, no news is good news for now.
I’m gonna try to upload a few pictures of the mountains we saw when we first got here. Enjoy!
Hey Amber,
Good to hear from you. Glad you like the food! It’s interesting that they use saunas there. Is the chai spiced? Sandy
The chai is not spiced. It is just the word for tea! You can get green tea (literally translated as blue tea – not sure why) or black tea. Something that is cool that you can try at home for a Kyrgyz tea experience is putting a little jam in your tea. My apa keeps apricot, plum and blueberry jams to put in tea or on bread!