Crazy that I am already three weeks into my stay in central asia! The time has flown by in a blur of the crazy culture shock and getting adjusted to life here. Now that we are falling into a routine, (kind of), it has started to feel more normal. I am still constantly running into new things. Some of it cool, some of it weird. Though I have been to the food bazaar several times, it still freaks me out to see huge hunks of bloody meat just hanging in the open air with flies buzzing all around it. It's still hard to see little kids playing in the street or in the jueys (I'm sure that's not spelled right. Just picture a ditch full of trash, dirty water, and animal waste running down the street). It still cracks me up when the neighbor's rooster crows any time but when it's supposed to. It's still amazing how different the pace of life is. I don't set an alarm clock, I just wake up whenever. Since I don't have a formal job, every day is different. I wake up usually between 6 and 8 am and throw on my corta in case we have guests. For me it's weird just wearing so much clothing as warm as it is; I'm used to wearing tshirts and athletic shorts every day. So it's still an adjustment to wear a cotton or velour garment that goes past my knees, paired with pants that go all the way to my feet. I can't complain though, they are super comfortable. And the awesome thing is that (unlike the cruel Arkansas humidity) the heat is dry. So if you stand in the shade, you can stay cool. Which is awesome. And on days when we have little to no water pressure so there's no way my hair is going to get all the way clean, I can just throw on a head scarf. However, the culture doesn't require that I wear one. It's a win-win.
I had my first bout with giardia last weekend. I'm sure you don't need any detail about what an intestinal parasite does to you. We drink filtered water and try to be really careful, but it's just one of the perks of life here. Thankfully, we identified it really quickly and the couple I live with (referred to as Mac and Sarah from here on out) had the medicine I needed on-hand. It was a rough weekend, but by Monday I was feeling much better. So thankful for medicine! And great friends here to take care of me. Oh and a toilet. Most homes here just have a squatty, aka a hole in the ground in a shed which smells awful, but we are SO blessed to have a western style toilet. It's the little things.
This week was awesome. We got to do a little vbs for the five "older" (older than 2) American kids here. It was a huge blessing to us, and also to them. Obviously, it's not hard to find something like that for your kids in the states. But believe it or not, that type of thing isn't all that common here. The kids are AWESOME and they loved it. We had stories, played games, sang songs, ate lots of yummy snacks, and just enjoyed hanging out together. That was from 9-12 everyday this week. Sunday the kids sang a few of the songs that we taught them for their parents, who loved it. Overall, I am so glad we got to do it! It was a great opportunity to encourage the kids and get to know them better. It was really fun to tell them stories and teach them fun songs. For the older two, I think it can be frustrating living in a world where very few people understand English and not having many other kids their age to play with. So I think that made it that much more special for them.
Monday we had our first official language lesson. It was so fun! We have a super sweet teacher. We have already gotten a great start toward conversation. We are learning a lot of vocabulary, as well as basic conversational phrases. We also have begun to learn some grammar and basic conjugation. Hopefully, this will allow us to actually say something next time we go to a party, instead of just sitting and smiling. For three hours. One thing we learned is that the technique of smiling and nodding isn't a good idea. Apparently, Taylor and I are the perfect age for being married off to someone's 25-30 year old son, and it wouldn't be all that strange for someone to ask us to marry their kid. So you see why smiling and nodding is not the way to go. haha
I live with one of the best cooks I've ever met. Sarah is seriously ridiculous. Lunch and dinner every day is something different and really delicious. Which is saying something, because everything takes so much longer and more work to do here, especially cooking. Buying fruits, veggies, and meat takes you all over the bazaar. Then you have to wash it all in filtered water to ensure that you're not gonna die. haha. Just kidding, you probably wouldn't die. But you could get pretty sick. When you need milk you go to the nearest neighbor with a cow (a neighbor that actually feeds their cow food...if a cow eats garbage, the milk literally tastes like garbage. pretty gross) and let them know. They bring you a big jar, straight from the cow, which you then cook and strain yourself. But MAN is it delicious. The lady across the street must take really good care of her cow, because the milk we got the other day was sooooo good. That's saying something; I've never been a big milk fan. Naturally, there's no such thing as fat free. That combined with the fact that Sarah is such an amazing cook has led to the conclusion that we are going to have to work out while we are here. So Taylor and I have been trying to get up early and exercise or at least get a workout in sometime in the evening. The more we change from our college lifestyle of staying up way too late, the easier it is to get out of bed in the mornings. Go figure:)
We have also been cooking and baking a lot. Sarah loves trying new recipes and lets Taylor and I make whatever we want, as long as we can find all of the ingredients or a good substitute. It has been hit and miss. A few things turned out great, a few not so great. Bad ingredients led to our cherry cobbler not rising at all. The oven just going out randomly (it does that all the time, SO frustrating. We often have to babysit whatever's baking) led to a not-so-great batch of baked chicken. After fighting with the oven for half an hour, we gave up and just fried it. It turned out alright. We made some incredible fondue and pound cake for a girls night, which was tons of fun. We were even able to find some good fresh strawberries and some decent bananas to dip to. I am loving learning how to bake all kinds of new things. I remembered how much I love baking...I had gotten so busy, I probably haven't baked much at all since junior high, and I didn't bake a ton back then.
Our new dresses are almost ready, I am super excited to see them. The seamstress we went to is so sweet and has done them really quickly. I'll post a picture at some point when I get time.
There was a huge culture festival tonight. It was at the only real stadium in our town which was PACKED. They had tons of music as well as traditional dances. There were tons of cute little girls in the national fabric swaying and dancing to the music. Our host family told us to wear American clothes since there were going to be many foreigners and it would ensure us actually getting in since we didn't have tickets. That helped us stand out even more! haha. People stare like crazy here. I know we are white, but it doesn't matter if you're white or black or asian or a native...they stare at each other, give each other once-overs, stare at foreigners, etc. It's definitely weird though to be standing somewhere and have people literally walk up to you and be a foot away and just stand there and stare without even bothering to hide it. They told us to stare back, but I can't do it without laughing. It just cracks me up! One day, Taylor and I took public transportation for the first time. It's basically an extended minivan with a few seats in it. They cram people in with sardines and go until someone yells, "dored!" or someone else wants to get on. But a lady in front of us kept pointing behind us. We turned around, and there was a middle aged woman with a camera phone that just started snapping away. We smiled and made faces and everyone laughed. I guess that's what it feels like for them when we take pictures. It's funny to be on the other end.
It's started to get a lot warmer during the days. The boys have a little kiddie pool that they have started filling up. We have a lot of fun having splash wars and running through our little yard. It's a fun way to keep cool in the evenings, considering the fact that central heating and air conditioning doesn't exist. Mac did put in a window unit in the den though, which is great. Most evenings we all hang out in there after dinner until the boys go to bed. Then we have a few hours of down time to catch up on whatever needs to be done. It's a great time to relax and talk and get to know each other better. I cannot express how nice it is to not have to be anywhere most nights! Most nights we just chill at home, which is perfectly acceptable.
Well, that should give you at least an idea of what our time here has looked like so far. I'm new at the whole blogging thing and still trying to figure out the layout (i.e. the lack of paragraph divisions).
Please bear with me:) I will try to update when I can. Feel free to comment or send me an email, I'd love to hear from you! If you have any questions, ask them. Love you guys and I appreciate your support. Please lift my friends and the people her up daily!
Sweet ladies
View from Old Ruins
My lovely corta
Taylor, Vanessa, and I
Our street
