My life in KG and everything my village has

As promised… Accommodations in my village:
• I live on one edge of town and where I live there aren’t any paved roads. It is bad most of the time because when the roads are dry the cars drive fast and dust goes everywhere. It’s really not good especially since I bathe once a week. My face and hair get gross. But when it rains it all turns into mud. The funny thing is that mud in Kyrgyz is a not a very good word (2 words) in English. It makes me giggle every time I hear it. During the winter it won’t be too bad because it will be covered in snow and all the pot holes will be filled in.
• My school (there are three secondary schools and one technical school in my village) is about a 5-10 minute walk. It matters how fast I’m walking. They call it the new school but it was build 20 years ago. There is a kindergarten that is right next to it. Students go there until they are ready to start secondary school. Kids usually start 1st grade around 5 or 6 years old. They go to school for 11 years. Then off to university, technical school, or to work. Some students will leave secondary school around 9th or 10th grade and start at a technical then. My first host brother did that. He went to a school to become an accountant.
• At the school electricity is rarely used and so when there is no power the only way that you can really know is because the bell that lets us know that class is over is a hand held bell that someone rings while walking up and down the hallways. Oh, but if there is electricity the school bell doesn’t ring itself. A teacher has to be on “duty” everyday and they are in charge of ringing the bell and the end and start of each class. The sound of the bell sounds like a fire alarm in America and scares me every time it goes off.
• In town there is one café that I usually go to with other volunteers about once a week. The food is pretty decent Kyrgyz food and the people know us there. There are also about 4-5 small cafes which are called ashkana. We go there when we want something different but they usually only have two or three dishes there. Sometimes they don’t have any food at all.
• We have 2 small bazaars during the weeks (Monday-Saturday). And on Sunday we have a very large bazaar called the mal bazaar or domestic animal bazaar. There they sell sheep, horses, cows, chickens, and sometimes yaks and camels. There is a man in At Bashy who trains falcons and sometimes he will be there with his falcons. At this bazaar we usually get shashlik which is kabobs. There is one guy we always go to because he always has beef. The others all have sheep and there is only so much sheep I can eat. This bazaar is on the other side of town than I live on. When I go to it I take a marshruka (a mini bus) and it costs 7 som (about 14 cents).
• The stores here are everywhere. We don’t have grocery stores in Naryn, but everywhere you go there will be small stores called dookon that sell juice, some food, and vodka. There are probably hundreds of them in just my village alone. I don’t know how they all stay in business with so many around but they do.
• There is a sport center in my village. The director is my neighbor said I could come anytime I wanted to play sports. He would just give me the key. I’m thinking of doing some clubs or camps there.
• There is a small stadium/field. That is there I play soccer with my little neighbor girls. It is pretty nice for a Kyrgyz field.
• In the public banya there is rarely lights on in there too. When you first walk in there is a small room with lockers to change and store your clothes. Then there is another room that is warm and you wash in there. There is also a sauna that attached to that room and sometimes women hold the door open and the washing room gets really hot. I really hate that a lot! I don’t like to be hot.
• Everywhere you walk in any city or village in this country there are animals that are everywhere. Stray dogs that wander around. My neighbors have a really mean dog and barks and snarls at me a lot. I really hate it because I have to pass it to get home. There are lots of other animals too. Like at 6 pm all the cows come home. I never truly understood the saying, “until the cows come home” until I moved to this country. They really do come home all walking together down the street. Ha ha.
• The way they keep their horses from running away is to tie their feet together. They are still able to move around and eat but they aren’t able to run. It actually makes me sad watching it.
• There is one gas station in my village. But if you go to any small village away from mine there are lots of houses that have a sign that say benzene and they sell gas in old bottles. Somehow they fill old water or pop or beer bottles with gas and sell to people who run out where there aren’t any gas stations. Somehow that is smart and very stupid at the same time.
• Since I am in the mountains there are lots of places to hike. It absolutely beautiful.
• One thing that I really miss about Portland is that it is so easy to get around because it is basically a grid and most streets are fairly straight and predictable. Here the roads aren’t straight and most of the time there is one rhyme or reason to where they go. I have gotten lost so many times and I just have to watch the mountains to make sure I can find my way home.
That’s quite a few things. I hope this gives you a little bit of a visual of where I live and what life is like for the Kyrgyz people in At Bashy.