Happy New Year's Kyrgyz style!!

The joys of guesting… Today my host mom knocked on my door and asked me if I wanted to go to the mountains with them and there was something with a tree. Oh course I said yes, but not really knowing what was in store for me. Well, it was another guesting adventure. My host dad works at the place where they send out the TV signal. He showed me around the building and told me how it worked. From what I got from his explanation I guess the signal comes from Naryn City and then they send it out to the rayon (county) that I live in. I’m pretty sure he only works there during the winter because up until a month or so ago he didn’t work at all and he will be finished working there halfway through January. There are beds there and the men that work there just sleep there and come home once in a while. It is really close to where we live and going there was just another reminder of how different America is from Kyrgyzstan. In Kyrgyzstan most people work in their own village and can walk to work. If you work in other village or city most of the time you either have two houses or you travel by taxi back and forth (and that is very uncommon). Here are some of the highlights of the night…
• Being forced to give a toast (this time they were impressed.
• Watching them pass around a bowl with broth in it and two apple slices and whenever it got passed to you, you had to sing. I was given it and I sang “Jingle Bells.”
• Being sung to by a drunk man and I didn’t have a clue what he was saying.
• Eating Beshbarmak (Kyrgyzstan’s national dish) with my besh barmak (five fingers).
• Accidently saying algalay when giving my toast which means drink it all… I was trying to avoid drinking as little of the super sweet wine they gave me and that didn’t help.
• Watching the VERY drunk man try to stay awake, sing, talk, eat… everything was pretty entertaining.
• Having the men at the party ask if they could guest in America and then come to find out they were saying only the men would come and they would leave the women here. Hmm…
• Taking picture after picture of every family there in front of the New Years tree.
• Watching a fuzzy TV after my host dad just told me we were in the place that sends the signal out for that… wouldn’t you think that the channels would come in better. HA.
• Experiencing a Kyrgyz New Years in all its glory!!