I'm staying with a family in Kyzyl-Tuu which is about 40 minutes away from Bishkek. My family consists of my mother, a Russian teacher; my father, a local government deputy; my older brother, a marshrutka (mini bus, main mode of transportation) mechanic; his wife, the person who runs the house; their 6-year-old twin girls and 4-year-old son, and my younger sister who is 16 and the only one who speaks a little English.
My Kyrgyz is coming along, thanks largely to having an incredibly good environment for learning. I can read and write the Cyrillic alphabet pretty fluently now and can hold simple conversations and all the necessary transport and shopping phrases. I've found talking with the twins and Mimi, the 4-year-old, is helpful in practicing and correcting my language. My 16 year-old sister, Deanna, helps me with the grammar and my sister in law demands that I speak Kyrgyz with her. So it's a great environment for learning the language.
I'm finding their culture to be the most interesting asset the country has after it's literally breath taking views of the mountains. I'll include more next post.
Unfortunately the nutrition here is lacking. Bread is an absolute must here, it's almost revered as holy. Every meal and even in between meals bread is served and you're expected to have at least two pieces. After bread the staples are noodles, dough, and rice. Most dinners are a form of soup with either noodles or some other form of dough like dumplings or just gobs of it, often the left overs are warmed up the next day for breakfast lunch and dinner as well. Although I went into Bishkek the other day and had a delicious meal of beef bits and sliced peppers and tomatoes.
Tea is a must at all meals and basically whenever someone can think of a reason to stop to drink tea (which they do often). It's not uncommon to drink more than twenty cups a day. I don't put anything in my tea, but my host family regularly puts a heaping spoonful of sugar or raspberry jam (they make their own in my family and it's amazing on their homemade bread) in each cup of tea.
I have my own room and I'm required by PC to lock it whenever I leave the house for more than twenty minutes. However when I'm home I try to keep the door open or just stay out of my room as much as possible to integrate with my family. The three young ones love playing in my room and trying to break everything I own. They also go nuts for my water. Cold water is never served here, it's always tea, so the kids think of cold water like we do icecream. Whenever I come home the kids ask me if I have water left and will drink the rest I do. Otherwise they'll sneak into my room and drink straight from my PC issued water filter or if I've left a bottle filled they'll drink from there. There's a lot of germ swapping when they do it but fortunately I haven't really minded.
My host parents are rarely home, I'm not really sure where they go, but they're very well known around town, so I guess they go around visiting people after work. The other day they bought computer parts and asked me to assemble it, good thing I worked for Tim! Since I put the computer together my host mother has been around more in the evenings working on it, so maybe she had been working at an office or computer lab somewhere before. There isn't one in town, the only shops are two convenience stores and a hair cutting place.
