ENOUGH ‘WOMEN’S WORK’ FOR A LIFETIME

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So I got up this morning at about 9, after letting myself lounge around a bit in the warm sunshine coming in from my window, in hopes of beating the cold that everyone seems to be coming down with. I cleaned up my room and then finished the Da Vinci Code, which I started yesterday. I really enjoyed it, should have read it a long time ago.

At 10:30 I started my laundry process. First I have to start a fire in the outside open wok-like thing. I used sunflowers as a burning tool. After the water heats to a boil, I pour it into our machine and start adding small loads, starting with whites. I haven’t done laundry in a few weeks, so it was quite a process. While the next load is mixing, and after I hand wash everything for a while, I rinse with cold and hang on the line. Well this week I filled the entire line and then some. No idea how I ended up with so many dirty clothes, especially after I actually found myself wearing the same thing over and over. The sun was so bright and it was so warm that I actually had a pretty good time doing it. But, it took almost two hours just to wash.

After I finished that, we took all the rugs off my floor and my sheets too and washed them and hung them on the front gate. I thought maybe that I was through with my chores, and headed back to my room to change out of my pajamas. I was so wrong. Not even five minutes later my host father knocked on my door and said I needed to come outside. I went with him, and took the puppy too, but little did I know, today was a holiday, and we were having a huge party… which means, yep you guessed it, a sheep slaughter. We all said a Muslim prayer over the sheep, and then slit. Yeah, exactly like that, just a quick slit of the throat and that’s that. Not exactly my idea of entertainment, all though a crowd gathered to watch.

I went back inside, where I was informed that I would be in charge of making borsok. Borsok is a type of fry bread that is always present here. No matter what, there is borsock on the table. Every meal. It is an easy process to make it, but it is time consuming and kind of hot and sweaty. (By the way, no banya either). So luckily the dough was pre-made for me, so I had to roll it into sections and slice it first. Not a difficult task, but when Kyrgyz people make borsok, they make it for 100’s of people at once. So a sheet was laid out on the floor and I rolled out about a million squares to cut up. After that I sliced the dough into small pieces, as borsok is like little pieces of elephant ear, except no sugar, cinnamon or butter and no county fair to buy it at. After that I take a tray at a time out to the fire, and dump it into the boiling oil and then remove it with a strainer seconds later. Then run back inside and get more, and so on. In all we had enough borsok to cover an entire 20 person table, which is precisely what we did with it.

After the borsok we made a different type of bread and then I thought I was free. I really needed to wash my hair and change clothes, since we were having this big party. But no, the family started rolling in and the women immediately had to start preparing the intestines and ‘parts’ of the sheep for the meal. I was in charge of all and I mean ALL of the children.

Four boys and two girls. The two girls are ages 2 and 4 months. The boys are 3, 8, 10 and 5. Azamat is the three-year-old, and is the most rotten of them all. One minute he is sitting in my lap, resting and sharing a pear with me, and the next I find him tossing my puppy into a sac of corn. He is a monster. A monster. I could hardly keep tabs on him all day, and then the 4-month old and Azamat’s little sister who cries whenever she doesn’t get her way? Hectic. And they were all in my room playing with Dino and my camera and my sunglasses… I was worn out fast. But I got a couple of cute pictures to post.

I did finally get a chance to dump some water on my head, wash my face and change for the party. The guests arrived at around 6 pm. All family. More than 40 people in our dining room. I got to sit near the end of the table where the oldest family members sit. Chong Apa (Grandma) is 90 and sat next to me. She doesn’t say much, but leads a prayer for everyone. A man came in to sing and pray before we ate, and then the feast began. Not really my kind of feast I must say… I usually try to hide and just eat the pears. First a man comes around with a basin of water and everyone washes their hands. (Men and women in separate rooms, kids in another) The sheep is brought in. All parts are served including the head, eyes, nose, legs, intestines, etc. on top of noodles. Kyrgyz people eat every part of the sheep, including the fat. So huge chunks of fat are everywhere. And when I say huge, I mean huge like the size of peaches. I request no fat, but usually still end up with intestines. This time I got a giant bone and part of the intestines. Oh yeah and the liver. Which I graciously returned to the platter. After the meal the man comes around with the water basin again, another prayer is said, and then the meal is over. I was pretty exhausted by that time. I had to take the puppy into my room to sleep because of Azamat, and I was out cold.

My future husband better know how to cook.

October 31, 2005

I woke up this morning in pitch blackness, hoping the sun might come out sometime before I had to leave for language class. It didn’t. I decided to listen to my Ipod the entire walk to school, as usually I don’t because so many people try and talk to me, even at 7:30 in the morning. This morning I wasn’t feeling too social, so I did. Big mistake. Remember I said I have to walk through herd of cattle? Well, I didn’t hear this one and it snuck up on me, and scared me to death. I actually turned around when I felt a cow nudge my backpack and ran the rest of the way to Bak’s house. Pretty scary.
Before that though, I did notice that a man pulling a trailer with what looks like a gas tank on the back. Apparently every morning he comes around and honks ferociously until a woman from every house comes running with a bucket of milk. They pour it in and he goes to the next house. And then he takes it into the city to sell.

Today was the midterm language test, and it went really well. I don’t know my actual score yet, but did pass and am staying here. So that’s good news. Tomorrow is a tech day, where we learn English teaching stuff and then Wednesday is the big day. Site announcements!!! Finally everything will have a purpose, we will know where we are going to be for the rest of our time here and what schools we will be teaching at. Everyone is really anxious to find out. I am hoping to be near skiing…

We had a little ‘American’ Halloween party at Xouhoa’s house on Saturday. It was a lot of fun. We didn’t have time to get dressed up, as we spent the day in Tokmok, having language class, and teaching our last practicum lessons at the school.

We did though have quite a feast. We pooled money and bought apples, pears, oranges, bananas and a lemon at the bazaar, and somehow even found a jar of Nutella too. We sent Christabelle’s little brother out to get beer in the village, and sure enough, he came home with5 big bottles, despite being 12. We played Kings and listened to music and ate lots of good fruit. Rebecca and I were even escorted home by Xouhoa’s two younger brothers, ‘Chinges and Dustaan.’ Both are about 16. Let me tell you how fun it is to walk home in the dark with a couple of 16-year-old boys that you cannot communicate with. First they just shined the flashlight on the stars the whole way and then every time I got near a pile of poop they would scream and laugh. When we got anywhere near a tree, they would turn off the light so I would run into the branches.

Xouhoa dressed in all black and put an 8 on her shirt and was a magic 8-ball. She had a pouch of answers to the questions you asked. The other Betsy dressed as me, and said she was the other Betsy. She curled her hair like I do. Laurie was a manhole. Greg was sheep fat, which everyone tries to make us eat. I was sick, so I stayed home to rest, but as you read above, my host family didn’t really let me sleep or rest.

On Friday night Rebecca and I went to the local store (a one-room brick shanty with a couple of shelves and a table) and bought three Baltic 3’s (brand of beer, they have 1-9) and celebrated a Friday afternoon. We went to her house for dinner afterward, as my host father has been sick, with what I don’t know, but anyway, she warned me that her older sister got married the week before so the family was still celebrating. Celebrating means vodka. Rebecca and I were given shots at dinner, over and over. And over and over. Dinner lasted for hours. We had a great time. I swear, a little vodka really gives you the courage to speak Kyrgyz! We chatted with her brother and his wife for hours, and then her younger brother walked me, (a very happy me at that) home.

I fell asleep with a big smile. I woke up feeling really good, surprisingly. My parents called, so thanks for that, I love getting phone calls. (It is a big deal when you only get one a week). I then went to the school to teach my final class in the village, as we are only here for another couple weeks before we move to permanent sites. I played pictionary and we talked about things they wanted to discuss, like my American boyfriends and movie stars. It was a great practicum, I loved the kids. They are on fall break now, so I walked alone to class this morning. They have two weeks off after every nine weeks. So right after Christmas they will have another break.

I got a package again today. Postmarked Oct. 8, so it took about 23 days. All books. At least 20 paperbacks. I already started one, The Cowboy, as I can’t resist a book with a title like that! The girls are all borrowing too, so thanks mom. I have quite a library going here, but I was out of books to read myself after I finished one yesterday. I think in the amount of time that I have been here I have finished at more than 20 books. There is an American bookstore in Bishkek, so I will be able to buy books once I get to go to Bishkek on a regular basis. If that’s an option, I could be down south, where it is a long drive.

Katie’s mom if you are reading this, next week we are going to arrange a time where you can call her on my phone (Happy Birthday). We are staying at the hotel in the city before we head to our sites for a visit next week. She is doing better, and all though she was in the hospital last week, she is fine, better and is eating solids again! She loves your packages!

Ev- thanks for the message!! Keep that sister of mine in line.

October 25, 2005

What does it take to make me happy? Walking home through the cornfield after an afternoon of learning the language and seeing smoke coming from the banya room!!! I got a banya today and that made the whole week a little better. We have frost and frozen water now, so the temperature is slowly dropping. Its not that bad, its just that it never warms up anywhere. I mean you can’t go inside and get warm, there is no heat. Anywhere.



October 27. 2005

I got a package from Katie today… thanks. You are great, but tell Everett that all though it’s a clever nickname, I don’t really care to be called ‘Pesty.’

The power is out in the village for the evening, so I am sitting by candlelight, typing on my computer and playing solitaire. We are trying to all come up with Halloween costumes as we are having a local party in our village on Saturday and then a big get together with the entire group of 60 on Sunday afternoon in Tokmok. We have only come up with things like French girls, Madonna, traditional Kyrgyz people, a cowgirl, a hippie, a white-trash redneck girl, a potato, and things like that. I have the clothes to be a hippie but everyone wants me to dress like Madonna from her ‘Material Girl’ phase… clever huh? We’ll take pictures, Rebecca is going to dress like our host moms, in Kyrgyz clothes, gold teeth and all, and then when people ask what she is she can say ‘your mom’ ha ha ha… we are pretty limited here for Halloween. I can’t even track down a cowboy hat.

So that’s basically all that has gone on this week. I should have some pretty good stories to tell after our Halloween parties this weekend…