12 June 2009

I’m back in my Permanent Site. My little brother is playing with the cars I bought for him, and my four little sisters are using the jump ropes I got for them. I am SO not above bribing my way in. haha

I meet with the Director of my school tomorrow, and on Sunday I’m supposed to go on some sort of “excursion” with the other teachers. Monday I meet with my counterpart to discuss doing English Clubs this summer. I’ve got to find some other things to do to stay busy or I’m going to go karazy. My host sister mentioned walking to the lake, and I am super excited about that. Ideally I’ll spend more time in the community integrating and will find lots of stuff to keep me occupied. Being alone with my thoughts is dangerous.

Anyways…. Since I happen to have an abnormal amount of free time (and its only my second day as an official volunteer- eeps!) I figured I’d jot down some things to describe the country.

There might be several different posts like this in a series. I have a lot to tell about and no internet so sorry in advance if I post these all at once.

Okay, first thing: food.
Food here is such a big deal! It seems that social gatherings center around the food. There are few local dishes, and I’m going to describe them:

- besh barmak: it literally translates to “five fingers” because you eat it with your hands. The way that I’ve seen it made is as follows: A sheep is killed (I don’t watch this part) The parts that are eaten are boiled for a really long time. Depending on which region you are in, different parts of the animal are distributed to guests depending on their rank. In some places the guests of honor get the brain, in some places the huge chunk of fat. (the sheep here have ghetto booties. Haha) A basin and kettle of warm water are brought around to all the guests to wash their hands. Some of the meat is eaten. Then, the meat is cut into tiny, tiny pieces. In is placed in a big dish and then cooked noodles are added to it. Shorpa is added to it. And then eaten with your fingers. Well, the Kyrgyz eat it. I don’t. haha Being a vegetarian gets me out of a lot of stuff, but also gets me in some difficult situations because people here just don’t do vegetarianism.
- shorpa is the hot water that the meat was cooked in. It is served before the meat as a drink, and also added to the besh barmak. It is most similar to a broth, but greasier.
- lugman: a type of noodle soup. The noodles are handmade and added to a soup that usually consists of some kind of meat, potatoes, carrots, and other vegetables.
- manti: it kinda resembles Chinese jiaozi (dumplings) but is different. Dough is made and rolled really thin, then stuffed with a stuffing and folded up and steamed. The stuffing can consist of a mixture of meat and potatoes, or potatoes and vegetables, or chives. The possibilities are endless. My favorite is the onion and potato stuffing
- oromo: similar to manti, but instead of being folded into individuals, the dough is rolled out into a big circle then the stuffing is placed on top and the circle is folded then steamed as a circle and cut into servings.
- plov: in the south it is called ash instead, but is basically the same thing. It is rice, with carrots and meat. Some places add garlic, others raisins. It is one of my favorites as long as I can pick the meat out
- samsa: samsas are kinda like the Kyrgyz version of a hot-pocket. A stuffing in made- sometimes similar to the stuffing for manit or oromo, but instead of being steamed, the stuffing in placed inside of dough triangles and baked. My PST host mom did a great onion, potato and pepper one.
- pieroski: like a pierogi, but bigger and flatter
- kesme: literally translates to “noodle,” but the food is kinda like a casserole.. its just noodles and whatever vegetables and meat you happen to have, all cooked in a big pot.
- borsok: fried bread. The closest thing to a Kyrgyz donut. A dough is made of flour, salt, sugar, and a little bit of yeast then rolled out really thin and cut into diamond shapes. Then it is fried. If you dip it into varenya or sugar- voila! – donut. Haha
Varenya- Kyrgyz jam. It is pretty much just fruit, sugar, and a wee bit of water. Delicious. It is eaten with bread, or in tea.