things you wish you knew... now you do!

June 26, 2009

I have some very exciting news for you all..... Drum roll please! Our cow had a baby boy! He's just adorable! Our family decided that if the cow had a girl, I would name it. But if the cow had a boy, Thomas could name it. So Thomas settled on Zeus. Good name for a cow, I think. He's tiny and brown with white spots and was just born this morning so he still stumbles around and runs into things. It's very funny to watch.
But that leads into the next good news... Now we have an endless supply of milk (atleast for a while). Mmmmm.... it tastes a bit different from milk in the states... a little more cowey and grassy. But still really great to cook with.
I've decided that you all probably wonder what I do everyday... what is a regular day in Kyrgyzstan like for Rachel? I'm sure you sit around all day just wondering this. Well wonder no more because I am about to lay out an hour by hour schedule for you. (Partially out of boredom but partially because I think some of you really might want to know). Keep in mind that right now there is no school!

9:00 am Wake up. Get dressed. Try to smell good. Wash my face and brush my teeth.
9:30 am Go out to the kitchen to see if I can help my sister with breakfast -the kitchen is in a seperate building from the house and consists of a gas stove and a very old oven- check the chicken coop for eggs and maybe eat them for breakfast
10:00 am Breakfast time! We usually eat hard boiled eggs. But sometimes we have kasha (like cream of wheat) or oatmeal with raisins. And always tea... tea with every meal. Sometimes tea with bread is a meal.
11:00 am Clean up the dishes from breakfast. Walk to the village water pump if we need water.
12:00 pm Play with my puppy. Hang out with my sister. Help her clean the house for the 3rd time this week (she is ALWAYS cleaning the house! Everytime I turn around she is mopping the floors or vacuuming).
1:00 pm Read a book or maybe watch a movie
3:00 pm Help make some lunch. Usually some kind of pasta or rice dish. My favorite is plov. It's like fried rice with carrots and onions and sometimes chicken. But today we made pasta with sauteed eggplant, tomatoes and garlic again.
4:00 pm Eat lunch. Drink more tea. We had apple flavored tea today. Quite delicious.
5:00 pm Clean up the mess from lunch.
6:00 pm Play with my puppy some more. I'm trying to teach her some basic obedience but she is just to young and crazy right now. She can't pay attention to anything for more than 5 minutes. Hold the baby chicks, try not to get killed by the mamma.
7:00 pm Go out and fetch the cow. Every day the cow spends it's time in the mountains. In the morning it goes out and in the evening it comes back. The village has one man (a cowboy you could call him) who rides out to the mountains with the cows, watches over them and then brings them back to the village. We just have to go to the edge of the village to meet our cow and drive it back home.
8:00 pm Read some more. Come up with some plans for my English Club, study a little Kyrgyz language.
9:00 pm Fix dinner. Thomas and I usually make dinner for our family because they spend almost everyday out in the field. Tomorrow night we are making ravioli!! wahhooo!!
9:30 pm Eat dinner. Drink more tea. Talk with our family about our plans for the next day (if we have any.)
10:30 pm Clean up from dinner. Lock up the kitchen. Go to the outhouse one last time. Make sure my pee bucket is in my room- gross but nescessary. It is really unsafe for us to go out to pee at night. That's when all the drunks are out.
11:00 pm Say goodnight to the family and settle down in our room. We usually watch a movie or a TV show (just finished Season 1 of 30 Rock and The Office).
1:00 pm Night Night

So there it is. Your mind has been set at ease. Of course that is our schedule when we stay home but many times we go in the city to see other volunteers, use the internet or buy groceries.
Here is our schedule on those days....

JUST KIDDING!

That would be really boring.
I finished this Jodi Picoult book today called Picture Perfect... not good. I have read 2 other books by her and they were fantastic. But this one, not her best work. Annoying main character and extremely predictable. I wouldn't read it if I were you. I would, however, reccomend Plain Truth by her. Great book, incredibly unpredictable. They even made a movie out of it starring that one woman from Law and Order...

Well, it's 9pm now and you all know what that means.... time to fix dinner! Miss you