What’s the Kyrgyz for “washing machine”?

I’m not sure of the exact translation, but we have one now! A real one, and it’s amazing. I almost didn’t want to say anything because you might think this was “posh-corps,” but I couldn’t contain my excitement. Here it is downstairs next to our sink—yes, there’s a sink too! Incredible.



So, I thought everyone should just take a minute and think about how odd American holiday traditions really are. I was explaining Easter to my new host mother the other day…It wasn’t even the Christ-rising-from-the-dead-and-opening-heaven part that she thought was bizarre. It was the part about a rabbit leaving eggs filled with candy for children. “Yeah, rabbit eggs,” I had to repeat. And when describing Santa’s mode of transportation to my 8th grade class at Christmas, I actually got laughed at. “Children really believe that??” they asked. Not to denounce my Irish heritage, but I opted not to mention leprechauns and rainbows with pots of gold this March. And we’ll cross the Halloween bridge when we come to it—I only managed a watered-down version this year.