To The Ends of the Earth...

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Early Morning Breakfast

This morning my alarm went off at 7am. I turned off my alarm and laid back down enjoying the nice fresh air as I continued to wake up. (My bed is right next to my open window). Then I heard scratching on the window sill, which is normal because that is how Masha- the cat- comes in and out of my room. Though sometimes a stray cat tries to do the same, and then I have to scare it out of the window so it does not enter my room. So I looked to the window to see if it was a stray cat or not, and it wasn’t, it was Masha. Though she was not alone….she had a big, black crow in her mouth!! Usually she’ll bring in a cricket and eat it, and that’s not a big deal for me, but a large bird that was not completely dead was NO WAY going to be breakfast in my room! I kept on yelling to her “Niet Masha!” Hoping she would be scared and turn back around go out the window, but I did not want to reach for her and then release the bird. She continued to jump from the window onto my bed, from my bed to the floor and then ran under my bed! At this time I did not know what I was going to do, but I did not want to be there if the bird began to fly around so I ran out of my room and closed the door. Sasha and Salavat had heard me yell at the cat and seeing me asked what was up. I told them about the bird. So Salavat asked if they could help, I was still not fully awake to devise a plan, so we entered my room and there was Masha sitting on the floor. I figured the bird was still under my bed, though not sure if its condition. Salavat knelt down by the bed and I flipped up my blankets and we watched for a few brief seconds as nothing happened. Then….all of a sudden this huge bird comes flying out from under my bed! We all screamed and ran out of the room slamming the door so the bird did not get into the rest of the house. The girls then said they had to go to college, so they left. My mind still not quite awake I decided I would sit down and have a cup of coffee. I did not want to go into my room. I had no idea on how to catch this bird. After my coffee, I walked outside of the house to open my window all the way so the bird could have an easy escape. It was on top of my closet, so I tapped on the bars of my window to draw its attention to the exit and then watched it from my other window. It flew from my closet to my book case and on the stuff I had on top of it. All I could think of was I hope it does not poop in my room and how I was going to have to clean and disinfect everything! Though West Nile is not here, I’m still not thrilled about crows. The cat on the other hand was nowhere to be found. After some time the bird finally made it to the window bars and then finally to freedom. I was much relieved! As I reentered my room, there were feathers everywhere, and I still haven’t looked under my bed at the damage, but there has been no sign of poop, but some blood on the wall near my closet. Not the way I’d prefer to start my morning, but really I am not too surprised. This is how things go here, especially when I have my Russian lessons, which had been changed from the afternoon to the morning. I think my teacher thinks my life is crazy, I tell her I could not even make up all the stuff that happens. But it does give me something to talk about at our lessons and I get something interesting to say in Russian and we both get a laugh out of it!

A Sad Day

Last Tuesday night we got word that our leader’s wife’s father had died. So early Wednesday morning we headed to the house for the funeral. This is one of the things about culture you wish you could learn by hearing about and not really having to experience. There are some very different things, but for the most part, very much the same. Just be sure to give an even amount of flowers, an odd number is not good. At the house they have the viewing, and the person is placed in the middle of a room with chairs around for people to be able to sit. Then a bus came and took the family and the coffin and we all followed in other vehicles to the grave site. The cemetery is almost a city itself. Different than back home. Some have grave stones, but those have the persons’ face engraved on it. Each site has a little fence around it. The Muslim graves sometimes have a little building. When we reached the burial site, one of the Pastors said a little something and then anyone who wanted to share had opportunity. Then they closed and nailed the coffin shut, and placed it into the ground (after some extra digging). Then everyone picked up some of the dirt and threw it onto the coffin. Then the grave workers finished shoveling the rest of the dirt in and put the fence in place and put the metal grace marker in place, and then people placed more flowers on top. Then we all returned to the house for the lunch. Because not everyone could fit into the room at the same time, there was a rotation of people; when one group had finished, they left and the next group came in and the family served the meal. One thing I learned also was that, although it is typical to wear black at funerals back home, and at this occasion is was also appropriate because he was Russian, but at Kyrgyz funerals it is typical to wear white.

Tuesday, October 09, 2007

You shall reap what you do not sow!

Such was the case this morning! Early this morning I awoke to the sound of many crows cawing- not the most pleasant way to wake up. But then I began to hear something else….bam…crack…crack…I have heard this before, but not in such quantity. It is the sound of the walnuts falling from our tree. Since the flock of crows were flying among our trees, they were causing all the walnuts to fall loose from the branches. It was maybe a scene reminiscent of Berlin in the 1940’s! Me and the cat just watched out my window as all these nuts kept on falling and cracking all over the place! It sounded like a giant bowl of rice crispies- snap, crack, pop. I was so delighted to see what was playing out before me. Earlier I had tried to get some of the walnuts; I had harvested a basket full and thought that was good. But now, I would not have to jump and try to knock them down with a large pole, all I had to do was pick them up off the ground! It was great! So after a while I went outside and harvested the many, many, many walnuts! Then I swept up the huge mess that was also made- but it was well worth it!