If the title of this post didn’t give it away…my mom came to Kyrgyzstan! She was here for about a week and experienced every aspect of my daily life in Kyrgyzstan (including the outhouse - RIP her phone). Here’s a recap of everything we got up to during her time.
After 36 hours of travel, she landed in Bishkek where I attempted to meet her as she exited the airport. Unfortunately, I didn’t know the airport had two exits so I may or may not have been standing at the wrong one…but it’s okay because we found each other eventually. In Bishkek, we spent time going to Osh Bazaar, visited the Kyrgyz National Museum, and saw the general sites. We also watched my favorite Kyrgyz movie, “Queen of the Mountains”, which details the life of Kurmanjan Datka (aka the Queen of the South) who is the most famous women in Kyrgyz history and largely credited with uniting Southern Kyrgyzstan when they were annexed by Russia. There’s two reasons I love this movie: 1. There’s a version with English subtitles on YouTube and 2. She lived during a time where it was rare for women to be in power, so for her to be regarded so highly speaks to the monumental impact she has had. Also, she’s one of the only women well known in Kyrgyz history and her story deserves to be heard. I’ll include a link to the movie on YouTube for anyone interested in watching.
We had lunch with my Kyrgyz/Russian teacher who lives in Bishkek and another volunteer who lives in the area. My teacher (who speaks better English than me and has famously taught me English words) has always reminded me of my mom and I had no doubt they would hit it off. Turns out I was right and we spent hours talking about how every person in the world is Kyrgyz (true) and how if I chose to put effort into learning Russian I’d speak much better Russian (also true.)
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| Ala-Too Square in Bishkek |
Finally, we also met up with my host sister! She just moved to Bishkek to start her first year of university and is studying International Business and Chinese. We ate at a traditional Kyrgyz restaurant, because my sister wanted to give my mom a “Kyrgyz Style” experience (her words, not mine.) During my service, my host sister is who I’ve become the closest to and when she’s at home we do everything together. My host mom has taken to calling us twins and after spending one dinner together, my mom also agreed.
After a brief stint in Bishkek, we headed to my site where my mom met my host family, school, and almost the entire village. My mom visited all my classes where I bribed students with Hersheys to ask her questions in English. Here’s a recap of the most common/best questions asked and highpoint moments:
- “You two look the same” (almost every person said this)
- “You (my mom) look 35” (she’s 56 and now says she’s moving here because everyone says she looks so young)
- Do you like Kyrgyzstan? Yes
- Do you like Kyrgyz food? Yes
- Do you like Kyrgyz people? Yes
- Do you know Mr. Beast? No
- What’s your favorite flower? A rose
- What’s your favorite animal? Dogs
- Can you tell us an awkward story from when Emily was a kid? I played the french horn for three years in middle school
- One of 5th grade girls has been learning to play Komuz (a traditional Kyrgyz instrument) and showed us what she’s been learning
- A third grade boy stopping class to come and show us his best dance move
- Teaching my 7th graders all of our dogs names (Crush, MJ, Scout, Bergman) and all of them being obsessed with the name Crush and repeating it over and over again
In addition to meeting my students, my mom also met all the teachers at my school, including my director, fellow English teachers, and Kyrgyz tutor. We gave each of them, and countless others, Texas lapel pins, so now my village proudly represents Texas (I’m teaching them “Deep in the Heart of Texas” next.)
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| The Arslanbob Small Waterfall |
We spent one day going into Jalal Abad city where we met with my Pre-Service Training Kyrgyz teacher and the two other volunteers in my rayon. I also showed her the world-famous (if the world was me) store that just opened in the city and sells Dr. Pepper! For those of you that know me, you know how much of a game changer having weekly access to Dr. Pepper is for me now.
Throughout the week, my mom also learned how to make several traditional Kyrgyz foods, including manty (dumplings), ash (rice), and lagman (noodles). My host mom also learned how to make banana bread after seeing a video of it on TikTok a few weeks ago.
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| Ash, a traditional Kyrgyz dish |
Another day we headed up to Arslanbob (the world's oldest walnut forest) with my host mom and my host mom's sister and brother. In the summer, Arslanbob is full of tourists, Kyrgyz and international alike. However, we went during the middle of walnut harvest season so the town was empty and we didn't see any other tourists except for ourselves. We visited the smaller of two waterfalls because the bigger one was inaccessible due to the road being blocked by snow. At the waterfall, my mom showed my host mom and her sister how to use the panorama feature on your phone to have someone in a photo twice...let's just say they were captivated by it and I'm sure there will be many more photos like that to come (example below). After we returned home, my host mom mentioned how this was the first time she'd been to this waterfall and never would've visited without my mom coming. She then went on to mention how she never could have imagined meeting Americans, much less having the relationship both myself and now my mom have with her.
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| Example of a panorama photo taken by my host mom |
Speaking of my host mom, I think by far the best and most impactful part of my mom coming to visit was the relationship she made with my host family. My host family has been the best part of my Peace Corps experience and I cannot imagine completing my service with any other family. When my mom came, it solidified just how deep the connection between all of us has become.
One night, my host mom's entire extended family came to our house to meet her (20+ people). They were worried this would be overwhelming, but it actually feels calmer than most of my family gatherings in America. My host mom is the oldest of five, with three sister sisters and one brother (coincidentally the same as my mom), and since day one they have all accepted me as part of their family. They call me their younger sister and tell people I'm actually biologically related to them, which confuses many. By the end of the night, they said my mom was now also their sister and are already planning a family vacation with my mom to Issyk-Kul next summer. They also told us that they tell everyone they have relatives in Texas and said our families are now officially joined together (so for any of my family reading this, we have new relatives in Kyrgyzstan). By the last night, my host mom was referring to my mom as her "love sister" and saying they are sisters and forever connected. My host mom also told me that since my mom left, they've been WhatsApp-ing and using google translate to send messages back and forth.
After spending six days at my site, we finally returned to Bishkek to meet up with other volunteers one final time, buy last minute souvenirs for family back home, and mourn the loss of Liam Payne (One Direction Forever <3 )
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| Banana bread made by my mom and host mom |
Now that it's been a couple of days since my mom has left, I think this visit not only showed my mom my new life in Kyrgyzstan, but also let me reflect on the relationships and experiences I've had during the past 16 months. With less than a year left of my service, I've started to plan out my final goals and things to achieve. I've also started to think about when the day to say goodbye comes. I can only imagine how difficult how it will be with my students and host family. I've already started plotting ways to see my host family after my service ends. Until then, I still have 9 months to go and there's no use getting sad about goodbyes now.
Finally, this blog is dedicated to Liz and Carson who got engaged while my mom was visiting me!! Congratulations to my favorite couple, I can't wait to celebrate y'all so so soon <3
P.S. This is a shoutout to myself because I translated Kyrgyz/Russian all week for my mom and also her English responses and I think I only mistranslated 5% of the time. Most of those 5% all stem from my mom asking the most difficult questions imaginable (ex. "What's the origin of Kyrgyz language and how did it evolve into what it is today?")
