I took this photo on-site in Bishkek, Kyrgyz Republic on August 12th, 2006 during a joint project with the local Habitat for Humanity. The small project teamed Peace Corps Volunteers with local friends to encourage volunteerism within their own...
This photo was taken on Christmas Eve 2008. My host mom threw me a surprise dinner, This was done in the Kyrgyz tradition known as "guesting". My host mom invited me to come and eat with the family as her honored guest, not as her daughter. ...
Peace Corps takes you to some far-out places. This is me, posing in front of a yurt during a blizzard. The yurt was about four miles above a small village in eastern Kyrgyzstan called Ichkey-Jergez, nestled in the foothills of the Terskey Ala-Too...
This picture was taken at Ara-Bel Valley near Barskoon, Kyrgyz Republic in July 2011. The PCV, Brandon, is looking at one of the Jashyl Kul Lakes. Brandon and other PCVs were helping a local tourism organization write itineraries for hikes near...
This picture was taken in Kyrgyz Republic in June 2011. Here, young Azamat (whose name means ‘excellent’ in English) shows off his donkey. Three current Volunteers and one RPCV spent the evening with Azamat’s family at their summer yurt near...
A group of Volunteers visited Song-Kol, a beautiful lake located in the mountains and wilderness of Kyrgyzstan. Both tourists and locals travel here during the summer to stay in yurts and have a more traditional Kyrgyz experience. I took this...
This photo was taken on May 28th, 2011 at the public stadium in Naryn City, Kyrgyzstan. American and Japanese volunteers worked together to organize an event to teach baseball to local secondary school children. This photo shows several Kyrgyz...
Here is Azamat, hiking back up the hill with my snowboard for another run. Azamat was helping us collect firewood for a winter tourism project deep in the Terskey Ala-Too range of the Tien Shan mountains of Kyrgyzstan. At the end of the day, our...
My counterpart decided on a whim one day to have an "English party." For two weeks, our students, who barely knew any English, rehearsed "Sleeping Beauty." They made all their own props and costumes and memorized their lines from a book my aunt...
This picture was taken near Song Kul Lake in Kyrgyz Republic in June 2011. In this picture Volunteer Brooke and Azamat are laughing together. Brooke and other Volunteers spent the evening with Azamat’s family at their summer yurt near the lake.
This picture was taken in Toluk village where my host family had taken me guesting. This is my host mother, her sister-in-law, and her sister-in-law's mother.