Eating off the floor

Sorry folks that it's been several days since I've blogged. I've had computer problems at home. Check that. I've had computer table problems at home. The old one fell apart and I got frustrated putting together the new one the other day. I just haven't had the time or help this week to devote to putting it together!

I was trying to figure out what would be the next story from my trip would be. There are just so many! I wanted to tell you about two dinners we had in Bishkek. The first one was at the home of the parents of a student, Azima, who is actually living in Alexandria for a year. We met Azima at church and she had told her parents that a group of us were coming to her country and they invited us to dinner. Luckily, Azima's older sister was there to translate for us. Her parents are both university professors and her dad is also a former K-stan parliament member. So these people were high-class. They said they were being modest in things but I have never seen such a spread. Food literally covered the entire table. They basically treated us like royalty! Course after course kept coming. I couldn't identify most of what I was eating but it could have been sheep, potatoes, or horse meat. I have seriously never felt that stuffed, especially from identifiable foods! At the end of the evening, they gave us gifts- they gave Don a hand-embroidered robe and a colpok (the Kyrgyz hat) and they gave Audrey and Kim beautiful white scarves and then for the single ones of us, they gave us colorful scarves. Then they gave everyone slippers and handmade pillow cases! It was unbelievable! It cut my souvenir shopping in half!!

The next night we had a "cultural" dinner in a Kyrgyz home. I thought we had learned plenty the night before but this meal was rather different. It was on the floor on small cushions with no table. Apparently some people don't use utensils but they were kind enough to let us use a fork or spoon. They put bread all over the "table" (which is actually the floor) and we learned that if you shouldn't lay your bread on the table upside down. We learned all kinds of other cultural ways they serve and eat. Also we learned the correct way to sit on the floor which let me tell you, it gets painful after about an hour. My legs were both asleep, and not only asleep but with the pins and needles in my legs. Apparently the Kyrgyz are trained to sit on the floor for long periods of time because they didn't have any issues. Anyway, the food was pretty good- lamb/rice pilaf- which is apparently a staple in Kyrgyz cuisine.

The other thing I learned through these dinners is how to survive without drinking caffeine. I haven't had caffeine since a dare to give it up back in college (November 5, 1995 to be exact!) and I was doing my best to continue the streak. They said that the hosts would continue to fill your cup until you've had four cups of tea. So I found out that I could just ask for hot water and then I stirred in some of the jam that was on the "table". The jam had of course been sitting out for days and days but I figured if I was going to get sick, then I would just deal with it. Anyway, that proved invaluable during our time in the village. So I'm happy to report that my caffeine-free streak continues!