1. In American movies, the “bad guys” are frequently Russian. By some accounts, in Russian movies, Americans are typically idiots.
2. It’s challenging to teach a language you don’t remember learning in the first place.
3. If a kind teacher is ever looking to honor you over a nice porridge breakfast in the basement of a Kyrgyz university, she might unexpectedly produce a full leg of lamb from her handbag.
4. The Epic of Manas recounts the legendary stories of Kyrgyzstan’s national hero and is considered, by the Kyrgyz people, to be the longest epic poem in the world. Although, that particular distinction is still up for debate. It’s been translated into English if anyone is looking to add to their summer reading list.
5. Sometimes, the challenge of the Race is realizing life at home is still going on without you.
6. When you break ten eggs in a Kyrgyz grocery store, you still need to pay for them. What’s more, they’ll ring up the bag of crushed, yolk-covered shells and expect you to take it home with you.
7. When in Bishkek, if you’re ever invited as the guests of honor to a special class presentation on Kyrgyz culture, don’t be surprised if you’re then asked to sing for everyone.
8. Even in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, you can still find an English showing of the latest Marvel movie. For the record, the weekday matinee crowd in the tiny Central Asian theater that came for Avengers: Infinity War was more enthusiastic than any movie-going crowd I’ve ever encountered.
9. At home, I’m not usually one for pizza, but the novelty of an English-language ordering system and the appeal of anything delivery after nine months of living overseas, will make almost anything enticing.
10. The Bible is a story, which is not to say fictitious. The job of the storyteller is not to tell you how to think, but to give you the questions to think upon.
11. “The Lord is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth.” – Psalm 145:18
