11/8 – Sunday – Paying it Back

Finally broke my wonderful weekend of watching movies and studying in bed to go out to the store. My food stores were at empty and I required laundry soap so there was no more procrastinating. However, I had the nicest moment at the store when a guy in front of me in line clearly spoke no Russian and needed help locating a currency exchange. You really cannot get by here easily if you don’t speak Russian – as all the workers I’ve met at the store do not speak any English. So I told him where the exchange place was and he was so happy to find someone that spoke English that he started listing his other questions. Turns out he just landed in Bishkek this morning. I enjoyed helping him and made sure he found the exchange and had the name of the larger store which would have the western stuff he was trying to locate (well, maybe…he seemed to really want a Tide stain remover pen. I was like – ummm…this is Kyrgyzstan…). He was really grateful for the help and it felt really nice to be able to help someone and get to pay back a little help that I’ve received since coming here.