In December, 2019, we were thrilled to return once again to Bloomington’s Clear Creek Elementary school, and this time we brought with us three of the Fulbright Foreign Language Teaching Assistants (FLTAs) in the Department of Central Eurasian Studies. The FLTAs led a Central Eurasian games session for the school’s three kindergarten classes. Sanni Toermanen, the Finnish FLTA, taught the students how to play Tervapata (“tar pot”)—similar to Duck-Duck-Goose, but with an added element of cunning and concentration; Meruyert Omirzakova, the Kazakh FLTA, brought along her collection of sheep knuckle bones and showed the students how to play Assyk; and Tattybubu Aidarova, the Kyrgyz FLTA, had her audience tossing pebbles in a game of Top Tash.
