Winter Taster in Bishkek

We had an early snow last night in Bishkek. We had been enjoying warm days and cool nights for the last few weeks. But about 5 p.m. a slow and steady rain turned into a flurry of snowflakes that dusted the parked cars and sidewalks. I was teaching English classes in a fifth floor classroom where the teacher's position looks out the windows and watched the flakes fall while trying to teach. But I used the weather to teach about the differences in the vocabulary used in the USA and in British English to speak about the weather.

By the time I left the building after 8 p.m., the snow had stopped and it had disappeared from the streets. The temperature dropped below freezing last night. It is an early taste of Winter for us. A little teaser.

So, this morning I donned the curly-toed Silk Road wool slippers for the first time this year. The sun is shining but it is still chilly outside. The current temperature is about 41 degrees F, that's 5 degrees Celsius.  I made need to use the slippers for a few more days as a warming trend is forecast for the coming week.

My friend Aftandil Zhorobekov captured the snow moment in this photo that he posted on Facebook:

Bishkek Journal—Cal Preece 7-3-12

July 3, 2012

Yesterday was my 70^th Birthday. The movement through the decades seems swifter on this side of the 5^th one than it did during the first four of my life. It is interesting to be in a foreign country, far from some friends of 40 or more years standing, and from younger people whose lives have touched mine in the past 15 to 20 years. They are who I would normally try to gather for a celebration of food, drink,  and music to mark such an occasion. But this is actually the 5^th year I have marked my birthday in Kyrgyzstan.

In 2008, my young Kyrgyz friend Emil and I climbed aboard a British Airlines jumbo in Houston on my birthday and flew to London. After nine and a quarter hours we were in London, on the third of July. Four hours later we boarded a British Midlands International (BMI) flight to Bishkek. And we landed here on the early morning of the Fourth of July. I watched the sun come up and had some breakfast with Emil's family and then went down for a nap. A little later our adventure began. I was always a little off balance. I learned how to say yes and no in Kyrgyz. I learned how to say “Min atim Calvin. Sin atim?” to learn an other's name. I learned to say “Raxmat,” to thank people. To say “Salam Aliekum” or “Salamatsysby,” as hello. And then discovered that I needed Russian to do business in Bishkek.

A Bishkek Mini-Bazaar below street level

But we soon were traveling to the countryside and I began to fall in love with the place, the people, and the culture of hospitality that marks this remarkable country. Every direction that your eyes turn the mountains are there encircling the places where people have carved out villages and cities. Five million people call it home, about one million live in the capital city of Bishkek, where I am located. At any given time about one million are also out of the country working as migrant laborers in Russia, Kazakhstan, or places like America.

I came here to stay when we created Fund Orozbay after a long visit in the summer of 2009. It took almost a year. There was a revolution that deposed the then president Bakiev in April of 2010, then in June there was an inter-ethnic problem that caused lots of problems in the South of the country around Osh and Jalalabad. I finally was able to come to start work with the fund in September. By October we managed to sign all the documents and get registered as a public charity fund.

Dried apricots at Osh Bazaar

Since then we have been learning more about the place, teaching a little English to earn funds for the charity, traveling around, writing some feature stories for local publications, and supporting efforts to improve education, efforts to solve the challenges of being a burgeoning democracy through voluntary action, and providing some direct aid to those who are homeless, or who are elderly and poor.

We now are moving forward on a project that we envisioned originally in 2009. It is a pilot that will provide funds to the villages in the area of Kulatov in the Nu-kaat region of the province of Osh to improve educational performance by students and teachers. As usual we are starting small, providing $100 per month during the school year for the project to award prizes to deserving students and teachers. Decisions about how the funds will be distributed will be handled by our representative in the area who was a teacher and supervisor of schools for 45 years.

Near Kulatov

We are actively raising funds at Help Fund Orozbay in Kyrgyzstan where you can make a donation on-line safely through PayPal. I need your help to do the work we have to do here. The country will celebrate its 21^st Independence Day this August. We are hoping to raise $1000 dollars before then to help implement our projects.

Please consider and then make a donation of $10, $25, $50 or whatever you can afford to help us reach our goal.

In addition to the Kulatov project we have these other activities underway:

• A project that will translate Kyrgyz Folk Tales into English for use in English classes. We will provide teachers with downloadable pdf documents that they can use in their classrooms. The Folk Tale project helps to preserve Kyrgyz Folk Tales and to help communicate the values of the culture. Using indigineous materials in translation will be a continuing project.

• Continuing support for the American Studies Association of Kyrgyzstan's Annual Symposium. We have provided scholarship funding to pay for students and teachers who can not afford the registration fee and we are providing some consulting services about the use of social media to advance the groups agenda of improving the quality of teaching about American Studies and the teaching of English in the country.

• We are continuing our support of and consultation with individuals and groups on voluntary action as a solution to the challenges facing this small country. The government cannot do everything to address the issues of homelessness, orphans and widows. People in Kyrgyzstan are beginning to understand the need for creating voluntary action groups, not just to protest, but to offer solutions to these challenges. Fund Orozbay offers small grants to such groups and consulting services on local fundraising and the use of marketing and social networks to raise awareness.

• We are also working on English as a Foreign Language resources that will provide English teachers throughout the country with free lessons and lesson plans in English, Russian, and Kyrgyz for use with their students. The first of these lessons will be available in August from our website. We will use various means of communications to let teachers know about their availability.

I am teaching three times a week for an NGO that offers EFL classes where I get to test the new learning, teaching materials. I began my first class there on my 70^th birthday as a way to improve my productivity in this new decade.

I sincerely hope you will join with me in this endeavor. Click this link and donate the cost of lunch for two, that small amount can do a wonder of good here.

Help Fund Orozbay in Kyrgyzstan

Bishkek Journal-Life in Kyrgyzstan Cal Preece

Catching up on Spring Activities

I have been a bit hampered in my blogging schedule by the unfortunate demise of my 2008 MacBook Air a few weeks ago. My trusty companion had seen me through three trips to Kyrgyzstan and back to the US, accompanied me to Film Festivals in Los Angeles, New York, and Venice. Survived a fall early in its career in the security line at LAX as I tried to put it back in its case and numerous trips around Kyrgyzstan in snow, rain, and heat. I will miss its convenience and lightweight portability. I have been an Apple computer user since 1983 when I first used an Apple IIc and then in my work life at Rice University in Houston, I was appled up for the last 16 years of my time there. I am not sure I would be able at my age to switch back to Windows Operating Systems. But that issue has now been solved. My Kyrgyz friend lugged a MacBook Pro through IAH (Houston Intercontinental), IAD (Dulles in Washington), LHR (London Heathrow) and FRU (Bishkek Frunze) over a 72 hour trip, to give me top computing power again. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

It's been quite some time since I wrote, so I will just try to hit the highlights and will abandon the day by day approach I had been using. There have been some great experiences over the last couple of months and some new developments in older stories.

Spring is here, warm days, cool nights

First, Spring has come in Bishkek and we are enjoying warm days and cool nights these days. Indeed, sometimes the days seem hot to us for Spring. Indeed, by the end of this week the metrologist are predicting a high in the low 90's F, or about 34 degrees Celsius. We have had more thunderstorms than I can remember from the other years I have been here this season. The heat of the day seems to cause a buildup that gets trapped by the Ala-Too mountains to the south and then it comes back in the late afternoon and evening as rain, wind, thunder and lightening.

But that has been good for the flowers and the trees, of course. The roses have bloomed now, we have seen the fruit trees blossom, irises and daffodils were showy for awhile, and the migratory birds have returned from their winter visits to India, Pakistan, Turkey, and Africa, to sing their songs and find new mates. 

Bolgu Bolgu is a Hafazi Nightengale

The nightengale likes to wake me at 5:05 each day singing a strong song. And later in the morning around six another returning visitor adds his call to the wakeup routine.

The common Eurasian Cukoo

With the disappearance of the winter weather the kindergarten children are back again playing outside my windows as I write today. A burbling stream of constant excitement travels up from their school playground to keep in alert to what is going on outside. I have to schedule my naps when they take theirs.

I have been able to go to a number of cultural events recently. I attended a ballet performance at the Kyrgyz State Theater for Opera and Ballet that featured principal dancers from Moscow in “Giselle”. The house was packed and the dancing was good, especially from the Russian artists. And the local corps de ballet was enchanting as always. I also have been attending some interesting concerts.

A special night at the Philharmonic Hall at Manas and Chuy on May 10^th featuring 35 years of Woman Power was great. Outstanding female singers and girl groups, sextets, triple trios, and others performed wonderful pop music in Kyrgyz to a full house. My favorite singer, Dunara Akulova, performed and it was really good to hear her sing again. The concert, in a most un-Kyrgyz fashion, started exactly on time at 6:30 pm and went non-stop until its finale with all performers on stage at 9:30 pm. We probably could have used an intermission, but it was great. Afterwards my friend Marat Zhaparkulov and a friend of his who works for the state television channel set off to find shashlik (shishkabab) dinner. After not being able to e served at Restaurant Jalalabad, we found a no table cloth restaurant on Gorky street near the Vefa Center and had a combo plate of chicken and mutton shashlik and a tomato and cucumber salad. It was very good.

I also attended an outdoor rock concert at the Russia Kinotheatre on Chuy to see my friend Farrell Styers' band Plov 4 2 perform. It was a strange concert. It was a fundraising occasion for good cause. I went with some friends, but delays in the start of the program (more typical than the Woman Power concert) meant that it would be about an hour late in beginning. My friends decided to go get a drink elsewhere. I thought getting a seat somewhere might be a better idea for me, so I waded into the crowded seating area, found two girls alone at a table for four and asked if I could sit. So I had a nice place to wait for the concert. It finally began with some sort of choreographed martial arts group wearing fatigues, carrying mock weapons, and real knives began to attach one another. Lots of judo, karate, and sambo moves set to heavy rock music. It was well received by the crowd, especially the younger ones (under 12's). I thought it was boring and that it went on for way too long. Nearly 20 minutes or more of it. But finally, the bands began to play and the break dancers provided some time for stage shifting. Best band of the the night, the Rolls Rock Band, who are a Beatles tribute group, but who also do 80's rock covers. Plov 4 2 brought its slamming sound onto the stage at around 10 pm. Concert was over at 10:30 to 10:45. I never saw my friends again. They said they came back but got bored and left. I had room at the table for them since the girls had left. I did meet a new friend though. Victoria. A beautiful auburn haired woman who brought me an ice cream as part of her introduction. She was with Ruslan who was a great dancer and we talked. I left and encountered a camel on the streets of Bishkek who I think had been entertaining kids at the nearby amusement park. He was on his way back to his yard with his trainer-keeper. He gives rides and photo ops at the park. Fun night with surprising conclusion.

That was on Wednesday night, May 9th. I had taught some private lessons that day and by the time I got home, I was really tired. Thursday was a very slow day and I woke up late. I mostly stayed home and read and wrote some things. I prepared some lesson materials for my EFL students for my Friday classes. Friday, I taught the two groups of students at 11 am and at 2:30 pm. And ended the day quietly at home.

Saturday morning I was able to go to the Fatboy's Breakfast group and say final goodbye to my friend Songbae Lee, who is leaving Bishkek after 2 years to return to the USA. He was one of the prime movers in creating the Fatboy's fun and I will miss him greatly. He had a nice going away party earlier in the week at a restaurant with a great 4^th floor patio at Vefa Center for his co-workers and his friends. One of the recurring issues for me in Bishkek is that those who come to work for NGO's and Universities are usually only here for a year or two. I am always sad to see them go.

Songbae Lee with Photographer Andrew Chin

Sunday, May 13^th, Mother's Day for the USA. Not really observed in Kyrgyzstan. I sent email greetings to all the mothers I know and gave flowers to women I know here. They were surprised but thrilled when I explained that it was a day in the US reserved for treating your mother nicely.

Monday, May 14, I was recruited to help raise awareness of a new language center in Bishkek. There are a growing number of facilities teaching English as a Foreign Language. I met the owner of the British Language School at an InterNations meeting in April. Monday we went to two schools to sell her programs to the students. I hope it worked. I had a great time meeting all the students and promoting English learning for the summer to them. I may teach conversational English part-time for her center.

Tuesday, May 15, I was interviewed by a professor at Manas University's Radio Manas for her program called Kyrgyzstan Through the Eyes of our Visitors. I visited the new campus of Manas University that is being created in Jal, a Western suburb of Bishkek. They have a very large piece of land and are creating a beautiful, modern new campus there. The school of communications is located there, along with their radio station. They are available on the internet at http://radio.manas.kg/

The audio file of my interview with Professor Saltanat Mambaeva is available here.

file upload

It is about 20 minutes long. And is an mp3 file.

A U.S. Air Force Rock-Country Band, NightWing, came to town and gave a free concert as a part of Night at the Museum in the State Historical Museum on Ala-Too Square on Wednesday. As time for the concert arrived we had a little sprinkle and ominous clouds, but the rain did not last long and there was a full rainbow to the East just before the group performed. Great music from a great band. I ran into Victoria again and her friends from the Rock Concert at Russia KinoTheatre. We talked and listened to the music. She is a really interesting young woman. She is a metrologist at Manas Airport and has impeccable English skills. It was a great concert. I am really glad my friend Seth Fearey send me a reminder email about it. Lots of fun.

Victoria at NightWing Concert 

On Thursday, I used the day to work on new lessons for my students and read some more of my current Kindle Book, “Catching Fire, How Cooking Made us Human” by Richard Wrangham.

And Friday, it was the beginning of the American Studies Association of Kyrgyzstan's 9^th Annual Symposium where I moderated panels through two days of events. More about that in a subsequent blog.

And here are some flora images and a rainbow from Spring in Bishkek.

And a few images of the flora of Bishkek for you.

Bishkek Journal-Cal Preece Weekending Feb 16 2012

February 10, 2012 Friday Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan
We had a little earthquake this afternoon in Bishkek. It shook the lamp on the table next to the chair I sit in while watching television and where I write. I understand from news reports that it was a minor quake and that it was about 3.2 in magnitude. News reports I saw said the center was about 10 km northwest of us.

Earthquakes are a fact of life in this mountainous country, so far the ones I have experienced in Bishkek in the last two years have been light, and have caused little reported damage. But that is not the case in other areas to our East and in the Southern part of the country. Last summer an earthquake in the area along the borders with Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Kyrgyzstan killed 13, injured at least 86 and caused significant damage. A report of that quake is at the U.S. Geological Survey site, Quake Reports.

Weather has been cold but not punishingly cold recently. Looking for more snow tonight.

February 11, 2012 Saturday Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan
Last night's snow was not too heavy and did not leave a really heavy new layer on the ground. Had a great Turkish meal at Yusa, a Turkish restaurant on Logveninko near the intersection with Bokonbaeva. Went with Marat Zhaparkulov and with Vibeka and Lars, who recently arrived in Bishkek from Norway. Vibeka works with a statistical company based in Norway that is assisting the Kyrgyzstan government begin to gather and analyze data from around the country. It is one of the major issues facing the government that the gathering, reporting, and analysis of data has been pretty inefficient.

This morning to meet with a group at FatBoys, a restaurant in central Bishkek that is one of those places where English-speaking ex-pats and foreign tourists gather thanks to a listing in the Lonely Planet Guide to Central Asia, for a Saturday morning brunch. The group I meet with was organized sometime ago by my friends Songbae Lee, a Korean-American who works with Kompanion, a micro-finance operation that targets agricultural improvement, and by Seth Farley, who is the director of the Peace Corps in Kyrgyzstan. Participants include a wide cross section of those who are working in Kyrgyzstan including some of the Fulbright Scholars who are here currently. FatBoys is a great place for a Saturday morning brunch in Bishkek. The breakfast menu includes a big breakfast with baked beans, sausage, back bacon, eggs, toast called The Full Monte for those who need it. But on the lighter side there is Muesli with yogurt or milk, Russian style pancakes called blini, or my favorite the Breakwich, a sandwich on toast that includes sausage, egg, tomato, and sometimes lettuce. Deconstructed, the Breakwich makes a nice mid-morning snack.

After breakfast I grabbed a taxi and headed to the barber who is located on the second floor of the Beta Store on Chuy Prospect. The barber I got this time was Turkish. I am able to communicate with them by just telling them I want it cut all over with a number 2 clipper. The most fascinating thing about the barber is their use of fire to reduce the hair that grows on my ears. The barber takes a piece of cotton, puts it on a stem, soaks it with alcohol, lights it with a lighter, then runs the flame over my ears. It is a cultural experience and so far has done no permanent damage to my ears.

Following the barber, I picked up a few items at the grocery, then retuned to the apartment by taxi.

Forecasters indicated more snow would fall today or tonight.

February 12, 2012 Sunday Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan
Today, I joined my friends Vibeka and Lars to attend Doctor Aibolit, a children’s ballet in two acts by I. Morozov at the State Opera and Ballet Theatre in Bishkek at 11 am. Forecasters said it would be sunny, but as I headed out the door it was 21 degrees Fahrenheit, and a little snow was falling. Skies have remained quite gray and cloudy.

The Opera and Ballet theater is a true wonder. Vibeke and Lars managed to get some free tickets and we were joined by a large crowd of young people and their parents for a wonderful show and some strong dancing. Doctor Aibolit is Morozov's reworking of the Dr. Doolittle story. So, many of the dancers had wonderful animal costumes, my favorite was the fox, a lovely vixen, and the crocodile.

At the intermission, we followed the crowd to the tea shop. Watched children devour French-style pastries, and met a physician with his youngest son. The doctor is a professor at the Medical Academy who spoke English and we had a pleasant exchange with him and Iskander, his son. As the second act begins the scene has shifted to the jungle and the animals appear to be from Africa. There are pirates and evil animal trappers, a lot of conflict. The five year old next to me really came alive when the pirates hit the stage and kept up a running dialogue with me in Russian about them. When the chase scene left the stage to come among the audience we were both truly excited. Of course, all's well that ends well, and it was soon over.

Vibeka and Lars joined me for coffee, and then we headed off separately to take on new tasks. I decided that it was time to get a pedicure and manicure. I have not had one done since I was in Houston. Because I am diabetic, I try to have a full pedicure once a month. I headed to my favorite nail salon near my apartment. I was surprised to find that Julia was no longer the pedicurist, but the young Kyrgyz woman took me in right away. The chair is raised above a sink and you have climb up by way of a small stair. I settled in wishing I had brought a book, or the Kindle. But we got started.

One of the surprises when I first had a pedicure here was that they use a double-edged safety razor to scrape away the dead skin on the heels and sides of my feet. Suddenly I felt a sharp pain in my left foot and realized that I had been cut. I didn't think much about it, but realized quickly that I was producing a stream of blood that was causing real concern from the pedicurist. After some time we managed to get control of the problem. She applied some sort of liquid to the area, we bandaged up the area and shifted to the right foot. Now, I know many of you will think I should have put my shoes back on and headed out the door. But I am a great believer in the Garp principle, described by John Irving's character in The World According to Garp. That principle is based on the lightening never strikes twice in the same place. So if something bad happens, chances of it happening again in the same place is very low. So we finished the pedicure, did the manicure and I left limping slightly to the left.

At home, I redressed the cut, put some triple anti-biotic on it, and covered my feet with socks. That was enough excitement for one day.

February 13, 2012 Monday Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan
I received news from Houston this morning that the Kyrgyz items I took back and donated for the Annual Havens Center Auction went well. Havens Center is one of my favorite things that St. Stephen's Episcopal Church does in its Houston neighborhood. A number of years ago the church acquired the building at 1827 West Alabama and after reconditioning the space open a community center that serves the neighborhood, the area, and provides space for non-profits and community groups to meet and gather. This year I donated some Kyrgyz head-gear known as a Kal-pak, and some stamps that featured Kyrgyzstan's flora and fauna. I am pleased to know that they brought a little financial support to the center.

February 14, 2012 Tuesday Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan
It's Valentines day in Bishkek. The weather is dreadful, but outside there are vendors selling flowers and Russian language heart-shaped cards for those who wait to the last minute. It is really not a holiday in Kyrgyzstan, but young people have adopted the custom of exchanging small gifts and promises of love. I am marking the day by sending some email greetings and text messages on my phone to women who are significant in my life.


February 15, 2012 Wednesday Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan
There was an interesting news story today that the Minister of Sport wants to revive the traditional sports of the Kyrgyz people to aid in attracting tourists to the country. I am not sure whether some of the traditional sports will attract tourists who will spend big money or not.

One of the traditional sports, for example, is Kok-boru or as it is also known as, Buzkashi. This is a game played by two teams on horseback in which riders grab a stuffed sheep's skin, ride like madmen towards a goal, and try to toss the skin into the round hole. Meanwhile, the riders on the opposing team try to block the progress and steal the skin away. All of this is done at relatively high speed. Men and horses often go flying and PETA would not approve. But it is exciting.

Another traditional sport is hunting with falcons, hawks and eagles. That, I think has great potential for attracting tourists. I learned a good deal about the state of hunting with birds in the country thanks to my friend Dennis Keen, a Fulbright Scholar who came to research the phenomenon in the country. His blog, KeenonKyrgyzstan, in includes a number of reports about his activities while he was here. One of my favorites was this one from last May describing a hunting festival. Keen on A Hunting Festival.

The minister suggested that such festivals would be a real draw for tourists, but again, in the age of animal protection in the USA and Europe, some of those activities might not go down well.

February 16, 2012 Thursday Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan
The weather has begun to warm up today. We are promised a few days in a row of warmer temperatures. The snow will melt in the daytime, then after dark it refreeze as ice patches, which will melt again tomorrow and create slush and running rivulets that will cascade down the walkways and streets. That flow will actually be more slippery than the standing snow and ice we have been dealing with for five months. One still needs boots, but more waterproof boots than snow boots. Sometimes, I am happy to see the snow again, because it helps to hide the muddy, gray color of the city under a mantle of white.