January 15, 2013

Willoughby sent me a message indicating she’d have to go and substitute for Julia at the English classes offered by Forum to the staff at the Children’s Library and to please buy some other things she needed for the gathering at the Beta Store. It was a challenge to walk the three blocks to the store for the icy conditions of the all sidewalks and once I got there, there was no one at the booth to exchange money for me.

The manager kept saying the guy would be right back and apparently no one else could do the job, so I had to wait there while employees came around sweeping around my feet and mopping the mud tracked in by the customers. I got everything she wanted except they had no small plates to serve desserts. I got on a marshrutka and as luck would have it, missed my stop and had to retrace my steps back to Lingua.

As I approached the library, I ran into Willoughby and was more than happy to hand her the packages with my supplies and her purchases. She asked me to come to her house as early as I wish so as to give her a hand with whatever might be needed.

Zarina was training a young woman at the front desk and introduced me to a beautiful girl that used to be a model. She’ll be working at the English shop on the third floor soon. We had lunch, samsis, together and the girl said she’d come back from Japan where she’d done runway modeling for Japanese designers.

I started yet another presentation on the current state of teacher training in Kyrgyzstan to show it to the participants in Almity next week. Sent an email to Gulnara asking for any statistics on English language teachers she might have at hand to include in the PPT. I did the same by asking the Gulnara at Lingua if she had access to that information and she promised to make a phone call to someone in the Ministry of Education, but warning me that they were usually uncooperative when it came to sharing their data.

I boarded the marshrutka to head to Willoughby’s place and got sit down this time. She really didn’t need my help as the chili was already cooked, very spicy she confessed, as well as the corn bread, also spicy, and ginger tea. I only helped bring out the plastic plates and cutlery and set the chairs and stools around the table. Galina, from the Russian Slavonic University, was the first one to arrive and then the others. Rebecca brought her supervisor, Ben, who was here on a 24-hour visit and was more than happy to be surrounded by women talking about books.

I got to take the book Willoughby had just finished, a travelogue following on the footsteps of Genghis Khan, and she took mine, “Losing Isaiah”. At least three of the participants had brought no book to discuss or share and we only hope that situation won’t be repeated next time. Rebecca agreed to host the February meeting, something I was hoping she’d do, and we set the date for the 12th of the month.

Ben, Ebi and I shared a taxi back to Moskovskaya Street and I got home by nine. I read a bit of the book on Genghis Khan and then went to sleep.