February 22, 2013

I realized this morning that today marks the half-way point in my fellowship here in Kyrgyzstan. I’m hoping the remaining five months will go by as fast as these other ones did. When I looked out the kitchen window, snow was falling quietly and it was still dark outside.

Naoe confirmed we had Zumba class again and I risked falling on face by just wearing my clogs instead of my boots as I’m getting pretty sick of them. The snow was still fresh and not sticking to the ground, so it wasn’t a problem whatsoever. There three women present and Laira got in a little bit later than I did. We had the same choreography as the two previous classes and didn’t sit too well with me.

I can understand repeating a routine so the participants can learn some steps, but having the same music every time would drive me up the wall. Since Naoe is offering a class tomorrow, I’ll make sure and bring my flashdrive so she can copy my music and have something different to offer us, or at least me.

I spoke to Laira about her use of her MasterCard here in Kyrgyzstan, and she confirmed that she too can only withdraw $200.00 or 15,000.00 soms per day from the KazCom ATM. We both agreed that the two sums weren’t equal, but I’ll be happy to try it out tomorrow and withdraw soms to see what happens.

Once back at the apartment, I cooked some muesli and caught up with my emails while waiting for Elvira who was coming over to get a letter of recommendation from me and to discuss other issues related to Forum. It took much longer than I had anticipated as we weren’t done until past four.

I called Willoughby to see how she was coping with her cold and she indicated she had been to the Peace Corps compound and seen a doctor who had prescribed some medications for her nasal drip and congestion. She was sure she’d be all right for the weekend and didn’t want to make any changes to our tentative plans of getting together then.

Willoughby also informed me she had been able to print the entire resource booklet I had created when I was in the Peace Corps in Nepal while at the compound and was all excited about working with me to have it brought up-to-date and printed again. The Peace Corps country director had been informed about her working with me on this project and he had green lighted it. I can’t wait to see the finished product.

The Peace Corps director was informed of my desire to work with the new group of volunteers who will be arriving in April and said he’ll keep it in mind. It would certainly bring back memories of the days in Nepal when I took part in the training that took place in the village of Gaindakot.

I got to watch a documentary from the BBC on the history of art in America. It was extremely informative especially since many of the paintings shown were familiar to me from the art appreciation class I had taken at Florida State College at Jacksonville. The presenter, a man with an outstanding vocabulary, brought out facts and details about each painting that I either didn’t know or was never able to observe on my own. I need to watch the remaining episodes to see how they compare to what I saw in my class.