March 30, 2013

As I had expected, but failed to do anything about, there was no Internet access this morning. I made use of the extra time to continue to work on the two presentations needed for next week and then had my bowl of muesli before heading out the door to walk to the KNU campus.

Willoughby, Elvira and I converged on the second floor at the same time and then Gulnara came in. Tatiana and the Uhmut, the accountant, also showed up and took an inordinate amount of time passing money back and forth between them. When she left, we then discussed the final schedule while the two students responsible for printing it waited for us.

Asel had scheduled me for two sessions on the same day, which was unnecessary, so I suggested one session daily. We decided to cancel the afternoon coffee break and made the lunch one full hour. I still don’t know about the location where the sessions will take place and whether technology will be available.

We had another long discussion on the need for Forum to take advantage of grants available in the country. Elvira had two in mind and we went about discussing the merits of applying for either one. The largest one, 25K, has to do with democracy and outreach and simply can’t see a teachers’ organization qualifying for or being able to carry out that type of project.

Asel offered to look into further and get back to us. I was starving at this point and asked if anyone wanted to join me for lunch at the Korean place around the corner. Asel, Elvira and her little boy came along, but we found the luncheon buffet is only served Monday through Friday.

We ordered from the menu and what I thought was a beef curry soup turned out to be an oily, watery tripe soup similar to the Mexican menudo I’ve come to dislike. There was no way to eat the insipid broth, so I just asked Elvira for some of her son’s spicy beef and ate it with some steamed rice and the variety of salads they had given us. I took the soup home to fix it at some point.

Asel made suggestions for places to eat in Osh where she had been recently. We said goodbye at the intersection and I proceeded to stop at the Narodni supermarket to pay for my Internet access and buy a few staples so I don’t have to leave my place tomorrow when the temperature is expected to dip into the low 30s again.