May 15, 2013
Have I mentioned that residents of the city of Bishkek will
have no hot water for an entire month? I couldn’t believe it at first, but then
my landlady confirmed it. When I mentioned it to Willoughby, who didn’t know
about it either, we both wondered why it would take the city workers one month
to supposedly clean up the pipes. I volunteered that perhaps they’d be using a
toothbrush to clean every inch of them.
In any event, now it is a hassle to heat up water for every
little task such as brushing my teeth since I like to soften up the bristles on
my toothbrush because of the excessive sensitivity in my teeth.
I responded to all three emails from Caroline, Carol and
Corrie accepting my request for inclusion of their handouts in my e-book. I
then headed out to Lingua where I hadn’t been for almost four weeks. When I got
there, I found out that some work was being done on the first floor and power
had to be cut off for the entire day.
Without access to their computer and Internet, I basically
had nothing to do. I chatted with Zarina, who informed me that she and her
husband had purchased a plot of land and were beginning to build their own
house. That was really good news as I know she wasn’t particularly happy about
living with her in-laws.
When Gulnara was free, we sat down and talked at length
about my trip to the south and the state of teacher training in Kyrgyzstan,
especially the lack of standards when it comes to the curriculum the future
teachers were exposed to at the different universities. She’d like to see a
systematic approach to the training of these teachers, but has seen little
progress in that area.
Zarina ordered lunch for everyone since no microwave was
available to heat up leftovers. I had my usual lagman and salad and we had a
most cordial meal in the teachers’ lounge with Nargiza, Chynara and Adina
joining us along with Vicky from the bookshop.
Gulnara set up an appointment for me to have a pedicure
tomorrow as I mentioned I was going to the conference in Issyk-Kul and my feet
looked terrible. I’m to call Irina from the bus stop near Chuy Avenue and she’ll
come and get me. I left Lingua after lunch and returned to the house to work on
my presentation for the symposium.
Since my presentation is dealing mostly with singers that
might be familiar to the Kyrgyz general population, I had to add all the music
clips anew to the presentation and that took some time. I only have twenty
minutes for this one, so what I’ve done might be overkill; nonetheless, it’s
done and ready to go.
I most surprised to receive an email from a guy from France
notifying me that my blog had been selected for inclusion among a host of other
international blogs. At first, I almost thought the message was just spam, but
it turned out to be true. Here’s the link to my entry:
How flattering, indeed.
Willoughby called me a little after five to say she was
already at the Chinatown restaurant since she’d finished her work for the day
and didn’t feel like going home and coming back. I offered to join her as soon
as I could get ready. I had no trouble finding the place and we had a chance to
catch up on the latest news on both sides.
At six, I went to find Max, who had agreed to meet me by the
Ala-Too Square’s fountains, and ran into Al who was just coming in. Rebecca was
next, then a guy Willoughby had invited and who acted really weirdly until he
chose to leave early claiming he’d already had dinner, but would be coming back
later. He never returned.
Luann was the last one to join us. Neither Gulnara nor
Elvira showed up, something I kind of knew since neither one of them enjoys
reading for pleasure. Dinner was a hit or miss proposition with dishes freshly
prepared while others were cold. My beef and peppers dish was overly salty. I
enjoyed the soup more than anything else.
Max began his presentation a book by a female Chinese
writer, I followed with my report on “Sex at Dawn”, which Max kept, and Rebecca
on “Where’d you go, Bernadette “, which I kept as it had something like five
pages of blurbs recommending it, and Willoughby reported on the “Stolen Lives”
book we had both read.
Al had read nothing because he claimed to be preparing to
take the TOEFL. Luann had prepared a book report on “The God of Small Things”,
a book both Rebecca and I had already read. When Max asked her not read it aloud,
but to talk about the author and its plot, she refused saying she needed to
read it line by line.
She has a tinny voice and the fact that the restaurant had a crooner on the stage didn’t help any in our ability to hear her. Max kept
needling her about being a teacher and thus able to talk about a topic without
having to read it. Luann got offended and put the piece of paper aside and
refused to talk about her book at all.
We settled on the next book club meeting as June 12th,
so that Max can attend one last time before heading home for good. I offered to
host since Al was the only choice to do so and he claimed to live with his
mother and needing her permission to bring strangers into her home. All the locals
have refused so far to host the book club at their respective houses.
I don’t mind hosting in June since most likely that will be
the last time I get to see the members of the club and because I’m not really
sure this group will stay together once I’m gone. The local teachers aren’t
interested in reading, always alleging they have no time or, what I think is the
real truth of the matter, simply because they find it intimidating to have to
talk at length about a particular subject in English only.
Rebecca and I walked together to my apartment building
chatting about Central Asia. She’d just returned from a vacation home, to
Boston, and was questioning her need to be away from her family for so long
since she’s not one of those people who detests her family and wants to stay
away from them.
No comments:
Post a Comment