October 24, 2012

I practically overslept today as I didn’t get out of bed until 8:00, something extremely rare for me. Even the tenants upstairs failed to wake me up with their usual comings and goings. I had to rush the two couch surfers to get in gear as I had a meeting with Anna at ten. They had been up until very late skyping with family and friends. I boiled two eggs and took them with me to have them for breakfast once I got to Lingua.

Natalia and the two Gulnaras were already deep in conversation about the future of the Forum organization and so I took my stuff to the teachers’ workroom. Anna was a little late, but we got working on the documents once again, this time having to use an older computer with the Russian commands I still can’t understand. We agreed I’d put the finishing touches on them once Aigul found out how much participants who were not going to receive a scholarship from the State Department would  need to pay for lodging, meals and attendance at the conference.

Elvira came in at that point and I begged her to go with me to an early lunch as I was simply famished. We went to the Muslim Kitchen, a restaurant she had never visited, and I order my usual fried lagman and a Greek salad, which came with no tzatsiki sauce. When I asked the waitress about it, she indicated that was the way they served it, and of course, there was no feta cheese to go with it but some other flavorless cheese. I happened to mention that I wanted to visit the Chinese store nearby and Elvira offered to go with me. This is a three story building housing a variety of shops offering everything from electronics, to groceries to furniture.

Perusing the grocery store aisles, I came across black beans and later on the clerk confirmed that the little can in one of the fridges contained coconut milk. I was beside myself with joy and just hope to be able to recreate my favorite dishes containing coconut milk. When I got back to Lingua, I found the whole gang in the teachers’ lounge sharing several cakes as it was Olga’s birthday today. I was offered three different pieces, ate one and took the other two home for another day. I asked the group about a place to buy a small canister of liquefied propane gas to have in the flat in case of another prolonged power outage, but no one knew what I was talking about. Nargiza promised to ask her dad this weekend.

I finished printing the pages I needed with role playing cards for tomorrow’s presentation and made my way to the lamination place where the guy immediately got them done for me while he watched a movie on his computer monitor. Traffic was snarled once again as I rode home and reminded me of Panama City where the traffic lights were turned off and traffic cops directed the mess. Here, although the lights are still operating, traffic is conducted in accordance with the baton wielded by a cop while the drivers made to wait honk at him incessantly.

The couch surfers showed up shortly before six to inform me they had been successful in securing lodging with another member of the group just around the corner from me. They had been shopping at the Osh Bazaar again and came loaded with plenty of purchases. I was really glad to see them go as I could regain my privacy again and have my desk to work at more comfortably. I’m not really sure now that I want to have any other couch surfers here.