December 3, 2012

Woke up with a crick in my neck from sleeping on the square cushions I found in the flat instead of a proper pillow. I do need to buy one today and insure that my sleep is a sounder one from here on.

Another gorgeous day was right around the corner when I woke up as the diffuse shape of the Ala-Too Mountains could be seen in the distance making their presence known. I made some cream of wheat for breakfast and watched CNN as they were presenting the Hero of the Year award live and I was betting on the woman from Nepal who has been rescuing children from prison since 2005 as their government allows their mothers to bring their children with them when no other caretaker is found. She did win and I was deliriously happy as I know the financial windfall will help her rescue more children from such a depressing fate.

I’m still having issues with my computer as the Media Player refuses to burn any CD and have promised a teacher at Forum to put together one suitable for teenager students in her class. It almost seems as if the only solution will be for me to buy another laptop in the near future so I can do my work efficiently and timely.

I got to Lingua and started to work on the materials for the workshop tomorrow. Asked Zarina to find out how much it’d cost to get myself to Almaty for the conference next month as well as where to get a haircut as my hair has gotten too long and out of shape.

Gulnara came in and sat down to tell me she needed to plan for next year and wanted to know if I’d hanging around for another year. I said an unqualified yes and she just beamed and hugged really tight indicating that everyone would be so happy to hear that I was willing to extend my fellowship at Lingua. She got up immediately and said she needed to inform Natalia as they had many plans for my future fellowship.

Zarina arranged for me to meet Sophiat at the Russian Slavonic University on Wednesday at noon so she could take me to her hairdresser nearby and serve as an interpreter so I could get a decent haircut. My fare by taxi to Almaty should cost around $50.00 each way.

Natalia informed me she was attending a training session and thus unable to accompany me to the Arabaev University tomorrow. She sent me the name and telephone number of a contact person there, and when I call her to confirm there would be a computer and projector available, she just said she’d try to get that equipment for me, but wasn’t sure. Well, that’s not a very auspicious beginning I have to say. I’m not about to lecture for 1.5 hours just from memory.

Sent a message to Laira, the Dominican woman who lives here, about joining the book club; however, she is busy with hubby and daughters in the evenings. We agreed to have coffee next week sometime in the morning when he’s at work and the children are at school. Willoughby and I will meet for coffee tomorrow so she can fill me in as to what Forum expects her to do now that she has been assigned to them on a full-time basis.

I went directly from Lingua to the Osh Bazaar and bought a pretty good quality pillow made in Turkey along with a strainer and some bobby pins I had wanted to buy for some time. I then stopped at a pharmacy for more cough drops by showing the pharmacist the empty container from the previous one. The snow had continued to melt and the streets were now just muddy.