We’ll be flying from Kyrgyzstan to Uzbekistan (six hour layover) and then on to Beijing, China at the end of the month. We’re not really sure what we’re going to do once we’re there (all we have now are plane tickets), but I know the Great Wall, the Forbidden City, and Tiananmen Square are on the agenda. Plus we’ll get a sneak peek at the location of the 2008 Olympics. Also, if you’re interested in taking a trip, we’re planning a trip to India (to see the Taj-Majal), and/or Egypt (to see the Sphynx). Any other recommendations? Places we should go? Things we should see while we’re on this side of the world? If you’re interested in coming to Kyrgyzstan, this summer would be a good time; we’re planning a horse trek across the country (Naryn to Osh), and we’ve heard it’s awesome. So let us know.
In other happenings since our last post, we finished with in-service training (IST); I’m now teaching once-a-week at the university, helping a couple of my organization’s members’ groups develop, and just returned from round 1 of a grant committee funded through USAID to decide on funding of small projects (under $5,000) in Kyrgyzstan; Sarah’s working on a week-long girls leadership camp for the summer, and also working on writing grants for her university and for a local high school. IST was an enjoyable break from the day-to-day life in Jalalabad. It was great seeing all of the familiar faces from Pre-service training. We mostly participated in additional language lessons and job-related topics. Sarah made a presentation on teaching adults, and I made one on marketing in Kyrgyzstan. It was enjoyable, but after the week was over, we were ready to head back home.
According to our local friends, spring seems to have come early this year. The snow patches are few and far between, and we’ve already shed a layer or two from our clothing, but long-johns are still a must. Apparently we had a mild winter this year. I already miss the snow, but I am looking forward to taking off these long-johns, though. We’re also looking forward to reclaiming our bedroom from the cold. Since being evicted, we’ve been sleeping on the floor in the living room. The average temperature of our bedroom has been around 39 degrees. But it’s not all bad, though. It just so happened that winter’s coming coincided with our refrigerator’s breaking, so we’ve been using our bedroom to store all of our perishables. Now when we have guests and tell them they can grab a cold drink from the fridge, we have to explain we don’t actually mean the tall white appliance in the kitchen; we’re talking about our bedroom.
Actually, I don’t think we’ll ever make it back into our bedroom. We’ve been searching for our own apartment, but they don’t exactly have Apartment Guide Magazine here. So we haven’t had much luck yet. We’ve been told it’ll be much easier once the weather heats up and some of the Kyrgyz move back to the mountains for summer. We’ll see…
That’s all for now. We’ll get back to you in China where we can get broadband Internet and use our own laptops. So anyone who is interested in receiving our mass-emailing of photos, please, let us know.
