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Published: September 19th 2009
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Day 17, July 11, 2009, Saturday, Ishembi: The old “I didn't sleep a wink last night” refrain is running through my brain this morning. For some reason I was able only to get about 2 hours sleep at a time and feel really tired this morning as I begin the day. I finally decided to become active around 7 am, but have been fooling with trying to solve some of the technical issues with the Nokia N95 that Emil sent here with me. I have to tell you that I would rather have one of the other phones I own at the moment. The Nokia N95 is an older model of the Nokia line and it has incredible features. Bluetooth transfer from my computer of documents and files, usb transfer of music and photographs, use of any music source as a ringtone, and there are data possibilities as well. However, it is getting old and yesterday after other people had it, the battery cover began to fall off. That creates some real difficuties, since if you press on the battery in any way, the phone does unpredictable things. Yesterday we lost all the music, or rather we lost a lot
Modern Apartments
Ulan's Uncle was the contractor-builder of this building where he lives on the top floor. of the music, though some was just in a new location. So, this morning for the last hour, I have been putting back some of the music with the usb connector.
Also, at one point last night it seemed that the photos we had left on the machine had disappeared, but this morning after refreshing the music files, they showed back up. The camera in the phone is a pretty good one. It has a Zeiss 2.8/5.6 Tessar lens and is a 5 megabite camera. So it is nice to be able to have the extra camera along if one of the other two I am carrying either fail to function or run low on power. I try each time I am heading out to make sure that I am powered up in all the devices I am toting with me. This extra preparedness has come in handy from time to time already during this trip.
Yesterday's attempt to go to the Ortosay Bazaar was a bust. I was informed by all concerned that it was too hot and that I could not take a shower because there was no cold water. So, I just sat around the
The Spread
A special dinner house, listening to older music and creating a couple of new playlists for my Ipod, since I will be traveling to Osh on Sunday. I also got a bit of a fix on that information. It appears that we will go on Sunday if Faruh can get it all together. I will be staying with Emil's uncle and aunt, Erkin and Gulbarra. Gulbarra is Gulnarra's sister. They have two children, a nineteen or twenty year old Marat and a six year old Kuba. It should be an adventure. They have an apartment in Osh on the third or fourth floor. Erkin is a Colonel in the Kyrgyz military and is in charge of the units that do border protection between Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. An interesting job at this time because there have been recent incidents of Islamist terror activity in the southern part of the country where he is in charge. Marat spoke English fairly well when I last saw him in January, but his facility had begun to slip a bit from the summer before. It will be interesting to see what his English is like now.
I had a nice experience yesterday evening. A friend of Sapar's, Ulan, invited me to join him at his uncle's house for a 40 day Qu'ran dinner in honor of Ulan's grandfather who died. The dinner is held 40 days after the burial, a Sura is recited, and friends, neighbors and family gather to share a communal meal. A sheep had been sacrificed earlier in the day and cooked. Each person was served a portion of the sheep in order of rank or relationship. I was able to only eat a small piece of the meat, but that is what everyone did. Then we were given plastic bags to take home with our part of the sheep and some of the cookies, chocolate, and other goodies from the table. Overall, it was a very nice experience. Ulan then took me to his house, where I met his wife, who is expecting a baby next week, and we had really good Turkish style coffee. He told me that the coffee came from Kenya. His brother-in-law is apparently working in Madagascar and brought back the coffee recently. It was really good. The apartment where they live is quite modest. Two rooms and a kitchen. They share the apartment with Ulan's mother and father. They have two parakeets, one nearly tame, and another that is still getting adjusted to life in a new place. Ulan's wife teaches early childhood education, he is the director of a pharmaceutical company.
We talked some about the situation in Kyrgyzstan and the situations he encounters as a director. He said that he has a problem with his employees about punctuality and performance, and that he thinks much of that is due to alcohol consumption. He also said he felt that there was a kind of hang-over of the Soviet experience that dulls expectation and performance. We also discussed the issue of suspicion of the foreigner and of those who are not a part of your social groups and family. He agreed with me that something has been left in the cultural makeup as a kind of deposit from the soviet period and that it impedes progress. Ulan has a Masters in Political Science, but says he is not interested in Kyrgyz politics because it is not a true democracy and that there is no room for debate or compromise on issues. There is an election about to happen here, so it was interesting to get an educated view on why we see no active campaigning other than an occasional press statement by the opposition. From the campaign posters and publicity it would appear that only Bakiev is running for the office of President.
I arrived home just before Gulnara came in from work. I joined her at the table while she ate dinner, a sharpo of fedilini noodles and broth with potatoes, and had some chai with her. Her sunburn is peeling on her arms, but she says the pain is gone. Even after she came home the phones were ringing with issues for her. “Gulnara's name is really 'business',” she said. It must be wearying and at times I know she needs to escape. But most of her vacations are actually business connected.
It will be good for me to travel to Osh and relieve her of the responsibility of worring about me on a daily basis.
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