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I was getting all sentimental again yesterday when I was running, listening to this song by Late Tuesday called "I Must Go" about leaving the place I'm at and going on a new road. You can buy it on Itunes for a buck and listen to it. It is the theme song for the year I decided. So much transition! Here's an update I wrote today:
Since I’m going to Uzbekistan tomorrow, I figured I’d better do some research on the country. I read a bit about it on Wikipedia, and here are some interesting things I learned.
Where is Uzbekistan? It is one of two double landlocked countries in the world. This means it is completely surrounded by other landlocked countries, including Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Afghaniztan. It used to be part of the Soviet Union until it declared independence in 1991. Much of UZB is desert. It has a continental climate. It hardly gets any rain, with 4-8 inches annually. It gets very hot in the summer and down to around freezing in the winter. It’ll be in the 80s when we’re there. I will be in Tashkent, the capital city and largest city in Uzbekistan.
Drivin' with Court
Singing in the car! Demographics and Language: Uzbekistan is Central Asia’s most populous country with 27.7 million people, a third of these who are under 14 years old. Uzbek is the official language, although many people speak Russian too and it is used for a lot of the day to day technical, scientific, and business use.
Safety and human rights: There has been some political unrest in recent years, although nothing too extreme since 2005, when civil unrest resulted in 300 people being killed. See Wikipedia for more details on politics and human rights. The government does attempt to protect the rights of it’s citizens. Capital punishment was just outlawed this year on January 1. Terrorist threats are an issue as well, as in many parts of the world these days.
Economy: Uzbekistan is the world’s 2nd largest exporter of cotton and the 7th largest exporter of gold. Almost 30 percent of the labor force is in agriculture, with small amounts of underemployment throughout the country. There is a small circle of upper class, to whom the revenue of the exports is distributed. See Wikipedia for more info.
Religion: 88 percent muslim, 9 percent eastern orthodox, 3 percent other.
Communications: In march, there were 7 million cell phone users, up from 3.7 million last july. There are 1.8 million internet users. We will have access to internet cafes while we are there.
Culture: Wide mix of cultures. In ’94, a survey found that although many people were said to be muslim, few observed or practiced the religion. There is recent increasing practice of the religion. There is currently a high literacy rate, but now only 88 percent of the population under 15 is enrolled in school due to budgeting shortfalls in education. There is a slow curriculum revision.
That’s enough info for now. I’m sure I’ll learn more about the country when I get there and see what real people are like! Our supervisor said do not judge Tashkent by it’s airport. Pictures online look pretty. And the people at the orphanage are said to be fun to work with and very nice.
Yesterday I went for a run around my favorite seattle running spot- Greenlake, and had a fabulous swing on one of the best swing sets- probably one of my favorite 3 swingsets! The I spent an afternoon with one of my best friend’s
OTs
Friday night Courtney- we spent lots of time sitting in Seattle traffic, which I will not miss. And which can only be fun if you are with a good friend and can chat your way through it! Last night I had a wonderful dinner with friends, including 6 former OT classmates at a mexican restaurant. After dinner we laughed hysterically for about 30 minutes as we recalled some hilarious school memories and classroom bloopers!! Particularly the memories were surrounding everyone’s various sleeping behaviors, and uncontrollable laughter by several of us in the back of class on more than one occasion- which was always a sign we needed a break, and were very sleep deprived. We thought it’d be fun to go back to class for a day and experience it all again!
Last minute shopping was completed (nearly) today. Tomorrow is a mothers day breakfast with my parents and brother in Seattle, and then I meet Sharon- the massage therapist I’m going with, at SeaTac. We fly out at 2pm and get into Uzbekistan monday night. I don’t know how many hours that amounts too, but it is a long trip of course! I will write again from Uzbekistan probably later next week with updates on what it is like and what exactly we’ll be able to do there.
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