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Published: October 27th 2009
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The Queen of the South
This is a memorial in Bishkek's Ala-Too Park to Kurmanjan Dakta, The Queen of the South, who opposed Russian expansion in the region. Day 27, July 22, 2009, Wednesday, Sharshembi I awoke this morning at 6:25 and immediately headed for the shower to beat the crowd that might be interested later. I feel really good this morning. Nothing got done yesterday. I did not hear from my friends at all. I am waiting to hear about Ulan and his wife's baby so that I can purchase something nice as a baby gift. The baby is about a week late, but it is her first and that is probably not a problem. I also had hoped yesterday to hear from Nurbek, a friend of Emil's, whom I like very much, but no phone call. I am assuming that he is just very busy. I also have not heard from Faruh or Sapar since returning from Osh. I hope I have not offended them by flying back, but I could not really miss the opportunity to see Kyrgyzstan from the air. I actually got a couple of good pictures from the aircraft.
Yesterday, I found I had a very low energy quotient and slept most of the day. I think some of that is occasioned by the starchy diet. Everything is served with rice
Art for Sale
Local artists offer their works for sale. and potatoes as the main ingredient with small amounts of meat. I almost want to take charge of the stove for a couple of meals and create some vegetarian dishes, cooking lentils, eggplant with tomatoes and onions, and such.
I did get to listen to the playlist I created just before I left for my Ipod, but did not listen all the way through. It is a combination of 50's music with Dean Martin, Sinatra, 60's music like Cast Your Fate to the Winds, and some modern Latin pop like Ricky Martin, Enrique Iglesias, and Brazilian music from Ceu. It was a great afternoon listen. I keep thinking I should put together one-hour CD compilations with me as the announcer and send it to friends occasionally. This one is much longer than one hour, but would make a couple of good production pieces. I think you could just do the voice cuts in Garage Band, add them to the playlists, and then burn the CD's. I may try that when I get back to Houston. Anyway, the day slipped away while I slept, listened to music, read more of the Nursi, etc.
Today, I hope to escape my
lethargy and head to the main square of Bishkek, Ala-Too Square. We were there the other night and I got some interesting night shots, but think that it would be good to go in the daytime, as I wrote yesterday. I also would like to explore a little. There are some American style cafés recommended in the Lonely Planet Guide book for Central Asia that apparently serve American style breakfasts, lunches, and dinners. They also apparently have a lending library of American bodice rippers, mysteries and thrillers. I would like to find something else to read, other than the Nursi. It is alright in small bites but sometimes I need a little relief from the theological discussions of the meaning of the Qu'ran and Nursi's fights with the misguided and atheists of the 1950's and 60's in Turkey. A thriller, or a mystery would be nice. I purposely only brought the recent Reza Aslan work, “Cosmic War” with me so that I would finish it. But I had read it by the time I got here after the 2 day travel through Frankfurt and Almaty. I should have brought a couple of other of the books I have stacked by
AUCA
The American University of Central Asia is located near Ala-Too Park. my chair at home, but at the time they did not look promising as summer reading for Kyrgyzstan and I remember telling myself that I would concentrate on learning my Kyrgys. Actually, my Kyrgys is improving, and I surprise everyone with the number of nouns I know. But I really do need to find a chart of verbs and verb forms, or create one, somehow, to learn the verb and verb endings that help make clear what I am trying to say.
So, I am waiting for a little bit, with a plan to leave here around 9 am headed to town. I want an adventure but I want to keep it simple. I have transferred the Adobe pdf file of the guide book I have to my cell phone, am charging the phone at the moment, need to charge the camera battery, read a little more of the Nursi “Flashes,” and then can dress and be on my way. The only discouraging factor at the moment is that there is not a breath of wind blowing in this part of Bishkek and the sky is as blue as a Houston summer day, and the heat is fast rising.
I may just wear a t-shirt and some shorts, and pack an extra bandana. I also will need a cap today.
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