Random videos from Kyrgyzstan

My Korean student, Justin, plays piano
(see previous post)

Justin's older sister plays piano.
(see previous post)

Cadillac plays Metallica @ Sweet 60s
(see previous post)

Posh British Ben mocks American Southerners Part 1

Posh British Ben mocks American Southerners Part 2

In which we have a Very Cultural Day

On Saturday, Katy, Ben and I decided to go to the Kyrgyz State History Museum, as none of us had ever been before. Let me just say that it was by far the most fun that I have EVER had in a museum (although I’m not so sure that was their intent!). The only downside was that as a “foreigner” you must pay 100som to enter (something like four times what locals pay) and it costs 200soms for a photography permit… but if you go, get the permit or you will regret it.

The first floor had a collection of carpets woven with images of Lenin and Stalin and other important Soviet figures, plus a collection of all the flags of the different Soviet Socialist Republics. It also contained a collection of photos of Kyrgyzstan’s President Bakiyev meeting with different world leaders, as well as gifts to Kyrgyzstan from various other countries. The first floor was OK.

Lenin Carpet

Stalin Carpet
The second floor was by far the best floor of the museum, and we were lucky that there were no security guards or museum staff to prevent us from frolicking in the marvelous statuary.




Katy, Lenin and me

Katy, me & Ben @ Lenin's feet

Katy & Ben

The third floor was kind of a let-down after the second, but it did have a marvelous mural on the ceiling… and the crowning glory of the mural was Ronald Reagan wearing a Death’s Head mask, sitting astride a nuclear bomb while the peaceful Communists protested for “no more war!” and “no more Hiroshimas!” – Seriously!

Ben scrutinizes the mural

Ronald Reagan on a nuke!!!

The museum as seen from the third floor
The full set of museum photos can be seen BY CLICKING HERE. Enjoy!

After leaving the museum, we went home, picked up Newby and made our way to the home of our favorite student: a ten year old Korean boy (nope, not a typo, he is Korean) named Ju-Heok, or as we call him, Justin. His family had invited us over for dinner, and they are possibly the most wonderful people I have ever met. We had a fabulous time and left stuffed to the gills and bearing sackfuls of leftovers. Yay!

Justin and me

Ben, Katy, Justin, me and Newby

They have pet deer! So cute.

Mashissoyo!!!!!! :-)

We ended the day doing something slightly more normal for us: we went to Sweet 60s, where our friends, Cadillac, were playing. Unfortunately, they’ve decided to save their rocking stuff for Zeppelin and have relegated their light rock (boo) to Sweet 60s. Somewhat of a letdown, but they’re nice guys and we at least got them to play some Kino & Metallica plus the Battereika song for us :-)

The life and times of TLS

The internet is SO UNBEARABLY SLOW today that I am feeling somewhat cranky. I haven't been able to upload anything to facebook, but at least I've been able to upload blog-sized photos for you to enjoy. I haven't done much of anything of interest, but I thought you cats might enjoy some photos of how we here at TLS spend our time :-) For starters, the other evening we decided that the courtyard was the perfect place for a bonfire...

Luckily we had Alaskan Ed who could actually build one.

Josh and Derek pretended to help.

See? Granted, I wasn't even pretending.

War, Famine, Death and Pestilence.
Otherwise known as me, Katy, Ben and Newby.

Josh, Ed, Felicity and Andy

Derek is a freakin pyro.

Katy had the steller idea that we should make mulled wine,
which was a fabulous success.

Ed even made an oven for the wine.

Last night we began the many-days-long celebration of my impending 30th birthday.
It's on Thursday the 25th, if you were wondering.

And Ben shuffles worse than I do - yay!

The other night we went to Sweet 60s, but there was no music :-(
(Katy and me)

Ben, Newby and Joe

Looks like Ben and Evan had linked arms. They hadn't though, it was just a bizarre optical illusion.

Oh, and here's the school. I do work, you know.

US Politics: the scariest thing ever

I had actually wanted to remain in the US this year, so that I could follow (and blog about) the presidential campaign, but I'm rather glad I didn't. Aside from the fact that I've had a super-wonderful year here in Kyrgyzstan, just occasionally skimming the internet for headlines and downloading random podcasts is enough to make me boil and wonder what the hell "my part of the world" has come to. I've got a rather frightening link for you to read about Sarah Palin [click here], and a forward worth sharing that I received from Chad C (below). Please read both.

(Below is a forward; I don't know the author)

I'm a little confused. Let me see if I have this straight.....

* If you grow up in Hawaii , raised by your grandparents, you're "exotic, different."

* Grow up in Alaska eating mooseburgers, a quintessential American story.

* If your name is Barack you're a radical, unpatriotic Muslim.

* Name your kids Willow , Trig and Track, you're a maverick.

* Graduate from Harvard law School and you are unstable.

* Attend 5 different small colleges before graduating, you're well grounded.

* If you spend 3 years as a brilliant community organizer, become the first black President of the Harvard Law Review, create a voter registration drivethat registers 150,000 new voters, spend 12 years as a Constitutional Law professor, spend 8 years as a State Senator representing a district with over 750,000 people, become chairman of the state Senate's Health and Human Services committee, spend 4 years in the United States Senate representing a state of 13 million people while sponsoring 131 bills and serving on the Foreign Affairs, Environment and Public Works and Veteran's Affairs committees, you don't have any real leadership experience.

* If your total resume is: local weather girl, 4 years on the city council and 6 years as the mayor of a town with less than 7,000 people, 20 months as the governor of a state with only 650,000 people, then you're qualified to become the country's second highest ranking executive and next in line behind a man in his seventies.

* If you have been married to the same woman for 19 years while raising 2 beautiful daughters, all within Protestant churches, you're not a real Christian.

* If you cheated on your first wife with a rich heiress, and then left your disfigured wife and married the heiress the next month, you're a true Christian.

* If you teach responsible, age appropriate sex education, including the proper use of birth control, you are eroding the fiber of society.

* If, while governor, you staunchly advocate abstinence only, with no other option in sex education in your state's school system while your unwed teen daughter ends up pregnant, you're very responsible.

* If your wife is a Harvard graduate laywer who gave up a position in aprestigious law firm to work for the betterment of her inner city community, then gave that up to raise a family, your family's values don't represent America 's.

* If you're husband is nicknamed "First Dude", with at least one DWI conviction and no college education, who didn't register to vote until age 25 and once was a member of a group that advocated the secession of Alaska from the USA, your family is extremely admirable.

Seriously.

Help me get home! :-)

Approved!

The cats and I will be rocketing into Atlanta on November 2nd! Wahoo!! All I need to do is figure out how to scrounge up $1500 between now and Wednesday. Plus that extra $400 I'll need to pay at the airport. Feel free to contribute to the whole getting-me-home fund :-)

Aeroflot to Atlanta?

Ever since my one and only flight on Aeroflot in 2005 – when my suitcase vanished and was hidden from me in a giant warehouse in Moscow – I haven’t had any desire to fly via Aeroflot. After researching Turkish Air’s policies regarding pet transport, I figured I’d return to the US the reverse of the way I came: Bishkek-Istanbul-Chicago-Jacksonville via Turkish Air. I found a ticket online that would get me all the way to Jacksonville for $1600, although I wanted to actually book the flight at the Turkish Air office in order to book “reservations” for the four cats as well.

Unfortunately, when I went to the Turkish Airlines office on Monday morning, I learned that the planes servicing the Bishkek-Istanbul route do not have a cargo area for pets, and only two animals are allowed in the cabin. Assuming no one else had reserved space for their pets on the flight, I could only take two cats, plus it would cost me $320/cat. Additionally, they wanted to charge me $2300 (not including cats) for the exact same itinerary I’d found online for $1600. They said that if I wanted, I could purchase the tickets online and then come back to their office in order to reserve space for my two cats.

I left the Turkish Airlines office in a panic, and went to the nearest internet café to look up the address of the Bishkek Aeroflot office, as Aeroflot is the only other airline servicing Bishkek which allows pet transport. I got the address and set off to find it… and of course it turned out to be an address which did not exist. At that point I was feeling super stressed, and decided to go into the first travel agency I saw which offered tickets on Aeroflot. (For a country where few people travel, Bishkek is oddly full of travel agencies.) Within about thirty seconds of reaching that decision, I arrived at Chuy Prospekt 108, home of the Avia Travel Club, authorized ticket seller for Aeroflot, among others.

The staff at ATC were very helpful. They found a flight for me: Bishkek-Moscow-New York-Atlanta for $1500, and said that it should be no problem flying with four cats as long as Aeroflot and Delta (the operator of the NYC-ATL leg of the trip) approved it, and the cost would be $100/cat. They went ahead and made the reservation in my name, and submitted a request to Aeroflot and Delta for permission for the cats to travel. I was told approval for the cats might take several days, and that I wouldn’t have to pay for the tickets until then.

Then came the one problem I encountered at ATC: they don’t take credit cards! Now, obviously, on my salary, I don’t exactly have $1900 (ticket + cats) lying around anywhere. I also don’t have that much in the bank, and had been planning to pay for my ticket via credit card. I figured I could just go to the bank and use my credit card to get a cash advance for at least part of the sum. Now, the only time I’ve ever gotten a cash advance with my credit card was in 1995 (when I went to Costa Rica with Melissa and Brenda), and then I just went to the bank, they ran the card through the machine like it was a purchase, I signed the receipt, and they gave me my money. Apparently things have changed. Now one must have a PIN number, as with an ATM card. The first I knew of this was when the clerk asked me to enter my PIN number. I took a guess that it was the same PIN as my ATM card (as they were issued at the same time by the same bank), but apparently it wasn’t. After trying three different banks, I headed back to the internet café to call my bank. Well, it turns out I had never requested a PIN for my credit card, and as such didn’t have one. But, the only way they could give me a PIN over the phone was if I called from my home phone – the one registered to the account. They weren’t too phased by the “But I’m in Kyrgyzstan!” argument. They did say that they could send a PIN to my home address, which would take 3-5 days. My “home” address is actually my mom’s, so that wasn’t too big of a problem; I was waiting for approval from the airlines for my cats anyway.

By Wednesday I had yet to hear from ATC, so I walked up to their office. They told me that they had already received approval from Aeroflot for the four cats, and were just waiting to hear from Delta. Woohoo! And there was much rejoicing! (Who would’ve expected that Aeroflot would reply before Delta?)

On Friday I called ATC, and learned that “my” agent was off until “после завтра” (the day after tomorrow), which one would assume to be Sunday, except that I just called them and didn’t get any answer. Not that any of this is surprising or anything… I am in Kyrgyzstan, after all. I’m hoping that everything will coordinate such that by the time my mom receives (and emails me) my PIN number, ATC will have confirmation that the four furballs and I will be flying into ATL on November 2nd.

And just today I learned that an Aeroflot flight crashed in Russia, killing all aboard. NO PHYSICAL HARM. Sigh.

I am The Anti-Mullet!

A couple of weeks ago, we went to Metro, one of the local Bishkek restaurants which caters to ex-pats. (It's also home to the best burrito in Central Asia, which is its main draw for me...) Anyway, our waitress has a super awesome haircut, so I embarrassed her by asking if I could take photos of her hair. Anyway, today I went to the hairdresser and scored a fabulous anti-mullet. Hooray! Anyway, below are my pics of the waitress and then of myself. Enjoy!

ESL teachers needed in Russia!

The American Home, the school in Vladimir, Russia where I taught from August 2005-June 2006, is urgently in need of two teachers, as two of this year's teachers must return home due to family illnesses. It was a great place to work, and while the salary is not large, it is plenty to live on in Vladimir. If you are interested, please let me know.

Of [nearly] bra burning and early morning champagne

Wednesday, according to our “schedule” the power was supposed to be out from 6pm until midnight. It didn’t go out until 10:45pm, which I didn’t mind so much, but one wonders why they bothered making and disseminating a block by block power outage schedule. Yay, Kyrgyzstan. I was hanging out with my headlamp and numerous candles when I began to smell something (other than a candle) burning. The candle I’d had sitting on my plastic chest of drawers had burned a hole through the top of the chest and had ignited something inside my underwear drawer. Ooops. You’d think that after the Oh, holy shit, the plastic box is burning incident of 2005 I’d have learned to stop placing candles directly onto plastic surfaces, but obviously not. Luckily only one of my green headscarves (of which I have several) burned, and my entire selection of underwear was not lost.

Oooops.

Shortly after that I blew out the candles and went to bed… only to be awoken from my slumber at about 2:30am by a loud Crash! Bang! from directly outside my window, accompanied by a lot of shouting and swearing in Russian. After the crashing, banging and swearing continued for a few more minutes, I dragged myself out of bed to see what the racket was all about. For some reason a crew of five workers had picked that very moment to install a gigantic metal sign (to which billboards can be attached) directly outside my window. This involved large metal objects dangling from a giant, teetering crane, which were being smashed repeatedly (and accidentally) into the trees outside my window amidst much shouting: Come on! Come on! Come on! Sasha! Saaa-shaa! Dammit. Hell. Come on! Stop! Stop! Vanya, help Seryoga! Fuck! Lift it up! Lift it up! Gosha! Come on! Come on! I listened to Sasha, Vanya, Seryoga, Gosha and their foreman (the one doing the bulk of the shouting) crash, bang and curse for a full two hours before they managed to get the thing erected. Then they uncorked a bottle of champagne which they proceeded to drink outside my window before driving away. They left the empty bottle.

The view at 3am

The finished product by daylight.
Not even containing an advertisement, just an empty metal sign. Boo.

Lights out!

The above is allegedly the schedule for power outages for our block for the indefinite future. I say "allegedly" as it seems more of a rough estimate than an accurate schedule. For example, last night, when according to the schedule power should have gone off at midnight, we lost power at 10:17. Boo.

The tail end of my vacation...

Vacations are always too short, and this one was no exception. Tommorow we start working again... and I only have two more months here in Kyrgyzstan before starting the next stage of the adventure that is my life. I will be sad to leave Kyrgyzstan, but I am also looking forward to going home for a while. In preparation for my departure, I've acquired all the documents I need to get my four furballs back into the US, and I've gotten four adorable kitty passports from my Bishkek vet (which are needed in order to take my cats out of Kyrgyzstan.)

Aren't they cute?

Meanwhile, I had assumed that I'd be taking Heelix with me on the plane, while stowing the others in cargo... but she has grown at such an absurd rate that she is already bigger than Lucy! I can't imagine how big she is going to get.

Heelix is already big enough to get to the top of the wardrobe.
When I first got her, she was too small to jump on a stool!

Also, I learned that cats have "baby teeth" just like humans. I discovered this when I found a tiny tooth on my bed and then checked the internet to make sure Heelix wasn't suffering from some dental disease.

I found this quite fascinating, personally.

Today was Kyrgyzstan's Independence Day. We had hoped there would be horse games at the hippodrome, but alas, no such luck. The center square was packed full of people milling about, but not much seemed to be going on. Not the most exciting end to our vacation.

Ala Too Square, Bishkek, Independence Day 2008

In other news... I mentioned the Toktogul Reservoir and how low it's become in my last post. This is a problem for Kyrgyzstan as the country functions on something like 95% hydroelectric power. The Toktogul has been depleted partly due to over-use last winter when the country sucked down more electricity than ever before in our record cold winter, and partly due to the fact that a large percentage of Toktogul's water has been sold to Uzbekistan. Recently, the Kyrgyz president sold several hydroelectric power plants and the rights to their reservoirs to Kazakhstan! Check out the following pictures of the Orto-Tokoy Reservoir (near Kochkor), in the spring and then in the summer, following the sale to Kazakhstan. Meanwhile, rolling blackouts have started again with a vengeance.

Orto-Tokoy Reservoir in March 2008


Same place in Orto-Tokoy Reservoir, August 2008
(photo by Ben Scott)


And, irony of ironies, this sign appeared today in the center of Bishkek. It reads, in both Kyrgyz and Russian:
Yes, there will be peace and success in our fatherland!
And it's president Bakiyev next to a hydroelectric dam.

The Epic of Manas Chapter Two: The Song of Jaisan

[large size]

For ten days the wedding той of Manas roared on. The happy voices of young men and women singing flew through the air on wings like swings – селничек. The beasts made noises, подбадрывая warriors, mounting their stallions and wrestling with one another from horseback, or showing their strength by fighting “kurosh” – the traditional form of wrestling. Ликовал people listened to a competition of singers, who compelled their listeners to laugh until they shed tears of mirth.

Still on the first day of the celebration, Manas, seeing the impatience of his father to learn the details of the military campaign said to him, “Father, every man in this world has his vocation. Mine is to fight and defeat my enemies. I am not gifted with words. Listen, father, to the art of my comrade.” And with that, Manas sent for Jaisan.

The gods had given that warrior a great poetic gift, therefore everything about which he sang appeared fresh and new to those who heard it. Every day there came an hour when Jaisan began his song of the recent campaign of Manas.

Holding their breath, the people of the village listened to the tale of the legendary Khan Koshoye, who was possessed not only of gigantic strength and wisdom, but the gift of sorcery, a blessing which enabled Koshoye to take the appearance of the Chinese ruler of the city Dagalak Kyrmusa, thus assisting Manas in the capture of the city.

Jaisan moved his listeners with the tales of the battle of the Kyrgyz army in the country of Eset, of the conquest of the city of Mangyt, of the meeting of Odozdu and Bakai and of Bai’s sad demise. When Jaisan sang of these battles, it seemed to the people that the earth trembled from the hooves of unseen riders. When he described the torment of the army of Manas, trapped for ten days and ten nights in the harsh sun of the desert, the listeners felt their throats and lips parch as though in reality they themselves felt the burning of sun and sweat.

Jaisan easily directed the moods of his listeners. One moment all were happy and smiling, as if they, not the warriors of Manas, had reached the magical land of Aspaan, where flew flies the size of mice, and where mice were bigger than dogs, where flowed rivers of crystal, and where the thick grass was filled with slow moving turtles similar to giant cats.

Suddenly fear appeared in the eyes of the listeners, and many covered their mouths from terror as Jaisan began to tell of the captivity of six of Manas’s archers by a one-eyed giant. The listeners found themselves quite vividly transported to a dark cave, inhabited by the giant and the group of unhappy captives who waited for their terrible fate to be meted out by the bloodthirsty cyclops. Finally, the listeners happily exchanged glances with one another; the archers had succeeded in breaking free after one of them, Kutubee, had gouged out the sole eye of the giant.

Jaisan related to the people of Jakyp the tale of the strange Italians, where the women were beautiful – as if made of feathers – and where the men had the heads of dogs. He sang of the giant cannons of Dubrokhan, the rulers of the Dangyts who fought a great battle with the army of Manas.

The cannon of the Dangyts was called Urkerboh
It was pulled by six elephants
In front of it were twelve shooters who проха всыпали in its muzzle
Thirty strong men loaded the cannonballs
Every time the cannon fired, the city of the Dangyts winced,
The sun was shadowed in smoke and the earth rumbled
The sound of shots smashed through the thirty cities of the Dangyts
As the innumerable army of Manas gathered and advanced
Every day Jaisan finished singing at the most interesting place possible, when he had brought the passion of his listeners to its summit. The listeners always remained until the end of his tale, and would then implore him to impart what would happen next, but Jaisan remained unmoved. The people of the village waited impatiently for the next day and for the continuation of the tale, animatedly discussing what they had heard in the interim.

With particular inspiration, Jaisan sang of the battle of Manas and his army with the Chinese. His voice rang with the blows of steel blades. As if with their own eyes, the listeners saw a grandiose dramatization, as though they looked upon a painting of the battle.

Battle-axes slammed against heads
Найзы rang upon their chests with a clanking sound
Swords crossed with a ringing sound
Hands became callused, and muscles lost their strength
The troop of warriors overran the entire mountain
Embracing their weapons, archers fell, breathless
Найзы fell, crossed with spears
Warriors lay, pinned down
And with the crown on his head, the dead Khan fell

The complete history of the military campaign of Manas was told by the singer, as Jakyp and his men listened with their hearts. When he finished, they all thanked Jaisan most warmly for his art. [original text: page 1 page 2]