tuesday night with vicktor and family

tonight we went to dinner with vicktor, his wife and his two year old son.  vicktor is the 'teaching aide' in my class.  calling him a teaching aide is a joke as he is a master teacher and more than able to teach all my math and science classes by himself without my help - while in turn i often need his help.

most of my classes are split level.  instead of just teaching 12 year old math to eight kids...  i have to teach 12 old math to eight kids and 13 year old math to seven kids at the same time.  same with science (life and earth at the same time).  same with algebra/geometry.  incredibly hard work juggling everything and keeping each subject straight in my head.  sometimes i give math 13 answers to a math 12 kid and vice versa.

so having vicktor is amazing.  he is a good person. funny.  and a great teacher.  he pretty much has taken over teaching the math 13 and the life science.  allows me to focus on the kids that need the most help.

one of my students have me a gift certificate for two to the new mediterranean place in town (if you remember... we went there a couple of weeks ago for the first time with some embassy friends) so in order to thank vicktor for everything he does, we decided to all go together.

it was our first time to meet vicktor's wife.  super nice and sweet.  she only spoke a little english so it was fun trying to understand each other.  of course olive was the belle of the ball as usual.

david conover - professional basketball coach

tonight was my first practice.  strange experience.  i have never coached a men's team before... only high school level students.  i have never coached guys with so much experience and so my understanding of the game.  i have never coached guys who didn't understand a word i was saying because they didn't speak english.

ok, this isn't entirely true. there are three americans on the team who speak russian.  all three of them are in bishkek as christian missionaries (but i won't hold that against them).

the first practice went well.  the old coach was there to introduce me to the players and help me through the first practice.  i was pretty stressed going into the practice.  would the players accept me?  how would it work with my not being able to communicate with them.  but it turned out great.  basketball is just basketball no matter where you play the game.  their style is very different than the style that i am use to playing and coaching... but that is a good thing as i think they are wanting to learn something new.  we worked alot on fundamentals of boxing out and defensive rotations while playing man to man.  good stuff that they soaked up.

i am really excited about this.

contract offer

we have received a contract offer.  no... not for qsi.  that is still up in the air.  i met today with the team owner and team president of ak-bar - team in the local, professional basketball league.  very formal.  very funny.

they liked what i did last year coaching my club team and wanted me to take over as coach for their team.  the season is half way over and although the team is doing well and in second place (it is a six team league) - they feel like they need to make a change as the current coach isn't very strong.

it wasn't much of an interview.  they didn't ask me any questions other than if i wanted the job.  i did most of the asking.  the answers i got included:

the league is in its second year.  there are six teams and they are all either owned by wealthy business men or sponsored by local businesses.  the goal of the league owners is to expand the league to include other central asian countries and to import players from outside of the region to play. 

almost all the players have contracts.  playing basketball is their full time job.  my team practices twice a day (once in the morning and once at night - which is the only time i can make practice) on mondays, wednesdays and fridays.  they also lift weights on tuesdays and thrusdays.

most teams in the league have shoe contracts with some chinese sporting good companies. 

teams play a game once a week on saturday at the sports palace (which serves as the national sports gym). 

on my team are three guys who are also on the kyrgyz national team.  so if kyrgyzstan ever makes the olympics...  i can say i coached olympians!

as coach i will be paid a contract (we haven't worked out the details of that yet).

the meeting ended with "the first practice is tonight".

jen, always the wonderful and supportive wife, says i should do it although it will add to my already busy schedule.  i love her.

how cool is central asia?!

saturday morning

i had an outdoor adventure trip go out this morning so i got up early to go see them off.  on the way home boone and i stopped at the beta store to pick up some juice and bread and i happened upon some honest to goodness BACON (hallelujah... hallelujah... hallelujah. hallelujah. hallelujah amen).

so this has turned out to be pretty much the best saturday morning ever.  we made breakfast (biscuits and gravy!) and then went on a walk to the park.  olivia was so happy and content that she feel asleep.  boone was so happy and excited that he tried to eat someone's poop in the park.

benefit gala

tonight we had the chance to get all dressed up (that makes two weeks in a row!) and go to a gala at the hyatt which benefited local orphan kids with disabilities. buffet with great food... live music... and a good cause. we went with a couple of teachers from the school.

i think the highlights of the evening were winning a lunch for 15 people at the host (a really good indian restaurant) and taking photos of olivia on our way out. she had the most precious little dress on and looked so lovely. about 150 people were at the event and i bet 100 came up and told us how cute she looked. yes... we are proud parents!

i have no idea what was up with the guy in the afro (he was part of the entertainment i think) or the mime.  crazy central asia stuff...

nap

jen and olive came to school today and hung out with me the last couple hours of the school day.  it wore olive out as this is how she crashed once we got home...