fall festival at bishkek international school

today bis held it's annual fall festival. not really halloween and not really thanksgiving... but a combination of the two. we went through a regular first part of the day before moving outside and offering games and activities to the kids.

for jennifer and i, the day started with us showing a couple of the peanuts movies to the kids - "it's the great pumpkin charlie brown" and "a charlie brown thanksgiving". her five year old class came up stairs and watched with my 12 and 13 year olds.

our classes watching charlie brown

our good friend yassi

the best costume of the day

jen with her kids during the costume parade

this cow costume made us miss chick-fil-a

secondary kids dancing

melon relay race

the winning group

jen and ms. duresh face painting the five year olds

our friend marykay, the director of bis

here are the photos

kiss my throat

after work on monday, jen and i went to a map store on kiev to get a couple of kyrgyzstan maps for our upcoming trip (we have ten days off in a couple of weeks and plan to drive around the country). since we were downtown - we decided to go to the metro for a game of pool and dinner.

yesterday was a rainy and cold day - and as a result - the traffic was horrible. cars sliding into each other and gridlock at intersections.

i should clarify that hypothesis. the traffic was horrible because people here drive like wild, rabid animals (if a wild rabid animal could drive). no consideration for other cars, pedestrians, etc. the only time we ever see a car slow down and yield is for the countless stray dogs that wander from one side of the street to the other.

it took us about 30 minutes to get from downtown to the corner of our street. the drive normally takes 10 minutes and it was dark and raining by that time. major gridlock... cars barely moving. a real mess.

so we turn the corner on our street thinking that we are going to be home free.

until we get about four car lengths up the road (with cars piling up behind us) to only realize that cars were heading down our lane directly towards us.

click graph below for details

cars behind us. cars trying to cut the line in front of us. cars crowding around everywhere refusing to budge. there was no place to go. the cars in front of us wouldn't (and couldn't) get out of our way and into their lane until the cars beside them (going in the same direction as them) moved forward. those cars were stuck because cars behind us were blocking the intersection and weren't moving. when someone could move - no one would let anyone by.

we stayed in the same spot, without moving, for over an hour. at one point... jen got out of the car and walked down to the grocery store (an easy 10 minute walk), bought detergent, and walked back. the car was in the same spot as she left.

while she was gone... i got out of the car (remember... it is pouring down rain) and walked to the front of the line to the point where we were blocked by the oncoming cars. i yelled at them. they yelled back. no one really understood each other but i think yelling felt good for everyone involved.

finally... when the cars start to move (well after jen was back from the store)... i decided to yell (in a fun sort of way) at each of the drivers who has been blocking our lane by going down it the wrong way. a couple of blank stares. some yelling back in russian. one "i am sorry" in broken english. and the show stopper... one guy, unhappy that an american was yelling at him... shouted out to us "kiss my throat".

still trying to figure out if that is some deep kyrgyz insult or something that was lost in translation.

ah... driving in bishkek.

bis outdoor adventure club

jen and i are leading the outdoor adventure club at school. each teacher has to offer a one after school activity at week - and we decided to do something that would allow us (and our kids of course) the chance to get outside and explore. we had 12 secondary kids sign up! we will meet every monday. sometimes we will do activities at bis and other times we will do stuff off campus. we also have three off campus trips planned.

we are working cooperatively with the alpine fund, a local non-for-profit that takes disadvantaged kyrgyz youth on outdoor trips. beside working with the outdoor adventure club - jen and i are also going to start volunteering for the alpine fund on some of their climbing trips.

below is the schedule we have planned for the club:

Friday, 24 October
Making Trail Mix and Trip Packing from 300pm to 400pm
We will be making snacks and packing for the climbing trip on Sunday.

Sunday, 26 October
Rock Climbing at Chongkerchuck Gorge from 900am to 400pm
We will be climbing with guides from the Alpine Fund. Transportation, climbing instruction and gear will be provided at part of the cost.

Monday, 27 October
Outdoor Photography and Urban Day Hike from 300pm to 430pm
We take a hike through Friendship Park to Chui. Along the way, Jennifer will offer photography instruction. Students should bring a camera if possible.

Monday, 10 November
Making Homemade Granola Bars and S’mores from 300pm to 400pm

Friday, 14 November
Menu Planning, Food Shop and Trip Packing from 300pm to 500pm
We will go on a food shop to a nearby market and pack for our trip tomorrow.

Saturday, 15 November
Overnight Cabin Stay in Ala-Archa National Park
We will overnight at a cabin belonging to the Alpine Fund. Activities include day hikes into Ala-Archa and weather permitting, sledding.

Monday, 17 November
No Outdoor Adventure Meeting Today

Monday, 24 November
Rock Climbing Gym from 300pm to 400pm
Another visit to a local climbing gym.

Monday, 1 December
Gear Day from 300pm to 430pm
In preparation for our winter camping trip, we will learn how to set up tents, use backcountry stoves, and talk about winter outdoor clothing.

Thursday, 4 December
Menu Planning, Food Shop and Packing from 300pm to 500pm
We will go on a food shop to a nearby market and pack for our trip tomorrow.

Friday, 5 December
Winter Camping Trip to Lake Issyk-Kul
We leave school early Friday and return Sunday for two nights of camping along the shore of Lake Issyk-Kul.

Monday, 8 December
End of Term Party from 300pm to 400pm
We will be sharing food and stories as we watch a slide show of our adventures.

dordoi bazaar

on sunday we went to the dordoi bazaar - which claims to be the largest bazaar in central asia. this was our second visit there and i feel like we have only seen a small part of it. the place is pretty overwhelming but we had a great time: taking photos of the locals, jen helping in the kitchen where we ate lunch, buying some gifts to take home, and getting a couple of mattress pads for our bed.

typically scene - guys pulling over sized carts with goods

bank grand opening with live music and dancing

some really nice ladies who helped us pick out a snack

they were so excited to have their picture taken

the restaurant where we ate lunch and jen helped make noodles

lugging around our mattress pads

after eating, jen thought that it would be a good idea to print the photos of the ladies and give them copies. so we found a place in the bazaar that printed digital photos and 30 minutes later... she presented them with the photos. it was so much fun watching them respond with joy and laughter upon seeing the photos. they were so happy that they started wrestling over the copies and we thought that they were going to get in fight over them.

the trip ended with us making it back to our car and realizing that we had parked "illegally" and had our license plate taken by the police. apparently, instead of giving tickets, they take your license plate instead. so we had to go and track down the officers (who were sitting in a car with a large stack of plates) and "pay" the ticket. jen did all the negotiating. 400 soms later ($11 us dollars) we had our license back and were on our way home.

jen showing off after getting our license plate back

here are the photos

dancing with the german ambassador

since we returned from almaty early on saturday (instead of sunday), we were able to make it to a birthday party being thrown for the mom of yassi, the school librarian. really, really good people who we had hung out with once before (at the german national day celebration). yassi's dad works at the german embassy so there were lots of folks there from the german, indian and us embassy.

amazing food. good drinks. fun music. and the highlight... was jen dancing with the german ambassador.

after dinner, people started dancing in the living room. the ambassador, whom we had chatted with while eating, was standing and watching. so jen decided to go up and ask him to dance and they tore up the rug together. so much fun!

photos to coming soon

central asian soccer classic

our trip to almaty, kazakhstan for the central asian soccer classic was exciting to say the least. we traveled to another central asian country (the home of borat no less!), celebrated our two month (two months!) anniversary, coached soccer (jen was a rock star as were our bis kids), and worked on my not being an illegal immigrant.

we left bishek wednesday morning. rode in a mini-bus with a couple of the bis kids (patrick, laura, their mom, and akim - our adopted daughter) that followed the 50 passenger bus with all of the hope kids and parents (we don't have enough kids to field a soccer team so we join programs with hope academy). some other bis kids and parents drove separately (being embassy folks - they have a driver and a car).

the drive to kazakhstan was fairly short... only about 45 minutes north of bishkek. unfortunately, we had to wait for over three hours at the crossing waiting for everyone to make it through the border control and customs.

having our paperwork checked by the border guards

the buses finally crossing into kazakhstan

from the border it was another two hours to almaty. it was like we had been transported back to southern california - terrible traffic and so much smog we couldn't see the (supposed) mountains that loomed over town.

our first stop was almaty international school (a sister school of bis - owned by the same organization) where we dropped off a large majority of the kids. ais (the host of the tournament) had arranged home stays for all of the kids who were interested in being with families instead of paying for a hotel room).

from there, we headed off to our sanatorium (or is it sanitarium?) which was very nice on the outside... but a little scary on the inside.

our room at the sanatorium - yes... we brought our own sheets and pillows

a "sanatorium" is kind of like a hotel except when you enter your room - you enter a commons area that leads directly to three bedrooms. the common area here was nothing more than narrow hallway with a mini-fridge, two toilets and a shower. not really something that our parents would stay in but "ok" by central asian, built in the 1960s by the soviets, standards. the room was cozy and at first glance seemed clean and safe.

our only initial "oh... this is fun" comment was that our room - number 80 - was on the fifth floor.

the place didn't have an elevator.

the first night was an adventure. we were kept away from 200am until 600am by loud, argumentative, and drunk russian voices. good times!

breakfast was provide the next morning and we met our group (16 people total staying at the same place) at the cafe located outside the sanatorium. breakfast was cream of wheat something with chicken pieces and noodles.

a note about hope academy - hope is a school here in bishkek. it has close to 200 students and it's christian curriculum is taught by volunteers - mainly parents of students themselves - so in many ways it is like a big, communal home school. not to say any negative about home school kids or parents... but wow.

anyway - thursday was the first day of soccer and hope/bis had four teams in the tournament - one junior girls team, one junior boys team, and two senior boys teams. jennifer was there to coach the junior girls team while i was there as the administrative representative from bis.

the teams all played multiple games on thursday and all did really well. you win some... you lose more. the big struggle of the day was the hope coaches deciding to play senior boys on the junior boys team and leaving the junior boys sitting on the bench. drama.

the day ended and we took the kids to the "mega mall" in downtown almaty for a night of fun and food. the mall was a very posh, american style mall with a food court, bowling alley, rock wall, and ice rink. jenn and i decided to eat at a sbarro pizza (go america!). two slices of pizza, two salads and two sodas later we were out $50. ouch. almaty is way, way more expensive than bishkek.

jen and two of our bis kids at the mega mall

night two at the sanatorium was another adventure. no late night, all night druken arguements - but we did have someone try to key into our room around 200am in the morning. the sound of a key turning in our door woke both of us and i ran to to door - banging against it and holding it closed. i heard some mumbling on the other side and then the person starts going through the fridge. all i could think was "he is taking our orange juice" instead of "stay in the room and be safe". we barged out of the room (both in our pajamas) and scared the living daylight out of the poor fella. he was obviously lost and a bit drunk. he waved, mumbled something, and then left.

friday was another long day of soccer and another visit to the mega mall in the evening. as a group, the bis kids and parents decided that we would leave saturday after the last playoff games instead of staying another night. we were all anxious to return home.

outside the sanatorium after a good night sleep... finally!

thursday and friday had been perfect weather... so of course we woke saturday to cloudy, cold and windy weather with the threat of rain. the dark skies carried over to the field as the mood of the day was just as bleak. hope coaches (not jen!) being accused of cheating (which they did... by changing the rosters around mid tournament), hope administrators made the decision to forfeit the rest of the senior boys games, hope coaches and players (again... not our bis kids) running onto the field in protest and disrupting play of another game, hope parents physically accosting an ais staff. it wasn't pretty. made us glad that we decided to leave early.

jen and her girls

the drama was both funny and disappointing at the same time. funny because you have to laugh seeing adults (especially those who so strongly label themselves as "christian") act so poorly and disappointing because they all lost sight of the fact that it is only a game. sigh.

so after all the excitement, we kind of just snuck away with our bis kids and parents back to bishkek. the drive back was short... an easy border crossing... and we were happy to be home.

here are the photos

playing basketball in america

for the past two weeks i have been playing basketball on tuesday nights at the us embassy in bishkek. since i have been here - i have been pestering anyone and everyone i met to get an invite to play at the game (it is one of the few pickup games going in town - the other one being the saturday morning hope game). finally - i think i bothered enough people that they decided to invite me.

ah... america! the embassy grounds are considered "sovereign" american territory. it is almost like being home again. if only home was a unobtrusive, heavily fortified basketball court surrounded by snow capped mountains and soviet high rise apartments.

the guys (all of whom work at the embassy) are a good group and it has been fun getting some runs in and making new friends.

german sausage, kyrgyz music and yellow cake with chocolate icing

it was a really, really good weekend.

after school on friday we went home and got all dressed up for the german national day celebration. but before we could go we had to stop by the kazakhstan embassy to pick up our passports and visas for our trip to almaty this weekend. "picking up" our visas consisted of standing around for 45 minutes outside the embassy and then joining the mass of people as they pushed, shoved and cut their way in line through a tiny entry way into the embassy. it is funny that if you act important enough, you can just walk to the front of the line and cut and no one will say anything. we didn't do this... but were cut by a very important looking russian lady proceeded to pull five other people from the back of the line in front with her. my attempts at protesting, with spanish being the only foreign language i really know, didn't really work. "muy mal" and "no esta bien" doesn't translate to russian i guess.

after getting our visas (one stop closer to being able to get back into kyrgyzstan legally!), we dashed off to steinbrau - host of the german national day celebration.

our friend sasha after too much beer and sausage

the german national day celebration was a good time on a bunch of levels. first off - the kyrgyz secretary of state gave a speech along with the german ambassador. the party was full of people from various embassies, many of whom where wearing full military dress (got to love the french milirary outfits!) and all of whom where down to earth good people. we felt like big wigs. the party lasted into the night and we left being over satiated (like our friend sasha). we exchanged contact information with a couple of new friends and look forward to hanging out with them.

the next day, i played basketball at the saturday morning hope game and then had my first basketball practice with my team (mostly hope kids with a couple of homeschooled kids). the practice went really well. we ran through some drills, basic offensive sets and the vaunted 1-3-1 conover zone before having a scrimmage againts another local club team - the bishkek knights. we destroyed them although they have been practicing already for a couple of weeks. it was pretty fun to be with a group of kids who were athletic and coachable.

while i was coaching, jen went on a hike up in the mountain with some friends from work. they explored an area called "the 12 chimneys" that is named after a resort in the area (that has only 12 tables but each has it's own chimney).



once jen got back, we join sasha and marykay for dinner at the home of charlie, a parent from bis. charlie is an american but has been in bishkek for over 10 years and works for usaid. he is married to a local woman who works for the world bank in bishkek and who also runs her own ngo (non-governmental organization). the ngo focuses on reviving the traditional kyrgyz culture. she shared with us a bunch of old, black and white photos and some stories of her grandfather (who is considered the father of modern kyrgyz literature). it was a pretty inspiring night listening to them tell us stories about the history and culture of this amazing country. oh... and the food was great with plov, grilled chicken and duck, and salad.

but the highlight of the evening was listening to a local musician (a member of the kyrgyz national orchestra. jen and i agreed that listening to him play was one of the most amazing things we had ever heard.




on sunday, jen and i went to church in bishkek for the first time. a nice service and a nice group of people. we are planning on going again.

the weekend end with jen making a real, homemade american yellow cake (with ingredients from the local 99 som store). chocolate icing and everything. we shared it with our finnish couchsurfer who were taking off the next morning for india.


we are feeling pretty blessed.

social weekend

it's friday and the weather outside is unbelievable. the sun is shining brightly, the skies are so clear and blue it's like you can see into space, and the mountains south of town are magnificently covered in ice and snow.

we have a pretty exciting weekend planned. tonight we have an invite to the german national day celebration at steinbrau hosted by the german embassy. all you can eat (real) german sausage! jen and i have been there several times before and it is one of our favorite places in town. tickets are hard to come by so we are pretty excited to have received one (we are going to have to talk our way in as a couple!).

on saturday, we are going to dinner at the home of a parent at a bis student who also works at the american embassy. feels really good to have started to make friends and build a community.

on sunday, our finnish couchsurfers return after a two week trip into the kyrgyzstan countryside. they will be with us for one night before flying off to india.

updates and photos to follow on monday!

fall afternoon drive

yesterday evening, jen and i went driving out in the country and up into the mountains to ala-archa national park. fall is absolutely lovely here.