the hills are alive with...

last night we had dinner at the undeland's house along with our directors and their son. as mentioned in earlier posts... charlie (undeland), sasha and i were in a "biggest loser" contest for the past month to see who could lose the most weight. charlie and i both thought for sure that sasha would win (he is 10 years younger than us and a bit more spry) but come weigh in this past sunday... we were all shocked when charlie won. but it was close. charlie lost 7 kilos, sasha lost 6.5 kilos and i lost 6.2 kilos (that is almost 14 pounds). so i guess you could say that we were all "winners".

so of course to celebrate our new girlish figures... charlie had us all over for a feast. crazy amount of food. grilled pork, chicken and shrimp. salads. rice. garlic bread. too much vodka. and the highlight was a cake made in the shape of a guy with a big fat belly. i of course am still on a diet while those guys pigged out... so we will see who ends up being the biggest loser/winner.

charlie has a pretty amazing family. his wife is kyrgyz and she runs a ngo (non-government organization) and travels all over the world (she is currently in the states giving a presentation at havard). they have two kids who go to bishkek international school (one of whom is in jen's class). his nephew and niece... in typical krygyz fashion... practically live there as well... as does his sister-in-law who is a doctor with the world health organization. all of which is a fancy way of saying that there are people running around everywhere all the time. a very wonderful, welcoming, family place.

after dinner... the whole lot of us ended up around the television watching the "sound of music". three krygyz kids (ages 5, 9, 13), a russian/american kid (age 2), four americans, two krygyz, and a russian from moldova... and we are all singing along with the movie.

chalk up another surreal central asian moment.

speaking of surreal and the hills being alive... charlie, who works for USAid and who also happens to be really connected with locals in the know, has said that we can expect some level of civil unrest in the next week or month. total crystal ball kind of guess on his part but he feels fairly certain that something is going to happen. might be nothing more than peaceful demonstrations against the current government (which is quiet corrupt) or full fledge riots with fighting in the streets, looting, etc that was similar to the "revolution" here three years ago.

of course... this lead to a long discussion and questions on our part such as "what do we do?"... "will we be safe?"... and "can we join in the looting and get a new, flat screen tv?".

the answers were "stay home and stay calm"... "folks here like americans they just don't like the corrupt government"... and "yes... but we will most likely be shot".

should be interesting. we will see what happens.

weather on the hour every hour

we woke up monday to cloudy skies and thick heavy snow. totally unexpected as the day before was in the mid 60s and sunny. the snow kept falling until around lunch time and then it became warm, clear and sunny again. and that is the central asia weather report for monday, march 9th.

17 weeks down... 161 days to go

little baby jonathan/grant/kate/libby/ella gets bigger every day. jen is starting to show for the first time... and it has nothing to do with the 20 packs of cookie mix or six bags of nacho cheese doritos that we have received from back home. how exciting!

dinner with the stillwells

yes... my head is really that much larger than everyone else's.


tonight we had dinner with the stillwells. i coach the "mighty snowflakes"... a club basketball team... with david and his two sons also play on the team. we have been trying for a while to get together and finally met up saturday night. really good, kind people. they have been living in central asia for 18 years... first in uzbekistan and now in kyrgyzstan. their three boys (mike who is 16, alex who is 15 and caleb who is 10) are all "americans" but have never lived in the states. david refers to them as "third culture" kids. they aren't native (to central asia) kids so they don't fit in that way but they can't really be considered american either. he went on to say that "third culture" kids... according to studies he has read... are able to fit in anywhere with anyone but at the same time they don't have feel like one place is "home". we talked alot about the pros and cons (in their opinion) about raising kids overseas. obviously they lean towards the "pro" side since that is what they have done with their family. they talked about the downside of the american pop/commercial culture and being able to raise strong, independent thinking kids outside of those pressures. the downside of being an expat, they went on, was the fluidity of the community. for the most part expats tend to gravitate towards other expats (because of the shared common experience) and because of the nature most overseas jobs... family move on after two years to another posting, etc. so it is hard to develop long term community with folks. it was a good conversation and good stuff for jen and i to think about as we consider heading down that road ourselves of staying overseas and having a family.

they have had some pretty amazing experiences while over here and you can tell as all three of the kids are super nice, respectful, thoughtful and funny. micheal, the oldest boy, spent three weeks in afghanistan this summer volunteering at a local school there. the whole family has tons of work like that. it is pretty inspiring.

of course on the other side of the coin, david and his family are moving back to the states this summer because he wants to prepare his kids for college by giving them some time to get use to the american culture. there is even a summer "re-education camp" for expat kids to help them adjust to the american lifestyle. i know this sounds crazy... but jen and i struggled with this a little bit over christmas and we had only been gone for three months. can't imagine what it is going to be like for his kids.

so jen and i decided to help them by giving them some advice to being teenagers in the states and almost all of our advise was counter to how things are here in central asia. we will save that list for another post.

we've got mail II

we received another box tonight... this time some great goodies from jen's dad which included a bunch of baby stuff (we are having a baby!). thank you so much keith and alicia! we love you guys.

grand opening

on friday night we were invited to the grand opening of the new indian restaurant in bishkek... "the host". our directors from school... marykay and sasah... scored tickets and brought us along with them. the restaurant is located in the basement of a run down building (it's bishkek... what do you expect) and is supper posh... even by american standards. the wait staff was predominantly indian and super attentive. the food (was free!) was excellent, authentic indian food (with some russian fare thrown in for good measure).

the highlights of the night included:
1. the american ambassador wearing a short, red, pleather mini skirt (keep in mind that she is a sixty year old woman) with matching red pleather jacket.
2. the indian ambassador wearing a traditional indian tunic covered by a jcrew fleece vest. too funny.
3. the indian ambassador coming over to our table and asking the waiter to bring us some marsalla and naan.
4. the russian ambassador standing right next to the american ambassador and them both ignoring each other. the cold war is alive and well in central asia!
5. the pomegranate sauce and broccoli (jen's favorite)
6. and of course the belly dancers.

bishkek is such a small town that events like the opening of a new restaurant are a really big deal.

maybe there is a correlation between a country's economic status and the efficiency of it's bureaucracy

jen and i are still figuring out all of the subtleties of travel in central asia. bishkek is not a hub with which you can easily flight in and out of (with the exception of flights to istanbul, moscow and london). if you want to fly any place else... your best bet is almaty, kazakhstan which is a couple of hours drive north of bishkek. for the record... kyrgyzstan and kazakhstan are different countries! the cheapest (or so we thought) and easiest way to fly to delhi for our trip to india was to fly out of almaty. sure... we would need to rent a driver to take us there... but so much easier than flying out of bishkek.

of course we didn't take into account visas.

we each have a year long kyrgyz visa (so we are no longer illegal!) and of course an american passport. to travel to india... we go to the indian embassy here in bishkek and apply for a visa. we have some parents are our school who work at the indian embassy and the told us that it shouldn't be a problem. we just need to get our kazak visa first. since we are flying out of almaty... we need transit visas to cross the border to get to the airport. if we were just flying to almaty... we won't need a transit visa... good to know for future reference.

so today my director told me to go home from school after one period. i have been struggling with a horrible sinus infection for almost a week and last night it was at it's worse. i was coughing and wheezing so much that it kept me (and jenny) up all night last night. i had fits so bad that we didn't even hear the four drunk guys who for the past week have been drinking, smoking, setting off their car alarm, and laughing each night at 200am. so a blessing in disguise if you will. anyway... i went to school... not feeling well... and marykay tells me to go home.

i decided this would be a good time (as things you postpone to the last minute only take a minute) to go get our kazak transit visas so we could go get our indian visas.

the kazak embassy is not far from the school and is located just down the street from the american embassy. nice building. green trees and grass. nice new building. but complete chaos. no one in central asia stands in "line". they just pile up to the front of the line (on the bus... at the store... at the school... you get the idea). there is no concept of "you go ahead... you were here first". people push... people cut... people are shocked if you say something to them. and people don't say "hey... i was here first" as most likely they cut the line themselves. no "american manners" whatsoever.

so i walk up to the embassy and get in the back of the line. "the line" consist of a mass of people trying to make it through the door to the entrance way at the same time and one, small, polite canadian woman standing some distance behind watching the fracas before her. she is small, polite and trying to form a line so i get behind her. one... the two... then four... people walk up after me and cut in line in front of her. guessing that she doesn't know "the way we do things around here" i suggest to her that we push our way up and not let anyone else cut the line or else we will be here all day. she agrees and we pile drive our way into the back of the mongul horde and inch towards the entrance.

once inside the front entrance of the embassy... about 40 minutes later... we are stopped by a "security" officer who is acting like a bouncer at a trendy los angeles night club. when someone leaves... he looks the crowd over... nods to a random person... opens the door slightly and lets them in as 20 other people try to squeeze in at the same time. very efficient. ever so often he leaves the door and entrance way to walk outside for a minute or so. does he have gas? does he not like crowds? it is so random.

while he is gone... folks knock on the door until someone inside (who is waiting to apply for a visa) opens the door... and then they pile inside. the guard comes back... opens the door to see who has sneaked in... kicks them out... and then closes the door again. after a couple of minutes... he walks outside and the whole process is repeated. each time though i inch closer and closer to the door... not giving way to the people who are kicked out and who try to get in front of me. after about 20 more minutes i am glued to the door... flashing my baby blues at the guard.

he finally lets me in. even less organization inside. at least 15 people just milling around. one window that you have to bend down to talk into. two guys sitting inside. one is reading the paper. and the other is talking on his cell phone. i stuff our applications and passports through the window. he looks at them for two seconds... and tells me in broken english that i am missing some information that i must fill out before he will help me.

i borrow a pin from the mousy canadian lady (i have no idea how she managed to get this far on her own) and fill out the one line i missed on our applications and walk back up to the window. in the mean time the guard outside must have walked off again because at least 30 people come surging into the room (it is elbows to ass cheeks at this point). we are all fighting our way to the visa window... a scrum is about to break out... when the guard shows back up and starts dragging people out by their collars. i am not lying. i try the ole "don't look and i won't be noticed trick" but he grabs me anyway and escorts me outside. i doth protest but neither his english or my russian get the message through... "but i was already here!".

the good thing about being a big fat american is that it is really easy to throw your weight around. people are so small here. i used my butt to crave a place out in the front of the line and waited again to be let in. another 10 minutes goes by and he opens the door for a couple of ladies and i slide in with them.

sprint to the front of the line. hand in our applications and visas. the guy looks them over. the other guy is still reading the paper. he tells me that before i can get a kazak transit visa i need to go to the kazak bank in downtown and pay $40. i can't pay here? no... you can't pay here. i decide to try the same jedi mind trick that i use when i get pulled over. can i pay for the visa here? no... you can't pay here. can i pay here? no... you have to go to the bank and pay and then come back. but it would be easier if i could pay here. no... you can't pay here and we will only give you a one way transit visa and we won't give you that until you get an indian visa first.

ugh.

so i leave. drive to the kazak national bank (a 20 minute drive)... pay $40... and decide to call it quits for the day as i need to go home and take a nap.

tomorrow i will go and apply for the indian visa. hopefully it will be easier. once i get that (it normally takes three to five days) i will head back to the kazak embassy with the receipt for $40, our applications, our indian visas... and go through the process all over again.

jennifer's birthday

today is my best friend's birthday.

on the way to work this morning i asked her that when she was a little girl if this is what she imagined her life being like at 30... living in central asia, teaching, expecting a baby and being married.

in typical jennifer fashion... she gave a perfect answer.

and that is how i think of you jennifer... as perfect.

you are the perfect friend. you are the perfect wife. and you are going to be the perfect mother.

thank you so much for being my best friend, my wife and my family. i love you so dearly that i struggle sometimes to find ways to let you know how strongly i feel. but i promise to always try my hardest to do so.

have a wonderful day today. i know we are far away from family and friends but it isn't every birthday you get to celebrate with mystery meat for dinner at a "fancy" kyrygz restaurant.

happy birthday.

i love you.

baby baby baby

this morning jen and i had an appointment with dr. arena who is our doctor here in bishkek. she is a wonderful doctor and a former russian beauty queen to boot. seriously. i am not joking.

ok... back to the subject of the post.

jen had some blood work done and then we did an ultra sound and saw THE BABY! seeing he/she/it was amazing... so much bigger than a month ago when we visited the doctor and he/she/it actually looks like a baby this time! we could see the profile of the head (jen's eyes) and the belly (unfortunately... my belly), the little arms (he/she/it was sucking on his/her/it's thumb), the little fingers, the knees bent and pulled up into fetal position (i guess that is why they call it a fetus!). our baby!

i can't express how overwhelmed and happy i feel right now.

we are having a baby!

osh bazaar

today we headed out to osh bazaar to enjoy the nice weather and to eat some lunch. pretty bustling and amazingly central asian...