Postcard from Bishkek

In Saturday’s postcard I mentioned that I had been invited to a ceremony at a school, Bilimkana, in Luxembourg, a village about 20 kilometers East of Bishkek. It was a two fold celebration, to mark Posledniy zvonok, the last day of the school year and also the an opening ceremony.  When I first heard about […]

The other day Maxim, one of the kids, asked for help with his homework. Now, call me mean, but I am not too keen on helping them with their homework … There’s a number of reasons for my reluctance: I am old-fashioned enough to think that they should do the work and if I end […]

The kids are not in school today … but it’s OK, it’s all official and above board – they are not playing truant.  Today is a public holiday – Norus. Back in the UK, we tend to think of the Spring Equinox, (March 21st), as the first day of Spring – and, apparently, this identification […]

Some time ago, I was talking to the kids about their progress at school.  I am pleased to say that they seem to be doing quite well, regularly receiving grades of 4 and 5. It took a while, however, for me to get used to this system that is used over here. Most of the marks […]

When I was teaching Computing, in the computer room we had a large display cabinet and the kids called if “The Museum”. They gave it that name because in it we put a display of calculating devices over the years, clay tablets (which we had made in the Art department) showing Sumerian calculations; an abacus, […]

There was a protest song that was popular in my youth, (written by Pete Seger and performed by the folk group Peter, Paul and Mary), that posed the question,  ”Where have all the flowers gone?”  It seems that they had been “picked by young girls, … every one“, and there was a follow-up question: “When […]

Amongst the questions that I am often asked are: how did I come to be here in Kyrgyzstan?, how long have I been here?, how often do I get back home?, and don’t I miss England? The answer to the first is a long story, and and as I have told it elsewhere in other […]

Recently, I had an interesting meeting with a couple of representatives of an international student organization: AIESEC. AIESEC, (pronounced “aie-sek”), stands for ”Association internationale des étudiants en sciences économiques et commerciales” or “International Economic and Commercial Sciences Students Association”.

I had an interesting meeting on Tuesday morning … and I think I can forgive the organizers for dragging me out of the office for an 08:30 start.  Although I am normally in the office by about 06:00am, I am normally on my own don’t have to worry about encountering other people for several hours; […]

One of the things you get accustomed to in Kyrgyzstan is the number of portmanteau words and abbreviations in use.  One such set of initials is KNGU – The Kyrgyz National Gosudarstveniy (State) University. Kyrgyzstan has an impressive number of Institutes of Higher Education given the size of the population (just over 5 million) The […]