Archive sections: ‘From an Expat’
A few months ago we had a film crew visit from the What Took You So Long Foundation, (Alicia Sully, Philippa Young and Sebastian Lindstrom). They were travelling the world searching for camel cheese. Having already been to China, Mongolia and Kazakhstan they came to Kyrgyzstan on their Uzbekistan and beyond. I wrote a postcard about their [...]
Maxim spent the back end of last busily scouring the internet for inspiration. For homework one of his teachers at school had given him the task of drawing a poster, (a gazeta), to commemorate February 23rd, Dehn zashitnika Otechestva, (Defenders of the Fatherland Day – otherwise known as Army Day or Men’s Day). February 23rd [...]
The International Business Council, (IBC), is a business association, which was established in December 2000, whose membership includes a wide range of local and international businesses that have created thousands of jobs and have a combined investment of over one billion USD in the Kyrgyz economy. The Celestial Mountains Tour Company was one of the [...]
I have written before about Pamir Bridges, a Swiss charity that aims to renovate bridges in rural areas, often high in the mountains, in Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Afghanistan. Last week I received the notification of four “soirées”, or Cultural Evenings, they are organizing in March and their Annual General Meeting which will be held in [...]
Salaries and Prices seem to have been the main themes of the week. The proposed salary increases for teachers, medical workers and others working in the public sector have not been universally welcomed. The International Monetary Fund, (IMF), have fired a warning shot across the government’s bows, suggesting the “targeted social programmes” were a better [...]
It’s that time of year again, time for the regular quarterly report from Hugh and Jean about the activities at the Karakol Orphanage and the two micro credit organizations that they support. The update arrived in the email, and anyone who would like to see a copy, a pdf version can be found here.
February 15th: On this day in 2005, a new website was launched which was to quickly establish itself as a major phenomenon on the internet – a video-sharing website on which users can upload, share, and view videos: You Tube. Actually, the domain name was registered the day before the launch; the first video, (a 19 second clip [...]
Yesterday, I commented on the fact that it was Saint Valentine’s Day. I could just have easily chosen to mark an anniversary which has slightly more relevance to Kyrgyzstan, but the day passed by without anyone really noticing it. It was February 14th, 1483 when Babur, (the “Tiger”), the first of the Mogul Emperors, of [...]
On Saturday, the International Women’s Club in Bishkek organized a Valentine’s Day Ball in the Hyatt. I didn’t go, because: a) I didn’t know about it … (so they need to look at their marketing … usually they write to everyone and approach us for sponsorship or prizes for the raffle but this time we [...]
Kyrgyzstan is pretty hot on celebrating almost any anniversary. Well, today marks a sad anniversary, although it has passed without any comment … well, that’s understandable … I doubt if many people here have heard of Charlie Brown. February 13th, 2000 saw the publication of the last ever original Peanuts cartoon strip, a specially prepared cartoon [...]
