Archive sections: ‘Life In Kyrgyzstan’
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 [...]
Sunday was a rare “day off”. Tatiana, my accountant, has a friend, Anna, staying from Russia, and suggested going into the mountains so we decided to make a day of it. The obvious choice for a day trip from Bishkek is to go to one of the valleys in the Kyrgyz Krebet, just South of [...]
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.
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 [...]
If I am a little late with this week’s postcard, then please bear with me. The reason is simple: John, a consultant from the UK has appeared en route to a new project in Tajikistan and Afghanistan and he brought with him some jars of “Black Gold”, (Marmite), and copies of the Times, the Economist [...]
Whenever we have a spell of cold weather, I am taken to task by my friends and colleagues about why I don’t wear a hat. It isn’t just hats, I tend not to wear a scarf or gloves. The reason is simple, I have a habit of loosing them. I put them down in a [...]
Whilst the attention of the rest of the world has been focused on Egypt, here in Kyrgyzstan we’ve been concentrating on Turkey. There’s a reason for that, of course … this week’s visit to the Kyrgyz Republic of Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Prime Minister of Turkey.
It’s Chinese New Year. They tell me that this year should be good for business, (“after all, it’s the year of the Rabbit”), whereas last year was bound to be difficult one, (“because it was the year of the Tiger”). Hmmm. Funny, that they didn’t tell me the difficulties associated with the Year of the [...]
