A Quickie

This week has been a roughshod wild ride of linguistic frustration. I am now able to ask about your health and your day in Kyrgyz, however, sometimes. Things in Kyrgyzstan cooled down after they heated up. The President, Akayev, signed the constitution the regional elites wanted. The system will become more parliamentary. I will write more when I learn more. Both sides claimed victory. President Akayev is still President Akayev and the regional elites got a new constitution. There were some injuries on Tuesday after the cops used flashbangs and tear gas to break up some drunken mobbery. Drunken belligerence turned to drunken panic and some people were injured.

One of the students here showed up for the first time in two weeks. He evaded questions about where he was and said he had a new job. After some probing, he revealed that he has been taking classes at the Mosque with the imam every day for many hours a day. The good thing is that he is learning Arabic. I am skeptical of any organization that asks you to overturn your life on a dime, however. We are hoping to find out what this mosque is like and offer the student a scholarship to the American University's catchup year program. Hopefully we can offer some life opportunities.

I will be at the Alpine Learning Institute, better known as the dacha (cabin) with kids all weekend. I am in charge of planning a seminar... which should be an interesting test of my Russian skills. If the weather stays hypothermia-tastic, I think we will learn about that. Other wise, maybe cuts or sprained ankles.

It is difficult to find the happy medium between not being productive and not being reflective. After this month, hopefully I will oscilate back to the middle again.