The Golden Road to Samarqand

History of Joseph Smith by His Mother

2012-01-29T19:51:00.000+06:00

This is one of those books I'd been meaning to read forever, and had read bits of since it's so often referred to in other sources. So I finally did, since it came free with an app I downloaded (which also makes it the first book I've read all the way through on the iPad). I enjoyed it very much, even though it was a bit uneven at times, at least whether it's actually about Joseph Smith or the Smith family. Joseph is the focus in the first half to 2/3rds of the book, but then he's hardly mentioned.

That last part really emphasizes how hard the Smiths had it. So many family members dying.

Snowy Sidewalks

2012-01-27T14:16:00.001+06:00

The sidewalks are covered with snow and ice right now, like usual for this time of the year. They got pretty slushy, which is worse than ice-covered in my opinion, the last day or two, but it's colder and snowier today.

Last winter seemed pretty slushy, and the other winter I've lived here was the normal cold winter when everything was covered by December, and didn't get slushy till spring. I like to see people pulling their sleds on the sidewalks when it's cold; what you don't want is slush and muck.

But there's something new this winter we didn't notice 6 years ago. Most everywhere I've walked there's been a little path on on side of the sidewalk that's nearly cleared of snow and ice. It's not wide enough for two people, so you can't always stay on it, but it makes it so much easier to walk. I don't know if it's a city thing, but it seems to be because it's not in just one part of town.

I saw someone working on it once. The had a tool that broke up the ice, then the chunks can be shoveled or swept into the gutter. I am so glad they're doing it since I'm out walking for at least an hour and a half 5 days a week.

Substitute That

2012-01-26T15:26:00.000+06:00

If you can't find peanut butter very easily, it's nice that tahina is a good substitute. The oldest (not surprisingly) isn't convinced that a tahina and raspberry jam sandwich would taste very good, but the rest of us like it. And I can always find tahina. Maybe I'll have to try tahina chocolate chip cookies. Except it would be with chocolate chips, but chunks of the dark chocolate that you can find here now.

The King's Speech

2012-01-25T15:53:00.001+06:00

Yes, I wrote about this not too long ago, but that was the book. We stumbled on the DVD in English at the pirated video place (actually, there is only one place we've found where the DVDS aren't pirated, and even some of what we've bought there seems a little dicey- so pirated it is, a lot of the time) and watched it. We both loved it. Or I loved it, and my husband enjoyed it. I'm not sure he ever really loves a movie. Anyway.

When it came out a year ago a lot of people talked its R rating in the US. It wasn't rated the equivalent in the UK or Canada. Personally, I don't see all that many movies, and don't see R-rated movies because there's always something else with a lower rating we haven't seen yet. But this wasn't an R-rated movie in my opinion, at least not in spirit.

Any expletive in English is likely to be a completely innocuous word in another language. There are also plenty of English words that make you sound like you're swearing in another language. But obviously, you're not in either situation. The intent and context matters at least as much as the sounds coming out of your mouth and that's what should determine whether a movie is rated R or not.

Yes, this film has the required number of expletives that technically require an R rating. But if context and intent matter in speech, then those words weren't expletives when they were said.

Also, it's easy to skip the technically R-rated parts if you're worried about it. It's an uplifting and interesting movie that's well worth watching.

Fast Offerings

2012-01-24T14:57:00.002+06:00

Mormonism has lots of unique ideas, or doctrines or principles or practices that while not necessarily completely unique, are at least unusual or unexpected. One of my favorite of those is the fast offering.

We generally fast once a month, skipping two meals, usually on the first weekend of the month. Then we're encouraged to take the money not spent on those two meals and donate it, usually through the fast offering program of the church, although it doesn't have to go there. The money is used to help both Mormons and people who aren't Mormons. I have personally seen a very large amount go to a woman who, while technically on the records of the church, doesn't consider herself a Mormon; my family received food once through this program. It's a simple, efficient, and brilliant way to help people in need.

I also really enjoy the testimony meetings we have on the Sundays we are fasting. We don't have a pastor who preaches every Sunday; instead, we all take turns speaking (in my family, that means we all speak about once a month, down to the four-year-old). But on Fast Sunday, anyone can come to the microphone and bear her testimony. Keeps things interesting, certainly, but it also helps keep things authentic too. It's another way Mormons have to support each other.

On Prophets

2012-01-23T16:17:00.001+06:00

Really liked Jana's take on prophets. This comes from an interview at Mormon Stories, but I got the transcription here.

Jana: "...If the Book of Abraham is not a divine translation of this ancient document, if it is in fact an ordinary funerary document that Joseph Smith completely expanded, embellished, elaborated on or if you are looking at a more cynical view, just simply lied about, then what do we do with the rest of our faith?

"Well, let’s step back first of all and think about how important is the Book of Abraham to the Mormon faith in general? I don’t think it’s terrifically important, but that’s just me. But we need to have a tradition of midrash. We need to have a tradition where we can look at a prophet in the way that Jews have looked at prophets of old and say, ‘this is a midrash’ on a revelation, or this is a midrash on an earlier work of scripture."

John: “What does that word mean?”

Jana: "Midrash, well it’s basically any expanded teaching. I don’t know what the exact definition would be, but an expanded teaching is something where in midrashim, you are taking a core text and then thinking about it cosmically, you’re thinking about it theologically, and you could look at, for example, the entire Pearl of Great Price as a midrash. You have Moses as a midrash on Genesis, right? If you think about it in those terms, the literal nature of it is less important than what the book is trying to teach us about who we are as children of God. I think that is where we need to be looking, and I frankly don’t give a hoot about some of the arguments about historicity, DNA, the more troubling avenues is of course Joseph Smith, the more troubling aspect is not the scripture itself, but what Joseph Smith said about and whether he can then be relied upon as a prophet of God. Based on my work on the Hebrew Bible, I would say yeah. Have you looked at those guys lately?

"I mean we have this completely ridiculous idea of what a prophet is supposed to be. No human being can measure up to that and there’s certainly no biblical example that does, and yet we conveniently forget about it. We come up with these stupid Gospel Doctrine lessons that encourage us to look at people in the Old Testament as if they were perfect and they we look at our own leaders to be perfect as well, and when they aren’t, well we leave."

Mail. To Our House.

2012-01-23T14:14:00.001+06:00

Mail was just delivered to the apartment. In two years of living in Kyrgyzstan, that has never happened.

We would get notices when we had mail in Tokmok, and then we'd pick it up at the post office (still do, since sending things to Tokmok has been more reliable and cheaper than sending things to Bishkek). But before 5 minutes ago we had never received anything that was sent to a home address in Bishkek (not for lack of my mother trying).

Republicans and Democrats, or What Became Glaringly Clear (Again) in South Carolina

2012-01-22T16:39:00.001+06:00

Huge generalization here, but this is one major reason why I'm not a Republican and haven't been for nearly 10 years. I'm not a Democrat either, but if I had to pick one party, I'd be a Democrat.

Too many Republicans make it a virtue to vote for someone like them. That's one reason why Sarah Palin was popular at first- lots of women liked her because she was a mom like them even though she would have been totally incompetent at running a country, and why Mitt Romney had a rough time in North Carolina yesterday. Conservative Christians who make up a significant part of the Republican party base won't touch Romney.

Democrats make it a virtue to vote for someone not like them. There is no way there could be a Republican candidate like Obama, not with his supposed ties to Islam and his ethnic background. But since he's a Democrat, it's not a problem, or maybe even an advantage. Have you ever heard anyone care at all that Harry Reid is a Mormon?

In both cases, a candidate's religious, cultural, and ethnic background matter. Those aren't necessarily good things to base a vote on. But since that is something lots of people base their votes on, I'd rather go with the party who votes for diversity instead of someone just like me.

Walking by the Mosque

2012-01-20T14:35:00.000+06:00

I spend a lot of time in the afternoons walking between our house and the boys' after-school activities which means I get to walk by the Central Mosque often. Bishkek often feels really Soviet, but I love walking by the mosque because it doesn't feel quite so Soviet right there.

Friday afternoons are obviously the best time to go, when people are gathering to pray and listen to the sermon. When I go by the first time, the muezzin is chanting (the best time), and when I walk by later, it's usually the sermon. If I'm a little later than usual, there are people running toward the mosque so they won't miss the prayer, but usually I see people walking there with rungs tucked under their arms. I saw someone with a tushuk under his arm today instead.

The Day that Never Was

2012-01-18T19:43:00.000+06:00

A year ago January 18th pretty much disappeared on the airplane. We left Seattle on the 17th and arrived in Tokmok on the 19th. I always think it's weird to have a day disappear like that (an entire day!). But then you get it back sometime when you fly west because you can leave early in the morning and get back to the western US late that evening. Longest day ever.

Anyway. We spent most of that shortened day in the air between Los Angeles and Moscow, and in the Moscow airport. Not my favorite airport, but Aeroflot did impress, although that was helped by our low expectations.

The hardest part about flying here is getting as far as Moscow, which is at least as far or farther than your overseas friends in Europe and the Middle East and then have to wait for 5 hours for another flight that takes 4-5 hours. And that flight *always* gets into Bishkek in the small hours of the morning. Last year we tacked on a 90-minute drive to Tokmok at the end of the too.

So glad I am not on an airplane today.

Snow Plows

2012-01-17T16:57:00.000+06:00

Just missed getting a photo, but there were snow plows on the street today. I didn't even know that was possible.

The four-year-old was impressed. Except for the winter he was born, he's lived in Seattle and Kyrgyzstan. Snow plows haven't exactly been in his vocabulary.

The King's Speech

2012-01-16T16:47:00.001+06:00

This is about the book, not the movie. Not that I knew there was a book before a few days ago, but still. I was glad to discover and read it since everyone raves about the movie and I haven't been able to see it.

Anyway, I liked the book. I suspect it was more about Lionel Logue than the movie was, and I liked that his son wrote it. The pacing was a little uneven though, and sometimes it felt like they were just trying to get it published so the timing would match the movie. I'd also have liked to read more about Logue's methods which his son said he found in the journals. But overall, I liked it.

More Censorship

2012-01-14T16:14:00.002+06:00

I know this is becoming a perpetual theme here, but I really wish I could access the websites I want to when I want to. There is no good reason to block every.single blogspot blog out there. There are always ways to get around blocked sites (and I use them when I need to) anyway. And what's up with being able to post of a blog, but not access it? I guess it's less worrisome to spread discontent than to read it.

However, one of the ways I get around that is using Google Reader. But it doesn't work when people don't have their full post there. I know you like to have people click through to your site, but since I can't do that, I'd really like to be able to read what you wrote at all.

I also think it's funny that the spell check think blogspot is spelled wrong.

A Video?

2012-01-13T15:55:00.000+06:00

Experimenting here. If all the internet connections work, this is the view from our window at midnight on New Year's. It goes on like this for at least an hour here. Love it.

I can't get on my blog to check if this works, so if it does, I'd be pleased if you posted a comment (not that I could respond to it though).

Photos and a Regular Life

2012-01-12T15:16:00.000+06:00

I got a step closer to posting photos today when I took the camera with me when I went shopping. I just took it, though, and didn't take any pictures. Either a. I want to get back home ASAP or b. everything looks normal. Not boring, mind you, but ordinary. So the camera stays in its case and I get the shopping done and everything is good, although the blog stays boring. I hope for a car.

I do listen to Russian while I'm walking. Sometimes it seems crazy to be walking around a Russian-speaking town and practicing Russian by myself, but that's what a good introverted language learner does.

Time

2012-01-11T16:59:00.002+06:00

Seems like every time daylight savings time ends in the fall, there are people who wish it would last all year.

You can try that option out in Kyrgyzstan if you'd like. We sprang forward in spring of 2005, but never fell back (I remember well trying to figure out what was going on that fall). I like daylight savings time in general, but I really don't like it in the winter.

It's just starting to get light here at 7:30 AM. As in, you'd still call it dark outside. Sunrise isn't till 8:30. It gets old to get up in the dark and know it won't get light for a long time. I'd much rather have that hour of light from 7:30-8:30 AM than from 5-6 PM.

Or you could go to Kashgar where they're another two hours ahead of us on Beijing time and it would feel like it would never get light. But they're smart and operate unofficially on Xinjiang time which is the same as Kyrgyzstan time. So they're still on what would be daylight savings time, but it's not as bad as Beijing time.

Red Lentils with Tamarind and Lime

2012-01-10T14:26:00.002+06:00

This is one of my favorite recipes with red lentils. It's really good with stir-fried greens and naan (Central Asian, of course).

1 cup red lentils, washed
5 cups water
1-2 tablespoons tamarind pulp, chopped

2 tablespoons oil
1/2 tsp each of coriander, cumin, cayenne, and turmeric
1 tablespoon minced or mashed garlic
1 1/2 cups sliced onions
1/2 tsp salt
Limes or lemons

Put the lentils and water in a qazan or heavy pot and bring to a boil, skimming as it comes to a boil. Lower the heat and simmer for about 30 minutes, covering it for the last 10 minutes (the cooking time is really flexible; the lentils will be soft in 20 minutes, but you can cook them for up to 40 minutes if you want the texture smoother and you can blend them too if you want). While it's simmering, put the tamarind in a small bowl and scoop 1/4 cup of hot water from the lentils and mix it with the pulp. Let it sit for at least 10 minutes.

Heat the oil in a wok or pot or qazan over medium-high heat, then add the spices and stir-fry for 10 seconds, then add the garlic and onions and stir-fry for at least 10 minutes, lowering the heat a little as you cook until the onions are very soft.

When the lentils are as cooked as you want them, press the tamarind pulp through a strainer into the lentils (discard the pulp). Add the onions and salt and more water if you want to, again depending on the consistency you want. Cook for 5 minutes, then taste to adjust the seasonings if you need to. Serve with lime wedges (or lemons if limes aren't available) so your guests can squeeze the juice onto their lentils.

Back in the Saddle

2012-01-09T20:58:00.000+06:00

I suppose it's time to start blogging again after a thoroughly lovely Christmas break. We ate good food, played lots of games, and watched all the Harry Potter movies again. Since we'd only been able to get the last DVD a few weeks ago, it was fun to finally be able to watch them all together (even if it did take the entire two weeks to get through them).

And we waited for our visas (still waiting), because that's what we do, wait for visas. Some other things didn't quite work out the way we wanted, but still, it was a great break and I suppose it wasn't too awful to start going again today.

Napa, Chinsay, and Carrot Laghman

2012-01-05T22:23:00.001+06:00

So the laghman was really good last night. I added some carrots so there would be enough for our family and some garlic because everything tastes better with garlic on it.

So here's the recipe:

2 large carrots, julienned
1 napa cabbage heart, julienned
1 bunch chinsay stalks, chopped (strip the leaves and chop them too)

3-5 cloves garlic, minced

2 tomatoes, chopped

Vegetable oil
Salt and red pepper to taste (or lazy)

Heat the oil in a wok or qazan, then add the chinsay stalks, carrots, napa, and garlic and stir-fry for a few minutes. Add the tomatoes, bring to a boil, then cover and simmer for 10-15 minutes, just till the vegetables are tender but not soggy. Add salt and red pepper and serve over laghman. I added black vinegar to mine, but no one else did.

Bazaar, Chinsay, and Radishes

2012-01-04T16:26:00.000+06:00

Someday I'll have to take a picture of the little bazaar next door where I do most of my shopping. It's not as colorful or exciting as the Tokmok bazaar, obviously, and it's really not very big, but it has everything I need except for dairy products and loaf bread (and some Chinese and Turkish things, obviously).

There are two people selling vegetables, one selling cleaning and personal supplies and naan, someone else selling pasta and oil and all sorts of basic things like that, and someone selling toys and stuff. Those people are always there. Oh, and the meat guy, but I've never talked to him. Sometimes there is a woman there selling pickles (not just cucumbers), and before New Year there were all kinds of decorations in one usually-empty corner, and two new places just opened in another section with drinks and candy and used clothes and shoes.

There's also plenty of overlap between what people sell and I'm never quite sure how to handle that because I like everyone there (except I'm not nice enough to buy meat). I generally buy vegetables from one man, and fruit from the other produce man. The both sell eggs too, but I buy eggs from the pasta women (even though everyone sells pasta). The vegetable man always has cracked wheat and tomato paste and will get sesame oil for me too. And he has laghman.

I've blogged about laghman often before, but it's always interesting to talk about laghman with people because there are strong opinions about how you ought to serve it. Today the vegetable man told me a new way to cook the sauce for the laghman. I was going to have cabbage and black vinegar, which is easy and delicious, but he told me you can't put cabbage on laghman.

So he had me get some чинсай (chinsay- I assume this is what would be called Chinese celery in the US) and suggested that I cook it with radishes (not the little red ones, but bigger green and white ones, although they're smaller than daikons), but my husband doesn't like the radishes, so he suggested the heart of Napa cabbage (which isn't called cabbage here- it's a totally different name). Then he gave me two tomatoes for free to cook with it and dinner was ready to go. I'm supposed to peel the tomatoes, but if no one is around to check on me, that's not going to happen.

Chinsay is likely the Dungan name and if I knew the Chinese word for it, I could figure out what we call it in English. I like it a lot better than regular celery.

Someday I really need to write a Central Asia Uyghur/Dungan cookbook in English. But I would hate to have to test so many recipes. Trying them, even lots of times, is one thing, but testing is totally different.

Sometimes I miss being able to buy Thai or Mexican ingredients, but I miss the Central Asian ingredients more when I'm not here.

Tortilla Chips

2012-01-03T19:54:00.001+06:00

We found a place in Bishkek that sells tortilla chips. Real, homemade tortilla chips. I can figure out how to make almost all the food I want to eat, but tortilla chips are beyond what I want to do here (I have, for the record, made tortilla chips from scratch, starting with masa, so I know what I'm talking about). So I was delighted when it turned out that the only Mexican restaurant in town did have chips and was willing to sell me some.

I don't know how long it'll last though. When we picked up the chips on a Friday night at 7:30, the place was empty. But I'll take chips while I can.

2012 Checklist

2012-01-01T20:00:00.001+06:00

No visa woes
Visit Uzbekistan
Don't run out of money
Best homeschooling year ever
Stay in Bishkek till the summer
Don't move more than twice
Dissertation done
Read more
Write more
Research more
Fit more
Russian more
No mooching
Play more games

Think that does it. I'm curious to see how it all goes. Note there are no predictions for where we'll be living at the end of the year. There are at least 5 interesting possibilities all over the world and I have no idea what will happen.

2011 Checked Off

2012-01-01T19:54:00.000+06:00

I found 2010's end-of-the-year hopes for 2011. 2011 was a lot more predictable than 2010. Here's what I checked of the list (although some were half-hearted checks):

Live in Kyrgyzstan most of the year
Don't run out of money
CBT Kyrgyzstan
Bone games, of course
Refresh Russian
Read a lot

Didn't manage these at all (although I did learn how to make plov in a qazan outside)

Move to another city in Central Asia at the end of the year
Learn to cook naan in a tandur
Learn Uzbek
Watch the boys learn Uzbek and Russian

And I knew these were too much to hope for, and they were:

Visit Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan
Church recognized in Kyrgyzstan

This Year in Books

2011-12-31T12:20:00.000+06:00

Usually at the end of the year I look back on the books I've read, but this hasn't really been a reading year, at least not of books I could write about here. There's always reading, but most of it was for different projects, not just for fun or general learning.

So, first we moved

Then I was very busy (January-June) and did a reasonable amount of reading

Then I was very hot (July and August) and reread books

Then we moved again

Then I did more research and writing for several different projects and not much reading

And now it's a new year and I don't know how my reading will go this year. Probably depends on where I go this year, and your guess is as good as mine on that one.

The Christmas Tree Blessing

2011-12-24T22:48:00.000+06:00

Our first real Christmas together was in New Jersey, and just the two of us. We didn't have much money, like the stories always go, and we couldn't afford a Christmas tree. That mattered to me a lot, especially when we couldn't do much else. We'd gone to several lots on the first Saturday in December looking for something that would work, but between the tree and the stand, the money wasn't there.

When we got to church the next day, the Relief Society President tapped me on the shoulder and handed me an envelope with "For Christmas Tree" written on the outside. Inside was the same amount of money we'd figured we'd need to buy our tree and our stand. I don't know who gave us that money, or why, or how, but I will never forget how I felt that day.

Some people I know might say this was a result of our paying our tithing or doing something else right, but I don't think so. I think that when we do what the Lord asks us to do, He doesn't bless us with a better job, or a Christmas tree, or enough food for Thanksgiving. He blesses us to be more like Him, because that's the goal.

I think it's more likely that the person who gave us the Christmas tree money was the one who was truly blessed because they were the one who did something that led them to be more like Christ. I'm not inclined to think it was a coincidence that someone thought to give us that specific amount of money for that specific purpose. I think that person had to have been doing something right.

My husband and I were blessed, yes, but I don't think it was because we had done anything right. We were blessed because the Lord takes care of his children, everywhere, no matter what we do, because he loves us

But the blessings I really want are those that help me become more like Jesus Christ. I think it's easier for the Lord to bless us that way when we're already trying to do what he asks us to do.

Christmas in Bishkek

2011-12-23T21:53:00.000+06:00

It's starting to feel Christmasy around Bishkek, or at least like New Years, with all the trees and decorations in the stores downtown, and even at our little bazaar next door. It was a little jarring to hear "O Holy Night" being sung as we walked into Children's World today. The stores were a little busier, it seemed, and despite the cold (I think we might have gotten to 8 degrees today- the forecasts still don't seem to have noticed), there were people dancing on Ala Too Square.

We're trying something new at our house for Christmas, something that I've always wanted to try but never has worked out well. We'll be doing the real 12 Days of Christmas starting on Christmas Day. In the US there's usually a bit of Christmas fatigue by the time December 26th rolls around, but none of us are even close to being tired of the season this year.

So we're taking off the entire two weeks, getting ready for New Years, Epiphany, Eastern Christmas, and anything else we think up between Christmas and January 7th. I hope we all love it.

The Friendship Doll

2011-12-22T14:33:00.004+06:00

I was curious about Kirby Larson after reading Hattie Big Sky and this book looked interesting. It was a pleasant and interesting little book that I'd recommend.

It's Cold Outside

2011-12-21T16:08:00.000+06:00

The weather forecast and the actual temperature are again having serious conflicts here. It was supposed to be 15 degrees last night but I'm fairly sure at was, at best, -10. The low tonight is supposed to be 9, but we've only just made it to 3 degrees (this is all Fahrenheit) and it's sunny outside.

The best is when I look at an hourly forecast that has nothing to do with reality. Like I said, it's 3 degrees outside right now, but it's supposed to be 13 degrees in the next hour. If you're 10 degrees off, it may not be worth having an hourly forecast if you don't bother checking your hourly forecast very often.

I like the way the snow squeaks when it's cold. And I like that I am finally not hot in my apartment, although most of us are still wearing summer clothes.

Why It's Good to Have So Many Bills

2011-12-20T16:33:00.000+06:00

In Bishkek there are lots of bills to pay. There's the hot water, and the cold water, and the electricity, and the gas, and the phone, and other things that are just basic things everyone pays. All the typical bills come to your door or get handed to you by the person who runs the show in your apartment building. For us, that person also sells socks outside on the corner, so she keeps her stack of bills with her and hands them to us when we walk by.

None of the bills are very much, from an American point of view, except for the heating in the winter (which is still a lot less than heating a house with coal). You usually pay the bills at the post office (or other places- we've just always gone to the post office in Bishkek) and they scan your bill and you pay it and get the ever-important receipt. It's not too big of a hassle unless you show up when the lines at the post office are long.

One thing that's really convenient about having so many different systems running through the apartment that have to be paid for is that when something doesn't work, it's not the end of the world. In the US, having the electricity off for a while usually means no hot water, or no water at all, no A/C and possibly no heating, no running any type of appliance, and sometimes more things. It can be a major annoyance. Here, the electricity can go off for hours and it's not a big deal. If the gas goes out in the US, you might not have heating or hot water, and maybe no cooking. Here, it just means I use the electric parts of the stove. The hot water is off? At least there's cold, or the other way around (although just having hot water isn't really fun). There's always a backup.

And best of all, it's cold enough on the balcony right now that it doesn't matter if the fridge doesn't work. That's handy to remember since I think we're starting rolling blackouts which is usually attributed to people using space heaters when it's cold.

I won't go into the fact that it is still 10 degrees warmer in your average Bishkek apartment than in your average rural coal-heated house which can't afford the luxury of space heaters.

Samarqand in the Spring

2011-12-19T21:09:00.001+06:00

Way back, nearly seven years ago, I changed the name of this blog to The Golden Road to Samarqand. It had had a couple of names before that, but the new one seemed better. It from James Elroy Flecker's poem which reads in part:

Sweet to ride forth at evening from the wells,
When shadows pass gigantic on the sand,
And softly through the silence beat the bells
Along the Golden Road to Samarkand.
We travel not for trafficking alone;
By hotter winds our fiery hearts are fanned:
For lust of knowing what should not be known
We take the Golden Road to Samarkand.

I still haven't been to Samarqand, despite living next door for nearly two years, but we're really hoping to make it there before we finish this round in Kyrgyzstan. It's unfortunately a lot more expensive to go now that it was in 2005 or 2006, but still relatively inexpensive. I can't tell you how much I want to see Khiva and Tashkent and Samarqand and especially Bukhara.

A New Kyrgyz Nativity

2011-12-17T16:41:00.002+06:00

I like to get new, interesting nativities when we can, but we already had the style of nativities you can generally buy in Bishkek. A friend of ours gave us this felt one in 2005. Most of the nativities for sale here are yurts like this one, although the ones I've seen this year are much more colorful and have lots more figures.

We also put together this wooden nativity last time (you'll have to excuse the blue cloth; I didn't have lots of options when I took the photo- and don't forget to notice the wise woman), and this year I thought I'd try making a similar one out of balbals. So we went to Tsum today, looking for likely balbals, but then stumbled on this different felt nativity. I love this one, although it's hard to get a good shot of it, and you can't see that it's hanging from a tunduk (the design from the top of a yurt that's also the center of the Kyrgyzstan flag). The owner of the store told us the maker was trying a new design to see if it would sell well. So maybe we have a one-of-a-kind nativity, but I still like it if it's not. And if it is, I hope the designer is encouraged to make more because I really like it.

A Bit of Color

2011-12-16T12:30:00.000+06:00

Sometimes it's nice, on December days in Bishkek where everything seems to melt into puddles of gray, to remember June.

Coincidence

2011-12-15T22:31:00.002+06:00

We had some friends over on Sunday and we were looking through old photos from when we lived in Bishkek before, laughing to see each other's faces from six years ago. Except one of the women hadn't been there then; she joined our group a few months before we moved here this time. She also happens to live in the building next to our old building.

So it was a fun surprise when she found her own son in one of our photos from 2005. Maybe we didn't know her, but he was part of the group of boys our kids hung out with (even though he's older than my boys).

State of Wonder

2011-12-14T18:55:00.001+06:00

I'm not really sure how I feel about this book. The story was unique and interesting, the writing was excellent, so I liked the book. But now that I've finished it, I'm left feeling like it didn't really do anything. Yes, Marina does what she set out to do, but other than that, I feel like the book didn't go anywhere. Dr. Swenson was the better character, but she was too often lost in the story. It asked a lot of interesting questions, but it felt a little preachy at times (even though I agreed with the sentiment behind some of the preachiness), and I thought it ignored some other important questions. And there were so many details that didn't go anywhere at all.

Still, I don't regret reading it, although I can't say you really have to.

Happy Birthday

2011-12-13T15:35:00.002+06:00

It's my littlest's birthday today, but it's also 7 years since I started this blog. So while the little one is watching Cars, I've been poking around old posts (well, sort of, since I can't actually access the blog itself at times this afternoon). Mostly there's been good food, good books, interesting places, and, best of all, good friends. Thanks to everyone who's made this so much fun for so many years.

Capitalism vs. Communism

2011-12-13T14:55:00.001+06:00

I was buying some herbs today at my little bazaar when the vegetable man started telling me that the bunches of herbs I was buying for 15 som each used to be 1 som (ruble) during the Soviet Union. Seeing your food increase 15 times in price (at least local foods that are supposed to be affordable) after switching to capitalism has to be pretty disheartening. Of course there are a million other factors involved, and both he and I know it, but still.

Wish I Had a Lowe's to Boycott

2011-12-12T12:57:00.001+06:00

It doesn't really surprise me that someone would think "All-American Muslim" is a problem, but it does surprise me that Lowe's thinks it's a strategic move to remove its advertising from the show. Maybe I'm out of touch with American feelings about Islam. Islam is not scary or extreme, no matter what the Florida conservatives say, or anyone else in America.

The Obligatory Christmas Tree Post

2011-12-11T21:18:00.001+06:00

Pamir Ram (Marco Polo Sheep)

So we made a good effort this year with our tree, although you wouldn't know it from these photos. It has lovely, glitter-tipped branches which make the whole house sparkly, and the lights are all green with a lovely clear plastic cord that can't be hidden. And the whole thing leans. But there are some Lego and origami ornaments. And there are a few Central Asian ornaments I picked up here. There's also a chuko bone, but I couldn't get something even close to a decent shot of it (not that these photos are great). But I'm still happy to have a tree. It's also nice to get it up this early; last time we couldn't find trees this early in December. Next up: a balbal nativity.

Kalpak (Kyrgyz hat)

Tyubiteka (Uzbek hat)

The whole thing

If You're Dialing Lots of Numbers

2011-12-09T14:26:00.001+06:00

If you're sitting in the US and you realize the number you're calling has more than 10 numbers, you can assume the party you're calling is not in your time zone.

If you're calling someone who is not in your time zone, you should figure what time it is there before you make the call. Take that into consideration before placing the call.

If you follow these two simple rules, you won't call us at 2 AM.

Exponent II Essay

2011-12-08T14:37:00.001+06:00

I've only had a few minutes to glance over the new issue of Exponent II, but I loved Emily Clyde Curtis' essay about being a chaplain. Her experience teaching parents to baptize their children in the hospital was beautiful. I look forward to reading more when I can get it downloaded onto a more convenient device.

And I have an article in there too, starting on page 14. It's a Mormon magazine, so it's a Mormon article, although I can never leave Central Asia out of anything.

I debated posting this here, since this blog is sort of a separate life from my article, but that's okay.

I Know It's a Cliche

2011-12-07T22:19:00.001+06:00

But my brain really did explode when I read this about Indians and Pakistanis coming to Kyrgyzstan for medical training. There are a few people making a whole lot of money off this one.

My Bishkek isn't Your Bishkek

2011-12-06T16:32:00.001+06:00

Liked this post from another American living in Bishkek. There are a lot of good things in the post, but here's what I think really matters: "...I can only write what I observe and what I feel, and to realize that my truth may be different from your truth." That's why I think it's important for more people to write about all the places and people there are in the world, because my Bishkek and Cairo and Seattle and family and homeschooling and church and everything else are different from every single person's out there. So I write about mine. And it's interesting to see how my Bishkek changes as time goes on.

There. A post that isn't about food.

Eating in Bishkek

2011-12-05T21:33:00.001+06:00

This post could be about restaurants and cafes in Bishkek, but since I almost never go out, it's not. It could be about trying to cook American food in Bishkek, but since that boring, difficult, and expensive, it's not. So it's about cooking good food at home in Bishkek without either spending a huge amount of money or traipsing all over Bishkek every week trying to find every ingredient.

I really enjoy cooking here now, but it took a long time to figure things out. We like to eat a variety of ethnic food and I think that's the easiest way to go in Bishkek unless you're willing to eat a totally local diet, which I'm not. There is a lot of good local food in Bishkek, but it's limited in some ways, especially in the winter.

While there are a few things you can't get here, there are lots of things you can eat here that are hard to find anywhere else, or at least more complicated to find. Jusay (garlic chives), tofu sticks, black vinegar, Pakistani rice, green garlic, laghman, and so many other things are easy to find here and you can make some amazing new dishes. Especially if you look at Uyghur, Dungan, Uzbek, and Tajik dishes, your mouth will be happy.

I also cook Thai, Mexian, Indian, Middle Eastern, and other ethnic foods besides just Central Asian ones. I hear there are black beans in town, but I'm happy using the brown and white beans I can find at any bazaar. Salsa's easy to make yourself and the Pakistani rice makes amazing red and green rice. The one Mexican thing I miss is corn tortillas because I don't have a good way to make them, and the only cornmeal/masa type thing I've ever seen here is coarsely ground.

Middle Eastern food is easy because Beta Stores is Turkish and you can get tahini, garbanzos, bulgur, red lentils, feta, and more (although a lot of these things are avaialbe in some bazaars now, although they're more expensive than at Beta Stores). Indian food has been really easy too, although sometimes you have to hunt a bit to find all the spices. And I've never found tamarind here, so I bring that with me.

Thai food is generally easy since there are a couple of Chinese grocery stores around, although I have never found fish sauce or coconut milk, unfortunately. But I have a nice mother who sends fish sauce periodically to satisfy our craving. Coconut milk is less pratical to mail so we don't have much of that. But I generally prefer non-coconut milk Thai food anyway. There's plenty of rice noodles at the bazaars or even in tiny stores, and black vinegar and sesame oil. You can find yucky soy sauce in stores, but the Chinese groceries have good soy sauce and rice vinegar and soybean paste and brown sugar and tofu (and lots of other Chinese ingredients)

I also bring maple flavoring for fake maple syrup and it's nice to bring some extracts too since I've never seen vanilla here. Now you can get decent chocolate here, but I've still never seen good cocoa. I also like to bring yogurt starter. You can buy yogurt (ayran) here, but we eat enough yogurt that it's worth making our own. There's also yogurt in the stores, but it might be even sweeter than American yogurt.

When we lived here the first time I managed a two-week cycle of dinners, but now I can easily do four or five weeks. We all love laghman so we have that every week, and plov comes up pretty often too. All of the food we make is easy to add vegetables to, or to serve with vegetables. The vegetables are amazing here from about June-November, and not too terrible the rest of the year.

All in all, it's been an adventure to make cooking here work, but it's been worth the time.

Prices Then and Now

2011-12-04T16:16:00.001+06:00

So it's not so long ago, the then part, but I finally found where I'd posted some prices from nearly 6 years ago. Food prices in particular have gone way up, sometimes at least four times. No wonder I was so shocked in January, even in Tokmok where things are less expensive. Here's some of the original post from February 2006 and current December 2011 prices in bold:

Five som is worth about 12.5 cents. In Kyrgyzstan, five som buys a loaf of flatbread, about 9 inches around. It takes you one way on a minibus anywhere in Bishkek. It buys one head of garlic, or a small Kit Kat, a package of Ramen noodles, or a pound of potatoes or onions.

Five som is currently worth about 10.5 cents. A small loaf of flatbread (smaller than the comparison in 2006) costs 10 som and a standard loaf is 20 som. A marshrutka ride is 8 som, a head of garlic is 15 som, a small Kit Kat is 10 som, and a pound of potatoes or onions is at least 20 som.

20 som buys a bag of milk, one banana, a pack of four rolls of toilet paper, or a kilo of cracked wheat.

A bag of milk is 35 som, a banana is still about 20 som, 4 rolls of nice toilet paper are about 40 som, and a kilo of cracked wheat is 40 som.

25 som is a minibus ride to Tokmok, about 80 km away.

It costs 50 som to ride to Tokmok.

30 or 40 som is for a kilo of apples, a bottle of dish soap, 5 liters of water, or a half liter of kefir.

Apples range from 30-80 som with 50 being average, although they're still in season here. A bottle of dish soap is probably 50-70 som, I have no idea how much the water is now.

40 som is for a kilo of Batken rice, a jar of tomatoes, a kilo of white rice, or a liter of apple juice.

A kilo of Batken rice is 70-80 som, I think (I don't buy that now; Chinese Elita is 60-70 som and Pakistani rice is 60-70). A jar of tomatoes is 80-90 som.

50 som is for a short taxi ride around town.

You have to pay 50 som in Tokmok now. Bishkek isn't less than 80 for a short ride.

80 is for a kilo of tomatoes in the winter, a jar of jam, a bottle of shampoo, a package of the least expensive diapers, a longer taxi ride in Bishkek, or a bottle of honey.

I can still get a kilo of tomatoes right now for 80 som, but I expect that will increase in the next few weeks. A jar of jam is probably 150 som, but I make my own, so I'm not sure. A bottle of jam is at least 150 som for the same price. A longer taxi ride is 100 som. No idea on the diapers, but there's no way they're 80 som. A bottle of shampoo might be 120?

About 200 som buys a kilo of reasonably priced cheese, 500 sheets of paper, or a package of pancake mix.

Cheese is closer to 400 som, and I don't know what the other two things cost.

Goodbye, Otunbaeva

2011-12-02T19:02:00.001+06:00

Really liked this article about Roza Otunbaeva.

While some will always see her as the president of Kyrgyzstan in June of 2010, I don't think it's reasonable to blame her for what happened (and what didn't happen). Osh was and is a lot more complicated than anything Bishkek is capable of handling, or capable of wanting to handle, and I don't know that any president from the north would have been able to do more. That unfortunately results in Uzbeks in the south having absolutely no support from anyone because it seems everyone has abandoned them except the international community which really can do very little right now.

Anyway. This was supposed to be about Otunbaeva. I think she has good reason to be satisfied with her tenure despite some serious missteps and I look forward to seeing what's next for her and Kyrgyzstan.

Easiest and Best Laghman

2011-12-02T17:45:00.001+06:00

There are about a million things you can serve with laghman, but I think my favorite might be to simply top it with cabbage and black rice vinegar. I like the cabbage barely stir-fried with garlic or pickled. I don't think I've ever seen it served that way at a restaurant or for guests, but it's great for street food (not that Bishkek does laghman as street food) or for a quick meal at home, especially if you can just buy the noodles.

Happy Inauguration

2011-12-01T15:30:00.001+06:00

So there's a new president in town. Fairly elected, relatively speaking, ready to go, and, at least from what we hear, a pretty nice man too. Hoping that Kyrgyzstan is starting on a new path. Good luck.

Hattie Big Sky

2011-12-01T15:11:00.001+06:00

I generally liked this book although I thought it tried to do too much which resulted in my feeling like most of the issues it raised were just skimmed over. I’m also still skeptical about a 16-year-old girl trying to prove up on a homestead alone.

Caleb's Crossing

2011-12-01T15:10:00.001+06:00

This was really slow book to read, but I still liked it a lot. Geraldine Brooks is always a good writer.

The Golden Compass and The Subtle Knife

2011-12-01T15:09:00.001+06:00

I’ve read the first two book from this series and expect I’ll get around to reading the third, but I’m not feeling all that driven to do so. I like the series and don’t think has to be read as anti-religion (any more than The Chronicles of Narnia have to be read as pro-Christian). I like Lyra a lot and am curious to see what happens to her and Will. I also think these books are creative.

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children

2011-11-29T21:02:00.001+06:00

Yes, I do still read, although don't post about the books I've been reading as consistently. But I did really enjoy this book. Definitely peculiar, never boring, and always making you wonder what the author would do with the story.

Good Stuff with Paneer

2011-11-29T13:49:00.001+06:00

I started making paneer a lot more often when we lived in Tokmok and even though buying fresh whole milk isn't quite as convenient in Bishkek, we still eat lots of paneer. Here's what I like to do with it now. The third recipe is based on a Bhutanese dish, the last is similar to a Greek dish, and the first two are mostly Indian.

When I say spices, I mean to just add what you like. For these recipes I add about a teaspoon each of coriander and cayenne pepper, then 1/2 tsp of turmeric, cumin, fennel, mustard seed, and nigella. Other people like garam masala.

Paneer and Garbanzos

Paneer made from three liters of milk, cubed and fried till golden
2-3 cups cooked garbanzos
Oil
Spices
One chopped onion
Lots of minced garlic
Salt to taste
Chopped cilantro

Heat the oil in a wok, then add the spices and stir-fry till they're fragrant, then add the onions and stir-fry till they're just starting to brown. Add the garlic a little before that. Add the paneer and garbanzos and salt and stir-fry for a few minutes. Adjust the seasonings, then stir in the chopped cilantro. This is good right off the stove, but it's also good warm. Serve with naan (and of course Central Asian is best).

Paneer and Potatoes

This is the same as the previous recipe, except use diced cooked potatoes (boiled, baked, or fried, just don't use mushy ones) instead of the garbanzos

Paneer with Spicy Tomatoes

4 cayennes, chopped, or more if you want them seeded- 8 isn't too many if you seed

1 large onion, sliced
1 1/2 cups water

2 teaspoons vegetable oil
1 1/2 cups tomatoes, chopped
4 garlic cloves, chopped
Paneer from 2-3 liters of milk, cubed (you can fry it ahead of time if you like)
1 tsp salt, or to taste

1/4 cup chopped cilantro

Put the chiles, onion, water, and oil in a medium pan and bring to a boil, then cover and simmer for 15 minutes. Add the tomatoes and garlic and bring back to a boil to simmer for 10 more minutes. Add the paneer and salt cook for a few more minutes. This is best served warm, so remove from the heat, cover, and let sit for ten minutes before adjusting the seasoning and stirring in the cilantro. You can serve this with rice, but I think it's best with naan.

Potatoes Simmered with Tomatoes with Paneer

About 8 potatoes (not baking, if possible), peeled and cut into wedges like an apple
1 cup water
1 cup tomato sauce
Salt and pepper to taste

Simmer the above till the potatoes are just barely tender. While it's simmering, heat some oil in a wokand add some spices that make you happy. I did cumin, coriander, mustard seed, cayenne, turmeric, and nigella. Add a chopped onion and as much garlic as you like and fry till the onions are soft. While that's cooking, heat oil in another frying pan and fry 1/2 pound of sliced paneer till it's crispy and golden. Or you can skip the frying; the cheese will be quite soft if you don't fry it first, although it won't melt. Add the fried-or-not paneer to the onions and cook for a couple more minutes. Season to taste and dump into the potatoes and cook a minute or two more. Like always, best with hot, crusty naan.

Advent

2011-11-28T15:23:00.001+06:00

Mormons don't follow a liturgical calendar (unless, I suppose, you want to count Pioneer Day and the Sacrament Meeting Presentation), but that doesn't mean that individual Mormons can't follow one of their own. We've been celebrating Holy Week for years (although not Lent) and this year we're doing Advent. There are lots of different things you can do to observe Advent, but we have have four candles that we put in a circle and verses to read from the Bible and Book of Mormon and the Doctrine and Covenants. And since it's always nice when someone else organizes things for you, we're using this website. I'm quite sure that Christmas cookies will also make an appearance each week, thanks to the peppermint extract my mother mailed.

Holy Week is hard to do at home with just one family, but Advent is a lot more suited to independent observation which is perfect for us right now.

Raxmat and Thanks

2011-11-23T21:36:00.001+06:00

I've been around, despite not posting, dealing with normal-life things that are the same as what I'd be doing in the US. Mostly. Bishkek does put an interesting twist on anything we try to do.

Can I do a ubiquitous thanks for stuff post too? Yes, I can.

I am still grateful every.single.time I turn on a faucet and hot water comes out of any of the four different faucets in my house. I don't care that it's not potable; potable water is over-rated. It's hot and clean and reliable. Or I can choose to have cold water come out.

I'm delighted that it's so easy to do the dishes now. Dishwashers are over-rated too.

I love that I can buy milk and cheese a block away and even more I love the little bazaar next door that has funchooza, sparzhe, all kinds of vegetables, all kinds of rice, toilet paper, notebooks, fresh naan, toilet cleaner, vegetable oil, sesame oil, black vinegar, laghman, and a million other things.

I'm even more in love with the fact that my oldest son is willing and able to go to that bazaar and buy pasta for lunch on his own.

I am happy I can buy peanut butter, tilapia, tofu, bok choy, gochujang, bulgur, red lentils, garbanzo beans, tahini, and dark chocolate even if I have to walk a few miles.

There are 6 local women here who make life better, even though I don't get to see them as often as any of us would like. Two in particular make it possible for me to do what I need to do here.

I'm so happy that my oldest is finding some friends. I hope middle son has some success with that soon.

My husband is doing such interesting research. I've been doing some interesting research too. Not that the two have anything to do with each other or necessarily the following, but I'm so glad I can live in Bishkek right now.

I'm grateful for ereaders and ebooks. They're so normal to us now that I don't even think about it, but they have completely changed our lives and made so many things possible. I'm also fanatically enthusiastic about our speedy internet connection. Everything has been so much easier in Bishkek.

But still I'm so glad I had the chance to live in Tokmok most of this year. I miss it- the quieter streets and the friendly neighbors (although the neighbors are friendly here) and the bazaar. I learned a lot there that changed my thinking in many ways.

There are other things I wish I could have been thankful for, like having a branch of the LDS church here, or having been to Uzbekistan this year, or knowing what we're going to be doing in the next few months, or being able to buy good cheddar cheese (I suppose the cheese is small potatoes). But you can't have all the big things, and there are a few big things I do have.

An Authoritarian Church without the Authorities

2011-11-20T18:00:00.000+06:00

I wrote this almost five years ago and posted it on a now-long-defunct blog, but I keep thinking about it this time around. I'd emphasize some different things if I were writing this now, but it's all still basically true for me now:

It is a rather interesting experience to be a member of an centralized, authoritarian (if we're phrasing this in governmental terms) church, but not have anyone in authority over you. In most parts of the world, you have a long line of authority and there is always someone to go to, whether it's a question or something you need help with.

But there's no one to turn to Kyrgyzstan. The best we can do is email a busy General Authority [in 2011, we email the secretary to the GA over us] who understandably may or may not have time to deal with stray members living in odd countries. If this were a decentralized church, like many Christian sects are, it would matter far less. In fact, many Christians come to this part of the world and organize their own services, do missionary work as they please, and so on (this creates its own set of problems, but that's not what this particular post is about).

Our church isn't that way. While we're encouraged to be anxiously engaged in a good cause, there are things we could do here that would not be appreciated. In the US, we didn't have to ask permission to read the Book of Mormon with anyone, member or not, or to tell someone about the church, or even to pray outside our home. But now that we have more questions, there is no one to ask. Some of those questions we want to ask might not have an answer even if we find someone to ask. But it could be a problem if we just go ahead and do what we think is best.

It was simple in the Middle East. You just didn't talk about the gospel. There was no confusion. We also were interacting with people in an entirely different way there. There also were branches there so even if we had had questions, there would have been someone to ask.

While we still love (and I mean love) homechurching [another 2011 update- the love is a little different with older kids], the isolation here is sometimes hard to deal with. While I am busier and more service-oriented than I ever was in the US, and while I have plenty of friends, it has been trying sometimes.

Are You Waiting for Me or Expecting Me?

2011-11-19T20:16:00.001+06:00

One word in Russian that I always have trouble with is ждать. It can be used to mean to wait for or to expect. In my English brain there is a big difference between the two and it's made worse because I hate to be late. So if a Russian speaker tells me they're expecting me, I always panic and hear that they're waiting for me, even if I know we'd agreed on a later time.

I'm finally starting to get a little more rational and after thinking they're waiting, I realize they're simply expecting me at the appointed time.

Comments Again

2011-11-18T22:08:00.001+06:00

Comments are back on for now, although they'll be back off at the first hint of trouble. But when wordpress blogs made a reappearance this morning, it made me optimistic enough that blogger isn't going anywhere tomorrow. Just barely; Kazakhstan seems a little antsy right now and I expect internet censorship will be a result.

But whatever, comment away for now.

The Laws on the Books and the Laws on the Ground

2011-11-15T14:58:00.001+06:00

Bride kidnapping in Kyrgyzstan is against the law and has been for a long time. In fact you have over 80 years of its technically being illegal. So why did it increase during the Soviet Union, a time when there was certainly the will and ability to stop it? Why is it still so prevalent today? That's because the laws on the books are not the only laws, or the most important laws, people follow.

There is a different law in place that is much more strongly enforced in Kyrgyzstan: If a girl spends the night at a man's house, whether she has sex or not, consensually or not, she must marry him. This is more than some nebulous thing called customary law, or a tradition, or a custom, and its impact is significantly more strongly felt than many laws on the books. It is enforced as strongly as any codified law might be.

We heard an interesting story today about a Soviet leader's daughter who was kidnapped. I'm not going to identify him because although he has died, his daughter has not. Suffice to say that he was not a minor leader in Kirghizia. Obviously Soviet law didn't allow kidnapping, but the daughter would also be breaking the law by not marrying her kidnapper. Her mother knew that, so she didn't tell her husband (the Soviet leader) about the kidnapping* because she knew the consequences of breaking the second law.

Those consequences (there are several, but the most important is the perception that the girl will never get married if she doesn't marry her kidnapper) are usually considered worse than the consequences of staying with the abductor. If that law doesn't change, it doesn't really matter how many laws the politicians pass or the foreign legal community clamors for, because that law is the one people will follow.

There can be consequences to breaking the first law, but probably not jail time. In my opinion, the value the first type of law has is in giving leverage to the girl's family. Threatening to go to court often is an extremely effective bargaining tool here and making the laws on the book deal with the entire crime** is useful in making the threat more potent.

The laws regarding bride kidnapping here conflict and are not simply about the laws written in the criminal code. There are many things that should help reduce kidnapping here but relying on a legal solution than only looks at successful criminal prosecutions ignores other laws and also ignores ways the laws on the books might be used as leverage by the girl's family even if a case never gets to court.

A few more thoughts- It is so interesting to me that there is such strong pressure to not go to court here for any reason, especially since the defendant is almost certain to get convicted if he/she is taken to court. If you take someone to court, you'll win. But you still don't go. It's also naive in my opinion to rely on the state law because no one is going to take their husband to court just for a kidnapping. It appears that if the girl's family does use the state law as leverage she can go if they agree to not take the boy's family to court. Unfortunately it's very unlikely that a state prosecutor would pursue a trial on his or her own without the involvement of the family.

*While that might seem odd to many Americans, keeping information like this from a spouse is more normal here

**Currently it appears that only the abductor(s) can be charged with non-consensual bride kidnapping, but there are many other players, from the boy's mother who forces the girl to put on the white scarf to the people who pressure the girl to "consent" to the marriage. If there were more legal consequences for the actions of more people involved it may well give the girl more leverage.

A Sunday in Kyrgyzstan (or life as an isolated Mormon)

2011-11-13T11:24:00.001+06:00

Religious post ahead.

Our church isn't recognized here and currently there are no other expat Mormon families living here that we know of. We're not part of a mission or any other organization except the East Europe Area; we're directly under the area. Those two sentences make our situation sound like a typical isolated family thing, but that is not the case. I can't tell you more about that though.

Mormons are big on meeting together every week for church, but that looks a little different for my family because we don't have anyone else to meet with. We're rather jealous of isolated members in Alaska who get to have church over the phone and the online expat branch in China. Especially the expat branch because we live as close to Beijing as some of them do. Anyway, we have church at home every week and since we don't have an online branch, we're finally getting creative in creating our own. So here's a Sunday at our house in Bishkek.

8 AM ish- get up and make breakfast (crepes today) while we're getting all the devices ready for church. Eat every crepe.

9- Husband and older sons go in one room to Skype with their uncle and grandpa for priesthood meeting. I go in another room to Skype with various sisters, grandmas, and cousins for Primary with the little one. This was the first time we'd done Primary over Skype and we had to work out a few glitches, but it went well in the end. Various cousins say prayers and talk about the sacrament with my littlest.

10ish- Since most of the family is dressed for church we decide to do sacrament meeting. Husband gets things ready for the sacrament while I get the music ready. We have a keyboard and piano players but it generally works best for us to use the sacrament meeting collections because we like to sing fast. Everyone takes turns giving talks which doesn't make the older boys happy. I tell them that they'll be able to make some good jokes in a few years about the number of talks they've already given in sacrament meeting.

11ish- Clean up from church and breakfast and hang up the laundry. Diddle around and eat lunch.

1PM- Do the dishes again while husband cleans the bathroom and we all get ready for some friends to come visit which we plan on every week.

1:55- Friend calls to say she'll be late and no one else can come today. Play games with the boys till she come.

2:30- Talk and read with friend for an hour. The boys watch a movie.

3:30- She goes home and we diddle around some more and I do some family history. You shouldn't be accountable for every minute on Sunday, should you?

4:45- Start dinner (plov, pickled cucumbers, and naan)

Do rest of the evening stuff which doesn't really have anything to do with today's being Sunday

PS: If you're moving to any sort of isolated area of the LDS church, please don't assume that there are no members there. You might be surprised. But isolated members aren't easy to track down. In the Middle East where the church isn't organized in many countries you can contact the Middle East Desk at middleeastdesk@ldschurch.org for more information. If you're coming to post-Soviet Central Asia you need to get in contact with the East Europe Area office. If your bishop can't figure out how to do that, I can. If you're LDS and have any connection with Kyrgyzstan or any other part of Central Asia we'd love to hear from you, especially if you'll be in Bishkek because we'd be delighted to invite you to church. Just be ready to give a talk.

Responsibility of Authority- More Ala Kachuu and Penn State

2011-11-12T11:53:00.001+06:00

So here's my biggest problem with Penn State and bride kidnapping and many abuse cases and other crimes: people who are considered authorities often do not do anything, or they do far too little, or, worst of all, the tell the victim or witness to do the wrong thing. Victims and often people who witness crimes too, for a variety of reasons, are not able to protect themselves or those they see getting hurt. While it blows my mind that people can walk by someone who was hit by a car without doing anything, or see a child getting abused and not stop it, or ignore a woman getting beaten by her husband next door, I am not surprised that people would be confused and scared about what to do in those situations. There is plenty of research about this and even though, particularly in the case of witnesses to violent crimes, that may not be an excuse for not protecting someone else, it is our reality and difficult to change.

In some ways the grad assistant at Penn State who saw a child getting abused did react in an expected way for his situation- he told several authority figures (his dad and Paterno at least) what he saw. Of course he should have gone to the police first, but when he didn't, those authorities ought to have gone themselves. It is part of the responsibility of being in authority. McQueary's father and Joe Paterno did not respond appropriately. (This is not to say that I think McQueary shouldn't get fired, but I think there are some extenuating circumstances there that do not apply at all to Paterno.)

The same thing happens with bride kidnapping, although to a different extent. Nearly always there are a variety of authority figures involved- her parents at least, his parents, maybe some neighbors, and often aksakals. These are all people the woman has been told for years that she must respect and obey. Nearly always all of those people (every.single.one) tell her that she must marry the man if she stays the night. There is no other option. Those authority figures do not protect her and, instead, tell her she must get married.

There are many reasons why those authorities do what they do- a major one is that, more than protecting victims, they want to protect social or insititutional order, to put it kindly. Jerks.

We're slowly, slowly getting to a point in the US where laws regarding authorities' reporting of child abuse will make a difference and I hope Joe Paterno's firing will drive that home a little better to all people in authority in the US. The legal system in Kyrgyzstan doesn't work that way though and I'm not at all convinced that a legal solution is best regarding ala kachuu, although it ought to be part of a solution. But that's also another post.

Football Power

2011-11-11T17:05:00.001+06:00

The whole mess with Penn State is really bothering me, probably because I'm tying it all up in my head with bride kidnapping here. A lot of my husband's research is focused on kidnapping (not because it's kidnapping, but because it's one of the many "disputes" here that isn't taken care of in court even though a state law is broken) and we've talked about it for hours and hours and hours (and I'm sleepy because of all those hours spent talking).

The connection might not be obvious, but what the Penn State mess (and please don't call it a sex scandal because it is about child abuse) boils down to is too many people didn't go to the police when they saw or knew of a violent and awful crime being committed. Nope, they just covered it all up and went on with their merry football lives. Anyone who feels sorry for Joe Paterno right now ought to remember that if he'd only made sure this went to the police 10 or 15 or 20 years ago and fired what's-his-bucket right then instead of just having him resign and burying his head about the fact that he had access to young kids all the time, things wouldn't be anywhere near as bad for his football program right now, not to mention the kids that wouldn't have been molested.

There are too many times where people don't call the police or turn someone in because it's financially or socially risky to do so. If you see someone lighting a fire in the basement of an apartment building you don't call your boss and wonder what to do. You call the police (or I hope you do). If you see a child getting molested, you should call the police. The risk to the people in the apartment building or to the child is much greater than your potential risk. It's simple.

However, I know it's not always so simple. It's against the Kyrgyzstan criminal code to kidnap a bride and has been for quite a few years. It appears that no man has *ever* been convicted for kidnapping even though more than half of all marriages in Kyrgyzstan are a result of kidnapping. Even though there is a law and people do have access to the courts, there are other significant, hugely significant, pressures playing against women who might want to take their kidnapper to court. In short, women don't take their kidnappers to court because there is a great deal of pressure not to. Did the same thing happen at Penn State? And if it did, what does that say about football and money and power in the US?

And I have more to say about this, but it will have to wait for another day. Because it is time to make dinner.

Glimpses of Village Life in Kyrgyzstan

2011-11-08T13:52:00.002+06:00

My family might not own many paper books anymore, but we did keep our big picture books of the Middle East and other interesting parts of the world during the book scanning fest last year. They're in storage right now, but we like to get books with lots of pictures about the places we've been or love. So we have books about Mamluk Cairo and the Dome of the Rock and the Alhambra and lots of other wonderful places.

We don't have anything about Central Asia however. There are a few about Uzbekistan which would be great since we want to go to Uzbekistan someday, but I also want something that's about Kyrgyzstan and I hadn't been able to find anything. But I did find Glimpses of Village Life in Kyrgyzstan and I really like this book. It's not big and fancy, but it's the first thing I've seen that really portrays Kyrgyzstan the way it is outside Bishkek.

The author, Meredith Thorpe, lived here in early 2003 and spent a lot of time in rural southern Kyrgyzstan. The book is mostly her watercolors that she did here; you can tell wasn't just running in and out of places, but really seeing what is here. She covers so much in this book that I've never seen in any other book on Kyrgyzstan.

My only quibble about the book is that ethnicity isn't dealt with very clearly. Maybe that was intentional because Kyrgyz in the south are a lot more like Uzbeks than they might like to admit, but a reader might not be able to tell if a tradition or practice described is Kyrgyz specifically or more generally Central Asia or possibly just Uzbek. Sometimes it seems like Uzbeks completely disappear into the background when they are a significant part of southern Kyrgyzstan.

Still, that doesn't take away from the book too much and there's still a lot to like about it.

Now I just need to find something about the edges of China. Most slick picture books about China aren't exactly interested in the parts of China I like.

Child Labor, part two, girls edition

2011-11-04T21:59:00.002+06:00

I think one of the things that bothers me about the argument that we can't rearrange school schedule to avoid planting and harvest seasons is that we're ignoring a lot of other work done by children, particularly girls. Girls, especially those who are part of the first generation in their family to go to school, are often still expected to do a great deal of work at home. It's not necessarily enough to keep them out of school (although it might every so often), but it is plenty of work.

So why doesn't anyone get up in arms about that? The work girls do at home can be as labor-intensive, time-consuming, and difficult as nearly anything anyone does outside. By the same logic used above, school should be in session very early in the morning at least to keep girls from having to do early morning work. But everyone knows that many girls wouldn't be able to go to school if they couldn't still work at home, so we don't mess with that. Seems like there's a bit of a double standard here.

(For the record, I think one of the biggest goals in international development ought to be easing the work burden on women and girls. Too many women and girls are spending a huge amount of time taking care of basic needs- time that could be spent in other, more productive ways, like education or a million other things. What if the average woman in the world suddenly had 4-8 hours a day to spend doing something else besides hauling and heating laundry, washing clothes, cleaning, gathering fuel, and so many other things? What changes might we see in the world?)

American Kids, Kyrgyz Kids part 3

2011-11-03T15:07:00.001+06:00

So I'm not the most efficient blogger and have one more thing (maybe) to say about this. We were talking with our friend who works with the UN. He asked, as everyone does here, where our boys are going to school. After a brief bit about homeschooling and that our children won't be stunted forever because of it, he talked about the problem here in Kyrgyzstan of more and more children not going to school. The Soviet Union created a very educated society here and certainly the people of post-Soviet Central Asia are far more educated, as a whole, than the people of the rest of Central Asia, or the Middle East. Education is highly valued here.

But there are increasing numbers of children who aren't going to school. Our friend mentioned the problem that's common everywhere of older teenagers not wanting to go to school, especially if they're struggling with it. And as is common in many places, even if a free public education is guaranteed to all children, it's not truly completely free. There are many things, from school uniforms to gifts for the teacher to reket that make it impossible for poor families to send their children to school.

He also mentioned that many children in rural areas don't attend school during the spring and fall to help their families plant and harvest Many rural families depend on the food they are able to grow and the income from it to survive the winter, and they expect their children to help. He said he suggested changing the school schedule in some areas but was told that was impossible because it would allow child labor. I guess that's another place where some of my American-ness is disappearing because I think changing the schedule might be a good idea.*

I'm obviously not a fan of exploiting children, but I'm not sure that children working with their families to harvest food for the winter is "child labor," at least in the negative sense we use it today. Taking your kid out of school to hire him out to your neighbors? Adopting children to work in the fields for you and not educating them? Forcing every able-bodied person in the country to pick cotton on state farms for weeks, even very small children? Not good, along with many other worse examples. But adjusting the school schedule in rural areas so that kids who would already be taken out of school in the spring and fall for financial reason can get a better education? I'm not seeing that as the most horrible option.

It's so often financial reasons that kids aren't sent to school. Improving a community's financial lot takes a long time and there will be children who won't be educated because their families can't send them to school at the appointed time and place for a host of reasons. Might it not be reasonable to change the schedule now to meet the needs of some children while working to make it possible for every child to go to school, whatever the schedule?

*I was interested to read a conversation a few weeks ago on a message board about whether a US family in financial straits ought to use a son's earnings from a paper route to support the entire family. Most people thought that was definitely not okay (and I can certainly understand why people would feel this way), but if my family were having a difficult time meeting basic needs, I wouldn't be okay with one child who was able to get a job spending money that our other children had no access to.

American Kids, Kyrgyz Kids, part two

2011-11-02T13:23:00.002+06:00

I was going to write about this in the last post, but I forgot. After dinner last night our friends gave us a ride home in their car. In the US it would seat five people and if you suggested that any more could fit, you'd either get a lecture about seat belts or accused of endangering your children. Here it fit all nine of us (four adults, two big kids, and three little kids) with no problem; in fact, suggesting that it wasn't safe would have been strange.

I remember asking on a message board once if there were any good contraptions out there for some sort of restraint that could be used in a variety of vehicles from planes to trains to buses to cars that didn't rely on the car having a seat belt, and was also portable and inexpensive. A few people who'd lived in places like this made suggestions (although there really isn't anything out there like that that I know of), but I got more of the lectures about NEVER putting a child in a car without proper restraint. I hope those people always live in their well-ordered world because in most of the world, things don't work out quite so neatly.

(If our friends hadn't given us a ride we would have either taken a taxi, which certainly wouldn't have had seat belts, or a marshrutka which I imagine might frighten those well-ordered American families more than the 9-people-in-the-Camry option.)

American Kids, Kyrgyz Kids

2011-11-01T22:08:00.000+06:00

We went out for pizza with some local friends this evening who have two children around the age of my little one. They were being normal little kids and doing normal kid things which was fine with the patrons at the restaurant sitting around us. In fact, one of the children from another table joined our group while they were drawing pictures for a couple at another table.

My American self was cringing the entire time because you.don't.do.that in the US. But I was the only tense person; people don't mind kids here. I went with the idea that as long as my kid wasn't the loudest and the family I was with wasn't trying to corral their kids, then everything was okay.

(Don't think they were running wild or anything like that. They just weren't sitting quietly at the table like American kids are expected to if you take them out in public.)

Election Day Tomorrow

2011-10-29T22:39:00.004+06:00

This rather quiet campaign is nearly over. If weather has anything to do with it, tomorrow should be sunny with maybe a few inches of snow on the ground (if we're lucky). If the weather has anything to do with protests following the results, it's supposed to be in the 40s all week with maybe a little rain. Not too bad, but not quite protesting weather either.

Of course, Bishkek isn't the place where protests would start, if they did. They're a lot more likely in the south, but it looks like Osh won't be much warmer than Bishkek this week. Personally, I'm not worried, but we're still supposed to have a few days' worth of food in the house. Just don't mess with my internet.

Heat=Votes in Bishkek

2011-10-28T19:31:00.001+06:00

The heat came on last night, about 7-10 days earlier than usual. You wouldn't want people to come from chilly homes when they vote on Sunday.

It's not like it's been cold enough for the heat to be on either. Yes, today there was snow falling out of the sky, but it didn't stick, and my apartment was still 72 degrees when the heat came on (with windows open). It's been sunny and in the 60s recently. I was hoping for a few more days to try to cool off a little more. I won't quite wish for 60-degree indoor temperatures this winter like we had last year in Tokmok, but I won't enjoy having the apartment this warm all winter either.

Black-Headed Gull

2011-10-26T16:01:00.004+06:00

I think this is a Black-Headed Gull. If it is, I wish I could have seen it in the spring.

Slavonian Grebe

2011-10-26T15:55:00.003+06:00

I think this is a Slavonian Grebe in non-breeding plumage. We saw it at Issyk-Kul and, unfortunately, this is the best shot I was able to get.

Community-Based Tourism vs. Regular Tourism

2011-10-25T21:06:00.001+06:00

Last week's trip to Issyk-Kul was the first time I'd stayed in a regular tourist place in Kyrgyzstan. We've done community-based tourism for the rest of our traveling around or stayed with friends. If we'd been planning the trip we wouldn't have chosen the place we stayed, but it was interesting to try something new.

The resort was lovely, tucked away from the road and right next to the lake. It was well-manicured, the rooms were clean, the beach was nice, and the food at the restaurant was good. Overall we had a nice stay.

However, it didn't make me want to switch from CBT. When we've done CBT or stayed with friends, we feel like we're part of the family, not guests, and especially not paying guests (I can think of one instance where I didn't feel that way, but it was just with one thing, not the entire stay). At the resort, we felt like we were an inconvenience in every way. It was difficult to get sheets for the beds, we weren't allowed any extra blankets for the three-year-old who was sleeping on the floor, and they wouldn't let us leave the resort at all till we'd paid for the dirty towels that housekeeping had picked up the night before and not replaced. (Since it was clear someone had to pay for those towels, it was fine with me that it was us because I felt like they would have made an employee pay for them instead.)

While we were out on our sheet and blanket hunt, we talked to one of the cooks. She told us is from Karakol, a town on the east side of the lake and several hours away. She has four children and is only able to see them on the weekends; the rest of the time she sleeps at the hotel. She also works 16- to 17-hour days. No, I wasn't impressed. I wish I'd asked her how much she was making, which is a perfectly acceptable question to ask here, but I'm enough of an American that the thought couldn't have crossed my mind till later.

The women who have CBT homestays (and even if it's a man who's supposed to be running things, it's the women who are doing the work) work hard, but they're not working 16-hour days to host tourists, even on the jailoo where everything is more labor-intensive. They're also living with their families. And the money is paid directly to the family with a percentage going to the main CBT office. Of course, working at a resort is more reliable and you don't have to wait for a tourist to come to your house.

The room and two meals at the resort cost $122 (plus $25 for the towels- I had no idea towels in KG could cost that much) for a family of four; like I said, there was nothing available for our three-year-old. A CBT in Karakol costs $50 for a place to sleep and two meals for all five of us. Certainly the resort was nicer, but I am ever so much more comfortable with CBT.

Campaign Signs and Other Election Wonderings

2011-10-24T15:51:00.001+06:00

I was curious, last week, to see whose campaign signs we'd see in Issyk-Kul. Since I have to stare out the window every single second of any car ride, I don't think I missed much on my side of the bus. I'd say Atambaev had less than half the signs, but not by much. Mostly it was the same signs I see in Bishkek, just in different proportions.

We were also wondering what Roza Otunbaeva will do next year. There isn't exactly a prescedent for what former presidents in Central Asia ought to do. Bakiev and Akaev are former presidents, of course, but their leaving wasn't exactly amicable. Neither lives in Kyrgyzstan anymore (Akaev teaches in Moscow and Bakiev is still in Belarus). But I suspect Otunbaeva will stay in Kyrgyzstan and I'll be interested to see what she does.

Submit to the Roads

2011-10-21T20:17:00.001+06:00

We were defeated again this week by Kyrgyzstan's difficult roads. We went to Issyk Kul at the beginning of the week and I hoped to go to the Suusamyr Valley at the end of the week, but there just wasn't a good way to get there. Actually we probably could have gotten there, but finding our way out of a little village in rural Kyrgyzstan isn't easy unless you're able to pay for the driver's return trip also.

We've gotten a bit trapped before in rural Kyrgyzstan. I don't mind if it's just my husband and me, but when you have kids with you, it doesn't always work to wing it, and we were with our kids in the rain the time we had trouble finding a ride home. So we try to avoid that now.

I know I've written about this before, but it's always so disappointing that there are so many wonderful things to see in Kyrgyzstan and great places to stay, but not a good way to get there. Someday it would be so fun to have a car here. That wouldn't solve all the problems because most of the roads in rural Kyrgyzstan are awful (and plenty in not-so-rural Kyrgyzstan; we have friends from Naryn who haven't been there in two years despite having a car simply because the road is so bad, and the road to Naryn out to be a major road.)

Issyk-Kul

2011-10-19T13:28:00.002+06:00

We were able to go to Issyk Kul for a couple of days this week. We didn't plan the trip ourselves, but went with the international students at the university.

If you ignore the man in the middle, this is a good photo of a cultural center we went to near Cholpon-Ata. It has a variety of artwork from the region and the buildings you see in the back are for different religions. It was a lovely setting and interesting, although I won't make you slog through lots of photos of the place.

We stayed at one of the new resorts on the lake. While it was nice to be in a nice place, I'm happier at a community-based tourism place. More on that later this week. This is looking out toward the lake.

And this is looking toward the mountains. Sometimes it almost felt like we were in the US, but there were lots of small things that said we weren't.

Looking south across the lake toward the mountains.

Looking toward the beach from the pier.

This Is Why I Like Living Here

2011-10-16T00:07:00.002+06:00

Sometimes I wonder why I like living overseas, especially in a place like Kyrgyzstan. Yesterday on a message board I frequent I got into a conversation about why someone might want to move here. The other person lives in Eastern Europe and is looking for another country to live in. I didn't suggest Kyrgyzstan as an option (Indonesia, Czech Republic, and Uruguay were my ideas- she needs a place that isn't very expensive), but she was asking about Bishkek anyway and it felt so weird because no one ever asks about living here as a real option. Later someone came on saying Kyrgyzstan is a horrible place to live and the conversation ended.

Anyway. It made me think about why I like it here or in the Middle East or wherever else expats usually get paid extra just to live there. I just like to observe everyday life and the less familiar the place I'm living, the more interesting everyday life is. I don't need people to talk to me, I don't need social interaction, I don't need to see all the sights (although it's nice when there are some). I just like to get out and see how people do things and I get lots of that in Bishkek. There's something interesting every day.

A Homeschooling Post

2011-10-14T11:57:00.003+06:00

A year ago I was trying to sort out homeschooling supplies for two years, getting books scanned, and generally feeling a little frazzled about homeschooling in Central Asia again. This year it was the easiest thing ever to get ready for school because I'd done everything last year. I purchased two pdf books, downloaded 20 more free ebooks, and it was done. Here's how it's going after a 5 weeks. For reference, my older boys are in 7th and 5th grades.

The best thing about this new year is having a friend of ours come play with the three-year-old for two hours a day. Like so many people here, she can't find a job in her profession, so it helps her, but it helps me at least as much since the three-year-old gets the attention he craves and I can work with the older boys. She took care of my older boys when we lived in Bishkek 6 years ago and it's been nice to be with her again.

I'm also loving the relatively speedy internet connection. We weren't able to do any online school subjects in Tokmok, but we do quite a few now. The boys are doing French and Spanish on the computer. It's silly they're not doing Russian, but I can't make them learn it, and it's far more likely that French or Spanish would be useful to them. They also do online Latin exercises with Lively Latin in addition to working out of the ebook. They're reviewing countries and capitals and doing online logic puzzles too, but the best part is CNN Student News and watching these videos about the periodic table. I LOVE them. Science is one of the most difficult things to do here and I've pretty much given up on science experiments, but watching these guys blow things up online is pretty satisfying.

We're also working through an atlas for geography and going through logical fallacies and we use Sequential Spelling, except I just downloaded the great big book and we work through that because it's a lot cheaper. The oldest is using NEM and LOF Economics and the youngest is on LOF Biology and Singapore 6. Both do WWS and GWG. I've been very pleased with WWS; we beta tested it last year. I've never been excited about GWG but it's easy to use and the boys learn from it so we've continued with it- I think this is our 5 year with it. We read from How Science Works and other ebooks about the periodic table that I check out from the library. I like the entire How ____ Works series and we've been happy using them for science for years.

I'm still delighted with OUP's history series and we're working through the last three books now. We'll finish those by the end of 2011 and then move on to US history and some more 18th and 19th century world history for the rest of the school year. And finally, there's lots of reading. I use the early modern list from WTM which is easy to do here because nearly all the books are free to download, and I supplement with some more diverse selections since the WTM list is very heavy on western Europe. That's a little harder to do here, but not impossible.

We do every subject every day and it takes us 4-5 hours to get through everything, including lunch and music. The oldest is playing the guitar and middle son is on the keyboard. I find it easiest to just do everything instead of trying to do some subjects once or twice a week for a longer time. For example, this week we read a chapter from Age of Empires on Monday, then the boys did a level one outline of the chapter on Tuesday. One Wednesday they filled out their outlines and on Thursday they did some supplemental reading about the Mughal Empire. They spent about 90 minutes total on history this week. Science was similar.

Overall things are going well as long as the three-year-old is happy. It's been so much better to not have to do so much housework because I'm able to do a better job with homeschooling. I'd always wondered why Ma in The Little House on the Prairie books was always so worried about living near a school when she was a competent teacher. I always knew she was busy, but I don't wonder anymore. There's no way she had time to teach her children well with the life she was living. My life wasn't anything like that, of course, but I understand better now.

Bride Kidnapping and Law

2011-10-12T16:02:00.003+06:00

I wrote a couple of days ago that researchers haven't found any cases of a man being imprisoned for bride kidnapping. However, there is plenty of evidence that it's becoming more common for the girl's family to either go to the police, or say they will go to the police which is often as effective. Keeping any sort of dispute out of the hands of the police or the courts is the goal for most people in Kyrgyzstan, so threatening to get the police involved in a kidnapping is effective. It's possibly an example of laws changing practice.

But. That doesn't mean the law is changing what's socially acceptable here. We are aware of a woman who was kidnapped earlier this year (not Kyrgyz) whose parents threatened to go to the police before the man would let her go. Since then she's been isolated, maybe even shunned, by her neighborhood and doesn't feel like she has any chance of getting married. Of course, it's only been 8 months and people might forget in a year or two, but it's hard for her right now. Even though kidnapping is illegal and no one wants the police to know it happened, it's not necessarily acceptable to leave a kidnapping.

Of course, this happened in a fairly conservative neighborhood in a small city in Kyrgyzstan. But even if you pat yourself on the back for passing laws that might be changing practice, even if no one is convicted under those laws, you still haven't necessarily solved the problem.

Ubeki-beki-beki

2011-10-11T20:30:00.001+06:00

Loved the post and the comments about Cain's cheerful dismissal of Uzbekistan as a small, insignificant state. Sure, Cain's opinion will appeal to many Americans. Who cares about Uzbekistan when you're having economic problems in the US? But Nathan's right- it's pretty stupid foreign policy to think of most countries as insignificant (like Bush did about Pakistan in 1999). And we wonder why so many people in those small and insignificant countries don't have much love for the US. We don't spare any for them.

Still, there is tremendous potential for Cain and his pizza in Central Asia. Bishkek has some decent pizza, but nothing like what Cain has created.

Bride Kidnapping Lecture Notes

2011-10-10T16:22:00.001+06:00

These are notes from a lecture Russell Kleinbach gave in Tokmok 6 months ago, and some notes from when we talked to him at our house that same day. He's done extensive research with (usually) Kyrgyz women in Kyrgyzstan on ala kachuu. He started off as solely a researcher but over time has turned into an activist instead. He usually doesn't give these presentations himself; generally Kyrgyz women travel around the country to do them.

I've probably posted some of this earlier after we met Kleinbach in Washington in 2005, but this also includes new research. This is what I thought was most important.

Presentations like the one I heard appear to be having an effect on kidnapping in rural areas of Kyrgyzstan. This was tested when researchers returned to some villages to see if kidnapping rates had dropped in the year since they did the presentations. The sample size was smaller the second year, but non-consensual ala kachuu marriages dropped from 51% the first year to 27%.
There is no cultural expectation to kidnap which makes it easier to advocate to end the practice. It is currently traditional, but there are other accepted ways of getting married.
The newer research still indicates, despite claims to the contrary, that 80% of kidnappings are non-consensual. Researchers asked 3 questions- Did you want to be kidnapped? Was there deception or force? Did you love him? Answering yes to the first or third question or no to the second resulted in a kidnapping being categorized as consensual, and researchers feel that they were generous definition of what was consensual.
There is a push to criminalize kidnapping more, but that doesn't necessarily help. Kidnapping has been illegal for some time now (it used to be a 5 year prison term, but currently it's 3), but researchers were only able to find two cases where kidnapping was successfully prosecuted. One kidnapping resulted in the woman getting beaten severely (which is not common) and the man was imprisoned for beating her, not kidnapping her. Another man was imprisoned for rape, and not for kidnapping. They have found no cases where a man was sent to prison for kidnapping. However, there have been cases settled out of court as would be expected here. More on this below.
It is easier to get a divorce later than to refuse the wedding in the first place. 10-20% of women refuse to get married.
35-50% of all marriages in Kyrgyzstan are the result of non-consensual kidnappings.
In 20% of the non-consensual kidnappings the woman does not know the man before the kidnapping. About 20% of the kidnappings appear to involve rape.

After talking to Kleinbach who said he'd heard kidnapping happens amongst other ethnicities in Kyrgyzstan, my husband started asking the Uzbek community about this and confirmed that it does happen. Kyrgyz do it more, but both consensual and non-consensual kidnapping happens within the minority communities (Uyghur, Dungan, Uzbek, Tajik) of Tokmok. There's some anecdotal evidence that Kyrgyz in China do no kidnap.

I had my English conversation group go to this lecture in April. Several of the students were high school students and one told me after that he had never thought about bride kidnapping before as a problem. Kleinbach's presentation changed his mind and he said he thought he wouldn't want to kidnap his bride without her consent. Made that presentation worth it.

I also asked Kleinbach about my feeling that girls in Kyrgyzstan think it's exciting or romantic to be kidnapped (before it happens). He agreed and also felt that both young men and women often hadn't thought about it much. That's why the presentations help. Kleinbach and crew are not interested (mostly, some of his fellow researchers are) in stopping consensual kidnappings. The goal is to try to stop non-consensual kidnappings.

Kleinbach told us about one village where they told him they don't kidnap anymore because it's too expensive. That surprised him because kidnapping often is thought to be a cheap wedding (even though it's often not because families still go in for the whole wedding). In this village, however, the family of a kidnapping woman did go to the police and it cost the man's family so much money that apparently no one else would risk it.

I think it's best that Kleinbach and his associates have focused more on educating about ala kachuu instead of trying to use legal means to change this. Ala kachuu has been illegal for a long time but that hasn't mattered. I also appreciate that his education efforts are directed toward Kyrgyzstan instead of the West. I'd be interested to see if there's any indication that the overall rates of kidnapping have dropped in the last 10 years since there's been more research and education directed toward the matter.

Ebooks for Everyone

2011-10-09T21:50:00.001+06:00

Had an entire post typed out that disappeared. Here's the short of
it, inspired by an article on CNN about using cell phones to fight
poverty around the world:

When ereaders are cheap enough, and they will be soon, start a
nonprofit that donates ereaders to children through schools. Just
getting one ereader to a family would make a huge difference. You
don't need a computer or wireless access, just an outlet at home where
you can charge the reader.

The nonprofit sets up kiosks (or even better, just uses kiosks that
have been set up for cell phones) where people can get ebooks- they
could also be set up in school, but I like the cell phone kiosk idea
better. You could either access copyright-free books for your
country, or you could purchase ebooks if you wanted. You could use
cell technology to transfer the books, or just use a card.

Simple. You'd need to know copyright laws in all the countries you'd
be working, but even making only copyright-free books would give
readers a huge resource. There aren't many digital books yet in many
languages, and that's certainly a problem, but not an insurmountable
one especially as it becomes quicker and cheaper to create ebooks. It
also might encourage more local authors to publish.

We will *never* get physical books into everyone's hands, at least not
in the numbers we'd need to. But ebooks are a real possibility and I
don't think it will be long before they can make a huge difference.
It's vital to increase literacy rates, but it's as important to make
sure readers have access to books.

Atambayev, Gas Prices, and Other Kyrgyzstan Stuff

2011-10-06T14:10:00.001+06:00

I ought to at least do a brief bio of Almazbek Atambayev since he's expected to be the next president of Kyrgyzstan. Like nearly all the candidates, he's been around for a long time, mostly as the leader of the Social Democratic Party of Kyrgyzstan since 1999 and a member of Parliament. He's currently Prime Minister and was Prime Minister in most of 2007 under Bakiev, although the position meant something very different at that time. He's run or considered running for president several times in the past.

He's from the north and was born in Arashan, south of Bishkek in the Chui region, so he's a northerner. Based on his website, he's either the youngest son in the family or one of the youngest. And he likes to read.

Moscow likes him which is an advantage for him and not necessarily a disadvantage for US interests in Kyrgyzstan, although Atambayev's campaign is unquestionably pro-Russia. Personally, I think Kyrgyzstan could do a lot worse than Atambayev and I hope that if he is elected, he'll be a good president. Still, he's definitely recycled and old-school.

About that website- it's in English as well as Kyrgyz and Russian and is one of the better websites I've seen for Kyrgyzstani politicians. Some of it just looks like Google Translate stuff, but other parts of it have better English.

In other news, it's been announced that (natural) gas prices will be dropping here soon since Kyrgyzstan will now buy most of its gas from Kazakhstan instead of Uzbekistan. It's supposed to be a fairly significant drop, although I won't see much difference in Bishkek because I just pay a few dollars a month for cooking (when it's on).

For more rural families who have been able to install gas heating, this could make a big difference. Our house in Tokmok had gas heating, but the owner was happy to move out in the winter because heating with gas was difficult to pay for. Even more, I hope that gas heating becomes affordable for more families in Kyrgyzstan. I've mentioned before than heating a typical home in Kyrgyzstan with natural gas costs about $100/month compared to about $60/month to use coal. The projected price drop could make the costs much closer, and, since gas is so much cleaner and easier, it might be possible for more families to switch to gas heating.

The Potato Truck

2011-10-06T12:21:00.000+06:00

My current source of photo subjects seems to be things I can see out my front window. That doesn't mean that I don't get out, but that there are interesting things going on outside our building. We live on a busy street on the edge of the center of town, and there's a bit of a parking area in front of our building which isn't always typical everywhere in Bishkek. There's often something going on there.

This is a truck filled with potatoes that show up yesterday. Since then there's been a constant line of people buying 50-kilo bags of potatoes for the winter.

For a lot of the year there are a lot of trucks like this sitting outside the Tokmok Bazaar. I'd wondered how people stocked up on potatoes and onions for the winter and now I know one way they can. If I had any clue about how settled we're going to be this winter, I'd get some myself. I also notice things like this more often this time around because I've lived in Tokmok.

One more thing- you often hear that people in large cities in the US don't have access to produce or decent grocery stores. While there is plenty of good produce available in Bishkek in the summer and fall, it's horribly expensive in the winter. Stocking up on potatoes and onions and carrots in the late fall is a good way to avoid the problem. It seems the same thing could be done in the US. And please don't tell me about lack of storage space or hauling stuff up stairs. It's at least as bad for your typical family in Bishkek. People around the world come up with creative ideas to solve problems like this and I wish those ideas were more widely shared.

Fortunately Unfortunately

2011-10-05T12:18:00.001+06:00

Unfortunately the gas is off.

Fortunately some friends of ours warned us it might be off for a week
for repairs so I don't have to wonder if there is something I ought to
do about it.

I bought fish for the first time in eight months yesterday and
intended to cook it on the stove.

My stove is a combination of gas and electric.

There is just one wimpy electric burner and it took 90 minutes to cook
a meal that should have taken 30 (the fish was delicious though).

I can bake dinner instead till the gas is supposed to come back on
next week and it's cool enough outside to consider turning the stove
on.

I have no idea what to bake for an entire week. I rarely bake even
one part of dinner, much less most or all of it.

Daughters in My Kingdom

2011-10-04T15:43:00.001+06:00

I have a great deal to say about this book, mostly because I haven't talked about this book with anyone in real life; there is no one with whom I can do so. My interaction has all been online and since I'm curious about what people have to say about this, I've spent a lot of time of looking for those reactions. There are, obviously, the gushers who, of course, love the book. There are the people who think it's silly and fluffy and white-washed. Both types are fine, but often neither allows for much discussion. Most people seem to be somewhere in between though. First, here are my thoughts about some common concerns about the book and mostly, if I have concerns too, this is where they are.

Too simple: I'm nearly finished with my second reading of the text and I don't feel that the language of the book is overly simple. I feel that it strikes a reasonable balance between a book that is easily translated but also doesn't feel like you're reading an elementary school book.*
Too pretty: Yes, it is too pretty for my taste. That doesn't really bother me; I've generally been ignoring that sort of thing for a long time. There are many women who love the prettiness and I don't mind their getting it in this book. Some of the photos are interesting (and I wish there were more identifying information about them) and I generally like the collages, but I could have done with just the photos of the women whom the stories were about (those are the best photos) and the collages (minus a flower or two) and skipped the rest of the photos and decoration. It also makes the file a lot larger to download which is a problem for women who will not get the book in person, but cannot download a large file.
White-washed: This is probably going to depend on your perspective. If you want it all, go read In Sacred Loneliness instead. But I thought this book dealt with some difficult topics too and didn't just ignore all the difficult parts. Could it have done more? Of course, but I felt it struck a decent balance.
It's not really a history: No, it's not. That's disappointing, but I think what has been written instead is valuable anyway even if it's not really a history. It's still a historical work and despite my reading a fair amount of Church history, I learned a few things. I had hoped for a real history when the book was first announced, but it's okay with me that it isn't because there are many other resources out there for me to learn about RS history. It is unfortunate, however, that this will likely be the only think many women read about RS history because there is so much more out there.
Women's voices are much less noticeable toward the end of the book: Yes, this is true, but that would only have to be in comparison to the beginning of the book. Compared to nearly any other Church publication, even the less-frequent female voices (but still half of the quotes are from women) toward the end are far more noticeable than women's words in any other book. Is that enough? Not really, but it's a major improvement. I sincerely hope that having this book will make it easier for women and men to talk about women and use their words in Church settings.

So, here are my own thoughts.

I had a very hard time reading the sections about Relief Society sisters in places like the former Czechoslovakia who were able to meet together as Relief Society sisters (after being baptized clandestinely) and have some visits from Church leaders, or at least have contact with Church leaders. Must have been fewer Church attorneys at the time.

I liked how the story of Mary and Martha was rethought and the emphasis on female disciples in the New Testament. We hardly ever talk about these women and I hope they get a lot more notice now. President Beck highlighted Mary and Martha in her RS Meeting talk- there was a lot that was familiar in the RS Meeting after reading this book

Of course I liked the chapter on the worldwide Relief Society, despite the discomfort I already described above. I also thought the visiting teaching chapter was really good. That was where I learned a few things. I feel as if I can finally get behind visiting teaching now. I *love* how President Beck has reshaped visiting teaching into something more worthwhile.

For me, what this book really does is asserts that there is something more to RS that just a meeting on Sunday. It's easy to reduce RS to that one meeting or to some fluffy crafts on a Saturday morning. Certainly it was emphasized that RS is under the direction of the Priesthood, but I feel that it was also saying that RS is part of the Priesthood, not under it (President Beck makes this clearer in some of her not-General-Conference talks). I come from a family who loves and supports Primary, but I feel more drawn to RS. Not the Sunday meeting, but what RS can be beyond that. I hope that ward and branch Relief Societies around the world can do more to make RS more, but also to support women who want to do more because they are part of RS.

In the end, I very much like this book, but I'm discouraged by how often, for many different reasons, we're not willing and/or (especially) able to make RS what it can be. I think there could be much more emphasis on getting more women in a given ward or branch involved and not just having it be able taking dinners to families with new babies or dutifully visiting women the last week of the month. We need more creativity and I hope this book get some of those creative ideas going. There isn't one right way to be a Relief Society and there is so much more we can do. We need to make ourselves a more prominent face of this Church.

*Back to the too-simple concern: I've seen many people argue that it's better to write a book that challenges people, that makes them stretch. I agree- as long as you're providing the necessary tools for people to stretch. So many of our LDS publications assume a certain basic knowledge that isn't there for a lot of members of the Church. This isn't because they aren't well-educated, or unwilling to stretch, but because their religious background hasn't prepared them to read The Book of Mormon (First and Second Nephi in particular expect that the reader is familiar with the Bible), or the current Relief Society manual, or even Gospel Principles. Those same converts are especially disadvantaged if they are isolated and don't have anyone to ask who Peter, James, and John are; or what the Articles of Faith are; or what Isaiah is talking about. There is nothing published that is basic enough for those members. I think this book actually comes closer to filling a little bit of that need without being fluffy.

Wind

2011-10-03T16:08:00.001+06:00

As I recall, there's not much wind in Bishkek. Of course, I lived in a very windy city before I lived in Bishkek last time, so Bishkek could have just seemed calm in comparison. Tokmok is definitely windier than Bishkek at any time of the year.

Not today. There's lots of wind (and leaves and dust and branches and wimpy plastic bags) blowing around outside right now. Here's one of those branches getting cleared out in front of the building.

Recycled Candidates

2011-10-03T15:55:00.001+06:00

I was working through the list of candidates to post bios of them, but not surprisingly, there's not a lot of variety among them. Many are currently in Parliament and have been part of the elite running Kyrgyzstan for its entire history, despite a few revolutions. There are a few businessmen and some others who hold some government positions. Noah Tucker at Registan writes more about this and explains exactly why I got tired of the project (the entire post is worth reading, especially about minorties):

[M]usical chairs is not a revolutionary game...as much as each new regime vilifies the representatives of the previous one, the "talent pool" from which each government draws is incredibly shallow, and similarly voters are perpetually asked to choose between the same few candidates for elected positions. This reality is not lost on most Kyrgyzstanis, who are deeply frustrated with their government, tired of being asked to "choose" only between the same perpetual candidates, or cut out of the system entirely when their local patron is pushed out of power, motivating them primarily to do whatever they can to get him back in.

Can't Stop Eating the Pickles

2011-09-30T14:17:00.001+06:00

The fridge is stuffed with pickles and I cannot stop eating them. Cannot. There is even dark chocolate sitting in the kitchen and it doesn't compete with the pickles.

Two New Recipes, Bishkek Style

2011-09-29T15:55:00.001+06:00

In my opinion, it's best to use local food and local food sources when you're living overseas. It's not cheap to cook American food in the US; it's either too expensive to impossible to do so in the rest of the world. There are a few ethnic ingredients I can't get here (fish sauce, tamarind paste, curry paste, and coconut milk) and a few American ingredients I bring or beg relatives to send (cocoa, good chocolate chips, and vanilla), but everything else is local.

Bishkek has been nice because there is so much more available here than there was five years ago, or in Tokmok now. I don't know of any stores that stock American brands; Beta Stores is the closest thing to a regular American grocery, but since it's Turkish, it has a lot more tahina than Jif (actually, it seems like I could find things like brown sugar and maple syrup and peanut butter there in 2005, but I can't now).

So now there's more room for creativity (actually I could have made both of these in Tokmok). The first recipe is very loosely based on a Greek recipe for potatoes cooked in tomato sauce and topped with feta, but I've always thought it was a little boring and since my paneer is cheaper than feta, it's Indian now. The second recipe uses sparzhe differently than they do here (it's usually cold in salads), although it's not so different from some parts of the world.

Potatoes with tomatoes and paneer

About 8 potatoes (not baking, if possible), peeled and cut into wedges like an apple
1 cup water
1 cup tomato sauce
Salt and pepper to taste

Simmer the above till the potatoes are just barely tender. While it's simmering, heat some oil in a wok (yes, I have a wok! and a qazan!) and add some spices that make you happy. I did cumin, coriander, mustard seed, cayenne, turmeric, and nigella. Add a chopped onion and as much garlic as you like (I did 4-5 cloves) and fry till the onions are soft. While that's cooking, heat oil in another frying pan and fry 1/2 pound of sliced paneer till it's crispy and golden. Or you can skip the frying; the cheese will be quite soft if you don't fry it first, although it won't melt. Add the fried-or-not paneer to the onions and cook for a couple more minutes. Season to taste and dump into the potatoes just before they're ready and cook a minute or two more. If you have a picky child like I do, leave the onion and cheese out and use it for a topping.

Sparzhe (tofu sticks) and Peppers

Soak a package of tofu sticks in boiling water for about 30 minutes till soft, then cut into 2-inch pieces. Drain well. Meanwhile, slice 5-6 peppers and 5-6 cloves of garlic. Heat oil in a wok and add the tofu and fry, moving it quickly around to prevent too much sticking. I like tofu sticks to not be so very soft, so I fry accordingly. Add the peppers and garlic after a few minutes and continue to stir-fry till the peppers are soft and you like the way the tofu is. While it's cooking, add soy sauce or fish sauce to taste, sesame oil, cayenne, and sesame seeds. It's good with rice.

Manas and Erkindik

2011-09-29T15:08:00.001+06:00

Here's a photo from 2006 of the old Erkindik statue, and the new Manas statue behind the fountains. Erkindik means freedom and the statue replaced, if I recall correctly, Lenin in the main square. Manas is the epic hero of the Kyrgyz and honestly, you wouldn't necessarily know from the statue if you were looking at Manas or Timur. Erkindik was far more interesting and unique and it represented something the entire country could get behind. Manas is for the Kyrgyz citizens of the country, not the Ugyhurs or Dungans or Uzbeks or Tajiks or Russians or anyone else.

The Candidates

2011-09-28T16:01:00.001+06:00

Here's a list of the 20 candidates for president. Over the next few days I'll post bios of each. The photos of above are of Almazbek Atambaev and Arstanbek Abdyldaev. Atambaev's giant billboard is at the railroad crossing on Soviet and I saw the truck with Abdyldaev's name across the street. We've also gotten campaign literature for Kubatbek Baibolov and Omurbek Suvanaliev so far. I'll certainly look for more.

Kamchybek Tashiev

Adakhan Madumarov

Kubatbek Baibolov

Marat Sultanov

Roman Omorov

Omurbek Suvanaliev

Temirbek Asanbekov

Anarbek Kalmatov

Shamshybek Medetbekov

Iskhak Masaliev

Kurmanbek Osmonov

Almambet Matubraimov

Marat Imankulov

Akylbek Japarov

Kubanychbek Isabekov

Almazbek Atambayev

Arstanbek Abdyldaev

Sooronbay Dyikanov

Jumabek Toktogaziev

Almazbek Karimov

Rumors of Atambaev's New Constitution

2011-09-28T14:33:00.001+06:00

Excellent. This will be a reasonable way to post now, especially since I have a suspicion that the elections might put even Kyrgyzstan over the edge on media censorship. Last might Parliament banned foreign media from television for the next month.

In other news, we're hearing rumors that Almazbek Atambaev fully expects to be the next president and also wants to get a new constitution on the ballot next month. A parliamentary system is nice if you're the Prime Minister, but not so much if you're the president. He's angling for a return to a presidential system.

But we can still be optimistic that this will be a free election and that there will be some competition.

Issues

2011-09-28T14:28:00.001+06:00

I am terribly sorry about the awful template this blog has right now. I don't think there is anything I can do about it right now though. If I can ever change anything again, I'll disable the comments and get back to a white background because black backgrounds are the worst thing ever. [Edit: fixed, although I'm not sure I love the new template, but I can't be too choosy.]

And now I am curious if I can post photos by mail. If there is a photo here, it's the new Manas statue that replaced Erkindik about a month ago. I like Erkindik much better in every way.

2011 Presidential Campaign

2011-09-27T08:25:00.001+06:00

I'm testing posting by email. Hope this works.

Campaigning started yesterday in Kyrgyzstan for the election on October 30th. Just 5 weeks of campaigning for us; too bad for all you Americans who can look forward to about 5 million more weeks of campaigning. Campaign posters are going up and yesterday while I was walking in the park a man handed me an eight-page newspaper about one of the candidates.

Twenty of the 83 people who registered for the election have been approved to run. Each needed to pass a Kyrgyz language test, pay a fee of about $2200, and get 30,000 signatures. There are two who were not approved based on their signature counts who appealed to the Supreme Court, but I'm not sure what's going on with that. The only reason to pay much attention to that is that one is a woman and there are no women among the 20 approved candidates.

Most of the candidates are currently in Parliament, in particular, Almazbek Atambaev, the Prime Minister. There are also a variety of businessmen. I'm working on a list of everyone and what sort of people they are and hope to post it soon.

About that campaign newspaper yesterday. It was for Omurbek Suvanaliev and he turns out to be one of the most interesting candidates in the mix. He's a retired major-general in the militia which isn't typical, but he's also had some administrative experience in Naryn and Osh (he resigned in Osh right after the June events of last year). He's well-known for fighting corruption (including good old Ryspek) and is known as Corrado Kattani. I'm also trying to pin down whether he's in Ata-Jurt or Ar Namys which makes a big difference since different stories have different party affiliations listed.

Bazaar!

2011-09-25T08:10:00.001+06:00

It's nearly impossible to live in the center of Bishkek and still be within walking distance of a good bazaar, and we didn't manage that. We do live near Ak Emir Bazaar, and I like it, but it's so very civilized. It's also more expensive than the other bazaars and it's more likely the prices will double when a foreigner comes by.

So I went to Osh Bazaar yesterday to do some shopping and it was so nice to be in a real bazaar again. When we lived in Bishkek before, Osh Bazaar always seemed huge and confusing and overwhelming and I didn't do much shopping there. But after Tokmok, Osh Bazaar is still huge and I don't know my way around, but that's not a problem.

It was fun to stumble on places we went last time. Later I'll try to post some then and now photos, if Blogger cooperates.

Dear Kazakhstan: I'd Like to Blog

2011-09-23T22:13:00.003+06:00

I don’t know if it’s just the new server we have now that we’re in Bishkek or if I’d be having trouble accessing Blogger again anyway, but I’ll blame Kazakhstan either way. Be brave Kazakhstan. Blogs won’t destroy you.

I was going to use Beeline which is one of the few providers in KG that doesn’t work through KazkahTelecom, but I couldn’t get the connection to work. So I dragged out the radio phone for the old Tokmok connection through KyrgyzTelecom (they must be braver than Megaline) and all is well again, except that I’ll probably do multiple posts at a time till Blogger is back to normal.

But everything else is wonderful with the internet. It’s like having a new iPad now that it can use the internet on it again. Even without the internet it’s been worth it because we knew when we bought it that we wouldn’t always have an internet connection for it, but iPads really are designed with the internet in mind.

Just having a faster connection is wonderful. Like I’ve said, it’s slow for the US, but it’s blazing fast after Tokmok. Lots of things seem blazing fast after Tokmok though. Except for posting on Blogger.

(It is unfortunate that I have to post without pictures right now since I finally have some to post. I’ll hope Kazakhstan relaxes soon.)

Basic Vegetarian Summer Laghman Sauce Recipe

2011-09-23T22:09:00.001+06:00

This is for a saucier laghman, not a dry one. I prefer drier toppings for laghman when I’m using winter vegetables and wetter ones in the summer. I never put meat in my laghman which isn’t traditional, but other than that, this recipe tastes a lot like what you’d be served in someone’s home in Tokmok. My husband started asking if I’d bought the sauce too, in addition to the noodles.

You can use all sorts of vegetables like summer squashes, carrots, green beans, green garlic, and lots of other things. I happen to love eggplant and peppers together. You can also use real tomatoes instead of the tomato paste.

Oil
1 large onion, sliced
Lots and lots of garlic, chopped or sliced or minced or crushed
1 pound sliced sweet peppers
1 pound julienned eggplant
Chopped hot peppers or crushed red pepper
Water
1/4 cup tomato paste (or less because my tomato paste isn’t as solid as in the US)
Salt to taste

Heat a qazan or a wok or a large heavy pot or a frying pan or a cast iron skillet to high, then add some oil, as much as you choose. Add the onion and the peppers (sweet and hot, if you’re using hot) and stir-fry for a minute or two, then add the eggplant and garlic and stir-fry another minute or two, till the onions and peppers are starting to soften. Add the tomato paste (or a couple chopped tomatoes) and enough water to not cover the vegetables, but you want to be able to see it. Bring to a boil and add the salt and crushed red pepper, if using. Simmer till the vegetables are as cooked as you like them (I prefer some crunch left in them), then adjust for salt and spice and turn off the heat and let sit for 10 minutes or so because it’s better not too hot. Serve over laghman or rice noodles or rice. It also happens to taste delicious the next day on top of plov.

This is especially good topped with chopped jusay, sliced tomatoes, lazy, and vinegar. Cucumber is good too.

Trading Problems

2011-09-23T22:08:00.000+06:00

Any time you move you know you’re trading one set of difficulties (and good things) for another set. This is especially true in Kyrgyzstan. I knew when we left Tokmok that I’d largely be leaving the water problems behind, but I knew some other things would take their place.

But so far we’ve been pretty lucky. The biggest problem in the new apartment is that many of the outlets don’t work. Outlets are always a problem in places built before people needed to plug in much stuff, no matter where you are in the world, but I’ve never lived in a older home in the US that hasn’t been remodeled. The outlets in Tokmok were actually pretty good; only one set didn’t work and they weren’t important. It was interesting having one socket in the bathroom which was shared between the washing machine and water heater (and any other electrical item you might normally use in a bathroom), but I never had a reason so complain about them.

At least half the outlets here don’t work or the appliance cords don’t reach an outlet. The microwave and the fan over the stove share an power strip which would be fine, except they are 2 meters from each other so they can’t be going at the same time. Not a big deal. The A/C cord can’t reach anything either and there is an elaborate set of cords and power strips from the one functioning outlet on one half of the house. So much for the fire safety merit badge.

But the outlet annoyances are nothing compared to the water annoyances in Tokmok, and I really can’t think of any other inconveniences here. It’s quiet (for Bishkek- the traffic noise will never stop), the windows work well, the neighbors are nice, the building is reasonable, the stores are nearby, and the water is usually on. Even when it turns off for the day, it’s not a big deal, because it always comes back.

Looking for the Good or the Bad in Kyrgyzstan?

2011-09-20T16:34:00.000+06:00

After posting a relatively positive bit about Bishkek yesterday, a not-so-positive post from a volunteer in Bishkek came across my reader. (I'd link to it, but sometimes I can't pull up blogspot blogs on our current internet connection and this is one of those times, so maybe I can add it later.)

Yes. There are problems here. There are people who don't have places to live, or enough to eat, or any way to find work or to educate their children. Some days you think you can't stand it anymore and wish you could fix everything.

But sometimes it feels as if some of the humanitarian people, the volunteers, the missionaries, aren't trying to figure out what's working here or they just don't see it. And there is a lot that works in Kyrgyzstan. My husband's research here isn't specifically about solving humanitarian problems, but he has learned a lot about how problems in general are resolved, whether it's a dispute with a neighbor, a house that burns down, or a family who doesn't have money to buy coal for the winter. It doesn't surprise me to hear that when a family is robbed, their neighbors bring food and clothing, or give them money. It doesn't surprise me to hear of a woman whose house burns down and the neighbors take care of her and help rebuild. Neighbors take care of each other and so do families.

Even in places that are very poor, there are local social systems, often informal, created to help people. There are wealthy people in this country who donate significant amounts of money to make sure their neighbors aren't freezing, to rebuild public spaces, and to help individuals who ask for money. It's not enough, but it's far from non-existent.

The NGOs and missionaries and whatever are important. A person living here has to be part of those social systems to get help and people who are outside them are the ones whose situations are desperate and need help. NGOs can make a big difference for those people and there are many wonderful examples of the things they have done

But please, don't try to convince me that the people of Kyrgyzstan aren't doing the best they can for themselves and each other. I believe that they are and often they do a very good job.

You've Come a Long Way, Bishkek

2011-09-19T21:58:00.000+06:00

We've only been back in Bishkek for two weeks (besides about 15 bus trips here the previous 8 months), and I knew things would be different, but I really am surprised at how much has changed. I've talked to a few people, both local and American, who feel the same way. There were a few things I'd noticed in Tokmok, like dating couples holding hands, but I hadn't spent much time in Tokmok before so I really couldn't know what had changed there.

But Bishkek is different. There was a lot of new construction in 2005/6 underway and most of that is finished. The city looks newer and more put together in general. There are little things too, like seeing armored security doors on more apartment blocks. You can tell more flats have been remodeled by the huge number of new windows in all the buildings. There is a general feeling that people have more money, and that doesn't only come from the higher prices for everything.

There's also a lot more products and services available, or they're much easier to find. We were satisfied to get 28k dialup in 2005 because, as I recall, the only other real option was slightly faster internet for nearly $100/month. Now we're getting unlimited broadband at home (it's slow for broadband, but still) for $50/month, and it was quick and easy to connect.

One Kyrgyz friend I talked to about this also mentioned that she feels that people are kinder to each other and more willing to help, and that many of the changes I'm seeing happened since the last revolution. She's happier with Roza Otunbaeva as president, and she felt that what happened last June made people realize what could happen here, but didn't. It was an interesting conversation.

Anyway, I do feel that Bishkek has changed for the better. Not just because I can find red lentils at the bazaar next to my house, but because the city feels different. It feels, maybe, a little like hope.

Laughing in the Peanut Butter Aisle

2011-09-17T01:00:00.000+06:00

I was searching for places to buy peanut butter that isn't 8 dollars a kilo when I found this:

On a trip to the local marketplace, my host family was completely baffled when I started snapping photos. The brilliant spices piled into neat cones were just "life as usual" to them. And when I handed over my jar of peanut butter to lighten my load before departing, they were equally puzzled. We didn’t share enough language for me to explain that the brown goo inside was made from the same legumes they munched almost every day.

Fortunately, my Bishkek family had a chance to come visit me the next year. Using our mutual language of pantomime and Russian-English dictionary flipping, they managed to tell me they wanted to buy some peanut butter. I took them to the local Safeway, where they were just as transfixed as I’d been at their local market. I started laughing as they snapped photo after photo. Suddenly they understood my bizarre behavior back in Bishkek. We all laughed and laughed, right there in the peanut butter aisle.

Love it.

And apparently I am having a posting frenzy today, but I think this is it.