A few cultural bits.

I am sat in the dinning room listening to You and Yours so know that the weather is quite good in the UK. Today started beautifully but it is now raining here.  In my new accommodation I cannot listen to the radio which is why I have come over here to catch up with the news - I guess not having heard the news for a week makes me feel more just here, rather than being an English person abroad.  But here I am re-connecting to the UK.

It has been a quiet day today.  Just working on schemes of work, so thought I would take this opportunity to say something about my brief observations of the culture here.

1) People do seem to be very kind.  The staff here have been working all hours, every day, but are never anything but kind, supportive and courteous.   So far everyone I have met has been very kind.
2) The rooms we stay in are only lockable from the  inside. So when I go to work, my room is left open and that was even the case in Biskek.
3) People often do not like to sit on the ground, rather they will hunker down; sometimes someone on their own, just sat hanging there so to speak.   I guess it is like us standing around. The loos at school are mix of sit down and hunker down but loos on the farm lands are hunker down.
4) Shaking hands is very important to people locally especially between men.
5) We use beds in the hotel but because we are full the local guide had to sleep in the house were I am now staying and he just used the old form of bedding, a sort of futon really, on the floor. But they are nice and colourful.
6) Islam does not seem to have a huge impact on alcohol consumption.
7) Alcohol consumption is part of the reason for the high road accident rate and the large difference between male and female average age of longevity.

Anway: the rain has stopped, the clouds are lifting revealing the mountains again and the staff are getting the room ready for dinner. So I will leave things there for today.