More gritting.

Just discovered that the people occupying my room are here till the 15th so perhaps I should unpack and see if I can work out where everything is as things I thought were at work weren't.  

Having crashed out again, after my phone call, I eventually got to work about 12. Only me, the cleaner (and her grand-daughter) , the security guard and an artist were there. The artist has painted snow so real it blows me away, close up it is useless, but from 20 feet away I can even see it sparkle.   At times I am collapsing into paroxysms of coughing, which is horrid,  but in many ways otherwise okay.  It felt nice to be back.

The security guard, bless him cooked us all dinner, so that was nice.  He is always kind. Despite having about 10 words in common we three managed to talk about the size of the British population, art and Islam. (The cleaner and her grand child had gone home)  The artist graphically putting his hands over his eyes when talking about the latter.  He said that Kyrgyzstan is not like other central Asian countries, that it is not Islamic, despite the centuries of Islamic tradition and that is what others tell me, but definitely some younger Kyrgyz have come under the influence of Islamisation. He also thought that the countries population was smaller than stated and that this was done for political reasons.   So amazing what you can talk about over dinner despite language barriers, that is assuming I understood him correctly, when I got back to the Ashu yesterday I understood I would be in my room by today!

One of my colleagues came into work briefly, gave me a hug, the third I have had since getting back to the Ashu.  She introduced me to her granddaughters. I teach her two grandsons. But the granddaughters live in Bishkek and are not currently learning English to her disappointment.   She is only 4 years older than me, but has at least 4 grandchildren. It took my step father up until his 80's to get to that position.  

 Otherwise I had the place to myself. The colour printer has disappeared but mercifully the black and white worked so I have been able to do some prep work., which was some consolation and I sorted out some of the many tri-lingual flash cargs that are hung around the school.