Kyrgyzstan Election Day & and Update
Brief post. I am sitting in a newly airconditioned internet cafe on Sunday, July 10th. Today is Election Day in Kyrgyzstan. For the most part, everything is fairly normal here in Osh. With the exception of a few stores and restaurants being closed, folks here are going about their business. The woman who operates the internet cafe told me she already voted this morning and I've seen many expats around these past few days who have come to observe and monitor the process.
Peace Corps has placed us on Standfast (from July 5th-July 17th)--which essentially means we can not leave our sites (for me this means Osh). This is just a safety precaution in case they need track us down quickly. Again, so far so good regarding the elections. Some local people believe there could be some demonstrations and/or provocations, but only time will tell.
Friday, I held my third weekly discussion club on American Family Structures (again, students choose the topics and I facilitate the discussion). Three PCV guest speakers joined in the discussion and we opened the topic by providing students with our personal family histories. Each of us, (the volunteers) come from very different backgrounds so it was a great way to demonstrate that families in the US are as diverse as the country itself. There were betweed 20-25 students who attended the club on friday (up from 12 the first week).
For next Friday, the students decided to discuss the Electoral Process of the United States compared to Kyrgyzstan's Electoral Process. Should be interesting and I hope to bring in another volunteer who worked on an Election Campaign in the U.S. before joing the PC.
My Grant Writing Seminar for teachers will be held on Tuesday and Wednesday of this week. Six hours of talking about the grant writing process...I hope I don't put them to sleep.
In short, the new job has kept me busy. I haven't had much time to reflect these last few weeks... I hope to write more soon.
Enjoy the summer. It's 103 degrees in Osh today and we are thankful for this cold front. Whew.
Take care,
Larry Tweed
Peace Corps has placed us on Standfast (from July 5th-July 17th)--which essentially means we can not leave our sites (for me this means Osh). This is just a safety precaution in case they need track us down quickly. Again, so far so good regarding the elections. Some local people believe there could be some demonstrations and/or provocations, but only time will tell.
Friday, I held my third weekly discussion club on American Family Structures (again, students choose the topics and I facilitate the discussion). Three PCV guest speakers joined in the discussion and we opened the topic by providing students with our personal family histories. Each of us, (the volunteers) come from very different backgrounds so it was a great way to demonstrate that families in the US are as diverse as the country itself. There were betweed 20-25 students who attended the club on friday (up from 12 the first week).
For next Friday, the students decided to discuss the Electoral Process of the United States compared to Kyrgyzstan's Electoral Process. Should be interesting and I hope to bring in another volunteer who worked on an Election Campaign in the U.S. before joing the PC.
My Grant Writing Seminar for teachers will be held on Tuesday and Wednesday of this week. Six hours of talking about the grant writing process...I hope I don't put them to sleep.
In short, the new job has kept me busy. I haven't had much time to reflect these last few weeks... I hope to write more soon.
Enjoy the summer. It's 103 degrees in Osh today and we are thankful for this cold front. Whew.
Take care,
Larry Tweed
posted by letweed at
1:21 AM
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