Remembering Days of Old: Osh, Kyrgyzstan

Osh, Kyrgyzstan: March 24, 2006

Nooruz Morning: March 21st, 2006: Soviet Silhouette. Largest statue of Lenin in Kyrgyzstan.

March 21st, 2006: Nooruz (Central Asian/Muslim/Persian New Year). Swinging Fun in the Park.

Dancing Widows: Nooruz Holiday

Dancing Uzbek Girls: Osh City, Nooruz Holiday, March 21, 2006

Kyrgyz Salsa on Nooruz in Osh

Nooruz: Bubbles in the park

Nooruz: Balloons for sale.

Music of Central Asia in NY City Next Week!

The Music of Central Asia on Stage in New York, Tuesday, March 21, 2006:

Exile from Kabul, Fourteenth-Century Poetry in Tajikistan, and the Music of Nomadic Kyrgyzstan

Ranging from Kabul to Samarkand, VIA KABUL: Central Asia Without Borders features Homayun Sakhi, admired as the outstanding Afghan rubab player of his generation, Tengir-Too, a Kyrgyz ensemble that reveals the passions and rhythms of mountain nomads, and The Academy of Maqam, which sets mystical, Sufi-inspired verse to lyrical melodies that were once played in the pleasure domes of Samarkand and Bukhara.


Tuesday, March 21
8:00 pm Concert
Miller Theatre at Columbia University
116th & Broadway
New York City
$15 tickets for the public, call the Miller Box Office 212-854-7799 or visit in person M - F 12 – 6 PM

Co-presented by the Aga Khan Music Initiative in Central Asia and the Columbia University Arts Initiative.

Click Here for more information on the NYC concert.

Additional concert dates in DC, TX, NM, and OH:

ENJOY THE SHOW!!!

New Crustacean Discovered in Osh, Kyrgyzstan!!!! Who would've thought that in one of the most land-locked countries in the world, you could almost have fresh lobster. This giant crayfish was plucked from the icy waters of Papan reservoir (southeast of Osh) and brought, along with twenty of his clawed kin, to market at the Osh Bazaar.

Center for American Studies: Students working on the computers that were purchased with funding from the Peace Corps Partnerhship Project. The students would like to give their sincere thanks to all of you who donated to this project. The computers are used all day long, 6 days/week.

Center for American Studies: Osh, Kyrgyzstan. This is where i work! In the background you can see my colleague, Cholpon, and fellow volunteer Bryan Schubert.

Students working at the Center for American Studies. Thanks again to all of those people who contributed to the Peace Corps Partnership Project!

Winter mountains

Rhythms Hidden in the White Noise of Rain

Spring rains beat against the cold earth pounding softness back into the soil like a cook tenderizing a slab of meat. I stand before the window, place my hands on the sill and lean forward. The glass steams under my breath. Neither my eyes nor mind can focus as the unremitting rains blur the world outside. I’m reminded of paintings; Vegetable Garden at the Hermitage and Waterloo Bridge—and in seeing the world softly smudged as I do, I feel a sort of kinship with Pisarro and Monet.

I stare beyond the knobby branches of the apple tree, passed the rusty rebar and steel girded gardens, across the cratered, puddling dirt road. I stare into the empty space between the drops of rain—how oddly silent it is, a concert without sound. Out there, you would hear the drops explode in puddles and smack against the budding branches. Out there, your hair would clump and mat to your brow while the tops of your thighs darkened with rain.

Warm and dry, I muse by the window as motes of dust settle silently upon me—and then I go...Out there.