Winding Down

Tomorrow is my last day in country - and this week has gone fast.  Each day has been full of working with our nutrition manager on envisioning how this project is going to succeed in meeting all the targets and objectives laid out in the contract.  We had numerous meetings both internally and externally to try to work out all the details.  The trick is that we are not doing separate activities but instead integrating our messaging and training into other areas of the project (and therefore have not budget of our own either).

It has been nice to be walking distance to the office - a straight 20 minute shot.  Notable events have been navigating lunch options at local restaurants with my colleague (and translator) and yesterday, so far the only day, the weather cleared enough that I finally saw the majestc, snowy mountain range to the south of the city. 

Pictures for these posts will have to wait until I go home since for some reason on either the hotel network or this computer, images are failing to load. 

 

Weekend in Bishkek

Friday night I flew back to Bishkek.  I was only going to spend the weekend (with a business meeting to make it worthwhile) but it turned out that my colleague would be coming to Bishkek next week to present the work plan to the boss, so we decided she would come early and we could work here. 

It is nice being back and staying again at the same hotel as my work associate from the partner organization.  She invited me out to a pizza place with another expat friend of hers.  Very good food - though you can smoke in restaurants which got to be a little much.  I'm glad another friend suggested I pack Febreeze. 

Saturday she took me on a long walk up to the center of town to meet a Kyrgyz colleague for some shopping and lunch at a Chinese restaurant.  It is unfortunate to be here in winter because they kept assuring me that it is actually very beautiful when there are leaves on all the trees and the flowers bloom.  I browsed some of the typical Kyrgyz souvenirs and did my best to make some quick purchases since it was likely my only opportunity on this short trip.  In total we walked 5 miles which was a nice way to stretch the legs after sitting in offices and meetings all week.

This Sunday afternoon she and I will meet with my project director to further figure out how these two projects are going to collaborate - and hopefully how my team is going to be able to meet their activity goals.