Speakers and Socialists

Last weekend (after a meatless but nevertheless delicious Thanksgiving dinner in a nearby village. I'm pretty sure that I will make pumpkin pie with fresh pumpkin from now on -- it's that delicious.), I headed out to complete the first (and, arguably, most exciting) phase of our club renovation project: the purchase of all the electronic sound equipment. My school counterpart and her husband came with me, since -- much to their surprise, since I'm a technologically-savvy American in their minds -- I had absolutely no idea how to go about purchasing speakers, microphones, DVD players, or switchboards. We went to the cheapest and biggest bazaar in the area -- a huge expanse of booths selling everything from vodka to folding chairs to cardigans to toilet paper that was swarming with Kyrgyz, Uzbek, Russian, and Tajik buyers and sellers. At one point, I found myself in such a crush of people that I was literally carried about 15 feet by the masses before I found a way to release myself. Eventually, though, we made it to the back of the bazaar where all of the electronics are sold.
Like any good bargainer, my counterpart's husband made us go to every single speaker hawker in the bazaar (he's a bit of an electronics guru, which came in infinitely handy this day). This was made slightly complicated because of the fact that they are both these hugely tall Russians and I am this strange-looking redheaded person wearing a lime green fleece -- and therefore prime candidates for being ripped off. My counterpart told me not to speak English for this reason...but since they are Russian speakers and I know only Kyrgyz, our interactions probably looked kind of funny. First the big Russian guy goes up to the seller and surveys the merchandise. Then he talks to his equally tall wife in Russian, who then speaks to the redheaded girl in Kyrgyz. Anyway, the errand I thought might take an hour ended up taking three and a half...but we left with two big, beautiful 9000W speaker, two microphones, and an awesome new DVD player (which, to my director's relief, wasn't Chinese -- Kyrgyz people are very suspicious of Chinese manufactured items, since the stuff that makes it to Kyrgyzstan from China is usually complete crap, the stuff other countries didn't want). We presented them to the school the next morning -- which was an especially nice moment of appreciation for me. And I've scored major points with all the boys at school, who -- like their American counterparts -- are total technophiles. Can't wait for our Christmas disco, when the strength of the speakers will be tested by 50 the newest Enrique and Turkish techno music.

In other village news...earlier this week, I was walking through my village and noticed several new bright red banners hanging from formerly abandoned buildings. At first, I thought these might be some sort of holiday decoration...but then soon read the nationalistic slogans hanging beneath them and remembered that elections are coming up in a couple of weeks. President Bakiyev dissolved the Kyrgyz Parliament earlier this fall, after it failed to draft the new constitution in time. He then summarily started his own political party -- Ak Jol ("White Way" -- a reference to a moral, upright way of life, not a KKK-esque message) -- which is literally painting villages and cities red with its distinctive banners. Not to be outdone, though, a few of the opposition parties have also set up political offices in my village...including the Socialists. So I'm living in a technically democratic country which is currently in a state of political deadlock between the increasingly heavy-handed president and the increasingly vocal opposition (which includes the good-ole-Lenin-loving Socialists). This is kind of funny to me, since the only thing that's really changed in my village in the recent months has been the price of food necessities (flour prices have doubled -- and in a bread-loving culture like this one, that's been really hard on most families, especially those with lots of hungry children at home).

Also -- funny thing of the week: My kids came into class the other day and asked me what "Pimp My Ride" means (thank you, MTV, you globalizer, you). So I first had to explain what a 'pimp' was (I said that it was a person who organizes whores, which set them to giggles...the Kyrgyz word for 'whore,' by the way, also means 'to lick'). Then I explained that it can also refer to a girl or boy who is found very attractive by the opposite sex. So I had kids going around saying "I'm a pimp!" for the rest of the day. And it was awesome.