Opportunity Knocks

Rita is coming to America! She won a slot in the TEA program through IREX that sends teachers to the states for a summer program. We're not sure where she'll be yet, but if any teacher deserves it, it's Rita! Hopefully we can rally a bunch of old volunteers together and make her feel at home. She cooked for us every week in tstan--because she promised Allah that if her daughter made it to America to studey on the FLEX exchange program that she would have the volunteers over for Sunday lunch as long as they were in Balkanabat. Hopefully we can show her some of the same hospitality in the states! Congrats Rita!

Igor

I was eating spaghetti when the phone rang and asked for Miss Kari. Who the heck in Moscow knows me as Miss Kari? Turns out Altyn somebody from Tstan passing along a hello from Igor my favorite violin student! Whoever Altyn is, she says Igor won the city-wide olympiad in math and is getting an A in violin. I passed along the best of the best back and only after I hung up did I realize I should have gotten Altyn's phone number so I could send them back a gift! Blin.

They told us during our orientation that messages will come from the most random people in the most random places. People have learned to deal with the lack of available communication methods. Evolution? Or just avoidance of all government services. Better send Altyn with a message as opposed to trusting the post or the phone. . .