Ninja vs Penguin

Penguin July 30th, 2008

For the first time all trip, there were a bunch of mosquitos. I woke up with a few bites on my legs. I had told Charles multiple times to wake me up at 6, but he didn’t. Luckily, I woke up on my own at 6:40. Not that it really mattered in the end, because we ended up not going to the orphanage.

For breakfast, I had french fries and a side of tomato. They were salty and oily, but good.

Marcia showed up around 8:30 wearing this pretty dress. She said that we would probably go to the Mountain Camp to get an idea of the place and then come back. Marcia didn’t want to go in her dress, so she went home to change. In the meantime, I worked on questions and notes for the interview in the afternoon.

We were supposed to leave for the Mountain Camp at 10, but the guys woke up late and dragged their feet. We didn’t actually get going until close to 10:30. I rode with Esther, Marcia, Renata, Anita, Vicky, and Nadia.

On the way, I shot some footage of the mountains and various other things on the side of the road. It was hard because the ride was so bumpy. Hopefully some of the shots came out well. On the way up, Marcia and I listened to my iPod. I just kind of guessed at what she would like and managed to score a few times.

At the Mountain Camp, the air was really fresh and clear. We took a quick tour to see all the facilities.

At 12, I mentioned that we should probably head back to interview John Clarke and Camilla. They said that we could have lunch at the camp, so we went around and shot a little more stuff. We ended up not having lunch and leaving around 12:30. We listened to my iPod on the way back, but she only wanted to listen to slow songs.

We stopped by a small shop to pick up some sandwiches because James thought we didn’t have anything for lunch. When we got to the office, we found that lunch was already prepared for us. We had beef vegetable stew and a beef and onion stir fried noodle. The noodles were really good. The sandwiches that were purchased for us were pretty awful.

We were waiting for John and Camilla to come to the office at 1:30. 1:45 came around and we were told that they were already at the Institute getting ready to celebrate obtaining the license. We went over there and I interviewed John Clarke.

John was a really interesting fellow. He spent tons of times doing education and his knowledge of the Bible was pretty amazing too. It’s a wonder why he’s not a Christian. Still, he has some pretty interesting views and he’s not afraid to share them.

I wanted to spend more time talking with John, but we were told it was time for the celebration. They had fruits, such as bananas, peaches, grapes, watermelon, and apricots. They also had cake and soda. I wanted to enjoy the snack, but I was asked to get my camera. Sigh.

After the celebration, I had the chance to interview Camilla, the ex-prime minister of education of Kyrgyzstan. For some reason, she wasn’t nearly as eloquent as when she was at the meeting on Tuesday. She still managed to be great and there was a real sense of her passion for the project.

I wanted to spend more time with her too, but they had to leave at 4:15. I wanted to be respectful. They took a bunch of pictures. I was reluctant to get into one of them, but they were pretty insistant. When they finished, Marcia and I left to grab a taxi.

Back at the office, we grabbed some water and chilled before dinner. Marcia taught me some more Russian and tested me on the Russian that I already knew. I was getting ready to teach her some internet slang when I realized I didn’t have my clipboard. I started freaking out a little bit and realized I probably left it at the Institute. Marcia started calling around to see who was available so we could pick it up. I told them that it wasn’t that big of a deal.

The cook came up to me and asked how long she should wait. In my terrible broken Russian, I tried to say 6:15. That was assuming we found a ride back to the Institute. But the ride wasn’t the issue. We had to find a key to get into the director’s office.

After a few phone calls, it was evident that it was going to be too much trouble. As much as I wanted to do translation tonight and tomorrow, it could wait until Monday. Luckily, one of the staff had picked up my clipboard and I’d be able to get it on Saturday. Marcia and I relaxed and got ready for dinner.

Dinner was Russian pork tortellinis in broth. The cook suggested I add ranch dressing or ketchup. I wasn’t sure if she meant on the tortellinis or in the broth. Whichever it was, it ended up in the broth anyway. It didn’t really mix into the broth as it separated into small bits.

We were going to do some translation, but Marcia had to leave earlier. She showed me pictures of her boyfriend that she had on her camera, then we went to the second floor to look at all the pictures on the walls.

Her mom finished her work and we bid each other farewell.

Now, for my first night alone.

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Tags: Camilla, Documentaries, John Clarke, Kyrgyzstan, Missions, Mountain camp, Trips

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