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11:25 14 February 2009

Well, I suppose in the spirit of this most Hallmark of holidays, I should announce something that many of you may already know or suppose. For the past two months and change I have been dating Saori, one of the two JICA volunteers that live in my village. Sorry I didn’t announce it earlier, but I felt a variety of discretionary steps should be taken before I made the news of my relationship public with the readership of this blog. She is a simply wonderful girl and I couldn’t be happier to be in a relationship with her. While it came unexpectedly to me, as I said, I am really happy and spending time with her (which due to her fortuitous proximity) is one of the things I most look forward to in my life here. I’ll spare you all the details, I hardly would find this an appropriate forum for the discussion of my love life any way, but rest assured that I am in good spirits most of the time here, and Saori is a large part of that.

Interestingly enough, while Valentine’s Day isn’t widespread in celebration here (it is gaining in popularity though) it falls on the same day upon which the Kyrgyz (and I would assume most of the former Soviet Union) remembers the veterans specifically of the (Soviet) War in Afghanistan. It was interesting to see students marching with wooden mock Kalashnikovs made in shop class in honor of the veterans of the war. It was certainly a type of demonstration that I think would be odd to see in the United States or the West in general, such demonstrations of military among children, some not older than fourteen, seems very out of sync. Regardless it was an interesting dichotomy to see some try and celebrate a day ostensibly about love while many others honored those who had participated in a war.