as i have posted on here before - my wife and i live in bishkek, kyrgyzstan (central asia) where we have been for the past two years. it is a pretty crazy place to live. the best way i can describe it is kyrgyzstan is like mexico but everyone is asian and speaks russian. living overseas has been a great experience for us and we just signed a contract to return here next year. i think it is safe to say we are turning in to lifelong ex-pats. basketball is a pretty popular and growing sport here. nothing like in america or europe - but lots of kids want to play. the gyms are old soviet era buildings with old wood floors (think hoosiers) that are either way to narrow, too short, or too long. i coached a club team last year made up of expat kids and since we didn't have anyone to play - i started a high school level league here so we could play against local (we call them 'russian' schools). my 'success' (i use that word loosely) led to my coaching this year 'ak bars' - one of the men's professional teams. the league is only two years old and financed by the local russian mafia (true story). the talent in the league ranges from solid level pickup game at the local ymca to mid-level college (end of bench) talent. i have three guys from my team who play on the kyrgyz national team who are all pretty good. the league is actually pretty cool as players are paid full time salaries ($300 USD a month... which is a standard salary here) and the owners are running it to try to promote basketball in central asia (or to launder their drug and prostitution money... but who is counting!). anyway - the whole point of this post is to say i am crazy about basketball. and i love me some houston rockets. the hardest part of being overseas has been not getting to watch the rockets on a regular basis. i download games sometimes from here and try to watch them on tv (we get espn international which shows games). but as the rockets aren't national tv much and because there is a 12 hour time difference between here in houston - i hardly every get to see a game - for instance the houston/utah game being broadcast wednesday night. it will be thursday morning here and i will have to be at work. or maybe i won't. full fledged revolution has broken out here this afternoon. the us embassy school where i work closed early as kids were evacuated by armed security guards. wide spread looting is going on. from our apartment you can hear machine guns. billows of smoke from fires are rising above apartment tops. pretty scary stuff. just to to bbc news or the ny times and you will find coverage of what is going on. all of this craziness and all i can think about is "i don't have to go to work tomorrow and now i will get to watch the rockets kick the crap out of the jazz on espn!". go rockets!
Wow, video of the chaos is already up on Youtube: <object width="640" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/0L1srqYLnu8&rel=0&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/0L1srqYLnu8&rel=0&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en_US&feature=player_embedded&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" width="640" height="385"></embed></object>
i hadn't seen that video yet. thanks for sharing. kind of crazy hearing so much gunfire going on outside. i crept out to the street next to our apartment and and peaked towards the main square (the first thing shown in the youtube video) which is only a block away. the radio is saying that water could be shut off soon as the opposition has taken over the water pump plant. i am going to be so bummed if the power gets cut and i can't watch the game after all of this!
David, Excited for you to be able to watch the game, however worried that that seems to be #1 on the priority list. Is the embassy urging you to evacuate as well?
we have been told that embassy staff and dependents get evacuated first. as we are contractors we are mostly on our own. they won't let us hole up at the embassy or anything. but the protest are in no way anti-american (at this point) they are just anti-corrupt government. not motivated by religion or anything. just a bunch of people feed up at a corrupt government. thanks for your concern.
Stay safe David... and yay for cheering against the Jazz! I just hope we can keep this one from getting ugly.
no place to go. it is dark here now and we hear shooting all outside. safer to hole up than try to make it out of the city.
hehe, especially if you're not a Mormon. Looks like your story made the MSNBC front page: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36214883/ns/world_news-south_and_central_asia
to be honest... it isn't as exciting as when i made my first post. a bit scary. the sky is lit with fires and we hear machine guns and explosions on a fairly regular basis. at the same time my wife just made some brownies and we are going to watch the houston/boston game which just finished downloading. what else are we suppose to do?
Yeah, just don't cheer too loudly. They may expect that there is a revolution going on at your place.
The Boston game had a heckuva finish. Don't whoop too loudly when AB makes that 3! Stay safe, and stay alert!
