So I ran off to drop Lewis's printed homework to him, and I ended up with a Pakistani driver. I always have great conversations with taxi driver's. This one came to Kyrgyzstan to go to school to be a pharmacist. He did pharmacy school for five years, two years on internship, and now has been working the real job for over a year. He makes 8,000 soms a month, which is $133. That's right: a professional pharmacist. So he drives a cab on the side. He has a wife, a house, a five year old and another child, whose age I have forgotten (3)? And now he is a Kyrgyz citizen. Really nice guy.

And once again I find myself interested in his lack of mastery of Russian. He makes all sorts of mistakes that I wouldn't expect after eight years in Kyrgyzstan, and supposedly he speaks some KG, too, in addition to Urdu and English.

By day eleven I mean day eleven if you only count weekdays since we have been here. Classes as usual. All seems calm there.

One major annoyance today. I got a call from Lewis's family. He had vomited once Sunday night and again on Monday morning. He also had a fever early in the day, which decreased toward day's end. This of course increased the family's fear of the event of his losing the use of his legs, although he is walking again today. The mother insisted that the smartest move was to take him to the doctor or the hospital, although of course she doesn't really trust doctors or hospitals locally and couldn't suggest a reliable one, and she is really afraid of being held responsible for his illness.

There are some amusing side issues. Lewis was capable of doing homework that day, but they refused to let him, insisting that he remain in a prone position. They also refused to let him drink water, because water makes you sick. (The personnel at the US Embassy here notes that the water always tests fine in Bishkek, better than the water in Moscow and Petersburg.) Lewis could drink tea if they made it, but not green tea from the bottle, because that stuff is just made from a Chinese powder.

Part of the reason the family was so afraid was that their daughter ended up in in the hospital for a month and a half last year due to food poisoning from a vegetable. And also from fruits. And also from something she ate from the street. And Lewis admitted to eating watermelon on Saturday, which everyone knows is something you can't do this time of year, only in October, because this time of year the watermelons sit in the sun and go bad.

Myself, I first accompanied student groups to Russia starting in 1987, which means I have almost thirty years experience with this, if you care to count it that way. I've seen a lot of traveller's illnes and some serious food poisoning. In my thirty years I've seen three cases where a doctor's intervention seemed sensible. One of them in fact did not need it. The current situation does not particularly resemble the serious ones.

Russian and Kyrgyz medical opinions are essentially superstitions, but there is not a chance in hell that one is going to change them in a short conversation. And they were afraid of being held accountable for his illness. So I agreed to take him to my apartment for the evening. He climbed the stairs to the apartment without aid. He did the homework he had missed for the day. He had a bit of a headache, and he asked me to grab some ibuprofen for him, which I did. His stomach was slightly nauseated, so I asked the pharmacist what should be given to a twenty-year old guy who had nausea and had had a bit of vomiting. She suggested domperidone. I brought that home, told Lewis that the pharmacist had recommended this, gave the standard caveats that I am not a doctor and cannot advise that he take it, bla-bla-bla.

Frankly, Lewis seems mostly fine. He himself feels no need for a doctor. And so our day came to an end.

Last night the internet was out for many hours. I thought it was a problem with O, the company that provides my internet service. Turns out a whole bunch of internet companies were simply non-connected. Curious. I wonder if the whole city was affected?

Lewis woke feeling mostly good. Ate some bread and cheese for breakfast along with some mixed tropical-fruit juice. His body tolerated them decently. We then slowly walked to class. He did classes just fine. We chatted a bit about strategy for the evening. I think he'll stay one more night with me. I'd hate for him to barf again at his home stay, which would, I think, pretty well seal his fate of not returning there.

Classes went fine today. I sat in on the second third-year group. They are so talented. They make me proud. The conversation teacher said that Jefferson had nearly native pronunciation.

Quite a few in our group are ill. From the Barskoon trip four students were ill on Monday. The first and second had headcolds. (The second was treated by his babushka who placed a vodka-soaked towel around his neck, which made him feel better by Tuesday.) The third and fourth had stomach or bowel issues. From the Ala-Archa trip Franklin is still ill with an ear infection, and maybe with a lagging cold for the third week in a row. Another had stomach/bowel issues. Lewis had nausea. That means six were ill with things that might be attributed to the weekend events, or 25% of my group. That's the most illness I've ever had at once in a group. For the most part you count on 10% of your students being sick on any given day. The Barskoon group got caught in a cold downpour, which may have had something to do with it. The Ala-Archa group ate some watermelon...

The other day I mentioned that a pharmacist here makes 8,000 soms a month. My cousin wondered how that related to the cost of living, which is quite a good question.

The average cost of living here for a working age man is 5,800 soms. For a working age woman, 5,600 soms. For each child, 4,300 soms. So for this guy his family's minimum cost of living is 24,300 soms. And that's why he drives a taxi in his off hours. Amazing, eh?

(Those numbers are cost of living per month, as of the second quarter of 2014.)

Smooth day on the whole. It's a Wednesday, so classes don't meet. Students get together with their language coaches, and some had a cooking or crafts class. The crafts class strikes me as too childish. We'll eliminate that for next year.

I don't think I care for having classes four days a week. I'd prefer to have slightly less class time each day, but have classes five days a week.