To my great shock, our group was invited to the home of the American Ambassador to Kyrgyzstan, the Honorable Richard M. Miles. The Ambassador's staff laid out a sensible vegetarian pizza spread with beverages, and I have to say his discussion with us was about the most broad-ranging I've ever heard on the subject of Kyrgyzstan and its cooperative ventures with the US. Our students were delighted with the event. I chatted a bit as well with the Public Affairs Specialist and some of the security folks. These guys are really on the ball.

The Ambassador pro tem is here without his wife, whom circumstances have prevented from traveling. Poor guy. Two of our students speculated that here he is living in a huge house without a spouse so it is no wonder he was desperate for a bunch of English-speakers to listen to him talk. :) BTW, I have never seen a bunch of twenty-year olds behave themselves with such respect and decorum as our group did yesterday. I was quite pleased with them.

The new Ambassador will be here in five or six weeks. Her confirmation was delayed and delayed by the senate, which the Ambassador ascribed to senatorial incompetence, which might have been politic on his part; I ascribed it to partisanship. The new Ambassador speaks Russian and has apparently been working on Kyrgyz a bit, too.