The First of Many Goodbyes

Day 23: This was my last full day for promoting research at Ala-Too International University. This morning, the International Office hosted a seminar, “The Role of International Relations Offices (IRO) in Promotion of Research and Development in Universities.” The office staff, particularly Dinara and Kyzjibek, did an amazing job preparing materials and setting up the room.

The rector, deputy director of the Department of Science at Ministry of Education and Science and the vice rector on science introduced the day. Each was scheduled to speak about 10 minutes, but the vice rector had a lot of information to share. I was grateful I had already met with him, as all the talks were in Russian. I remembered some of what he shared in our discussion about the Kyrgyz education system.

I was last speaker before the coffee break, so I provided a brief introduction about the importance of research in the United States and the role of international offices in supporting research. We had a quick coffee/tea break, also beautifully set up. After the break, I shared information about the Fulbright and State Department grants, emphasizing the Fulbright Specialist projects.

There were only two other talks in English, one about research/scholarship opportunities in Germany and another about international study opportunities in the Czech Republic. The information the shared was also applicable to Americans, so I appreciated the information. Some of the talks also had slides in English so I could learn a bit from them too.

 

The seminar was related to my Fulbright Specialist project, though I feel I had just a small part. At the conclusion there was a long statement about “America,” “Fulbright” and “Lisa Lawson,” but those were the only words I understood. After the seminar, we had lunch in the same room where we celebrated Teacher’s Day on my arrival. It seemed fitting to close the experience in the same way it began.

 

While I am excited to return home, I regret I am just now meeting people with disability and recreation connections. If I’d met some of these people earlier, I would have had the opportunity to visit autism centers and NGOs, adapted recreation centers, etc. Unfortunately, the invitations came too late. 

I spent the afternoon finalizing workshop materials to share with participants. On our last day, I asked the group to read an article ahead of time and shared information about how to critically analyze research. Our room was locked, so we moved to the seminar room, which worked well for a discussion-based workshop.

Unfortunately, despite announcing it each day and sending the article to organizers for distribution Monday and Thursday, only four participants had received it. We managed the discussion by projecting the article, but it would have been a much more valuable experience with the opportunity to read carefully before we met.

As always, the group was gracious and had excellent questions, not just about critically analyzing the article, but how to implement and grade a journal club experience with students. I’m impressed that the dedicated faculty attended about 10 hours of research training this week on top of the 18-20+ hours they teach (not including prep time). Participants received certificates signed by me, an embassy representative and university leader. It was fun to spend time handing them out and celebrating. 


On Monday, we will have a round table discussion to share ideas for continuing to promote research at Ala Too International University. I look forward to sharing my observations and hearing from some of the great people I’ve worked with this month.

At the end of the day, I was tired but needed some groceries. I had written a pick-up time and location “18:15 Globus” for my driver when he dropped me off. Globus is close to the university, so I walked and picked up a few things. I’ve been late every night this week, but tonight both the seminar and grocery shopping didn’t take as long as expected, so I let the driver’s daughter know I was done in case he was nearby. He was at the university!

Communication is challenging as always. He drove up to get me a few minutes later and pointed to the clock. So at least we communicated the time correctly. When we arrived at apartment, Mutarbek needed to communicate something to me, and he suggested Russian. I wish I’d known that earlier … it works so much better than Kyrgyz in Google translate! He wanted to let me know he will be away for a funeral and may not see me again.

That goodbye came earlier than expected. Though communication was a challenge for both of us, he was very patient with me as I tried out my new Kyrgyz words. Even when I pronounced them so poorly they were unrecognizable. He was a constant source of safety and security during my time here, and I regret I don’t have the words to tell him that. At least I could express my condolences through Google translate. I have had many good-byes today, and I know there are many more to come.