Bodyguards

Saturday 2nd August 08

44 degrees, 16% humidity. 4 hours sleep (due to the heat). There is no air con in the hotel, the fan in the room just recycles the heated air but it is bearable. I opened my case with the help of numerous staff and an array of tools. The padlock was reassuringly tough.

This morning we watched NZ beat Australia on the big screen in Mad Murphy’s Irish Pub where all the expats hang out. People are acclimatising well. I met Luke, an Irish lad with exceptional Russian, whose job is to promote and train rugby in Kazakhstan. Then I left to write this entry. I am sat in the Guns and Roses Pub-Grille (www.thegunsandroses.com) which is part of the hotel. A wireless laptop is not an uncommon site.

The eclipse yesterday was only very partial. The markets are filled with a colourful array of dried apricots, raisins, apples (apples come from Kazakhstan), bananas, lemons, berries, melons and the biggest water melons I have ever seen. Mutated or hormone injected I think I will leave them on the shelf. Visitors are harangued from all sides as they walk through a corridor of fruit. The wild strawberries are so rich you can smell them through the packaging. Tomatoes taste like no European tomato has tasted before.

Nothing is really happening until Monday morning when we are scheduled to meet the Ambassador and other dignitaries for the political opening of the school. The license was completed last week and the curriculum has received approval form the powers that be. Then we are going to see the apartments for the first time.

The school site is still some way off being completed but we are told it will be ready (hence the Kazakh construction firm have dismissed the need for a back up plan). Another topic of concern is : how many body guards would you allow into the classroom? More than a few pupils will come from very wealthy families where assassination and kidnap are real threats. I need to appoint a milk monitor. Maybe they will come in handy…