Bishkek!

So here we are, four days into a week of research designed to culiminate in some ideas for mobile social software for the developing world. I'm blogging from my "bed" on the livingroom couch in the apartment I'm sharing with three UW students on a 28.8 dialup connection, and luxuriating in the fact that it's nearly 9am and I haven't yet had to rush out to an Internet cafe to print out consent forms for an impending interview.

We're having a great time. Although the apartment situation has some reality show overtones, things are running remarkably smoothly. Tomorrow we hop into a mashrutka (share minibus) for a trip to a town called Karabata, a former industrial town somewhere near the border of Kazakhstan, about 2 hours away. We’ll do a second round of interviews there, and then spend the night (our team of 4 and the 3 translators) in a 2 room apartment, then hop another share minbus back to town. One student, Mark, goes home that night, and then we do a day of debrief, then Emma heads home and Erica and I are off to Tajikistan.

The city looks great, at least in the center where we have been spending our time. Lots of new stores, good streets, new cars – BMWs and Audis and Mercedes – and it is thoroughly unclear where, exactly, the money is coming from. There’s still lots of shuttle traders going back and forth to China (and flying back and forth to Korea), but there is clearly wealth here and no one seems able to account for it. The best explanation we’ve heard is international aid – but that hardly accounts for a GDP. When we get out to the region we’ll see a more realistic picture of the country which should be telling.

I've always found Bishkek the friendliest Central Asian city, and it's definitely living up to that reputation. Things here can be downright easy. Erica pointed me to the most amazingly efficient travel agency (Kyrgyz Concept, if you find youself in Bishkek; they rock), shopping is transparent and pleasant, and although the city seems to slow a bit in the heat, there's a lovely rhythym to life here.