Radio fame

Well today was certainly not the average day beacause I gave my first LIVE radio interview in Russian to the town! It lasted about 10 minutes. I had the questiosn an hour or so before and then worked out some answers. During the interview the journalist spoke in Russian, it was then translated and I spoke in Engish before the answer being translated... but for two of the questions I answered in Russian!! After the end of the show they informed me the listerners of the station number 30000!!! Well it is the only station that can be tuned in on FM in the town! All quite fun and i had the next song dedicated to me.... at the end of the interview I was asked to come back and have a live phone in chat show with the youth of the city .... watch this space I could have my own weekly show at this rate.... All quite fun but out of the blue - I only got told an hour before!!

And this morning I had to give an impromptu seminar on volunteering to my interpreters class of students - she asked me to come along to sit in on thier Kazakh lesson and learn some Kazakh but the novelty of an English man in the classroom meant that they had an English lesson instead. I then followed it with a hard core Russian lesson Soviet style! My interpreter, who is the head of languages, has arranged for me to have lessons with her best teacher of Russian and no mtter how much I subtly suggest having my lessons with someone who speaks at least some Engish she is havign none of it.... so I said I will try it out for a bit and to give her her due the lesson was understandable and she had prepared although the pace is slow due to the language barrier...we will see

No news from the orphanage - different cook today so no plate with the ball of meat and cabbage.

Temperature - mornings chilly (jumper weather) but warming up thoughout the day and by about 5pm it reaches 30+ degrees.... winter seems a long way off but I fear it is creeping nearer.