Author: billkralovec

I will be documenting my life in Tashkent in this final year here.

Modern Uzbeks are known for producing delicious fruits and vegetables. There is a lot of agriculturally productive land here in the Ferghana Valley and along the Amu and Syr Dayra (rivers). Historically, the “Uzbeks” were a nomadic Turkic tribe and not farmers in the 15th and 16th centuries. They eventually encountered and assimilated with the sedentary, Persian-speaking agriculturalist Sogdian people in the oasis cities and farming areas here. The nomadic Uzbeks merged with the sedentary Sogdians, to be known today as producing the greatest variety of fruits, vegetables, and grains in Central Asia. One of the best things about living here is the great-tasting produce.

Several varieties of Uzbek table grapes are absolutely delicious. The wine industry here is not developed yet. My personal favorite variety is the white damski (lady fingers) grapes. They are the oldest variety, legend has it that they came from Samarkand during the Timur dynasty. The Rizamat variety is the most expensive and delicious as well. Rizamat grapes were named after Uzbek grape breeder Rizamat Musamukhamedov, one of the most famous viticulturists in Central Asia in the 20th century, The Mercedes variety originates from Tajikistan and are supposed to make delicious raisins as well.

We are hosting my Uncle Jack this month in Tashkent. He has been a tremendous help in setting up our new house. It is much smaller than our previous house, as Nadia and I are downsizing our lives after 24 years of children at home. We both love our new home as it is comfortable and cozy. Little by little, we are organizing the storage, tidying up the patios, planting flowers, adding hooks and electrical outlets, etc. We hosted a successful first dinner party this weekend. We like the easy access to the front garden and the open concept kitchen, living, and dining room. The house has high ceilings with classic Central Asian design and lighting. It will be a cozy year in our new home.

It is nice to be back in Tashkent. I have been walking Obi and jogging in different neighborhoods. I appreciate that Tashkent is such a walkable city.

I remember the 1978 Camp David Peace Accords and the names Menachem Begin (Israeli Prime Minister) and Anwar Sadat (Egyptian President). I was 11 years old in September 1978. Lawrence Wright is a great non-fiction writer because he brings history and culture alive. I loved filling in the details of this historic event by reading as an adult, Wright’s account of the event. The Hamas and Israel conflict raging right now, it makes it even more relevant. 

I admire Jimmy Carter for having the courage to risk failure by bringing these two sworn enemies, Israel and Egypt, together to come up with a peace agreement between the two countries. Camp David is a Presidential retreat close to Washington, DC in the beautiful forested Catoctin Mountain Park, 60 miles north of the White House in Maryland.  area of Maryland. Wright gives a day-by-day account of the 13 days they were together. He also weaves in historical background and biographical information of the key negotiators. I highly recommend reading the book. 

I don’t think this could happen in 2025. Three presidents and their delegations together in a retreat for 13 DAYS. People don’t have this kind of time anymore in the fast-paced, connected world, almost 50 years later.

It makes sense that Carter would be attracted to solving this conflict. He was a deeply religious man and had traveled to the Biblical lands of Palestine when he as the Governor of Georgia. Carter’s wife, Rosalyn, thought it was a good idea to bring them together in the bucolic and peaceful environment of Camp David. Carter was a one-term president who was in the right place at the right time to get elected after the Nixon resignation. He had a much more successful post-presidency as a peacemaker and international advocate for human rights and democracy. I visited the Carter Center and was impressed with his legacy. Getting Egypt and Israel to sign a peace treaty and have it hold all this time later is an incredible legacy Jimmy Carter left. The violence has not stopped in the Middle East. Recently, Israel attacked Lebanon, Iran and Hamas, but they have not had any problems with Egypt, thanks to this significant diplomatic event in 1978.

Sadat, Begin, and Carter all won Nobel Peace Prizes, and reflecting on the event, all of them are looked at as heroes. There was a price, however, for making peace with an enemy. Egyptian soldiers assassinated Sadat 9 years later, in part because of the peace deal with Egypt. Begin got a lot of pressure from right-wing politicians in Israel for agreeing to vacate the Sinai Peninsula. Combined with the death of his wife, he ended up isolated and a changed man. Carter continued his human rights and peace-making initiatives throughout his entire life and was the only one out of the three who personally benefited from the accords. I think of all of the lives of Egyptians and Israelis that were saved over the almost 50 years of peace between the two countries. It was heartbreaking to hear the story of one of Begin’s closest advisors. His son was permanently disabled from a Egyptian bullet striking his forehead from a soldier’s rifle across the Suez Canal. How many more lives would have been lost without this peace deal?

Below are some of the historical and background ideas that I learned and made note of while reading the book.

• In 1948 before it was officially made Israel, Arabs from the West Bank could travel freely into Israel. An increase in Jewish tourism and investment raised their standard of living from when it was under Jordanian control. 
• “Sadat was convinced that 70% of the conflict between Israel and the Arabs was psychological” This reminded me to Israel author (X) when he writes about how “stories” hold nations together and pit nations against each other. 

Jerusalem is the center of many of the “stories” of three major religions. Israel seized East Jerusalem in the 1967 war. I didn’t realize how central the Temple Mount is to the three. 

• Jewish tradition says that Adam was made from dust at this spot, where Cain killed Abel, and King Solomon built the First Temple 1000 years before the birth of Jesus to house the Ark of the Covenant and the 10 Commandments. 
• Muslims call the Temple Mount “Haram al Sharif” and believe this was the spot that Abraham spared his son Ishmael, the father of the Arabs. 
• The Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem is the oldest building in Islam. Jewish tradition says God made the rocky outcropping as a perch when he created the universe. Muslims believe Muhammad ascended to heaven on his horse, al-Buraq, from this rock. 
• Babylonian leader Nebuchadnezzar tore the First Temple down in 586 BC and sent the Jews to Babylon. Persian King Cyrus freed to Jews and a Second Temple was placed on the same spot. The Roman sacked the Second Temple in 70 AD. 
• The Crusaders re-took the city in 1099, murdering thousands of Muslims and Jews. The Ottomans seized the city in 1517 and kept it until the end of World War I. 

Anwar Sadat showed a lot of courage to visit Israel and speak to their congress earlier in 1978. He received death threats and several people in his party were assassinated by Palestinian terrorist . “…there are moments in the life of nations and peoples when it is incumbent on those known for their wisdom and clarity of vision to overlook the past with all its complexities and weighing memories, in a bold drive towards new horizons.”

Also in 1978, Palestinian militants landed a boat on a beach 40 miles north of Tel Aviv and murdered 38 Israelis, including 10 children. This is similar to the October 2022 attack that started the most recent violence. 

Menachem Begin’s parents and siblings were killed by the Nazis in the Holocaust. He lived in what is now Brest, Belarus, and after escaping, led a guerrilla faction of the early Israeli military against the British who ran Palestine at this time.  He would be considered a hardliner today and devoutly believed that God had given the Promised Land to his Jewish forefathers. Anwar Sadat was an army general who was emotional and aggressive. He felt he was the savior of downtrodden Egyptians. Jimmy Carter believed God wanted peace in the Holy Land, and he wasan instrument of God to make this happen. 

• 1922 British census of Palestine: 84,000 Jews, 670,000 Arabs (71 000 Christian Arabs included) 
• Franklin Roosevelt was the first president to use it and called it “Shangri-la”. Dwight Eisenhower renamed it Camp David after his grandson. 
• A 265,000 square feet underground facility to serve as an alternate Pentagon is six miles from Camp David under a mountain called Raven Rock. 
• Look up Gog and Magog (Israel creation myth?) and look up Rimsky-Korsakov’s “Scheherazade” 
• In 1948, there were 800,000 Jews living in Arab societies. When Arabs turned against Jews after Israel’s establishment, many left for Israel. This has diminished the Arab cities where they lived. 
• 1948 5-nation war against Israel resulted in Egypt controlling Gaza and Jordan the West Bank. Israel annexed 75% of the British Mandate territory. 

I like the idea of “constructive ambiguity,” a term coined by Henry Kissinger. It means the idea of leaving an agreement purposefully ambiguous to allow both sides to interpret it as they wish. For example, an agreement between China and the USA on the status of Taiwan. In the agreement, it only states that Taiwan is a province of China (One China) but does not detail how it will be governed. I was thinking about how I could use this diplomatic concept in my job as a leader of a school. My wife mentioned that perhaps in a dress code, this could be used. I deal with a lot of policy, and this is a concept I’ll keep in mind. `

• “One-text procedure” – The Arbitrator in a dispute creates a document and then asks each side for its response. Matters that are not contested are counted as agreed upon. Those disputed are then addressed in a way that continually narrows the differences.
• Hebrews/Israelites were first mentioned in texts in 1207 BC and Wright gives a summary of the archeological evidence of the Biblical/Torah stories. Not much there.

New vocabulary

• Ingénue – a stock character, a naive young girl
• Rictus – a fixed grin
• Redoubt – a temporary fort
• Knesset – Israeli parliment
• assuage – relief from pain, make something unpleasant tolerable
• disdain – feeling of contempt
• feckless – weak, lack of purpose

We are starting our last school year in Uzbekistan. As usual, we are fighting jet lag with the long flight to Tashkent. I’ve been busy at school welcoming the new teachers and their families to the school. We also moved homes during the summer, and Nadia and my Uncle Jack are working on making our new home more comfortable while I am at school. Our first family meal in our front garden was delightful. After an extremely hot June and July in Tashkent, temperatures have cooled in August, and the nights have been perfect. My summer theme of DIY home projects continues here in Uzbekistan. My Uncle Jack and I have been rearranging furniture, putting together shelves, fixing the plumbing, etc., in the new place. No Home Depot or Ace Hardware here in Tashkent, but the local hardware store personnel have been very helpful.

This is also the last year that we have our daughter at home with us. Ocean is graduating in June of 2026, and I am going to savor our time together as much as possible before she leaves for university. She is such a beautiful young woman, both physically and in personality.

With this being our last year in Tashkent, I’ll be blogging a bit more about the city and country. We had a fabulous welcome dinner at the Kaspiyka Restaurant. It is one of several Russian chains that opened restaurants in the city. Kaspiyka specializes in seafood and fish cuisine and started in Kazan, Russia. Six years ago, it was difficult to find a nice restaurant; today, there are numerous. My favorite dish was a Russian cold soup called Okroshka. Kaspikya added crab to the basic ingredients of diced cucumbers, radishes, potatoes, and hard boiled eggs. The ingredients are mixed with kefir (кефир), a fermented milk that is tangy and has a consistency between milk and yoghurt. There are two locations in the city. We ate at the Shevchenko Street location, that had a live DJ playing.

It is always sad when we need to leave family members behind. Yesterday, my son Oliver and brother Jim drove us to the KI Sawyer International Airport in Marquette, Michigan, to start our journey home. Oliver will be staying in our home in Caspian until his classes start in August at St. Norbert College. I was a bit teary-eyed saying goodbye to him. It is so nice to have all of the family together. We are now down to three, with only our youngest daughter returning to Tashkent with us. She will be graduating in June 2026. The drive from Caspian to the airport took a bit longer than usual because we were stuck behind a combination of drivers going under the speed limit. With such a low population density, roads in the Upper Peninsula are usually only 2 lanes.

The international terminal (#5) at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport is distant from the other terminals. We always need to go either to or from Terminal 5. There are two ways of doing this: take the train from any of the domestic terminals or seek out a bus that leaves every 20 minutes from a gate in Terminal 3. We made it to our departure gate in plenty of time, and I think I may have slept or kind of slept for most of the 13-hour flight from Chicago to Doha. The Hamad International Airport is one of the best airports in the world. It is an architectural marvel, completed in 2014 from reclaimed land. The airport has a good number of shops, restaurants, and plenty of seating areas. We met my uncle Jack at the airport who is staying with us for a couple of weeks as we set up our new house. He got me access to the Qatar Airways Privilege Club lounge. I am only a QA Burgundy, but hopefully will move to a Gold or Platinum Status.

The flight from Doha was only 3 hours, and we touched down between 1:30 AM and 2:00 AM. We arrived at our new house around 3:00 AM. It is now a battle of jet lag this week as I start work for the 2025-2026 academic year. We joke that everytime we visit the Tashkent International Airport that there is a new major construction project. This time didn’t disappoint with a brand new arrivals greeting hall. Officials extended the arrivals hall leading from the baggage claim area. We can now wait for people arriving inside the hall instead of outside. Uncle Jack and Nadia will be setting up the house, and I will be welcoming the incoming staff.

It was a busy final full day in Caspian. I had two interviews in the morning with potential schools for the 2026-2027 school year. Nadia and I also had a bunch of errands and tasks to complete before leaving our home. Nadia and I took two days to tidy the garage. It’s been many years since it was cleaned. In the afternoon, Oliver and I took a 200-lb load from the garage to Waste Management‘s Iron River Station. We also put on the finishing touches on the bathroom, fixed the weed trimmer, paid the water bill, etc.

We had such a good time at Sunset Lake Park on Monday that we went back on Tuesday. It was our final night in Iron County, and we wanted to make it special. Oliver, Ocean, Nadia, and my brother Jimmer accompanied me for a sunset swim to cool off after a day of projects. I love summer and it was such an enjoyable afternoon/evening with my family. We had a BBQ of Wisconsin bratwurst and hamburgers while listening to the Detroit Tigers defeat the Arizona Diamondbacks. Detroit Tiger baseball on the internet radio, BBQ, hot weather, green grass, blue skies, a bit of humidity, and cool drinks made for a delightful evening. I was savoring the atmosphere. We pretty much had the beach to ourselves, and we swam out to the dock. It really cooled me and I slept well last night.

I value the simple pleasures in life more as I get older. It was a hot and humid day yesterday, and we cooled off with a swim at Sunset Lake Park. Sunset Lake is one of 314 lakes in Iron County, and if you include the 900 miles of rivers, that is a lot of water! The lakes were formed between 10,000 and 12,000 years ago during the last Ice Age (Wisconsin Glaciation) period. As the glaciers retreated, they carved depressions that eventually formed lakes. Iron County has a “knob and kettle” topography, which means lots of small hills and depressions. This is the characteristic impact of glaciers.

It is awesome to think that all this time later, residents of Iron County can cool off on a rare hot and humid day in the Upper Peninsula, thanks to geological processes that took place so long ago. The lake is located in Bates Township, and officials have maintained a nice public beach area, campgrounds, and a boat landing. There were only a few people there. Oliver, Ocean, and I swam to the dock and had fun pushing each other off and diving off the dock. I noticed a lot of freshwater clams embedded in the bottom of the lake. This is a sign of a healthy lake where filter feeders can thrive.

The forecast is for heat and humidity today, our last full day of summer holiday before heading back to Tashkent. We might have to visit another of the 314 Iron County lakes.

I said goodbye to my brother Andy, who left yesterday morning to return to his home in Chicago. He was instrumental in our home renovation projects. He takes after my father, and he is quite handy with plumbing, electricity, flooring, etc. I learned a lot from him this summer. We spent our last day together flooring the front porch to convert it into my yoga room. He reminds me so much of my father with his mannerisms, voice, etc. He was not adopted like me and my other brother Jimmer, coming as quite a surprise to my parents after they tried to have children for 8 years. They adopted me in 1967 and my brother Jimmer in 1969. My adopted mother gave birth to Andy in 1972.

We installed laminate flooring in the porch. I cut plywood sheets, and our neighbor, Rocko, drilled them to the asbestos siding that was on the left side of the photo above. We are putting in new windows this fall to give it more light and air. The room is not heated, so we probably wouldn’t use it in the winter if we were here, but during the late spring, summer, and early fall, it will be a nice room to do yoga in. I used to sleep in the room as a kid during the summers because our second floor was too hot. We don’t really get hot weather so often, and many of the homes in the Upper Peninsula, especially the older ones, don’t have central air conditioning.

I took the first shower in our new bathroom yesterday. The water pressure was a bit low. Rocko discovered that the occlusion was behind the faucet, and now it works great. I have never been so enthused to take a shower before, but with all the work we put in, it is satisfying to have it done. I am taking a growth mindset to home renovation, and it is fun to learn how things work in a home, and more importantly, how to repair or improve them.

This morning Nadia and I went for a walk on the Apple Blossom Trail in my hometown of Caspian, Michigan. It follows the Iron River, which flows 30 miles through Iron County. The headwaters are southwest of the town of Iron River and flow through Caspian and Gaastra before connecting with the Paint River. The Paint River connects to the Menominee River, which eventually reaches Lake Michigan’s Green Bay. It was such a gorgeous mid-summer morning in the Upper Peninsula.

I am getting back in touch with the lost art of reading during the summer holidays. I am making a conscious effort to calm and focus my mind to think more deeply about subjects. It is getting increasingly harder to do in this manic-information world of scrolling social media, listening to podcasts, bingewatching television shows, etc. It is so soothing to sink into a good book. Young people, especially young men, should be reading novels and longer works of non-fiction more. I am always surprised when I sit down with my morning coffee and reflect on what I took away from a book. I try to incorporate the ideas into my life while also being entertained. I find reading makes my life richer. That is a message schools should be passing to students. I read two more books and as always, I blog on what I learned.

Callan Wink’s “Beartooth” resonated with me because it is a story of blue-collar guys in a small town barely making ends meet. Lots of guys in the Upper Peninsula are in a similar situation to the brothers Thad and Hazen, who are the main characters in the book. Thad and Hazen are freelance lumberjacks who sell firewood to people who live near Yellowstone National Park in Montana. Thad is the older brother and takes care of his younger brother Hazen, who is a bit of a special needs person. They get mixed up with “The Scot”, a shady character who asks them to poach wildlife in the park to sell bear gall bladders and elk antlers on the black market to East Asian customers who believe in their medicinal value. The story details their misadventures doing illegal poaching in the park, which eventually leads to trouble for Hazen.

The story also struck a chord with me because when I am home in Caspian, the memory of my father is ever present. I miss him. I am beginning to play the role he did with me as an adult. I will probably have a longer time with my children as adults than the 18 or so years you get with them as they grow up. I didn’t appreciate enough the calm, wise approach he took to life as a younger man. In Beartooth, the memory of their father drives the boys to do what is right. I hope I have the same effect on Owen and Oliver.

“He said that no matter what happens between and man and a woman, it’s impossible to regret having children. He said that life can pass you by but having a family is how you make positive the passage of time, how you add resonance to your years.” Thad’s father giving him advice on finding a spouse – “Bear-Tooth” by Callan Wink

• Chinook Winds – These are warm, dry winds that hit the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains in Montana, Wyoming, and Colorado. The general wind patterns come from the west and pick up moisture over the Pacific Ocean and drop precipitation on the western slopes. On the way down the eastern slopes, they are dry and pick up heat as they descend. A good Chinook Wind can raise temperatures 10-20C in just a few hours. They are named after the Chinook indigenous tribes of the Pacific Northwest and mostly occur in winter and early spring.
• Absarokas and Beartooth mountain ranges are found in Yellowstone National Park in Montana and Wyoming.

The home renovations continue and I wanted to post an update on the second floor bathroom. Because we couldn’t find a plumber to do it, we did it ourselves. My brother can do basic plumbing and carpentry so it directed the project and did the more complicated parts. We put in new flooring, patched and painted the walls, added floor trim, a new sink, vanity, mirror, and toilet. All we have left is the shower.

I’ve learned a lot this summer on the building trades. A challenge in the Upper Peninsula is a lack of young people here and going into the these types of jobs. The other obstacle is a lack of homeowners requiring work, especially in the winter and late spring months. It limits the number of contractors and tradesmen that can make a living. Almost all of the people I contacted had full schedules, up to a year in advance full. It will take time for me to become good enough to projects on my own. I struggle with loosing a tight connection on a pipe or what tool to use for a particular task. I now understand basic plumbing however, and it is amazing that in 2025, everyone can get hot showers at anytime in their homes. 200 years ago that was a luxury.

We are staying in my childhood home this summer. I have so many fond memories of growing up here, but the house needs some TLC. We are starting to renovate the house to make it more comfortable and modern. It is a bit of a hall of fame/shrine to the 1980s right now. We did a couple of projects this summer.

Basketball Court Removal: We removed the concrete slab that was once a basketball court between the house and the garage. We played for countless happy hours there, both basketball and wiffle ball. At one time, we had three baskets and lights, including an 8-foot high rim. The basketball rims and lights were taken down years ago, and all that remained was the concrete slab. The slab was in two sections, the first put in by my grandfather, Art Heikkala, and the other section by my dad and his teacher friends. An excavating company quoted us $6,000 to remove the concrete, add topsoil, and seed the grass. We saved money by having my cousin’s husband, Tom, come with his skid steer for the day. He is an experienced skid steer driver and we were able to remove all of the concrete. It was a long day, and I want to thank him for helping us. We then contracted the excavating company to dump and spread topsoil and sow seed with straw. Hopefully, the grass will be in by next summer, and we plan to put a fire pit and portable seating area to enjoy the cool Upper Peninsula evenings. I might even plant another tree.

Bathroom Renovation: The second-floor bathroom was dated and frankly, a bit disgusting. We couldn’t find a plumber or a carpenter to renovate it, so we did it ourselves. My brother Andy takes after my dad and is good at carpentry, electricity, plumbing, etc. I was skeptical that we could do it, but once we got going, it was not as bad as I thought. In May, we removed the plastic tiling and cabinets to start. We next removed the carpeting and the cast-iron tub. A search on YouTube showed the best removal method was to sledgehammer it into pieces and take it out. My brother and I then laid new flooring, took out the vanity and toilet, and replaced them with new models. I learned a lot from him, and thanks, Andy, for your patience and effort in getting the job done. I think I made about 10 trips to the local Ace Hardware store to buy parts and tools. We finished installing the sink and toilet and started using it with the ceremonial “first flush” yesterday. Next week we will install the shower. Doing the labor ourselves saved a lot of money.

There is still a lot to do! The next phases will be to replace the old asbestos siding and install new windows. The four trees I planted last summer (white pine, 2 oaks, sugar maple) survived the first year. Our biggest challenge are the numerous white-tailed deer that roam our neighborhood. The other day I saw 9 of them just a few houses down the street. Especially during the late winter and fall, they forage for all they can. I didn’t think they would eat pine trees, but they do! Oliver, Andy, and I added fencing around the pine tree behind the garage. It is growing back so we think it will survive.