A sampling of the questions I’m asking interviewees:

- If your organization has been in Kyrgyzstan a long time, where are its effects? How are you tracking progress beyond simple but opaque metrics such as the number of NGO’s (there are many “paper NGO’s” here) or people attending a conference?

- Given the consolidation of power at the top of the Kyrgyz government, how can grassroots programs have an effect without complementary pressure on the executive and legislative branches?

- How will your organization deal with economic realities, such as general poverty that prevents people from buying newspapers or paying membership dues to an NGO?

- Do you think that the Soviet mentality (noted here and here, search pages for ‘mentality’) will continue to make a difference (if it ever did)? Do you think that there is a generation gap in Kyrgyzstan, and that it is just a matter of time before people born after 1970 (an arbitrary but useful distinction) come to power?

The answers are interesting, to say the least.

Register and suggest somore questions in the comments!