Streits in the Kyrgyz Republic - Entry #11

August 18, 1999

Our summer has gone by so quickly and been busy. We have met many friends, done lots of activities, gone on trips and picnics, and had large house parties here with friends and food. The girls went to a Russian-speaking summer camp for 10 days. Lydia liked it so much she decided to stay an extra five days. Her Russian is improving daily and she can make her way through most public encounters.

We had a favorite picnic spot near a river in the mountains where we would go to wade and play in the icy cold river. Most water here comes from the melting glaciers in the mountains and is cold year round. We have had an unusually heavy rainfall this summer. The lakes overflowed and washed out the mountain roads, left us without water for four days due to broken water pipes, and carved out new river valleys in some cases. We lost the picnic spot to mud slides. At one point we went to view the area. The kids tried to wade by holding on to each other in chains, but they had to dodge rocks the size of bowling balls washing downstream. 600 people either lost their homes or had major damage. In this area there is no emergency shelter, so the city loans passenger buses to the areas damaged and people set up housekeeping (multiple families) in the buses.

Ted says in many ways living here is like being back in the 50's and 60's. The buildings seem of that era and much of the clothing and pastimes. The favorite activities seem to be swimming, bowling, roller skating, ice-skating. There is a lot of skiing in the mountains in the winter and we plan to try it.

The mountain snows began last week, August 10th! We can see the mountains with the snowcaps from our windows. It took most of the summer for some peaks to finally have enough snow melt to look green and now they are snow-covered again for the year.

Last week Ted had a conference to chair on water management and energy issues in the Kyrgyz Republic at a resort at Issyk Kul Lake. On a map of central Asia this lake is named Ysyk Kul and is the large lake across the Kazakhstan border near Almaty. But because there is a large mountain range along the border of the two countries, we had to drive west to Bishkek in Kyrgyzstan and then backtrack east to the lake, a drive of about 8 hours, to circle the mountains that we can see from our window at home.

I was initially afraid to drive that far in our vehicle because the rural areas are not at all developed and if you break down, there is not much help for you. On the initial trip, we followed an embassy vehicle transporting other conference personnel, staying in radio contact with each other. But the trip out was so pleasant and uneventful, that we drove home by ourselves with a Russian speaking friend in the car with us in case we needed to ask directions or explain our situation.

On the drive, we encountered only about five small rural villages, each hours apart. The houses were small but clean and painted, unlike those in larger cities. Each house had a fence and seemed to be a small working farm. Each yard had a small but very intensive vegetable garden, farm animals such as goats, sheep, and chickens. Also, in most yards was a large haystack, much taller that the fence, for the winter feeding of the animals. Large trucks from the rural area would deliver hay along the roadside and the family members would fork it into the yards and firmly stack it so rain would run off of it. When I first moved to West Virginia I learned this art of creating a haystack from loose hay that would last the winter. It is a skill that has largely been replaced with baling hay and storing it in barns.

Transportation is mostly by horse, donkey, and wagon. All along the roadside, donkeys slept in the shade, like we see dogs sleeping. Donkeys were not tied up and seemed to stay near the dwellings or markets where their owners were. Horses were also often loose to graze; however, most of them were hobbled with a rope connecting their front feet so they could not run away too rapidly.

Along the road, people had small amounts of produce to sell. Some had built simple wooden stands, some had an umbrella against the sun or rain, but most just set the produce out on a table or in a bucket and sat nearby in the shade until a customer stopped to look. Each part of the journey offered different items to sell. We bought a bucket of currents and of apricots. We also saw tomatoes, apples, watermelons, fresh strings of trout (we kept teasing Rose that we would buy a string of fish and put it in the back seat with her), all kinds of berries, and smaller bundles of dried fish about four inches long.

There were also small roadside places to eat. (But absolutely no McDonalds!) We stopped at one where the owners had parked two trailers in an L shape and created a covered eating area with tarps and poles between them. The family lived in one trailer and cooked in the other one. Water was supplied by a spring. There were many natural springs through out this area, all from the mountain glazier melt. We had tables with tablecloths, china, and hot fresh cooked food. We ordered salad, soup and bread, hot tea, and "shaslik", which Rose calls the national ever-present equivalent of the hamburger, lamb meat roasted on a skewer over an open flame and served with flat bread. Good food.

I was pleasantly surprised by the condition of the roads. They were certainly not interstates, but did not contain the terrible potholes we often have to drive around in town. Gas stations did exist. Public restrooms are most often multiple holed outhouses, which exist separately for men and women. Natural springs are frequent which provide drinking water and washing facilities, although we do not drink the water but carry ours with us from our distiller at home.

The resort was called "the Greenbriar of Central Asia" by the conference participants, a mix of diplomats from five Asian countries, English-speaking USAID workers, and translators. The food was excellent and plentiful, but the rooms reminded us of college dorm rooms from the seventies, with twin wooden beds, locker-type wooden closets, and a desk in each room.

The lake itself was as large as the Great Lakes in the States. The shore had a sandy beach and the water had waves and an undertow. The first day was warm and sunny and we had a wonderful day at the beach. The next day, the weather turned cold, the snows came in the mountains, and the wind made the conditions too cold to swim, although both girls bravely tried. We had planned to rent a boat and go out, but even that looked too bleak and the rental places remained closed. The lake was at 5000 feet above sea level.

Lydia became friends with the daughter of a man from the cabinet of the Prime Minister of Kyrgyzstan. Lydia knew a little Russian and Jennale knew a little English and mostly spoke Kyrgyz. They traveled around the resort and taught each other multiple language names for what they saw.

On our trip home, our front license plate fell off and we had to put it in our front window. We have special plates that usually allow us to be waved through all check points without being stopped. But because our plate was not in the usual place, we were pulled over many times. Our Russian speaking friend was a great help in explaining and we were always allowed to pass on, but it gave us a real feel for what the local drivers experience every time they go on the roads.

Back in Almaty, the girls are making many friends. Many new families are transferring into the area to replace the many that finished their jobs and left at the beginning of the summer. Both girls have begun gymnastic lessons with the female head coach of the Kazakhstan National Team. She has coached girls who have won Olympic silver and bronze metals and her husband won silver for competition on the horse and bronze for men's team competition in floor exercises. She is an unusual coach for this former soviet system in that she uses praise and encouragement and even hugs sometimes to teach rather than criticism. Most coaches here reduce their pupils to tears at least once a session.

On the school front, it looks like the girls have been accepted to the new international school with the strong language program that we were hoping for. Next week we have an appointment to go and meet the teachers.