What is Kyrgyzstan like?

What is Kyrgyzstan like? It’s certainly a country of great wealth disparity, that’s the most striking observation one can make upon exiting the capital city of Bishkek. It’s beautiful. Beyond words beautiful sometimes. There are days that I’m walking to my language lessons and pass an entire herd of goats and cows against a backdrop of the largest towering mountains I’ve ever seen. That’s another thing, the goat/cow herding. Kyrgyzstan is extremely community orientated so people take turns herding everyone else’s goats/cows…the crazy part is they don’t even herd them directly back to the house they came from—they’ll just walk them down the main street, stopping traffic the entire time and the cows and goats will veer off to their own house without any prodding. Which is strange considering the way they treat their animals here. It’s strange how they treat their animals only because I come from a country that actually has “animal rights activists” and people that treat their animals better than their own children on occasion. Here, they treat their animals as humans have since the dawn of civilized man—as tools to keep the house running, safe, and effective. It’s quite interesting, but tough to get used to. Their treatment of dogs especially. I grew up with a wonderful dog (some of you might have met Panda…she was greatJ) and my parents currently have Cookie, who’s about as tough as her name implies. My host-family has two dogs as well but they’re mean, not allowed in the house under ANY circumstances and barely fed scraps off the table. Actually I don’t know that for certain because I’ve never actually seen them be fed. However, because they’re starving and mean they are the best deterrent to any would-be robber and/or stray animal that might want to gain access to the house. From a sensible security standpoint they are excellent guard-dogs. It’s just tough for me because I grew up with a sense that the dog is a member of the family, whereas here they are basically slaves of a different species. Terrible reference, I know…but entirely accurate.

The towns are beautiful in their simplicity. Station Ivanovka, where I currently reside has no running water, intermittent electricity and the only toilets available are outhouses. Oh yeah, as my buddy Joe found out yesterday, once the outhouse gets full (use your imagination), you just cover it up and build a new one right next to it. And so it goes, the circle of life completely explained with a single reference to outhouses. I’m a genius.

Kyrgyzstan is an emerging country economically and with specific detail to modernity. It’s a country that has more broken and abandoned factories than running ones, but everyone that wants a job has one. The cities are modern, they have running water and electricity and rude people on the streets. The towns, however, operate in much the same way America did in the 1800’s…everyone looks out for everyone else, children are raised by their parents and the community and you shit outside regardless of the weather…yeah, I’m still on that subject;)

The community aspect of Kyrgyzstan is the most striking and evident in my daily activities though. If I’m on a Marshuka (tiny public transport VW van/bus thing) and an old lady gets on, every single young man will stand and offer their seat to her. If a 12 year old punk kid is too busy listening to his iPod everyone is within their right to slap his face and make him move. Seriously. In America parenting seems to be a pride issue. A proud mentality that holds that ‘this is my kid, I’ll raise them how I want’, whereas in Kyrgyzstan people look at the younger generation as future Kyrgyz community members so everyone has a say in how to raise them. I can’t quite make an argument for the merits of either method…it’s just different here.

In Bishkek you can find popular restaurants, hot night clubs, great bars, huge malls and nice paved roads (the difference between nice and not-nice paved roads is another HUGE striking difference here…in America one or two pot-holes is ‘not-nice’, in Kyrgyzstan one giant pot-hole that requires evasive maneuvering every 2 feet is ‘not nice’…’nice’ is slightly better than that) and girls that are wearing the latest short skirt, tiny tank-top fashion that MTV says is cool. In the towns women dress much more conservatively and are judged more harshly by their neighbors and peer groups than the latest chick-flick-high-school-gossip movie would have you believe is the norm in America. Bishkek is beautiful, and it comes with all the big city pluses and minuses that big cities the world over come with. Yes, Drew…they have McDonald’s in Bishkek—but the fries taste completely different!

Kyrgyzstan is a predominately Muslim country, but the men drink, smoke, and sleep with prostitutes…except the one’s that don’t, yet they seem to be few and far between. The women have traditional roles in the home. Some have jobs, but they are still responsible for all the cooking and cleaning. The men work, eat and do the hard labor that every house in every village requires as standard upkeep. The family’s live together for a very long time too…If a family has four sons, when the eldest marries he and his wife will live at his parent’s home until the second eldest marries, then they’ll move out. This will continue until the youngest son marries and he will live with his parents and his new wife until the parents die; he will then inherit their home and the tradition will continue anew.

Overall, Kyrgyzstan is a beautiful country, with beautiful people and a beautiful way of life. The cities are fast-paced and fun, and the towns are so slow it’s hard to move sometimes…days like that though I just get together with my friends here (there’s 10 PCT’s in Station Ivanovka), buy a 1.5 liter bottle of piva (beer) for 40 som (about $1.05) and sit in the park drinking and talking while children run around. It’s amazing. The kids are also ridiculously good at soccer here. We play pick-up games about twice a week (well, me and three other guys here) and the kids are just phenomenal! That’s a whole other story though, and I’m getting tired.

Hopefully this blog post gave you a simple idea of what Kyrgyzstan is like. I’ll be trying to post some pictures soon (maybe next month, when I save up the som to spend the time on the internet they’d require), but in the meantime please keep posting comments with any questions or thoughts you might have. As this is really my only means of communication with my friends back home I ALWAYS love hearing from you!!!