Hello readers!
Since we got into the village so late the night before, Kunsulu recommended we just rest (on Sunday) and not attend a planning session with some other volunteers.
As I mentioned in the previous post, the morning meal was festive with many visitors and children. Many of the children remained afterward. One of them showed some real initiative in asking me (using google translate) if I knew of any English children’s songs! I wrote down the lyrics to “Jack and Jill“. Aseama, (9 years old) quickly took her notebook back and translated the lyrics I wrote into either Kyrgz or Russian (I couldn’t tell which). THEN, proceeded to search on her borrowed smartphone for a video of the song! In this way she and the other children learned the song that morning. It was a bit of a surprise for me to see such enthusiasm and resourcefulness. We did the whole routine again with the song “Three blind mice.”
There were still several children and adults coming by to meet and visit early into the afternoon. I received a “whatsapp” message and phone call from a fellow named Miraj who was part of the Youth Club. He had said we were supposed to meet that afternoon, but I had not expected it.
Later in the afternoon Miraj and his cousin came to the house and introduced themselves. Miraj was a local volunteer with the Youth Club who had just finished an English course in Osh City. Here’s a map to refresh your bearings. Bel, Borbash and Osh City are circled:
Miraj was in his early 20’s and was fairly capable in English, with good pronunciation and little hesitation. The English program he finished was designed for Kyrgz people going to work abroad (particularly in the Persian Gulf). I was impressed that he had accomplished this level of English capability in only 3 months!
So let us combine the paragraph above with the information from the last post about parents in Borbash seeking work in Russia. We begin to form a picture of the Kyrgz economy and work opportunities. After returning from my trip I did a little research and found that a significant portion of the Kyrgz Gross Domestic Product (GDP) consists of foreign remittances. In other words, Kyrgyz people working abroad and sending money back home accounts for a significant portion of the Kyrgz economy.
Miraj’s visit turned out to be completely social in nature. He and his cousin came by car and drove us around some parts of the village and to his home. He had two houses adjacent to each other, which I’m guessing were built as the family expanded. We next went to the main mosque in Bel village, where I met the Imam (priest).
I was surprised to learn that Miraj had learned about this blog and read it completely before my arrival! I had advertised the blog on my workaway volunteer page with a summary of the Mongolian trip. After reading my post on MMA in Turkey, he mentioned that had aspired to be an Mixed Martial Artist before receiving a concussion. He showed me a video of his fight against an opponent from Kazakhstan. I did not mention he had 2 punching bags hanging on the courtyard of his home. He told us of a small training facility his friend had built and we decided to take a walk over there. As we went along I thought, “Hmm, I’m used to driving, parking and walking on the streets to get the gym in San Francisco- this path we’re on now is an interesting way to get to a workout.” The fact that “Around the world, the sports are the same, but environment is different” suddenly again revealed itself.
The gym turned out to be locked and naturally nobody was there on a Sunday afternoon. This gym was not a “business” but just a place for the locals to train. Inside was a very nice Olympic style wrestling mat with 1-2 punching bags and various other equipment laid about. I managed to get this picture through the door. I’d estimate the picture shows ~ 1/2 of the gym:
We walked back to Miraj’s home and his cousin drove us back to the home-stay (Tamara and Sharif’s home). It was already late afternoon, and we started to get details about our first teaching assignment the next day. As I mentioned before, the school was ~ 3.5 km away, with no clear path/roads/route to get us there. The rural roads were randomly organized (I’m guessing) based on where people lived. Miraj had assured us he would ‘conduct” us to the school tomorrow for the first lesson at noon.
The evening ended with another festive meal and more visitors and English tutoring. I did an awful lot of English work on my day of rest 🙂 but didn’t mind at all (I may have been bored otherwise) and I appreciated meeting all the different children and adults!
Balot and I decided to run again in the morning and Gary agreed to join us.
That’s it for a very full first day in Bel/Borbash village.
Please share, comment, subscribe!
-The Rover
[jetpack_subscription_form]