Postcard from Bishkek

On Monday I saw a tweet on twitter from which learned two interesting things.

The tweet? …

(The Russian means “What?! Do we have this?”)

As I said, from the tweet I learned two things:

First, that there was an account called @OMGFacts … they are based in Chicago and bill themselves as “The #1 Fact site” – the site is here.  It’s the sort of site that I love – full of interesting trivia and they offer sources for each one that they post, (although, to be honest, one link that I followed didn’t lead to information supporting that particular “OMG Fact”).

Second, that there was that there was Girl Scouts organization in Kyrgyzstan.  Like the twitter, (the person who posted the original tweet), I was a more than just a little surprised.  The Scouting movement was created by Lord Baden Powell in the United Kingdom, and although it has evolved into a worldwide organization, but I thought that it in the former Soviet Union it had been replaced by the Pioneer organization.

The Pioneer movement was a children’s organization operated by the communist party similar to the scouting movement in the West.  Whereas the motto of the Scouting Movement was “Be Prepared”, for the Pioneers it was “Vsegda Gotov”, (Always Prepared); whereas the scouts wore coloured neckerchiefs fastened by a toggle, the Pioneers wore a red scarf; children could join the organization at an early age and progress through to adolescents and early adulthood; meetings would encompass games and activities designed to teach various skills; summer camps were organized.  There were also, however, many significant differences.  The scouting movement is independent of any government control and political parties, but the Pioneer movement was, (even if membership was, technically, optional), part of a communist party structure.  Whereas in the West, generally, there were separate organizations for boys and girls, (Cubs and Scouts for boys, Brownies and Guides for girls), and separate camps, the Pioneers and their camps were open to both sexes.

A little while later, I saw a follow-up tweet from another twitter which had a link to the page on Wikipedia devoted to Scouting in Kyrgyzstan.  That, in turn, had a link to the official site of OSKyr, the organization of Scouts in Kyrgyzstan.

In fact this is only one several scouting organizations in the country, one of them being the Kyrgyzstan Skaut-Kyzdar Assosiastsyasy, (KSKA – the Kyrgyz Girl Scouts Association, which is where we started).

The organization OSKyr was founded by a group back in November 1994, although the idea was first conceived as early as 1991 based on a group of Speleologists, (cavers).  It’s not yet a part of WOSM, (the World Organization of the Scouting Movement), although discussions about joining it have apparently taken place.

Although OSKyr seems to draw heavily on the experience of scouting groups in Russia and Belorussia, they also seem to want to develop an organization which reflects their Kyrgyz heritage, for example, adopting a light blue uniform, (this being the traditional colour representing courage and generosity) and incorporating the design of the Kyrgyz flag and traditional motifs in their scout badge.

(The badge of OSKyr, on the other hand includes a representation of St. George and the dragon, and the motto Bud Gotov – Be Prepared.)

The site was established in 2004 and contains pages, in Russian, about scouting and some of their activities … However, to be honest, it looks as if it hasn’t been updated for some time.

 

 

 

 

 

Tags: For_the_Record, Life_in_Kyrgyzstan, Organizations