Postcard from Bishkek

Let me start this week with an apology and a correction.

Last week I said that there were going to be two public holidays this week, which meant a “three day working week”.  Well, I got it wrong … the Muslim holiday, Kurman Ait, falls next week, not on Friday the 12th.  Those of you who have checked the website, (ianbek.kg), may have spotted that I made a correction at the bottom:

“Actually, I got it wrong … Friday the twelfth is not a holiday – it’s a week later … so it was only a four day week – followed by another – not a three day week!  ” More…

There is a lot of truth in the old saying: “There are two sides to every story”.

It’s something I learned very early on as a young, novice, schoolteacher.  A fight in the playground, and “Sir” descends to break it up … “So, what’s all this about?”, “He started it!”,  “No, he did!”, and so on.  It usually turned out that the blame didn’t sit on the shoulders of just one of the parties, but should be split somehow between them … and, also, often shared with some of the onlookers who may not be just innocent bystanders. More…

One aspect of Kyrgyz Culture which has come to the attention of the West is the practice of Ala Kachuu – or “Bride Stealing”.

It appears that this tradition stems from the times of nomadic culture and lifestyle of the past where people were constantly on the move from one pasture (jailoo) to another. (It is also found in Kazakh traditions – but not in Uzbek or Uighur – both sedentary cultures – and in other parts of the world). More…

There’s a story about Oscar Wilde, that he was at a dinner party when somebody made a clever, witty, remark and he is supposed to have commented, “I wish I had said that!”, to which Whistler, one of the dinner guests replied: “You will, Oscar.  You will.”

Well, I felt like Oscar Wilde one day this week, when I came across a blog post, . It was written by a Peace Corps volunteer called Justine Johnson who after a two month training course came out to Kyrgyzstan in 2008 for a two year assignment working with a Kyrgyz NGO, (Non-Governmental Organization). More…

Irkeshtam is approached from Osh, the second city of Kyrgyzstan, in the South of the country. The road travels south along the valley of the Taldyk and Gulcho river gorges to the village of Sary Tash (“Yellow Stone” in Kyrgyz), which sits on a cross roads. To the West lies the road to Dushanbe in Tajikistan through the Kyzyl-Suu valley; to the South lies the road over the Kyzyl Art pass into the Gorno Badakshan region of Tajikistan and Murgab; to the east heading into the mountains lies the road to Irkeshtam and the Chinese border. More…

The working day in the office, technically, runs from 9:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m., but it rarely works out like that.  In fact, my working day usually starts at six a.m. when I come downstairs to the office from my apartment which is literally “just over the office”.  I rarely finish work early, however, and it can be anywhere between 5:00 p.m. and 2:00 a.m., depending on the pressures of work and how tired I am, when I climb back “up the wooden hill”, (as my father used to put it).  So that you don’t get the wrong idea I should point out that it is usually only 6:00 or 7:00 p.m. and only rarely, when something is really urgent, does it stretch to the early hours of the morning. More…

Sometimes we surprise people around us by the things that we say and do – and just sometimes we even manage to surprise ourselves.  I am amazed, for example, that I have this website.

You see, I am not a great believer in “vox pop“.   It seems to me that there are too many people, (myself included!), who are far too eager to give vent to opinions even when they don’t know what they are talking about. More…

Yakov Nikiforovich Logvinenko was born on 23rd October,1896 in the Poltava province of Ukraine and his family moved to Pishpek in 1912.  He was conscripted into the Imperial Army in the First World War and sent to the front.  During the war he achieved the rank of corporal – but after the October Revolution he returned back home to Pishpek – where he became the commander of the Pishkek regiment and served in the civil war. More…

Alexey Illarionovich Ivanitsyn was a mechanic who participated in the 1905 revolution – and the Imperial authorities exiled him to Central Asia – where he arrived destitute and penniless. More…

Although in Soviet times, November 7th was a major holiday accompanied by parades and much merrymaking, in modern Kyrgyzstan it is a fairly subdued affair.  Indeed, for several years following independence, the holiday was dropped from the list of official public holidays – being reinstated in 2004.

Although official parades are no more, the Communist Party in particular marks the day  – but for most people it is just a welcome “non-working day”.  This year, because the 7th fell on a Sunday, which is normally a non-working day, the holiday was marked on the day itself, but the Monday became a holiday – a non-working day. More…