Step 2: Rotaract Member

From now on I am the member of the Rotaract Club of Bishkek

As a Rotary Youth Exchange Program participant I felt obliged to join Rotary International, but just as a Rotaract member for now. On the other side, I missed all the weekly meetings, chairty fairs and the Rotary environment as a whole which always surounded me in Bermuda.

Similarly, in Bishkek the Rotaract meetings are held at NY Pizza every Wednesday at 7pm.
Last meeting we discussed short term project and a few long term projects. The members are mostly young people who have been abroad(not necessarily through Rotary) and have some bright ideas and wish to contribute to the community.

Our short term project related to Halloween. Last Sunday on our way from Jail Orphanage we bought some pumkins. We are about to make halloween pumkins and sell them to you people(of course those who are in Bishkek) Those who will buy them will make their contribution to the Rotaract club of Bishkek and Jail Orphanage. So, soon you will see me offering you halloween pumkins, and don't you dare to not to buy them, because I will put all my effort in them :).

Why we visited the Jail Orphanage.
Rotaract Club of Bishkek is paying for building of a play ground and buying new kitchen ware for the Jail Orphanage, which is located in Kara-Balta, 45-minutes of driving from Bishkek
I was not suprised with the conditions in the orphanage: the shabby building, cold and ash-smelling interiors, and children wearing layers of clothes. I think this is a typical condition in most of the orphanages is Kyrgyzstan, which is unfortunate reality


I will try to post the pictures from the orphanage and halloween pumkins once I will take pictures.

Түш

Инфляция жана күнүмдүк тамак-ашка баалардын жогорулашы бир эле тирүү адамдарды гана эмес маркум аталарыбызды да ойлонтуруп жатат окшойт...
Бүгүн түшүмдө дагы илгери балачагымдагыдай болуп айылга барып калыптырмын. Аыйлдын эгин-талаасында таң калаарлык адам көп: бирилери жер айдаган, кийинкилери буудай сепкен, айрымдары атын эки-жака чапкылаган же бири-бири менен бир нерсени кызуу сүйлөшкөн. Мен дагы жок жерден кызыл, маңдайында ак кашкасы бар бир тайлуу болуп калыптырмын. Тайды талаанын жолдорунда чапкылап, шашып чоң атама жардамга баратыпмын.
Бизге тийиштүү үлүш жер кайсы экенин билбей көп алаңдап издедим, акыры чоң атамдын бир талаанын башында отурганын көрдүм.
Чоң атам талаанын айдатып, жөөктөрүн алдырып үлүштүн башында бутун сунуп ойлонуп отуруптур. Жанына келеерим менен эле, “Келдиңби, эми Маматканыныкынан үч кап буудай урук сурап кел. Аның 150 килä болот...” Мен ойлонуп, 150сү үч капка батаар бекенин ойлонуп турганымда чоң атам жерге бир нерселерди чиймелеп дагы түшүндүрүп баштады, “Каптардын ооздору буулатурган кылып салсаң, үчөөндө бäрäбäр 50килäдäн болот.” Тирүүсүндөгүдөй эле тапшырманы так коюп бергенден кийин мен жөнөй бердим...

150 килä буудайды канча жерге жетеерин, андан канча түшүм алса болоорун билбейм. Бирок эмне болсо да жакшы даярдыкта болуп, кесепеттерди алдына алгыла дейин деген го

1st Rotary Youth Exchange Students in Kyrgyzstan

While looking through the pages of The Bishkek Standard I came across an article about 2 Rotary International Youth Exchange Students who came to Kyrgyzstan nearly a month a go. Rotary Club of Bishkek is now hosting its first inbound exchange students.
As former exchange student I never thought that someone would choose to come to Kyrgyzstan. Of course, it is wrong to say so, because it must be interesting for students from developed countries to visit less developed countries, and in my case I was interested in going to US
In fact, if you think deeply, Kyrgyzstan is also an interesting country to visit. So here are reasons to come to Kyrgyzstan, that me and my 'dastorkon-mates' came up with:
1. Learn Russian(This, I heard, was a main goal of our inbound students). Russian language is in the list 10 most spoken languages in the world. Nearly 200million people in Russian, Central Asia and East European countries speak this language
2. You can learn Kyrgyz, if you want to get a closer look into the Kyrgyz culture
3. Kyrgyzstan is very culturaly diverse country, and it leads to the next 2 reasons
4. Tasty, delicious and different ethnical cuisines
5. Visit other Central Asian countries(depends on yourself and your host family). Kyrgyzstan borders with 4 countries(China, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan
6. Drinking age law exists, but nobody follows it, so there is no need for fake IDs(It worth mentioning, because drinking age regulation seemed like a huge issue for my friends in the west)
7. You can buy brand clothes for cheap such as D&G, Channel, Y-3 etc...
8. Work as a teacher at English language school(courses), this will also help you to learn Russian or Kyrgyz more
9.

If you have any other reason you want to mention, leave them as comments ;)

In the end, I would like to say to all exchange students that how your year abroad goes depends on YOU. Be out with people, make friends and know the value of your time, becasue a year-long program may seem long enough, however, in the end, it is not

Trip to OSH 2

Last Monday, 24th of September early in the morning I received a call from my cousin who informed me about my grandmother’s sudden death. Later that day we(our father, my brothers, Azamat and Nurshat, and I) took a road to Osh(southern district of Kyrgyzstan) in the car which we borrowed from my uncle.
Azamat, Nurshat and I used to visit both of our grandmothers once a year, mostly in summer. I have writte a post about our trip to Osh last October.

But we could not visit them this summer, because we were busy and Nurshat was away. So, we were planning to visit her on Friday for a weekend, since we have not seen her over the summer. Sadly she passed away without knowing that we were going to visit her that weekend.
Azamat has written a post which reflects the trip and funerals in details. (http://azamatreport.blogspot.com/2007/09/108-last-journey.html)

Later after the funerals we left to Nookat(region in Osh city) to see our grandmother from my father’s side. We spent a night there and next morning took a road back to Bishkek. On the way to Bishkek we stopped in Osh for a few hours. I enjoyed the ride back to Bishkek, firstly because we drove at daytime, unlike when we were going to Osh. Secondly, it was sort of a driving class for not-enough-experienced drivers, so everyone(except me. I don't know how to drive yet) was giving instructions to each other. And thirdly we had a selecetion of our favorite songs playing all the way.

After we returned to Bishkek Nurshat and I was asked to clean a warehouse in our old house. While cleaning we found a photo album from our childhood.

There are very similar pictures that were taken in Osh, on the same intersection but one of them was taken in summer, 1998, just when Azamat was about to leave to USA.

and here is the picture which was taken after 9 years on September 24, 2007