a month
Well, it’s been more than a month, and everything is still going swell.
I got a job at the local English paper, The Times of Central Asia, and quit after twelve hours. I applied for a part-time tourist-reporter position and ended up getting hired as an editor. I was stuck editing Google translations of Russian articles. They kept bugging me to work, so I quit. I didn’t come to Kyrgyzstan to be an editor at a paper.
I’ve started taking Russian lessons, with the Dead of Students at AUCA’s daughter. She comes by the house and we move at my pace, which is nice. It’s a lot easier that I expected, I think that’s due to the fact that I have a better grasp of English than I did when I took French or Spanish (I know what an “adverb” is now!!!). The Alphabet isn’t really that hard, you just have to realize that all the symbols make difference noises (except travoideesenak and mackeyeesenak, but who doesn’t know about those?).
I’ve met a taxi driver who’s become my friend. We trade English lessons for rides and he’s kind of my Production Assistant. He’s learned how to white balance, zoom and focus. I plan on writing an epic about him later.
I started traveling last week. I went to Bokonbaevo, Issyk-Kul to document Beth, an Australian who works with children with disabilities. We met her at Beypil, a clinic she visits every two weeks, and we ended up separating from her and staying at Beypil for three days.
You people should totally tell your friends to volunteer there or throw money at them. There are cute Japanese girls there and all the lagman you can eat. Contact them found_beypil@mail.ru
The clinic was started by a woman named Baktygul, who’s daughter was “disabled” with a cleft palate. In Kyrgyzstan any physical abnormally, no matter how minor or curable is considered a disability. It stems back the the Soviet “Perfect Man” mentality. The Kyrgyz Government doesn’t have the means to accommodate some of these children, so they group everyone together thus, more people suffer.
We traveled with her to three other villages. At the first we met a 15-year-old boy who has Hydrocephalus. He can’t talk or walk and sits at home while watching TV all day. He needs constant care, so his parents stay at home and live without steady income. I couldn’t accept the bread they offered me.
The second village has a school that they built to help these children, though it was closed by the time we got there. So we talked to the local “Soviet” (government official.)
He told us that he wants to help these children, but stressed that even the able-bodied need better schools and help. He then asked us for money, which has been a common theme here. (Someone asked me for $1,000 so they could by a computer last week.)
At the third village we met a woman who was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis many years ago. It has gotten so bad that she can no longer move. She’s in so much pain that she can barley sleep. She has been living in the same 9x10’ room for the past 9 years and has never left. She is under the care of her red-faced mother, who has hung an immense picture of Mecca on the wall and keeps a single glass and bottle of vodka on the table. 
In Bokonbeavo, we met a man, Talgar, who trains eagles and falcons. We asked him for a hunting demonstration, and he explained that he couldn’t make his bird tired because there was a festival on Sunday on the other side of Lake Issyk-Kul.
We woke up early Saturday, said “thank you” to Baktegul and drove to Cholan-Ata, a small tourist town.
After spending the night at a bed and breakfast and squatting for the first time, we went to the “Hippo-Drome,” a horse-race track, that’s also used to graze cattle.
There were about 20 eagles there and 10 Falcons. The festival showcased men’s skill with a bow and the hunting abilities or their dogs and birds.
The falcons showed their skillz at catching pigeons, pheasants and rabbits while the eagles demonstrated their skill at attacking a stuffed fox pulled by a man on a horse.
Then they brought out a red wolf (yeah, it’s really effing endangered in Asia) and let the birds attack it. She totally deserved it. According to the announcer she alone killed 68 sheep, 20 cows and 17 horses.
The wolf initially had a mussel on it, but if fell off, so most of the eagle trainers dropped out. I was happy that the wolf was abled to defend its self in some way.
She was being held on a leash by a man. She kept running away from this man, I kind of wished she realized she could easily run at him.
Then they showed of their dogs fearlessness by letting 2-3 dogs attack the wolf at a time. Most of the dogs just ran away. Wimps.
Now it’s valentines day. Everyone at AUCA freaks out about it for some reason, they have a big festival called “Let’s get married”. I think it’s bigger here than in the US. Of course the ladies are crawling all over me.
-Baylen
