I’m Workin’!

I have heard from some of the readers of this blog that my life in Kyrgyzstan seems to be all about having fun and frolicking in the outdoors. While I am all about having fun and frolicking, I want to assure those of you who are US taxpayers (and thus funding my current adventure at a very modest level) that I am doing work here.

My primary assignment is with Nar-Just, an NGO that works to promote the rule of law and to develop civil society in Kyrgyztan. Here’s a photo of me at work with my colleagues and some Peace Corps staff:
Cholpon, the woman in the middle of the photo is the Director of Nar-Just. She has very good ideas, great commitment to our work, and lots of energy. The woman second from the left in the photo is Kuzjibek, who also works at Nar-Just. She helps develop training materials and publish our journal. We have one other employee, Asel, who is the bookkeeper.

Nar-Just has engaged in many activities since its founding in 2003, from lobbying for veterans, mothers and children, to election monitoring and reporting, to training in peaceful dispute resolution, civil rights and good government. Nar-Just currently publishes a journal for local elected officials that helps them to understand their rights and responsibilities. Those officials are elected, but they are unpaid. They are respected in their communities, but they all have jobs, whether as farmers, business owners or parents. Some cannot read and few have access to the internet. Many do not know about the laws that govern their work, including their rights to budgeted funds and information that they need to represent their constituents effectively. Most of those officials grew up when Kyrgyzstan was part of the Soviet Union and the elected officials, such as they were, just carried out instructions from the Central Party. Representative democracy is a new thing here.

In fact, the current Kyrgyz government, along with the World Bank and other international organizations, have identified the development of civil society in Kyrgyzstan as one of the highest priorities for the country. Without civil society, economic development, education, health promotion, and infrastructure maintenance all become difficult and challenging. Many of the past efforts to support the growth of civil society here have been top down efforts that had mixed results. Nar-Just takes a bottom up approach, empowering citizens and giving their elected representatives the tools that they need to serve their constituents. I really think that it’s the right approach and that organizations like Nar-Just are the keys to Kyrgyzstan’s future.

At any rate, I’m working with Cholpon on a five-year plan to make comprehensive training and essential information available to all elected representatives in Naryn Oblast. The plan also creates a path toward self-sustainability for Nar-Just so that it can continue its important work into the future.

And I’m working with CBT Naryn and Kubat Tours, the two primary tourist organizations in town, to develop and improve the nascent tourism industry here. I’ve been talking with the proprietors of Kubat Tours about sponsoring a national horse games festival here in Naryn. If we can pull something together, we’ll do a trial run in August, then try to make it a really big event next summer. And I’ve met with the local USAID office and plan to start working with them on development projects in September.

So I have been working, appearances to the contrary notwithstanding. (I just play hard too.) My Kyrgyz counterparts work hard and have great ideas. Working together, I think that we can make Kyrgyzstan a little nicer place to live and work. We’re giving it our best shot.

Haying Time

Even though Naryn is one of the ten biggest cities in Kyrgyzstan, it’s still an agricultural community. Cows and goats often wander the streets—even Lenina Street, the main road through town. Roosters crow to announce each new day. Much of the harvest in the bazaar at this time of year—tomatoes, cucumbers, melons, lettuce, raspberries, and apricots—was still on the vine in the morning before being plucked and brought to market.

And it’s haying time here in Naryn. I usually see a hay truck rumbling through town on my way to work. Most are ancient, Soviet-era vehicles built in the 40’s, 50’s and 60’s. And they’re loaded high with fresh-cut hay, often stacked six, seven or more feet higher than the sides of the truck. And if the load wasn’t stacked carefully, it may lean precariously. I’m sure some of the loads don’t make it all the way to their intended destinations. Here’s a loaded hay truck coming in from the fields:
Once you get outside Naryn City, it’s not uncommon to see donkey carts loaded with hay coming in from the fields.

In Kyrgyzstan, I have not seen any of the huge round bales of hay that seem to have taken over the hay market in the U.S. Most of the trucks here carry the rectangular bales that were common in America for decades. But there are also a lot of fields where the haying is done as it has been done for centuries—cut with scythes, raked with wooden toothed rakes, then piled high with pitchforks. Here are some piles, ready to be brought in and stored for the winter:
Because its haying time here, when I ride my bike into the countryside, I always see farmers with their scythes—six or seven feet long with four foot blades—working in the fields, resting in the shade, sharpening their blades or walking to or from the fields. Or maybe they’re raking the cut hay into rows, raking the rows into piles or loading the piles into donkey-drawn carts with pitchforks.

In Luxemburg, where most of my neighbors were farmers, every farm household got its load of hay delivered to be stored for winter. The trucks would drop their loads in front of a family compound and then it was up to the family to move and store the bails. As in any farming community (at least the ones where hay is moved by muscle, rather than machine) moving and stacking hay bales is a job best left to teenagers, who have lots of muscle and a need to have that power steered into productive activities.

It’s nice seeing the seasons divided more finely, with summer moving from planting, to the first harvests of lettuce and spinach, to haying, and then to the abundance of harvest. And the best is yet to come.