On May 17^th the Alpine Fund together with Novi Nomad Travel Agency organized a trip to Alamedin Valley.  We took many kids because Novi Nomad covered the transportation expenses and gave a huge bus and Alpine Fund was responsible for coordinating of the kids and for cooking food for everyone.  

This time we went to the other place called “Teoplye Kluchi” where we’ve never been before. When we were going to the morning it was raining but when we arrived the rain stopped and it became warm and sunny.    

Kids started to hike up to the mountains with Salavat, Alpine Fund intern, Saltanat and Aizada, two girls from Novi Nomad.  Saltanat told kids about Kyrgyzstan’s flora.  And Aizada took a lot of pictures.  Unfortunately we had problems with our camera but a little later we will get pictures from Saltanat then I can post them on the blog.

 There were 4 parents who also helped us too.  It is quite difficult to coordinate 40 kids.  The rest of the interns stayed for cooking “PLOV”.   Sanjar-baike took a big Kyrgyz kazan so we could cooked enough plov for everybody. After the lunch boys went to play soccer and girls wanted to hike once more. 

There has been a journalist from “Vecherni Bishkek”.  They interviewed Arianna-eje and Saltanat.  They asked about Alpine Fund and Saltanat had questions about “Trekking Union” where she works for.   

And couple days ago we have seen Arianna-eje on Kyrgyz National Channel.  It was good interview.  Everyone was like look, look they talk about Alpine Fund and our trip! 

Adilet

From May 8-10 was a Youth Festival in Bishkek. There were about 300 people there from all over Central Asia- Kazakstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tadjikistan. A lot of youth came from different countries. We had a good time! The first day was registration and then we were separated into teams and met our team leaders. My team consisted of new people from different places and there were 21 of us all together. One day, everyone went out to clean the city, my team went to the Vestok 5 area. We all wore the same t-shirts that were given to us at the beginning of the Festival. People were wondering why were doing this (picking up and cleaning the area)? And for what? We just wanted to do a good thing for our Bishkek. Old men and women were thankful! I got to meet more new people as we worked. The theme for our Festival was- “Be Real”. On the last day, people from each country put together a presentation representing their nationality and culture. There was a lot of music and dancing! I had a good time. There were even people there from Africa! We also had master-class, and could go in different directions, for example: creativity, dancing, leadership, ecology, games, singing, etc. You could choose what class you wanted to participate in. I was in creativity; we just were drawing with a lot of different things- pencils, paint, and using different media such as sand and plastic. We wrote our names and a meaning for each letter. At the end we were given a group photo- I will remember these days as they were a lot of fun! I am looking forward to next year’s festival!!

                                               First step

Chinese people say; a big walk begins from a single step.

Now I can surely say that I made a single step to my future (hopefully “good”) career.

You know, before to be involved to Alpine Fund I had been visiting CPC’s food program. Every day CPC (Center for the Protection of Children) give hot lunch for working children and kids from poor families whose ages are from 6 to 16.

I was ten or eleven when they first took me to the program. I was active and useful for them, that’s why they named me CPC’s the kid.

Recently, four students and two teachers from Holland had come to Bishkek for ten days.

Their aim was to make a film about lives of working children, street children and orphans. Also they wanted to be familiar with CPC’s activities. The movie will be shown in Holland and rich people can donate money.

Before Holland people had come, CPC needed a translator. The director of CPC knew me to know English. I was said to come to CPC’s office to talk over some details with the director. When I opened the door and went in, she called me, Oh, AF’s the son appeared.

It was unexpectedly and funny to hear.

After I have been (checked out) interviewed, I was offered a job. My first serious job. We have arranged 750 soms to be paid for me per day.

First day I was very excited but then I got used to them. They were really nice people.

One social worker, students and me were visiting poor families and interviewing them. After having seen living condition of families we were always shocked (even me).

Now I realized why wise people are happy even if they are poor. They are happy because they are satisfied with things they own. But most of the people aren’t feeling happy because they don’t value things they have got.

I think, I have killed two rabbits with one bullet. Earning and practicing. I have spent ten days with great joy. It was important experience for me.

“Heavy rain will stop and guest from far will leave” says Kyrgyz old proverb. Arrival of the students came to the end and they flied back to Holland.

When I got money I paid back all debt and bought some nice clothes. Of course all this good impressions and memories thanks to Alpine Fund.

And I would like to thank Garth, (personal thanks to Libby) Arianna eje, all volunteers and the rest of AF’s gang.

Best wishes,

Uli.

May 11^th we went to Petrovka Mountains with 8 kids from Petrovka orphanage and Maya, volunteer from Japan.  She came to Petrovka orphanage to teach music.  Her Russian became very good.  And kids also speak some Japanese like thank you- oregato, please and couple other  I forgot to take forks for salads and bought sticks to eat, so Maya was a good example how to use sticks :)  

There is Ak Suu river and I’ve heard that this river called Ak Suu because of the mineral water Ak Suu.  Last year we have been in that mountains with Toby, previous volunteer of the Alpine Fund, but we could not reach the end because the weather was not good and we stopped at the beginning of the valley.   

If we compare Ala-Archa and Petrovka mountains I think Ala-Archa is good for hiking and Petrovka is better for climbing.  There are several good places for rock climbing but they have not bolts.   

It was long driving.  We have been a little tired of driving but when we arrived to Mineral Spring we forgot how long the way was.  It was amazing!  One of the kids said this is almost the same water with gaz which we can buy in Petovka just a little stinky.   

In Soviet time trucks went there to take mineral water.  You can even see a huge tank where the water filled up.  But now no one take care of it. Everyone enjoyed this day.  Kids knew about existing of the Mineral Springs from Geography classes and that day they could see the real Mineral Spring. 

Arianna 

Now in Bishkek you can see a lot of students with big bags of books,everybody is
preparing for exams. Spring is the time when students are most visible. Everybody is in the
libraries or internet-cafes. Exams are very important, we are not sleeping all
night or day. The biggest problem is passing the exam of the subject that of which you didn’t
attend class during the year, or visited but not so often. The difficulty of the exam depends
on the major. For example: my major is “Foreign Languages”, I have 5 exams- history
of Kyrgyzstan, stylistic of English language, English & Kyrgyz language(the most
difficult for me),and anatomy. My most interesting class is history of Kyrgyzstan. My first
exam will be on May 10th, on Stylistic of English Lang. Each university has problems
with teachers and materials- there are not enough qualified teachers. Teachers
are working not just in one university but in a couple. One my friends said, “Bishkek is a
little country, but every university has a different system of education.” I can
say only different people, different systems. In Bishkek are the ten most popular
universities and colleges. People from villages try to come and study here in the
capital. Every 5th student came from the village to find a future for themselves. The most popular areas of study are: foreign languages-English, Chinese, German, etc. In my university
there are 18,000 students,and 50% are learning foreign languages.
Before the exams you could see titles: “We are against corruption”, the goverment is struggling with this problem. We will have corruption
always, because always will be people offering to give money and people willing to take the bribes. But I believe there is a bright
future for Kyrgyzstan.
Ok. I need to go to prepare for exams!

On March 4^th, I went to the mountains as guide. It was my first time working as a guide. I was scared of making mistakes, because I had never done it before; but then I decided to be confident. I went with Mike and Dasha and the weather was great for hiking. We decided to go to the cemetery of alpinists, in Ala-Archa Park. I was there only one other time, and did not really remember where it was. We were looking for a bridge and finally found it! We crossed the bridge and started to hike again, but then a problem- I felt nausous and giddy. I couldn’t understand why I felt this way. Dasha was wondering too. I had been to Korona which is higher and nothing had happened there. We then decided to go back down the mountain. I felt better when we had come down. We started to gather garbage and pick up the litter that was there- we gathered a lot! For me, it was surprising to see the snow still on the ground, because in Bishkek there wasn’t any snow. Then we just walked around and found a cool place to eat. On the way, we met a man named John, he has lived in Kyrgyzstan for 6 years already. He shared with Mike about his life. I asked him where he worked and to my surprise, he works in my university!

 I was sad because we didn’t reach our goal that day. I still haven’t gone to the hospital yet, but I think everything is ok. That’s all that happened that day.

Salavat

Last year Ashley, volunteer of the Alpine Fund, introduced us with the Women’s Club. They gave us money to buy new computer. With David, previous volunteer, Alpine Fund interns started computer classes. Now we have only English classes at the office since we didn’t find a new computer class teacher.

Also Women’s Club helped us with some running shoes and a lot of socks. Socks are big problem for kids from the orphanages. Especially in winter when you come in their room at dacha you have to leave the window open otherwise it is possible to die That’s why at the orphanage they have a rule to wash feet every day!

Arianna

Como estas?How are you? Is everything good in your world?  I am doing well. So do Alpine fund.  

Actually, there is no new news in the university, lectures ended last weekend, seminars also, and modules had already been passed.Every student feels relieved after terrible, very difficult exam of Latin language. And I am relieved too. I think this and next month we will basically study English, because at the end of May there will be main exams (I even see this word in my dreams) and if you don’t pass it, they will reckon you off. That’s why our teacher warned us yesterday to repeat and practice.  There are eight classes of English in a week. Four of them is for grammar, three-practicing, and two of them is home reading. This Friday we will have finished all mystery stories about Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson. As for competition, it was not what I expected actually. I couldn’t get first place but anyway they nominated me for “the best pronunciation”. To my mind it sounds funny. 

As the great general and strategist Suvorov said: difficult in training, easy in the battle. There is no man whom one can rely on in the graduating exams, so I got to work on myself. 

Last weekend IREX organized its next event which called “Earth day’’ and of course they had invited Alpine Fund people to take part of it. On sunny Sunday Adilet, Kuruchbek and me gathered five kids from CPC and came to AUCA. The IREXers were waiting for us there.We got on the huge bus (it was like Chelsea’s bus) and set off to the Ala Archa. Sun was shining brightly; breeze was playing freely through the park, guests having rest The ground was covered with green, yellow, red flowers; water was flowing slowly into the forest. (I think Shakespeare would describe it better.) But one thing was spoiling the beauty, it was trash. We were to clean it up and stop negative relation with the nature.Everyone got plastic bags, gloves and began to pick up bottles, tins etc.We worked three hours, then had delicious New York pizzas (I felt myself like a New Yorker) after lunch we were already on the way back to Bishkek. (Sun was scorching, marshrutkas were racing freely….. Sorry)It was awesome, especially kids liked it. (They still talk about pizzas.) Kyrgyz people say: It is not clean place which is cleaned everyday; it is clean there, where people don’t throw trash. (Bad translation)Please tell to your friends to be careful with the nature and never throw trash away.   

Adios amigo,

Ulan (matador).