Kyrgyzstan Wins Again

Kyrgyzstan Wins Again

It’s Friday, time to head out of the village for the weekend.  This past week was probably my busiest week of work in Peace Corps.  I’m in the process of working on a grant for a summer health camp and I’m putting the finishing touches on it.  On Fridays my Counterpart and I do a women’s club.  This week we were talking about gender in Kyrgyzstan.  I wake up Friday morning, tired and grumpy, my normal for mornings that begin before 10.  My 4-year-old brother is screaming and crying, also normal.  I head to the club, and we start about 45 minutes late and 7 women showed up.  Things are going well until my counterpart asked the young (25-35) women how many of them had been bride kidnapped.  3 out of 7 of them raised their hands.  Depressing.  Today is women’s day in Kyrgyzstan and I don’t want to go in depth about how messed up gender relations in Kyrgyzstan are but to put it shortly it is bad.  Check this article out by a fellow volunteer who can express much better than I can. http://www.battlecreekenquirer.com/article/20140217/NEWS01/302170020/Britta-Seifert-column-Women-Kyrgyzstan-fight-gender-oppression

 

Nothing Says Happy Women's Day Like Plastic Flowers and Cognac 

Woo Women's Club

After our meeting we have a quick little party at the hospital in honor of women’s day, shots of cognac, and some other tasty treats.  By this time I am ready to head to Bishkek for the weekend.  I’m tired and not looking forward to sitting on a crowded bus so decide I’ll take a taxi it is only 100 som ($2) more expensive and I figure it will be much faster.  A guy drives up who is heading to Bishkek and I agree to go with him.  We just need to wait on one more person.  About 5 minutes later another driver asks if anyone is going to Bishkek but I’ve already told this guy I’ll go with him so I stick with him.  The other guy drives off.  For the next 20-30 minutes no other people come, no buses drive by, and no other people driving to Bishkek come by.  So I keep waiting patiently but my patience is running out.  Finally 2 people who were heading to Balakchy (a town about 40 minutes from my village) get in the car and we leave.  I fall asleep during the 40-minute drive and we get to Balakchy and drop our passengers off.  My driver then drives up to the line of taxis waiting for people to head to Bishkek.  He offers a better price to some people and essentially wins their business from some other drivers.  They did not like this at all.  About 7 guys proceeded to surround our car, one guy tries to force my door open but I slam it shut on him and lock it.  The 2 ladies who decided to come to our car started yelling at the guys telling them to leave and that it is their choice to get in a different car.  They were even threatening to hit the men.  Finally our driver gave the *ssholes 50 som and they left.  I just wanted to sleep and instead Kyrgyz men had to resort to bullying and the threat of violence when faced with a better businessman.  Kyrgyzstan is still working on its transformation to capitalism and the concept of lower prices to gain more business is slow to set in.  Even at the bazars in Kyrgyzstan you can go to 10 vendors that have the exact same product and not a single one of them will offer you any sort of incentive to buy there’s over some one else’s… It’s annoying.  So we finally escape the Balakchy taxi station with 3 new riders two women and an older man.  I give the old man my front seat and get in the back with the ladies.  All I wanted to do was sleep but the back seat was squished and uncomfortable.  The old man was also slightly drunk and very friendly and kept talking the whole time.  About an hour or so into our drive he has the driver pull over near the Kyrgyz-Kazakh border to buy vodka.  We then spend the next 20-30 minutes giving toasts and accolades along with shots for the two women for women’s day.  We proceed to stop and do this two more times before reaching Bishkek.  Fortunately we had a responsible driver and he wasn’t taking part.  When we finally got to Bishkek the old man was getting off first.  He took about 10 minutes to say his goodbyes, and take farewell shots.  On any other day I would just laugh and appreciate the Kyrgyzness of this experience but of course it had to be on the day I am exhausted and just want to get to Bishkek.  By the end of the trip it took almost 2 more hours than the ride would have taken on a bus and cost 100 som more.

I guess looking back the day after I can’t help but laugh at the experience and appreciate the overly friendly drunk old man.  It is also entertaining that almost every time I try and do something quickly or be in a rush in this country it bites me in the butt.  The never-ending quest of going with the flow in this country continues and Kyrgyzstan keeps winning.  The sooner I accept this the better off I’ll be!