Cold!

The temperatures have plummeted over the last week and are down to minus twenty at night and rise to  minus ten to fifteen during the day. So it is quite cold!

Apparently there is a saying in Norway (which Berghaus have picked up on in their advertising) that there is no such thing as bad weather, only the wrong clothes. Before we came to Kyrgyzstan we made sure to buy some good cold weather kit and it has certainly paid off. When we go outside, we are bundled up in base layers, fleeces and duvet jackets, snow boots and inner and outer gloves... and it is all very necessary, and we have not - yet - got really cold. We have even been for a few runs! (see our running blog (link on the right)).

At times the cold weather is fun. Felix had his birthday party last Saturday and part of the time was a snow fight whilst we walked to the nearby bowling alley. As it was so cold the snow did not make good snowballs... but people could be well and truly smothered if they walked under a tree that was shaken at the right moment!

But it is not always fun; over the last few days many homes in the city have been without gas, which has strained the electricity system causing some of the circuits in the city to breakdown. So far we are fine (it probably helps that our block of flats is near a number of government ministries and the police headquarters!), but several friends and the Oasis boys transitional home have been without gas and electricity for much of the last two days. Fortunately the boys home is quite close and were able to have their supper cooked at our house; but it will be a cold night for them and many others in the city tonight - and perhaps for a few more nights until the gas is sorted out.

“Her lungs don’t fit in her chest…”

Last week one of the girls in our Transitional Home for girls was reunited with her family. The details are murky, but it seems that when she was very young her parents divorced and her mother went to Russia to find work, leaving her with her father. Other family members cared for her for a while but she was eventually abandoned and found herself in a state home which she had to leave when she was fifteen – at which point she moved to our transitional home. She is normally a quiet girl but is now so excited to be reconnected with her family, who are now in Russia that she is bouncing about the place and bursting to tell everyone her news. As they say here, ‘her lungs don’t fit in her chest’!

Sadly, this story of abandonment is all too familiar – we were shocked to discover that in fact, between 80 to 90% of the 11,000 children in state orphanages and homes in Kyrgyzstan have parents and family members who are alive but out of touch – or who are unwilling to look after them. The 12 young people in Oasis’ transitional homes are no different. They may have ended up in these places because of family breakdown, parents migrating for work reasons, or the mistaken but widely held belief that a child can have a better life being looked after by the state. Another of the girls in the Tranistional Home was visited by her mother recently – she herself had been brought up in an orphanage, and saw no reason why her 3 children (the other two are elsewhere in Bishkek) should not have a similar upbringing whilst she works in Russia.

In other news... our colleagues who were evacuated in September are doing really well. Their son, Josh is doing all the things that a four month old should be and they are looking to return in May next year - hurrah! We have had some good snow which has all but gone as the temperatures have been relatively warm - minus five or so at night, but even up to about 10 degrees in the day. But there is some good cold weather on the way - Felix's ipod (which generally gives a pretty good forecast!) tells us that it will be minus 13 on Friday during the day and minus 20 at night. Bring it on!!!