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!!!

Difficulties with Opportunities

Recently someone translating for me as I talked to Oasis staff had problems when I used the word 'challenge' - as in 'one of our challenges as an organisation is...' It seems that there is not a good way to translate this word, and his suggestion was to translate it as 'a difficulty with opportunity' - which rather defeats the object of the phrase which is to frame a situation with positive rather than negative language!

So, one of our recent 'difficulties with opportunity' is that some of the boys in our transition home were caught breaking into a local shop early one morning. It is the first time that they have been in trouble with the authorities in this way, and is completely out of character (at least for who they have become over the last year or two with us) - but has the potential to land them in prison. They have been released back into our care for twenty eight days whilst the case is brought and then they will be sentenced - either a prison term or community service. The boys now feel foolish and sorry, and the staff who have worked with them feel very let down and hurt; but we are picking up the pieces. It has certainly been a challenging few days - but it is not clear what the opportunity in this might be...

On a lighter note, we had our first proper snow of the season - and everything carried on as normal! No traffic tailbacks, no schools closed, and no one was late for work (or no later than usual...) And we had a beautiful walk to school!

Some cultural moments

I (Jim) went for my first haircut in Kyrgyzstan last week. After 10 weeks here it had got a bit long, so, armed with my best Russian and some sign language I explained that I normally have a 'number 3' clipper setting on the back and at the sides. The hairdresser looked surprised and instead suggested a number 9, which I argued with (although it is hard to do this forcibly in my faltering Russian!) After some discussion we agreed to start with the 9 and if necessary work our way down...

I am happy to advise that it is worth taking the advice of local hairdressers; it turns out that a Russian '9' is equivalent to a UK '3'. Disaster and embarrassment were averted!

On Saturday night we had a cultural family outing - to the ballet! The beautiful ballet and opera house is about 8 minutes walk from our apartment and we had a wonderful evening watching Swan Lake. The two lead dancers were from Russia and were stunning and the rest of the company and the orchestra were local and also gave a magnificent performance. It has definitely whetted our appetite for the local arts!

We are enjoying the food; once a week we have a lady help with cleaning and she cooks a meal to a local recipe and often teaches Jane how to do it. As you can see from the picture, one local dish of metre long noodles (lagmann) can be a challenge to eat!






Finally, we are developing a little more confidence with our Russian ability and are trying to take opportunities to try it out. On leaving the team meeting last week, Jane confidently stood up and pronounced that she had to leave at which all the staff fell about laughing. Apparently she had announced that she needed to loose weight!

Winter is coming!

On Saturday we were in summer clothes, enjoying the autumn and leaves changing colour - as the picture shows. The city parks have been really beautiful. Today Jim cycled home in falling snow! According to weather forecasts it will be back to 15 degrees again in a couple of days, so we are certainly not settled in for winter yet, but it is a reminder that it is on it's way...







There are a few things to fill in from previous blog posts...

Baby Joshua (see posts on 19th and 24th September) is doing really well. In fact, the doctors are so satisfied with his progress that they don't want to see him again, and have given him authorisation to fly, so the family will be flying to America at the weekend. He and his family will have been in the UK for one day short of a month, and it has been an amazing time of healing, recovery and unexpected help and care.

Work-wise things are going well albeit with lots of challenges, not least with the sudden departure of a key member of staff (i.e. Baby Joshua's dad who was overseeing much of the finance and admin). To give an update on the challenges we mentioned earlier (17th September)... we are still looking for house parents for our girls transition home - the sort of person we were looking for proved very difficult to find, so we have slightly changed the role; we have found a property for the girls to move to and they are happily living there (we had tea with them yesterday and they won 2 of the 3 games of Uno we played with them!); and we are building good relationships with people (Jane's chocolate cake has helped with this a lot I think!)

There are a number of other challenges to add to the list; on the less interesting side picking up the finance and accounts without a proper handover, and implementing a number of short term (6 month) decisions whilst a longer term strategy is developed. More excitingly, we have loads of volunteers who have offered to help on our vulnerable youth programme, helping with homework, providing extra tuition in maths and other school subjects, teaching English, music and so on - and we need to manage and lead these people well.

One more issue we are working through is that sadly one of the girls who recently left the girls transitional home lost her baby last weekend; he was only 2 months old. She has been staying with one of our staff for the last few days and we need to help her to make good decisions about her future, where she lives (she had been at a hostel for young mothers and their children) and so on.

It is hard to remember that we have only been here for 8 weeks - it seems a lot longer and we are feeling very much at home! But as the seasons change we know that there is much to learn about this new home of ours...

Jane's Week.

Some of you have been asking what my week is like. Well, we are getting into a routine. Jim takes the children to school at 8am most days. It takes about 20 minutes to walk there. On Mondays however I take the children and stay in school to fulfill our 4 hour weekly commitment which every family with children at Hope Academy volunteers. As a teacher they are using me in that capacity and I am helping to streamline and create an English Curriculum for the primary end of the school from the many that have been used and left behind. I am really enjoying it- it's right up my street!

On Monday, Wednesday and Thursday lunchtimes I have Russian lessons and also try to do homework in 20 minute blocks throughout the day on each weekday. Somedays are more dedicated than others! On Friday mornings I go to the Oasis office for the weekly team meeting and love being there and getting to know the team better.

Much of the rest of the week is taken up with food shopping; trips along the road to a fruit and veg stall. Trips to various kiosque, markets or supermarkets to get provisions. It is a much bigger part of life here, a bit like going back to our Mum's in the 70's and how they had to do it. Actually I love the interactions and the practice it gives me for using Russian as well as trying new local foods for the first time. It also means I get to know the city and find my way around using various modes of transport. People are generally very friendly and helpful and it is not at all a threatening place to walk around in.

I collect the children at 3.45pm and am enjoying getting to know other parents as well as staff there. Then we are into homework, supper and so on. One thing I really like about the walk to and from school is the view of the mountains at one or two points along the way.

Once a month I go to the meeting of the International Women's Club at a smart hotel; great bunch. Yesterday we heard about the food security situation here from someone at the World Food Programme.

That's the general gist! Hope that gives you some idea.

Update on evacuation

After the post below it was in fact another tense day or two before Josh was evacuated. To cut a very long story short...
The Turkish evacuation company were unable to do the evacuation until (possibly) Saturday afternoon and after taking medical advice from many people the family left on the first available flight out of Kyrgyzstan which happened to be going to the UK. This was early on Friday morning (Kg time) and they arrived in London at 10.30 (UK time) and were taken straight to a nearby hospital. Amazingly a nurse was able to fly with them - she had got in touch with us on Thursday to see if she could help and agreed to change her tickets which were for the following Sunday. We still have no idea how she came to hear about the situation or how she got our number...
Josh is now being carefully monitored. He is doing well, is putting on weight and smiling at his mum (the first smiles of his life!) but he will need to be kept under observation for quite some time and may need surgery in the next week or so.
Nevertheless, everyone is very relieved that he is now able to be well looked after. Hurrah!

A difficult few days

Andy Walker is one of the two people who led Oasis Kg in the nine months before we arrived. He is married to Sofia, who was with us in Mozambique for a year. We have really enjoyed getting to know Andy and being with Sofia again.

A month ago, just before we arrived in Kyrgyzstan, Sofia gave birth to a beautiful baby boy, Joshua. Unfortunately, over the weekend Josh was admitted to hospital with diarrhoea and vomiting and after a day it seemed that his condition was worsening and it was clear that he needed to be evacuated. For various reasons this has been extremely difficult and it has taken three days to pull this together; as I write, the medical evacuation company are scouring Turkey for a hospital that will accept him, after which a flight will be dispatched to collect him.

Josh seemed a little better earlier today; Andy is exhausted and has been on the phone almost constantly for the last 48 hours. Sofia is also extremely tired. They also have a three year old son, Alex.

First weeks at work

Catching a bus to work on my first day.
Since then I have cycled...

I (Jim) started work at the Oasis office formally at the beginning of September, and have now been there for two weeks. It has been quite a whirlwind...

We have a fantastic team and I have really enjoyed getting to know them a little and learning about what they are doing. Some are able to speak English and I have been able to have good conversations with them; others have no English but nevertheless we have struggled through and learnt a little about each other! It is very frustrating not being able to communicate easily what you want to. Fortunately the two people who have been leading Oasis in the period before I arrived are both fluent English speakers and have been able to start my induction into Oasis Kyrgyzstan.

There are some really good things going on: we have just started a new project, working with more young people from government institutions (who are there because they are orphans or have families that are unable to look after them). The young people in our two transitional homes have started back at school or college; and indeed, one boy, who graduated in the summer from school with 'A's in every subject has started at a local university, which is an inspiration to all the boys at the reform home where he spent a number of years.

There are also a number of significant challenges. Not least, in the immediate future we need to recruit new house parents for the girl's transitional home, and find a new property for them to live in; and whilst Oasis Kg is in a better place financially than it has been for some time we still need to raise money to cover the budget for this financial year (just started). And personally, there is the challenge of simply getting my head around all the work that we are doing and all that is behind this - the financial processes and so on. And then there is also the small matter of learning Russian, and building relationships with people using the little language that I have...

Roll on week three...

Rosie's week

From Monday to Friday I go to school. We walk to school and it takes about 20 - 25 minutes. We walk past a big memorial which has an eternal flame. In the photo you can see the mountains in the background.

My subjects are Language Arts, Maths, Writing, Grammar, Science, Social Studies, Music, Ethics, Russian, Art, Library and PE.

I have homework every day except Fridays.

I am in grade 3 and I am joined in the same classroom with grade 4. In grade 3 there are 5 children and in grade 4 there are 7 children.

It is a very nice school with children from all over the world. The friends I have made are from Brazil, England, China and Korea.

At the weekend I had my eighth birthday party at 'Sun City' where there are three swimming pools, two bouncy castles and one really fast inflatable slide. I invited two friends and Felix had a friend too.

We ate pizza which was really nice, but there were lots of wasps which got into our Coke and Fanta.

I had a really fun time.




Bishkek is very pretty and I like our flat. The temperature was really hot when we arrived but now it is cooling down a little. I like the food a bit. My favourite bread is lepioshka [flat bread] which I go and buy with my papa sometimes. It is cooked in an oven called a tandoor which looks like a hole!

That is my week!

Everything New.

Lots of new beginnings; Jim now has a bike to get around on which he is very happy about and today he rode it to work for the first time, admiring the mountain view. The roads are busy though now that the schools opened again yesterday so he needs his whits about him!

Felix and Rosie are continuing to enjoy their new school. Both came home from their first Russian lessons saying they did not understand a thing, but enjoyed their second lessons much more. Jim and I have just started our lessons too....hoping this won't be too uphill, the motivaton to be able to communicate is high.

Rosie turned 8 today and had fun at school sharing biscuits with her class and being sung to in assembly. We had a Kygyz friend to supper to join in the celebrations and I was very pleased with myself  for catching a bus alone and exploring to find a recommended type of birthday cake. She felt quite intrepid!

Everyday is full of many new discoveries which is exciting most of the time and exhausting at others!

1st Day of School and Tummy Bugs!

Over the last few days we have had some dodgy tummies! Jim's was fragile on Saturday and Sunday, Jane's today, and Rosie one day last week; thankfully Felix has not really suffered at all. It is not disastrous - just a bit debilitating. As we once learned, the key is to keep drinking water! (That lesson came a few years ago in India when we each spent time on a drip in hospital to re-hydrate...)

Today Felix and Rosie started school. This first day was just for the morning and was for parents too, to welcome us all, introduce the staff and give an orientation to the values and ethos of the school. They are very determined that it is our job as parents to educate our children and that they as a school are walking with us in this - and want us to be involved in a number of ways. There is lot's of volunteer work done by parents; and among other possibilities, Jim has already made enquiries about being involved in an extra-curricular rock climbing club...

 Jane was bowled over by the care and support that the school offers - and indeed, we have been really grateful for the interest that a number of teachers that we have already met over the last 10 days have shown. Felix and Rosie are excited to be there, are enjoying making friends and are really positive about the way it all works - even the homework! Felix is in a class of nine children from five countries; the one down side for him is that seven of them are girls... Rosie is in a class of twelve - her class seems to be a bit more balanced in terms of gender!

It is a 20 - 25 minute walk to the school from our apartment - which in the morning is quite pleasant at the moment, but with tired children on a hot afternoon might be more of a challenge!

Felix's First Five Days

We asked Felix about his first five days in Kyrgyzstan...

It is very hot! I really like our new flat, which is very spacious and my room is cool (not the temperature!) I like the food, especially the fresh fruit - we have had water melon, nectarines, plums and strawberries.









We have walked a lot! The city is quite green - there are a lot of trees and parks, which brings shade (hurrah!). Yesterday we visited our school and I like the look of it. It has air conditioning everywhere inside which is good.

Today we went to a large local market, the Osh Bazaar, which had billions of sweets! You could also buy fruit, home equipment, bathroom equipment, bread, vegetables, dried fruits and nuts, sports equipment, meat, Korean salad which we had for supper and lots more.

I have really enjoyed my first five days in Bishkek and will be looking forward to the rest of my time here!

Felix, over and out!

We've Arrived

Wow, we are finally here!!! After some intense weeks of packing, sorting, storing and farewells we have finally made it to Bishkek!

The journey went very well. Felix and Rosie are expressing lots of enjoyment of it all and for Felix, Jim and I there is a lot of familiarity about being back in a very hot climate. Rosie has spent the time in the flat in few clothes and dipping in a cold bath, finding it all rather hot!  We did get to swim at the pool at the hotel we stayed at last night which was a lovely bonus. We enjoyed pancakes and honey for breakfast.

We are now gradually unpacking in our flat. We are very happy with it and the location. We explored a little earlier with the help of a friend and one thing I have really enjoyed is the gardens, parks and  flower beds being irrigated by glacial mountain water which run down small channels along the side of the pavement; what a concept!

Felix has asked "why didn't we come sooner?".

It is hard to believe in the current heat that it is really going to be snowing in a few months, that change will be quite something to experience.

The Big Pack!

Boxes, boxes everywhere!

We won't take very much with us to Kyrgyzstan - mainly clothes and books, and get the other things that we need there - and so most of the things that we own are staying in the UK. It is amazing how much we have collected, even when trying to live reasonably simply!

Some friends who spent many years in West Africa have given us some of the tea chests that they used when they returned to the UK in the early 1970's, and also a trunk used by their uncle to return from Malaya in 1952 (according to the label!) It is quite something to be packing into boxes so steeped in history!

A Week Off

After the busy-ness of the end of term and saying goodbye to school friends, at the end of July we headed off to South Wales for a quick break. It was a wonderful time, staying at the newly opened Hiraeth Centre run by friends from Tunbridge Wells. We had a day at the beach, a day at the centre playing in the stream and cooking on the fire, and a day up a nearby mountain.

It was a wonderful week and we returned refreshed and ready for the big pack up...

A place for us to live

At the end of last week, our colleagues in Kyrgyzstan looked at an apartment for us. We had tried not to be too picky when thinking about how we would like to live, but nevertheless had a few criteria for them - within walking distance of the children's school, secure, and with four bedrooms, so that we can host guests easily.

The apartment that they looked at (in the block in the picture) fits the bill brilliantly: it is about 1.5 kms from the school, is on the third floor and has good security, and has four bedrooms (in fact, the guest bedroom even has it's own bathroom!) So, we have said yes, which is very exciting.

So, hurrah - another part of the jigsaw is in place!

Vaccinations

Today we are all going to get stabbed! Fortunately, because we have all been inoculated numerous times in the past we just need boosters; so we are all having a rabies jab, and most of us are having one for Hepatitis B. Felix and Rosie are not exactly ecstatic at the thought but are bearing up, bolstered by the promise of a trip to McDonalds afterwards! They are holding to the conversion rate of one Happy Meal per injection...

Thinking about it, it does seem ironic that we reward / encourage / bribe them to face up to something that is good for their health with something that is not!

Learning Russian!

As we wrote in our first blog, one of the big areas of our preparation for moving to Kyrgyzstan is to learn Russian - well, at least making a good start. There are 33 letters in the Russian alphabet, and so the first task was to learn those; for Rosie this has meant a daily Russian lesson on her Ready Brek! To start with we felt quite illiterate when faced with our Russian books, but now feel that we can at least read it - and even if we don't know what it means we can find our way around a Russian dictionary! But it will be a lot of work, time and breakfasts before we are reasonably fluent!

Nevertheless, it will be great to arrive and live in a Russian speaking context - but it will definitely be quite a challenge and will no doubt cause a few raised eyebrows and smirks. Hopefully we will not end up saying anything too rude or offensive by accident...!

Preparation

Since January we have been starting to to prepare for our move. In particular we have made a start at learning Russian; we (Jim and Jane) have been having regular lessons whilst the children have been doing odd bits and pieces (Felix using an i-pod app and Rosie having Russian letters scribed in Golden Syrup on her Ready Brek!). Yesterday they had their first proper lesson (thanks Phillippa!).

Now, with about eleven weeks to go, there are more things to think through. We have started to get winter clothes (it gets pretty cold - minus fifteen or so in winter!) and begun to get rid of some of the 'stuff' we have accumulated over the last three and a half years in England. Over the next weeks we need to work out where we will store a few items of furniture, boxes of books and other items, sell the car and of course pack!

We have loved living in the UK for the last few years - we have all made some good friends and enjoyed the school(s) and community that we have become a part of. So as well as getting ready, we want to make sure that we enjoy these last few weeks too, and say proper goodbyes. It will definitely all end in tears!