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!