The Blog Stops Here

The Blog Stops Here

I’ve been meaning to write for a while now, but you know how it goes. I wrapped up my Central Asia jaunt by spending my last few days in Bishkek. Ala Archa Canyon one day, obtaining a Russian transit visa another day, and seeing the sights of Bishkek on a third day. I had the great fortune and opportunity to meet lots of different travelers and ex-pats in Bishkek, which made my stay there different from all the other cities I had visited in Central Asia.

If my tally of Americans abroad is correct, I met a total of five Americans between leaving Moscow and July 3rd. Then it all changed. The evening of July 3rd I went to the US Embassy 4th of July Party, where there were hundreds of Americans. Including the group of college students coaching baseball in Bishkek for the summer (turns out they are all with a Church Mission, which makes a lot more sense than just saying “I coach baseball in Bishkek”). I think the fact that all the ex-pats in Bishkek were invited to this party reflects a) how small that community is and b) how nice the embassy staff is. I also had a chance to check out the American Pub in Bishkek, which more or less seemed like a repeat of the Embassy party itself.

Bishkek, unlike Tashkent, Ashgabat, Moscow, or other cities I was in, has plenty of Communist memorabilia dotting the city. I got a photo with Marx and Engels (conveniently located across the street from the American University). I also checked out the Lenin Statue, which has only been moved behind the History Museum from the main square. Which brings to a point about Kyrgyzstan: the other countries I’ve been in around here have all but wiped out their Soviet history. As if it never happened. No statues of Marx and Lenin and no streets named Soviet. But Kyrgyzstan seems to be the healthiest in this regard, by keeping all these things. Sure they’ve moved them from prominent locations, but there is a sense that these statues and this time period shapes what is modern day Kyrgyzstan. Again, I think this is far healthier than denying it happened or refusing to learn from the past. The sad thing about Kyrgyzstan is that it is the only Central Asian Republic to have gone through a system of reforms after the breakup of the Soviet Union and getting independence, and yet its economy collapsed and it is super poor. It’s also the most democratic of those former Soviet republics. There is a reasonably free press and open elections. Their problem (or one of them at least) is bad corruption. Their first president, Akayev, and their current president, Bakiyev, are both corrupt. And then this got me thinking (and some Kyrgyz I spoke to had the same thoughts) maybe Turkmenbashi ain’t so bad after all. He’s build up the infrastructure and poured money into the country and limited corruption (to building statues of himself and to himself). I guess the moral is that this is a tough neighborhood and there doesn’t seem to be a successful post-independence model that has evolved. But I can understand the frustration of some Kyrgyz people when they explained that you don’t need to go to school to pass, you just bribe someone. And if you’re an excellent student who hasn’t paid off the right people, you just won’t get your degree. Contrast that with Turkmenbashi closing all the hospitals in the country outside of Ashgabat and again, I’m stuck.

I’m returning to the States in about 10 days after visiting 10 of my cute nieces and nephews in Yahudistan. Look forward to posting pictures here and elsewhere and maybe filling in a few holes in this post.






Vladimir and Dina











Marx and Engels