So, we always joke about how little things change around here in quiet little Naryn, but after working so hard to make it your home, the little things become just so important.
While I was cavorting about the Great Middle Kingdom, Naryn was seeing summer and its festivities in full force.
As the lady who runs my banya said, “we Kyrgyz don’t go on vacations. We save our money and have weddings!” In the three weeks I was gone, the big fat sheep came down from the mountains and fueled countless summer galas: there were two weddings for people I knew directly alone, and the day I got back, my host-family left for Kazakhstan to attend another one. Since being back, the streets have been loud with hooting young men, jutting up through the sunroofs of their fast-moving wedding processions, honking up and down the main drag. This truly is summer in the city.
As well as having missed these weddings, I also missed, perhaps, the greatest concert I could ever have been privy to. See, in Kyrgyzstan, there are primarily two cell phone companies. The once great Mobi was recently purchased by a Russian company, renamed Beeline, and has been making great headway uniting all of Kyrgyzstan in wireless coverage. They were putting their homegrown rivals, MegaCom very much to shame. While I was away, though, MegaCom reasserted their strength.
To coincide with the opening of their new MegaCom branch office in the bazaar (a cool, clean affair spurned on by the six month old Beeline office down the street), they held a bash, a jam: a bona fid Mega-Concert (see what they did there?)
This day-long no-fee extravaganza hosted not one or two, but 10 of the biggest pop-stars that Kyrgyzstan has to offer. It was held outdoors in the Naryn city stadium. Everyone was welcome, and it went long into the night. In between acts, they even brought out a break dancing troupe and a band of comedians. While it may be true that I attended Woodstock ’99 (Thanks Uncle Chuck!), I don’t even think that compares to what this event would have been like (had of course, I attended.)
But all this might lead someone to believe the Kyrgyz Summer is all play and no work; that is hardly the case. Right now, the number one project on my plate is attempting to organize an extensive 6 session workshop series to teach 100 rural woman how to dye their shyrdaks and other felt handicrafts with the natural grass and flowers found all around them. These are skills once known, but lost during the Great Modernizing Soviet times. I one a big grant to do the work, and paired with a number of local groups to get it down, and now, through countless setbacks and frustrations, it looks like things might actually work out for ol’ Kyrgy Carl.
Never fear, once all is said and done, I’ll rain down with pictures and videos to make your proverbial socks roll up and down all your proverbial legs. So, stay tuned.
