As I promised, we’ve another mountain of food resting before us. We’re all seated on the floor around a low table, with women bringing us milky tea as we talk and await the meal. We’re talking development and markets, with the resident Kiwi experts trying to figure out what the ceiling for bakery production might be here in the At Bashy rayon.
Before we arrived, Tony related to me a story that he said, “struck me right between the eyes.”
“When we first came to the sewing cooperative 2 years ago, the lead woman came out to thank me for the machines. ‘Don’t thank me,’ I said, ‘I want to thank you for doing so much with the resources we gave you.’ ‘No,’ she said, ‘thank you for having the faith in me. Thank you for giving us the confidence to have a vision.’”
Besides Kyrgyzstan, these guys have worked all over the world. I’ve asked them to tell me about what development work is like in other places.
“In Kyrgyzstan, they have the experience of working with someone who had a vision. The Soviets told them of their grand plans, and the people remember those kinds of dreams. Much of the program here involves taking the ideas they had in the past, and scaling them down from giant collective sizes to individual sizes.
“Take silage, for example. In Soviet times, there were giant pits to provide silage for an entire cooperative farm. Today, we need to reteach silage techniques to the farmers, and show them that the process can be done on a much smaller scale.
“Also, in Kyrgyzstan, there are roads just about everywhere. Everyone is literate, and everyone is numerate. In places in Cambodia or Nepal, for example, records books will be a complete mess, because not everyone can understand them.”
From these conversations and others, I see a pretty bright picture for the people of Kyrgyzstan. As far as colonized countries are concerned, the post-Soviet nations have a certain leg up. As a former Peace Corps volunteer from Guinea recently pointed out to me, “Kyrgyzstan was colonized for long term occupation. The Russians intended to keep this land forever, and thus developed like it was a valued part of the empire. Guinea, on the other hand, and many other parts of Africa, were simply looted. The people were not educated to be an asset, but divided an kept ignorant while the colonial power plundered.”
Right now, I can hear dishes rattling in the kitchen, and can smell the boiled meat. Our table of bread, salads and sweets is about to start brimming over with food, and I had better get back in there.
