Borat and Orphanfolk!

Things are moving and shaking in Central Asia as always. Bishkek has hosted an opposition protest for the last week. My host mother has used this for her own ends and has succeeded in worrying about my well-being constantly. The fact that no one knows there is a protest here is a sign that nothing spooky is afoot. When I wanted to go out for the first time on Saturday night she claimed people would see I am a foreigner and try to beat me up and take my money. Now, first of all everyone I have met in Bishkek smiles with delight when I say I am an American. The street vendors want to shake my hand and children ask me questions about pop culture. Secondly, this is just as likely to occur when there is no protest. The people do not need to gather in the hundreds or thousands to mug me. But none of my well thought argumentations could assuage her need to worry so I stayed home. Kyrgyzstan, interestingly, is probably the only Central Asian state where an actual opposition protest could take place, even if the are mostly upset that it is someone else, not themselves, who holds the keys to the palace of cronyism. Kyrgyzstan is seen as the weakest Central Asian state. It is poor and more sort of laissez-faire corrupt than systematically authoritarian.
Borat has put Kazakstan on the defensive. The state is up and coming, newly flush with carbo-dollars. It is trying to present itself as an emerging nation of young professionals, eager to bridge the cultural gap while holding on to it’s unique heritage. As far as Borat goes, I suspect that Sasha Cohen chose the country a long time ago because it is obscure and nobody has heard of it. But local opposition are seizing the opportunity to highlight that the country would not be the object of ridicule if its officials were not corrupt and the government were not repressive. That may be true, but if Cohen had been interested in choosing a truly crazy place out of touch with the world, he would have gone for Turkmenistan. That country has a truly insane leader. The people are dirt poor but he has built a giant lake in the middle of the dessert, written a history of world centered in Turkmenistan, dubbed himself “father of all Turkmen,” and recently completed a theme park worthy of Disneyland for surreality but based upon Turkmen folklore.
Tajikistan just held an election The system is bless/doomed to repeat itself. Like a poopy phoenix rising from the feces of the Soviet Union and civil war. Indeed, it is a crapulent politic. It makes me wonder if the US’s system is not similarly self-replicating. It may be obvious, but is very poignant here: systems, any system, seem adept at procreation. For better and for worse. I think the US is caught in a cycle well rutted enough to make any existential-Buddhist proud.
The economy here is insanely cheap on the service side. I get taught languages by professionals with degrees at an upper-end language school for $3/hr. And they are one-on-one lessons. A midday meal at a café sets me back a dollar. Everything is so cheap and the people are so worthy of my prosperity that I feel very obligated to buy things whenever I have the slightest inkling. I bought a bouquet of flowers from a babushka, kilos of apples from a variety of elderly sellers near my office that were hard to give away and many meat pie things (these are called ‘smiosa’s).
We had our first trip with orphans on Saturday the 4th. The kids had a good time and it was pretty hilarious watching them all bully the youngest in each group into playing the injured party for a first aid practice. A former orphan who works with the Fund went to NOLS last summer and learned first aid. I hope to convince Widji to open a similar space for next summer. They practiced a head-to-toe check. Though coerced into the victim the youngest kids needed no urging to be taken care of. They were constantly being pushed around but looked after by the older kids. We made it to the water fall and everyone agreed it was the poo-poo on the day’s platter.
I finished applying the UW’s Jackson School for International Studies Eurasian program for next year. I think I will be relieved whether I get in or not. Just to know where I stand. Both rejection and acceptance hold a good balance of possibility.
Tonight, I will murder the loud dog in the alley in cold blood.