Monday,
October 21, 2002
Chirchik, Uzbekistan
First impressions of kishlok life
This week I visited my permanent site and got a four-day glimpse
of where I will be living and working for the next two years.
I will be living in a small village, or kishlok in Uzbek, about
14 kilometers north of Bukhara. About 3,000 people live in this
kishlok. The kishlok used to be called Dustlik, or friendship,
but now it is simply referred to as Sovhoz 22, or Area 22.
About 700 students attend the kishlok's only school. Half of them
study in Russian, and the other half study in Uzbek. There are
two English teachers. One has taught English for several years
and will be my counterpart throughout my service. Her name is
Surayo; she's in her 40's. The other is a 23-year-old woman who
will be leaving soon to give birth to her second child.
Surayo is an ethnic Turk and speaks Turkish and Russian with her
husband and kids. Her parents were born in Georgia and were relocated
as small children to Uzbekistan during the Soviet Union. She said
most of the relocated Turks settled here in the villages and towns
outside of Bukhara. She is very proud of her Turkish culture and
customs (next year, she will marry her daughter only to a Turk),
yet she has no desire to go and live in Turkey because "those
Turks are different."
Some first impressions of the kishlok:
-
The
kishlok has no bazaar and a couple shops that are only open
sometimes.
-
There
are piles of hay on top of corrugated tin roofs everywhere and
donkey
carts. The place reminds me of the movie version of Fiddler
on the Roof starring Topol.
-
Naturally, everyone knows everyone.
-
People
have tandir's in their homes
and bake their own bread.
-
On either side of the road that leads out of the village, there
are vast acres of cotton fields, and of course, local students
and teachers picking the cotton.
- Women's
clothing is colorful, flowery and always mismatched.
I spent the week
visiting the school and the local officials. I also spent quite
some time resting in my new house and getting to know my new host
family. They seem very nice so far. It is possible that they are
the richest family in the village. The house is a large, traditional
Uzbek home, with the rooms arranged around the outside of a large
courtyard and garden. The rooms all have separate entrances into
the courtyard, so it is impossible to go from one room to another
without going outside. The area is set up in a square. When you
enter the home, the side of the square that is behind you is the
large gate leading out to the street. On the left and the right
there are various rooms (kitchen, bedrooms, living room, bathing
room). In front of is the garden, in which they grow a few different
vegetables. Behind the garden, the fourth side of the square is
home to the chickens, rooster, cow and the pit toilet, in that order.
I have two large connecting rooms to myself with a separate entrance.
It's very comfortable.
My host family seems very nice. The father works as an auditor in
Bukhara, so he's not home most of the day. The mother teaches history
at the school a few days a week. They are both in their early 40's.
They're oldest son, Abdulaziz, 16, studies in Tashkent. They also
have a 15-year-old daughter, Shahnoza, and a 6-year-old son, Aziz.
I asked to live in a village, and a part of me is still very excited
to be spending two years there. But another part of me is starting
to get a little nervous. Two years in a small community, where everyone
will know everything about me and will keep track of my every move.
It should be challenging.
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