We arrived here in the Naryn region last Monday and it was driving down the road in a van when we stopped at a roadside café and I had one of those “Is this real moments?” The café was in the middle of no where, no where. Just a road [actually an old segment of the Silk Road] and dirt and dirt hills and dirt mountains and beyond those real mountains; or unreal as they first struck me. So unreal that they looked like the ones from the Matterhorn ride at Disneyland or something from the Himalayas that I have only dreamed of looking at National Geographic magazine, but they are real; I was looking at the Tien Shen mountain range that rolls through this region and all through China (which is about 140miles away but almost a 10hr drive straight over those mountains). This whole thing is real. I am here.
The children say Hello. Almost everywhere I go the children say hello and smile. Globalization is amazing and the influence of western culture undeniable. Really, how is that a small town tucked against the foothills of central Asia can say hello?
There is no hiding we are Americans so I don’t even try and there is no pressure to fit in or know the language in the next 8 weeks, just enough to know how much I’m buying and how much they’re trying to take advantage of me.
The spirit of some people are so bright which is such a contrast compared to the gloomy surroundings. But eyes and faces are full of light and the bright jackets of children shine like beacons of hope in a land of seeming destitution and desolation. Almost all children have hope and curiosity in their eyes, others carry darkness and suspicion and maybe rightfully so, but those that have contact with a team like ours in years past are so grateful we are here.
My birthday here was great. It was celebrated by a brisk and unfamiliar coldness in the air that I could not help but thank was grace given to me. I spent some time at the local culture center and had a wordless conversation with an old Kyrgyz man named Bull-ut; we stood admiring the snowcapped mountains and by hand gestures we agreed that the view is breathing (a view that he’s seen all his life). My night finished walking with a very special friend sharing conversation and appreciation of the night’s sky; I couldn’t have asked for more.