Gliding down a hill with a balloon

20.1.2018

This weekend I was invited to a field trip by my awesome host family. First we went to visit my host dads parents in Bishkek suburbs. On arrival I was fed exceedingly well with traditional Kyrgyzstan bread. Luckily I had one more box of Finnish chocolate with me to give for my host grandparents.

By lunchtime we were joined by the family of my host dads sister. Suddenly I was in sitting in a table full of new people none of which spoke English. I had to come up with a new communication strategy. Firstly, smiling is really important, you can rarely be impolite if you smile a lot in a family gathering. Also hand gestures and "joong rahmat", thank you very much, help a long way. I am learning to be more solution oriented in new situations as per AIESEC leadership development.

After lunch it was time for a family outing to "little mountain". A popular gliding place for families with children and adults as well (gliding is for everyone!). The place was also a miniature market place with sledge renting, selling hot tea, horse rides and a booth by O! mobile operator. We rented some air balloon sledges and got to sliding. The more people on board, the faster the ride. I and the other kids in my host family also got to try horse riding. The horse was guided by the horseman, since I have no riding experience, but I could look at the beautiful mountains and imagine I was actually going somewhere really far.

Anyway we did a lot of fuuuun gliding. By the time my 7 years old host sister was getting tired (but stubbornly pulling the sledge up the hill) I got a great idea coming from my own childhood. I told her to get on board and towed her up the hill. She really liked my idea and consequently I got to repeat the action multiple times. As it happens, when it was time to leave I was probably the most tired person of our group.

Good exercise came in handy to balance the delicious meal of beshbarmak in the evening. Again I could only marvel at the hospitality of Kyrgyzstan families. Definitely one of my favorite days so far.

I also got a glimpse of life in the suburbs of Bishkek. They have simply no streetlights outside of city center. When it gets dark, it gets really dark. There are also occational power cuts because the city needs so much elecricity. My host mom did some laundry at 6 am since the power is best available early in the morning. This made me think about the beautiful and massive new years lights on main square from a different angle. Not to speak about how much elecricity we use and waste in Finland every day just because we can. Roosa is having some real life realizations about stuff she takes for granted in Finland.

On the other hand, the suburb houses in Bishkek are bigger than average houses in Finland. My host dad told me that after China opened the border to Kyrgyzstan, building more rooms became very affordable. Also an interesting fact, around the 60s when Kyrgyzstan was under the Soviet Union, they had here some easy-to-build houses delivered from Finland. Most are still in use.

A Bishkek suburb after dark