When in Kyrgyzstan do as Kyrgyz do.

A story by American, who has adapted in Osh.

All we know the proverb “When in Rome do as Romans do”. It means to show respect to the culture and traditions of a society where on e arrives as a guest. And Stephen Scott, the president of CICA (Cornerstone Institute in Central Asia) in Osh, who has been living here for 2,5 years, is one of the holders of this proverb.

Q: Mr.Scott. What country are you from and how long have you been living here?

A:I am from Canada. But I lived in the US for 4 years, and here we have already been living for 2,5 years.

Q: Tell us something about your family, job?

A: Well, my wife is American and we have 4 children. I am president of CICA in Osh.

Q: Did you have a culture shock and what was mostly impressed you when you firstly arrived?

A: Of course I had a culture shock. Everything was different: people, culture. The thing that made a great impression on me was people’s hospitability. They were so kind and understandable. When I lived in Azerbaijani, I noticed that the life there is more Arabic. But here life is more Asian. Even people wear a European clothes they are religion and more traditional.

Q: Did you know one of the local languages before coming why did you choose an Uzbek language? Who thought you?

A: No, I did not know. But I knew some Azerbaijani. That is why it was easy to me to understand Uzbek. And that is why I started to learn it. Actually the best way of learning a language is socialize with native speakers. My tutor was Munojat, who thought me during one term.

Q: What topic did you learn first? Did you find it difficult to socialize in Uzbek?

A: When we arrived in November, it was too cold – 15 degree. We did not have any heat and food. So the most important thing for me was to fees my family. And to socialize in Uzbek was not difficult at all. You know when you are immense the culture it is much more easy to make your language more difficult. And people are so understandable. They understood my not so good speech in Uzbek and helped me a lot.

Q: What kind of situation did you have on your first days I Osh when you had not learn’t anything?

A: Well, others might tell more funny stories about me. I do not know I always worry about that I can offend people with my rude Uzbek. But as I have mentioned people are understandable.

Q: What language do you want to learn? Maybe Kyrgyz or Russian?

A: Of course I want to learn both of them and I have already bought a dictionary. I am afraid “oruschaga akilim jetpeit”. But my job requires me to some word in Russian. Because a lot of paper work. But I want to learn a Kyrgyz.

Q: Do you agree wit a proverb “When in Rome do as Romans do”? And what proverb do you know in Uzbek?

A: Yes, I agree, I always say “When in Rome do as Romans do” We are just guests here. And our task is to be just a good guest. Yeah, I know. And my favorite one is: “Besh manja ten emes”. I use it every day.

Worms.

Every day we use a lot of food. But no one has an idea that those foods are catching with worms. Worms are spoiling our life. They can easily enter into your body through food, dirty fruits and others. They start hurt like different kinds of ashes. It is hard to believe, but 95% of people are worm bearers.

Nowadays there are no affective pills against worm in Kyrgyzstan. If you go to hospitals, you can see a lot of people who can to flee form worms. They do treat, but doctors can not destroy this illness entirely. That is why there was a project in Osh city, a project which can help us to get rid of worms. Month ago, doctors distributed pills to the population of Osh city. Each person had to get pills on their work places, universities, schools and nurseries.

Last year there was the same project in Laylek. The population of that place was pleased with that project. They said that it was really good project for their health. Most of them got rid of headaches, stomachaches and other pains.

But some people refused to have pills in Osh city. There were some rumors about pills. Some people believed that those pills are venom, and some people heard that pill can convert into worms. Of course it is nonsense. Later, people who refused to get pills regretted that they did not get it. They heard form their friends, relatives the effect of that pill and they asked for another one.

The recent events in community.

On May, US Embassy in Kyrgyzstan brought to the Osh State University documentary film “The People’s President”. Osh community met with Margaret Brown and Harrison Angle, directors/producers of the documentary film.

This event was part of the American Documentary Showcase Festival, May 24-30, 2009.

On this day the alumnus of American Educational and Exchange Program met the representatives of the US embassy. The meeting was based on the foundation of Public Association of “Alumnus of American Educational and Exchange Program”.

Interesting facts.

Do you know…

In 1776 a young woman was in a situation to die in a small village in England. Even doctors could not help her. Then a young women told her husband to bury the gold ring in her ring finger. All of village people went to bury the young woman. And among them there were two robbers and they heard that she was buried with a gold ring.

At night robbers went secretly to open the women’s cemetery. While they were taking off her gold ring, suddenly a young woman shouted. Frightened robbers run away without looking back. Having heard the woman’s shout a grave digger  at the cemetery came up to the place. As he was a brave man he was not so surprised. A grave digger brought her to his house, gave a bowl of hot soup, and he brought her husband a good news. After this strange event a young women recovered. Five years later she gave birth. This child was a great English writer – Walter Scott.

In space you can not cry because there is no gravity to make the tears flow.

The Boston University Bridge is the only place in the World where a boat can sail under a train driving under a car driving under an airplane.

Author: Nuraida Amatova.

AISULU MASALBEKOVA

Spring has already come and everything is in blossom. What a great season, isn’t it? But my friends, what a dirty park it is. Don’t we have to rest there?
But…Don’t worry about that! Cause volunteers, the Center for American Studies, and Aarhus Center, with the help of local and international organizations and government, organized a great project called “March for Parks on Earth Day.” This event was on April 18th. Many people helped out on that day, cleaning up the litter in Park Novae.Dixie Eckford, head of the project’s initiation, came to Osh in January 2009 from the USA. She liked our town very much, but when spring came, she found out that it was really dirty in the parks and along the Ak-Bura River. And that’s why she started this project. The aim of doing March for Parks is to make people understand that we should be aware of our nature, and that this kind of action should be part of our daily ritual, just as eating is. In this way, we could celebrate Earth Day everyday.
People did really hard work because the park was so dirty and full with plastic bottles and bags. There were volunteers from local organizations, schools, and universities, as well as American Peace Corps. Three days ago, this park had litter everywhere and now look! It’s clean. Now all citizens can go to the park and have a rest.

The event included a mini-concert, contests, and a puppet show. School children from Aga Khan School played the komuz and others danced. It was very nice.

There were two contests: photo and essay. All the essays were very good and the choices were difficult. Winners of the essay contest are Aiperi Imamidin kyzy (first place), Dilfuza Mamataep kyzy (second place), and Shermamat Tursunov (third place). Winners of the photo contest are Chingiz Akimov (first place), students from GP-05K group of the Geography Faculty (second place), and Damirbek Bemirzaev (third place). Congratulations!
We are for a clean town, clean water, and clean nature! Good job to all the participants and organizers.

Finding a job remains the first issue for graduates in the city of Osh. Since universities do not guarantee work after graduation, students are obliged to do it by themselves. Today, a majority of local universities can not guarantee a job for young specialists.

Young specialists have always had good potential to contribute to any team or organization. The main advantages of young people are vitality, enthusiasm, and purposefulness. But in Osh city there are job deficits and so competition among university graduates is high and only few receive jobs. There is some advice that experts believe could help young specialists find jobs. Experts advise young specialists to be professional. They think that the lack of that quality in young specialists, namely in university graduates, makes them less marketable. Employers also pay attention to a specialist’s skills and abilities in order to make the selection procedure competitive. Due to the continuing economic crisis this year, it will be harder for university graduates to get a job. According to statistics from Osh State Statistics, last year 5,965 students graduated from Kyrgyz universities and only 10% of them got a job the year after they graduated. However, as we see, in Kyrgyzstan the most effective channels to get a job are personal contacts, job vacancy fairs, and local press. Web sites like www.job.kg are also a good place to find jobs. But we students should remember that skills and experience are still the most important factors in getting a job. In this extremely developing information age, an ability to use communication technologies effectively in finding a job is essential. But students think differently. Although Internet and other mass media are popular in searching for jobs, they are not as effective as personal contacts. But not every graduating student has a personal contact and they often use resources like agencies on job placement, the press, and Web sites of companies.