Zoos and Parks in Central Asia

It's been a long while of very little posting for our family on the "Edge" out here, but every now and then we have a new cultural experience that would be nice to share to the two or three of you still reading whatever comes up here. Once a year is perhaps a little too paltry of an offering, but then new cultural experiences are fairly rare once you have lived overseas for seven years.

We did get one new experience to share this spring. We were in the capital city for a meeting and, since we organized and oversaw the meeting, we came down a few days early to get things together. We had a bit of time late one afternoon so decided to try and visit the national zoo. Now, we have heard very little about the national zoo. It was around in the Soviet days and raided during the civil war, rumors abound that some of the animals ended up in cooking pots when other protein was lacking. Poor country zoos tend to be a little less than stellar, but our boys do love animals so it was worth a shot.

Parking was the usual adventure, which basically meant we parked about a kilometer away from the entrance when there is a parking lot right in front of the gate that was half empty, but no biggie. We can walk. The reason we didn't realize it was the zoo is that the front third has been relegate to more profitable enterprises than looking at animals. There are basically carnival rides set up at front to attract most of the attention, and sense they cost extra, make the profit. To be fair, our whole family of five got in for about 70 cents, so I doubt they are feeding the animals off that fee.

Inside the main attraction was clearly the rides. The animal pens had nearly no grass in any of them. If there was a water feature, it was green and scummy. Some animals were in the wrong type pen for them, about half the pens were empty, and some were full of animals that are, shall we say, non-traditional in a zoo.

Almost every pen was depressingly poorly maintained. Many of the animals needed more space or at least some grass. The lions, bears, and wolves, being dangerous, were in tiny, moldy cages with concrete floors. A few animals seemed to be in decent space, but most were in conditions that would give the SPCA an aneurysm. They did have some animals I have rarely seen up close, such as several Bactrian camels (mis-labeled), a bearded eagle, a few impressive vultures and hawks, and some bears I have never seen up close. The lions were very talkative, and even growing up in Africa I never heard a lion roar that close. Even behind bars, it's a disconcerting sound.

Then there are some other animals, just to round out the cages. They had at least a dozen dogs on display. No, not wolves, not foxes, those were in their own cages, straight up domestic dogs. They weren't even specific breeds, though one is about the biggest dog I have seen in country. There are also a couple cats, chickens, goats, sheep, rabbits, geese, ducks, a horse, and guinea pigs. Maybe in a place where animals were a little more removed from normal life this would be at least interesting, but almost everyone in the city is at best a generation removed from village life at some level. Even if not, less than a 20 minute drive out of town will get you to a place you can interact pretty closely with goats and chickens, whether you want to or not. The exoticism was lacking. These weren't 'petting zoo' animals either, they were behind the same cages the ostrich and antelope had.

The boys really wanted to ride the rides on the way out, but the mean parents declined. It isn't the cost, most of these things are about 10 cents a person, but rather the quality involved. We are fine risking our kids to the questionable safety standards of an inflatable house or tiny railway in the mountains, but these were a bit bigger, faster, and riskier than we wanted to risk. Besides, we just got to see chickens, isn't that enough excitement for a day?

So one experience we had was not so stellar. One wonderful thing about Central Asia though is that, at least in the big capital cities, they do have lots of stellar and often new parks and playgrounds to enjoy. Every time we come to the big city, we take a few trips out to a park as a family. Each of our boys love the playgrounds and running around outside. The older they get, the more likely they are to make friends and talk to other kids while we are there. And, a wonderful bonus for mom and dad, they tend to play on their own through the whole time.

As spring is here, we are out at parks a lot and the boys are running and playing with the best of them. It's a nice change from the regular winter weather and we are thankful for each little playground and park area that gets developed in this city as a place our kids can enjoy the outdoors even in the city.

The three boys in front of some sort of deer. The little papers that described the animals weren't easy to translate.

Bactrian Camels. Since we live roughly in Bactria, it's pretty neat to see the camels up close. 

Wolves in cages. Every year a few people in our part of the world are killed by wolf packs, but we rarely see them very close. 

This lion was not happy about something. He made it clear. A lion roaring is a sound you feel in person, so it wasn't something we hung around too terribly long.

Somehow the rabbits were as interesting as anything else at the zoo.

These guys seemed a little more content than most of the other animals. 

Bearded Eagle (I think). 

A white Bactrian camel.

He looks like a bit of a punk.

The family leaving the zoo.

Whenever they drop their premier album, this is one option for a cover.

Michael enjoying a maze in a park.

Confused?

Happy! This one has many faces.

He is a little unclear on the concept of a slide so far.

Three boys playing contentedly together. This is a rare sighting, akin to Bigfoot or the Loch Ness Monster, but we have un-manipulated photographic evidence that it does happen.

Enjoying the swing.

This one did have a little head incident. Like any responsible parent, I got a picture of the distress before I responded.

Graduation!

Summer break is here and for the first time in our house, that means kids off of school. Michael and Samuel completed their first year of local school, a huge accomplishment in itself. Part of that is Michael graduated out of local kindergarten, moving into grade 0 (preschool) next year. His class held a graduation event of sorts, so we are parents who do that now.

            Things are a little different holding graduations like this here. For one, Monday of the last week of school Cindy took the boys to school and they still didn’t know when they were going to hold the ceremony. Ok, we will play it by ear. On Thursday she found out it would be the next day at noon, oh and Michael has to have black dress pants, a white dress shirt, and a black bow tie for it. We didn’t have those things, so off to the bazaar we go. Somehow she managed to find the dress clothes and even get the pants tailored to fit our long and lean boy.

Michael looks good in his outfit.

The welcome sign for us. 

            Friday morning Michael has to head to class in a clean white shirt and somehow arrive there in the same shirt clean. This is easier said than done. First there is a five minute walk up a dirt road, a road that people turn into mud by throwing water on it to keep dust down. Then we had to walk right by cranes and trucks working on construction of the new school (construction zones are not a thing here). Once inside you to to your room with shoes off, so Matt neglected to notice that Michael, clean up to this point, carried his shoes with the muddy soles against his clean clothes all the way upstairs, Oh well, we tried. He got brushed off a bit and then he is the teacher’s problem to keep clean.

All sitting nicely.

Finally noon rolled around on Friday. Matt and Cindy packed up Isaac, drove over to the school, and went up to the little classroom. Naturally the ceremony started about 20 minutes late, all the parents sitting on the floor and watching their five year old kids recite speeches, sing songs, and play games. It was bilingual, Michael spoke and sang in both English and Tajik. He apparently is quite the favorite of at least two girls who hung off him at one time or another. Even with his bow tie and dress shirt, he was far from the best dressed in the room. One kid came in a three-piece suit. Two of the girls wouldn’t have been underdressed as brides at their own weddings, with hair to match. Michael had a great time with his friends and really seemed to love being at school, even though he is overjoyed to not be leaving for school every day any more. Even Sam got in on the fun there at the end, coming up to see the end of his brother’s ceremony.

In the end, we have had a great experience with this school and look forward to both boys going forward in the same system. It’s a private school here, but we are the only foreigners with kids in it at this point, so Michael even had a place created for him next year so that we wouldn’t take a spot from a local kid. We are so impressed with how well both boys did in school at such a young age, they are learning and growing so well. Enjoy a little slice of our life this year.

To Michael's left, that girl intentionally chose that seat. 

Think she has a thing for him?

Speeches

Michael showing off his language skills

Songs with motions

Check out the hair. And the dresses. They went all out.

And then there is Michael's hair.

Dancing

Michael showing that he is, indeed, a Mitchell.

His dancing looks a lot like walking.

Hm.

Sam had to get some pictures of him too.

           

Looking good for getting out school. 

Seasons

            One interesting aspect of life in the mountains of Central Asia is seasons. Now, I know, seasons are pretty common to the human experience. The earth isn’t straight on its axis, so any location on the planet is going to experience regular changes in temperature and climate on a yearly basis. But much of the modern world has relegated seasons to a small part of life that really changes very little on a day to day basis. We live and work in air conditioned and heated buildings, import foods grown far afield or in greenhouses, and do most of our entertainment and recreation ensconced safely in buildings that shield us from all but the most extreme weather. Sure, the trip from the car door to other doors is more or less pleasant based on if it is winter or summer, but for the most part even a wardrobe hardly needs to change more than one or two layers.

            Here seasons matter. We live life in something of a rhythm we are just not used to in the US. We open the windows in the late spring, turn on the a/c in summer on hot days, close the windows again in the fall, and turn on the heaters in the winter. We eat cherries, strawberries, apricots, apples, lemons, peaches, and pears based on when they ripen in our yard or show up in the bazaar.

Even our work takes a yearly rhythm in a season. Spring is when we work to start up and inspect all the projects of the coming year, hearing about the damage and disaster from the winter. In the summer we work full days and travel up and down all the valleys, implementing projects, delivering materials, spending nights and days out on the road. In the fall we scramble to finish up each project before it is too cold to continue, spend a little leftover money on small repairs in villages, and start a list for next year. In the winter we pause, except for a few disaster responses we get to rest a bit and take stock of what we have done in the previous year and what our next year is going to look like.            

There is something reassuring and peaceful in a seasonal life. Strawberries are pretty special when they come in, a reason for celebrating even. Winter is a lot more enjoyable when you can remember how tough travel and visiting can be when it’s really hot, summer is more fun when you enjoy turning off the heaters in the house and opening up the windows. Work changes from season to season, keeping boredom at bay. Even our leisure and recreation changes from season to season, moving indoors when it’s cold and back outside when it warms up.

Now, we are just as eager as anyone else to take advantage of a/c and central heat when we get back to the US. We enjoy an indoor pool (or waterpark) as much as the next family in January and look forward to any Western grocery store where fruit is a year-round advantage, but there is something enjoyable in the coming and going of seasons and the pattern of life overseas. At least we will keep saying this to ourselves until our next trip to Great Wolf Lodge.