Perspectives on Central Asia 6, OCT 2014

!Perspectives on Central Asia is published by

Eurasian Dialogue is delighted to introduce the sixth issue of Perspectives on Central Asia. This issue contains one interview and two articles.

The first two contributions focus on the important subject of education in Central Asia and examine differing aspects of knowledge production in the region. The first is an interview with Pal Dunay, Director of OSCE Academy. Established in 2002, over the past twelve years the academy has become a leading higher education institution in the region. In a frank interview Dr Dunay describes the background to the establishment of the academy in Kyrgyzstan and how it fits in with the OSCE’s mission in Central Asia. Dr Dunay argues that, in bringing together students from all five Central Asian republics, the academy plays a key role in fostering regional cooperation.

From the capital city of Bishkek to remote pastures, the second article by Aline Rosset and Jangyl Ismailova describes the ebilim project led by the

University of Central Asia. This mobile, bus-based library tours the jailoos (Alpine pastures) of southern Kyrgyzstan and provides books to local nomads. The local population, who do not have access to the internet, TV or radio, have responded positively to this opportunity to learn.

The final article, by French agricultural development worker Christine Oriol, offers a vivid description of life in a remote Tajik village, Pinion. Oriol endures the long Tajik winter, bakes bread, visits summer pastures and eventually becomes an honorary citizen of Pinion. Her text brings life in a Tajik village to life. Although she feels great affinity for the villagers, Oriol observes some of the social issues that they face. In particular, she highlights the plight of women. With the majority of young Tajik men working in Russia, women are left to tend to livestock, farm fields and raise children.

Eurasian Dialogue hopes that you enjoy this latest series of articles on Central Asia.

Table of contents P. 3 “The OSCE Academy is here to work for the region”, interview with

Pal Dunay, Director of the OSCE Academy, Bishkek P. 9 “Engaging Remote Mountain Communities with Knowledge,

Information and Technology in Kyrgyzstan” by Aline Rosset and Jangyl Ismailova

P. 14 “A snapshot of a year and a half spent in a Tajik village: Pinion, a rural

idyll” by Christine Oriol

What motivated the OSCE to establish an academy in Central Asia? And why Bishkek ?

As often in such cases, different factors co-existed and helped establishing the OSCE Academy. First of all, Kyrgyzstan took the initiative to start an OSCE Academy at the beginning of the century. It was a national initiative and the idea, as far as the prospective students and audience, was also national. However, the OSCE was understandably not very excited about it. The Secretariat had a “counter-

initiative” and expressed its view that it would positively consider the idea and hoped for support of the participating states, if it were a regional initiative. At about the same time, Central Asia has gained in importance and attracted more attention than ever. This was due to 9/11 and its aftermath. Three Central Asian states are neighbours of Afghanistan while also participating states of the OSCE.

Kyrgyzstan as host of the Academy certainly had a comparative advantage beyond being the state that took the initiative. It was certainly the most democratic state in the region where freedom of speech faced no particular limitation. It was a major advantage.

However, we need to consider as well whether democracy has been so beneficial to the country as it should. As we know, Kyrgyzstan went through two major upheavals in 2005 and 2010, respectively and it is doubtful whether longer term stability will be retained. Democracy, as a condition, must be accompanied by good governance in order people would be convinced about the superiority and the advantages of a democratic system.

“The OSCE Academy is here to work for the region”,

interview with Pal Dunay, Director of the OSCE Academy, Bishkek

With forty percent of the Central Asian population being under the age of twenty-five, education remains a priority for the region. Many local universities face problems with corruption, censorship and underfunding. Some institutions, such as Nazabayev Unviersity, OSCE

Academy and University of Central Asia, are working to raise standards. This month Eurasian Dialogue spoke with Pal Dunay, director of the OSCE Academy. The academy has established

itself as a leading provider of higher education in Central Asia. Its alumni have gone on to top positions in government, business and civil society. In this interview, Dunay discusses some of

the challenges the academy has faced and its many achievements during its brief history.!

Perspectives on Central Asia 6, October 2014 3

Dr Pal Dunay credit OSCE Academy

How does the Academy contribute to the OSCE's goal of improving regional security?

The OSCE Academy, similarly to other training and educational institutions, contributes to the improvement of regional security indirectly and in the long run. This certainly means that it is difficult to measure the OSCE Academy’s contribution. However, in light of more than a decade of experience we may report on preliminary results. We should rather speak about the potential contribution of the Academy than about the direct impact of our work.

However, if we take a look to what the Academy does, it is clear that its contribution is increasingly noticeable. The Academy has two MA programmes, one on International Politics and Security and another one in Economic Governance and Development. The former is in its eleventh year, the latter is in its third year. A young generation of intellectuals is studying at our courses.

Many of them arrive to the Academy directly after their BA studies, whereas some arrive with a few years of professional experience. They come from six countries, five Central Asian republics of the former Soviet Union and Afghanistan. The interactions in the class, including lots of exchanges on matters related to the region help the students understand the underlying assumptions behind their thinking that has a certain confidence-building effect. Working in a multi-national environment contributes to mutual understanding and thus prepares our students for their professional life.

In addition to the MA courses the Academy conducts several shorter demand-driven executive courses both in Bishkek and in other places in Central Asia. They address contemporary journalism, conflict sensitive development and many others. Some of them are conducted in English, some in Russian.

Last, but not least, the Academy conducts research and publishes a Policy Brief series both electronically and in hard copy. It would be preferable to have a higher research profile but it depends partly on in-house human resources.

Central Asia has a range of universities and higher education institutions. What makes the OSCE Academy so special?

Indeed, Central Asia has many universities, including some with international outreach. However, the OSCE Academy is different in various senses and if you take the elements together we are indeed unique. First of all, we are regional. We try to attract approximately the same number of students from six Central Asian states. We are also very glad if some students arrive with a few years of experience in government, the NGO sector or journalism. This fact enriches the exchanges. The teaching faculty is international. We share resources

“it is clear that the contribution of the OSCE Academy is

increasingly noticeable”


“it would be preferable to have a higher research

profile but it depends partly on in-house human resources”

!

with some other institutions as except for the deputy director and me the teaching faculty is not full time employed by the Academy. We do not teach undergraduate students, we only have post-graduate courses. I do not think I should provoke the environment that surrounds us and I hope – and in a few cases also know – we are not unique with this in the entire region but we are uncorrupted and we cannot be corrupted. Hence, we offer achievement on merit. We tell the students very early that the teaching process will be demanding but we hope that they will regard it a life-changing experience. Fortunately, the labour market recognizes this and our graduates find their place in the job market relatively easily.

You have started your term as Director of the OSCE Academy 6 months ago. What were your motivations to take this position and what are your ambitions for the Academy?

Although I have been in Bishkek in my current position only for six months, I am not a newcomer to the Academy and Bishkek. As my former workplace was a major contributor to the Academy and the contribution was in-kind, I had the privilege to teach at the Academy for at least a week ever since its inception. I was in Bishkek already when the first so-called trial course started more than a decade ago. Once I was even asked by then Director of the Academy to write an assessment on the MA programme. In sum, many of my current colleagues have known me and I have known them when I applied for the position. So I feel like an insider – outsider. It is also important to mention that those who were in charge of the OSCE Academy in the last more than ten years, Dr. Tim Epkenhans, Dr. Maxim Ryabkov as directors taken together for ten years and Mr. Shairbek Juraev as acting director for seven months during the selection process of the new director have done an incredible job. Without their commitment and dedication the Academy would not be what it is.

In fact, I am somewhat older than the former directors. They were in their thirties when they started to work at the Academy whereas I am in my fifties. At my age, I think many people would consider where and how to make a useful contribution and face challenges. When I started my professional career more than thirty years ago, I decided that I would never stay at

a workplace for the reason of pay. Even though responsibility for a family makes this consideration more complex, I feel fortunate that I did not have to make a compromise when I left the Geneva Centre for Security Policy (GCSP) where I worked for a total of fifteen years (1996-2004, 2007-2014) that I still often miss, and could join the Academy. My family that stayed in Budapest has supported my choice and I am indebted to them for their support.

Last, but not least, I am Hungarian. I come from a country that has valuable experience in socio-economic and political transformation. Sharing this experience, including the down-


“we are uncorrupted

and we cannot be corrupted”

“At my age, I think many people would consider

where and how to make a useful contribution and face challenges”

sides and the doubts is essential and may help the understanding of those students that we teach here in Bishkek. Hungary is also a country that is giving evidence now that democratic transformation is a two way street. People in Central Asia should learn that democratic transformation has a high price and democracy as a catchword without good governance is a hollow shell.

As far as my ambitions are concerned: I am not a revolutionary who believes that if I change many things it will get definitely better. I have seen institutions weakened if not ruined by constant often l’art pour l’art change. So continuity, particularly in the case of such a successful institution as the Academy is absolutely essential. I could in a few cases imagine that some colleagues would work on higher quality more often take the initiative rather than waiting the Academy’s management to do it. However, I have to measure these factors against a very good working atmosphere. It is essential to have excellent atmosphere at the Academy as a

workplace. The monthly salaries are a bit higher than the local salaries in Kyrgyzstan but not particularly competitive when compared internationally will not keep my colleagues at the OSCE Academy. It is the shared common purpose and good human relations that should contribute to the value of working with us. I try to work in a motivating environment, have a fair assessment of the work and make my colleagues

understand that we can also improve together. The Academy has a liberal internal working environment and it should be retained. However, liberalism at a workplace cannot mean that people work hard if they feel like…

I would like to see the Academy to flourish in the next few years. I would like to achieve that the two MA courses would be equally well established and also that the short executive courses follow the “customer demand” in the region. For me it is also essential that the OSCE Academy should be truly regional. Every Central Asian state should feel that the Academy is here to work for the region. Students should also join our courses from each of the six countries and demand should again be on the rise. In addition, we would like to have a few students join our courses from other countries as their valuable experience would enrich the mutual learning process. This has been the case in the past. We used to have students (one or two every year) from Armenia, China, Germany, Norway, Poland, the Russian Federation, and the U.S. I think a few participants preferably with some professional working experience among others from the post-Soviet space would contribute to realizing our objective.

“democratic transformation is a two way street”

“it is the shared common purpose and good human

relations that should contribute to the value of

working with us”

“every Central Asian state should feel that

the Academy is here to work for the region”

“we would like to have a few students join our courses from other countries as their valuable experience would enrich the mutual learning” process”


I would like the OSCE Academy to be a platform where thinking about Central Asia concentrates. I would like to attract young professionals to join us and teach for a semester or an academic year and some of the best professionals to come and teach a module. My predecessors were successful with this and I hope to follow their footsteps.

It would be great to have more and higher quality policy-oriented research at the Academy and contribute also to those publications that are disseminated widest. The Academy should host Ph.D. students working on Central Asian matters for their research year. They should also contribute a little to the courses and consult the students in their areas of expertise.

What have been your experiences during these f irst sixth months?

As I have mentioned, I had a certain idea of the Academy when I was selected. Of course, there are details of which I was not aware. However, I have known it is a valuable institution, has an excellent and dedicated staff, had honest professionals leading it to successes. My experience has underlined my assumptions. I have also found a supportive and friendly environment in the local international community. Diplomats at certain embassies want the Academy to succeed. The OSCE Centre, as I have mentioned, is enormously helpful.

The OSCE Academy building in Bishkek credit OSCE Academy


!

Dr Pal Dunay has been the Director of the OSCE Academy since May 2014. Before joining the OSCE Academy, since 1996 Dr Dunay led the International Training Course in Security Policy at the Geneva Centre for Security Policy, with the exception of 2004-2007, when he worked as Senior Researcher at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). His experience includes directing the Hungarian Institute of International Affairs, heading the Security Policy Department of the Hungarian Ministry for Foreign Affairs and teaching at the International Law Department of Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest. Pal Dunay holds

a Ph.D. in International Relations from the Budapest University of Economics.!

However, I have also seen that on the current human and financial resources the Academy is at the limit. There is not much to achieve. I have also seen how some social conditions affect the OSCE Academy. My colleagues have family responsibility and despite their dedication they can hardly be loaded with work further. Most of them are wives and mothers and I feel that the Central Asian family structure does not give them the freedom to work extra hours. In Geneva and in Stockholm (where I was working between 2004 and 2007), parents shared the responsibility. Here it is more complex.

I have also noticed that intra-regional relations and the external attention to Central Asia are indispensable for the Academy. It is important that the Central Asian states would not only live next to each other but would also gradually form a region. This does not happen now. The fact that ISAF is leaving Afghanistan and there is generally less international attention to the region must not result in vanishing attention to the region. Central Asia must not be forgotten. If it becomes a lost region it will export insecurity that can already be seen when Islamic radicals with Central Asian passports show up in certain crisis zones of the world.

There have been several regime changes in Kyrgyzstan the twelve years that the OSCE Academy has been open. How did that affect it?

The fact Kyrgyzstan had two major upheavals had some effect on the OSCE Academy. However, and fortunately, the negative impact remained limited and temporary. I understand why there were fewer students at our courses from Uzbekistan after the Osh events of 2010 than before. Now, we have no such problems and hope that the expression of political will of the people of Kyrgyzstan will take forms that do not result in repeated tremors. However, the fact there is less than desirable regional cooperation in Central Asia has positive effect on the Academy as well. It may sound strange or even absurd, but we have a more important role to play in contributing to the building of this region by our somewhat special means when regional cooperation remains in the waiting.!

“Most of my colleagues are wives and mothers and I feel that the Central Asian family structure does not give them the freedom to work extra hours”

“we have a more important role to play in contributing to the building

of this region by our somewhat special means when regional

cooperation remains in the waiting”


In December 2013, the mobile digital library eBilim was inaugurated at the University of Central Asia (UCA) in Naryn, Kyrgyzstan. The initiative is a one-year pilot project, designed and implemented through a partnership between UCA’s Mountain Societies Research Institute (MSRI) and the Mountain Societies Development Support Programme (MSDSP KG), with financial support from the German development organisation Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ).

Engaging Remote Mountain Communities with

Knowledge, Information and Technology in Kyrgyzstan

by Aline Rosset and Jangyl Ismailova

In Kyrgyzstan, socio-economic disparities between urban and rural areas are considerable. These differences are particularly apparent with regard to access to knowledge and information

and communication technology (ICT). Access to ICT is especially problematic for remote mountain areas. The pilot project eBilim is a mobile digital library housed in a minivan that

visits ten villages each month and provides information resources for mountain communities.!

“eBilim is a mobile digital library housed in a minivan that visits ten villages each month”


The mobile digital library eBilim on a jailoo credit eBilim/UCA

eBilim is designed to bring information resources to ten remote villages in Naryn and Ak-Talaa districts of Naryn province in Kyrgyzstan. ‘Bilim’ means knowledge in the Kyrgyz language and ‘e’ indicates electronic media. eBilim brings together locally accessible knowledge and current technology. The library is housed in a refurbished minibus equipped with books, laptops and a digital database of over 3,000 text, audio and video resources. This information is available for printing and downloading to USBs, DVDs, cell phones and MP3 players. The database contains information on a broad range of subjects, including agriculture, education, local governance, law, health, human rights and literature as well as interactive learning resources for teachers and children. In its first six months, eBilim reached

more than 2,200 school children and over 1,000 adult users, most of whom were teachers or village and sub-district administrators. The pilot project is proving to be a highly valuable tool for connecting remote villages to relevant and up-to-date information. In turn, it provides UCA and its partners with a powerful outreach tool with which it can involve communities, gather feedback and learn about the everyday realities in remote mountain villages.

“a highly valuable tool for connecting remote villages to relevant and up-to-date

information as well as a powerful outreach tool for

UCA and its partners”

Background: Disparit ies in access to education and information in Kyrgyzstan

Disparities between urban and rural areas are particularly high in the Kyrgyz Republic. This can partly be explained by its rough topography, rendering access to infrastructure, markets as well as health and education services difficult. Additionally, the Kyrgyz herders spend four to five months per year on the summer pastures, which exacerbates the gradient in remoteness and inaccessibility.

Despite the fact that literacy rates rank high at 99% in Kyrgyzstan, the accessibility and quality of education is very low compared to regional indicators. Enrolment figures in the Kyrgyz republic have consistently decreased during the past five years, which could be due to rising formal and informal costs of schooling, poor educational quality and reduced private returns of school completion.

Teachers earn less than 40% of the average national earnings, making them underpaid, under-trained and overburdened. In addition, schools and teachers are vastly under-resourced in terms of materials and working conditions.

Regarding disparities in access to education, the gender gap is not a significant issue in Kyrgyzstan. The rural-urban divide is of much greater concern, though. Although access to primary school is comparable in rural and urban areas, in secondary school the number of rural children attending is six percentage points fewer than in urban areas. In pre-primary school, this gap is intensified, showing three times lower attendance rates in rural areas.

For more information, see:

Merthaugh, M. (2004): Education in Central Asia with particular reference to the Kyrgyz Republic. In: The Challenge of Education in Central Asia, edited by Stephen P. Heyneman and Alan J. DeYoung. Information Age Publishing, Greenwich Connecticut.

UNESCO (2011): World Data on Education. The Kyrgyz Republic. 7th edition, 2010/2011.

UNICEF (2008): Education in Kyrgyzstan. Country profile: http://www.unicef.org/ceecis/Kyrgyzstan.pdf


!

During the summer, village life in Naryn’s rural communities is much less animated than in spring and winter. Schools close at the end of May and many families move to the jailoos or summer pastures in Ak-Talaa and Naryn districts. In response, eBilim adapted to Kyrgyz nomadic traditions and relocated its activities to the jailoo as well. In July, eBilim conducted

three extended tours to distant jailoos in Naryn, offering herders and their families access to information, entertainment and learning opportunities.

“During the summer, eBilim provides unique opportunities for villagers to learn and grow when they move to the summer pastures. All infrastructure and connections to the world are left behind. During our trip with the eBilim team to Karga jailoo, herders and their families were very interested in the information and services provided by eBilim,” said Altynbek Apsaliev, Head of the Pasture Committee of Jan-Bulak village.

In the evening, as the sun disappeared behind the mountains, the jailoo was transformed into an open-air movie theatre. The film screening, organised by eBilim, drew children and adults from surrounding yurts to enjoy a Kyrgyz movie. “Although it was really cold, it was a great experience to watch a movie under the stars,” said Nazima, a young girl whose family is herding sheep, cows and horses in the pastures near Song Kul Lake.

Perspectives on Central Asia 6, October 2014 1 1

Snapshots from the eBilim project credit eBilim/UCA

Aigul, whose family is also herding livestock near Song Kul, added, “During the day, we were able to quickly learn how to use the educational tools offered on the computers. I feel that getting time to practice the use of Information Technology prepares me for the future and links me to the modern world”.

Aibek Toktogaziev, a veterinarian from Dobolu village, agreed, “eBilim’s visit to the jailoos allowed me to discover new dimensions of knowledge in the field of veterinary medicine. Being on a jailoo, far from the usual infrastructure, I was able to spend my free time reading and find information. I gained new insights into livestock and pasture management, as well as agriculture.”

While some of the library users in the jailoos were familiar with eBilim from its visits to the villages, many had not yet accessed the library’s services. Some herders live on the outskirts of the village, too far to use eBilim during its regular stops. By visiting the jailoos, eBilim extended its access, gaining a new audience, with different information needs.

To evaluate information and resource needs and its utility, eBilim has gathered feedback from its users in villages and in the jailoos. This feedback will be used to improve the database and ensure its relevance to its users in remote mountain communities. The project will also extend

“getting time to practice the use of IT prepares me for

the future”


“by visiting the jailoos, eBilim extended its

access, gaining a new audience, with different

information needs”

Reading at dawn on a jailoo credit eBilim/UCA

!

Aline Rosset started and manages the eBilim mobile digital library project. She is a research fellow and project manager at UCA’s Mountain Societies Research Institute in Bishkek,

working on the sustainable development of remote mountain regions, environmental education, sustainable management of natural resources and information & knowledge

management. Prior to Kyrgyzstan, she worked on the rehabilitation and sustainable management of riparian forests in GBAO, Tajikistan. [email protected]!

Jangyl Ismailova is the project coordinator of the eBilim mobile digital library project. She holds a bachelor's degree in International and Comparative Politics

from the American University of Central Asia. Her areas of interest include international development, social entrepreneurship and sustainable development.!

its reach to other communities across Kyrgyzstan. eBilim is making its electronic database accessible to a broader audience in mountain communities by cooperating with a network of libraries across Kyrgyzstan. Additionally, UCA will utilise eBilim as a coordinating platform for organisations focused

on agriculture, education, local governance and health to share information and engage in hands-on activities to increase access to practical knowledge and information in remote mountain communities. UCA and its partners will also use eBilim as an outreach tool to enhance linkages and cooperation between researchers and local communities.


“eBilim is making its electronic database accessible to a broader audience in mountain communities by cooperating with a network of libraries across Kyrgyzstan”

The University of Central Asia (UCA) was founded in 2000, by the Presidents of Tajikistan, the Kyrgyz Republic and Kazakhstan and His Highness the Aga Khan, to offer an internationally recognised standard of higher education in Central Asia and prepare graduates to contribute leadership, ideas and innovation to the economies and communities of the region. For more information on UCA, please visit: www.ucentralasia.org.

UCA’s Mountain Societies Research Institute (MSRI) is an interdisciplinary research institute dedicated to addressing the challenges and opportunities within Central Asian mountain communities and environments. MSRI’s goal is to support and enhance the resilience and quality of life of mountain societies through the generation and application of sound research. www.msri.ucentralasia.org.

!

Born in France and a graduate in agricultural development, I became well acquainted with Central Asia having worked in both Kyrgyzstan and Mongolia. In Tajikistan I discovered the room for putting into practice my love for both mountains and smallholders agriculture. Overlooking terraces on a steep mountain slope makes me shiver, and Tajikistan, with its 93 per cent mountainous terrain and 70 per cent rural population, fitted my interests perfectly.

Staff members from a rural development project, we arrived in a village at the heart of the Tajik Fann mountains. New to the development world, we had spent the last four months living in the most rustic hotels of Dushanbe and Khujand, sometimes sleeping in our offices between two desks. Finally, we had decided that we needed a place to drop our backpacks and had chosen Pinion, a thirty-minute walk from our field office.

The mountains of Pinion are red, stratified, rocky. You can see the paths created by all goats and sheep on their everyday quest for grass. Really high – where neither sheep nor men can reach – a few junipers remind us that they used to be everywhere.

A snapshot of a year and a half spent in a Tajik vi l lage:

Pinion, a rural idyl l by Christine Oriol

!

Christine Oriol has spent over four years living in Central Asia. In this article she describes life in a village in the mountains of northern Tajikistan, Pinion. Renting a small house and

living as the locals do, Oriol describes many of the highs and lows of life in rural Central Asia. Her evocative description brings a beautiful and resilient corner of Tajikistan to life.!


“the mountains of Pinion are red,

stratified, rocky”

The rocky mountains of Pinion credit Christine Oriol

The village is at 1800m high, built along the main river Pasrud, and on both sides mountains up to 4000 meters tall soar above. The scale of the mountains, their angle and the shape that they give to the valley, all this aspire your soul.

My colleague seemed quite confident that the house we had found would be our new home. I had a little tingle of angst, but I liked the roomy volumes of our new place, the wooden floor and the large windows. It was the former administration office of the jamoat (community) and the only empty house in the whole area. It belonged to a man living in Dushanbe but his brother, the closest neighbour, was taking care of it.

We spent one week-end in Dushanbe buying the necessary items for living without running water and electricity; electricity is only supplied at meal’s time in winter. We purchased a lot of basins, a big plastic trashcan for storing the spring water, a gas burner, few plates and silverware. During the first days I was alone there and my presence finally persuaded the neighbour and his sons to dig up an outside toilet, allowing us to stop using theirs.

I loved Pinion, waking up early in the morning, early enough to match more or less the waking call of the neighbours; women were the first in the street releasing their cows, sheep and goats for the day, men emerged second to take the 7 am, and only, bus to the bazaar. I loved walking down to the village when I missed the bus (most of the time), chatting with the old ladies or

children along the way, or passing the lethargic cows, looking at the sun rising up on the mountains to the east, listening to the river and taking note of its level and flow of the activities in the fields. And then, on my way back home in the evening, I would change path, take the one going up on the right bank of the river, the one almost never used, where I spotted one day two foxes going into the fields.

Slowly I started to know people and people started to know me.

I went to the summer pastures of the village with my neighbour’s last daughter, a four-hour vertical walk to reach a place hanging in the sky. I spent the night there; sleeping half bent because the bed was too short. The next summer, I decided to visit another village’s summer pastures. I walked for seven hours, following the map and the directions of a friend. On the path, I followed fresh bear tracks and sang as loud as I could to make sure it would hear me. At the stone houses of the summer pastures, girls under their twenties, one older woman and one man in his early thirties welcomed me with supper. They could not understand how I had managed to reach this place without having been accompanied by a villager. I spent two nights there, sharing poetry with the girls, taking pictures of them with their favourite cow, and eating dairy products.

“my colleague seemed quite confident that

the house we had found our new home”

“women were the first in the street releasing their

cows, sheep and goats for the day, men emerged

second to take the 7 am, and only, bus to the bazaar”


“I followed fresh bear tracks and

sang as loud as I could to make sure it would

hear me”

!

My neighbours fed me an incredible number of times, in the evening, when they knew I was alone, or just anytime I entered their house. We didn’t speak much and I lost track of the names of all their daughters in law, as they had had a lot of sons, some of whom were in Russia. I saw the children turn from red faced babies covered in big bundles of blankets into brave little boys running around outside with a simple t-shirt in winter time. I made bread once with the ladies, the grandmother patiently repeating and demonstrating the way to spread the dough before baking the bread. When they bought an oven, I showed them the magic of the chocolate cake with very dark, very expensive chocolate cake I brought from Dushanbe.

I chatted with both men and women, women in Tajik, men in Russian. I got to know the less timid persons of the village; Maxbuba, whose dad was the owner of the car repair shop down the valley, her brother, who dreamt of going to Russia, but was stuck in the village according to his dad’s will.

When winter came, I bought a stove and heavy materials for makeshift curtains for the house in Pinion. In November, they installed the stove in the house, I gathered all the necessary items (kitchen, bath, sleeping mattresses, clothes, books) in the smallest room of the house and I tried to live there.


“I made bread once with the ladies, the

grandmother patiently repeating and

demonstrating the way to spread the dough”

Pinion women at work credit Christine Oriol

The stove didn’t burn well. I used wood and coal, first lighting up the wood and when the fire was very hot, adding the coal. I had to open the window to get rid of the smoke in the room, and was always trying to find the best balance between not dying of carbon dioxide intoxication and being still warm. We celebrated New Year’s Eve with a friend of mine, both wearing hats and eating covered with blankets, I woke up quite frequently in the night to check if the air was breathable. In the morning, the water stored in the other part of the house had frozen.

Wintertime is the wedding season in the villages. Men come back from Russia since construction is not possible there and with the money they saved, the single and young ones (below 24 year old) get married. I attended many weddings, danced at all of them, was sometimes pulled off the dance floor by my neighbour in an attempt to preserve my dignity. I gained the title of “citizen of Pinion”.

In the course of the winter, my colleague left and I became the sole resident of the house in the red mountains. I spent then one more spring and summer, and at the end of autumn, decided to give back the house to its owners. I hadn’t had electricity in the house for an unknown reason for the last two months. I was also slowly understanding that what I wanted to experience in Pinion was a construction of my mind, an illusion.


“wintertime is the wedding season in the villages as men come

back from Russia”

Wintertime in Pinion credit Christine Oriol

!

Christine Oriol has worked as Rural Development Coordinator for the French NGO GERES in Tajikistan since 2011. Before moving toTajikistan, Oriol worked in Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, and as a

shepherd in the French Alps. These experiences consolidated her passion for nature, and especially life in the mountains. Her commitment and desire to engage with local life has led Christine to learn Russian

and Tajik. She has studied at the Lyon Institute of Political Science (Science Po Lyon) and obtained two masters, one in Environmental Studies from the University of Oregon and the other in Economic Policies and Agricultural Development from the Institute of Economic and Social Development Studies in Paris.!

I wanted to see a village life and agriculture in the mountains with a balanced and happy society. The reality was a bit different: women were compensating the absence of men by both working in the fields, mostly to harvest fodder for the livestock, and taking care of the numerous children. They had no option to gain an education. Instead they were married between the ages of eighteen and twenty. They would have rather left the village and live in the city than carry on for their whole lives the usual village chores: fetching water, cooking, raising children and tending to livestock.

I went back to live in the city, but the urban atmosphere didn’t fit me so well. I would often remember the sweetest part of Pinion: walking in winter time up the road, the full moon already shining its light on the red slopes, and the sound of the river way down below echoing on the mountains sides.


“women were compensating the absence of men by both working in the fields, mostly to harvest fodder for the livestock, and taking care of the numerous children”

The sweetest part of Pinion credit Christine Oriol

Perspectives on Central Asia 6, OCT 2014

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Transcript of Perspectives on Central Asia 6, OCT 2014