A reality check

When I browsed through my blog yesterday, I realized that it's really hard to paint a realistic picture of the scene here. To be honest, I feel like this blog is already missing the "dark sides" to this city. When looking at the pictures I posted, you get a very clean, sunny and happy impression of Bishkek. Of course, this is one side to it. But my everyday experience looks different and I was suprised myself that the pictures don't reflect this. But I guess people generally just tend to post "nice" pictures and of course I can't take pictures of many bad scenes, as I don't want to emberass people here.

So I decided it's time for a reality check and at least tell you about some "not so nice" things here, so you don't get a wrong impression.

What you can't see in the pictures is how hot it is here - mostly around 35°C. Therefore it's only nice to be outside in the very early morning or after 7pm in the evening. Of course sometimes you have to go out during the day, but it's really exhausting in the heat. Especially for locals who take "Mashrutkas" (little passenger vans, most common public transport here) it is hard, because the busses are packed (literally) without any airconditioning and the rides to work are long sometimes. Not to mention people like construction workers who have to be outside all day.

Because of the heat, it's also very dusty all around the city. Cleaning your shoes is not worth it, because they get dusty again within a second. Especially when walking at those big roads, the air is very polluted which makes it hard to breath. There are lots of very old cars in the city. Last year, when we came back from the mountains you could feel the air getting worse when coming closer to the city. Sometimes people also burn their garbage in the yard - although it's not allowed. So often the air smells burnt. During my first days here the smell was a very intense impression that reminded be of my stay last year, so for me it's typical for Bishkek. But when being here all the time, you don't realize it anymore.

I still have my problems walking in the streets and on the sidewalks. The roads are often in bad conditions. Only the very big roads are in good conditions. Every time I go out I stumble at least once. You can't walk and look around. You can only walk looking on the ground, trying not to step in holes, stumble over rocks or fall because of a sudden level difference. Sometimes manhole covers are just missing. I wonder why I haven't seen anyone disappear in them yet - especially children. But they obviously grew up with it. Of course, locals don't always look on the ground. But after a month, Philipp still has to remind me of looking at the ground, because I stumble so often.

Talking about streets. The traffic is much more aggressive here. Traffic lights can only be considered as a mere "suggestion" rather than a rule. Many cars ignore red lights and speeding is normal, you just blow the horn at the same time, so slow cars have a chance to get out of the way (if they make it). As a pessenger walking you can't expect cars to pay attention to you or stop for you - not on crossings and not even if the car just starts from a parking position. Sometimes I even get the impression that they aim for you, because even in the low traffic streets in our neighborhood they always force you to step back although there would be more than enough room left. It must be a game - whoever has a car has to show his power. There are also many deaths from car accidents. Mostly on long distance roads. I have heard of so many family members of friends who have died in car accidents - and sadly its mostly because someone involved in the accident was driving drunk. This is a big issue here.

And last but not least, I have to mention the alcohol and drug abuse (you sometimes see men coming home drunk in the middle of the day, or hear them screaming at their wives at night), the homeless (people sleeping under trees on newspapers), the really poor diggin in our garbage regularly and little children begging for money in the parks. Of course we are not faced with these type of issues every day, but often enough to be reminded of how thankful we should be for what we have and how we were allowed to grow up and that Kyrgyzstan is still a developing country.

ADDED LATER TODAY:
After SirSia's comment I would like to add, that these of course are only some "major or minor" bad things about living here. Of course, stumbling on the sidewalks isn't that bad, but rather funny. But still it's something that I realize very often, because it's very different to my hometown Berlin - so to me it's worth being mentioned. There are also things that seem to happen in almost every big city in the world - maybe I'm just not used to them. And naturally, I know there are many worse things than the couple I mentioned. I just won't be able to nor do I decide to write about all of them. And luckily I haven't seen all of it either, I've only been here for a month! So please keep in mind, that whatever I write about is always based on my experiences having lived in Germany almost all my life and a little while in the U.S. - and last but not least, based on the fact that I'm writing mostly for my European family and friends (at least these are the readers I know of). Therefore I hope noone feels offended by my post and if so, I ask or rather invite those readers to post their own experiences, because it's very likely that we all see a city from a different perspective and with a different background.

I'm glad this turned into "communication" at this point. Thanks for your post SirSia!