CAI HEROES: Kona Kurgan
CAI HEROES: Kona Kurgan
Kyrgyz heroes on eastern Tajikistan’ s high Pamir
KONA KURGAN, Tajikistan – When it comes to getting dressed for school here, color is not an option. Black-and-white is the student dress code at the new Central Asia Institutesupported high school in eastern Tajikistan’ s Pamir Mountains.
Much about life here in this century-old, high-altitude village seems to be in shades of grey.
Far from the nation’ s capital, Kona Kurgan, which translates to“ old yard,” was for many years just a place to stop for tea and sleep on this stretch of the old Silk Road.
“ Travellers stopped to rest in this area,” Abibullo Isaullu, chairman of the Kona Kurgan Jamiat( council), said.“ For many years there were no houses here, just yurts,” referring to the felt-sided tents favored by the Kyrgyz people who live in the area.
These days most traffic on the Pamir Highway— a narrow, crumbling-blacktop road that spans eastern Tajikistan and is the second highest-altitude international highway in the world— is the trucks going to and from China, although there is a small but growing ecotourism industry.
The yurts are gone, replaced with mudbrick houses. Electrical wires have been extended into the village, but“ electric capacity is very low,” Isaullu said. Most people make a marginal living as semi-nomadic herders.
At about 12,500 feet altitude, nothing much grows in the area.“ We don’ t get lots of snow, just much cold,” Isaullu said. Winter temperatures at times drop as low as 50 degrees Fahrenheit below zero.
Many Tajiks leave the country to find work, despite the difficulties for those left behind. Tajikistan is the poorest of the former Soviet-bloc countries and people can make more money elsewhere.
“ The people are poor here,” Isaullu said of Kona Kurgan’ s 1,300 residents.“ Since collapse of the Soviet Union, 80 percent of people are unemployed. The only places for jobs are schools, hospital and government office. Some do shepherding to get some income. Many are living somewhere else to make money [ and send in back ] so their children are not hungry.”
By Karin Ronnow
The school, which Central Asia Institute( CAI) helped to build, is the bright spot. And the students bring it alive.
The top students in class 11, three 18-yearold girls, are in their last year of school, which runs from first to 11th grade in Tajikistan. They dream of continuing their educations, getting degrees, and having professions.
Urmisa’ s father is a government accountant in nearby Murghab; her mother is a housewife. Both of Nur Jamal’ s parents are pensioners and no longer work.
After graduating next spring, these two both want to study medicine in Dushanbe, Tajikistan’ s capital, and then come back to their village for work.
“ We were born here,” Urmisa said.“ We love this place.”
Their classmate, Rahila chimed in:“ This is our motherland.”
“ I want to be a translator,” Rahila said.“ I am interested in English, Russian, and Chinese. I would study in Bishkek,” the Kyrgyzstan capital, nearly 700 miles north of Kona Kurgan by road.
Rahila’ s parents actually live in Bishkek now.“ My dad is a taxi driver. My mother is not working.” She lives with her grandmother while her parents are away.
A few minutes after praising her country, she indicated that she might be happier living somewhere else.
If Rahila is able to study in Bishkek, she’ d like to stay with her parents after graduation. Maybe she could find a job there, she said.
“ I’ m not sure if I would come back to here after that,” she said.
With the advent of television and Internet access, albeit limited, students are beginning to suspect that their lives on this high frontier may be harder than the lives of their peers elsewhere
C E N T R A L A S I A I N S T I T U T E
HEROES in the world, or even in Tajikistan. It creates a certain amount of inner conflict.
But the new school gives them a sense that people believe in them, care about them, and that gives them hope for a better future, School Director Najmidinov Abdulobek said.
“ We give great thanks to donors and Central Asia Institute for new building,” Abdulobek said.“ The new school is bright, the classrooms are bigger and it is comfortable for students and teachers. It was warm enough in winter. The new furnaces use less coal and that was very helpful because we didn’ t have to ask government for coal all the time.”
The school has 234 students, including 118 girls and“ the amount of pupils is increasing,” Abdulobek said.
Most of the students live in Kona Kurgan, however the school operates a hostel“ for those children whose parents are going to the
“ The new school is bright, the classrooms are bigger and it is comfortable for students and teachers. It was warm enough in winter.— Najmidinov Abdulobek
pastures,” Abdulobek said.
The hostel was housing 21 students of all ages in May.“ They are staying for free,” Abdulobek said.“ School budget from government pays for their food,” plus the United Nations World Food Program provides flour and vegetable oil.
The new school even has a computer room, complete with desktop computers provided by the government.
“ When president was in GBAO he had meeting with all districts and gave gifts to the school,” Abdulobek said.“ They were delivered through Department of Education. We have problems with electricity so mostly we are working with generator.”
Rahila, Urmisa, and Nur Jamal said the new school has made all the difference to them, they only wished it had been built earlier so they could have enjoyed it longer. They will graduate from high school in the spring of 2015 and, they hope, go on to higher education.
But they had one more request for the children coming up behind them: an indoor sports hall or gymnasium.
“ The weather is very cold here and the children need a place inside to play volleyball and other sports,” Nur Jamal said.“ This would make all Kona Kurgan very happy.” y
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