Volunteer work in Uzbekistan: Besharik

Volunteer work in Uzbekistan.

A few minutes after my arrival, Nasiba and her son, Demir, come back home. I start chatting with her through the window of my room to where they are, the living room, and we are having a good vibe. Only when I come to the living room is that I finally meet Demir. We start chatting about last night football match, and we get along well pretty fast.

My first impressions of Nasiba’s house are a bit surprising. It is a huge, truly massive house, with many rooms in this main building where she lives, plus another part which is at the same time connected and separated from the main house. It must have been an outstanding house on its prime time, but right now it doesn’t look really well, unfortunately. I don’t think it is necessarily lack of maintenance or careless, I believe that it is just the way the things are.

The only room which is heated is the living room. All the other rooms are quite cold, including mine. But it is OK for sleeping on it, just not possible to hang out there or do anything else. What actually bothers me is not the temperature but the fact that the bed linen is not clean. It seems that somebody else was sleeping there before me and the bed linen was not changed after. It seems to be something quite normal to Uzbek people. I have notice, through the families I have staid with it along the country, that they are always sleeping and using things from one another in a normal basis. I ask Nasiba for another bedding and she gives to me.

The days in the schools are quite normal. We have different classes, in different places, different days of the week, but we work from Monday to Saturday, mostly through the whole day. Sometimes we can get pretty tired, sometimes it is just OK. We have lunch in local canteens and the food is really good. My favourite one is Lag’man, a noodle soup with roasted peppers and eggplants. We always have some bread and Charlop (the Uzbek Greek’s Tzatziki but with cilantro). The one day we ate from the school canteen, they had pumpkin Manti and I loved it! The most famous food though is the Shashilik, an Uzbek style Kebab.

The students in Uzbekistan are far different from the ones in Kyrgyzstan and I guess it was a big shock for me at first, but then I put myself together and work with them in their own rhythm. Unfortunately, they are behind with their English. Perhaps that’s a normal thing since we are in the country side, while in Kyrgyzstan I was in the capital. Anyway, most of the students are lovely, respectful and really eager to improve their English, but a few of them are just wasting their parent’s money on the private English classes.

As usual, during the first classes, while I am introducing myself and my life style, most of the students get really surprised. The majority of them didn’t know about hitchhiking or the fact that someone can survive without a mobile phone. But there weren’t many questions, though, nothing even close to the students in Kyrgyzstan, bombarding me with questions.

After that first introduction thing, the classes became pretty normal, and we came back to the book and regular teaching. And that is when I realize how weak the students are. The worst part is that, most of them are already taking classes for about one year. That should be more than enough for them to have a much better English.

When we are back at home, I try to work on my India Visa but unfortunately, after a few days, my laptop stops working. Nasiba help me a lot by taking it to a man who can fix it. Middle time, I was trying to do what I could from her laptop, which was extremely helpful. After having a hard time to make the payment, having to disturb Fergus a bit more, we finally get everything done and, in a few days, I get the great news that my Visa was granted! Yay!

We always have dinner at home. Just some soup with bread. For breakfast, sometimes it is only bread and tea, and a few times Nasiba would get some Kaymak or something else. From time to time also, we would have fruits. I don’t know if it is always like that when she has volunteers, or if it is because she is paying for my registration, although it is really not that much.

Apart from Demir, Nasiba has other two boys: Ijod, 8 years old, and Akbol, 12 years old. They all have very different personalities. We play cards from time to time, and I also introduce “Head’s up” to them. The most difficult part is getting them to be out of their mobile phones. It is INSANE how much time they spent on that. It really seems like they don’t know how life would be without it.

I cannot really explain why but I get really attached to Demir. I am helping him to improve his speaking for the National Exams called IELTS, and that is actually the funniest part of my days. We are always teasing each other, laughing and having fun, like good friends.

On Christmas Day, Nasiba takes us all to the mountains. Two students come along and also one of Nasiba’s niece. We get mini-Kombi for ourselves and the driver stays with us the whole day. It takes about 2 hours to arrive to the place and we pass the time singing Jingle Bells and other songs.

The place is a kind of “winter adventures”, where people can slide in the snow from the hill and also go in a zip-line It is a gorgeous day with clean blue sky and high temperatures. After a calm and peaceful time, the children start teasing each other, and Demir is sinking everybody in the snow. We all get our revenge at some point, of course, when we join hands to get him down, and sink his face in the snow. Laugh. He is a strong boy so this is our only chance!

On our way back, Nasiba buys this really tasty bread, Patir, which looks and tastes like it is fried, but it not. It is simply delicious! And it is only bread! We are all starving after wasting so much energy, so we devour the Patir.

We will spend New Years Eve in Nasiba’s brother house, which is just beside us. He has a big and fancy house but the night we spend there, just shows to me, one more time, how things and money cannot buy feelings.

Everything it happens quite strangely actually… There is this super nice table, with golden dishes full of delightful food, different types of nuts, fruits, chocolates and drinks. And because of that I am thinking – Uhul! But then, all of sudden, we start to eat and nobody says anything, or talk, or celebrate… nothing. It is so automatic and empty of feelings, that I feel we are actually in a funeral and not at New Year’s Eve!

Later on, out of nowhere, everybody leaves the place, letting me alone with Nasiba’s mother, who in a few minutes starts to take a nap. I am thinking – What a hell? After waiting for quite a while, I leave for a walk. I cannot actually believe they would simply abandon a guest like that. That would never happen in Brazil!

I finally eat the Uzbek Plov next day, when Nasiba prepares it for lunch. It is delicious! Now I do believe that Uzbekistan is definitely the birthplace of Plov!

My last day in Besharik with Nasiba’s family starts pretty slow but ends up good! On my last “class” with Demir, we laugh more than ever, pretending that we were actually at the IELTS interview. It was a great way of “saying” goodbye.

So, what happened on my last day was that, Nasiba’s sister and her family come over. She has two sons, and one of them, a 22 years old, starts chatting with me and we get along pretty well. He has taken Salsa classes, on YouTube, so we start dancing too. It is so much fun! Out of sudden, everybody is dancing (apart form Demir, of course), even Nasiba’s mother, which is really cute! In the end, me, Nasiba, the nephew and Ijod use an app to copy the moves of Waka Waka, by Shakira. It is super fun! If only we had had more nights like this while I was here…

Next morning, after giving everybody a hug I walk towards one of the ends of town.

Nasiba gives me a piece of Adras, this traditional Uzbek fabric, which has geometrical shapes on it. They can come in only one colour or many mixed together. The one she gives to me it is blue, the colour of Uzbekistan, I would say…