Habitat for Humanity Kyrgyzstan
Newsletter 4 – July 2007

Hi all

I apologise for the delay in getting this to you. I realise that some people are already away from homes or about to leave homes. I hope this information is not too late. If you find things in this email that you are not prepared with, send me a note or give me a call and I will bring extras of what I can.

I know it's a lot of information but please read carefully.

My hope is that this is the final communication, and that it's complete enough for your remaining questions to be answered. The newsletter contains the following elements:

Travel information (meeting up, how to get to hotel, where we are staying, what we will do on arrival)
Barskoon information (family profile for the individuals with which we will be working; information on our trip into the mountains; reminders about packing essentials and recommendations; tools; gifts
Logistics information (donations; visas; passport copies)
Miscellaneous information (emergency numbers; money; departure tax information - there is none; blurbs on us; Habitat Newsletter; lots of internet links)

TRAVEL INFORMATION
Most of us (all except for Teresa, Peter and Joy) will be flying at the same time from Istanbul to Bishkek. Since we we are all arriving from various corners, let's meet in the GATE AREA where the flight to Bishkek is scheduled to leave from. Laura will be wearing a Habitat t-shirt or hat. You all know me, except for Liz, who will be with Anne who does. So recognising at least someone should not be a problem. If the first leg of our trip is on time, Mike and I should be there at about 18h00 or so. Our own flight leaves at 19h15.
Once we arrive in Bishkek, there will be a van to take us (the big group) to our hotels. Unfortunately we are in two separate hotels.
Asia Mountains Hotel, St Lineinaya, #1-a (Moskovskaya/Gogolya); Tel: (+996 312) 690 235 where (on the 13th July) we have 2 double rooms ($48), two double rooms half lux ($60); for the 14th we have 2 additional single rooms for Peter & Teresa (all that was available) ($36 per room)
Shumkar Asia Hotel, St Osipenko, 34; Tel: (+996 312) 27 21 05 or 67 11 41, where on the 13th and 14th we will have 3 double rooms ($54).
I don't know how far they are apart. I will make sure that Laura and I are in separate hotels.
For the 21st July, we have arranged the following: Asia Mountains Hotel: 2 double rooms ($48); 3 double rooms half lux ($60), and 2 single rooms ($36 per room); Shumkar Asia Hotel: 2 double rooms ($54)
Jenny and my parents will be in Istanbul for a couple of days before we fly, and have separately arranged to meet up the previous evening.
Teresa & Peter fly overnight Sat/Sun from Moscow. There will be a taxi driver with your names on it waiting to drive you to the Asia Mountains Hotel.
Joy flies from Moscow too, overnight Fri/Sat. There will be a Habitat volunteer waiting for you, and who will drive you to your hotel.
While I hate to prescribe sleeping arrangements, in order to avoid any mess ups, particularly for Joy who arrives alone, I am going to do just that. Most of the rooms are double rooms - I have no idea if that means big bed for two, or two twins, so sorry in advance if there needs to be unexpected intimacy. My suggested room allocation is: mum & dad; Em & Mike; Laura & Jeanne; Anne & Liz; Massimo & Dave; Francesca & Joanne; Jennifer & Joy; Teresa & Peter in singles in Asia Mountains.
Again, even more prescriptive, let's have mum & dad; Laura & Jeanne; Francesca & Joanne; Jennifer & Joy in Asia Mountains on 13th and 14th; Teresa & Peter join on the 14th. And Em & Mike; Anne & Liz; Massimo & Dave in Shumkar Asia Hotel on 13th & 14th.
In terms of what we will do on arrival - sleep a bit! Definitely try to catch some sleep. Those of us there Saturday, we are thinking of a little low-key visit of the town. I specified that this group would probably want relaxation and pootling about, rather than any great structured visit, but correct me if I am wrong. We can wander around some sites and go to a market and spend money if that way inclined. See below for information on money. For Teresa & Peter, we will leave you a note as to what we will do on Sunday. Likely to be something like: orientation with all of us and the local Habitat volunteer, Elzat; visit to Habitat neighbourhood in Bishkek; Osh Bazaar; Lunch and leave for Barskoon. Long mountainous drive - about 6 hours. Take anti-sickness tablets if anyone gets car-sick.

BARSKOON INFORMATION
I won't repeat the information on Barskoon I got from Tanya. Go back to the previous newsletter if you want to read some of that. Also, I came across an amazing blog written by a team of Brits who went to Kyrgzystan just weeks ago, also Barskoon. The link is http://www.mortier.free-online.co.uk/Kyrgyzstan/ and is also below. It's a long read but a good one.
Information on the families we will be working with is contained in the attachment "Family Profiles". We are going to need to work on getting their names right! Looks, not surprisingly, like life is tough.
Our work! Here's information we received from Elzat, our contact. We will be working on the Half-built Project that is completing houses that are already 50% complete. The work consists of plastering interior and exterior walls, installing ceilings, making clay bricks. The work schedule varies according to activities planned for each day, but the approximate workday is from 8.00 am to 4.00 pm (one hour for lunch break)
Our rest & relaxation trip - the plan is a walk up into the mountains to a glacier and stay overnight in a traditional yurt. Probably altitude of 3000m. So it will be cold overnight. Barskoon itself is at about 1800 m. It is mountainous indeed. Please bring appropriate attire.
CLOTHING is important. Bring layers. Expect it to be hot in the day (30C+) and chilly in the evenings and at night. I am bringing a sleeping bag, even though it's not said to be necessary. I just get cold. We will have sleeping bags provided for the mountain trip for $10 fee. I recommend, if you have one, to bring a "sheet sleeping bag" - just in case it's hot where we sleep in Barskoon - I expect it will be fairly cramped. Also bring rain jacket, suitable boots for hiking/working, jeans, t-shirts, sunblock, sunhat, sunglasses, water purifying tablets just in case, water bottle. Also toilet paper, wipes, anti-diahorrea tablets, small torch, and a day/overnight backpack for our trip up the mountain. You all have the "super long packing list" in Newsletter 3? Don't feel like you need to take it all, but it might stimulate some thought.
Sleeping: probably sharing 3-4 to a room across a few different houses.
Gifts: We have some colouring stuff, paper, pens, two deflated footballs with pump, badminton set for kids.. things like that. I am not sure really what to suggest, other than the points made in the previous email. Perhaps some simple but useful household goods, or more things for older kids.
Tools: Mike and I are taking a ridiculous amount of stuff - tools galore for the site (which we just hope we can get onto the plane, and not pay a charge for, including two saws, 6 hammers, dust masks, gloves, 2 hard hats, bla bla... a whole bag. I noticed somewhere that there is a shortage of nails. The construction sites will not be well equipped, but if you bring some basics cheaply, like: nails (big tough long ones I imagine), hammer with a nail puller outer at the end, gloves for construction (like gardening gloves), and dust mask, that would be good. You can get these in any hardware store. We have 6, so 4 extras for anyone who can't get to a decent shop. We will also try to buy nails in Bishkek.
We have received a document from Habitat that looks very formal, but is in fact an adaptable Word document, which we plan to show at the airport if there's a fuss. See "Donation letter for Airlines". If you are planning on taking many tools, and worried about whether or not airlines will mind (weight, security), then please adapt the letter appropriately and print a couple of copies.

LOGISTICS INFORMATION
Donations: Please finalise the $650 if you have not yet done that. There have been some problems with the HfH Germany website and payments (including mine, Anne) have not gone through appropriately which is frustrating. So please check that the amount has been debited from a statement. And if you still need to do it (or redo it, as in our case), please use the US site, and pay $650. http://www.habitat.org/cd/gv/participant/participant.aspx?pid=6562-0129. Remember the code which is GV8960. Sorry about this frustrating glitch.
Visas - I think we are all sorted, and we will cross our fingers for Jennifer. It was crazy for Jennifer in Australia to get this sorted, and the embassy in Canberra never once picked up the phone in two weeks of calling. We will literally pull you onto the plane if anything happens! And you can laugh when in Bishkek you buy your visa for a 1/3 of the price we spent.
Passport copies - Laura would like a scanned copy of your passport before we leave. Failing that, please bring a copy of your picture page and give to her in Istanbul.
MISCELLANEOUS INFORMATION
Emergency Numbers - Laura and team have prepared this document for us. Please print and bring, and/or give to someone who might need to get in touch. I am pretty sure we will have mobile phone access, even in Barskoon. See Excel spreadsheet Emergency Management Kyrgyzstan.
Money - As a reminder, we have been advised to bring USD which we will change into Kyrgyz currency, the som. I have asked Joanne to bring back some USD for me & Mike and am taking $600 for the two of us which I expect to be far in excess of what we will spend but one never knows. That said, I expect that Euros are fine too, and no doubt pounds sterling, though the tip we got from Habitat volunteers on the ground in Kyrgyzstan was that USD are better perceived. Hopefully, between ourselves, we will have enough cash to buy what we want even if we need to pool some of the money and owe it to each other. Clearly we will have credit cards too, but don't expect them to be accepted beyond Bishkek. Not a lot to buy in Barskoon anyway, I expect. We will want soms for Barskoon. As of right now, €1 is 50 som; $1 is 40 (some rounding, but you get the picture).
To give you a sense of possible souvenirs and their costs, Laura said that the Kyrgyz were known for felt products and carpets. On her last trip she bought felt slippers which were about $8 a pair. She also bought a small rug which was about $80. So you can spend a bit! At Osh Bazaar we would pay in soms.
Bartering/Negotiating about price: apparently it's fine, though if we are guided by a Habitat volunteer in Osh Bazaar, we might be taken to some women who know about Habitat. There the prices are lower and we should not barter.
Departure Tax: Anne read something about the need to keep money aside to pay on departure, but apparently this has been abolished, so no need.
Blurbs on who's going! It took a lot of nagging, but I finally have a complete set of blurbs from each of us - why we want to go, etc... Attached in Blurbs doc. Thank you!
Habitat's most recent Kyrgyzstan Summer newsletter is also attached if you want to know more about what Habitat is doing in the region.
Finally - more Miscellany

Internet links - Finally, all sorts of interesting links - if anyone ever has time to peruse! I have skim-read some of these, so might not have done a great quality vs quantity analysis. Still, if stuff looks interesting, please print off information so we have it within the team. Likewise if you find anything else, bring it along. I don't have a detailed map of our destination. A friend in the area here used to guide trekking trips to Kyrgyzstan (I only just found out!) and has tried to locate her maps but has moved home so often she now thinks they are lost for good. Massimo, I know you have some so please bring. If anyone else has any, please bring! I have the Lonely Planet which I will bring. Some maps in that.

BARSKOON
http://www.mortier.free-online.co.uk/Kyrgyzstan/

This is an account of a team of Brits who went with Habitat to Barskoon just a few weeks ago. It's an impressive blog, with photos, and seems to have been written up while there.... so perhaps internet access/mobile phone access after all. Or perhaps just good notes later put onto the site. Anyway, it's long but worth a read in terms of getting a "realistic job preview". I would reiterate, on reading this, that the following are indispensible: sun cream, sun hat, good walking/working boots, ear plugs (the rooster!), anti-diahorrea tablets (the chap appropriately named Mort). Oh - and a solid sense of humour! There's mention of fear of rabid dogs. I went to the pharmacy here to see if we could get vaccinations. You can have preventative vaccinations for rabies, or "post hoc" ones. The post hoc ones, after a bite, obviously require refrigeration. So I hope no-one is too worried about that. The issue seemed to arise when the team went for a long walk for their R&R.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barskoon

http://www.kyrgyzstan.orexca.com/issyk-kul.shtml Information on Lake Issy-Kol on an interesting adventure travellers' website, OrexCA (Oriental Express Central Asia)

BISHKEK

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bishkek

http://www.angelfire.com/rnb/bashiri/Bishkek/Bishkek.html

http://www.virtualtourist.com/travel/Asia/Kyrgyzstan/Gorod_Bishkek/Bishkek-1268488/TravelGuide-Bishkek.html

http://www.virtualtourist.com/travel/Asia/Kyrgyzstan/Gorod_Bishkek/Bishkek-1268488/Things_To_Do-Bishkek-BR-1.html


Keep well, and see you very soon!
Please keep my mobile number available: +33 6 77 77 91 27, and Laura's too: +36 30 396 12 18


Emma & Laura