The “Welcome to the lands of wonder” CID was dedicated to 2 of the 5 countries forming Central Asia – Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan. It was a fabulous, yet informative show with lots of humor and action.

As usual, the event started with a warm welcome from the College Master of Mercator, Klaus Boehnke. The bunch of talented Central Asian students at IUB then gave some basic overview on the geographical and economic history of their respective countries as well as on the interesting places to visit there. So if you haven’t heard about those two countries before, the CID was the right place for you as it is quite a good way to get educated while at the same time relaxing and entertaining yourself. Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan both had a difficult past, but they finally managed to get their independence in 1991, being among all the rest post-communist countries previously part of the Soviet Union. Today democracy has still not paved the way for the two countries - Uzbekistan is still under authoritarian presidential rule and Kyrgyzstan is an authoritarian parliamentary-presidential republic. Both are now on their road to slow, but much desired and hopefully effective socio-economic development. Kyrgyzstan, for example, has quite a liberal strategy towards reforms, having adopted the so-called “shock therapy” (recommended by both the IMF and the World Bank) in the years after the fall of communist rule. Today both countries are quite rich in natural resources. Uzbekistan (heavily relying on agriculture) is the second biggest exporter of cotton in the world and the seventh largest producer of gold. Kyrgyzstan is quite specialized in the exportation of electricity and also, one of its long-term goals is to develop the tourism sector of its economy.

An undoubted highlight of the night was the play describing a typical day of the life of a typical Central Asian family. Their everyday life seemed quite demanding – just imagine getting up at 5 o’clock in the morning, seven days a week! The rest of the day might as well not sound quite like fun for a Westerner, especially if he has had no experience with sheep and cows. Also, an important event is the daily trip of the whole family to the local market to sell what they have produced and thus earn their living. The whole atmosphere was quite amusing added the fervor with which the heart of the family, the mother (performed by Nika Yugay, a second-year student from Uzbekistan) played her role and interacted with her ever-ruling husband (Laziz Alidjanov, Uzbekistan) and her two obeying children. Alena Asyamova (Uzbekistan), also performing the role of the clever daughter which always outsmarts her brother, caught the eye of the audience with an exotic Uzbek dance. A unifying scene was the evening of the family’s Navruz celebration – Navruz is the biggest holiday in those lands, their own New Year taking place on the 21 st of March. It is by tradition that Central Asians celebrate this holiday with all their relatives and neighbors. There was a touch of the genuine hospitality of the people from those two countries where everyone is a friend of everyone.

Finally, if you want to experience the unique spirit of Central Asia first hand, don’t miss to visit Tashkent (Uzbekistan’s capital and also Central Asia’s premier metropolis), Samarkand, Bukhara and Khiva (a city-museum) as well as Bishkek (capital of Kyrgyzstan) and Osh (the second largest city). An important environmental problem was also given a word towards the end of the event – the water shrinkage in the Aral Sea.

Images here.