In the World's Smallest Big City

Sometimes I think Bishkek is the world's smallest city with a metropolitan area of over a million people. This is because when I visit the Kek, my affectionate nickname for the place, I seem to always come across people I know in greater measure than if I were living in a tiny hamlet. Take the last 24 hours for example.

Last night I had dinner at a brand new, elegant Italian restaurant that's just opened in the Kek. Of course, the young woman who was serving us knew me because she had been a participant in UCA's summer camp last year. Then, after midnight, as I was wandering back to my hotel I stumbled across two of my UCA Naryn colleagues on Toktogul Street after they had just finished a midnight snack at a local eatery. We stood on the sidewalk talking until one in the morning.

Today, I needed to get cash at an ATM in Bishkek Park and run an errand there. After I finished my transaction a stranger who knew me stopped me to talk to me because, though I didn't know him, he recognized me from a recent unplanned appearance of mine on national television. It turns out he had worked for various AKDN agencies and wanted to chat with me about my UCA experiences. Now I have a new Facebook friend and Bishkek acquaintance, originally from Khorog, who I am sure I will run across frequently now that we have met.

While standing next to the ATM conversing with my new friend, a wonderful colleague from my days in the Bishkek office, happened by to use the ATM herself. After my new friend excused himself, my colleague and I had a pleasant chat about what she was up to. And as we were talking, another kind colleague, he from the Finance Office, joined in with his two young sons as he too needed the ATM. I joked that I might spend the rest of the day standing next to the ATM as eventually, I speculated, I might just meet everyone I knew in Bishkek before sundown.

After finishing nice conversations, I completed my errands in Bishkek Park and, just as I was leaving, I ran into the former assistant to the dean, from my days in the Central UCA Office. Interestingly enough, we ran into each other about 20 meters from the exact spot we had run into each other several months before. I joked as we departed that, in a few months, we would most certainly run into each other another 20 meters further down the corridor.

I then ran an errand at the Golden Tulip Hotel front desk. Of course the clerk remembered me by name, as I've stayed there a few times before, and he inquired about how things were in Naryn as he had been following campus events.

Finally, late in the afternoon, as I zipped to the pharmacy to purchase an item I kept forgetting to buy, who should I run into but another summer camp student from last year. How nice it was to hear of his plans for college and the future. (And, of course, he was curious about Naryn as he too was aware of campus events.)

Now the day is completed and I am safely locked inside my hotel room in the World's Smallest Big City. I think I will not meet anyone else whom I know, but it wouldn't astonish me if a representative from housekeeping will knock on my door to check something and suddenly discover she knows me and will decide to start a conversation I never dreamed I would have.

In Bishkek: Square outside the National Philharmonic