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Four Days, Four Lives
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HOT WATER SELLER “It’s a hard life, but here in Bishkek we can earn money,” says Anara Tuksambekova
BISHKEK, KYRGYZ REPUBLIC Anara Tuksambekova, 48, sells water in the Dordoi market, a sprawling freewheeling tribute to the power of private enterprise that has sprung up in recent years on the outskirts of Bishkek. Each day Ms. Tuksambekova, her husband, and three older children boil water at their home. Then they walk for half an hour to Dordoi, carrying the water in vacuum flasks. The children return during the day to replenish the supply. The hot water, Som 5 ($0.12) for a small flask, is used by stallholders to make tea, and is delivered directly to them by her husband and children. Ms. Tuksambekova runs the business from a stall that she rents for Som 25 ($.60) a week. Here she also sells packaging tape and cigarettes.
The business provides a family income of around Som 4,500 ($107) a month. From this Som 600 ($14.35) is paid as rent for a small apartment. The three youngest children are in school. She laments that there is no money for further education for her older children but hopes that as the economy grows, it will bring work opportunities for them.
Ms. Tuksambekova’s family moved from Samarkandik in 2002. Her husband had lost his job as a coal miner in the aftermath of the breakup of the Soviet Union. Other work was hard to find, so they migrated to Bishkek.
“It’s a hard life, but here in Bishkek we can earn money, “ she says, “and the family is together.” They work 7 days a week, with little time for fun, but Ms. Tuksambekova says she is happy. She has 3 grandchildren already, there is a TV for entertainment, everyone gets enough to eat, and everyone is healthy. (John Cole, Principal External Relations Specialist)
MONGOLIA Her day begins in the dark, two hours before the winter sun rises. After 27 years as a secondary school teacher, Dumaajav Chantsal, 58, now spends her days milking and tending to her seven cows and their calves.
WINTER CHORES Dumaajav Chantsal cares for the cows that feed her family and earn her extra income in the summer
In winter, the cows must be fed hay twice a day in their pens because in the extreme cold they cannot be let out to pasture. One hay bale costs 1100 Mongolian togrog ($1). To stock up for winter, they need 400–500 bales of hay and 1 ton of fodder. Ms. Chantsal also makes sure the cows are kept warm with cover clothing and that the pen is well insulated against the cold.
In midmorning, after the cows are milked and fed, breakfast is prepared, the family is fed, and the house is tidied and cleaned, Ms. Chantsal prepares the milk and makes clotted cream and yogurt. During winter, she can get about 10 liters of milk daily, which is enough for the family. In summer, her cows give 20–25 liters, which she sells as fresh milk or yogurt.
After lunch, there are more chores to do: washing clothes, fetching water, preparing simple fuels, and baking. If guests arrive, she entertains them with tea and pancakes. On top of all this, she also helps look after her 3-year-old granddaughter.
In the evenings, Ms. Chantsal again feeds and milks the cows. Before she goes to bed she prepares the milk, cream, and yogurt for breakfast tomorrow—when her day begins anew ahead of the winter sun. (Tsolmongerel Galsanchoimbol, Administrative Assistant)
SIRAJGANJ, BANGLADESH In a dark, crowded classroom of 40 girls, 15-year-old Farzana Islam shines. A 9th grader in the Saleha Ishaque Government Girl High School, Farzana ranks fourth in her class. To ensure she stays in school, she receives a monthly stipend of taka (Tk)60 ($1.03) per month plus money for textbooks through the Asian Development Bankfunded Secondary Education Sector Improvement Project.
SERIOUS STUDENT Farzana Islam has a grueling schedule to prepare herself for college
A serious student, she aspires to go to university and study English—her favorite subject. She eventually wants to become a magistrate so she can have power in fighting corruption. “If a country is corrupt, it cannot develop,” she says with conviction.
Her mother, a widowed homemaker, fully supports her daughter’s ambitions. “I have no sons, so my daughters are like sons to me,” she says, adding that her other daughter wants to be a lawyer.
Farzana’s grueling schedule has her up at 5:45 a.m. and studying until after midnight. Even before her breakfast, she attends a private English tutorial, which is followed by a math and science tutorial. After a quick bath, she’s off to school in a rickshaw. Lunch is at 4 p.m. at home with her mother.
But Farzana’s day is far from finished. After another private tutorial, she studies from 6 p.m. to 12:30 a.m., only breaking around 10 p.m. for dinner and a quick peak at her favorite TV program, an Indian soap opera.
Six years ago, tragedy struck Farzana’s life when her father, chairman of Union Parishad (the local government body), was murdered. Reflecting, she says she wanted to be a magistrate even before her father died. “He was very keen on the idea,” she says. “My father used to work for people and help them—I want to do the same.” (Carolyn Dedolph, External Relations Specialist)
HARD WORKER Ms. Bounmy juggles her roles as a farmer, mother, and local women’s leader
TADLOUANG VILLAGE, LAO PDR It’s 7:30 a.m., and Ms. Bounmy is winding her way through the deep green rice fields outside her village. The day’s rice is steamed, her three children are dressed and fed, the eldest is off to school, the house is swept, the pigs and chickens are fed, and the water is fetched. After a 20-minute walk, she arrives at her field on a hillside overlooking Tadlouang Village in Xiengkhouang Province, Lao People’s Democratic Republic.
It’s peanut harvest time and, with a short break for lunch, Ms. Bounmy, 31, will pick peanuts under the baking sun until she returns home at 5 p.m. An average day’s haul is about 10 kilograms, which, after drying, can be sold at the local market or to traveling traders for 3,000 kip ($0.30) per kilogram (kg).
In 2002, Ms. Bounmy planted 15 kg of peanut seed and sold her harvest for 870,000 kip (almost $84), making peanuts the family’s biggest moneymaker. Last year, she planted 24 kg of seed, so she is expecting a bigger income this harvest.
Once back from her field, Ms. Bounmy, who also heads the village’s Lao Women’s Union, steams more rice, feeds the animals, goes to wash in the nearby river, cooks dinner over an open fire in her wood-and-thatch home, and eats with her family. By 8 p.m., the lack of electricity leaves little option but sleep.
“It is quite busy when you combine family duties, village duties, and labor in the field,” she says. “My husband is a teacher so he can help only in the fields on weekends. Most of the labor comes from me.”(David Kruger, External Relations Specialist)
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