Weather and Villages

Last week was -40 and this week it's balmy. Strange! Alaska cold doesn't operate like this, but I guess we haven't the SCC (Sharp Continental Climate) that they have here in Tuva. I can't tell you guys how many times I've heard the phrase "резкий континентальный климат" since coming here. More than fifty times, I'm sure. It defines life in this odd corner of the Steppe. I have been learning from some biology and geology grad students I'm teaching on weekends about the biodiversity of Tuva, and I'm pretty sure it must be linked somehow to the bizarre climate here in the "Center of Asia."

The other piece of news is that I've started visiting villages! I have been traveling with the Dekanat of FilFak (Dean of the Philology Faculty) and a singing, dancing group of students advertising the university in rural schools. I can report back that Tuva's landscape is definitely breathtaking. The landscape is very bare. There are hardly any trees (only along the riverbanks). Just endless, rugged, snow-covered bluffs and almost-mountains. The Yenisei has eroded out some great cliffs that look pretty amazing dusted in snow. Sadly, the Black Cloud of Doom extends at least a hundred kilometers West along the Yenisei. Apparently in Tuva in winter there is one big air current that runs straight down the river, pulling Kyzyl's smog to the villages along the river. There is always some grey smog floating around, but even smog can't entirely obscure the bright blueness of the Tuvan sky.

In the villages, our students put on a concert for the schoolchildren of the village that was appropriately funny and filled with Phil-Fak spirit. Then they had me answer a lot of questions about where I'm from, what my family is like, and how I ended up at Tuvan State University, and a couple other professors talk about the specific programs at TSU. It's interesting to see these schools and imagine my current TSU students as teachers at them someday. It's apparent that resources for native speaker-type practice are nonexistent in the villages, but education progresses nonetheless. I was pleasantly surprised by the order and good organization of the village schools. Granted, I'm only getting a superficial impression, but the hallways were brightly painted, everything was clean, and the children could all say some basic phrases in English.

It's interesting to compare the structure of village life and especially education in rural villages in Alaska as compared to here! There are such similarities, also things that are entirely different. It's such a mind-bender to think about modern nations and the way they shape life in their respective small communities. As always, I'm really grateful for Professor VanHolde's class in college, "Nation, State, and Nationalism," where we pondered such questions as "What is a nation" and read Anderson's "Imagined Communities." That book still blows the top off my head every time I think about it. Sometimes I feel like Russia is the world's petri dish for questions of political organization. It's interesting to see the intervention of the state in remote corners of the country, like villages in Tuva and see the involvement of the invisible hands of government. People in Kyzyl have been telling me for months that Kyzyl, the city, is still part of Russia, but the villages are "Tuva." Now I have seen for myself, and I utterly agree--there's very little that's Russian out there. The schools, I suppose are one of the strongest marks the national government makes on the Tuvan landscape and the shaping of young minds. The loneliness of the landscape, and the little huddles of buildings that are scattered across it. Plus the yurts, even lonelier. And the memories of collectivization of livestock, the changes that the 20th century brought. Plus the fact that Tuva was the site of some major Civil War battles, home to refugees from religious repressions. And what will the future be? That's the biggest question, I suppose.

But, back to the topic of weather! Below are local news articles from TuvaOnline about cold weather and recent warming! All I can say is a big HURRAY! (Apparently the word Hurray comes originally from Mongolian language?? I can totally believe it... it sounds like a world from this part of the world!)

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(From Feb 12, 2010)
Second month of -40 degree temperatures in Tuva

This winter is very cold in Tuva – the air temperature has been staying below -40 degrees centigrade for already the second month.

Yesterday and today morning, the local media announced that the temperature is -44 degrees, but the actual thermometers of Kyzyl inhabitants were registering -50 degrees.

Two recent free days, when the thermometers registered only -35 degrees, were welcomed as a serious warming.

It is interesting that the station “Taiga” is much warmer, with its -18 degrees.

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And (from Feb 20, 2010)

Tuva is warming up after New Year

Monday was the first day after an almost two month period of -40 grade freeze, that the temperature rose to -25 degrees.

The elders say: “It is always like this after Shagaa.” In Lunar calendar, Shagaa is the start of the spring-summer season. Interestingly, this Lunar New Year fell on the same date with Maslenica, which is also a symbol of parting with winter. Regardless of the -40 degree freeze, the holiday activities yesterday on Museum Square of Kyzyl attracted great crowds.

A picturesque theatrical performance dedicated to “Shagaa-2010” awaited the spectators, with Ak-sal (White Beard) and Aldyn-kys (Golden Girl), there were Tuvan folk games and contests; the beloved “tevek”, “at shalbylaar”(capture a horse with arkan), the risky “chop a block”, “askak kadai” (lame old woman), and contest in fastest eating of pancakes. In tug-of-war, the “South” team turned out to be the strongest one. The game of “tevek” went to Chokpek-pa Baza-ool with 100 hits.

Ondar Khaya won the arm-wrestling competition.

In the freezing weather, the hot, fresh pancakes were selling, literally, “like hotcakes”.

The grand finale of the holiday was the traditional burning of the straw Maslenica effigy.

Concerts, dedicated to the day of couples in love took place as well. This holiday, for example, was celebrated in Samagaltai (Tes-Khem kozhuun).