Cannonball!

Kyrgyz pools are the craziest place for people watching. They keep you on your toes too. There’s a lack of rules that leads to many slips and falls along the poolside. There’s also the Kyrgyz national water sport of throwing your friends into the pool. And it doesn’t matter how hard he may try to resist and how many other friends it takes, they will throw him in the pool.

Kyrgyz fashion is taken to the next level at the pool. The boys run around in their flimsy underwear like they own the place. They also may jump from the roof of a neighboring building into the rather shallow pool, but that has nothing to do with fashion. The young ladies, who dare wear bikinis, sling a sheer scarf around their bodies to maintain their modesty.

The most egregious fashion mishaps were one time sightings, though we do go to the pool quite often. Spotted on a hot July day: young girl, maybe 8, wearing a string thong…and only a thong. This same hot day: teenage girl wearing the most unflattering one-piece ever designed - with the focal point being a giant dolphin on its front. Another slightly hotter day in August: young woman wearing yellow bikini designed with the illusion of ants crawling on it. Why? I am the last person on earth who would claim to understand international fashion trends. I'm just a casual observer who enjoys every moment of casual observation.

Beyond fashion, let’s say – deeper than fashion, the Kyrgyz pool has even more to offer. There’s the adrenaline that runs through your veins as you sit on the side of the pool and realize that 80% percent of the children swimming in front of you CANNOT SWIM. Then there’s the confusing that comes with watching children set a large stone next to the pool off of which to jump, because those extra 6 inches are 6 times more exciting. Then there’s the disgust that comes from noticing bursting boils upon the skin of those swimming next to you in the definitely not chlorinated water (really, the boil thing happened only once...but it was scary!).

All that being said, the pool is the place you’ll find me on a hot summer day. We have several, which are refilled on different days of the week and it’s a constant struggle to know the schedule well enough to follow the clean water. The 3 hours I may spend at the pool stand out as the ONLY 3 hours of the day during which I am not dripping sweat. That’s why I go. The people watching is just an added bonus.