Chon-Alay, Kyrgyzstan - 01. April 2020

Stories of people in Kyrgyzstan during the quarantine

We are starting a series of posts "Stories of people during the quaranteene". The first one is the story of the Director of the "Chon-Alay baly" cooperative Abdimalik Alipbekov.

I think we have a difficult year ahead of us, and the consequences will probably affect us the next two or three years. When the virus was first detected in China in December 2019, no one paid much attention. Everyone was sure that this did not concern us, but, unfortunately, we were all mistaken.

Of course, my whole family is afraid, but I worry more than others. I am more worried about my relatives than about myself. We are trying to follow the quarantine rules, so we are not leaving the farm without reason. We are keeping ourselves busy with farming and are preparing for the beekeeping season. Now the demand for honey among people in our region has increased, we are selling it inside Chon-Alai district.

In the villages, there are usually no problems with food, unlike in the city. There are milk and meat in almost every home, and many have a little stock of flower, so there are sufficient food products. But the pharmacies have run out of antiseptics and paracetamol.

Life in the village has changed a lot, it's is strange to see disinfection of the big streets happening. There are checkpoints, the police don't let people travel from one village to another. People no longer meet in the evenings, like they did before. I noticed that more people are drinking. They think that it protects them, and there are also more smokers.

I think everybody needs to understand the things the government is doing and to be a little patient. We hope it all will be over soon. And of course, we need to thank the doctors who are now working around the clock. I plan to give honey to the doctors to thank them. I think our best way to help the doctors is to stay at home and observe quarantine rules.