The boy was reading a dictionary all the way in the stunning mountain paths
I’ve longed for a journey in great nature, walking and camping for days.
I have yearned for an adventure movie-like experience where a young girl overcomes all difficulties and grows stronger.
It was four years ago, in May.
A friend asked me to go for a trip to Kyrgyzstan in Central Asia, as her old friend got assigned there. To be honest, I didn’t even know such a country exists.
When I looked into it, I found out that the country is surrounded by mountains has numerous trekking destinations.
I was fascinated by the photos of the trekking route, where horses stroll along the riverside of the valley and alpine flowers bloom.
This is where I’ve wanted to be!
My heart pounded. So, I persuaded my friend and planned a trek to Alakul Lake, on 3700 meters altitude in Tian Shan mountains as a highlight of our trip.
We entered the Kyrgyz Republic by land via neighbouring Kazakhstan. This is because flights from Japan to Kyrgyzstan are few and costly.
We first flew for 10 hours to Moscow airport for transit, then took another flight to Almaty in Kazakhstan that took about 2 hours. From the airport, we headed to a local bus station. Surrounded by drivers speaking only in Kazakh, I communicated with them by gesturing and drawing figures and numbers on my palm, trying to find a taxi to the border.
It took us almost two days to get to Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan.
I was exhausted. But somehow I felt excited that I had come to an unknown land where even English is not really useful.
Karakol, the starting point of the trek, was a 7-hour bus ride away from Bishkek. It was a beautiful little town with roses in full bloom in early summer and clear, crisp air.
There, we met two young guides who had become important companions on this trip. The cheerful and mischievous Erlan, 28. And Daniyar, 19, who seems quiet and earnest.
Since Elan and us two were close in age, we hit it off right away.
As we started to trek, Elan continued to joke around and made us laugh.
Then Daniyar, who was quietly leading the way, occasionally turned around and chidingly said, “We’d better walk faster to reach today’s campsite before sundown”.
He’s young but solid. Glancing at Daniyar’s back, I thought.
We made it to the campsite and two guys started to prepare lunch quickly.
As we ate tomato salad and pasta, we talked about each other’s families, whether they had a girlfriend or not, how Kyrgyz and Japanese have similar faces, and some other random stuff.
Do you have a purpose in your life?
At one moment, Daniyar posted this question to us so genuinely.
I and my friend looked at each other for a moment, then slumped and thought for a bit.
I thought it is hard to answer well.
Because it’s a question that I’ve gone many times in my life and am still wondering time to time.
I think I replied something like, “I want to learn more about the injustices that exist in this world and work on making them smaller as possible.”
He nodded and said, “It’s a good purpose. I want to find my purpose too.” And after a pause, he said, “I don’t think the world is going in a good direction right now. I want to do something that will make it a better place.”
The next day, the trekking paths became harder. After getting to 3,000m altitude, the air got suddenly colder and the road became rocky. We struggled to find footholds one step ahead of us as we climbed.
I looked up and saw Daniyar standing effortlessly about 20 meters away. Moreover, he was reading a book while waiting.
When I finally caught up on him, I found that he was reading an English dictionary.
He was studying English intensely during our trekking. He kept asking me how to say this and that in English. He told me he would like to leave Kyrgyz tan as soon as he learned English, and go to Moscow.
In the meantime, we reached the target point at Alakul Lake. We stood putting arms in each other’s shoulders and took a photo. It was not only because the view was awsome.
But most of all, I wanted to leave a memory of meeting these two young men.
The encountering with the innocent souls who struggle to find a life path in such an unknown country where I didn’t even know where it was.
After our trekking trip, we returned to Karakol and hugged saying goodbye.
After the big job, Daniyar had returned to his innocent nineteen-year-old face.
Only once, a year or two after this trip did I talked with Daniyar.
He told me that he was in Moscow. And he had a completely different job than a mountain guide, and it’s quite hard. His English got improved.
Would we ever see each other in this life again? I wondered.
Perhaps not.
I wish I could tell him that there’s no need to force to have a solid “purpose in life”, and it is better to not get caught up in it.
If I could I would tell him it’s okay to take it a little easier.
