Friday, March 28, 2008

Kalmykia

Have you ever heard of Kalmykia? To tell you the truth, I don’t remember learning about it at school although we had to know all the capitals of all the ex-USSR republics by heart. I read an interview with the president of Kalmykia in a newspaper and I think that hearing of such almost unknown land is really wonderful. I read that at schools pupils have to learn chess. Do you play chess? I do, because my dad and my grandfather played it a lot. Perhaps that’s where my love for math comes from. Majority of people in Kalmykia are Buddhists. The republic is a part of Europe, so one of the religions in Europe is also Buddhism. It is, by the words of its president, one of the richest areas in the world.

I checked their web site and I found it wonderful that I can still read Cyrillic after so many years. I learned it at school, for just one year when I was 10 years old. Of course, having no practice I read it slowly, like five year old child would read Slovenian. Though, it is the language I don’t understand. Well, except for few words. I wish that people in Kalmykia would, in spite of the richness in natural resources and different religions, live in peace.

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