We left Bishkek for our way up to Lake Issyk-Köl; on the way we stopped at Rotfront, a village in the Kyrgyz countryside originally settled by Germans – of which even today a minority remains.

The pastor was welcoming us at the cemetery – with him tea, coffee and cake – plus the opportunity to get some insight into the history of the village and some background on the living conditions during Soviet times and today.

For more background, check the wikipedia page on Rotfront; for photos of gone-by life in Rotfront, check the homepage of the Dutch photographer Wim Klerkx.