All the little boys like you, who live in villages on the banks of lake Issyk-Kul in Kirghizistan, know that the day will come. It will be a great day for everyone, but especially for you. And yet fear will be stronger than pride, and excitement stronger than solemnity. You’ll want to run far away and never come back, but you know you won’t be able to. You know that, after a thorough scrubbing, the elders will take care of you and that that little cut – they call it “circumcision” - won’t really hurt because it will make you a real Muslim, a new person. You will enter a new age of life, no longer a child but not yet a grownup. What a confusion!
