For Ashgabat children and young visitors to the capital, the international exhibition and fair «Kids Expo: everything for children» at the Chamber of commerce and industry of the country is filled with bright and unforgettable moments. Thousands of boys and girls flock here for its exciting atmosphere. My companions were brother and sister – Alina and Pavlik. This is the second time they have come here, and, in fact, it is not me, but they who are introducing me to a grandiose entertaining and educational exhibition.
Right at the entrance we were greeted by an exhibition stand with the favourite hero of the children, Harry Potter, on platform 9 ¾, with an owl and other magical things from his fairy-tale life. A boy with a skeleton in his hands makes his way through the crowd of visitors towards us. But this does not shock anyone, everyone knows that the skeleton is plastic. My attention was drawn to the clothing pavilion of the children of the Ministry of textile industry of Turkmenistan. However, I noticed that the fashionable dresses, overalls and jackets where I stopped did not interest my companions, and I decided to find out their priorities. Pavlik was in a hurry to get to the «Planetarium» and he also wanted to get to the chess pavilion, and Alina wanted to do mental arithmetic. Modern children!
We entered the «Planetarium» pavilion, where semi-darkness reigned, almost like in the Universe. Rovers, controlled from tablets by participants in an interactive program, navigated an alien map of Mars. The organiser of this super-creative pavilion is «Tükmen Expo». We left Pavlik in «space» and went with Alina to explore the exhibition.
The pavilion «City of professions: 5 Steps to the Future» was perhaps the largest at «Kids Expo». Here you could choose a job to your liking: doctor, agronomist, pilot, programmer, designer. Each visitor is given the opportunity to try their hand at their chosen profession. And here is our familiar skeleton! He stands among various dummies and medical equipment.
In the centre of the exhibition area, master classes were held on painting and drawing on glasses, shopper bags, combs, and etc. A little further away is a master class on weaving in the «cobra» style. Using various braids and one or two «secrets», you can create cute and very fashionable bracelets.
The exhibition and fair widely presents printed products. The book pavilion opens with a giant, metre-long book, «Akpamyk». Here you can see collections of classic Turkmen poetry and the books of the children with colourful illustrations. Nearby is the pavilion «Everything for a schoolchild» with notebooks, diaries, and backpacks.
Here Alina and I remembered Pavlik and hurried to the «Planetarium». We did not even ask Pavlik what place he took in the space race, because we were rushing to the «Chess» pavilion. There was a three-pairs tournament going on there, and there was one girl among the players. We lined up to play in the next tournaments, but standing still when there was so much interesting stuff going on around us just was not an option.
Our attention was drawn to the area with a puppet theatre screen. According to the plot, two little frogs were cheerfully telling each other some fairy tale. Pavlik was carried away by the performance, and he, coming close to the frogs, looked from one speaker to another. And then the music began to play, and an eastern peri appeared above the screen. She danced wildly to the music. The children, attracted by the performance, began to dance along with the beautiful peri. Pavlik and another girl danced the best.
Finally we reached the «Mental arithmetic» pavilion. It turns out that mental arithmetic is currently trending among the younger generation, and there were even more people wanting to get into it than chess. We stood in line for a while, but then Dad showed Alina his watch. The dad is «GA» photojournalist Alexey Gimalitdinov, and Alina and Pavlik – his children. Even though chess and mental arithmetic remained unimplemented, the children were still pleased with their visit to the «Kids Expo: everything for children» exhibition and fair.
