We then flew onto Kyrgyzstan where i have been for about a day. This is basically a big bus stop for everyone heading into the field. We have huge bunk tents that we stay in for a night or two as we wait for a flight.
This picture is about 1/5 of the tent. Hundreds can sleep here. Fortunately we are all jet-lagged and so we can more easily sleep despite the less than desirable locations. Since everyone is jet-lagged and everyone is coming and going - everything is open 24 hours a day. Just in case you feel the need for a midnight snack.
Kyrgyzstan sits right above the Tian Shan mountain range. (I know they mostly speak russian here, but Tian Shan sounds like Chinese for "heavenly mountains" or "mountains of heaven.") It is hard to get a good picture of the mountains, but it reminds me of Utah or Colorado where you have tall, rocky mountains rising above the city. It is breathtaking.
It is funny, this really is a war zone, yet life goes on very normally. There are protective embankments and razor wire everywhere, yet people are out playing football and exercising and I am surfing the internet. If you look closely at the sign in the lower right it says "Kill Zone" and "Runners go no further."
The picture below is in the running for sappiest picture ever, but i took it and I thought I would show my sappy side. These are poppies growing right at the base of the wall. These are called hesko barriers and they are used to form temporary walls. They are made out of wire mesh and cardboard and then they are filled in with dirt or sand to form a wall. Kind of like a large sandbag. They then stack them 2-3 high and put razor wire on the top to make a blast wall or base wall.
I was walking around and I saw some red-orange poppies at the base. Since the place I am staying is only about 1/2 a mile square there is not much to take pictures of and so I took this. They say a picture is worth a thousand words. I think this is worth only 8 and no more. "even in a war zone you can find flowers."
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