Kyrgyzstan 101

I finally went out and bought a pt belt. I was tired of wearing my uniform everywhere and having to salute someone every three feet, so now I'm comfortably dressed in my PTs and able to roam around outside during the odd hours that I'm awake. This morning I was outside reading my kindle from 3:30-6:30am and I was able to see a couple pretty cool things about Kyrgyzstan. 

Before I tell you about my discoveries I'll give you a little rundown on Kyrgyzstan, since I'm sure that some of you didn't even know it was a country until I told you I was here! 

Kyrgyzstan is a small mountainous country in Central Asia, it's bordered to the north by Kazakhstan, west by Uzbekistan, south by Tajikistan  and east by China. So in lemans terms; it's between Russia and Afghanistan and next to China :). It dates back to B.C. The people were originally described as white with red hair and blue eyes (which is due to their Siberian descent) but they then were introduced to Arabic people, then were conquered by the Uyghur, then Genghis Khan of Mongolia. After being conquered repeatedly by Mongolian and Chinese rulers, they were ceded to Russia and became part of the USSR until 1991. So now the Kyrgyz are a nice mix of Siberian, Mongolian, Arabic, Russian and Chinese. Oh, the official languages are Russian and Kyrgyz (a Turkic language, like Turkish, Azerbaijani, uzbeki etc), it's the second poorest country in Central Asia because of the collapse of the Soviet Union, and the main religion is Sunni Muslim (but its more of a cultural background than a devout practice like it is elsewhere), followed by Russian orthodox.

One more thing! The military base that I'm staying at (Manas) was named after one of their legendary heros that united their 40 nomadic clans against an adversary in the early 9th century. Haha ok out of fear of losing all of my readers due to my nerd-tendencies, I think that's enough background information for y'all! 

Now for my first-hand knowledge...

First, I saw what I believe to have been a white owl (by the way it flew and the fact that it was 3:30 in the morning), it was about the size of a screech owl (5-8 inches) but after doing some research I can't find any owls native to Kyrgyzstan that fit the description! The only white owl they have is a snowy owl, which are huge.. So although I still think it was an owl I have no proof. About an hour later I was standing in the gravel reading when I noticed this little guy a few inches from my feet:

When I shifted to get a better look at him, I startled him and he took off. Luckily, hedgehogs aren't very fast, to the dismay of every child that played Sonic on Sega! So I was able to follow him a few feet, get my camera open and snap a picture. I just hope I didn't give the poor Afghan Hedgehog a heart attack with my flash! 

I had been surprised that there were so few bugs out here but after spotting Sonic, and two more of his buddies I now know they're to thank for that. Hedgehogs' diets consist mainly of insects and other creepy crawly things. So on top of being way less dangerous than porcupines (which I initially thought it was) they're like cute, pet bug-zappers! For those of you that are now interested- it is legal to have a hedgehog as a pet in most states as long as you have a breeding license. Before you ask (dad, David, Joey, I'm talking to you)- no I will not bring any home! I'm not trying to get rabies! 

Haha anyways.. After those little buggers snuck off to bed I noticed my third wonder of the day, the sunrise over the Kyrgyz Mountain Range.

Again, I have to apologize for my terrible iPhone pictures, it's the best I can do right now! But pixelated and blurry, it's still a pretty beautiful sight. This mountain range is part of the Tien Shan system (called the Celestial mountains by English speaking countries, according to The Google 😊). Those mountains hold the world's second largest mountain lake, as well as significant levels of gold and rare earth metals. This country is over 80% mountains, which makes for some pretty beautiful scenery and an amazing array of wild life! I read about snow leapards, wolves, mountain sheep, foxes etc. too bad I won't see anything larger than Mr Sonic while I'm here! 

Those were my interesting discoveries about Kyrgyzstan for the day, I hope you enjoyed learning a little bit about a foreign land!

In other news; I think I need to buy a mattress pad if I'm going to be here much longer. I now have 7 bruises on one leg, 9 on the other and a couple more here and there.. Unless there are little hedgehogs beating the crap out of me while I sleep, I think it's from sleeping on the plywood and metal so-called mattress the army provided for me! I'm not trying to be a complainer, but I'm starting to look like I've been severely beaten! 

Well, I am going to go stretch my legs and see what else I can learn about this land. Hopefully I'll get enough for a Kyrgyz 102! ;)