It’s the end of the month, and as a part of a new blogging and photography goal I’ve set for myself with BloggingAbroad, I’ve been taking photos based on prompts (and just from life in general), and I wanted to share a few with you!  Take a look, read about it, and click to enlarge if you want to see more closely.

#1 The Cat In Daroot-Korgon

This cat.  I mean come on.  He was just basking in the sun as I got ready to head in to give my training in Daroot Korgon at the beginning of the month

#2 The Road

In Chong-Alay, if you don’t live along the single, main road, you live many kilometers off one of these narrow, unmarked dirt roads where there are villages, farms, and plenty of people living their lives in this unbelievably beautiful valley.

#3 Spinner Selfie

For 4th of July, my sitemates and I went to the local amusement park in Osh to have some good old fashioned Soviet carnival realness.  This is a selfie of my sitemate Kelly and I on this spinning swinging wheel of death thing.  It was awesome.

#4 The Gates of Aravan

My incredible site-mate Lila organized a series of soccer and youth empowerment camps over the month of July around Osh, and I had the opportunity to come help out at one outside of Aravan, which is the region to the west of where I live.  As with many places, every regional border in Kyrgyzstan is marked by an arch or monument of some kind, sort of like monuments on state lines in the US.

#5 Sunset on Suleiman Too

I took a visiting friend to the top of Suleiman Too a few weeks back, and we went around sunset, both to beat the heat, but also so we could take photos with this incredible lighting.  I for sure have to get up there again a few more times this summer!

#6 Arkan Tartmai

This is a photo from a recent Horse Games Festival that I went to of men playing the traditional game called arkan tartmai, which is basically tug of war.

#7 The Horseman

This shot wasn’t intentional, but it turned out really nice.  You can see both the area where the horse games were played as well as get a sense of the MASSIVE rock wall that was right next to the clearing.

#8 Tyiyn Engmei

Tyiyn Engmei, or “picking up the coin,” is another game that is particularly photogenic.  The riders head at full speed towards a series of coins on the ground, which they must reach all the way down, grab, and toss over the opposite shoulder.  It’s really hard, and very impressive

#9 Tyiyn Engmei 2

Tyiyn Engmei is so exciting that I put it on this list twice.  Also because the photos of the other games didn’t turn out as great.

#10 Squad

Here’s a selfie of almost the whole gang who went with us to the Horse Games Festival this time around.

#11 Horse Milking

My host from my yurt stay demonstrates how to milk one of the family’s mares to produce the kymyz for the next day.  To milk a horse, you have to get a foal to start the flow, then you continue somewhat like with a cow.  One arm is kept around the leg while the other is in front of it.  Sometimes, you have to keep the foal near its mother in order for her to not get spooked.  But this is completely routine to many people here in the rural areas.

#12 Moonrise

The moon rises over the mountains and the cooking tent at the jailoo.

#13 Good Morning, Sary-Oi

One last shot of the jailoo where the Horse Games Festival was held.

#14 Victory Park

In the south of Bishkek is Victory Park, which is anchored by this spectacular memorial, which is dedicated to the victims of the Siege of Leningrad, an 872 day-long blockade of St. Petersburg from 1941-1944 during World War II.  It was one of the longest and deadliest sieges in history, both in terms of lives lost and damage inflicted.  What’s incredible is that despite studying 20th century history for years, I knew nothing about it.  It just continues to show the ongoing significance of that war in this part of the world.  More information about this can be found in my post about Victory Day.

#15 The Billboard

This billboard translates roughly to mean something along the lines of “what is our identity, and where are we going?” It’s gone up all over Bishkek and Osh, and is pretty controversial.  In case you can’t tell, it shows women in traditional Kyrgyz clothing on the left, then in white hijab in the middle, and finally in full black niqab on the right.  It has gone up in protest to what some perceive to be an excessive Islamization of society here, but has also offended a lot of people to whom their religion is important.  While it’s controversial, and I emphasize that I am not taking a side in this debate, I include it here as an example of the kind of vibrant civic discourse that is taking place here in Kyrgyzstan.  It’s interesting to note that this kind of debate about the role of religion in society is actually taking place in many countries across the world, including the United States.

Want more photos like this in your life?  Follow me on Instagram and Facebook!

Want to know more about BloggingAbroad?  Check out their website at bloggingabroad.org.