Kyzyl is a city of 109 000 people. But a lot of the population live in old wooden houses. All of the heating in Tuva is powered by coal fires. This creates a continual haze of coal smog over cities and towns. The view from this window should have a clear blue sky.
The apartment buildings have running water, but many of the wooden houses do not. This is a residential housing area in the city, but people still have to drag their water can through -40 weather to get their daily water from a communal pump.
We then headed off west for a 2 hour drive to meet with a group of ladies in a little town. On the way we passed by "Spider Forest." There are few trees in the Tuva, but in the river valley there are some small woods. Spiders live in the woods, in fact tarantulas live here. Tuvans associate spiders with forests.
This is the village of Aryg Uzu. The weather was very cold. I hope the photo conveys this.
All dressed for the -40 weather, I even had a cover for my face, which I had to remove for the photo!
1 comment:
I'm trying to remember how cold that is. I know it's really cold because I've experienced it, but in the heart of summer it seems so distant. I guess right now summer seems so far for you too!
I was always intrigued by Nickolai's attitude toward spiders. They didn't seem to worry him the same way they do us as apparently Russia is not known for poisonous (at least not deadly) spiders like Australia is. I have had to instil our inbred fear into him ;-) (which the children seem to have picked up without much help from me - it's so ingrained here) I guess the threat of a redback or funnel web spider is very real.
His fear of forests wasn't of bears or wolves, but of ticks. Are there ticks in Tuva? I know so many fairy tales originated from the need/desire to put fear into children to prevent them wandering off and getting lost in the forests. Do they have any fairytales about spiders, or of Baba Yaga?
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