Kids with Donkey, Krygyzstan 2003

I meet these guys while getting water along the southern shore of Issyk-Kul. Surprisingly, finding water along the lake (2 1/2 days of cycling) can be rather difficult. For starters, the lake is slightly saline, the showstopper is that it is believed that the Soviets detonated several nuclear weapons in the lake, if the locals won't drink it, there's no way that I will. About a week later, I found out (from a U.S. nuclear monitor) that several of the streams that I was drinking from were contaminated with uranium from abandoned, and once secret, Soviet uranium mines. Oh well, short term exposure shouldn't be too bad, however for these kids, who knows?

Unfortunately, they don't have much of choice for their water supply. The southern shore is mostly arid, forcing all the communities to locate around the streams that drain from the surrounding mountains into the lake.