Ensuring a manly man day

Check out my Man’s Day post at the Kiva Fellows Blog – it has some great eagle hunting shots!

http://fellowsblog.kiva.org/2011/03/03/ensuring-a-manly-man-day/

The Infamous Hot Spring

Like they always seem to, my blog posts have slithered off into a dwindling trickle. After my last wallowing pice of dark humor (The Bottom Five), I am pleasantly surprised that you came back for more.

I have been busily working on completing a set of borrower verifications – Kiva checks to make sure that Kiva money is going to the people it is supposed to and there is no fraud – but decided to take a break to check out some local hot springs. It was the day before Man’s Day, a post-Soviet equivalent to the upcoming women’s day and I was looking forward to a little pampering. A few friends and I made the hour drive and hiked up to the curiously barb wired pool. It was a small pool and the water was generally warmish unless you were right at the rusted feeder pipe, where steaming hot water flowed. The only problem was that there was a flock of shower cap clad elderly Kyrgyz women keeping a tight grip on the primo spots. After about 20 minutes of patiently waiting, I realized I was going to have to act. During a changing of the guard on one of the better spouts I sidled in and hovered contentedly.

Spout Battles

After a few minutes of enjoying the hot water the women began to try and talk with me. While I couldn’t speak Kyrgyz, one of my friends helped to translate. The conversation went something like this:

Kyrgyz Woman #1: Where are you from?

Me: The US, Chicago.

Kyrgyz Woman #2: Oooooo, very nice.

Kyrgyz Woman #2: You shouldn’t stay in the water for more then 20 minutes or you will become impotent.

This caught me off-guard. I had to consider whether this was a tactic to get me off the good spout or if she was imparting some real wisdom.

Me: Oh yea? How long does it last?

Kyrgyz Woman #1: A day

Me: That shouldn’t be a big problem then.

Round #1 to Charlie. After about an hour we decided to hike to a nearby waterfall. I quickly ran across the icy cement to a changing stall. While I was changing the gentleman in the next stall was intent on passing some vital information along. My limited Russian was catching ‘not work’. I obviously wasn’t getting it so he decided to come into my stall, point to my underwear clad nether regions and make a big X with his hands. Apparently the ladies in the pool had been correct, and my man’s day would be decidedly less manly.

Base of a frozen waterfall

Winter Wonderland (Please let winter end soon!)

In case you don’t make it to my Man’s Day post, here are some eagle hunting shots:

Maybe it’s better to leave it to the professionals (Credit for photo goes to Aaro Ylitalo)

The Real Eagle Man (credit for photo goes to Kai Viinikka)

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