burn baby burn

The weather here is still very mild. It rained the other day, but the mercury still hovers around 15 C on most days. The coldest I’ve seen in the morning is about 5 C. The trees are still shedding their leaves, which makes it still look like fall. I hear last year all the leaves fell off in about a week. While the colors of the leaves make the city really beautiful when the sun is low in the sky and everything is golden, I must say my eyes and lungs will be relieved when there are no more leaves for people to burn. Every morning people sweep up the leaves into piles (sometimes adding trash to the mix) and set it ablaze.

leaf burning
On my walk to work I will pass about 20 smoldering, smoking mounds. It keeps the streets nice and clean, but it makes the air heavy and suffocating at times. In case you are wondering what Ferghana looks like, here is a picture of the main boulevard.

Ferghana in the fall