Kyrgyzstan Mission TripOn April 14-26, 1999 I was the only physician going with a team of Americans on an outreach to Kyrgyzstan. This outreach included medical treatment in various remote villages, including a United Nations refugee camp on the Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan border. Over 1000 years ago they migrated from Mongolia to their present location. Ethnically they resemble the Mongolia people more than the Russian or Chinese. About 57% of Kyrgyzstan consists of the Kyrgyz people; the rest are Russian, Uzbeks, Turks, Chinese and other ethnic groups.

I traveled to some villages high in the Kyrgyzstan mountains and encountered many sick people. There were many diseases that would be so easily treated in any clinic in the US. Much anemia, goiters from hypothyroidism, children dehydrated and undernourished. These photographs may give you a feel for the lovely people we met in rural Kyrgyzstan.