Angry mobs patrolled the streets of Osh, Kyrgyzstan with sticks, machetes and guns. Stores were looted and burned. Many were shot and killed. Surrounded by chaos, Matt Kupfer '12 and Emily Canning (GRAD) hid inside their homes, uncertain of the future. Kupfer and Canning spent their summer months living amid ethnic tensions and violence between the Uzbek and Kyrgyz people of the Central Asian nation of Kyrgyzstan.

Today, these students have returned to their normal lives, but they are still processing their experiences in Osh.

"I feel kind of uncomfortable with my story. . It sounds very much like an action movie, . and the fact is, I don't think I was any braver than anyone else," Kupfer says.

Kupfer, an Anthropology and International and Global Studies student, and Canning, a doctoral student in Anthropology, did not expect to be living in a warzone when they moved to Kyrgyzstan to pursue their academic interests.

Kupfer came to the southern city of Osh to gain experience working for a nonprofit organization and to improve his Russian.

"I worked for a [Non-Governmental Organization] called Info-Center Rainbow that educates people in Osh about AIDS, narcotics and sex education," Kupfer says.

This was Canning's third summer living in Osh.

"I was doing fieldwork on peoples' perceptions of local languages ... and how they communicate their ethnic identity through language," Canning says.

As a linguistic anthropologist, Canning is interested in the way that the two major ethnic groups of Kyrgyzstan, the Kyrgyz and the Uzbeks, communicate with each other.

In June, Kupfer and Canning's work was disrupted when violence erupted in Osh. The Kyrgyz majority launched attacks against the Uzbek minority. The seminomadic Kyrgyz and more sedentary Uzbek farmers and merchants have always argued over land distribution. The ousting of President Kurmanbek Bakiyev, a Kyrgyz, on April 7 led to a battle for political control between the Kyrgyz and other minority groups.

The April riots were temporarily quelled by the interim government, headed by Roza Otunbaeva. When Canning and Kupfer arrived in to Kyrgyzstan in early June, they believed the situation had stabilized.

"I was living in an Uzbek neighborhood: ... the good neighborhood. I had anticipated living in a safe place- houses with gates, centrally located," says Kupfer.

On the evening of June 10, gunfire, looting and rape erupted in Osh. Most of the violence was carried out by Kyrgyz mobs against Uzbek stores and businesses. Today, the cause of the June riots is still unknown. Some speculate that pro-Bakiyev members of the government and military may have played a role.

Kupfer, living with an Uzbek family, was unable to leave his home due to the gunfire in his neighborhood.

"The things that used to be important stopped being important. I didn't care if I didn't bathe for three days. I didn't care if changed my clothes. There was a war going on-I wasn't concerned with appearances," says Kupfer.

Canning, on the other hand, felt "emotionally drained" from her experiences in Osh but for different reasons than Kupfer. She was living in an all Kyrgyz neighborhood and felt conflicted.

"It was really frustrating for me because as an anthropologist I want to be neutral ... On the other hand, I had very strong opinions about what happened. I did not agree that Kyrgyz were victims. I had a hard time relating to the Kyrgyz people I was meeting. I had friends who were Uzbek. Going to see them, it was a different world. People were without hope," she says.

Kupfer's host father became increasingly alarmed as Kyrgyz continued to target the Uzbek neighborhood. He encouraged both his wife and Kupfer to flee the neighborhood. Kupfer's host father remained to protect his home from looters.

"One day me and some others [in my host family] left and went out the back gate. We went across the fields and over the crops," says Kupfer.

Still in Osh, but away from the Uzbek neighborhood, Kupfer felt a sense of relief.

"When we were in the fields, I didn't feel nervous. Every year, a lot of tourists come to nature to trek in the wilderness, and now we're trekking in the wilderness. And we kind of laughed," says Kupfer.

However, the continuing unrest necessitated his evacuation. With the help of the U.S. Embassy and a group of NGO workers, both Kupfer and Canning were flown to the capital city of Bishkek.

Though Kupfer's host family remained in Osh with their home intact, its businesses were destroyed. Most people were not so fortunate.

The Human Rights Watch published a report that estimates a minimum death toll of 356. This is a modest estimate. At least 2,600 homes were completely destroyed in Osh and nearby Jalal-Abad, mostly belonging to Uzbek families.

While in Bishkek, Kupfer found work at the International Research and Exchanges Board, an organization working to empower young female leaders through a conference called Tech Age Girls.

Canning moved first to Bishkek, then to Uzbekistan and back to Osh. Upon her return, Canning says Osh looked a bit different than she had remembered.

"Huge parts of . [Osh] were utterly destroyed. I remember taking a local bus and seeing burned-out shells of homes. I saw people living in the rubble because they were trying to stop the government from taking their land and building apartment buildings," Canning says.

The situation in Kyrgyzstan has been stabilized, to a degree. The interim government has made some efforts to reconcile the two groups in Osh. Nevertheless, feelings of mistrust and resentment remain between the Uzbek and Kyrgyz people.

"There are currently no mass killings happening, but there are small acts of everyday violence and the situation is volatile," says Canning.

Canning attributes the conflict to the disparity of wealth between the Kyrgyz and Uzbek people.

"The Kyrgyz have a monopoly on political power, and the [Uzbeks] have monopoly on economic power. ... In the end, the Kyrgyz won: They chased out the Uzbek population," Canning says.

Thousands of Uzbek people fled Kyrgyzstan for neighboring Uzbekistan during the riots. The Uzbek families who remain in Kyrgyzstan are afraid to leave their neighborhoods.

Unfortunately, neither Kupfer nor Canning are very optimistic about the future of Kyrgyzstan.

"There has to be a willingness to say that mistakes have been made. I just don't see that happening now. I saw only once, a sticker on the wall of an Internet café. It said, 'We are all guilty. We will forgive each other.' I think that unless people can accept the attitude that we all are guilty, that we all had a part, I don't think there is much hope," Kupfer says.

Canning feels nationalism is a major hindrance to coexistence in Kyrgyzstan.

"As long as people believe that Kyrgyzstan is the land of the Kyrgyz, Uzbeks will never feel welcome there," she says.

Today, Kupfer and Canning are safely back at Brandeis, attending classes in Mandel Quad and picking up coffee in Einstein Bros. Bagels. They have not forgotten about the problems that they witnessed firsthand this summer and are resolved to return.

"After I graduate I'd like to ... collect narratives of people in the conflict. I would like to go back and do more research," Kupfer says.

Canning plans to conduct fieldwork in Kyrgyzstan for a year in order to complete her doctorate.

"Now I have a strong conviction for people to know about these people [of Kyrgyzstan]," says Canning.

"It's a land of a lot of uncertainties," Kupfer says.