Saturday Update

Blog update Saturday, May 16, 2009

Can hardly believe that it is Saturday already. Our time here in Central Asia is coming to an end. It has been an unbelievable time…. so many wonderful experiences, so much has happened…we have seen so many beautiful things….and spend some deep time with our friends here.  There are also so many things we will never be able to put into words…and there are so many places where a picture seem to be an inappropriate this to take….like this morning’s visit to the market.

A buzzling place….. it seemed like everyone else had the same idea, to visit the market. There were people everywhere. This is the biggest bazaar/market in this city and what you cannot find there…well, it does not seem worth looking for. M and I visited the material section of the market…. and being here in Central Asia….oh the colors!!

This afternoon Pat and Z are off to the other end of town to meet with some student friends. When they get back we will have dinner with our other friends the R’s. They are still in town and will return to their place beyond the mountains tomorrow.

The V’s live on the ground floor in a very Russian style apartment building. They have an extra door out to a little patch in front you could call a garden. Z has planted some grass and …well, it is getting greener by the day. There is also a sand box out there for the girls…it just needs some sand. This is great place for this little family. They just moved in here about a month ago. It is also a place where they are on constant display…as their neighbors have to pass by their little garden patch to get out to the street.  There are tons of people living in the apartment buildings around here and our friends are truly in a place where they will be able to interact with neighbors and people around all the time. 

On Thursday we also went to the market and bought new cushions for the V’s living room. In this culture you sit on cushions around a very low table….a hard thing to get used to, but a great way to have fellowship. And if you don’t have a low table you just put the tablecloth on the floor….

Friday was also full day after all. In the morning the guys went to the men’s bazaar and checked about material to get a cot done for their little garden. They stayed out most of the morning and had a lot of fun in this bazaar where there are streets for just about every little thing you might want in regards to house building, auto and the like. M and I stayed home with the girls. At 9 in the morning, her language helper came and I ended up looking after both her little boy and Hannah.  Before lunch M and I and the girls went on a shopping round in the neighborhood. But before we went out we donned our “local costumes…” long dresses and head-scarves. M. really looks local, but the kids give her away. We found a small grocery store where we got eggs and cheese and the like. Then we went into a very nice air conditioned supermarket and got a few more things…. and then it was off to the local vegetable market. We were super loaded with the stroller full of not only two hot and tired little girls, but also tons of groceries. By this time it was getting hot out there and we were happy to be home. The afternoon we just hung out in the front garden, much to the amusement of the neighbors…. We told them that we were Z’s parents and they seemed to accept that.

In the evening Z got called out for an intensive neighborhood soccer game… it was truly a wild, rousing game and you could hear they guys blocks away. The neighborhood girls were jumping rope down the street and once in a while a few women scurried by. Later on Z even got his guitar out and Pat quickly became a favorite doing some of his animal sounds…Yes, it was a full day in the neighborhood here where our friends live. Quite amazing…we are so proud of our dear friends.

Thanks for remembering us while we have been on this journey. We are so glad we came….and can’t wait to come home and tell you our story. It has been fascinating. We  are so proud of our friends…we are so overwhelmed with all the people we have met….and the things we have seen and experienced. In many ways it has brought back memories from times past….there are so many similar things here…and yet so different. On Monday we travel to Sweden….and that will probably be where our next update will be from.