Oh my, its been awhile!

I guess I didn't realize how long it had been since our blog had been updated. I had intended to write something several different times, but it didn't seem that I had any new or interesting events to report. Nevertheless, we'll give it a try.
Cindy spent considerable time helping with a national friend's baby shower. That is not something they do in our country, because it is customary that they don't talk much about the baby before it is born. It is considered bad luck. But the friend who was pregnant doesn't quite adhere to customs as much as some girls, so the party was held.

 Nərgiz was the new-mom-to-be. Cindy made the welcome banner with the baby's name, Nəzrin, on the lower part. Our friend Donna made the cool looking watermelon basket. By the way, I "borrowed" several of these pictures from Donna.

 Lots of games were played, such as "guess the new mom's circumference with a string". Aysel obviously guessed a little large!

 You might have seen this pic of the diaper cake that Cindy made, I think she put it on Facebook. It was a real hit.

 

A few weeks later, this little lady, Miss Nəzrin, arrived. Her birth had been heralded by friends, national and international, alike!

Us & Girls in Istanbul

After spending a little over a week in our country, Jillian (daughter), Aubree (granddaughter), Cindy and I hopped a Turkish Air flight for the 2 hour 45 minute ride to Istanbul. It is an amazing city with incredible history, and for the girls, a lot of shopping potential.

One of our good friends picked us up at the airport, so we wouldn't have to take a taxi to our apartment. We we're so thankful, D'Ann is such a sweet lady. We were also glad she was there to lend moral and practical support when the ATM machine at the airport promptly ate Cindy's ATM card.

I have to admit, though it was raining when we got to Istanbul, we were very thankful for the cooler temperatures...the week before had been very hot in our country!

Jill thought it was interesting that there seems to be a thriving food and water business operating on the local highway system during traffic jams. Bottled water, bread and snacks were available at your convenience. Aspirin might have helped too, along with self-help tapes on patience!

When we got to our apartment, we pointed out to the girls the glass adornments which were on the door step of almost every apartment except ours. I call these the "anti-evil-eye thingys." Local myth is that if someone covets something you have, then they might cast the "evil eye" on you, and you may lose whatever it is that has been coveted. Unless of course, said coveted object is protected by an "anti-evil-eye thingy." These are very, very common is Central Asia, and can be seen on everything from jewelry to taxi cabs to five-star hotel buildings. 

Jill and Aubs only had a few days to spend in Ist., so the next morning we hopped on a ferry boat and rode across the Bosphorus Strait to the European side of the city.
Ferrys are a major mode of transportation across the Strait, due to traffic congestion on the highways.

There is such amazing history and architecture here...it's everywhere 
you look!

Since we hadn't had lunch, we stopped at a restaurant owned by a friend of ours. Jill had her first taste of Turkish coffee. From there we headed to the Grand Bazaar.

If you've never been there, the Grand Bazaar is a huge flea market type place, heavy on tourist appeal, where you can get souvenirs and other pseudo-Central Asian items for three times the price you can get them elsewhere. It's a great place to visit, and to try to pick out other Americans from among the throng of shoppers...oh look, here's three!

From there, it was off to the Spice Bazaar, same thing, just a little less "touristy." Oh yeah, and they have a lot of spices.

Turkey as you can imagine, being an Islamic country, (though with a secular government) has a lot of mosques. I can't remember the name of this one, but it is an impressive structure.

When we passed by, there were quite a few men  doing ritual washing in preparation for prayers.

After one more stop at an outdoor restaurant for a cool drink, we headed back to the ferry. This was after several hours and several miles of walking!

It was a fun day and there were so many cool things to see, but we were worn out! 

Lastly, at least for that day, we ended up at a favorite Italian restaurant near our apartment. Yes, I know its not Turkish. We eat Turkish food constantly in our country, so we really like something different sometimes! :-)

Oh, and one more pic just for fun. Just when you think Central Asia is backward and undeveloped (which much of it is)....there's Istanbul! I wish I'd had my laptop, I'd could have Skyped you from the Blue Mosque!

We're Baaaaack!!!

Wow, I just noticed that my last post was January 15th or something like that.....my bad! Lots of things have happened since then, so I'll try to hit a few of the highlights. Obviously, the main highlight recently has been our visit from our daughter Jillian and granddaughter, Aubree.

It was really fun being with them for the first time in about 
1 1/2 years, just hanging out, playing games and of course, showing them our city. Seeing our home through their eyes was fun for us, too. It opened our eyes to new wonders, and made us more appreciate this unusual and interesting place where we are.

     We also enjoyed introducing them to our some of our friends here, so they would know who we were referring to when we tell stories about them.

     We met our friend and language teacher Fidan, at a local coffee shop, where we each had a kind of smoothie. Yum!            

    

We also went out to eat one night with some Turkish friends, Rəna and Öskan, and another friend and co-worker of theirs, Öslem.

All three work for a large Turkish construction company that is doing some huge projects in our country. They are a lot of fun and we really enjoy spending time with them. Sorry Öskan, somehow you didn't get in any of the pictures!

We did lots of "normal" things too, such as going to the bazaar, riding the bus and riding the subway.

                             

We even did "touristy" things, such as visiting with our friend Sahib at the carpet shop and taking the required pics with the shepard's hat on. 

 

Sahib is such a great guy...he put this super silk scarf on Aubree, then gave it to her as a gift. Thanks, friend! 

North, Then Left or Right?

A couple of weeks ago, my friend Vusal and I made a couple trips about three hours north of our city to look around.

 Interestingly enough, if you go north and turn to the left, or west, you begin to run into the foothills of the mountains. It is really pretty and of course, there are wonderful mountain villages.

 

This particular mountain village does not have running water, and the local ladies walk donkeys with milk cans about a mile and a half down (then back up) the mountain to obtain water. 

The village cemetery is in a pretty-but-odd wooded area.

Here's a pic of me and my friend, Vusal. He's a great kid and of course, he speaks the local language.Very helpful!

Now, if you go north and turn east or right, you actually end up at the sea. But before you get there, you drive across the coastal plain, running into a large wetland area first. There is a large "lake" or wetland pool, with quite a few small potholes of water around it. 

Here's a shot of  Vusal, checking out the shorebirds. We saw no ducks or geese, but were told that they tend to stay on the sea until the weather turns really cold.

Much of the land looks a lot like any river bottom, except it is heavily grazed and the soil is a poor, sandy type. We stopped at the "hunting and fishing club" we had driven by and visited with the men who were there.

We met a man named Taymor, who works for the Ministry of Ecology as the overseer for the wetland and the defacto game warden. We had a great visit. I gave him a Missouri Conservation shoulder patch off of one of my old uniforms and a duck hunting magazine from the U.S. 

Taymor told me that the duck season had been closed for five years due to the bird flu scare, but that it should re-open this coming September. Here's a pic of a couple of his buddies looking at the waterfowl magazine I gave them. Taymor had me autograph it and write greetings on it before we left.

It was great to get back out in the country and to be near a wetland, even if we didn't see any ducks. Oh, buy the way, Taymor did have recorded duck and goose calls on his cell phone. I am definitely going to stop back by when I'm in his neighborhood. He also offered to make us some "kibab" next time we come by. Food? I'll be there!