Update Past Due

Hey,

Sorry I have been away for a while.I have been busy with school, HW and peer tutors. For the last week or so its been either snowing or raining which is not conductive of travel to other places. I have just been playing in the snow with my family.Also I don't know if I wrote this already or not but my family has an older son who is studying at Moscow. For his birthday last week he came home and surprised everyone. That weekend they threw a huge party. The men came at 10 in the morning they talked,read the Quran, ate and talked some more and left around 12. Women weren't allowed to participate, they just cooked and made food. I was caught in the middle as guest status I couldn't help the women but I'm not a man so I couldn't sit with them. An hour later the women came and they talked, and talked and ate and ate and danced and talked an left around 4pm. I learned some dance moves because No was not an answer they agreed with. It was funny and interesting overall. The food was amazing, Bashira made two huge cakes from scratch. I also visited Zurkona which is a gym that practices traditional weight lifting. This weekend I am visiting the TALCO factory which is the Aluminum Factory, Tajikistan's main industry is Aluminum. Everything with school has been going good I enjoy spending time with my peer tutors and it gets easier to talk to my family everyday. This pass Tuesday with some other female students we went to a Banya which is a bathhouse, It was soo relaxing they had a sauna,cold pool, steam room, massages and showers and we could bring in our own food and drinks. It was nice getting to know the other students. Since I haven't been keeping up with the pictures there are going be some that should have been in the last post. I don't think video is going happen until i get back to the US. Also my peer tutor for Tajik took me to the zoo, it was the sadest place I have ever been. you can tell they don't put money to up keep it. In the lion cage they put a dog with it. Though the lion didn't attack it, the dog was shaking. They also had regualr cats but the sign read wild cats. They had huge vulture birds which I had never seen but they had no room to fly. It was a really depressing place so i didn't bother to take pictures of it/

Walking through the hills with Kramer, This and the following is the view we saw, my camera can not do the scene justice, I will most def be going back when it gets warmer

Dushanbe from the view of being on a hill

those in the far right are house,another town in the mountains

Bashira flattening the dough

me getting ready to use these stamper things to put on the designs

I fail at this so

I get to do this instead

Preparing the fire....It was so hot

Bread on the walls of the oven

I got distracted by the kitty

After she saw me taking pictures of her she decided to come over and play with my camera

Finished product, at the end they rub oil on it to keep it soft,

Fresh Bread and butter tastes soo good with homemade jam, thats what I had after we finsihed

Bashira giving my nails a make over

This was during the Women's Portion of my host dad and older brother's birthday party..the three girls on the right are cousins of Bashira

The girl on the far right is related but not sure how

Aluminum Factory with the backdrop of the mountains

I'm having problems viewing my blog and trouble editing it so if things come out funky or incomplete let me know in the comment section and I'll answer or explain more.

Shaharazad