Friends

One of my favorite things to do on trips is to try and take photos of the local people.  Sometimes you have to be a bit sneaky but not on the Silk Road trip.  The people enjoyed posing for us. In fact they liked us posing with them and their families.  It was kind of funny but very enjoyable.  We will be in family albums in 6 countries!

Here's Gordon posing with his new friends.

And here I am with my new BFF!  She hugged and kissed me like we were long lost cousins.  After this photo was taken we saw the same group of ladies at another place and they were just thrilled.  I kept saying, "Oh my new friends" and I'm assuming they were saying something similar back to me.

These women were on a religious pilgrimage at this mosque which was sacred to them. 

I find myself wondering what their lives are like.  What things do we have in common?  What would it be like to be from a village in Uzbekistan? 

Do they get as much peace and joy from their religion as I do from mine? 

Do they laugh and act silly when they are on a 'girl's weekend'? 

And what of their husbands back home?  

Were they childhood sweethearts?  

Perhaps they had arranged marriages?  Then I always wonder if they fell in love...

Was this grandma as thrilled with her little granddaughter as I am with mine?  Is it her first or one of many? 

I wish we had a common language so that we could all sit down and talk for hours and hours.