Baboulia

Today we went to a memorial event for Hamest's grandmother ("baboulia"), who died a year ago. They hold these events every anniversary after someone has died, it seems. About 60-70 people, almost all relatives, showed up at the grave - somewhat like a small monument - in a graveyard at the top of a desolate hill overlooking a beautiful valley about 20km from here, under an intense sun. There was no religious ceremony, but the brother of the deceased held a short emotional speech and then one by one everyone took a pinch of what I assume was salt from a bowl and dropped it in a small fire of twigs and grass.

After the usual waiting around, we all drove to the late grandmother's home, in a village called Ayrum. To get to the house - or neighborhood, actually - we had to cross a railroad yard with several tracks: on the other side were a cluster of buildings in which (we were told) 10 families live. Susan and I got a small tour of the grandmother's house and were introduced to various relatives: we've now been introduced to so many people that it's difficult to keep track of everyone. If I can remember that I've met them before I'm happy.

And then we all ate, all 60-70 of us: one table with just men, another with women, and then a third with a mix - which is of course were we ended up. The youngest women did all the serving. A good time was had under the vines. We met some interesting people. The picture is of Hamest and a niece of hers, Lorena, who speaks good English. Top right you can see one of the kids watching a Soviet-era locomotive go by.

Then it was back to the apartment, where David watches movies. I've seen Godzilla (the newest one, yawn), all of Clint's spaghetti westerns (gotta love'm), 'From Paris with Love' (Travolta in a French "action" movie), various Jurassic Park movies (yes, they're all the same), a Quentin Tarantino movie about a shootout between a Mexican drug lord and his brother (now that's action!), and I forget what else. All of it dubbed in Russian, which keeps everything extra interesting.