Lazy Saturday

With the exception of the stomach ache both Amy and I acquired, probably from the village food, Saturday was spent relaxing, doing a bit of work, catching up with life through the internet, and enjoying each other's company. Janice whipped up her famous "wow" pancakes which contain everything except sugar - so we added sauteed apples, honey and maple syrup - and had a very leisurely, and filling brunch.

I caught up on work and email, Amy and one of the staff worked on transcribing interviews from recorded Tajik to written English, and Janice hosted a Tajik trekking friend who brought her, what she described as the "biggest chicken sandwich in the world". It was essentially a whole cooked chicken wrapped in a large flat bread. It was just begging for a photo op, so we obliged (see above).

This evening we were hosted for dinner by some friends of Janice. The husband is in Russia working so we had dinner with the wife, and her adorable three children and their cousins. Amy had brought them the card game Memory and they immediately brought it out for a few rounds. The meal involved tearing up bread into tiny pieces in a large wooden bowl, pouring yogurt over it, sprinkling sliced onions, then pouring boiling oil over all that which sort of thickens the yogurt/bread mixture, and topping it all with herbs and some chopped vegetables. You eat this with your hand or some bread. It's a little greasy (go figure) but rather good.

We were very considerate guests and didn't leave before we had sufficiently riled up the children with picture taking, tickling and playing various paddy-cake, hand-slapping games.