Our Secret Profession

This picture was taken at the "New Bazaar". These are the traditional Kazakh robes we've mentioned in previous blogs. No, we didn't buy any, but we did buy traditional Kazakh hats for both Ryan & Lyle. They will be happy to model them once we're home.

And now on to the title of our blog. Lyle & I are authors, didn't you know? That's what our translator Ainur has been telling curious Kyzylordians who ask her about these strange looking foreigners. To simplify things, she just says "Oh, they're writing a book." I don't know how she came up with that one, but I just about fell over laughing when I first heard this. We get LOTS of strange looks on a daily basis. Tourists just don't typically travel to Kazakhstan as a country, let alone the city of Kyzylorda.

If we were to write a book, I wonder what it would be about? Maybe how the name Kyzylorda should really be Spit-a-lorda (Lyle's contribution) You need to watch where you're walking very, very carefully. Even some women spit. This is a custom/habit that I'm happy to report neither one of us is interested in bringing home.

We entertained Ryan today with our usual routines. Lyle added a new performance of throwing a squeaky rooster in the air & then falling down when he'd catch it. Ryan laughed like crazy. I'm sure we'll spend many a night next week repeating this game. We're concerned about how Ry will react to us and basically his new life in general. We'll soon see how this goes. Just a few more sleeps...