May Day

Wednesday we will travel to the US. Haven't packed. I'm getting more relaxed about these things, perhaps.

Thursday evening we went to a violin concert. The kids did really well. It was about an hour and half long. Ruth Anne made two potty trips, the second was a false alarm, but on the whole they did well. The people behind us were making faces at Neil, so we definitely distracted them.

Friday I spoke about the representation of Creole language in literature at a ladies luncheon. It was extremely nice. There was a great potluck, including a salad with homemade tofu. A Korean lady made it with dried soybeans. We're going to put that DIY on our list when we get back. Meanwhile we're going to enjoy eating commercially processed soy, not with our dads though. Gran-Danny and Gran-Darrell have negative reactions to soy.

Yesterday we browsed a yard sale at the compound and managed to dodge acquiring anything that our neighbors were trying to getting rid of. We also went to a shop with goods from the national silk factory. There were some beautiful dresses designed from the National fabric which is solid with multi-colored bands on the edges. Joe bought some kit-in-eh for me at Tolkuchka the other week and I need to have a dress made, also when we get back. The dresses are embellished with embroidery and the different tribes and regions have distinctive styles. There's a national trend to de-emphasize these differences. The dresses we saw yesterday are part of that. They're modern kit-in-eh, and very expressive of a myth of nationalism. Every nation relies on these sorts of myths and postcolonial cultural theory explores this, but in Turkmenistan it all feels particularly surreal.

Neil's favorite food is cucumber. I was munching an unpeeled cucumber stick on Friday and he begged for one. I was holding him in the sling so I could watch very closely to make sure he didn't choke. He nibbled most cheerfully. We repeated the experiment yesterday. I also give him whole grains like rice, buckwheat, etc. to experiment with. He has gagged a couple of times but it doesn't deter him from wanting to do it himself.





When spoon feeding is involved Neil has this beautiful bid cross-stitched by friend Heather:

We consider May 1 Soca's birthday. He's now 4 years old. Here he is on the couch, listening to Singing Sandra calypsos on YouTube and getting skritches from the children. I love Saturday afternoons.