Harvest Festival

Friday, August 6 was the Feast of the Transfiguration. The recently re-instituted Catholic church in Turkmenistan is named after this event in the bible when an illuminated Christ discoursing with Moses and Elijah appeared to Peter, John and James. In Trinidad and Tobago, parish feast days are celebrated with a "Harvest," mass followed by carnival games, rummage sales and food for so.

Here we started celebrating on Friday. Joe and I went to the new Marine House. There were only a dozen people when we arrived but poor sound proofing in the basement made it sound like a real party. A lot of people including the detachment commander brought their kids, which was wonderful. Ruth Anne and Neil played with Temur and Mehri this time - also wonderful.

Here's a picture of Neil, now a full participant in our Sunday grilled cheese lunch tradition:


We went to the Russian mass on Sunday morning, which was followed by cake and cookies in the lobby. This not only allowed us to spend time with the local Catholic community but also freed up Sunday evening to attend the Deen Deenya (Melon Day) Festival, which seemed very in keeping with the idea of a parish harvest.

Ruth Anne gets a better look

The Whole Family


The sculpture and baskets are made of dried melon

I wanted a picture of the embroidery in the pleats on these ladies' dresses but they saw the camera and when I asked if it was okay to photograph, they posed.

Elders on a top-john drinking tea. (By the way, I just finished Stones into Schools)

Notice the picture of the president with melon.
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There were dancers from every region. We couldn't watch the individual presentations though because the general public would be an eye-sore for the official delegation.

Enesh (on the right) works at the US Embassy. Her family won a prize for the most unusual pumpkin. It was grown with seeds from the US. Oh well.

Neil played shy and laid his ear right on the melon slice.