Visitors to Osh!

Ryan took off for a trip back to the U.S. in late October. I stayed behind in Osh for a couple of good reasons, but I was still sad to see him off and the house became really quiet without him. Fortunately, two friends from Bishkek decided to come to visit Osh the first weekend Ryan was gone! Their stay helped make Ryan's absence less noticeable, though of course no one can fill Ryan's big shoes. : ) Anyway, the visitors were: Jeff, who works for the same company I do but full-time on the project we are implementing in Kyrgyzstan, and Olya, Jeff's wife. Olya used to teach English in Bishkek but stopped when she became pregnant with twins. Now she's studying for a Public Health Masters from home while the babies gestate. She's a real go-getter, even carrying around 35-week old twins!

Olya is originally from Belarus, which means three things: 1) she makes fantastic potatoes, 2) she can hold her own in the Russian-language stuff (native fluency and all), and 3) she provides insight into all the Soviet-style stuff which might pass me by. Her cute English accent is also adorable. Jeff has a good sense of sarcasm and likes The Big Lebowski film, so we get alone juuust fine. Jeff and Olya stayed with me for 3.5 days and it was a lot of fun. They wanted to see all the touristy stuff in Osh, having never been here before, as well as relax. I'm a great host for the latter, not so much on the former. They had some ideas for things to see and I had some ideas of sites here, so we got by. Here are some photos of us from that weekend!

Jeff and Olya show Osh what's what

Olya had no problems climbing up Mount Suleman in Osh.
We went slowly, but it was still impressive that she climbed up
stairs on the side of a mountain for over an hour!

Olya in the garden at the back of our house, picking persimmons.
Kurmie the cat stands watch.

One of the persimmon trees in our backyard.
They were so beautiful, and tasty!

View of Osh and Aravan (nearby village) from on top the Suleman peak.

Another day we hired a taxi and drove to Uzgen. This mosque is famous for something.

Jeff enjoys the 'samsas' that our taxi driver's wife made especially for him.
Samsa are flaky, fried dough pockets (these had toasted sesame seeds on top) that are
baked in hot clay ovens. This specific variety contained lamb, spices, onion, potato and meat fat.