party time!
Last night I got my first real Uzbek party. It was Timur aka's granddaughter's 3rd birthday. She's a total handful and was in happy excited birthday mode which was great.
This was the first event I've been to this trip where the greeting rituals were fully enacted - everyone is met at the door with an incomprehensible flurry of simulaneous "how are you?" "how is your family?" "Is your work going well" "Is everyone healthy and happy?" "Everything at home is okay?" and so on. Usually this is the only level of greeting, but at parties, it seems that this doesn't suffice and once everyone sits down and the Amen is said, with a wiping of the hands on the face, then it all starts again, this time in round-robin format with each of the newly arrived people going around the table asking each person how they are, how their work is going, how their family is, etc.
It was also my first horse sausage (kozi) of this trip...so shamefully delicious.
And of course a command performance. Timur aka played the doira while I sang Munojat (entreaty to God) and then I played the doira while he played the dutar and I sang my old stable, Aivon (a song that I taught my ensemble this year). During this, the birthday got up and waved her hands, circling her wrists and miming a dance. It was sweet to watch, even if I managed to drop a couplet in the Munojat.
This was the first event I've been to this trip where the greeting rituals were fully enacted - everyone is met at the door with an incomprehensible flurry of simulaneous "how are you?" "how is your family?" "Is your work going well" "Is everyone healthy and happy?" "Everything at home is okay?" and so on. Usually this is the only level of greeting, but at parties, it seems that this doesn't suffice and once everyone sits down and the Amen is said, with a wiping of the hands on the face, then it all starts again, this time in round-robin format with each of the newly arrived people going around the table asking each person how they are, how their work is going, how their family is, etc.
It was also my first horse sausage (kozi) of this trip...so shamefully delicious.
And of course a command performance. Timur aka played the doira while I sang Munojat (entreaty to God) and then I played the doira while he played the dutar and I sang my old stable, Aivon (a song that I taught my ensemble this year). During this, the birthday got up and waved her hands, circling her wrists and miming a dance. It was sweet to watch, even if I managed to drop a couplet in the Munojat.