To Nukus

Oct. 22, 2023- To Nukus Sorry about bounces and/or several copies of the same email. The WI-FI was unreliable. Dinner in our room was accompanied by BBC and Al Jezera news. BBC was more depressing. They seem to have forgotten who pulled the tail of the tiger and are surprised at the force of Israel’s retaliation. We got to sleep until 8 AM. Our departure wasn’t until noon. We had a leisurely breakfast and watched a musical show arranged by Yura. I’ll call them the Khiva 6. It was an extended family from grandfather to grandson. The musical tones were typically minor key and instruments regional. Everyone looked as if they were having fun except for the 12 year old boy who only smiled towards the end. The dance moves were reminiscent of Egyptian head bobbles and Indian or Hawaiin hand motions telling a story. Our group’s health is improving. Folks are perkier though sounds of coughing and sneezing continue. Sadly, I’m able to tell who’s hacking by sound. We collected extra food from breakfast for our lunch on the bus. It’s 4 hours to Nukus. Yura helped by handing out bananas, chips, Snickers bars, and crackers. Not well balanced, but I brought cheese and cucumbers. Yesterday, we saw a boy and at his circumsicion party. Circumcision was adopted by Muslims from Jewish tradition but is done at age 3, 5, or 7. It’s done in a clinic with anesthetic while the child watches TV. To make it palatable for the boy, a huge party is thrown. By huge, I mean 1000+ guests. Some families combine two or three circcumcisions to save money. The child may attend the party if he’s comfortable enough. Girls are named on the 40th day after birth. A smaller party is given for namings. According to Suni Muslim, tradition the deceased must be buried before sunset of the day they die. Notification to friends and relatives is expedited as funeral attendance is more important than weddings or circumcision parties. Asking for three days off work for a funeral is never questionsed The family of the deceased does nothing. Responsibilities are divided among friends. The body is washed and dressed then wrapped in red cloth for those over 63 and white for those under. Men take turns carrying the body on a palllet to the mosque then cemetery. Only men are permitted at the cemetery. Mourning is one year. Since Yura is inter-married, he will be buried in a Christian Korean cemetery and his wife in a Muslim one. There is no cremation. Some of the cheapest land for sale is the site of former cemeteries. Every one hundred years cemeteries are destroyed and re-purposed. Our rest stop was not in the tour description. Yura told us we’d find a good place on our way. So far they’ve been Western style, modern, and clean. When the bus pulled to the side of the road and Yura told us to pick our sand dune for toileting, we thought he was joking. We hesitantly climbed off the bus and realized it was very windy. Aside from not wetting my clothes I had to take into account wind direction. I tried the “funnel” again with better results. No one minded that I carried it onto the bus and threw it away in the trash. When the bus stopped a second time I knew I wasn’t getting out in the rain. It turned out the windshield wipers needing tweaking. We were opposite a Zoroastrian Tower of Silence. Zoroastrians came from Persia about 19 centuries ago. There are few left in Uzbekistan as most have gone to India. They believe dead bodies pollute the earth. Bodies are tied to altars in the Tower and vultures clean the bones. After two weeks bones are placed in ossuaries and buried underground. A famous Zoroastrian was Freddy Mercury of Queen. Another stop and two tweeks later, we pulled into Nukus. It’s actually a city. David went on the orientation walk this time while I rested and wrote. He pronounced it a pathetic excuse for a city. We watched a documentary called Desert of Forbidden Art (available on Netflix). It’s about Igor Savitsky, a Russian/Jewish electrician, artist, enthusiast of Central Asian culture, and dreamer. He surreptitiously collected banned Soviet art by those who were sent to Gulags. He cajoled the families into giving him the works for a promissory note. He managed to scrape together funds for the museum in Nukus, a desert town where nobody came. The museum is now a magnet for tourists adventurous enough to brave desert winds and peeing behind a dune. Tomorrow we’ll explore the Savitsky Museum and learn more about the Karakalpak people. They’re closer in tradition and ethnicity to Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. This will be good preparation for our week in K&K. Toby