Afghan winds

The Afghan winds are upon us. We woke a few days ago to find Dushanbe in a dense fog of dirt/dust. Visibility is low, you feel it in your teeth, and you never see the sun. Anything left outside is covered in a thick layer of dirt/dust (including Ella’s stroller). The odd thing is that there really isn’t much wind. I don’t know where all this dust/dirt came from, but if this is what Afghanistan is like, we will stay north of the border. This was the view from our house into the valley this morning.

The winds seem to have blown a few of our friends back our direction as well. Recently we got to spend an evening with five of the members of our old team in Uzbekistan who are all in town for various reasons.

In about three weeks or so the wind should blow us up to Khojand, where I visited last week and found an apartment for us to live in while we look for a house.

In Ella related news, she is walking like a pro now (the previous video was from a week ago), changing directions, and going longer distances. She has also picked up finger snapping as a second hobby while she's not clapping. She is also quite a mimicker, and has learned from our host family how to say hello in Uzbek, along with the gesture for hello. She turns 11 months tomorrow.