departure from Dushanbe/flight/arrival in Khojand

Here is some catch-up on whats been happening in the last week, as we left Dushanbe, flew to Khojand, and started to get settled.

This is from our last night with our local family in Dushanbe. We stayed with them for 3 months as we learned Tajik - it was a very good experience.
Then, last Saturday morning, we headed up to Khojand:
If not for the mountains, it would be a four hour drive. Instead it was a forty minute flight in a tiny plane over spectacular views. A breathtaking ride for these Hoosiers:
When we arrived at the airport, we could see hundreds (maybe thousands) or people waiting, standing around outside the airport. The thought that they were there to greet us was shattered when we learned that they were families of men who were traveling to the yearly Hajj pilgrimage that day. We traveled up on the same flight with another family who had also been in Uzbekistan. As we carried out all of our bags (and two babies), quite a little crowd gathered to see what was going on:
We spent the first three days getting moved in to our house. We will put up some pictures of the place soon. For now, we can show you that Ella is enjoying it: