Uzbek Family, Bukhara
Pillared Interior, Mosque, Bukhara
Imam at the Naqshabandi Shrine
View of the Naqshabandi Shrine, Bukhara 
So instead of writing about the sights and sounds of Bukhara, I decided to make this post a bit different and write about the people that I met. Bukhara, a city of shrines, synagogyes, differing communities, and a bustling small town city center, is filled with interesting and colorful people. In fact, the people rather than the sights of the city, is what interested me most. The following shares a few of my experiences with the people of Bukhara.
Scarves and Suras
She smiled and opened her to us as we entered the shop. Her skin, taut and tanned by hours spent in the Uzbek sun, glimmered in the low lights of her little scarf shop. As she turned to us, the softness around the edges of her features transformed her somewhat tired appearance into a kind and loving hostess. Her eyes crinkled and glimmered when she spoke. As she took my arm to guide us to her best selection of scarves, warmth and kindness exuded from her every movement. She asked us in a gentle voice where we were from and as we explained to her our various origins, her face lit up with every response. We statres to chat and she inquired about our studies, education is valued highly in Islam and this pious woman wanted to know what we were dedicating our lives to. Soon she asked us what it was like to live in America. She asked me if it was better there or here. I told her what I felt was the truth. Its the land of opportunity, just as they say, but only if you work, only if you have a job, and you are willing to work hard. I asked her the same question. She said, " after the Soviet Union fell, those who work earn, those who do not, starve." Her son is studying in Tashkent. All of their earning going towards his education and building their home.
As we bought scarves from her she talked to us about the Koran. She said, we have in the Koran many great suras. Here is one to bless you all. And she began to recite to us in Arabic and then translated into Russian "God has no children, has no belongings, in this way God is everywhere, in everyone, in everything. There is one God and he is Allah, and Muhammad is his Prophet."
10-Year-Old Bargain Driver
A little girl in a nearby shop comes up to me and starts to speak to me in near perfect english. She has such a profession demeanor, I could not believe my eyes and ears. Life has forced her to grow up quickly - working at such a young age. Needless to say she got me to buy fourhats and a scarf. I could not refus this little being, this little bargain driver with perfect english. She was a small being but with a great spirit and charm. Her hair was in a bun and she wore a shawl around her shoulders. She stood ram rod straight and was always complimenting and ready to jump at an opportunity to bargain a price with me. She truly was a little woman.
My Name is Stone
Stone, Nigina, the jewelry trader. She was a young woman selling Bukharian jewelry in a nearby bazaar. Her wide set almond shaped eyes were beautifully done with charcol and pink and purple shadows. She is going to Santa Fe she says, and then NY city for an exhibition on Bukharian jewelry. Funny how, by chance, we manage to run into her at a near by bazaar. Soon we fell into girly banter, exchanging make up tips and marriage. Studying English also naturally comes up. She really wants to practice everything she has learned, five different lanuages simple from selling jewelry to tourists. Its time for us to go, and as we say our goodbyes her jewelry glimmers and shimmers in the midday sun. She smiles and waves, hopeful we will come back one day to see her.
Sabina The Warrior
She calls us over, yelling out " you there, where are you from?" We say to her " America!" She throws up her arms and squints, " wow such pretty girls come here pretty girls come sit with me!" We sit down on the carpets of her sisters carpet shop and she exchange stories about our background. Her quick smile, short hair pinned back, boucning back and forth and she gesticulates with her arms telling us about her past. She was so interesting. Sabina the Warrior. Not a typical Uzbek girl, she spoke with a British accent, having left at 16 to follow her boyfriend, who became her husband, to london to study and work. She got pregnant then stopped working for a while. She returned after she became pregnant with a second child and needed help from her parents. She has been though quite a bit in her life and its easy to see that although she is a year younger than me, life has taught her to be brave and wise. She tells about so many things. She tells us about the treatment of women in homes. Working almost as slaves sometimes for their mother in laws. She explains how many of her friends end up in Russia selling products, including her mom when her father left the family. She tells us about a friend who left to Russia with her husband who then left her alone with a child. Being from a village and traveling for the first time on her own in a city she was lost. She worked for months without pay, was threatened, was almost raped twice and almost sold, trafficked to a brothel by Azeris and Tajiks living in Russia. Her life seems hard and yet she is a warrior. She is full of energy and spirit. Ready to fight with any situation that come her way. Thats how I will remember her; battling, kicking and screaming for what she desires in life.
i LOVE these pictures!!!!
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