A valuable stop

Grapes, tea and smiles

We leave the mosque, and since I’m hungry, they show us the house of an Ouigour family that serve us grapes, a Turpan specialty and prepare in front of us the national Ouigour dish, the Laghman. It’s a noodle soup wit lamb and vegetables. We see the mosque’s Imam and learn that the mistress of the house is his daughter. We talk with him. He’s a rather old man that holds himself with a cane. He tells us that he comes to greet his daughter and that he’s 85 years-old. During lunch, I ask dad about the Ouigour language. He tells me that it’s a language with Turkish roots. So, I ask him if in Azerbaijan the language is very different from the one here and if Mama Bozorg (dad’s mom) would have been understood here. He tells me that there are a few differences but that she would be able to have a basic conversation. This language can be understood by the Kazakhs, Kirghiz, Uzbeks, Turkmen, Azeri, nomadic people in northern Japan or Siberia, and that we find the same roots with the Inuit’s Inuktitut. I find it brilliant that so many people can understand each other in so many different countries. We end our discussion and leave thanking our hosts. We go for a walk in the village. Three women are making tea, we talk with them and explain our journey. We learn that they’re all teachers, on vacation like their students. We then decide to let Yang Dong and Liu Jia have some rest and go the two of us to the hills, near the place of pilgrimage. We climb and these moments I share with dad, it’s good to have this intimacy. We take the time to talk, not only do. Going back down, I trip and dad teaches me how to descend a mountain. I’m glad to be spending some learning moments with dad.