The Bazaar and Korean Church, Jan 14-18th

The first week in Kyrgyzstan has been great! Charlotte and I have found a great apartment and made many, many friends. Charlotte is like a magnet for happy people! Anyone who has ever learned a few words in English immediately approaches her to try it out. She is simply the msot approachable and friendly person.
Our first friends her, Aftandil and Munara, are a brother and sister living in the southern part of the city. Without even knowing who we are, they offered to let us live with them until we foudn an apartment. They treated us to Kyrgyzi food and custom and culture. Their generosity is inspiring. We celebrated Old New Years with them and seen a few museums and have been introduced to all their friends. You'll hear plenty more about those two!
Our new apartment is very close to the Osh Bazaar, the biggest market in Bishkek. It is pretty crazy and some video will help explain it. They sell everything there: fruit, meat, bread, clothes, eletronics, videos, shovels, siding, cement, rugs, bedding, dishes, shoes, shoe repair, phones, computers, bags, autoparts, appliances, cleaning supplies, haircuts, herbs, bongs, music, candy, office supplies, and the list goes on and on! You name it, they have it! It's about a block from our apartment, so we can get everythign we ened there for very cheap.
It's great to see how well this coutnry is doing. Most people have enough disposable income to eat out, buy nice cars and clothes, and to rennovate their apartments. They are doing the best they can, rebuilding their society on the corpse of the Soviet Era, but they are doing wonderfully. There are very few drunks, more parks, more people going to work each day. It's great to hear them speaking their native tongue, Kyrgyzi, which was not allowed under the old egalitarian socialist government.
Charlotte and I have found that calling the United States is about 7.5 cents a minute, not bad. Internet is generally pretty slow anywhere you go, but we look very forward to any emails or posts our friends leave for us!
Recently, we found a Christian Church here. Someone told us the general area and we found it by following the singing. There are two meetings, one in English for internationals and the other meeting is in Korean! Charlotte was so excited! She immediately became the most popular person in the building. I couldn't understand a word. Everyone wanted to take english lessons from Charlotte and have her marry their grandson, but too late! Ha! We will probably go to the Korean meeting some more. When we told the Koreans that we were Mormons, they just shrugged and offered us more food! We'll have to see if the english speaking Christians will be as nice to us. Plus, THAT meeting is in English...boring!
We've started a new week now and we're off to find work! Bye!