A few comments

We're back at school today for a while to talk with the school's IT guy about getting Internet at home and to meet with possible drivers (it will take at least a few weeks before we get a car, but I don't want to get one for a lot longer than that. It is incredible how dangerously people drive here!)

We have a few minutes before our meetings start, so we can get a few things down. We have an adapter for our computer so we can plug in at home now, so we can try to actually write these at home, then post them when we have a connection.

A few high points. Jonathon and Joshua have made a couple of friends in the neighborhood - Najaf and Murat. They are both Russian (I think), but they speak Azeri, too. Najaf speaks some English, so he and Jonathon have talked a lot. Jonathon is already my translator at stores! (He knows his numbers and a few other words in Azeri already). The two boys wait outside our house until they see one of us then they say "Jonathon - game?" to ask if the boys can come outside to play. We send the boys out to play in the street for an hour or two at a time. (It will make more sense once we get the pictures up.)

We've been to a few different markets. There are some that are the equivalent of an American supermarket, including some Turkish and Indian chains (Ramstore, New World Market, Neptun Market) then a bunch of stores that are smaller than an AM/PM or 7/11 store. There are also fruit markets that are set up all over that are like farmer's markets with dozens of different stalls. We also went to a bazaar on Sunday - it was a huge sprawling area built on a hill - probably six levels or more with at least a hundred and fifty or more stalls. I bought two kilograms of tomatoes (4.4 pounds) for 1 manat (about $1.25). Today I got a pound of red peppers at a store for about $1.50. Meat is expensive, and meat means chicken, sausage or salami - I haven't seen much other meat.

And... now our meeting. We'll write more later.