I have lucked into the excellent company and expertise of two stunning and inspiring Peace Corp volunteers in the last week. Yesterday, my new Simferopol based friend Scott took me to meet Anna in Bakhchisaray, a magical townlet about an hour from Simferopol. Both Anna and Scott have been working with the Crimean Tatar community here for the last 2 years, so both have really interesting perspectives (and sometimes even answers, lo!) on the mysteries and questions that have been pestering me all around. Both have also been so generous about sharing their network of contacts with me, which almost makes it feel like I'm cheating somehow. (But really, I'm just a lucky ethnographer.)
The gentleman making coffee above is Ayder Asanov. He and his daughter
Elmira are master artists who create gorgeous jewelry for sale at the Usta Handicraft Shop which Anna has set up during her tenure in Bakhchisaray. The Asanovs are a talented bunch -
Elmira's brother is also a well-known Crimean Tatar musician who worked on the Crimean Tatar karaoke DVD that I finally got to see today.
Two days before, I visited the Ablaevs, another family of jewelery makers (to whom this necklace can be attributed). They live in Maryna, a rayon of Simferopol in which some of the mustard-yellow squatter's claims have been slowly built up into livable houses. The photo below shows the scene across the street from the Ablaevs. More on this soon.
This weekend, I scored an old Russian accordion
from Milara-odzha's brother (it's on loan, really)
and just now figured out that I can accompany myself on banjo to a Tatar song
that I've learned to sing (John Comfort Fillmore, anyone?). Discoveries abound.
4 comments:
Hi Marusia,
We continue to be enthralled by your blogs. Aydar Asanov's daughter, Elmira, has the same name as my hometown, Elmira, New York. The name of the town is derived from the spanish word, el mira, which, I believe, as translated into English, is "the view."
Yesterday, I met Professor Robert Zimmerman, head of the Fulbright program in Crimea. He lives and works in Simferopol. I have given him the link to your blog, so you will be hearing from him.
Cheers,
Dick
Who has the rights to the mustard houses? Does the state plan on allocating some land tenure to crimean tatars if enough of them squat?
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