We have been meeting loads of great people lately. A highlight was meeting a poet named Мұхтар Шаханов, and reading one of his poems at a large concert in his honour. You can see some photos at 
http://homepage.mac.com/tayuli/PhotoAlbum23.html

On a sadder note, I learned a lesson the very difficult way. There is this famous female Kazak singer and dombura player named Әсемхан Ғибадет Қызы (Asemqan Ghibadet Kizi) in Xinjiang. I bought all her tapes and hoped to meet her one day. Well, one day I found myself at a large dombura competition several years ago and there she was, not even 20 feet away, getting ready to play. I stood there too shy to go introduce myself and give some sort of blessing before her turn. As she stood there amidst a swirling crowd of people she looked up and right at me. I was one of only 2 foreigners at this event so I suppose we stood out somewhat, but as she looked up and looked at me, she gave a little nod. I took a photo and have it still. The thing is she was battling cancer at that time, everyone knew, but no one was talking about. They all simply wanted to bask in her singing and dombura playing. I never did say hi even though I was there several more days. I always figured I'd get a chance after I returned.

We met a young Kazak girl from Xinjiang, and she shared the bad news: the singer had passed away last year. We never did meet.