After a few days of building, Farhod announced that we would have visitors, some students from the University who heard we were in the area and wanted to meet us and practice their English. And so they arrived, three lovely smiling beacons of graciousness and excitement and chatter! That first day we learned how often cultures are more similar than different. Hamida (seated in jeans skirt and 3rd from left in lower left photo), Parvina (seated in white dress and in had in next photo) and Fatima (seated in black next to Carol in lower left photo) are lovely and interesting and interested! Time flew as we talked and talked. They showed Carol crochet styles and talked about the patchwork quilts that are so much a part of Tajik heritage. And then they described what they did as young children at play:- Cafedor - when children are in 2 lines and they call on over... what we call Red Rover
- Lakpar - when there are squares drawn on the sidewalk and you skip from one to the other and pick things up....Hop Scotch!
- Lanka - they sew sheepskin around some pebbles and kick it around....Hacky Sack
- Oshuk - a boys game of flying kites, it sounded like the Kite Runner
They did pitch in too, in the bucket brigade and with the brick transfer at the second house. Parvina had to leave on Friday early as it was her mother's birthday and she wanted to get a cake and put on a good party. With Mahmudjon she also told us that she wanted us to come to her house on Sunday night (May 31st) to celebrate her 21st birthday which was June 2. Fatima was ill for the next few days and Hamida worked with us on Saturday, gushing about her birthday and how important 21 is as it is the transition to adulthood. The girls spoke a great deal about a woman who had visited and made an enormous impression on them, Brenda Flanigan, an author. They also spoke a great deal about David, their English teacher from Seattle. We discussed politics, music (they love the Backstreet Boys), their friends, Hamida talked about milking her cow twice a day and of her mother and grandmother. They also spoke a lot of time that they were out of school for several weeks to go and pick cotton. Of the builders and the girls it was so refreshing that the topics of discussion were many and varied, delving into politics, culture and social issues such as poverty and "global crisis". They have phones and the internet (albeit slow), everyone knows of Obama and asked us about him. They're very encouraged. As we learned more about their history and politics we could as more as well. MMJ and Farhod would talk about the civil war and the time of the USSR in detail, also even though things are better now, so much that was promised has yet to be seen. The museum tours taught us much, and meeting the locals and expats brought out even more and show us the layers of this wonderful place; the history, the struggles, the current status, the mother -in - law as family head.
As Saturday ended we had dinner at a new place for kabob, a bit of a drive but terrific outdoor food. All kabob, all the time, a place Farhod held in memory as good since his days in Khujand as a University Student. It was fantastic and the workers at the restaurant waved good by to us, in the photo there is a man with his hand on his chest, I loved this greeting pose for hello and goodbye. Taste the culture. Feel the culture.
R&R - ADVENTURES IN EXPLORATION AND CHANGE OF PACE
Sunday, first R&R day! So much planned, first we walked to the museum which is very well done. At the end some children arrived and Barbara had them swarming around her as she took photos and I had photos of them looking at her photos! (Also a note, about that time some strange things were appearing on my camera like no more memory messages etc. The card had slipped out just a bit so I put it back in and since I'd not had a chance to backup since Istanbul, I replaced the card with a new one....only to take about 400 photos and have that card fall out of the camera the last day in Dushanbe...and the only Kodak shop in town I could find had a disc drive that didn't work so my attempt to backup failed). Future photos of May 31 onward will be shared because my team members graciously share and will be given credit.
After the history museum, a small architectural museum and then to the palace. This is not a residential palace but a place of government and forums. It's very pink! The community built the palace, in the auditorium each panel in the ceiling and on the walls is hand painted, each different. There is a big focus on literature and literacy, on farming and the crops that Tajikistan can produce. Also history of USSR and the civil war after the breakup. Civil war peace negotiations took place in the auditorium of the palace. MMJ did a wonderful job of interpreting what our guide said as he spoke in both Tajik and Russian. We learned that women earned war medals during WWI and WWII as well and there were many references to both. Two posters struck me as so on point and touching, first, a blindfolded man walking toward the edge of a cliff depicting a metaphor for illiteracy. Another was a woman with her arm around a small boy, their backs to us looking at the images of two soldiers marching, several feet above the ground which I took to mean a widow or a mother seeing her lost husband or sons. The ceilings in every room are gorgeous, all hand painted, each very different from the other.
THE REAL DEAL, MARKETS AND OSIM'S KABOB
Osim had been talking for days about having us to his kabob stand in the market. So on our day off we made our way out to one of the market's quite a distance from town. Driving in we could see the livestock, many black sheep and some cows. We were led into a tight little enclave filled with people and kabob stands and there he was, Osim with a huge smile on his face! (Currently I have not photos from this point onward, but keep checking!). He put us into a room with long tables and the feast started arriving, first the best bread we've had, then tea and salad. Soon the kabobs started coming and they were really good. Some with ground meat, some cubed. Osim introduced us to his partner, the bread man, a tall, lanky fellow with a kind face and incredible almond shaped eyes. They have worked together for many ears. We were probably there for almost an hour and were treated like celebrities and the goodbye was like many in theis area, one of being escorted out by our new friends, with many smiles, "rahmats" (thank yous) and the posture of putting the right hand to the chest and holding it there which looked and felt to me like genuine gratitude, a "pleased to meet you and pleased to have served" kind of stance. This was truly a local meal in this meat based society and it was so good. Only upon leaving did we also learn that Osim had treated us to this lunch, it was on him. Throughout they gave more than they received, but they probably don't feel that way. They're very gracious.
MARKET TIME, NOT TO BE CONFUSED WITH MARKET TIMING....THINGS LOST IN TRANSLATION, SOMETHING GAINED
So we expressed wanting to see clothing and textiles in a market, things authentic to the area. Just a short drive from Osim's Kabob we Farhod took us to an extension of the same market. Here is where the locals shop, it was full of clothing and shoes, housewares and some shawls and textiles. And it was different than we thought it would be...this is an important market for the people, most things made in China, of prices affordable to the locals and so we had a glimpse of real life. Remembering the average wage is about 200 Somolis a month ($50). I loved the dress Parvina wore the day we met her, a white gauzy dress and she said it was in the Sunday market. Well here we were! All of us split up and I was with MMJ and as we cruised through one hallway where every booth started to look the same, I saw only 1 place that had two dresses like Parvina's. MMJ helped, no actually did the negotiations and I skipped away with two dresses for 50 Somoli, $10, not knowing if they would fit (they do). Everyone in our group was a little restless thgouh wanting to find a place that had more traditional and historic textiles and crafts. So we met at the van early. Farhod did a good job of taking us to what we asked for "textiles and clothing"...and Carol came away with a cute pair of shoes for her daughter. We also had to be more specific about what types of items we would like to see, so Farhod took us to a crafts shop that was closed that day, but we went on Monday and Barbara came away with an antique traditional quilt that is quite something.
One of our missions was to find a birthday present for Hamida, they guys were of little help even though they're Tajik. So was asked MMJ to ask his wife for her suggestion that that wasn't such a good idea, the poor guy said he couldn't call his wife, only 19 and pregnant, her first thought would be why is he buying gifts for another woman? So he did what any self preserving young man would do and he called his mom who said we should buy her something for entertaining guests. We went to the Thursday Market, closer to town and open every day. We bought some glasses and a pitcher then later went to a flower shop where we bought pink roses and had the gift wrapped. Success! Herding cats, a couple of the guys went into the Thursday market and all us had 15 minutes. We met back at the van on time and found that MMJ had gone to pray. We're a restless bunch, don't like to sit and wait, could have stayed in the market longer. Farhod and I took a few minutes to find him a Coke and I found a bottle of wine for the apartment, we met back at the van and many had dispersed on their own for the few minutes and come back to the van, so in the end all was well. (A note about the wine..most restaurants don't serve alcohol at all, Jeri and I enjoyed having a little to share in our apartment. Wine was hard to come by so we made it last. Made in Monrovia, not high on Wine Spectator's list!
We returned to the Thursday market the next day, Monday and it was a sight, a very open hall with a second story on the perimiter. There is a section of spices, a butcher's section against the wall, a section of produce, a section of nuts that we went nuts over - sweet almonds and roasted pistachios, yum. These made great snacks for the work site. The camera was working hard in their and the second story gave us a great overview of the place.
IN A TAJIK HOME, SWEET HAMIDA'S 21ST BIRTHDAY DINNER IN HER FAMILY APARTMENT, THE FEAST AND A GLIMPSE OF HER HOMELIFE AND HER COW
Free time to relax, clean up and prepare to go to Hamida's for birthday dinner. Dressed up (as builders can be) our driver found her apartment actually quite close to the job site, but to the west a bit, past the University. The outside of the apartment looked very much like the outside of the apartments where we stayed. A lovely Hamida in traditional dress of light blue greeted us with her beaming smile. We took our shoes off in the hall and entered a room set with an astonishing array of foods. Parvina was there as well in a lovely dress. We all sat around the table and Hamida catered to us, never sitting but flitting about while brining in the next course until the coup de gras of Plov! She was so happy. David was awaited and he did arrive after walking back from where the taxi dropped him due to directions lost in translation. He is their English teacher and has been in Khujand almost a year through the embassy. He's a high school teacher in Tacoma.
No one else came to the party, it was clear that she wanted to have an evening with us and with David. Hamida served us cake as mother and grandmother came in for an final appearance. They would come in briefly, both beautifully dressed. Mother looks quite lovely, grandmother is full of smiles. Women of older generations have had some tough times and it shows, the younger ones in general are beautiful. As we started to leave Hamida cried she was so happy and then insisted we go to the back of the apartment and meet the cow, two goats and the chickens! Grandmother came with us and showed us a gazebo with beds on it where she relaxes on hot days in the shade near her animals. Time to go, but we knew we would see Hamida again and maybe the other girls. Sweet little Fatima was still ill. It was a nice evening, long for some as some foreign exposure issues were taking effect (food problems not too bad here, but it happens).
Next post - what David and Phillip from Mercy Corp say, the good, the bad and the beneath the surface ugly.
