There is a gentleness in the people we've met and worked around. No doubt we are still "tourista" and even though Khujand is a large city, it is also small, word gets around that there are tourists about.
The streets are very clean, women are out every morning sweeping the roadsides and the parks. It's difficult to find trash or a trash can. Every once in awhile trash would rear it's ugly head in the form of smoke, around the apartments they incinerate a lot (and I thought that concrete stove thing was a BBQ!) and sometimes we'd catch a whiff of burning plastic, rubber and general stuff.
ROSES -
are everywhere, in Dushanbe and in Khujand and they're lovely. Maybe Portland should become a "Sister City!"
GIVING THANKS
MMJ showed us how to give thanks, they have a prayer after the meal and hold hands out, both palms up, then take both hands, put them on their face palms in and stroke downward. Hard to describe here but it is lovely.
PROGRESSIVE REALITIES
While there is a great deal of traditional dress, we also saw girls in jeans, and our sweet friend Hamida showed herself in a variety of fashions. A couple of women from the Habitat Affiliates in both cities had been to the U.S. and speak English well and wear very western, current fashions. Alot of woment work.
Relgion - like many: some pray, some don't, some drink, some don't; some smoke, some don't; some follow rules, some don't....sound like everywhere!
WHAT IS THEIRS
This historically has been a mother in law society in the sense that she is the head of the household. We heard several variations on the theme, but historically this meant that when a (usually very young) girl was chosen for marriage she would move in with her husband's family after the wedding and be under the tutelage of his mother. Sometimes the goal was to "break the girl in". Girls could refuse to marry but probably under great consequence. Divorce was allowable but the in-laws keep the children. Even our three young women friends were originally a girl gang of five friends, and two have been married, one is pregnant. The idea of what is too young, or what is best should probably be left to the individuals of the culture to change for their best interests, but I sure wanted to share with Hamida that she's so bright, she could go to Europe or the US and continue learning and carve her future.
David mentioned that some girls end up very depressed and suicidal under the mother in law heirarchy. Hamida shared that her parents who she adores married "for love" and she misses her father and older brother so much as they are working in Moscow.
There is a system of "getting what you pay for."
For instance: say you are a student going to the local library for a book required for school. The librarian says they do not carry that book. If 20 or so Somoli appear, suddenly the book appears as well.
Apparently the "American Corner" had to restructure with an NGO because the library head was embezzling from the US Embassy. Now that middle man is no longer in the embassy and is not losing money any more.
Degrees can be paid for, test results can be paid for.
The curriculum - for English it's more detailed English structure than I ever knew. David mentioned structures I barely remember, yet the students have to know and have to pass the tests based on this curriculum. The texts are from the '70's which is better than the Chemistry texts which are from the '50's. David says there's not much he can do about the curriculum yet it also speaks to people like Farhod, MMJ, Hamida and Parvina that despite trying to learn English and not really being taught it conversationally, they SHINE and converse so well and are hungry for more.
Phillip with Mercy Corp said that women, particularly married child bearing women actually eat very little meat in this meat heavy society. The husbands and fathers get the meat first. This creates anemia amongst these young women, many of whom become pregnant right after marriage. Translate to difficult pregnancies and infant malnutrition. Plus some woment die in childbirth. Mercy Corp has done and measured education on Breast Feeding and recognition and treatment of infant dysentary. Due to the education in the region and the wisdom of Mercy Corp to reach out the the leaders, the village heads and the mother's in law, over the years they have seen an 80% improvement in dysentary rates of treatement and prevention compared to the majority of countries where they would be thrilled to see 30% improvement.
There is some malaria (though I brough my malarone and never saw a single mosquito, but it can happen), typhoid and again, the bribes. Phillip said you can pay for anything in this country.
THE BAD
Global crisis. Alot of construction work in Russia is no longer available which means local unemployment is rising.
History - MMJ talked about his parents stories of time during the USSR. During that time, people here were afraid to practice their religion. MMJ's parents were forced by teachers to eat and drink during fasting times. People were killed.
It's time for all of us to remember that "NEVER AGAIN" should mean never to anyone, anywhere at anytime. No more genocides, witholding of basic freedoms etc.
Girls get better opportunities if they are not in head dress and are not traditional.
The Cotton - farmers may own their land but the government tells them what to plant. Cotton is king, problem is it can leach nutrients from the soil and render it weak if crops aren't rotates and the soil allowed to regenerate. The labor comes from the students...best learned about in this link
http://enews.ferghana.ru/article.php?id=2475 David told us about this article he wrote about the "slave labor disguised as volunteerism" cotton harvest. We met MMJ's boss, Phillip from Mercy Corp. He joined us for dinner one night and told us stories of his time as an expat here for the last couple of years. He actually lives in Portland, the home of Mercy Corp HQ and his wife is here in PDX, she is Uzbec. He knows the area well and talked also of the system of bribery. Though it doesn't seem the locals do many drugs, there is drug money that comes through from Afghanistan which grows a lot of poppies and the flow is through Tajikistan to Russia with stops along the way. People in the line of flow and in the know make money.
THE UGLY
Amongst our own - when someone has a problem there seems to be an emotional juggling constantly between compassion and frustration. This happened with one of our own, who would disappear sometimes. Drink more beer than anyone else. Stay out later. One morning at 6am, the room-mate of our problem child came to our room to speak with the team lead because the team member had not arrived back to the apartment at all. We decided to go out for a walk, split up in different directions and look. It was a gorgeous morning and I'd always wanted to walk before the work day, but I didn't want to do it a 6am looking for a body in a ditch anymore than anyone else did. We reconvened after 20 minutes to discover that our team member had arrived back during that time by taxi, smiling, with a black eye and no recollection of how that occured (are there prostitutes in Khujand?) Big possible YES on that one....This created anxiety, more work for the team lead, concern amongst the group, frustration and due to the involvement of alchohol a little less enjoyment in regards to beer and ice cream. God speed to you team member, take care of yourself.
