Today I normally would have class but because it is a national holiday we had the day off. I got up early and went with my host mom and sister to the biggest bazaar in Dushanbe. It is so big that it is on the outskirts of town, not in the city itself. To get there, we took a mashrutka then got out, walked across the street, and waited for a different mashrutka. We got into one but were immediately approached by a police officer who asked us to get out because the driver did not have a proper license. So we grabbed a taxi and zoomed down the street, passing trucks illegally on the opposite side of the road.
Or perhaps not so illegally- there don’t seem to be very strict traffic laws here. Instead of being pulled over for speeding, cars are just randomly pulled over by police officers looking for bribes (they are underpaid so that is the best way that they can provide for their families). There is just one line to divide the road in half for two-way traffic and even this is often ignored by people trying to pass large slow moving vehicles. Beyond that, there doesn’t really seem to be any rules...cars weave in and out of each other as they please, creating their own lanes, barely stopping for red lights and creeping through intersections before the light even turns green.
Once we made it safely to the bazaar we headed in to the chaos. There are two sides to the bazaar with a large street running through the middle so to get from one side to the other you have to avoid more speeding taxis, busses and mashrutkas. The first side we went to had a lot of clothes, shoes and household goods. I decided to get some fabric to have a new dress made. I got a really cool looking fabric that is dark purple with a lime green pattern. I plan on shortening it to wear as a shirt when I get back to the US. After walking around for a little while there we went over to the other side where there were more clothes, shoes, household items, and also some dried fruit vendors. In one of the shoe stores we stopped in I found, FINALLY!, the perfect pair of red heels.
They are exactly the color I wanted- cherry red- and have a medium heel with square toes and a buckle. So cute, I was super excited when I found them and was terrified that they wouldn’t have the right size for me. But they did! Yay!We were there for a couple of hours total and then headed back home, a trip that involved another zooming taxi and crowded mashrutka. But we made it back alive, had some lunch and then headed to our rooms for a siesta. Yes, thats right, the Americans are introducing the siesta to central Asia.
Tuesday June 29
Ahh back to class...today was our long day- four hours of straight classes, two hours of Persian and two hours of Tajik. At lunch we were all talking about how bad we feel for Zarinna because we are all completely exhausted and out of it by the time we get to her class. But I think she understands because she gave us a really long break in the middle. She also said that she isn’t going to give us any homework, all of our work would be done in class. I think we all appreciate that because, we are here to study Persian after all, not Tajik, and also, our Persian teacher is giving us enough homework as it is.
After a long lunch I went back to the office to get some work done and ended up staying until 6:30 talking to mom on gchat. When I went home for dinner, I found that we had guests again. My host father’s niece, husband and two children were over for dinner and were going to spend the night because they were flying out to Dubai the next day. So, they were staying here at the house on their way to the airport. Dinner, of course, came with shots of vodka. Apparently a lot of them. They must have been doing shots before I got home because they didn’t have all that many when I was there. But when my host dad’s sister’s daughter’s husband got up from the dinner “table,” he staggered and fell into me, almost knocking me over into my host mom. So all the guys of the family, my host dad, Dilshod, Azamat and my host dad’s sister’s daughter’s son helped him out to the street and down to the river until he recovered himself. It was quite the interesting experience, everyone got all silent and uncomfortable and didn’t know what to do until they went outside. I haven’t quite figured out what the Tajik theory/mindset is on drinking. They don’t seem to drink all that often, at least my host family doesn’t. Its not like we have vodka with every meal. But for special occasions the alcohol comes out and then they consume it in rather large quantities.
On a sidenote, I say “table” in quotes because it is not a table, the place we normally eat dinner. It is more like a giant wooden bed that they lay a carpet and cushions down on with a tablecloth in the middle that the food and plates go on. Dinner is eaten sitting crosslegged or semi-reclining, Roman style. Its quite fun. Unless you sit there for a while because then your knees and back just get really tired and sore.
Wednesday June 30
The last day of June...also happened to be our short day of classes. Started today at 8:30am and finished at 10:45. Then we had the rest of the day to do as we pleased. I ended up going for lunch with a small group- Rob, Gaby, Kyle and a guy named Joe from the Eurasia program for lunch at another Indian restaurant called Deli Darbar on Rudake Ave. It was pretty good, Indian still isn’t my favorite but I liked the vegetarian dish I got and they had amazing ice cream. After lunch we headed back to the center to hang out, Skype, upload pictures, etc. It was a nice and relaxing afternoon.
Thursday July 1
Ahh, the first day of July. Summer is fully upon us. This is both good and bad news. Good because, as of 3:30am this morning, we have been here for exactly 3 weeks and therefore have exactly 5 weeks and one day left of classes/exams. Then a weekend to pack. Then a flight home! For me its a little longer until I will be back stateside, 6 weeks and 2 days to be precise. The bad news however is that the hottest weather will soon be upon us. I checked the weather widget on my computer dashboard today and it said that the weather this weekend is going to 105 on Saturday and 104 on Sunday. In a land with not very many air conditioners. Oh joy!
Persian class this morning was really fun, I liked it a lot. We were looking at some old ads from Iran, pre and post revolution. I liked it because we were analyzing them and discussing why they were effective which is just like the section we did on visual rhetoric in my class my first semester at school. I hope we do more stuff like this because I really liked it.
Tonight after dinner I had a really good conversation with my host mom and sister. We talked about this woman in the city who has identical triplet daughters. Nodira saw her on the street once and couldn’t tell the difference between them at all. I also learned that my host mom is afraid of infants. She doesn’t want to touch them because she is afraid she will drop them. She said she wouldn’t hold her grandkids, Azamat and Amena, until they were about three or four months old. I asked what she did when she had Nodira and Dilshod and she said that their grandmother, who lived with them, held them. I thought that was really weird and hilarious at the same time because I love infants. They are so tiny and delicate yes but their little ears and toes and noses make holding and taking care of them totally worth it. We talked about their dog and his mom. His mom belonged to a neighbor of theirs and so they were there when he had her 9 puppies and after a few days they got to pick one and take it home.
We also talked a little bit about this young boy who lives somewhere in the neighborhood who was born recently (I didn’t understand exactly how old he is). They kept saying over and over again that he was sick and how sorry they were for his family and finally I got them to explain what specifically was wrong with him. They said that he is not intelligent or not smart. Something is wrong with his head and it is a genetic disorder he got from his mother because she was sick when she gave birth(?). I’m not entirely sure if he is mentally retarded or has autism or something (if such a diagnosis exists here). But they said that Dilshod, my host brother, was at their house visiting and playing with him. When they were explaining this, it was a really interesting change of tone to their voice, almost reverent, that Dilshod would go and spend time with him. They said that ever since he was little, Dilshod was not afraid to touch people who are sick and he will go and talk to them and spend time with them and touch them so that it helps them get better. It reminded me of some people’s belief in healers, people with some sort of special sense or power to help sick people. If Tajiks believe in a kind of person like that then that’s what they would call Dilshod- a healer.
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