Lazy Saturday

With the exception of the stomach ache both Amy and I acquired, probably from the village food, Saturday was spent relaxing, doing a bit of work, catching up with life through the internet, and enjoying each other's company. Janice whipped up her famous "wow" pancakes which contain everything except sugar - so we added sauteed apples, honey and maple syrup - and had a very leisurely, and filling brunch.

I caught up on work and email, Amy and one of the staff worked on transcribing interviews from recorded Tajik to written English, and Janice hosted a Tajik trekking friend who brought her, what she described as the "biggest chicken sandwich in the world". It was essentially a whole cooked chicken wrapped in a large flat bread. It was just begging for a photo op, so we obliged (see above).

This evening we were hosted for dinner by some friends of Janice. The husband is in Russia working so we had dinner with the wife, and her adorable three children and their cousins. Amy had brought them the card game Memory and they immediately brought it out for a few rounds. The meal involved tearing up bread into tiny pieces in a large wooden bowl, pouring yogurt over it, sprinkling sliced onions, then pouring boiling oil over all that which sort of thickens the yogurt/bread mixture, and topping it all with herbs and some chopped vegetables. You eat this with your hand or some bread. It's a little greasy (go figure) but rather good.

We were very considerate guests and didn't leave before we had sufficiently riled up the children with picture taking, tickling and playing various paddy-cake, hand-slapping games.

Friday in Garm

I feel so much better today. Maybe it's something in the air, or the water, or the food, or the company, but this trip has taken a decided turn for the better. After a great night's sleep that was only interrupted by waking up to to the electricity (and ceiling light) coming on at 5am, we had a lovely quick breakfast of kasha - aka very thin cream of wheat - with trader joe's maple syrup.

The office is located next door to Janice's house which is convenient for commuting and using the wireless internet at all times of day. After a quick introduction to the office, we loaded up and headed along muddy, red roads to a village called Askalon. The scenery was beautiful. Amy has spent the last month traveling throughout the region with her trusty group of interviewers and drivers to find out how a particular program indirectly benefited women in these remote and very traditional villages. The themes she is seeing is that because the young married women attended these programs on pregnancy, health and breastfeeding, and also received food distributions, they were often able to gain more respect and more openness in their households. Traditionally young brides are seen as very insignificant, controlled by every member of the house, and not allowed to leave the family compound for the first 5-6 years. Their husband and mother-in-law make all the decisions. (photo: Amy in the room where we held the interviews.)

In the home where we were hosted for the interviews, had had a wedding the week before and the hostess brought out plate after plate of sweets, fruit, nuts, breads, and tea and after the interview, they served us lunch. And after all that it made sense to use the "facilities". We had the best loo with a view. A straw lean-to with a view of the river valley and mountains.

This evening Amy, Janice and I made a brief appearance at one of the office staff's going away party. It was an all male gathering, which is extremely typical as women do not meet in public together. And as is also typical, with every toast there is a large swig of vodka of which we were very much encouraged to partake. They do seem to love their vodka. We left early and had a cozy meal back at Janice's house.

Shaken, not stirred with a Pepto garnish: The trip to Garm

Thursday morning, it was early to the plane for the quick, queasy and frightening flight back to Dushanbe. Unfortunately, my two-day stomach ache culminated in a small relapse of my earlier illness. Brandy hosted me for a quick and much welcomed French toast brunch before shuttling me into a waiting car to drive the jarring five hours to Garm. The scenery was beautiful but the roads where hell, often with a cliff to one side, and the ride was made all the worse due to the reason behind why I diligently popped pepto tablets every hour with great success.

I am now in Garm – a mountainous and wet village, and hosted by the program director in her cozy residence. With me is my new twin for the next week Amy. Amy is conducting case studies to evaluate impact of one of the programs. When I learn more, I will give more detail.

Although a home, we are in the guest side which includes a bathroom accessed by going outside. Hopefully my stomach will get better soon because with the electricity only on between 5-9p, it's flashlights and candles at night and that always makes for a fun bathroom journey.

Election Day – for this side of the world

Yesterday morning I awoke at 3am. Call it making up for too much sleep, being alone in the guesthouse for the first time (Sue and Brandy returned to Dushanbe) or thickly veiled excitement over whether Barrack Obama would be elected out new president. In the wee hours of November 5th, it was BBC and me cheering him on.

Later, it was the only other American in the vicinity and me, glued to our lap tops, as Obama’s victory was declared. Skype and facebook messages from around the world showed every American ex-pat or not was celebrating madly in their corner of the globe. And while I couldn’t be there, with the help of BBC and Al Jezeera, I relieved the footage over and over again that night in the guesthouse.

Working weekend

This weekend was spent in true field-trip style - working. Saturday was an all-day meeting with staff which on the plus side meant heat and internet access, and on the down side meant no lunch and long hours.

Sunday Sue and I worked all day on her starting to piece together the evaluation narrative and me piece together tables needed for the umpteen annexes. The sun finally came out today and so I took a morning break to get out and see a bit of the neighborhood. I walked down to square with the closed opera building and stumbled upon the district museum (pictured to the left) and a dilapitated park. The scenary here is something else. I can't decide whether it is beautiful or eerily stark. A river runs through town and right behind the city rises the driest, steepest mountains I've ever seen. From afar, it looks like there isn't a living thing growing on them.

And now, my favorite topic, food. The food here is probably the least enjoyable I've ever had. It is heavy on the meat, and fattiest meat possible. We have eaten out a few times and I think I've had my quota for meat, fat and oil. The bread is not bad (usually in these rounds to the right) and you can purchase a lot of nuts and dried fruit which is always good. It is probably safe to assume that a home cooked meal here would be much better than the restaurants.

So, the topic of food is not complete without the accompanying food-borne illness. Late Sunday night I was awakened and kept awake all night by some creatures within who wanted out, now. And all night with two layers of clothes and two comforters, I shivered. So not only did I still manage to get what Sue had had, I got it worse. All day Monday, I slept and everytime I stood up, was too dizzy to get very far. Dehydrated, headachy and also hungry, Sue and our country director Brandy arrived that evening with crackers and ibuprophen. And I slept some more.

Field trip!

This morning, the consultant Sue and I drove with our driver and translator out to a village 2 hours from Khujand. It was a desolate drive. Pot-holed road with one section washed out by a flood last July, foggy sky and dry, grazing land for miles and miles. Only some sheep herds could be seen. Once we arrived at the village there were more signs of vegetation and life.

We spent the day at the local health clinic where Sue interviewed the health workers, young women, village development counsel and men (old men since most of the young immigrate to Russia for work). She is assessing an MC child survival program. They were the nicest people. The oldest man (81) invited us to his daughter or was it granddaughter (?)'s wedding party but unfortunately we didn't have time. This man had 6 children, 24 grandchildren and 7 great-grandchildren and he seemed in great health. In a culture where men do not shake hands with women, he immediately came up to Sue and me upon entering and welcomed us with a hand shake. Another woman invited us to spend the night at her house - which would have been an amazing experience.

At the end of the meetings, some of the women brought out a folded up blanket which contained treats and bread from the wedding party including some sheep meet. They also gave us a concoction of beans/tomato/onions/pepper which was very good. However, out of the three of us who ate it, both Sue and the translator got very sick in the night. So far, my stomach seems to be iron-clad...knock on wood.

Long road to Tajikistan

So I'm behind in posting. Turns out that Tajikistan is the most non-technical country I have visited. I can only access the internet at the MC offices. I'll do a bit of catch-up. On Oct. 28th I started the long trek to Tajikistan. With the 12 hour time difference, I didn't arrive until the early morning hours of Oct. 30th. Between those two time points I flew from Chicago to Detroit, to Amsterdam to Istanbul and to Dushanbe, Taj. I had to spend 6 hours in the Istanbul airport and it's not the most lay-over friendly. There are very few seats and even fewer electric outlets. I ended up camping out at a restaurant where the waiter pretty much grunted his disapproval when on my second visit, all I ordered was a coffee and water.

The overnight flight to Tajikstan had me landing at 4am. My coworker had drawn me a map and given me specific instructions on how to efficiently navigate the Dushanbe airport/visa/immigration system. It only took me an hour to do it all. If I had checked luggage, I might still be there. An MC driver picked me up and drove me through the rainy darkness to the guest house - which was the most bizarre place I've ever stayed - the bathroom and kitchen were on the first floor and the bedroom/sitting rooms were on the second floor through a series of ornate wooden doors. The water that came out of the shower alternated between clear and silty but I managed to reasonably clean up before hitting the hay.

I had been instructed to sleep as long as I liked but around 11am a persistent pounding and door bell ringing started at the main gate (all residences are walled and gated). When I finally heard my name being called, I found the office secretary telling me my flight was at 2p so I need to come to the office. A quick lunch and meeting with our country director and I was on the oldest double-prop plane I've ever seen heading to Khujand - which sounds nothing like it's spelled.

The guesthouse apartment in Khujand is very comfortable and "normal" and I'm sharing it with the consultant who is conducting the program final evaluation. We seem to make very good roommates. Dinner that night was with the ex-pat office director. The three of us managed to order dinner though ended up with various successes - mine was more oil than substance.

Finally to bed after a remarkably long day. (The photo is the guesthouse in Khujand - our kitchen window was the middle floor to the right of the stairwell windows).