A Cautionary Tale

Okay I meant to post this yesterday..
     Well I am here! I couldn't help but laugh to myself when we landed in Dushanbe early Thursday morning. I have been thinking about coming here since I started taking Persian classes two years ago, and now I have finally made it! I am both shocked and thrilled.

     The plane rides over here were pretty average. The only real highlight was flying right over the Hagia Sofia upon our descent into Istanbul. Staying true to myself, I picked up some McDonald's in Frankfurt and Burger King in Istanbul. Neither of these fine cuisines are available in Tajikistan.

     My host family's house is probably one of the coolest places I have ever lived. It is shaped like a traditional Tajik home, so it has a central courtyard with rooms surrounding it on all four sides. Their (for lack of a better word) compound is quaint, yet fascinating. The family grows all sorts of fruits, veggies and herbs in the courtyard, including tons of white grapes, which hang from this expansive terrace right outside my bedroom window.

     The family itself is made up of two older parents Rustam (father) and Muhabbat (mother) and their 26-year old son Dilshod. Dilshod's wife, Nasiba, also lives with them. Rustam and Muhabbat have a daughter as well, but she is married and lives with her in-laws. Also I forget her name. I know she has two young daughters of her own and one more bun in the oven. So I foresee much celebrating after the third child's birth. Everyone in the family speaks Tajik and Russian. This is perfect because my Persian competency is nowhere near my Russian at this time. Until classes start next Monday, I'm going to be sticking with Russian when communicating.

     Okay so the reason for this blog's title is as follows…

Today we met pretty early at the American Councils building and went over some orientation matters and then took a 'tour' of North Dushanbe. (As an aside, the city is cleaner, nicer and a bit more developed than I was anticipating.) We met so early though that I barely had time to wake up, eat a quick sambusa (Persian version of a samosa, but not deep fired) and have Dilshod show me how to get to the building. Thus in my morning rush, I forgot to grab a copy of my passport and Tajik visa. BIG MISTAKE.

     A word to the wise: if you're ever in a developing country and people tell you to bring copies of your passport and visa with you everywhere you go, JUST DO IT. After a full day of sampling some Tajik wares and foods, I headed home with some friends. I didn't ask my Resident Director (RD) for directions because I knew that I knew the route home. It is literally a five minute walk from the house to the main part of Dushanbe. On the way home though I began to doubt myself. I asked an elderly woman in Russian for directions and she told me I was going the right way. But then she introduced me to two cops walking by. I have no idea why she did this. She must've just hated me. Tajik police prey on foreigners, especially students.

     Anyhow, after the po-po confirmed for me again that I was going the correct way, they asked to see my passport. American Councils has my passport and visa for the next two days as they register me with the authorities and get me a SIM card for a cell phone. And I had forgotten the photocopies they made for me at home. So I was unable to produce any identifying documents for these cops. Needless to say, the flipped out. I had the angrier one call my RD and the situation was explained. I kept playing dumb with the cops, in hopes that they would just let me go. I am fairly certain they uttered some very crass words in both Tajik and Russian, but I bit back the snarky retorts floating around in my head. So finally they escorted me home and I showed them the photocopies of my documents and they went away. This whole process took about 45 minutes and the cops were all over my case the whole time, with rude remarks and looks. The fact that I had to involve my RD was not too good either. The situation was embarrassing and completely avoidable. That was Day 1 in Tajikistan.

Clearly, I have already learned a lot about daily Tajik life.

Tajik Fun Fact: Dushanbe is hosting a huge CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States) conference this week. Also the 20th anniversary of Tajik independence is next Friday. So the police are on even higher alert than usual..