Talking Tajik: November 2011

So despite having been in the same small city for two and a half months and not being allowed to leave the country until December (according to my visa), I somehow managed to do a bunch of new things this past week. Where to begin...

Oh, early last week we had a huge snowstorm. It snowed for about a day and a half straight. The first day was fun because it was everyone's first time seeing snow in Tajikistan. The next day wasn't as fun, because everything just kind of turned to slush or ice overnight. Also I'm pretty sure Dushanbe is even worse at handling snow than Philly or DC is. Really anytime it precipitates here, people just kind of run for cover and hunker down to wait out the storm. That's what happened on Tuesday and Wednesday. No one salted the roads and no one shoveled the sidewalks and no one plowed the roads. To make things trickier, there are a ton of gigantic trees that line Rudaki Street (the main street in Dushanbe). So as the snow melted in the trees, chunks of it would fall on to random unsuspecting passersby. I was fell victim to the falling snow drifts not once, but twice. All this made for quite an interesting (perilous) couple days on the roads and sidewalks.

This past Friday brought further unexpected excitement in the form of a FIFA World Cup qualifying match. Tajikistan's national team was scheduled to play Japan's national team as part of the preliminary rounds leading up to the World Cup in Brazil in 2014. In case anyone hasn't gotten it, I'm talking about soccer. So anyhow, we only found out the game was being played a few hours before it started. Everyone was really pumped and we all made our way over to the stadium. This game was only a big deal to us because it was being played in Dushanbe. The Tajik team is terrible and their field is in such bad condition that the Japanese team almost didn't participate. The first time Tajikistan and Japan played a few months ago, the Tajiks lost 8-0. So Friday's 4-0 loss for Tajikistan was actually a little more promising.

At first, we thought we wouldn't be able to get in, as a number of riot police (yes, there were riot police holding back the ~50 people trying to enter) told us the tickets were sold out. Thanks to my friend Amanda's persistence though, we eventually were let in by one guard. When the guard's friend questioned him, all he said in Tajiki was "Foreigners! Foreigners!" Our first perk for being Americans in Central Asia couldn't have come at a better time. The stadium was packed and the atmosphere was surprisingly similar to a pro sports game in the USA. People were doing the wave and sarcastically cheering for Japan each time they scored a goal. At the end of the game, they raffled off a car. The thing looked like it was built in the 1950's, but everyone was still excited about it. Unfortunately, I wasn't eligible to win as I didn't have a ticket. All in all, the game was a pretty awesome experience.

On Saturday, we went to this place called Korvon. It's basically just twenty bazaars all in one. The bazaar that puts all other bazaars to shame. We all had a great time pushing through crowds, haggling in Persian, and eventually coming away with some pretty cool purchases. As I'm sure you can imagine, the traffic to get in and out of Korvon is a nightmare. Well, really all traffic in Tajikistan is a nightmare, but the area around Korvon was particularly dicey. There was some extreme gridlock and sort of just one continuous chorus of car horns. Thus, we had our marshrutka (Tajik vans that act as insanely cheap public transportation) drop us off at a Uighur restaurant nearby. We ate lunch there and then dove into the chaos of Korvon. It was a great time. A very authentic experience.

Yesterday American Councils organized a trip to the local zurkhoneh for the group. A zurkhoneh is a traditional Iranian gymnasium where Persian men would typically go to wrestle and lift large weights (in the form of giant clubs). Zurkhonehs are not popular in Tajikistan and they're losing popularity in Iran as well. This ancient sport is dying out, so it made our trip that much more intriguing. Also, all of us are just pretty into Persian culture. Really we'd go anywhere we could to soak in some bona fide displays of Iranian culture. The Persian guys at the zurkhoneh put on a sort of exhibition of various zurkhoneh activities. Later we got to try to lift some of the weights and learn the proper techniques. The whole visit to the zurkhoneh was pretty fun and not something I thought I'd be able to see while in Tajikistan.

The only other bit of news to report is that I have a new peer tutor. Azimjon was just not cutting it, as far as interesting and useful Persian conversations go. He is married with a kid and never leaves his house, except to go to his classes. Azimjon is about 25 years old, but in American years, that's like 40. So he wasn't super helpful for practicing conversing with a Persian youth. My new peer tutor is named Hani. She is from Tehran and is only here to go to school. I meet with her with my friend Amanda about twice a week. Hani likes to take us to various social hotspots in Dushanbe and also talks about things we can relate to or that matter to us. The best part is that she has a Tehrani accent, which is the accent I eventually hope to learn. It isn't very different from regular Farsi, but there are a few subtleties I'm trying to pick up. Anyhow, I'm very glad I switched tutors.

I'd say this past week was unexpectedly tons of fun.

There are some pictures below to help illustrate my anecdotes.

^ snowy Wednesday on Rudaki Street

^ outside of the stadium; where our foreigner privilege came in handy

^ the most Tajiks I've seen in one place so far

^ the field was not up to Japan's standards

^ an injury

^ I asked a Tajik man to take a picture of us with the field in the background. He didn't tell us to smile. At least there's a really lovely shot of the chairs.

^ more football

^ the car that was being raffled off

^ the zurkhoneh

^ where the judge/referee would sit

^ juggling ridiculously heavy weights

^ everyone was shocked I could lift the 35-pound club

^ further zurkhoneh activities

^ ferris wheel in the middle of a random amusement park that we stumbled upon

So when I last left this blog, I was running to dinner. It is a good thing I did. My host sister, who has her own house and family, recently gave birth to a baby boy. That dinner, two weeks ago, was the baby's 40th day of life celebration. We had a huge feast at our house. It was really nice to feel like a part of the family. It was especially nice, because I had already missed the circumcision party for this kid (I went to a restaurant one night and no one told me I should just come home for the party). Also, I get the feeling that everyone is really happy the kid was born a boy. My host sister already had two daughters (8 and 10) and now she finally managed to make a boy. People are pretty stoked. So that's good.

Last weekend American Councils sponsored a trip for us to Cheluchar Chashma (literally in Tajiki: 44 Springs). The road trip there was relaxing. It's always nice to shake things up and get out of the city for a day. On the way to the springs, we stopped at a small bazaar and a historical monument/madrasah/mausoleum. Both were not super interesting. The real highlight of the trip came about halfway to the springs, when one of our two vehicles broke down. All ten of us had to squish into one van. Everyone was rather displeased, but I thought it was hilarious. Once we finally reached the springs, we had a pretty standard Tajik lunch. Cheluchar Chashma itself looked like a very relaxing place to spend an afternoon. Unfortunately for us, the rainy season hit Tajikistan about a week prior to our trip. So the weather was dreadful all day and we didn't stay in any one place very long.

I still thought the excursion day was a good time, despite the weather. When we got back to Dushanbe, the group had our monthly dinner at a fancy restaurant. American Councils pays for one of these each month for us. We went to this Chinese restaurant in Hotel Tajikistan. The food was quite close to the Chinese food I am used to back in the USA. So that was a great surprise, and we all ate like kings (or should I say we ate like shahs?).

Since then, I've been actively trying to do new things within Dushanbe. A while ago, my friend Emily and I went to the National Zoo. It's the kind of place that you see once and never forget. The zoo is pretty poorly kept. If PETA ever got wind of the place, they would go nuts. Many of the largest animals were in some of the smallest cages, with very little room to move around. You could tell the animals were underfed. Every time we approached a new cage, the critter would get way too excited for animals that are living in a zoo in Tajikistan. There was the typical line-up of lions, bears, camels and monkeys. But the other cages were mostly filled with stray cats, dogs, rabbits and other farm animals. It was a weird and sad place. Nonetheless I'm glad we went.

A few days ago, my professor for my Conversation class took us to the National Mosque. It was interesting for us, because we had been studying the history and parts of a mosque in class. We went on a Friday afternoon, which is when Tajik mosques are typically at their most crowded. We waited for about twenty minutes to enter. We arrived right when the daily prayers were ending and had to stand there and watch every Tajik man and their brother exit the mosque, until we were able to go inside. It took a while. There are a lot of Tajiks. Finally we got in to the outdoor courtyard for a look. It was super ornate and very beautiful. I got to see the inside of the mosque too, what with me being a guy and all. The whole place was very interesting and made for another nice afternoon.

Please excuse me for reporting some real world news right now, but I think the mosque situation in Tajikistan is pretty interesting. The Tajik government is not very interested in legislating policies that appease Muslims in the country. If anything, they've alienated a lot of Tajik Muslims by restricting their religious freedom. Hillary Clinton discussed this matter with President Rahmon when she visited Tajikistan a few weeks ago. The Tajik government has already banned all women and children from attending services at any mosque. And now, armed with a new financial partnership with Qatar, Tajikistan is looking to build a new, ridiculously huge national mosque in the next few years. The mosque will be able to hold almost every Muslim man within the greater Dushanbe area, and the government will undoubtedly mandate that all Dushanbe men pray only in that mosque. I'm mostly explaining this because I don't want everyone back home thinking that the Tajik government's relationship with Islam is all chummy. Tajikistan is not like Iran, or Saudi Arabia, or any other Muslim country in the region. Tajikistan still has problems surrounding Islam, but they are pretty unique compared to other places.

And now for some lighter holiday news: Though Tajiks don't celebrate Halloween, American Councils bought a bunch of pumpkins for their students to carve and put around the office. I carved the Tajik crest on one side and the Iranian crest on the other side of my pumpkin. Pretty nerdy, but it made for a fun after-class activity. Also, this weekend we have a four day break from classes. It turns out that this year Eidi Qorbon (sacrifice day) occurs on the same day as Constitution Day. So I don't have classes on Monday (today) or Tuesday. No one really does anything for Constitution Day, but Eidi Qorbon is a big big deal in Tajikistan.

Eidi Qorbon commemorates the story in the Bible where Abraham was about to sacrifice his son, but then he sacrificed a goat instead. We've heard the longer version of the story from people, but that's the basic gist. There are actually a few different Eid's throughout the year, but I think only two of them are celebrated in Tajikistan. For the actual day, which was yesterday, a lot of families choose to buy a goat or a sheep and butcher it on Eid and bring around the meat to their friends. Typically families are either hosting a stream of guests all day and feeding everyone till they drop, or they are going from house to house as guests and getting stuffed. Luckily, my host family chose to stuff others yesterday. Before our guests came over, I went to my Grammar professor's house with some friends and ate way too much. By the time I came back home, some of our guests were already over. It was really interesting meeting my host family's friends from around the city. We all looked at old pictures and watched old home videos together. It's reassuring to be reminded that people are pretty much the same anywhere you go in the world.

Also, while the rest of the world fell back one hour yesterday, Tajikistan did not. Tajikistan doesn't recognize daylight savings. I don't know the real reason why, but it's probably some combination of ignoring the Western world and lacking the ability to notify everyone in the hinterlands about the change.

I'm not sure what's on tap for today, but tomorrow American Councils is taking us to a Tajik comedy play. Details to follow.

More pictures below.