Talking Tajik: Tajik Thanksgiving and Subsequent Shenanigans

Sorry I haven't updated the blog for some time. I've been waiting for the excitement to pile up to an uncontainable level. What with the semester winding down, however, there honestly haven't been too many new thrills in my day-to-day. Past alumni told us to be prepared to fall into a somewhat monotonous routine as the harsh cold really settles in, and that has certainly been the case. I don't really mind having a regular routine, but it just doesn't leave too much space for crazy blog-worthy experiences. It's getting pretty cold here. The rain and snow and perpetually low temperatures wouldn't be such a challenge if there was at least central heating in Tajikistan. Alas, there is no such heating. A lot of buildings, including my room at my host family, are just as cold as outside. So basically it feels like I'm just outside all the time. I don't think I've ever bundled up in so many sweatshirts and socks before. When I take a step back though, it's kind of funny. Everyone is just constantly wearing as many layers as possible.

I've been trying to keep an open mind and see the humorous aspects of an entire city of people bundled to such extremes. Except it gets a little more difficult to laugh about when the power goes out. Part of winter in Tajikistan is growing accustomed to random, periodic blackouts. Usually these are government-approved and used as a rationing technique, even in the capital city. Last week, however, the city experienced an unapproved blackout. Apparently a massive pole/structure that supports a bunch of important wires fell down and broke a lot of the wires. This resulted in the entire north half of the city (where I live, eat and take classes) losing power for about 3 or 4 hours in the late afternoon. At least that is what I managed to learn from my host father's report. So yea, this blackout was not so funny. The power didn't come back until well after the sun went down, so everyone was pretty cold. I just went home, put on a bunch of layers and slept until it was over. In my opinion, sleep is the best solution to any longterm power outage in Central Asia. It's either that, or go crazy.

Okay so since I haven't posted in a while, I guess I'll recap our Tajik Thanksgiving festivities. Basically, we all drank way too much and ended up in Tajik prison. No, I'm totally kidding. Just wanted to spice up the blog. In reality, we just had a nice big meal with all of our peers and professors. Classes were cancelled for the actual day of Thanksgiving, but we all came to American Councils anyhow for the 'feast.' One of the drivers for American Councils is also really good chef, so he whipped us up a massive wok of osh (national dish of Tajikistan; pictured below) with turkey and cranberries. It was good. Not great, but good. American Councils also provided us with some pies from a local cafe. The apple one was alright, the pumpkin one tasted nothing like pumpkin pie. I guess such desserts are best consumed in America.

Thanksgiving Day was also Flag Day for Tajikistan. Everyone still had school and work, but there was a mini parade and everyone on the street had little Tajik flags. As an aside, I don't think I've written about this yet, but everyone (American Councils students) in Tajikistan has class/work six days a week. Sunday is the only real weekend day. There's no religious reason behind it or anything. It's just how the Tajik government wants the country to operate. It's kind of ironic, actually, as Tajikistan is the poorest and most underdeveloped of all former Soviet states. Even the extremely backwards Turkmenistan is more prosperous. And three of their months are named after melons.

So anyhow, I tried to explain Thanksgiving to my host family, which you'd think would be easy given that I'm their thirteenth host student. But no, it was pretty difficult. I realized he holiday's sort of tricky to explain anyhow because Thanksgiving itself stems from historical events, yet Americans barely do anything else other than getting together and eat a lot. So from there a lot of confusion arose. Almost all Tajik holidays come from the Quran or from National pride. Tajik holidays aren't really as secular as American ones though. Eventually, I think my host family caught on to the idea of Thanksgiving. But explaining it turned into quite an ordeal.

This past Saturday was our first American Councils-sanctioned event since Thanksgiving. We took a tour of the National Beer Factory. It was eye-opening to say the least. The complex was built by the Soviets and hasn't really been updated since Tajikistan stopped being part of the Soviet Union. Tons of windows were missing. The wheat room was crawling with pigeons. Our tour guide kept singing the praises of how this beer factory relies on 'human power' over computers. So all these things were a little unsettling. At the end of the tour they gave us all some beer. We had to finish the beer they gave us, because it would've offended them if we didn't. The beer was pretty bad though. Like really bad. Like the worst beer I've ever tried. So a word to the wise: when in Dushanbe, stick to foreign beers.

After the beer factory we went to an Afghan Osh House. Afghan osh is different from Tajik osh in some really delicious ways. The Afghans use basmati rice, raisins and far less oil. The meal was surprisingly good, given that our Resident Director had us expecting to eat slop for lunch. I'd definitely recommend Afghan osh over Tajik osh.

So there are only a few more tidbits to report. First, my peer tutor, Hani, left for Iran about a week ago and she won't be back for another week. She went to a friend's wedding and is extending her trip because someone close to her is about to have a baby. So by the time Hani returns, I'll only have a week to spend with her. It's kind of a bummer, but at least she'll be back before I leave for winter break.

Also, since I figure it's on everyone's mind, I'll give you the Tajik fried chicken evaluation. There are three main fried chicken/fast food chains in Dushanbe: Southern Fried Chicken (SFC), New York Fried Chicken (NYFC) and Кантр'и (Country). SFC is widely considered to be the finest of the three, but in my opinion NYFC takes the cake. Everyone agrees that Кантр'и is the worst though. SFC is the biggest chain, but that's sort of the problem. Too many little kids and families. And they don't even have a spicy chicken sandwich there. NYFC, since it's right next to SFC and is considered to be of lower quality, is still fairly unfrequented by locals. So the atmosphere is more tame and the food just tastes better. Кантр'и has no atmosphere and really average food. So there you have it. The Dushanbe fried chicken report.

On that fascinating note, I'll end this post. Thanks for reading. I'll post at least once more before the semester ends. Lots of pictures below. In no particular order at all.