Man Day

Yesterday was a national holiday in Tajikistan. Everyone still had to go to school and work, but it was a holiday nonetheless. The city was decked out with the customary propaganda reminding citizens to observe the date. Every February 23 Tajikistan celebrates Tajik National Army Day. In Russia it's called Defender of the Motherland Day. I think the whole thing started in 1918 or 1919 when a bunch of citizens (comrades) were first drafted into the Soviet Army during the Russian Civil War. The stories I was hearing from my host family and professors didn't match up perfectly, but that's what I managed to glean from these conversations.

Anyhow, Tajik National Army Day is basically just a day to celebrate soldiers and veterans. I'm not quite sure how, but at some point Tajiks broadened the definition to just include all Tajik men. Thus February 23 has essentially become Man Day. Though the 'holiday' sounds a little ridiculous, I think it is supposed to be the response to International Women's Day. Woman Day is celebrated on March 8. We even get off from school for that one. So though Man Day seems like some diffuse and arbitrary social construct, it kind of makes sense.

Last night, to celebrate, my family and I had a heaping platter of Osh. In case anyone has forgotten, Osh is the big communal rice dish, drenched in oil and topped with fat, that everyone eats with their hands. Do the Tajiks know how to have a good time, or what? At the end of the meal, my host mom made a nice toast to my host dad, host brother and myself. She even gave me a small gift. After the toast we had the usual gigantic cake that has become a bit of a fixture at every holiday meal. It was a nice night. I asked if this meant that the men had to cook a large meal on Woman Day. I've never heard my host family laugh so hard. Tajik men don't cook. We finished the evening by watching a movie about Russian terrorists. It may sound strange, but I'm really beginning to acquire quite a proficiency in low-budget movies about organized crime in Russia. My host dad can't get enough of that stuff.

So that was Man Day. Only 364 days till the next one!

Other than observing the holiday, not much went on this week. My old peer tutor has left the country. I met my new one for about thirty seconds the other day. Her name is Maryam and seems pretty cool. 

Also English class went really well this week. We talked about Los Angeles and changed the structure of the class to be far more interactive. There was a lot more participation this week. I don't really think anyone's proficiency is going to sky-rocket, but at least we're providing students with a hospitable environment for practicing their language skills. I feel good about where the class is heading.

Alright that's about it. Just one picture below.

Two days (according to my host dad) until spring springs!

^ some serious icicles hanging from the neighbor's roof today; that little blue door on the left is our front door

The Doldrums

And February drags ever on and on. Since I was a little kid, my dad and I have always agreed that February is the most boring month of the year. Football is over and Spring Training is yet to begin. Thus I give you, the Doldrums.

Now some people may read this post and think I am just not taking advantage of the plethora of opportunities by which I am surrounded on a daily basis. Such a person, however, must be reminded that I am in Tajikistan for an entire academic year. There is bound to be a stretch here and there that is utterly dull. I resent the fact that there is so much pressure on students to absolutely fall in love with all aspects of their experience abroad. Even after five months, life in Tajikistan is hard. That's not to say I hate it here. I am just looking to explain the title and overall tone of this blog entry.

Now then, I will try my hardest to make this post interesting. I explained to my mom only a few hours ago that there is no way to make the events of my past two weeks sound interesting. Then, after a considerable amount of thought, I decided to accept the challenge of making the tedious sound entertaining. So here we go.

Two weeks ago, I went to one of the few shopping centers in Dushanbe that I had still not explored. It had the same people peddling the same wares that are everywhere. This center did have one unique aspect though. The Саодат Supermarket is home to the one and only escalator in the entire Republic of Tajikistan. Having been in place for a while now, most city folk understand how the mechanism works. The intriguing part is watching out-of-towners take their first ever ride on an escalator. It's somewhat amusing, but also just sort of fascinating. 

I doubt very much that anyone I know in America could recall the tale of their first escalator ride. I discussed this idea with my host mother, who has only ever ridden an escalator a few times. I attempted to convey to her just how ubiquitous escalators are in the US, especially in a major city like DC. I'd imagine my host mom would be more than a little nervous riding any DC metro escalator. Anyhow, after explaining that escalators are incredibly common in the US, my host mother got a little defensive of her homeland. She wisely pointed out that Tajikistan is only twenty years old and already has one escalator. She asked me how many escalators existed in the US when it was twenty. The point was well taken. Tajikistan is obviously flourishing.

Somewhere in the last two weeks, one of my host family's former host students came for a visit. Out of the blue, he called the house during the middle of our dinner  and asked if he could stop by in ten minutes. One cannot get any more Tajik. My host family welcomed the student with open arms. Everyone was speaking in loud, fast Russian for about two hours, but in between conversations I got to talk to the former student in English. Apparently he was around Dushanbe in the first or second year that American Councils started its program here. It was strange speaking English in the eating area. In my mind, that space is always a strict Persian (or Russian) zone. So it was just odd breaking the trend. The guy was pretty cool and had an interesting past. He was in the same position that I am currently in when he studied in Tajikistan (junior in college, substantial funding, vague plans for the future). The whole experience made for a unique and pleasant evening.

This past weekend was a three day weekend. Though President's Day is not observed at American University in Washington, DC, American Councils wanted to make sure we observed the solemn day while studying in Tajikistan. What with it being February and all, the Doldrums were in full swing this weekend. The only highlights are as follows:

-On Sunday, Amanda and I went to see a movie in 5D. I honestly don't understand where they got the extra two dimensions from, but the experience was surprisingly entertaining. For the equivalent of three dollars, we got to take a virtual roller coaster ride for about five minutes. We went into this tiny theater with only four seats. There were handles to hold on to while the seats moved and some water was occasionally sprayed in our faces. We had to wear special 5D glasses too. I can't do the experience justice with this description. Just suffice it to say it was three dollars well spent.

-On Monday (yesterday), Amanda and I met with our peer tutor, Hani. Our friend Chris and his peer tutor, Saaid, who is Hani's best friend, also joined us. The meeting was sort of a going away party for Hani. Apparently she has some family matters to attend to back in Tehran. She's putting her last semester of study off until the Fall to go home and help out. I was honestly pretty bummed by the news. Hani has become a good friend.

In other news, the English class I'm teaching at American Corner is going fine. Amanda and I have already introduced DC, New York, and Chicago to the Tajik students. Everyone seems to be enjoying the class.

Also, yesterday at lunch I ordered a parfait-looking desert from the fridge at this Iranian restaurant. The waitress asked me if I wanted it with an egg. I was confused, but said sure. When it came it was literally just a cup of yogurt with chocolate syrup and nuts in the middle. And a raw egg on top. It was strange, and tasted pretty bad. But when in Dushanbe..

Hope I managed to make this blog post at least slightly compelling.

Sorry no pictures this time. Just a video of some Tajiks trying to ride the Саодат escalator. On YouTube, the description says the video is from Uzbekistan. But it's really from Taj.

Here's to hoping February passes quickly and takes all this winter weather along with it!

Winter Wanderings and Wonderings

So Tajikistan is unfathomably cold. With no heat, a city full of frozen pipes, and no salt for the sidewalks, Dushanbe is definitely in the thick of winter. The authorities have temporarily shut down public schools across the country due to the extreme cold. That means that this week the only kids going to class are local kindergarteners (because, by law, kindergarten classes must be heated) and all eight American Councils students. Today finally got over 20 degrees Fahrenheit, though. So I guess I can't get too down. The funniest part is that every Tajik seems to think that spring is right around the corner. On February 1, my host father told me that in 25 days, spring will have sprung. That means, according to Rustam, spring in Dushanbe comes on February 26. Not to be outdone by my host father's quirkiness, one of my professors told me yesterday that spring will start next week. I don't know how, but even though there has been a thick sheet of ice covering every sidewalk for the last ten days, the locals seem stubbornly optimistic.

Despite the fact that I dread being outdoors right now, I still have to go to school. We are already into the second week of classes and I am pleased to report that thing are going smoothly. My friend Amanda and I have also begun teaching our English class at American Corner, Dushanbe. Every Friday we now meet with about thirty local Tajiks and try to improve their English language skills. Last class, the students ranged from high schoolers to  forty-somethings. We gave a presentation on Washington, DC and tried to gauge everyone's proficiency levels in English. Each week we are going to introduce the class to a different major American city. Last Friday was Washington. This Friday will be New York. That's pretty much the extent of the class's structure. There's no homework, but also no real incentive for students to show up every week, except for the obvious desire to learn today's lingua franca.

Besides the bitter cold and a full load of classes, my peers and I have been trying to find new activities to do around the city. This task gets harder and harder every week. Last weekend, however, was a minor success story. It snowed a ton last Friday. So on Saturday my friends and I wanted to stay indoors. We did some light shopping at the clothes bazaar (no one bought anything), grabbed some kabobs at the Iranian place and rolled over to Hotel Tajikistan for the screening of a documentary. The film was well attended by the ex-pat community and proved to be an enjoyable experience. The subject of the documentary was a small, isolated art museum in the desert of Eastern Uzbekistan. During the Soviet era, a lot of art was banned from being shown, so this one collector gathered thousands on contraband artwork and displayed them in the farthest corner of the USSR. That may sound a bit drab, but the two-hour film held my interest the whole time. If nothing else, the night was at least out of the ordinary.

On Sunday, I met my friends Chris and Amanda again. We went for lunch at this Uighur restaurant that we like. After a filling meal, we made our way to the hills that surround Dushanbe. Earlier in the week, we bought two inner tubes (one with the Yankees logo and one from Ohio State - naturally) and we were anxious to see how well they would work as sleds. The result was overwhelmingly positive. We romped around in the hills, getting covered in snow, for about two hours. The view of the city from the hills was a lot nicer than I expected. After my unsuccessful attempt to start a snowball fight, we took one last ride down the slope and made our way back to American Councils for some piping hot coffee. It was another day well spent.

Other than that not too much has been going on. I'm already falling into a pretty dry routine of home to class to home. I am confident, however, that the weather and my routine will both change in the coming weeks (maybe even by February 26). 

I've at least had some pretty intriguing chats with my host family as of late. One night we discussed the phenomenon of being left-handed in Tajikistan. Basically, no one older than 25 is left-handed here. During the Soviet era, it wasn't allowed. While students in Tajik public schools today are allowed to choose their handedness the way we do in the US, many religious families still associate left-handedness with sinful behavior. The reason for that was not clearly explained. One of the Tajik students in my English class asked where I learned to write with my left hand, and that's what sparked the whole discussion with my host family. 

Also, according to my host family and other Tajiks I've spoken to, there are some very drastic differences in the ways that American children and Tajik children grow up (other than the obvious, superficial, quality-of-life kind of stuff). Tajiks get married and have kids way earlier than most Americans do. The average age of marriage is about 20 here and it's expected that babies follow soon after a new marriage. This I already knew, but I've heard from a few different sources that Americans gain a stronger sense of self-confidence and personal identity well before the typical Tajik. Apparently many Tajiks are taken aback by how easily American students converse with people who are much older. We're also a lot more carefree, but still more ambitious, than most Tajiks our age. So basically from a young age, Tajik youths worry about starting a family, while American youths look outside of personal relationships for their main motivation in life. At least this is what the Tajiks say. I found it interesting. Hence me writing it here.

Well that's about it. Except for the fact that the food here is somehow more unappetizing than I remember. I've already had more than my fair share of oil, animal fat, and beets. The family has been feeding me this one strange vegetable though that's really tasty. The Tajiki name for it is турб, which literally translates to radish, but it's not the kind of radish you'd think. It's like a huge, green, super bitter radish. Tajiks shred it and pepper it and eat it as a side dish. I'm really into it.

Also happy birthday to my grandma! Wish I could've been there to celebrate! I also wish you could've reveled in the glory of a Giants Superbowl loss. Next year for sure.

Once again, thanks for reading. Pictures below and updates to follow.

^graveyard in the background; probably not the most appropriate place for romping

^nonetheless, we romped

 ^snow tubing gets rough..

^a tiring day, indeed