Talking Tajik: 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.