Navruz

We have had two Tajik holidays since we have been here.  The first was Women's Day, and the second was Navruz.  Women's Day was nice.  It was similar to Mothers Day except it was for all girls and women.  The ladies had the day off and gave each other flowers and gifts.  I made some chocolate chip cookies for my friend, Madina and her family.

   Navruz is similar to a New Year for the Tajiks.  Madina and her two older sisters invited me to go to a concert that had traditional dancing and singing.  We left at 7:30 AM and the streets were already packed and lined with people selling food, flowers, traditional clothes and playing music.  The concert was at a huge stadium that used to be a horse track.  When we got there, hundreds of people were already inside the stadium.  One interesting thing that happened was that when the stadium started to get full, the police separated the boys and girls and made sure the girls went in first.  A few bad boys tried to push in but the police had a big German Shepherd dog that would bark and scare them to death if they tried.
   Once we were inside, the president gave a speech.  They had a huge TV screen that you could see him on.  He had several pages and it got to be a little tedious listening to a LONG speech in a different language.  Finally, the dancing started.  It was very complex and for about three to four hours there was just dance after dance and song after song.  There were times when they had hundreds of dancers on stage at one time.  All around the stage there were people with umbrellas who would open and close and turn and twist them at certain times.  There was also acrobats, musicians and people who rolled around in large wheels.
   I had a great time! It was so interesting to see a little more of the Tajiks traditions and culture.

   Taylor

Madina and her sisters

This was the stage.  There are letters on the buildings behind it that spell Navruz.

One of the dances.

  

Here is one of the times that there were hundreds of people all dancing at the same time.

Another Dance.  You can see the people with umbrellas in the back.

Our First "Christmas" in Tajikistan!-Emma

When Dad came home from work one day about two weeks ago, he brought a very special surprise with him from the mail-room. It came in the form of several large boxes full of wonderful goodies for everyone! Mom received some kitchen tools from Pampered Chef (Thank You Loren) as well as some PLASTIC cups and bowls from Tupperware. (Our kitchen floor is treacherous, we broke several of the glass bowls in the welcome kit so Mom decided to order some of our own.) Grandpa received a package from our Aunt Jill with a special little something for Grace and Ben in it. Toothpaste that wasn't spicy! We had a tough time brushing Graces teeth when all we had was the "spicy" kind. We also received a box from some really good friends of ours (Love you Giles!). It contained macaroni and cheese, canned chicken and tuna, and lots of candy goodness. But best of all, it contained hand-me-downs!!!!!!!!! I was on my last two, half-decent t-shirts and when I saw those hand-me-downs I was so excited! Everyone else in the family was excited about the boxes too but I think I was the most excited!!!! It felt like our first "Christmas" in Tajikistan, and we loved it!!!! Thank you!!!!!

A Trip Through the Mountains - Nate

Last Sunday, March 20th, we all loaded up in Dad's Land Cruiser from work.  He was going out to the mountains to check out a tunnel and brought us along.  We headed out of Dushanbe toward the North, along the Varzob River.  There were many little villages along the river.  We saw lots of decks hanging over the river with tables on them.  These low tables with benches around them are called "topchans".  My dad has eaten in the village of Varzob on a topchan that was hanging over the river.  We hope to go back and eat at one of the restaurants along the river when it gets warmer.  In one village there was a road off to the left that looked interesting.  We headed up the road and it winded its way up a mountain!!  It was very beautiful, but a little scary because on my side of the car there was a huge drop off.  The temperature dropped 5 degrees Celsius.  After coming down the mountain, we got back on the main road.  We went through a variety of tunnels before we got to "The Big One".  The tunnel's name is the Amzole Tunnel.  It is a very long tunnel through the mountain.  It was built by the country of Iran.  It was very dark, very wet, had huge icicles hanging down.  The road was bumpy and had big holes.  It took 15 minutes for us to cross through in one direction.  It was a great adventure.  On the way home, we stopped along the river to climb on the rocks and get some fresh air.  (Grace had just thrown up in the back seat).  I accidentally fell in the river when I slipped on a wet rock.  My dad cautioned me not to jump from rock to rock, I think I learned my lesson!!!  I hope to make many trips to the mountains.

The windy road up the mountain with the scary drop off.

Mountain View

The road through the mountains

A tunnel built by China

Rock climbing at the Varzob River

                                      

Firsts - Jen

I have been going to sit down to write for a week or more now, but haven't been been "up to it".  This post is titled FIRSTS, and I will mention three.

1.  I am currently in the throngs of my FIRST encounter with a syndrome we have affectionately named "The Tajik Crud"

For the past 2 weeks I have had a plethora of interesting, and annoying physical symptoms.  It began with a UTI and kidney infection (I am currently on anti-biotics), followed by a "digestion thing".  Emma has also had the pleasure of sharing in this discomfort and we have concluded that it feels like someone is wringing out your intestines like a wet rag or like the "clutching hand" from the Hardy Boys mysteries has taken hold of our stomach and won't let go.  Thankfully the pain has subsided, however, I have been  left feeling drained and achey (every joint, bone, muscle, and even my teeth hurt!!)....  so this too will pass and hopefully I will have a beefed-up immune system in the NEAR future....Emma said, "there is just something wrong with being able to feel your stomach and intestines moving around within you..." I agree..... The PA at the embassy said that the multitude of infections I am fighting is probably due to the water - we are quite diligent about washing things in our own kitchen, but we do eat out occasionally and ironically, showering here  introduces all kinds of bacteria into your system.....

2.  My FIRST debut into the Diplomatic Community

Last week was Tajik Military Day celebrating 18 years of the Tajik Military's existence.  Joe and I attended a Dinner with the Tajik Ministry of Defense, a reception at the Russian Embassy, and a concert.  Big week for me.  Overall it was a very fun and interesting.  The Attache' community is not what I was anticipating.  The only wife I have met is the Chinese Attache's wife.  She doesn't speak any English  and I don't speak any Chinese so there is a lot of smiling and nodding, but overall she seems quite nice.  So far, I think she has communicated to me that she does not like here and she does not want to go to lunch with me!!!  I had asked her husband to ask her if she would like to go to lunch - Joe thinks maybe something was lost in translation....so no lunch date..  The French Attache' is here alone, the British Attache lives in Tashkent, Uzbekistan and only comes here for business, the Attache' from Kyrgyzstan is here without his wife, the Iranian is here without his wife, the Afghan has a wife, whom I have not seen, the Indian and his wife have been out of the country, so I have not met them.   So back to the Chinese....no lunch date....our entertaining aspirations will have to be thought through.

The reception at the Russian Embassy was very nice.  A night of mingling, exchanging cards, trying to figure out who is who, etc....  there were some who intentionally avoided Joe!!  It was like a game of moving around the room, turning your back at just the right moment, pretending you don't see one another, etc...  a mixture of scary and comical for me. I felt a distinct cordial disdain from the assistant Russian Attache's.  Having people not like you is a very uncomfortable feeling.  Once again, as my Russian is limited to the days of the week, shapes, colors, numbers, and a few animals, I was not able to engage in any intelligent conversation.  It is amazing how much you can pick up by knowing a few cognates and by watching peoples faces, etc... our biggest claim to fame for the evening was the fact that we have seven children...

3.  My FIRST batch of Tajik Chocolate Chip Cookies
Well, our belongings are still "out there" somewhere.  Last we heard the air shipment was on the border of Russia and Kazakhstan (Why? - not sure) Grace asks daily if we can bake a cake.  Due to the fact that the only oven safe pan we currently have in our possession is the broiler pan Tanya has generously lent us, there has been no cake baking.  We did, however, successfully whip up a batch of pretty good cookies.  I wrote out the Russian for "baking soda", "baking powder", and "vanilla", on a card and sent Nate to the little store and sure enough, Husvakt had everything we needed!!!  I am telling you that place is amazing.  It is a little bigger than the walk in closet in my house, but so well organized and stocked, that you can get almost everything you want or need.  There isn't any brown sugar here and no molasses, so they weren't awesome, but with a Ritter Sport Milk Chocolate bar chopped up for chips, not bad!

All in all we are starting to feel more at home all the time.

Love to you all,  Jen

Going to School - Taylor

Dear All,


   I have had a unforgettable experience since I last wrote.  About four weeks ago, I met I sixteen year old Tajik girl named Medina who lives in our neighborhood.  She is determined to "learn me Russian" and I like helping her learn some English.  I have been going to her house several times a week and we have quickly become friends.  One day she invited me to come to her Tajik school.  The kids here go to school half days Monday through Saturday.  So at eight o'clock Saturday Madina and I walked to school.  It was....interesting to say the least.
   They had four classes, each an hour long and half an hour for recess.  The first class was English.  In English class they were talking about holidays.  The teacher asked me to talk about Thanksgiving.  I don't think anyone really got what Thanksgiving was about even after I had finished talking.  The second class was Russian.  The Russian teacher had a stick that she banged on peoples desks to get their attention and even used on a boy who was messing around!  During recess, the boys played basketball while the girls sat on a bench and talked.  I think the third class was Language Arts but I couldn't really tell.  The fourth class was Math.  The math teacher also had a long stick.  There was absolutely, positively no messing around in math class!  I really enjoyed going to the school.  It was a neat and unforgettable cultural experience.


   Taylor