New Years Extravaganza

Well, here we are in 2010, and the transition was quite an event. We got out of work an hour early and by the time I got home, there were firecrackers going off all over the neighborhood. I parked the car under the overhang to protect it from errant fireballs. Our security officer told us to avoid the local celebration at the plaza in front of the parliament building because things have been known to get crazy around midnight.

We figured it would be safe to go down early and check out the scene before things got going, so we went down with some friends to take a gander. It was a fairly impressive set-up and even at 7:30 it was already getting crowded, like a little Times Square in Dushanbe. I was impressed to see that they had actually set up controlled access and were patting people down, etc... before they entered. There was no place to set up my camera but I managed to get a few good shots.

As we walked past the park there were amateur fireworks going off everywhere. Probably quite dangerous, but definitely very festive. Later, as we were all walking over to take the bus to a friend's house, it was like passing through a war zone with firecrackers going off non-stop. The bus wasn't any quieter as it seemed kids had taken over and were throwing firecrackers out the window at people.

Nonetheless, we made it safely to our friend's house where we enjoyed good drinks, good food, and good company. My friend's wife is from Kazakhstan and her mother, who is visiting, brought some smoked horse meat. Another first for me, and quite good. The evening was made even more exciting by the fact that the neighbors were shooting fireworks over the wall. It was like having our own private show. Looking out the upstairs window, we could see it was pretty much the same all over the city.

After counting down the new year, we all gathered 'round for a rousing set of karaoke and before we knew it I had lost my voice and it was pushing 4 am. The streets were pretty much empty at that point, but luckily, the roving patrol happened upon us and gave us a much appreciated ride home.

New Year's day was pretty much a wash, but we did have some friends over for a New Year's ham, courtesy of my sister and cooked by Stephanie. It was a wonderful change of pace from beef and chicken. We spent the rest of the evening playing Blokus and watching E.T. On Saturday, it was time to get my hair cut. And in addition to the usual fingers in my ear and blowing on my neck, I was treated to an old beggar man coming in and letting loose a stream of 'prose' until the barber gave him some money. The speech was in Tajik so I didn't understand anything besides 'New Year', but it was still interesting to watch.

Saturday afternoon, I went for a hash for the first time in awhile. This was a fun one despite getting my foot wet while trying to cross a small river, and an encounter with Cujo's Tajik cousin. We were running up this steep hill and this scary dog was standing on a wall over us snarling and barking, and slobbering. I was relieved when he didn't pounce on us, but then the little girl who lived with him opened the door and let him out. We all froze, and fortunately, the girl got the hint and dragged him back in. Fortunately after that, the run was uneventful, except for some more great scenery. When the weather improves, I have a long list of places to go hiking. But now it's Sunday and I'm not quite able to come to terms with the idea of having to work an entire 5 days, but at least we have a few more hours to enjoy.