It's Getting Hot In Here!

I finished the week with a pleasant change of pace. I travelled with a colleague in the Public Diplomacy department to give a speech about Earth Day to a group of university students in the town of Kulob - about a three hour drive from Dushanbe.

We left town early and it was a very pleasant drive.

Springtime is really spectacular in Tajikistan, having arrived in August, we've never seen it in bloom. I was able to get a few good pictures, including shots of the Nurek reservoir.

Kulob itself doesn't seem all that distinguished from anything else we've seen, but I didn't really have time to explore. We did see this neat monument downtown:

After a nice lunch at the university cafeteria (one room in an outbuilding), we set up the projector and I gave my little presentation. These types of talks can be hit or miss because many students just come to hear someone speaking English, which is fine, but don't really comprehend what is going on.

I was fortunate to have a very attentive audience that asked some really good questions. They also seemed excited about the possibility of doing something to improve the environmental conditions in Tajikistan and were already planning to organize a trash clean-up for Earth Day by the time I was done. All in all, it was a big success. I'm scheduled to give the same presentation at some other venues over the next two weeks. All part of the big Greening Diplomacy Initiative that's underway in the State Department.

The ride back to Dushanbe was equally pleasant, with hills covered in purple flowers and even a herd of goats.

It was really nice to get out of the office and not worry about running the embassy for a day.

On Saturday, Stephanie and I headed out to the Green Bazaar to buy some flower pots. While there, we also found something that we think is rhubarb. We also got hit with a preview of summer. We went to the bazaar around 10:30 and by 11 it was already blazing hot. I think it was only in the 80s, so I can't wait for summer when it's over 100!

We came home and had lunch and then went out to try to start our garden. The soil here is pretty tough so I'm not terribly optimistic. We'll also be in Italy soon so we're hoping our cleaning lady will be willing to come by to water everything. I thought about waiting until we get back, but I think it will be too hot by then. We'll see what happens. At least the bulbs I moved to pots during the winter are thriving. They look like they might bloom any day - I'll post pictures when they do.

Today (Sunday) was much more pleasant, so Stephanie and I set up speakers in the porch windows and set up our lawn chairs and a table in the shade and spent most of the day outside snacking and reading and listening to music. The forecast was for rain all day (90% chance) but the sky was an amazing clear blue. There have been big puffy clouds on the horizon all day, so maybe the rain will come later. For now, the weekend is winding down and another busy week is on the horizon.