Adventures with Bread Knives and Baba Ganoush

So here we are on the first day of August and there's some cautious optimism that the worst heat of summer may be over (at least according to some of our local staff). We have had a couple of very unseasonal rain showers this week and it has been a bit cooler, but I'm not holding my breath. When we got here at the end of August last year, the temperatures were above 110 degrees!

Stephanie and I continue to both be very busy with work, but we've managed to work some fun in as well. On Friday we had a little date night and tried a restaurant near our house that we hadn't visited before. It turned out to have very good food and some of the most pleasant service we've seen so far.

One unfortunate remnant of the Soviet Union is that many places still fail to see customer services as an important component of a successful business. It's a bit bizarre given the high level of hospitality we receive when visiting someone's home, but I understand that during the Soviet Union, customers didn't really have much choice as to where to go so there was no need to woo them. But again, this particular restaurant was excellent and we definitely plan to go back.

Most of our free time this week was dedicated to preparing for the 'Garden Party' we hosted on Saturday. Our garden has grown in leaps and bounds and is rapidly overflowing it's borders, so we decided to have some folks over and share the 'fruits of our labor' in the form of zucchini bread, roasted patty-pan squash and fresh zucchini sticks. Obviously, that would have been a bit spare by itself so we added bruschetta, anchovy tapenade, hummus, baba ganoush, sugar cookies, spicy honey roasted nuts, other veggies, meats and cheeses, and, (inspired by our recent trip to Spain), homemade sangria.

The prep was fairly easy for the two of us although we did have a small mishap Friday night. As I was cutting up loaves of bread to make toast squares, the knife slipped and made it about halfway through the top of my thumb before I even noticed. Needless to say, blood was gushing so I rushed to the sink to get it under cold water. I was able to put enough pressure to cut off the blood supply, but couldn't free my hand to make a cold compress. Stephanie was on a work call, so I had to quietly peek my head in and enlist her help.

In true Stephanie fashion, she calmly excused herself, got me a cold compress, made sure I was ok and went back to finish her call. No panicking, just taking care of business. She's amazing. By the time her call was done, the bleeding had mostly stopped. Steph thought I might need stitches, but I felt safer taking my chances with self-administered first aid. It was

amazing how one of the first things that went through my head was "my thumb is hemorrhaging and I'm in Tajikistan". Even though it was a relatively minor wound, it still hit home how few options there are medically speaking.

Anyway, Steph helped me bandage it up and I was good to go. Of course, the next day, being minus one thumb, I had to seek help when I went down to the beer depot. Fortunately, I was able to strike a deal with my cab driver. I was in one of the numbered cabs, (which charge 2 somoni - or 50 cents per passenger), so rather than get dropped off, buy the beer, lug it out to the street and find another cab home, I just offered this driver about 25 somoni ($5) to drive me to the depot, help me carry the beer, and take me home. It worked perfectly and I had a good chance to practice my Russian.

We spent the rest of the day Saturday on food preparation and were ready when our first guest arrived. The party was great as the temperature cooled off wonderfully as the sun went down. I think everyone had a good time and the sangria was a big hit. We were too busy having fun during the party, but I got a couple good before and after pictures.

I think we really made the most of our relatively small outdoor space.

The best thing is that today we get to enjoy the leftovers! My thumb also seems to have reattached of it's own accord and is healing well.

Oh, in other good news, our friend who was hit by the car is doing fine. We're all relieved and much more aware of our surroundings - even on the steps of the supermarket.