Cool Weather, Hot Tempers, and Other Stories

It looks as though cool weather is upon us at last. While the blast furnace of Summer died off long ago, we were still getting into the upper 80s and low 90s on a regular basis. Now, highs are in the 70s at best and into the low 40s at night. Sweet comfort! The other great thing about the cooler weather is that it seems to have done in the remaining aphids that were attacking my collard greens.

Nothing too major as we roar full speed ahead into the holiday season, but I’ll share a couple of stories.

On Friday night, Stephanie asked me to pick up some bread on the way home. I walked about halfway from where the marshrutka lets me off before I got to the place we usually go. So I’m standing there at the counter, waiting for my turn but the clerk ignored me. In fact, he took two other customers who came in after me. Then, when I finally got his attention and asked how much the bread was, he told me and walked away to help another newcomer before I could even say “yes please”.

Knowing that there’s more than one place to get bread in this town, I stalked out and started heading back toward the marshrutka stop. I stopped in the first store I found and was able to get the price of bread from a clerk right away. I took my loaf up to the counter to pay and gave the guy my money. But rather than give me my change, he held on to my two somoni and started texting on his phone. Now, by this point, I wasn’t long on patience, so I snatched the money out of his hand, plunked the loaf of bread on the counter, and told him “If you want to earn money, pay attention to your customers!”. The concept seemed most surprising to him.

Finally, when I had walked almost all the way back to where I started, I found a store with prices clearly marked, went to the counter, and a young boy took my money and gave me my change in less than 15 seconds. On the way home, I poked my head into each of the previous stores and waved my bread at them. Despite the fact that I had to walk twice as far, and despite the fact that I paid a whole 20 dirham (4 cents) more, I felt triumphant. And the bread was delicious.

Not much else to report from the weekend. I went to a friend’s house for a rousing night of karaoke, performing my standard “Baby Got Back”, plus a few new favorites like “New York, New York”, “Hey Ya”, and “Painted Black”. I even branched out to a couple of Russian songs. A great time all around.

One other thing that I haven’t mentioned, but can, now that it’s made the mainstream news, are the recent incidents of violence around Tajikistan. Things started heating up in August when about 25 prisoners escaped from the main jail in Dushanbe. The government claimed that they were extremists, although here, you have to take everything with a grain of salt. The escapees seemed more interested in getting away than causing trouble, so we weren’t particularly concerned. It only affected us in the fact that we had to take the southern road back from our trip to the Pamirs because the northern one was closed as part of the hunt for the fugitives.

While we were in the Pamirs, Tajikistan had its first suicide bombing in the northern city of Khujand – about 7 hours driving from Dushanbe. The attack was clearly aimed at the government, not at civilians, much less foreigners or Americans. Shortly thereafter, a bomb went off at a Dushanbe night club, wounding 7 people. The big news, though, was an attack by insurgents, (as they are called by the host government), on a convoy of Tajiki soldiers. This occurred in a region to the east of Dushanbe and the violence has been simmering ever since. Facts are hard to come by as it appears the local government is working hard to censor information about the conflict.

For all our friends and family, there is nothing to worry about at this time. None of these events have targeted foreigners or Americans at all. The embassy is keeping a constant watch on the situation and I can honestly say that the safety of American citizens is their top priority. The embassy has been releasing information to let private American citizens in Tajikistan know of the precautions the embassy is taking, such as declaring the affected region off limits. The situation is concerning, but certainly not scary for us. Stephanie and I are able to go about our daily business without fear. We just maintain the same level of vigilance that everyone should in these times. If that ever changes, we’ll let you know.

Original American Culture

Well as they say, time heals all wounds. My legs eventually recovered from the incredible journey and life goes on. The tajik tummy stayed around awhile longer, but that too passed in time. This week, we had a nice surprise when a group of Native American performers came by the Embassy on Friday. The group had been touring the country as part of a Public Affairs program (the kind of thing I should be doing later in my career) and I guess they had some extra time. They did a really neat show demonstrating their skill with a whip – things like cutting a newspaper in half, or breaking pasta that someone was holding in their mouth. I don’t think my description is really doing it justice, but it was amazing.

Then they announced that they’d be putting on a show in front of the opera house that evening. So I arranged for Stephanie to meet me there to watch the display. It was a mix of traditional Native American dance, storytelling, and some games where the kids were allowed to play. Aside from being a great performance, it was so nice to see some true American culture on display here. I just thought it was amazing to see Native Americans dancing in traditional garb in front of the opera house in the capital of Tajikistan. It’s something I've rarely gotten to see in the U.S., so it was extra special seeing it here, so far from home.

It was also neat to see the locals’ reaction. At first there was a lot of pointing and some snickering, especially among the younger folks (it attracted quite a crowd) until they saw the performance start. I haven't noticed that local audiences to be particularly endowed with long attention spans, but this event had their full attention for the entire time. Unfortunately, my camera battery was dead, so I had to get some pictures from a friend to show you. I wish I could have gotten hold of a video.

It was a really successful program and people are still talking about it in town. After the performance, Stephanie and I went to the Steakhouse restaurant behind the opera house for some sushi. Talk about multi-cultural experiences!

The rest of the weekend was fairly uneventful. We had a lot of household things to do - a trip to the bazaar, a haircut, etc... Although, on Saturday we experimented with a new form of exercise. Rather than sitting down to watch a movie, we took some DVDs to the gym and watched a movie while on the treadmill. It's pretty hard to walk for 2 hours straight, but we did it and felt much better than if we had just laid around. Not bad, eh?

Going Where Few Have Gone Before

One of the great things about working for the government is that we observe all of the national holidays. For me, that meant that I had a three day weekend in honor of Columbus Day. And in honor of that great explorer, I went on a long planned excursion to a place few people have been. I'm talking about the dinosaur footprints of Shirkent Nature Reserve, in Western Tajikistan. I first heard about this three-day trek on a different hike early in the Summer and have been planning this ever since.

Click the picture below for all of the pics, or continue reading and I'll post the link again at the bottom:

Dinosaur Footprints 2010 JPGS

It took some doing, but I discovered that the father of one of my employees is able to make all of the arrangements, so once I got in touch with him, I put together a group of other intrepid travellers and got things in order. We departed Dushanbe around 6:30am on Saturday and headed west for about 45 minutes to meet our guide, Toshmorod.

We were at the meeting place and looking around to try to spot him, when this guy just opened the front door and said 'Good Morning' in Russian. He never introduced himself, but after speaking with me for a couple of minutes, he asked if anyone spoke Russian. I was a bit taken aback because, while I'm not fluent, I'm no slouch at Russian either. Nonetheless, we quickly had things sorted out and found ourselves accompanying Toshmorod to the local bazaar to purchase what seemed to be an inordinant amount of food for our trip.

Thus provisioned, we turned north and headed toward our destination. We chatted a bit on our way, and somehow our conversation turned to Yetis. Toshmorod mentioned that in the 70's thousands of people came from Europe to look for them. Apparently many people in Tajikistan still firmly believe in the Yeti and have even claimed to have encountered one. They describe the Yeti as a hair-covered, buxom female with a high libido that frequently seeks 'encounters' of it's own with village men. There is apparently at least one shepherd that has an ongoing relationship with her. Our guide himself called the whole thing a fairy tale, but it was a good one.

The road quickly petered out to a dirt trail, and then to not much more than piles of rocks. Shortly, the passengers all had to get out of the car so it could pass the more trecherous parts without scraping on the rocks. At least it gave me a chance to snap a picture of the beautiful blue river running alongside.

After awhile we were able to get back in the car and we passed a guy fishing. Toshmorod told us that there was a special golden fish, a Tsar's fish, that lives in that river and was highly sought after.

Lo' and behold, we came upon a group of men at a camp and after a few minute's conversation, our guide returned with one of the fabled fish on a stick. He promised to cook it for us for dinner and then got in the car with it - somewhat to my chagrin as the dead fish kept slapping against my leg as we drove on.

Eventually, we reached the point where we had to part ways with our vehicle, because no road goes where we went. We sat under this incredible mulberry tree that was growing right out of a rock, (pictures of that later), while we waited for our donkeys to arrive. Then it started to rain. We had been cautiously optimistic about the weather so far. The forecast was for rain the entire weekend, but when we awoke to sunshine we were hopeful that the forecast was wrong as usual.

Fortunately, it didn't rain for long and shortly the donkeys arrived along with a cook and a guard, who brought a gun to protect us from bears, wild boars, and half-wild sheep dogs. Toshmorod explained that we would be hiking up to our base camp where we'd stay the night and then depart early the next morning for 'the tough part'. The trip up to the base camp wasn't easy, but after the second day's hike, I saw what he meant. I was trying to conserve my camera battery on the way to the dinosaur footprints, but I couldn't help myself when we came to these rolling hills and herds of horses. It was amazing.

It only rained on us once or twice more before we made it to the base camp and then it stayed clear for the most part. While we set up our tents, our cook prepared us a delicious dinner -

- followed by a campfire to keep us warm before bed. One of my friends is a very experienced camper and it was really thanks to him that we had the gear we needed. Unfortunately, there was a miscommunication and he brought one too few sleeping bags. Not wanting anyone to feel bad, I did the best I could without it. It was quite cold, so I put on every piece of clothing I had and stuffed toe-warmers everywhere I could think of. I wasn't doing too badly until the toe warmers stopped working and I came down with a case of Tajik tummy. I don't think it was from the fish. We did eat it and it was actually rather tasty.

Given that it was pitch black and freezing out, I decided to bear the discomfort rather than risking the perils of the great outdoors in such a state. It was a very long night and when the donkey's started braying their morning welcome I was quite grateful. I was able to see to my needs before breakfast and took copious amounts of pepto bismol, immodium, and charcoal, hoping for the best on the long trek ahead. At breakfast I stuck with bread to be safe and we set out at 7:30am.

On the bright side (literally) it was a beautiful morning. Toshmorod explained that we would be hiking up 1,000 meters (over 3,000 feet) to a pass, then down 1,000 meters to the footprints, then back up and down again to get back to the camp.

The scenery was incredible, which is usually for Tajikistan, but what added to it were the fall colors and an unusual abundance of trees in many places.

The hiking was very strenuous and eventually we reached a point where we had to leave even the goat trail behind and struck off across the hills. Given the setting, the exertion was far from the top of our minds and we quickly reached the peak of our upward journey and looked down into the valley below.

After a short rest, we began our descent. If anything, it was worse than the hike up. The hillside was incredibly steep and there usually wasn't anything to hold on to. We had to be careful about our footing and the going was tough on the knees. But again, we were rewarded for our efforts by the scenery.

Our guide warned us to be on the lookout for boars as they like to sleep under the tree roots. He even pointed out one of their dens -

- but I didn't see any. Nonetheless, I was glad to have someone with a gun incase we stumbled upon one.

We finally made it down to the river bed and after a short trek, we reached our goal, the dino footprints!

Our guide lamented that they were less clear than they had been when he was last there, but I thought they were still really cool. We had a lot of fun posing with them. They were discovered in the 1930's and are thought to be over 100 million years old. That's incredible. But it was a little sad to think of them slowly washing away. Toshmorod seemed really surprised at how much they had changed in 2 years. I wonder what they were like before.

This actually brings up another point. Toshmorod told us that he is the only person who knows exactly how to find the prints and he was bringing along our guard in part to teach him how to find them for future groups. It was neat to think we were the first people to take the trek in 2 years, and more-so to think how few people have ever/will ever get to see them.

After we took our fill of pictures, we settled in for lunch and it immediately began to rain. Thankfully, we were able to find a sheltered spot under a nearby tree that kept us dry. I still stuck to bread just to be safe, but the others enjoyed sausage, cheese, and fruit. Then all of us had to face the return trip...

To be honest, it wasn't as bad as we thought, although the rain seemed determined to make up for lost time. At one point, our guide tried to shoot some birds. It caught all of us by surprise, but me especially since I was only a few feet behind him when hi suddenly fired his gun.

One of the benefits of the rain was that it left some new snow on the tops of the nearby mountains, and provided a whole new look to our return trip.

The downside was that the vegetation covering the hills quickly caused our jeans and shoes to soak through. So I don't think it was unfair that we were all a little non-plussed when we reached the high point of the hike and then kept going up instead of going back down. Breaks had been few and far between, although I got a great shot of our guard relaxing.

I guess Toshmorod was trying to find a quicker descent since we had to beat the sunset, as we climbed down through a rocky ravine instead of trapsing around the hills. As we approached the end of our hike, I was really starting to fade - bread and water is not enough to support me on a 10 hour hike - but I was re-energized by the light of the setting sun on the mountains (and a power bar from our resident expert camper).

By the time we got to camp, I was so hungry I didn't care about the consequences and scarfed down a plate of the delicious plov that our cook prepared for us. We spent the rest of the evening drying our clothes by the fire before turning in, exhausted, for a much better night's sleep.

It rained in the night, but on Monday, we awoke to a spectacular morning sky.

The cook already had breakfast going and before long we had packed up our gear and were on the way. Once again, we enjoyed more outstanding views, and by then I was no longer concerned about my camera batteries.

It didn't rain anymore, but the constantly changing clouds provided endless visual entertainment. At one point we were challenged by a pack of very angry sheep dogs and our guard was quite a bit behind us with the donkeys.

Luckily, our outdoorsy friend had pepper-spray. The tiniest whiff of it sent the dogs running and we continued on.

When we reached the end of the trail, we were all pretty ready to go, but Toshmorod insisted that the cook wanted to make us lunch and that it would only take a half hour. An hour and a half later we were eating a very good cabbage soup, but were no closer to getting home. At least our lunch spot had a nice view of the mulberry tree and surrounding mountains.

Eventually, we finally got the car loaded up, and headed home. All in all we estimate we hiked over 20 miles, not to mention a total altitude gain of over 2,000m (more than 6,500 feet) and back. A great trip was had by all. Thank you Christopher Columbus!

Epilogue:

Coming through the door, I was greeted by the smell of a delicious lasagna that Stephanie prepared for me. It really hit the spot as I relaxed and rested my sore knees. As much as I enjoyed my adventure, it was good to be home. I should note that Stephanie wasn't idle while I was off adventuring. On Saturday, she went to a Russian ballet at the opera house, which she said was really impressive.

On Sunday, she went to a charity fashion show at the Hyatt. The show was intended to raise money for victims of domestic abuse. But apparently, a local official almost called the whole thing off because the official position is that there is no domestic abuse in Tajikistan. The show's organizers had to scramble and black out the information about domestic abuse that was in the flyers. Fortunatley, most attendees already knew the deal so the meaning of the event wasn't lost. More importantly, the money raised for the charity was still provided to help the non-existant victims of abuse in Tajikistan.

More pictures from the hike:

Dinosaur Footprints 2010 JPGS

Life After the End of the Fiscal Year

Once the end of fiscal year madness ended, we suddenly found ourselves with more time on our hands (or more correctly, I did). On Friday evening we went with a couple of friends to see the performance of a local dance troupe.

Local cultural performances are often hit or miss, but this one was actually really good. There was a mix of traditional music and dance with modern music in dance - even one number where girls in traditional dances flanked a young man for a rousing rendition of Michael Jackson's 'Michael'. Thoroughly entertained, but somewhat hungry, we all went out for Indian food afterwards.

Speaking of Indian food, I am often struck by the similarities between Central Asian culture and Indian culture, especially in music and dance. I guess it shouldn't be all that surprising given the fact that the very influential Samanid dynasty (as well as several other empires) stretched all the way from Central Asia to northern India. But still, it's intriguing to see how the influence has carried through the centuries.

On Saturday, we planned to continue our anniversary celebrations as they were so rudely curtailed by work issues. But first, we went to see the meat man. USAID sponsored an American butcher to come to Tajikistan and teach local butchers Western practices for butchering meat. Of course, the products were up for sale and there was high demand for cuts like porterhouse, rib-eye, and t-bone, which are unheard-of here. We had placed an advance order, but when we got there we were informed that our cuts wouldn't be ready for another hour. Rather than lose more time, we just purchased a couple of flank steaks, which should still be much better than the norm. On a previous trip to buy meat, Stephanie also received instruction on how to age the meat at home, which the butcher said was more important to the tenderness of the meat than the way it was cut.

When we got home, we made some Russian-style blini, and proceeded to eat them with sour cream, chives, and black caviar that my parents bought us as a gift when they were here. It was delicious. For dinner, we had surf and turf, comprised of shrimp that we found at the supermarket, and steak, which Stephanie had aged for a week. There really was a noticeable improvement in the edibility of the meat. We finished everything off with a fresh batch of whoopie pies. Stephanie found the recipe for both the chocolate cookies and the cream filling. Again... delicious!

On Sunday, we decided to attempt a hike all on our own. We climbed the hills across the street from the embassy to see what we could see. It was a much tougher hike than we expected, but we were rewarded with some really nice views.

It's a place we'd like to revisit in winter and spring to take in the views of the mountains with more snow. The weather was also much hotter than we expected for this time of year, so we were pretty worn out when we got home. Luckily, we had some more whoopie pies to revive us.

And although our garden has, for the most part, gone past it's prime, the morning glories are still providing something nice to look at.

One not-so-nice aspect of our weekend was discovering that the peanuts we ate on our hike had been full of weevils. We had some friends over for dinner on Monday and were putting out snacks when we noticed that the peanut bin had lots of flies. Stephanie was pretty put off, but I figured it was just more protein. (Needless to say, we now keep all of our peanuts in the fridge).

That's pretty much it for now, but the weekend approaches and there are sure to be more stories on the way.