Just a Sweet Transvestite...

I know it's been awhile and here we are in 2011. There's already lot to cover after less than two weeks of the new year, but I'll try to keep it concise.

We celebrated New Year's Eve at a friend's house, complete with a delicious turkey dinner, karaoke and errant fireworks from the neighbors yard. Of course, there was the usual barrage of young children throwing fire crackers at each other in the streets to be negotiated, but we made it there and home again with all of our fingers and toes attached. At one point I asked some of the kids to stop throwing them long enough for us to get past, but he just laughed and told us not to be afraid. It's all fun and games until someone loses an appendage.

We also enjoyed an extra long weekend because the local government decided to celebrate the New Year on Monday, January 3rd, whereas the U.S. celebrated on New Year's Eve. We put the long weekend to good use with a healthy dose of relaxation and a trip to a coffee house where Stephanie introduced me to one of the best cups of hot chocolate I've ever had.

It was a good thing that I got plenty of rest over the long weekend because work has been extremely hectic. We have a lot of projects going on and a large number of people out on vacation. But I thrive on having too much to do and it's been nice to kick things into high gear after a relatively quiet period between Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Of course, we are paying close attention to the goings-on in Washington and the new Congress, waiting with some trepidation to see how the budget will shake out. I'm sure things will work out, but it's interesting to be on the other side of things and I definitely have a different perspective now that I've seen how things work.

The weather continues to be very dry, although we finally got some rain yesterday - the first time I can remember since maybe July aside from the occasional sprinkle. It hasn't been particularly cold either so the beautiful snowy mountains we enjoyed last winter haven't been in evidence.

On Thursday we had a new officer arrive and I ended up going to dinner with him and another officer to the Ukrainian restaurant. We got a little adventurous and in addition to the garlic flavored lard (for which I've developed quite a fondness), we tried pigs ears. They arrived at the table frozen, but weren't bad once they thawed a bit and I learned to eat around the cartilage.

On Friday I had a very interesting marshrutka ride to work. I'll try to explain as tastefully as possible. When I got into the vehicle, no one else was there and the driver, an old man, said hello - which is unusual in itself. But then he immediately launched into a rapid conversation in Russian, which I found very difficult to follow.

The reason it was difficult to follow was because he was expounding on his...um...abilities and considerable experience with women when he was living in Moscow. Of course, that particular area of vocabulary is definitely not something I learned in government language training.

However, the driver was undeterred by my initial lack of understanding and was more than happy to pantomime until I understood what he was saying. Apparently his adventures didn't end with his time as a young man in Russia. He bragged that, despite his age, he has a three-year-old daughter and a thirty year-old wife (not an uncommon situation here). Just as he was getting to the point of saying that he could get milk from a cow when no one else could, (I'm still not sure about the connection to the general topic, and that's probably a good thing), he stopped to pick up a couple of other passengers.

I thought the larger audience might bring about some modesty, but he just continued at a lower volume until they got out. All in all, it was the most entertaining commute I've ever had and I learned a lot of new vocabulary that won't be useful at all in a professional setting.

On Friday night, my team went out to celebrate the new New Year, (January 1st), the old New Year, (January 13th), and the Russian Orthodox Christmas, (January 7th). We went to a new restaurant that happens to be around the corner from our house. It was a very nice place with good food, and of course, the obligatory supply of vodka for toasts. Since it was so close, Stephanie was able to come for awhile before she had to head home for work.

There was also some very good live entertainment including some traditional dance with modern twists and a singer who did an excellent cover of Shakira's Waka Waka, from the World Cup in South Africa. With the vodka flowing freely, we were all out on the dance floor in short order, but the big surprise was yet to come.

At some point we were out dancing and I looked up to see a very tall and robust woman in a very gaudy blue dress at the microphone. She was flanked by some very flamboyant male dancers. Even in my inebriated state, I recognized that this was a transvestite, which might not be notable in New York, but was quite a surprise here in conservative Dushanbe. I was even more surprised that no one else was surprised. But it turned out that she is actually very famous.

Her stage name is Verka Serduchka and she's from Ukraine. Apparently she represented her country at the 2007 Eurovision competition and I could see why - the music was excellent and it was impossible not to dance. I have no idea how they got her to Dushanbe. Here is a picture I found of her on the internet and a link to one of her music videos on Youtube for those of you who didn't see it on my Facebook page.

This is one of the songs she sang at the restaurant. It just goes to show, yet again, that you never know what you'll see in the Doosh. It was a great night out - we were there until about 1am - and I paid for it greatly on Saturday morning. It took about 6 hours before I could get off the couch.

Lucky me, I have a wonderful wife who took pity on me and nursed me through it. What a way to ring in 2011!