If They Resort to Serving Goat, Stay Away From The Beef

The travels I had planned this week didn't go quite the way I... planned. It wasn't really surprising since one of the trips was supposed to be to Khorog, in the Pamirs. This is the flight that only goes when there are no clouds whatsoever because the pilot has to be able to see between the mountains when he flies through them. Of course, this time of year the weather is far from unreliable, so the initial trip on Tuesday was cancelled.

Instead, I left early for the three and a half hour trip to Garm. To call Garm a city would be a gross understatement, but it's the major population center in the Rasht valley. Getting to go to Garm at all was uncertain as usually the government here starts counterinsurgency operations in that region around this time of year. In fact, a couple of days before I left, they announced that they had killed one of the opposition leaders. But our security officer determined that it was safe to go and the trip was without incident.

This was actually my second trip to Garm. We went last year in the beginning of March to see Buzkashi. Of course then it was still winter and the scenery was quite different this time around. It was nice to see the area all green with snowy mountains clear of most clouds.

Once in Garm, the driver and I decided to stop for lunch. Although it's small, Garm is in an extremely picturesque location.

There are only two restaurants in Garm, so I decided to try the one we didn't eat at last time. At first it seemed encouraging because the decor was really nice.

But then the lady told us that the only dish was bread with yogurt and oil because the sanitation department had shut down the butchers at the bazaar for being unsanitary and there was no meat in town. Now, everyone knows I'm an adventurous eater, but yogurt, bread and oil didn't sound adventurous, just gross. Even the driver seemed put off. He suggested that we go to the first floor of the restaurant because they might have different options. Don't ask why, I didn't.

However, when they served shirbo (soup) and goulash with meat, I did ask why. Why, if there was no meat, were we eating meat? I didn't get a clear answer and the driver didn't seem to think it was a problem. But after lunch he said that at dinner we should plan to have some vodka to sterilize ourselves - that's a direct translation. Needless to say, I was a bit concerned, but what's done was done.

After lunch I gave my Earth Day presentation to three different groups of students. This time, the students had varying levels of English. In one group, I had to give the presentation in both English and Russian, going back and forth for each point. It really tested my language capabilities and was exhausting. Nonetheless, it was well received and I enjoyed myself.

For dinner, we went to the other restaurant because the driver thought it would be safer. When a local person worries about food safety, it's cause for concern. We had goat and french fries because that's what the restaurant was serving. And of course, we had a decent amount of vodka to 'sterilize' ourselves.

Going to bed at the hotel, I was more than a little apprehensive about what to expect from the digestive perspective, but seemed to get through relatively unscathed. The next morning we had a quick breakfast and made our way back to Dushanbe, enjoying another day of beautiful weather.

On Thursday morning, my travel team called to say that the flight to Khorog was going to take off and that I would need to be at the airport by 10am. So I quickly rushed home and got Stephanie to help pack my bags. And as I was a bout to head out the door, they called and told me to wait. I waited, and waited, for about two hours before it became clear that the flight was going to take off too late for me to make my presentation so I went back to work. I know how unreliable that flight is, but it's still infuriating to go through all that effort for nothing.

On Friday we marked Earth Day at the embassy. I had organized a paper recycling drive for the week and we held a short ceremony with the Ambassador in the afternoon. We've recycled over 3 tons of paper in less than a year, which is substantial. We've also started installing the solar lights and LED light bulbs that we ordered last year, so it's nice to see some of my plans coming to fruition. The best thing is that all of these initiatives actually save money. So if any of my congressional representatives happen to read this, I hope that's noted.

Stephanie and I had a date night Friday after work and went to the Korean restaurant. It was a wonderful dinner and it was also where things went downhill. I guess I didn't escape Garm as unscathed as I though since I was up all night with Tajik Tummy and couch-ridden all day today. It was a shame because Stephanie and I had a lot of plans for Easter. We still managed to dye Easter eggs and came up with some interesting colors from our limited supply. I'll try to get pictures up later. For now, I'm going to focus on recovering and hope that tomorrow I'll be up to eating some of our goodies.