Catching Up

Introductory note: This post was supposed to go up before we left Dushanbe. However, in a true Doosh send-off, our internet went down Friday night and we couldn't get online to post blogs, check our flights, contact our families, or anything else that we would typically do before travelling halfway around the world to meet our new son. Anyway, the short story is that we made it and are so excited to be here with Aiden. More on that below, but I have to cover what happened in our last week together in Tajikistan before I get on to the excitement of becoming parents.

ORIGINAL POST:

One thing's for sure, it's been a busy week. Between both of us trying to wrap things up at work, figure out flights, rental cars, doctor's appointments, and packing, there we're both pretty exhausted, but still very excited. And of course, in true Barnett style, we had to squeeze in some last looks at Tajikistan. Fortunately, two high level visits last weekend gave us the chance to get out and about.

First was the visit of the Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan. As with all high-level visits, it kind of threw things into a whirl, but things went off without a hitch. On Saturday, we took the delegation out to see the ancient fort at Hissor.

We'd been before, but it was still nice to go again. The local government is doing some rebuilding, which isn't particularly sensitive to the original architecture so I'm glad we got to see it as it was before.

After touring the fort and the museum, we went out to a really nice restaurant for lunch. One of my local staff suggested the place, but we weren't sure if it would be up to snuff for such an important guest. It turned out to be perfect. There was a nice garden and a covered area next to a stream where we dined on fresh produce and some of the best chicken I've ever had.

The next day, another high level visitor arrived and we went along with him on a group hiking trip. We headed out into the Varzob valley and were only briefly delayed by a goat jam before arriving at our starting point.

The organizer of the trip billed it as an easy to moderate hike, but that was a huge understatement. There were some very tricky parts involving vertical cliffs that seemed to easily exceed the 'moderate' level and some very rickety bridges.

On the other hand, it was one of the more beautiful hikes we've been on.

At the highest point we had crossed the snow line near one of the mountain passes.

There were also some neat experiences, like visiting a goatherd camp,

- crossing a river in a hand-drawn cable trolley,

- visiting a hermit's cottage,

- and negotiating river crossings to avoid collapsing snow bridges.

In addition to being much more difficult than expected, the hike was much longer than expected. We packed enough snacks for a couple of hours, thinking we'd be home by lunch. In the end, we didn't get home until 6pm. Stephanie got separated from the group at one point and took a bit of a spill, but a friendly Bulgarian couple found her and showed her the way back to the car. All in all, I think it was a very appropriate way to spend our last weekend together in Tajikistan.

Here are more pictures for those so inclined.

Dushanbe Hike 052111 JPGS

Of course, all this week, against the background of preparations, we've been nervously eyeing the latest volcanic activity in Iceland. The one last year got very close to disrupting our trip to Italy, so this was much more nerve wracking since the stakes are so much higher. Fortunately, the ash cloud seems to be clearing. All the same, we have back-up reservations on a different route that would get us to the U.S. a couple of days later through a more southerly route. Hopefully we won't need it, but we're going to keep them reserved just in case.

CONTINUED POST:

Well, obviously, the volcano turned out to be a non-issue, although it had us on edge for awhile and that really wasn't necessary. Our last week was a blur as we tried to wrap up all of those loose ends. So Friday night was suddenly upon us and so we started our never-ending journey (at least it seemed that way). So after 6 hours flying from Dushanbe to Frankfurt, a 3 hour layover, an 8 hour flight to Dulles, a 5 hour layover, an hour delay, and a 3 hour flight to San Antonio - that's right, over 26 hours of flying and more than 50 hours without sleep - we finally met Aiden.

Of course, all of that fatigue went away as we held him and fed him for the first time, so it was almost 2am when we reached the Ronald McDonald house, where we're staying while he's in the hospital. What no one bothered to mention is that we had to arrive at the Ronald McDonald house by 8pm. So there we were, ringing the emergency bell, waking up a nice old woman in a wheel chair and begging to be let in. Once they verified who we were (and they were very pleasant considering the hour) we got a bit of sleep.

The past couple of days have been a blur as we try to get over our jet lag, prepare for Aiden's upcoming release (hopefully this week), and generally get ourselves together. Aiden is a very sweet baby and we can barely tear ourselves away when it's time to leave. Even now, visiting hours are about to start again so it's time to wrap this up.

Since this not a private website, we are going to keep pictures of Aiden to a minimum on the blog. But you can imagine how many I'm taking... For now, here's one of us with our new son.

An Unexpected (but very welcome) Turn of Events

Well, there have been lots of odds and ends over the last few days. Temperatures soaring over 100 degrees, the largest flagpole in the world going up before our eyes, prices on numbered cabs going up 50%, and so on and so forth. But all of that pales in comparison to the news I'm about to share.

Stephanie and I will be parents about two weeks from now. We decided to adopt a baby some time ago and started the process last summer. We haven't been posting about it on the blog because it involves a lot of waiting, which doesn't make for interesting stories. We did have a potential match fall through earlier this year and thought it might be awhile before another opportunity came along. Luckily, we were wrong.

About two weeks ago, we got notification about a potential match and it quickly developed into an actual match. So now we find ourselves barely more than a week from leaving Dushanbe for San Antonio to meet our son. Aiden Thomas Harley Barnett was born on April 27th and weighed 7 lbs, 6oz and was almost 20" long. We had picked the name Aiden Thomas some time ago, but the birth mom has been calling him Harley. Wanting to honor her choice as well, we decided to incorporate the name and really like the way it sounds.

Aiden is still in the hospital because he has a small cleft palate and they are monitoring him to make sure he can get enough nutrition from a bottle. We're hoping he'll be released soon after we get there. In the meantime, he's getting lots of attention from the hospital staff, the staff at the adoption agency, and his birth mom. We've really been impressed with how attentive and thorough the people at the hospital have been.

For us, the next two weeks are looking like both the shortest and the longest weeks ever. They're the shortest weeks because we have so much to do to get ready. They're the longest because we can't wait to get there. That said, we're being well taken care of as well. The mood here is very celebratory as all of our friends in the embassy community are very excited for us. They're throwing a small congratulations/farewell party this weekend.

I think it's safe to say that this is by far the biggest and best news since we got to Tajikistan. Although, despite our excitement, we're a little sad to be leaving so soon. I'll have to return for a bit in August to finish my tour, but Stephanie will stay in the U.S. with Aiden. So in addition to preparing for parenthood on three weeks notice, we'll be trying to say good bye to Tajikistan as well.

Oh... you didn't really think I would leave this without any pictures, did you?

Snickers Is Good For More Than Hunger!

It's been a rather tough week despite only having been 4 days of work. Among the highlights was a malfunctioning stoplight between me and where I catch the marshrutka. It's on the main road and for some reason it started changing from red to green roughly every 3 seconds. So it was a situation where cars kept slowing on approach because it was red and then flooring it because it was turning green.

For cars it must have been frustrating, but for pedestrians it was downright terrifying. That light doesn't give us a very long time to cross when it's working and drivers here hit the accelerator when the light starts to turn green (it flashes red and yellow at the same time just before it changes so they know when it's coming) regardless of whether anyone is still in the crosswalk.

It probably would have been comical if it hadn't also been deadly. Now I know how Frogger feels. Fortunately, after a couple of days, someone noticed the problem and fixed it.

The other big problem this week has been that our internet service has been on the fritz. We've had to have the technicians come out at least three times in the last week. It's been a huge problem considering that Stephanie requires internet access in order to work. So far, they've been able to fix it each time. But today was really something. Eventually they determined that we needed to buy a new modem. This was particularly vexing because we only have a few months left here and probably won't need a dial-up to ethernet modem ever again. Of course, we need it for the next few months, so we had to go for it.

Today was not the best day at work either. I had to let one of my employees go, which is never easy. This was someone that I really liked, but rules are rules. It was just a crappy way to end the week.

So, finding ourselves at the end of a not-so-nice week, Stephanie and I shook off our frustrations by trying a new type of Snickers bar and opening a bottle of wine. The new Snickers has almonds, hazelnuts, and peanuts, and it's incredibly delicious. I can definitely say that it made up for some of the bad parts this week. Here's to a better weekend...

The Return of Spring

Once again, time has slipped away from me. I can't say it's been a very eventful week though - at least not locally. The announcement about Osama bin Laden certainly was big news around the world.

Thanks to the time difference, we actually got to see it live since Monday was a holiday here. The local reaction wasn't very pronounced - the president had a lot more to say about the royal wedding. He apparently felt it was silly for anyone to care about "princes and princesses" when there are so many other things to worry about like poverty, hunger, etc... Of course, there doesn't seem to be much of a focus on resolving those sorts of issues by the local government anyway, so I'm not sure what his point was. (Let me just say that statement was entirely personally motivated and doesn't remotely approach an official opinion).

Anyway, it was interesting to see the different reactions from local staff at the embassy and the reaction from people on the street. Reading the local newspapers, it seems most people don't think he was actually killed, but everyone interviewed takes pains to say that terrorism is bad - whether they believe bin Laden is dead or not. At the embassy, most of our staff seemed to take a much more positive stance. One guy asked if we would have a party. While officially that would not be appropriate, the idea was tempting.

It was neat to get to watch the celebrations outside the White House and in NY, although a little bittersweet for us not to be there. Still, I guess we're doing our part by being here and we can feel good about that. Of course, as it's been noted in the media, we're all on high alert in case of any attempts at retaliation, but so far there hasn't been anything unusual. Except, perhaps, for the angry looking man walking down the center line of the main road carrying an alarmingly large knife Friday evening. He didn't look like he was heading for the embassy though, so I don't think he was a threat to anyone except the person who made him mad.

The other thing we've been watching is a growing fuel crisis. Russia is either greatly increasing tariffs or completely cutting off exports depending on who you ask. Many gas stations are dry and the prices are going up rapidly. We're even having trouble getting vendors to fill up the embassy tanks. We aren't sure if they're just waiting for the prices to go up more or if they're actually concerned about running out. Either way, we'll have to keep our eye on the situation.

One of the nice things this week was that the heat wave finally broke. At least for the time being. We got a couple of nice waves of thunderstorms through and now the weather is quite pleasant. Getting some rain was an added bonus since the spring continues to be unusually dry.

The weather seems to have been affecting the reliability of our internet connection lately, so we've spent a lot of time on the phone with the provider. The service might not be as reliable as we'd like, but they are very helpful. Saturday morning, Stephanie stayed home to wait for them while I went to the market. It's nice to finally see fresh fruits and vegetables for sale again. Cherries were available for the first time this year, but the price was outrageous - 30 somoni per kilo, where they were 10 last year. I'm hoping that the prices are just high because the season is beginning. Just today we found them for 20 somoni per kilo at a different bazaar.

Last night we went out to celebrate Cinco de Mayo at the lone Latin American restaurant. It's only about a mile and a half away so we walked there and back. I guess technically the meal we had was Ecuadorian, but it's as close as we could get.

The great thing is that this is another three day weekend, so I get to look forward to another day off tomorrow!

Travelin' Man

It seems that we pretty much skipped spring and have gone straight to Summer in Dushanbe. For the past couple of weeks, we've had temperatures in the 90s almost every day. Even the dryness doesn't make 90+ feel comfortable. Luckily, my travels over the last week got me out of some of the worst of it.

On Monday morning, I got home from my morning run, had breakfast, showered, and got a phone call from on of my travel staff telling me to get in a cab and come to the airport. The weather was clear and I had a ticket on the flight to Khorog. Since the flight only goes when the weather is perfectly clear between here and there, they don't even sell tickets until about an hour before the flight.

I said a quick good bye to Stephanie and hopped in a cab for the airport. When I asked the guy how much it would cost, he said 15 somoni - I had to ask him twice because I thought he was saying 50 somoni (the cost is normally about 30). But I heard right and thought that a deal like that had to be a good sign for my trip. One big area of uncertainty was how soon I'd be able to get back. If the weather changed, I'd have to wait for another clear day to fly back, or worse, take the dreaded 16 hour car ride!

My trip to Khorog was unbelievably smooth. As I mentioned in my last post, this flight is nothing if not uncertain. But we took off right on time and I got to enjoy the incredible views from the air.

Apparently, the plane flies low enough that cell phone service is still available.

It's definitely lower than some of the mountain tops as we flew between the peaks. Looking at the pictures, I still can't get over it. Some of them look like I was standing on the mountains. It's a little scary, but well worth it.

In Khorog, I had a bit of a scare when an airport official asked for my diplomatic passport and then got away from me. For about 10 minutes, I wandered around before I found him and got it back. Then I made my way to the guest house where I was to stay - the same one my family stayed at last fall - and made myself comfortable. I asked my hosts for advice on where to get lunch in town and whether I could find a place that would serve yak for dinner. The owner of the guesthouse gave me pointers for lunch and told me that he'd have his staff prepare me a yak dinner right there at the guest house!

I had a little bit of time before my presentation, so I wandered down to the park to enjoy the fresh, cool air and beautiful scenery.

At over 7,000 feet above sea level, Khorog offered much more pleasant temperatures than Dushanbe. When lunchtime rolled around, I made my way into the bazaar and found the restaurant that was recommended to me for a hearty meal of plov and lagman.

From there it was time to do my Earth Day presentation. We had a good group of students, but this was another case where I had to do a lot of translating into Russian. There were some tough questions as well, such as "If the United States won't sign the Kyoto Protocol, why should we care about the environment". I was definitely kept on my toes and was tired by the time I was done.

So I moseyed on back to the guest house and spent the evening reading on the porch until my yak feast was dinner.

With the trees blooming in the garden and the light of the setting sun on the mountains, I wished I could have stayed longer. Dinner was delicious and I went to be well fed.

Early the next morning, I got a phone call from Dushanbe saying that there would be a return flight and that I should get to the Khorog Airport asap to make sure I'd get a ticket. Flying up one day and back the next would be unprecedented luck, so I scarfed down a breakfast of blini and eggs and hightailed it to the airport. It looked like I was the first person there and the guy told me to go around back to the cashier. When I got to the indicated place, however, all I saw was an empty room with no doors or windows. Perplexed, I wandered around until someone else came in and pointed me to a 4 inch hole in the wall, which turned out to be the cashier.

While I was waiting for my ticket, another man came in and passed a plastic bottle of something smelling suspiciously like vodka to the cashier. I was hoping that he wouldn't turn out to also be the pilot. You never know.

Tickets in hand, I sat outside to read and wait for the registration to open. Everything went smoothly, aside from a short delay when we had to wait for a helicopter to land. The passes are too narrow for two aircraft to pass safely. When we were on board the plane, some guy who obviously thought himself a bigshot (he had a cop shining his shoes earlier), demanded that the pilot tell him why we were waiting. The pilot responded that we could wait a few more minutes or crash into the helicopter. I think the point was clear.

I got to enjoy another hour of incredible scenery before landing in Dushanbe.

I worked the rest of the day from home, and packed for my next trip, which was scheduled for Wednesday evening.

I left work on Wednesday a little early to get to the airport for my flight to Khujand, in the north of the country. This turned out to be the worst flight I've ever experienced. The plane to Khorog is the smallest plane I've ridden in, but at least there was a place to put my feet. On the plane to Khorog, I literally couldn't move for the entire time I was on the plane. I swear I could feel the woman's kidneys in the seat in front of mine. Add to this the fact that the plane was boiling when we got on, so I was sweating all over myself and the woman next to me. And to top it off, my seat belt had two of the same endings.

I guess it wouldn't have mattered anyway given the age of the plane, but it was just one more thing.

Getting off the plane into the cooler air was one of the best feelings ever. I got a cab to my hotel and met up with some other embassy colleagues for dinner. The lady at the reception desk was a real character. She insisted on personally escorting me to my room and showing me all of it's features. This included turning down the bed to prove that the sheets were clean, showing me the inside of the toilet, showing me how to open and close the windows, and scalding my hands to show me how hot the water was.

The next day, my presentation wasn't scheduled until the afternoon so we had the morning at our leisure. After breakfast, we headed out of town for lake Karaikum, also called the sea of Tajikistan because of it's huge size. There, we went to an unlikely looking place to buy fresh smoked fish. The proprietors wanted us to tell them how much fish we wanted and to bring it to us, but we insisted on going in and picking out the fish ourselves. I got to sample some and it was excellent, so I bought three fish for 10 somoni ( a little more than $2). It turned out to be a steal, because we found the same fish being sold at the bazaar for 25 somoni each!

Unfortunately, the fish sellers didn't have any plastic bags, so we all ended up smelling strongly of smoked fish by the time we found a store that would sell us some. Despite repeated washings, I didn't entirely get rid of the smell until the next day.

The lake itself was hard to take in as it was very hazy. It was also kind of disappointing because it was heavily littered with plastic bottles. More fodder for my Earth Day presentation...

After the lake, we headed to the main square where the mosque is located and spent some time at the bazaar.

I picked up some white honey and a special sausage called a Kazi, which I've never seen in Dushanbe. I was told that this sausage is especially for use in making plov. That reminded me that my favorite plov was in Khujand, so I asked that we go back to that restuarant for lunch. It was just as good as I remembered. Complete with stuffed grape leaves, boiled eggs, and sure enough, kazi.

Lunch took a little long so we had to rush to the American corner for my presentation. I also had to rush the presentation a bit because it had been planned from 1-2pm and my flight to Dushanbe was at 3 pm. My colleagues told me that it would be fine if we got to the airport by 2:30, but we didn't.

The presentation went well and I even finished a little early. But then one of my colleagues decided to buy a bunch of bread and sambusas on the way to the airport. We got there about 2:40. For someone like me, who likes to plan ahead, this was close to torture. But everything worked out. The airport officials hustled us through and onto the plane. I even lucked out and got a seat at the bulkhead exit row so I even had room to move my feet.

By the time I got home, I was pretty tired. In the last two weeks, I've been to five cities around Tajikistan. Three of them requred overnight trips and two of them involved flights. It's been amazing though, and I've gotten to see a lot of great scenery.

On Friday, I gave my last Earth Day presentation at the American Corner in Dushanbe. We had a good turn out and even the Ambassador attended.

I've enjoyed all of these little adventures, but it's nice to be done. Now we have a three day weekend and I'm putting it to good use recuperating.

There are many more pictures from my trips than what I've put on the blog. So, for those who are interested, here's the link:

Earth Day Tour 2011 JPGS