A Few Short Stories

For starters, here's some pictures of the car. It might be hard to tell how small it is from this picture, but trust me, it's smaller than you think. But, as I said, it's nice because it can maneuver through the construction blockade on our street. Car ownership is certainly changing the way we live in Dushanbe and has opened up a variety of opportunities. Of course, car ownership is not without responsibilities and as I took the car in for a tune-up on Saturday, I was reminded that it isn't all fun and games. Luckily, we have a mechanic at the embassy who is willing to come in outside of hours to work on personal vehicles (I pay him, of course), so at least I have someone I can trust. But let's get back to the fun part of having a car. I have a few quick stories to share from this weekend that probably wouldn't have happened if it weren't for our trusty Pajero, (so far, so good, 5 days and counting). I'll even break it down into small sub-chapters just for the heck of it...

The Very Bluest Margarita

Saturday night we went out to dinner with a couple we met from the British Embassy and a couple of their friends. The venue was Salsa Restaurant - an Ecuadorian Restaurant right here in Dushanbe. The menu isn't entirely Ecuadorian, there's some Mexican, Italian, and Tajik mixed in, but the food was actually really good. We had some homemade tortilla chips with delicious bean dip and fresh salsa for an appetizer and I had some very passable llapingachos (potato patties stuffed with cheese) for a main course. It was a nice break from the norm. The real star of the show, however, was the margarita. I've been told it is a must-try ever since arriving. It's certainly not like any margarita I've ever seen. The color was a very deep 'windshield-washer-fluid' blue. My friend from the British Embassy told me that it gets better with every sip. It's a good thing he said that because I probably would have stopped at one otherwise. It tasted a lot like windshield washer fluid too! But he was right, by the end it was quite drinkable. Other-worldly margarita aside, Salsa is a place to which we're looking forward to returning.

Carnivorous Bee

Today, (Sunday), we took advantage of having the car and drove a little way out of the city, in the direction where we have gone for the hikes, to a restaurant Stephanie saw a couple of weeks ago near the river. When we arrived a wedding party showed up and there was a guy with a drum and another guy with a clarinet-like instrument. The group was very nice and allowed me to take a couple pictures and I got to wish the bride and groom success before we went to take our seats. The tables are traditional Tajik style and we sat at a low table on a raised platform with some cushions. Our table was right beside the river and the weather was beautiful.

While we were waiting to order, the wedding party left and a couple more showed up. I'll have to ask about the tradition and find out more. We had a delicious lunch of cold cuts, quail, and lamb shashlik. Unfortunately, we had an unexpected guest... This gi-normous red and yellow bee discovered us - I think it was the same kind that stung me on my first hash. Given that experience, we gave the bee a wild berth. It was a rather brazen bee, and landed right on Stephanie's plate ( I guess if I had a stinger I'd be pretty brazen too). Then the bee did something I've never seen a bee do, it started dragging a piece of meat across Stephanie's plate and then cut off a chunk, no kidding, a chunk, of meat and flew off with it. We were a little scared and pretty flabbergasted. That's a serious bee. It returned a couple of times before we left, but I quickly shoved the meat in my mouth to deprive it of another steal.

Of course, we also got to see the usual great scenery. We drove across this little bridge, but there was something of a traffic jam on the other side so we turned around. Something to explore later.

Stephanie also drove for the first time today- you can see she how much she liked it :-)

Mysterious Ice Cream Factory

On the way home, we tried to stop at this mystery Ice Cream Factory, which people have told us is excellent, but which we can't seem to find. It's apparently next to Salsa. No one could tell us where it is, but they told us it is closed on Sunday. We'll keep trying and I'll let you know how it is when we do.

That's pretty much it for now. The only other thing is that I bought a tennis racket so that I could play with Stephanie on the embassy court. We played for a little over an hour, (I use the term 'play' loosely since neither of us really knows what we're doing), until the end of the handle broke off my racket. Go figure. I'll try to go back to the store and see if they'll do anything, otherwise maybe some crazy glue...

Anniversary Excitement

Last weekend wasn't so eventful, but what a week so far! Since our anniversary was on a work day (Tuesday) we decided to spend the weekend more or less relaxing together, sleeping in, etc. We did freeze some more produce, and visited some friends who just arrived, but other than that we just had a relaxing weekend.


Work has been mad all week, with the end of the fiscal year being the main culprit (my office being the one that handles purchases, we had to process all the last minute requests before the cutoff), but I am still enjoying myself. Even though I am often worn out by the end of the day, I'm always able to cross a bunch of things off my to-do list and it just feels good to be DOING something.


As mentioned, it has been an exciting week. Of course Tuesday was the big day - 2 great years of marriage! And while our anniversary was by far the most important news that day, it wasn't the only news. Tuesday was also the 70th anniversary of the release of The Wizard of Oz. (true, but not what I was going for). Then, thanks to the help of some of the local staff at the embassy, the workers filled in our trench so we could have access to our driver (although today, they dug a trench through the only road that has reliable access to ours - more on that later). I also got notice of my administrative promotion - which was scheduled to happen automatically as long as I didn't screw anything up. But hey, I didn't screw anything up! And then as though the stars aligned, we got our car registered! On the same day they fixed our driveway! Amazing. After I talk about the rest of our anniversary celebration, I'll have to talk about actually driving in Dushanbe.


But first, our anniversary. I get up pretty early for work, so I cut some roses from the bush outside our house and left them for when Stephanie got up. Then I could hardly wait for work to be over so we could go to dinner. After work I went home to get Stephanie (in our car) and we drove to the Hyatt for a romantic and delicious dinner. Unfortunately, in my excitement at our anniversary and about our car, I forgot the camera at home. Dinner was delicious - we had salmon and veal cheeks and assorted savory pies (pirozhky) and creme brulee and warm chocolate ganache with pistachio gelato, and wine, of course. I'm really sorry we didn't get a picture. Stephanie was beautiful, as usual, and the ambiance at the Hyatt is very nice. It was easy to forget we are in Central Asia and we could almost imagine we were back in New York. Overall it was a great anniversary.


So now a bit about driving in Dushanbe. I can sum it up in one word. Terrifying! Actually, it was only terrifying driving home for the first time. It's gotten better each time since and now is only scary. I'm sure before long it will be fine. For all you New York readers who are scoffing, New York got nuthin on Dushanbe for bad drivers. I've already mentioned some of the craziness that takes place on Dushanbe streets. But it's one thing to see it, and another to drive in it. People all over the road, not paying attention to lights, pedestrians who appear out of nowhere, cars parked in the middle of the road... I am not exaggerating. And when you're driving, the roads are really wide and the traffic lights are dim and tend to be hidden behind trees, signs are barely visible. You basically have to just be hyper-aware of what's going on around you all the time and just kind of go with the flow. I pulled one of my staff members aside this morning to make him explain why there is a 'left-on-red' rule in front of the old presidential palace. Apparently, the red light is only for people who want to go straight and doesn't apply to people going left. There's no sign or lighted arrow to indicate this, it's just 'known'. Then there's the fact that the roads are like the surface of the moon - dusty and heavily cratered. It makes for quite an adrenaline rush in the morning.

The other thing is that our car is the smallest SUV I've ever seen - we didn't realize how small until we saw how it was dwarfed by a RAV4 when we parked next to it. I'll try to put up a picture this weekend. Of course, even with such a small car, I still had to arrive in style on Wednesday morning on my first commute to work, so I pumped 'Gangsta's Paradise' when I rolled into the embassy lot. Don't ask me why, it just felt right. The black and red pleather seat covers defintely help the image. Everyday gets a little less scary and I'm sure I'll continue to pick up on it and it will get easier as I go, but I'll never think that driving in New York City is challenging after this.


Till next time...

Another great hike

Here are some pictures of our hike last weekend. Just a few here, but you can click the link at the bottom to see more in better quality. For this hike, we headed in the same direction as the last one, but turned off before the cliffside road and drove through a quaint little village and then hiked a more moderate trail through a gorge, following a rapidly running river and crossing rickety wooden bridges. At some points, we could just make out the snow capped mountains we had seen previously, off in the distance.

We stopped for lunch in a nice area next to the river. It was a really nice day.

On the way back to Dushanbe, clouds were moving in and it actually rained a little - a rare occurance this time of year - and we felt like we were in a parade as we passed back through the village, everyone was waving and many people greeted us. Once we have our car up and running, Stephanie and I would like to go back and visit with the locals a bit. It was a very nice hike and it was good to get up to a slightly higher elevation as it was cooler than in the city. The weather has gotten warmer again and temperatures have been in the mid-90s most days. I'm sure in the dead of winter we'll wish for warmer weather, but right now, a chilly breeze sounds wonderful.

As promised, here is the full album for those interested:

Hiking 092009 JPGS

Till next time...

Our House

Here's a quick rundown of the weekend, and then... the long awaited pictures of our home. Not really too much to report. We're still stocking up on produce for winter - this weekend it was apples, raspberries, and beet greens. It's a lot of work to freeze all this stuff, but I think it will be worth it. On the way home from the bazaar, we discovered a little bakery a few doors down from our house that sells cookies and looking cakes. That ought to put an end to my weight loss!

We're also stocking up on chickens, but the more important story is that on the way to the store to buy some, the wind kicked up and suddenly we were bombarded by giant nuts falling the sky (go ahead and get your laughs out before continuing). Actually, they were falling from the trees, but they were hitting the ground really hard - it sounded like gun shots. Kinda scary, but fortunately neither of us were hit. Saturday afternoon, before my third Hash, I made a really good pizza out of a small flat loaf of local bread, some leftover sauce that Stephanie made earlier in the week, cheese and salami from the grocery store. I have to say, aside from Stephanie's homemade pizza, it was the best I've had since leaving NYC.

As mentioned, I had my third Hash on Saturday afternoon. For a change I wasn't worried about falling off a cliff, and it was a good run. We started from a small neighborhood and our group attracted a large crowd of children who ended up running along with us and having a really good time. It was a lot of fun. We had a beer break in the middle of the run on top of a hill with beautiful views of the countryside. The only downside was that the circle went on forever after the run and I was starving. Fortunately, dinner was delicious and worth the wait.

On Sunday, Stephanie and I went on another hike, but I will have to post that story later with pictures. On to the tour of our house!

DISCLAIMER... Stephanie has asked that I clearly point out that the furniture, curtains, wallpaper, and large carpets are not of our choosing, they came with the house. That said let's begin...

We live at 69 Mirzo Tursunzade - this is our front gate. Very sturdy. Very secure. When the trench is gone and we have our car, we'll be able to park it inside.

Here's the house.

First stop is the front porch, where we've set up a breakfast nook for the weekends.

Then it's on into the living room.

From the living room, the first door is the dining room, the second is the kitchen, and the third is the basement.

First, the dining room - we're looking forward to trying out our china in here.

Now on to the kitchen... plenty of space!

Next, down to the basement, where we've set up our little store of commodities. There is also an extra freezer, which we're putting to good use. There are two other rooms about the same size as this, so there's more than enough room for storage.

Back upstairs, across from the kitchen is the downstairs bathroom, which is actually two rooms...

One has the toilet

And the other has the shower.

Heading up to the second floor, we found a good place to showcase some of the items we've collected over the years.

Moving down the hall, the first door on the right is the guest room.

Then our bedroom.

At the end of the hall is the library...

Which opens onto our upstairs breakfast nook/game room.

Heading back down the hall way, the office is across from our bedroom. I have a desk in here as well, but it isn't really set up.

Next, across from the guest room is the bathroom.

I have to take a moment to point out our futuristic shower.

And the sea-foam green counter top with rainbow sparkles...

There's one more set of stairs where we've displayed some more artwork...

Which leads to our attic room.

So far it's been too hot to really use the attic room, but it should be nice and bright in winter. There are certainly nice views.

That's pretty much everything except for the sauna, which is in an out building. It's also too hot for that, but I'm looking forward to using it in the cold weather. Hope you've enjoyed our little tour.