Fire in the Sky

This has been a pretty crazy week at work. First was the auction, it's great because old items that we can't use get reused rather than thrown away, plus we get some money - which is that much less than we need from the taxpayers. We also spent a good chunk of the week getting ready for a visit from Washington that didn't even happen in the end due to plane trouble. The other ongoing excitement had to do with a shipment of Turkeys that was ordered by the Employees Association for Thanksgiving. Everything was fine until we learned that arrangements had only been made to get the turkeys as far as Tashkent in Uzbekistan (a 10 hour drive) and we had to figure out how to get them the rest of the way to Dushanbe. Let's just say, it's taken 4 days, a Toyota 4-Runner, and a lot of dry ice.

In another interesting note, I learned a new folk remedy for the flu. One of my staff said that he was coming down with the flu (the 'grip' in Russian). When I expressed concern, he told me not to worry, that he would 'kill it' with vodka and lemon. Something to keep in mind should the shortage of swine flu continue...

Outside of work has also been busy, but more enjoyable. In the wee hours of Wednesday morning, Stephanie and I ventured out to watch the Leonid meteor shower, which was supposed to be particularly good. We found a relatively dark spot and were able to see a few good ones during the half-hour we were out. I saw one in particular as I was getting out of the car that blazed bright turquoise and left a bright green streak across the sky for several seconds.

Tonight (still Wednesday) there were also bright streaks in the sky, but not due to meteors. For some reason, the night time is the right time for cutting down trees on our street. We were sitting in the living room when apparently the chainsaw hit the power lines. Electrical mayhem ensued in our living room with the lights flashing on and off, all of the voltage regulators were clicking madly and there were showers of sparks flying outside the house. It was so sudden it took us awhile to realize what was happening. Fortunately our generator kicked in and everything is steady now. It will remain to be seen how long we need to be on generator.

I think that's enough excitement for this week. Time to go catch up on some sleep.

Having A Ball

Considering the way the week ended, the weekend made up for a lot. On Saturday, I was able to get most of the work on my car finished so I now have power windows, heating (more importantly the defroster works, so I don't have to worry that my breath will fog up the windshield in the morning), and the car no longer squeals.

The big story, of course, was the Marine Ball on Saturday night. Unfortunately, when I was getting dressed, I discovered that apparently my waist has shrunk since I got the tux fitted and the pants were quite large. I couldn't find my suspenders so I had to use safety pins to hold them up. Not the classiest solution, but it worked and no one was the wiser. Stephanie looked stunning, of course, so we took some pictures before we left.

Things just kept getting better and better. We didn't drive since alcohol features prominently at the Marine Ball and we thought that we'd have to walk a ways to get a cab since our street was closed. Lo and behold, someone had opened the end of our street! We were able to get a cab not far from our house out to the Hyatt, where the event was held.

The Marine Ball, which is held to celebrate the birthday of the Marines, is always a major event for the expat community wherever there is an American diplomatic presence. In a place like Dushanbe, many people consider this the social event of the year. As you can see, the venue at the Hyatt was great. You'd never know we were in Tajikistan at all. It was really nice to get all dressed up and go out to a formal event. Not to mention, the food was fantastic.

As part of the celebration, there is always a presentation about the history of the marines, complete with the presentation of colors and a traditional cake, which is cut with a sword. In our case, the Ambassador was the guest of honor. It was a nice ceremony and I have to say, it was great being at an event that is really focused on the Americans. So much of what we do is geared towards outreach, but this was a celebration of our history and country and it was a great feeling when they played the National Anthem.

After dinner, a local band played. It was fun for a little while, but the music had me thinking that Borat was going to peek out from behind a door, so after dancing for awhile, we made our goodbyes and headed home. All in all it was a great evening and something to look forward to for next year.

Today (Sunday) we spent most of the morning recovering, and then, as I mentioned, I promised some local boys that I would stop by to chat today. I took Stephanie with me, but when we got there, the boy who invited us was gone. I explained to a gentleman what happened and he immediately invited us in. We thought he was just going to get the boy, but he led us into a room and had us sit down. Before we knew it, he was bringing in plate after plate of food for us. Stephanie was thoroughly embarrassed. It certainly wasn't our intention to impose like that.

I told the man that we didn't want to be any trouble, that we would just be fine to chat, but he said that this is how they do things. And wow, there was so much food. Cold cuts, cheeses, breads, plov, cake, sweets, salads, you name it, and all of it delicious. We spent a good hour and a half eating and chatting with this gentleman and a few of his sons. Finally, I explained that I had some work to do (which was true) and gave my e-mail address to one of the older sons before we made our goodbye. They invited us back some other time, but I'll make sure to bring a gift when we go back. They were extremely hospitable and seemed to enjoy having us.

As I mentioned, I had to leave due to work. My team was preparing items for an auction and i had to go approve everything. I used the opportunity to ask some of my staff about the situation in the afternoon and he said that was their tradition. He said even if we went to the poorest village in the country, they'd likely kill a sheep and makes us eat it and then ask us to stay the night. It's very nice to be treated so well, but knowing that so many people struggle makes it hard to accept. However, I'm told that to refuse is a grave insult. I'm hoping to learn if there is a way to repay the favor.

But now, Sunday's almost over. After a couple of short weeks, having to work all five days is going to be quite a challenge. And on the down side, it seems the road opening Saturday night was just a tease because it was closed again on Sunday. Here we go again...

At Least The Cake Was Good.

Ah, another week approaches its end in Dushanbe. It was a bit of a dark start. On Monday, just after I woke up we lost power. Of course, the generator came on so I didn't think much of it. On the way to work, however, I noticed that all the lights were off. Street lights, traffic lights, you name it, off. Interestingly, people drive better here without traffic lights. Go figure. At work we learned that there had been a failure on a major transition line that caused all of the hydro plants to shutdown, leaving the whole country without power. Fortunately, they were much faster to fix that than my road and power was back on Monday night.

The weather didn't help with the darkness in the morning as it was still cloudy and rainy, but it did provide some interesting views as I could watch clouds pile up behind the hills across the road from the embassy and then spill over and down the slopes as fog. Pretty neat. Tuesday's weather was a complete opposite, with clear cold weather. I couldn't resist snapping a few more pictures from some other vantage points I've discovered. Now that the leaves are coming down, we can see the mountains pretty well from our house too. It's always a nice sight to see first thing in the morning.

On Tuesday night, unfortunately, I seem to have picked up some type of bug that kept me up most of the night and left me pretty exhausted on Wednesday, which fortunately was Veteran's Day so I was off. Wednesday was also Stephanie's birthday, so despite feeling pretty blah, I made Stephanie some chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast. Steph was very understanding when I wasn't up to going for the walk we had planned. I tried to make up for it by spending plenty of QT, which is a very nice way to spend a birthday too. For dinner, I made salmon (we found it in the supermarket, vacuum packed and frozen!), spinach, and mashed potatoes. I was feeling a little better so I had some too. Then, after presents, I surprised her with the arrival of a group of our friends from the embassy who came over for cake and beer. We had a really good time and I think Stephanie had a great birthday.

Today seemed like a pretty good day. For one thing, my windshield didn't fog up on the way to work, (it does that in the morning since the defroster isn't currently working). Then, the second GSO arrived today, which will hopefully make work a lot more manageable. I was even feeling much better by the end of the day. But, as it so often happens, my day, which started out so well, didn't end that way.

Driving home, I went down the street where the president's house is because all of the normal ways are still blocked. I've been doing that every night with no problem. Well, there was a problem tonight. As I passed the house, some guards stepped out and pointed a gun at my car, so I erred on the side of caution and stopped and opened the door to talk. They explained that the road was forbidden. I feigned innocence. Apparently, I didn't show enough awe when they told me it was the president's house, because they tried to take my diplomatic credentials, which I didn't allow. Then we argued a bit as to whether I should continue on my way home (since I was already past the president's house), or if I should turn around and drive back past the house. Fortunately, someone with a wee bit more sense than the guards came out and told them to let me go ahead. Needless to say, it's no longer worth the hassle to go that route on the way home. That pretty much leaves driving over a sidewalk to get out of my neighborhood. But no one has pointed a gun at me for that yet so I suppose it will do.

Looking forward to a great weekend of car repair and the Marine Ball and of course, I'll tell you all about it.

Long, Rainy, Weekend

Here we are at the end of a nice long weekend. Friday was Constitution Day in Tajikistan, so we had the day off. With Veterans day next week, and then Thanksgiving, November turns out to be quite a nice month. Unfortunately, the same can't be said for the weather. From sunny and 75 last week, we've gone to highs in the 40s and several days of rain. It's actually a nice change and feels very seasonal, but it has had the unfortunate side effect of slowing down the road work.

Thursday night, coming home from work, I had to stop and get out of the car 5 times in the last 1/2 mile or so to argue my way through in order to park my car in the driveway. But I have to feel kind of proud about it because I got through while even the British Embassy had to park outside of the street. Once I got home, I walked to meet a friend of a friend who's visiting Dushanbe. We had a very good dinner at a Ukrainian restaurant. Stephanie busied herself by going to a free piano concert at the conservatory.

On Friday, the weather wasn't too bad and we went to the bazaar for some food and so that Stephanie could buy a scarf to match her dress for the Marine Ball next weekend. Pictures will be a must. We spent Friday night hanging out with friends.

Saturday morning, we just relaxed in rainy-day mode until it was time for the hash. To get there, I had to drive down a dead-end road and jump the curb onto the main road - no one seemed to mind. Thank goodness for four-wheel-drive.

This weekend it was my first time to be a 'hare' and lay the trail. Due to the weather, the leader of the hash asked us not to lay the trail in advance, (lest it wash away), and for me and my hare partners to be 'live hares' and lay the trail on the fly. It was a lot of fun doing it that way, but a little scary as we were threatened with being covered in flour as well as beer at the naming if we were 'snared' (caught) during the hash. Fortunately, we weren't caught even though we got slowed down a bit when a local man inquired as to what we were doing and then offered us a loaf of bread from a wedding he had been to (very nice, but we politely declined).

After the hash, we circled up for the usual ritual and my, and my friend's, naming. We did the circle outside an Indian restaurant this time, rather than at a person's house. This had the effect of drawing a rather large crowd of local spectators. It must have looked rather strange to see this circle of foreigners drinking, singing, and dancing. We even involved them at one point, turning and charging as a group. We really scared the 'bejesus' out of them, but all in good fun.

Finally it was time for my naming. No, I will not share it here. It just isn't appropriate. And as always, the naming was followed by a dousing with beer and a cooler of ice dumped on our heads. Fortunately, we each brought a change of clothes and were able to warm up over dinner in the restaurant.

Today (Sunday) was mostly low-key. I wrapped Stephanie's birthday presents and started work on designing this year's gingerbread house (almost time!). I also took advantage of the cold rainy weather to start up the sauna for the first time. Very nice!

Tomorrow starts my last week as the sole GSO at the embassy! My soon to be counterpart arrives on Thursday, which should make life much easier once he gets on his feet. Work has certainly been busy, so it will be good to have an extra pair of hands.

So, much to look forward to over the next week. I'll keep you posted.

We Are the Champions

Following up on my last post, I am pleased to announce that my office won the Halloween decorating contest at the embassy. I don't have any pictures yet because we aren't supposed to take them inside, but there was an embassy photographer who may send them out soon. Our prize was a delicious German chocolate cake, which was well worth the effort.

For Halloween itself, one of my co-workers had a party so of course we got dressed up. I brought out an old favorite (since it's all I had)

and we were able to put together an outfit for Stephanie as an 80's valley girl.

The saga of our road continues apace. When we left Saturday night for the party, the road was open. When we came home later that night, it was completely closed. Stephanie had to drive onto the sidewalk and up some steps for us to get home. Say what you want about our tiny car, it gets us where we're going. Unfortunately, even our trusty steed couldn't surmount the obstacles confronting it on Monday. There were several steam rollers blocking us in and due to the first real rainy day since we've been here, there were no workers to move them. Hot wiring seriously crossed my mind, I was so mad. But I opted not to push the limits on my diplomatic immunity and took a marshrutka instead.

I hadn't realized how strange it was to go so long without a rainy day, until I realized how strange a rainy day looks in Dushanbe. For whatever reason, it made it feel more European to me.

Fortunately, the rain gave way to a very clear day and I was able to snap some pictures of the spectacular views we had yesterday (Tuesday) morning.

I was in this part of town, so I also got a shot of the peacock statue adorning one of the traffic circles near the river.

This afternoon, we had a volunteer activity, where those of us who could get away went to clean a local park. It went well, but the locals seemed to think it was really strange that anyone would do something like that. Given the state of the park, I could see that littering is not a no-no here.

To finish things off, when I was downloading my pictures, I came across this one of me with our friends' dogs. I must have passed out on the couch while we were all watching a movie cause I definitely don't remember this picture being taken.

Enjoy, but Mom and Dad, please don't show Xena. I don't think she would approve.

A Series of Interesting Events

Here's another little collection of short stories from an eventful week.

A General Visit

Probably the most exciting even this week was the two day visit of General Patraeus to our little corner of the world. (this was the VIP visit I mentioned earlier). Of course, being next to Afghanistan, Tajikistan is certainly relevant to the war effort in general. I was mostly involved in terms of logistics since the motor pool falls under my jurisdiction as General Service Officer as well as other general services (ha). The General also addressed the embassy staff at large. I think General Patraeus was an especially interesting person to have at our embassy since he has played such a large role in convincing Congress to increase funding for the State Department and in arguing for a larger role for diplomacy in our foreign policy.

Halloween Wars

The other big 'to do' at the embassy is the Halloween decorating contest. I have to say, my office outdid itself and really set the bar high. But this ended up setting of an arms race of sorts that has every office on my hallway trying to outdo the others. This morning, one of the offices took a broken baby doll, skewered it on a shashlik sword and covered it in ketchup. Probably not going to go over well with the kids when they come to trick-or-treat tomorrow, but I'll give them points for creativity. Those of you who remember the party flame from our college days will be pleased to know it is being but to good use in my office's bid for the win. Hopefully I can get

some pictures (we are restricted in where we can take photos in the embassy), but either way, I'll let you know who wins.

More Driving Follies

Ok. Maybe I'm running the driving stories into the ground, but I think these are worth telling. On Tuesday morning when I pulled out of the driveway, I discovered a new set of cement blockades that now completely cut me off from the rest of Dushanbe. I asked a worker how I was supposed to get to work and he shrugged. Nice. So I took matters into my own hands and found a worker with a crane to come and let me out and asked him to leave me a way in that evening. He did, but when I got home, there was a huge pile of gravel in the driveway - larger than I was going to move myself. So I had to end up talking to the guards at the British embassy next door and they let me park my car in front of their guard booth for security. Cars with diplomatic plates are best not left unattended overnight. So far I've been able to get in and out since then, but every day is a new adventure.

On a brighter note, I finally got my own little revenge on the bad drivers of Dushanbe. The other day when I was heading to work along the crater field that is my street, I was slowing down to cross one of the foot-deep holes that run the length of the road in some places. True to form, one of the little marshrutkas (think miniature minivan) was impatient and decided to fly around me and cut me off. I guess he was too busy being impatient to see the giant hole because his front tires hit smack against the other side and there he stopped. It was hilarious. And yes, I indulged myself in a "point and laugh" session.

Oh What A Beautiful Morning

This morning on the way to work, I barely noticed the idiot drivers around me because I was so focused on the beautiful view. It was a particularly clear morning, which was great because the mountains got their first coat of snow last night. The view was incredible. The trees here are all turning golden, and behind them was the dry lower hills backed by the higher mountains in the distance all covered in snow. I'm going to try to get pictures of that too if I can leave a little early tomorrow.

Working on the Farm

One last quick one...today when I was leaving work, there was a cow grazing in front of the embassy's front fence. We aren't exactly in a rural area, so it looked pretty odd. And that's it for now.

Pork & Bejesus

I'll get to the title of this post in a minute. I find myself at the end of another good weekend. We had some people over for dinner on Friday and finally got to use our good china. It was a lot of fun, although figuring out how to entertain here is a bit of a challenge since we can't make some of our favorite dishes, but everything turned out great. I made some brownies that were spectacular if I do say so myself. I was even able to find a website with directions on how to adjust a recipe to compensate for the higher altitude.

We started Saturday with another breakfast at the Morning Star Cafe - this time with a ham, egg, and cheese croissant - HAM! It's funny how run-of-the-mill foods become special when you can't have them on a regular basis. After breakfast I got a haircut - the guy does a good job, but I don't think I'll ever get used to him blowing on my neck and sticking his finger in my ear to clean off the clippings. I tried to express to him politely that he didn't need to do it, but it didn't seem to work.

Saturday afternoon was the hash and this one was a lot of fun. The run was pretty strenuous and the after party was fun and not too long. No injuries this time either. We didn't go on the hike today because I was on standby for an upcoming VIP visit. I'll talk more about that when it's over. So today was kind of a lazy day. Around lunch I went for a run with a friend of mine and we scouted out the trail for the hash we have to plan in two weeks - at which point I will get my hash name. It's an important ceremony and you only get named once, so hopefully mine will be something I can share publicly. Not all of them are.

The run was followed by an impromptu meeting at the Hyatt in preparation for the upcoming visit - my friend and I in our dirty, sweaty clothes and all, but no one seemed to mind.

This evening, Stephanie and I walked to this Georgian restaurant near the opera house for dinner. We had this delicious cheesy bread, pickled herring and potatoes, and, here it comes... Pork and Bejesus! I don't know what bejesus is, but on the menu under the dish we ordered from the pork section of the menu it said bejesus, green stuff, and spices. I think bejesus might have been some organ meet since there was some in there, but either way it was quite a tasty meal.

We walked to dinner because it's become such a pain to drive. But there may be a light at the end of the tunnel - they have started paving our road. I asked a worker how long it will be and he laughed and said "No one can say, it is up to a higher power". We will see...