Happy (Persian) New Year

Stephanie and I really made the most of our Navruz holiday. Monday was a gorgeous day, Dushanbe held a big celebration by closing the highway along the river. On the way, we enjoyed some beautiful views in Rudaki park. Unfortunately, it took awhile to find the actual festival because the police had closed off the back way, but weren't bothering to tell anyone until they had walked all the way there.

At the celebration, there were stalls set up everywhere and people from all over the country came in their traditional garb and there was a great festive atmosphere.

With all of the different types of food on display, we were sorry that we even bothered to eat breakfast.

Since we weren't really hungry, we were able to stock up on interesting items and taking them home with us. There were also some items that even I wasn't too keen to eat (I think the cow's head was for display anyway).

On the other hand, the little lamb-loaves were very cute.

Even Father Spring made an appearance, although my Russian teacher laughed when she saw the picture and said there was no such thing as Father Spring and someone just made it up.

We made our way down to the Hippodrome, where the main events were scheduled to take place, but they weren't letting people in. We waited for awhile because we were told that President Rahmon would be arriving shortly and thought maybe they'd let more people in after he arrived. There was a large crowd lining the road with us.

All of a sudden, the police started herding people down further. Everyone was cooperating but all of a sudden, the police were shouting and beating people with their night sticks. There was a group of teenage boys standing on a bulwark by the river and a cop took a running lunge and started knocking them off with his baton. These weren't love taps.

It was such a large crowd that it was difficult to move very fast, but luckily we were far enough in not to come too close to the cops. Nonetheless, it was appalling to see that sort of behavior in a peaceful and celebratory atmosphere.

I don't know what the police were all riled up about, because the president didn't show up for another half hour. During that time, we were trapped on the wrong side of the cleared area, where there was no food or interesting things to look at.

Finally, Mr. Rahmon showed up, waved, and went inside the Hippodrome. Once the police let people move, there was a huge crowd that went running over towards the Hippodrome, but I don't know why because no one was let in. Apparently there was an impressive performance for the select few who were allowed in. We were a bit disappointed to miss it, but I didn't feel so bad once I learned that there was a brawl, which involved people from two different parts of the country. Apparently the police decided to start beating everyone to try to get them to stop fighting, and a couple of young men were trampled to death in the process. Such a shame on such an otherwise nice day.

Once we were released from our captivity, we went back through the way we came in. Many of the stands were already shutting down. Still, we bought some more food to take home, shared a plate of free plov,

and enjoyed some of the groups that were playing music and dancing.

I even got a little video to share:

On Tuesday, we had another beautiful day for being out and enjoying the celebrations. One of my staff tipped me off to a Buzkashi match not too far from our house (about 6 km), so we decided to make a hiking trip out of it. Even though we didn't go that far, the change in scenery made it feel like we covered a lot of distance. On the way, we took in quaint houses and blossoming fruit trees.

I even snapped a couple of good pictures of a hawk soaring overhead.

When we arrived at the village for the match, I could immediately see why they chose that particular spot. The field was a plateau at the bottom of a huge hill, which served as a natural stadium. With the clear weather and the grass just starting to come up, it was really a breathtaking setting.

There were more horses than I expected. I counted over 100 on the field before the match even started and there were many more wandering the hillside. In fact, I was almost trampled by a guy who was riding his horse while texting on his cell phone. I think that would be a new statistic.

The match didn't start right away, so I snapped some shots of some of the riders beforehand, especially the ones in more traditional dress.

From the hillside, we had a spectacular birds-eye view of the match, and even from far away you could hear the thunder of the horses hooves. Buzkashi is somewhat like American Football in that there can be long periods of time where nothing much happens and then someone breaks away, creating a few minutes of incredible excitement.

Of course, in football, they're just carrying a ball. In Buzkashi, they're carrying a beheaded goat stuffed with sand. Small difference. Between my camera's zoom and some daring trips closer to the game, I was able to get some great pictures.

Some of these came at the price of almost getting trampled. Buzkashi doesn't really observe any boundaries.

Twice, I found myself staring at this huge herd of stampeding horses coming straight at me and had to literally sprint to get out of the way, along with the rest of the crowd. It was particularly scary when the horses turned up above us because we were inside the herd and didn't know where it would come down, but it was also exhilarating. Even Stephanie, who as at the top of the hill, had to move a couple of times. But still, great pictures.

I even got some of other parts of the crowd being invaded by the players. It was a lot more entertaining to watch someone else run away.

I guess in that sense, you can't completely call Buzkashi a spectator sport. Fans can be, and often get hurt. I know at least a couple of people at the match didn't get out of the way fast enough. I saw one boy get tossed pretty far, but he seemed ok.

Still, some parts of Buzkashi are a mystery to me. It seems that a number of the men on the field aren't actually playing. Maybe being on horseback is just a safer way to watch. Also, I saw one guy run out from the spectators and hit one of the horses with a crop.

I'm not sure what that was about. A lot of the game also involved the players getting into a big clump and beating each other with their riding crops, which get's old after awhile. But I do know that they win when they run the goat down to one end of the field and then back through a set of goal posts. Everytime someone had the goat and made a break for the goal the crowd went wild.

The game goes on until they run out of prizes, which can include items like refridgerators and cars. We left a little early to avoid the crowds leaving and had a nice walk home. I did get some video of the Buzkashi and am working on putting together a little montage. I'll post it when I get the chance. For now, enjoy the rest of the pictures!

Navruz 2011 JPGS

Taxi Cab Confessions: Ex-con Driver

Well, the beautiful spring weather didn't hold up that long and by St. Patrick's Day, we had snow again. Lucky for me, Stephanie was prepared to brighten the holiday with a meal of corned beef, cabbage, potatoes, and Irish soda bread, all homemade. She even made some raspberry jam from scratch with some of the berries we had in the freezer from last summer. Combined with some cold cider from our consumables and some company, we had a great St. Patrick's Day.

My other St. Paddy's Day surprise was my ride home in the numbered cab. I got in and tried to buckle my seat belt. The driver, as usual, told me not to worry about it. I, as usual, replied that I wasn't worried about him, it was all the other crazy drivers out there. It's my standard response. This time, however, the driver was right. The seat belt was broken, so it wouldn't have done me any good anyway.

Well, that launched a whole conversation, which began with the driver telling me that he just go out of jail. Not the best opener, but since I was in the car with him, I decided to go along with it. It actually turned out to be a very interesting conversation. The driver spent five years in prison for 'money issues' which could be a lot of things. I'm under no impression that everyone in jail here is a hardened criminal. He talked a lot about conditions in jail, which were about as horrible as I would have imagined. No heat, barely a place to sleep, and no food - your family has to bring food to feed you.

Before he went to prison, he was a soccer coach, but now he has a hard time finding work, hence the taxi gig. It's hard enough for people to find work (half the working population is employed as migrant laborers in Russia), and that's without a criminal record. We had a good discussion and it's experiences like that that make me kind of glad for our car debacle.

On Friday after work, there was a happy hour at the Marine House. We stayed long enough to see our first solar-powered light come on after sunset. It's just the test case for now, but we have a number of them that will be put up around the compound in the coming months. I'm pretty excited about seeing this project come to fruition since I had a big hand in putting it together.

Saturday kicked off our extra long weekend for Navruz. Stephanie and I went to try a new Iranian restaurant. It seemed a little shady at first, but the food was delicious - especially the shashlik, which was some of the best I've had here. We got out and about a bit more today and tried a Chinese restaurant that we hadn't been to before. They had some very good dim sum-style dumplings and there were plenty of leftovers to bring home. The weather has turned pleasant again and we're hoping to see some Navruz celebrations tomorrow and Buzkashi on Tuesday. If our plans work out, there will be plenty of pictures.

Spring Has Sprung In Dushanbe - Mostly

As I mentioned, I returned to Dushanbe from Bishkek to find beautiful spring weather and Stephanie and I took full advantage of it.

On Saturday, after I got my haircut, we went over to the main park to enjoy the warm weather and read. While there, we checked out a couple of the huge construction projects going on in Dushanbe. Apparently, with the 20th anniversary of independence from the Soviet Union approaching in September, the government wants to build a number of shiny new buildings to mark the occasion. Where the money is coming from is anyone's guess.

One of the places we looked at is the monstrosity of a library that's going up adjacent to the park. It's funny, there are a number of construction projects that seem to be virtually at a stand still - buildings that have barely added a floor or two the entire time we've been here. But the library has gotten this far in about 6 months. I have no idea where they'll get enough books to fill the place.

Another big project is the construction of the world's tallest flagpole. I believe that Baku, in Azerbaijan currently holds the title and Dushanbe's flag will beat it by about 9 feet at over 540 ft tall.

It's sure to be impressive, although I can't say that I understand why Central Asia's poorest country needs to spend money building the world's tallest flag.

Another great ongoing project is Central Asia's largest teahouse. It's going up rapidly alongside the Hyatt. There is a great aerial photo from Google Earth that has been making the rounds in the Dushanbe community.

After our time in the park, we had a nice lunch and then headed home to relax before going to a farewell party for one of my colleagues. On the way home, we even spotted the first daffodils coming up outside of the parliament building.

On Sunday, Stephanie went for a tennis lesson while I got started on our garden. Since we know we'll be here through the end of August, I figure it's worth doing again so that we can have some fresh veggies not found on the local market. Surprisingly, my collard greens from last fall survived the entire winter and we now have a bumper crop on the way to start things off. We're still working our way through the berries we froze last summer, but are low on the greens.

Amazingly, we're already half way through another week and are busy making plans for the Navruz holiday (Persian New Year), which occurs next Monday and Tuesday. It's been cold and rainy the last couple of days, but hopefully things will clear up by then. It's hard to believe that this time last year, we were heading off to our Uzbekistan adventure.

This evening, Stephanie and I went to see a dance performance that combined a small troupe from the U.S. with a couple of local dance groups. The songs ranged from "All the Single Ladies" to traditional Tajik music, to some odd 60's montages. And in case you were wondering, "All the Single Ladies" was performed by one of the local groups.

The Saga of Bishkek

And now I will tell the tale of Bishkek...

Actually, there isn't a whole lot to tell. I guess I didn't think too much about this trip because if Congress hadn't passed the continuing resolution, I wouldn't have gone at all. We went for the Joint Humanitarian Operations Course at the Manas Air Force Base, which was led by the Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA). OFDA is technically under the umbrella of USAID, and it's the office that coordinates all U.S. assistance for disasters overseas. But before I get into the training, I suppose I should start from the beginning of the trip.

The flight was on a very similar plane to the one I took to Khujand with the Ambassador. Meaning it was an incredibly loud prop plane with flimsy fold down seats. It was cloudy and the windows were dingy, so I didn't get to take in the views very much. Even thought I know that we have a U.S. Air Force presence in Kyrgyzstan, it was still disorienting when we got off the plane and saw 5 or 6 big Air Force planes on the tarmac. America seems so far away that any time I see something from home here in Central Asia, I'm a bit shocked. Yes, I know this is coming from someone who works at the U.S. embassy and walks past an American flag every morning, but this is somehow different.

On arrival in Bishkek, we got through customs and were immediately flanked by a number of taxi drivers offering their services. One person in our group had to get a visa on arrival, so we bantered with the taxi drivers for awhile. When they discovered we were diplomats, one said, "Oh, you're very important. You each should have your own taxi!" He thought he was very clever until I turned to him and said "Yes, and they should each be free!"

We made it to our hotel, (in shared cabs, being mindful of the cost to the U.S. taxpayer), and checked in before heading out in search of dinner. One of my colleagues had been to Bishkek before, during the revolution last Spring, and took us to Edgar's, a basement restaurant in the park across the street. Edgar's is now probably my favorite restaurant in Central Asia.

The restaurant is mostly underground and is fairly dark with an odd decor that includes fishing nets and model sailing ships. The marine motif in a country that is at least 2,000 miles from the nearest ocean added to the charm. There was also a live piano player and a violinist, playing Russian tunes in the corner. Of course, anyone who knows me knows that food is paramount for me and here Edgar didn't fail to disappoint. One of my friends from work and I couldn't decide what to order, so we split a number of dishes including pepperoni pizza, (AMERICAN PEPPERONI!), pickled herring with potatoes and onions, red caviar sandwiches, and some mouth watering pork ribs. It was heaven. To top it off, they had Baltica 6,(a dark beer). They only have odd numbered Balticas in Tajikistan.

Our training didn't start until Tuesday, on Monday morning I went running with a buddy from work and we toured the town a bit.

Bishkek isn't really all that different from Dushanbe in appearance. There is more park land and the government buildings are a bit more grand, but there is still that underlying layer of poverty and underdeveloped-ness.

That said, Bishkek has a distinctly more metropolitan air than Dushanbe. People were just more purposeful and seemed to have places to go. There were also some very flashy cars...

Bishkek boasts a tremendous number of statues and memorials.

This one with a ring of floating people around it seemed kind of creepy to me.

We were also to see lingering signs of the revolution, such as this burned-out building near the main square. (In the upper right corner)

After our run we enjoyed a fabulous breakfast at the hotel, including smoked fish and fresh honey comb, and then spent the morning working on my e-mails for work.

A bunch of us set out for lunch a while later. It took us a while to find the place and on the way we saw the parliament -

- and a rather impressive, (compared to Dushanbe), amusement park.

It's often hard to agree on a place to eat, and I really wanted to try some local food, which was not so enticing to my colleagues. One of the reasons that I never really traveled with anyone besides Stephanie is that few people are as adventurous as I am when it comes to eating. That said, my colleagues humored me and we found a place serving local cuisine. As with the other places I've been, Kyrgyz national food tends to be similar to the other 'stans. We had Kyrgyz lagman, which was somewhere in between Tajik and Uzbek lagman, and Kyrgyz plov, which was interesting because it was less greasy and had whole-grain rice instead of white. I liked the fresh taste of it, but one friend who is a plov connoisseur did not approve.

Of course, each country has something unique. In Kyrgyzstan, the dish is Beshbarmak, a dish of horse and noodles. Traditionally, the dish is served with a sheep's head, but alas, I did not get one. The meal itself was delicious, although I wasn't able to identify a couple of items on the plate and didn't try too hard.

On the way back to the hotel, we saw a few interesting sights. Near the main square, there were young men with rabbits and fancy pigeons on pedestals.

I think people could pose for pictures with them. Then we walked through an interesting art show, with some very creative pieces of work.

But the highlight, for me, was the crazy squirrel I saw in the park. We were looking at some interesting statues, like the crying rhino head,

-when I saw something that looked like a live Pokemon scamper up the tree. Despite his speed, I got some good pictures.

When we got back to the hotel, there was a sports team getting off a bus. We had a bit of an uncomfortable moment on the elevator when we asked where they were from and they said "Iran". I know there are specific protocols for interacting with Iranian diplomats, but I don't know if there are supposed to be any limitations with civilians, so we just politely acknowledged one another and went on our way. However, it later turned out that one of the players bought one of the women in our group a massage at the spa (the front desk told her it was a Woman's Day gift, and she didn't find out otherwise until afterwards). That was pretty funny. Nothing came of it, although he did offer her a free ticket to the upcoming game. Unfortunately, it was scheduled for Thursday and we were heading back to Dushanbe that morning.

After putting in some more work, we all went to a nearby Chinese restaurant. It looked like the kind of place where you get a stowaway in your gut, (wouldn't be the first for me, I'm sure), but it turned out to be very very good. That seems to be a universal thing with Chinese food. No matter how horrible the restaurant looks, the food is usually ok.

On Tuesday, we got a very early start and made our way to the Manas air base for the training. Seeing this one base really brings some reality to the my picture of how massive our military operations are. It was like a small town all to itself. At the training we learned about the inner workings of America's response to disasters in foreign countries. There was a lot I didn't know and it was interesting. Disaster relief requires an enormous coordination of effort and that's just from our end. It gets even more complicated when you factor in all of the other nation's efforts and those of international organizations like the UN and Red Cross.

Now, while the training was interesting and useful, we were even more impressed with the dining facilities and commissary. For lunch we could choose from a huge variety of choices that I haven't seen since leaving the U.S... good cheeseburgers, chicken tender, Cinnamon Toast Crunch, onion rings, chocolate cheesecake, Combos, Pop Tarts, soft serve ice cream...you get the picture. It was mind-boggling. What was funny was that some of the military personnel were actually apologizing for the quality of the food. When we gushed about how good it was, we had to convince them that we weren't being sarcastic. I guess I can see how it would get old after awhile, but after being in Dushanbe for 18 months, it was anything but disappointing.

After lunch, we checked out the commissary and I picked up some American treats to bring back to Stephanie...Cheetos, Cheez-its, tuna fish, Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, Sour Patch Kids, and Salt & Vinegar Pringles, to name a few. It's not that we've been actively missing these things, but when you see them suddenly, it's all you can do not to sweep the whole shelf into your basket.

After the first day of training we went to Edgar's again. This time I had the pepperoni pizza, the pork ribs, and some pork and veal shashlik all by myself. Again, it was wonderful.

On Wednesday, we had our second day of training, and another huge lunch, and made another trip to the commissary. As I said, the training was very enlightening. It's also given me a different perspective on the tragedy in Japan with the earthquake and tsunami. I already have a good idea of what's going on behind the scenes in terms of ramping up the relief effort and it's interesting to hear some of the groups and offices I encountered mentioned in the news.

On our last evening in Bishkek, we went for a little walk before dinner to take in the sights some more.

Bishkek is an hour ahead of Dushanbe, so it stayed lighter much later than it does in Dushanbe. One of my colleagues particularly enjoyed a statue that looked like it was barfing - the real barf, not snow.

For dinner, I would have been happy to go back to Edgar's for a third round, but we decided to try a place nearby called Vogue. It was definitely fancier, and the food was still good, although I was a bit disappointed when the buffalo wings came out with no buffalo sauce and just five tiny wings on the plate. I guess fancy-looking restaurants are the same anywhere you go.

We had to leave very early the next morning to catch our flight. This time we were flying Kyrgyz air and the plane was the same except they had real seats and I could see out of the window. Even though I was in the aisle seat, I was able to snap a couple of good pictures.

We returned to Dushanbe to find some gorgeous weather. Only a week ago, it was snowing and now it's in the upper 60's. Spring arriveth.

I spent the last couple of days of the work week avoiding a crazy landlady who isn't happy that we aren't renewing her lease and has been demanding to speak to me about it even though we've already had a meeting. I sense the possibility of some interesting stories in the near future.

On Friday, my team went out to lunch at my favorite plov restaurant (it's served with pieces of fat and a quail egg), to send off one of my employees who has taken a job in Iraq. And just like that, it's the weekend.

Stephanie and I have a number of plans ahead of us, but that will be a story for next time.

From Bourbon Street to Bishkek

On Saturday, Stephanie and I went to the annual Mardi Gras party at the DCM's, (Deputy Chief of Mission), house. I think it was even better than last year, with lots of good food and plenty of Hurricane's, beads, and chocolate coins.

I didn't even get a chance to mention it, but on Sunday, I flew to Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan for training. This brings me up to a total of 4 'stans out of a possible 7, so I've been to more than half of them. Frankly speaking, however, I can't say I'm particularly eager to get to Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, or Pakistan, but who knows.

Of course, I'm having my share of adventures, but will wait until I have the pictures to go along with it to share. I will, however, give a shout-out to the Gmail phone service, which is outstanding and a great way to stay in touch.

Time Flies, Regardless of What You're Doing

Whoops - I just realized that it's been over a week since I posted anything. I guess time flies whether you're having fun or not. Actually, we did have fun over the weekend.

On Friday, after a happy hour at the Marine House, we went out to the Korean restaurant for dinner with another couple. It was just a nice evening out. On Saturday night, we went to a birthday party for one of my co-workers and had a really good time there as well. On Sunday, as a sort of birthday present, we offered to watch the son of the guy whose birthday it was. We had a fund day watching movies and ended up running away from, then eating imaginary animals including a hippopotamus, a lion, a tiger, and an elephant. Apparently there was a giraffe too, but it wasn't on the menu.

In the process of our playtime, we noticed that a bird that died on our roof shortly after we arrived was still there. It must be fairly mummified by now, but it hasn't budged. This is exceedingly odd since every time it snows, the snow comes falling off the roof in thunderous avalanches when it melts. I would have thought the bird would have come down with them. I suppose we should consider ourselves lucky that neither the avalanches nor the bird have landed on our heads.

We also expanded our culinary experience and bought a duck at the supermarket, which we roasted on Sunday. It came out great and we even made a little pate out of the liver. Not bad for just another weekend in Dushanbe.

Most of the week at work has involved wondering about, and planning for the potential government shutdown. I guess for now it looks as though we will have a two week reprieve, and then we can go through it all over again. I don't think it's appropriate for me, as a government employee, to comment on what I think about all of this in a public forum, so I won't. But I do have a lot of thoughts about it. It's also interesting to be going through this as a government employee. The last time the government shut down I was in the 7th grade, and so had a much different perspective.

I guess the other big point of interest is what's going on in the Middle East. Again, I won't comment on it too much, but I do think it's incredible to witness it unfolding. Again, I was about 7 when the Soviet Union started collapsing and didn't think much of it other than to wonder what would happen to the maps. I'm not sure that this is as significant yet, but it has the potential to be.

The other big news is that we are now officially in the last 6 months of our time in Dushanbe. It's hard to believe we've been here for 18 of them already. I don't have a firm departure date yet, but it will most likely be before September 3rd, so there you have it. 6 months, at most, and counting...