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...

Shaken, not stirred

I know I just posted my road rant last night, but I feel this also deserves to be recorded... Last night we were awoken by our first measurable earthquake. We woke up to a little bit of shaking, but mostly because the dressers were rattling. Nothing major, kind of exciting. I checked it out this morning and apparently our experience was the result of a 6.2 earthquake located in the Hindu Kush region of northern Afghanistan, well over 150 km from Dushanbe.

Road Rage

Just putting in for a quick rant about the roads. The condition of the road we live on had been more or less on a trajectory of improvement for a few weeks, but suddenly took a turn for the worse. Now so much of the road has been closed off that my legal route takes me several kilometers out of my way before I can even get off the street and start heading to work. The first morning that they re-closed the road, I ended up having to drive away from work to get there. Then, that night, I was driving down the street we normally use to get home. Without any warning whatsoever, all of the cars headed in my direction encountered a blockade where that street intersects mine. Suddenly there were about 20 cars all trying to do three-point-turns in the same spot. Interesting. Once I got turned around, I ended up driving through this little warren of streets barely wide enough for my car to get through before I finally found an alley that led to my street.

Not wanting to repeat that particular experience, I thought I had found a slick alternate way around but I noticed after I drove past a particular residence there were always these police officers who came running out trying to wave me down. As is usual procedure, I ignored them because usually they just want to take your money. However, I mentioned this to some of my colleagues and they told me that apparently those particular policemen have permission to shoot at cars who drive by because that street is 'The President's Street'. I don't fully understand what that means, or why the president has a random street that completely cuts off a neighborhood from the rest of the city, but then again, we're not in Kansas anymore, are we? And it's not as if the street is closed or anything, you're just driving along and suddenly, you're not supposed to be there. It seems my diplomatic plates don't matter there either. Knowing that rationality is certainly not going to get me very far here, I suppose I'm better off just avoid that street and not chance getting shot at.

The madness on my street isn't confined to the road, but routinely spills over into my driveway. Sometimes when I come home, there is a large pile of gravel in the middle, or a large cement block that I have to move before I get my car in. It's just friggin amazing. My staff thinks it's hilarious because they live here and it's just the way it is. Haha. Very funny.

Better yet, if winter arrives before the road is fixed, it will likely stay this way until spring. Wish me luck.

The Good Life

As mentioned previously, I am duty officer for the week, which doesn’t mean too much other than that I need to be reachable by cell phone at all times. Therefore, no hash or hike this weekend. Of course, Stephanie and I made the most of our down time and had a great weekend.

I should start by mentioning that our new cleaning lady started on Thursday. She’ll come once a week and I think that will help tremendously. It’s a big house and with both of us working full time, cleaning is the last thing we want to do with time off.

On Saturday, we made our first foray to the Morning Star Café – which has a pretty good brunch menu. While enjoying my bacon and biscuits with gravy, we ran into the Ambassador as well as some of my friends from other embassies. From there we did some shopping around town. We looked all over for some potted plants for the house, but they are really hard to find. We had a tip that they could be found at the Green Bazaar, but that didn’t pan out. When we finally found some they were ridiculously expensive – around $30 for a small one – so we decided to wait. On the way home, I stopped by the local fast food joint – Southern Fried Chicken. Before you cringe, I would like to say that walking into that place was the closest I’ve felt to being ‘home’ since we left. Kind of sad, I know, but there’s something about the smell of hot greasy food that just takes me back to the good ole U.S. of A. The chicken was pretty good too, so it’s nice to know where to go when I need a fix.

Later that night we had an adventure trying to find a European classical music concert. We thought it was on the other end of town, so we drove down and then looked all over trying to find the Cultural Center, which is in the middle of a group of tiny side streets. When we found it, we parked nearby and had a quick dinner of sambusas (meat pastries) and cherry compote before heading back over only to find out the concert was at the opera house, back uptown. Fortunately, with the car we were able to make it just in time.

The opera house is beautiful inside. I didn’t know we were going there or I would have taken the camera. The concert was quite good – as the speaker put it in Russian – a journey of classical music through time and across Europe. It started with Handel, Bach, and Mozart and continued up through more modern composers who I wasn’t familiar with. No major incidents except at one point, what sounded like an extremely loud alarm went off and I thought the end of the world was nigh. And of course, the family in front of us managed to seat their hyperactive 6 year old son in the squeakiest chair in the entire auditorium, which he used to good effect. Despite these minor annoyances, we had a great time. I did think it was funny though, when at the end of the concert we got stuck trying to get out of our aisle because these three young men refused to step out into the crowd of exiting people. Considering the propensity of the people here to boldly and unflinchingly walk out into speeding, heavy traffic, it was almost comic that they didn’t seem to want to step in front of slowly moving old people.

Sunday was a nice lazy day for a chance. Washed the car, relaxed, etc. Brunch, fried chicken, classical music, and lazy Sundays… what can I say? Life is pretty good.

Gotta Love Long Weekends

It's been a rather crazy week, so I'm a little behind on this one. Just a quick rundown of last weekend - nothing too terribly eventful. This coming weekend should be pretty low-key since I'm duty officer and need to be available should anything come up.

The hash went off without a hitch - and I managed to dodge all of the open manhole covers that we passed. For part of it we ran along an abandoned railroad track, which was kind of cool and as always, it was good exercise. After the hash, we had a real treat, as one of the hashers threw a fancy garden party that night. Stephanie came with me for this one and we really enjoyed ourselves. It was fun to dress up and enjoy good wine and tasty food. A lot of our friends were there, so it was a lot of fun.

On Sunday I went for the hike. We didn't go too far out of the city, but it felt like we did. We hiked up into the mountains to a little waterfall. It was a fairly strenuous hike and pretty treacherous in some places. There was a very rickety bridge, and at one point, a cow charged up the narrow trail we were on and we had to dive out of the way. Then, coming down, I lost my footing and barely caught myself. We also had a guest on this hike - a local dog who came out to see what we were doing and wound up following us the whole way. As usual the scenery was great and you can see more by following this link.

Hike 101109 JPGS

The thing I like best about the hikes is when we reach a summit and it feels like you're standing on top of the world. It's hard to capture in pictures, but it's a great feeling.

On Monday, I had a little more work done on the car. Nothing major, it just needs a new belt and to replace a ball bearing in the one of the rear tires. I have to say, having 4 wheel drive comes in handy with the state of our driveway. I have to use it pretty much everyday when I leave the house. On Monday, when we were leaving, there was a ridiculous traffic jam epicentered right at the end of our driveway. The construction crews were working right in front of the house and rather than take turns for each direction of traffic, people doubled up in both lanes and refused to let anyone through. Then, people started trying to drive around on the sidewalk and through our driveway, but that didn't work too well either. Then, people started getting out of their cars and walking up to the jam as if that would help. I don't know how it happened, but someone finally moved and we got out. It didn't help that the people working on the road have destroyed all but two entrances to our street, so traffic is pretty much always a mess.

After the adventures in car ownership, we tried to go to this wholesale store down by the train station we had heard about. It took some asking but we found it. The plan was to load up on beer and juice so that we can be better hosts. When we were walking around, we noticed these shady guys looking at us and then talking to each other and then following us. It got pretty creepy and we were about to call the mobile patrol. But it turned out that they just wanted some cash to help us carry our purchases - and not too much either. Trying to explain to them that the way they were acting was creepy, in Russian, was no easy task. In the end, we bought so much that our car was riding low enough to scrape if we stopped too fast.

Later, at the supermarket, I found one of my favorite discoveries... 'Barf' laundry detergent. Barf means snow in Tajik, which is fine, but I don't know why they right it in English. Anyway, it makes me laugh every time I see it. It's also fun to talk about all the barf on the mountains, or how difficult it is to drive when the roads are covered in barf, or the idea of a barf-ball fight. You get the idea.

Monday afternoon, I played some tennis with a friend from work - I can even say that I'm improving - before we went out for a very good Indian meal to welcome some new arrivals before finishing the night taking turns on Guitar Hero and playing with his dogs.

The last thing to report is that, unfortunately, GSO team was not victorious in Tuesday's soccer championship. But second place ain't so bad either.

That's all for now.

Soccer, Vodka, and Ice Cream, oh my!

With plans to do the Hash this afternoon, possible a hike on Sunday, and a day off on Monday, I figure I'd better post some recent events or I'll end up with a record length post by the end of the long weekend.

The weekend is off to a great start. On Friday after work, the GSO team won the semi-final match in the embassy soccer tournament. Of course, I don't play, they probably wouldn't have won if I did, but as it's my section, it was very exciting. The game was the most exciting of the whole tournament so far, remaining tied through overtime and coming down to the best of 5 penalty kicks, which we won by one point. I should mention that it didn't need to be such a close call. The Facilities team was ahead 2-0 at the end of the first half and by the end of the second half GSO had tied it up. But in OT, one of my guys scored on our own goal and we were fortunate to then score another, correct, goal to tie the score before the end of OT. Nonetheless, it was a great time and we can look forward to the championship game on Tuesday.

After the game, Stephanie and I went out for dinner with my staff at a local restaurant. Only in Dushanbe could you go to a Korean restaurant to eat Russian food, drink Tajik vodka, and watch a belly-dancer in between bouts of Russian karaoke - some of which was quite good I might add. The food was very good, including a variety of cold cuts and vegetable dishes, pickled herring (which was way tastier than I would have expected), bread and shashlik. And there was so much food! Dinner consisted of conversation, broken up every few minutes by a vodka toast, which we all took turns giving. Being local, I was surprised that the vodka was fairly drinkable. And fortunatley, I was told that they don't usually do the whole shot every time or I would have been in trouble by the end of the eveining. All in all we had a great time.

To make it three out of three, we finally found the mysterious ice cream factory today on the way home from the bazaar. I asked around for directions and we still almost missed it except that a man showed us exactly where it was. We got about 4.5 lbs of chocolate flavored, 4.5 lbs of pineapple flavored, and about 2.25 lbs of plum flavored. I think it should last us awhile!

Our only misadventure so far was that when we got home, there was someone parked in our driveway. The nerve! We called the mobile patrol to be safe, and then I started asking around to find out who's car it was. There is a makeshift auto shop next door to us and they called the owner. When he came to move it, he didn't apologize but asked if he could park on our lawn instead! Of course, the answer was no, and he did move it. Just after that, the mobile patrol came and said they'd make sure that the man understood that he couldn't park in our driveway and block our gate. I have to admit I was sort of pleased that I was able to resolve the problem myself in Russian. It's not exactly a subject we spent a lot of time on in class!