Winter (off)… Summer (on)!

They aren’t kidding when they say Tajikistan has two seasons: winter and summer. Once April came, the weather drastically improved to what they call spring (in Vancouver we call it the heat of summer!). It was like someone turned off the ‘winter’ switch and flipped on the ‘summer’ switch. There is greenness everywhere with fruit trees blossoming and agriculture in full swing. I got my first taste of fresh soft butter lettuce and spinach this week since not eating it for half a year (thanks to Beate, MEDA’s Project Field Manager who planted new sorts of vegetables not seen in Khujand in her garden). Boy was I enthused =) I’m proud to also announce that along with the warm weather so is power and water regularly provided now.

Talking about fruits & vegetables, Tajiks eat according to whatever is in season. It is starkly different from N. America where all types of fruits & veggies are found all throughout the year (thanks to globalization). The main reason is the difficulty of importing goods through the winter periods thus although we can find oranges here in the winter, they cost 12 som/kg ($3-4USD). Hence prices also fluctuate tremendously. Through MEDA’s ‘Farms to Market’ project, local farmers have begun to look at building greenhouses which allow them to start their growing season earlier and be able to supply vegetables like tomatoes and radishes into the market when the supply is relatively low so market prices will be higher than during harvesting periods. In a micro sense, for places like Tajikistan, understanding these basic market functions can provide valuable linkage to helping improving their livelihood.

Six weeks left with MEDA Tajikistan. Rob and I are booked on a flight to Istanbul on June 14 so it is very exciting to do some traveling but I am sure I will miss ‘certain’ parts of Tajikistan well after I leave this fascinating country.