In a pickle with cotton

Cotton picking season is nearing its end in Tajikistan. Some of the expats here wanted to experience what it’s like to pick cotton so have taken off this weekend into the cotton fields. In light of all this, let me share with you some interesting tidbits of the cotton culture here.

Cotton picking season is approx. three months of the year (Aug – Nov) depending on how long the warm weather remains in Tajikistan. Cotton is grown mainly in Northern Tajikistan where Khujand is. University students and professors (to supervise) of all seven universities in Khujand must go to the cotton fields to pick cotton. Students are required to pick cotton for over two months so schools shut down. It turns out that the President of Tajikistan is actually opposed to having students miss school to pick cotton but since the livelihood of Northern Tajikistan depends on the cotton harvest, the regional governments are unable to give this up.

Students pick cotton in the sweltering heat, are given no water and some even have to pay for a place to stay in the fields. If the farmers are nice, the students may be paid for their services, but not a lot for the work they are doing. The boys and girls work on separate fields and some get assigned solely to prepare food for the workers. However I have been told that some students don’t actually mind picking cotton as it is time for them to miss school and go out and live in the countryside where there’s little supervision. I’ve also heard of the brawls between the Tajik boys from one university and another in the cotton fields. I guess it’s kind of like going away to summer camp except in this context it is fall camp and you have to work instead of play.

When you think of the circumstances surrounding Northern Tajikistan, it becomes so apparent that the “Farms to Market” program at MEDA is so invaluable to the people here. There is such a need for an agrarian society like Tajikistan to find a substitute from cotton into higher valued, more sustainable crops such as apricots, tomatos and many others.

Did you know that no parts of the apricot are considered waste? The apricot body is eaten fresh or dried using a variety of methods (some the western world have never seen before). The apricot seed has a nut inside which you crack open and can eat. The shell of the seed is crushed up and mixed with a cleanser to exfoliate the skin. Isn’t that neat? No wastage!

Jewel of the Silk Road

Last weekend, Cole, Fred, Tereza and I went on an adventurous 3 day trip to Samarkand, Uzbekistan. Also known as Marakanda, Samarkand was a glorious city back when traders traveled along the Silk Route and today, it is even more so remarkable to see as one of Central Asia’s oldest and most magnificent settlements. It was founded way back in the 5th century BC and was a key Silk Road city that sat in between roads leading to China, India and Persia. Much of this mystical city was forged by the hands of one tyrant ruler by the name of Timur or also known as Tamerlane. No it wasn’t his hands that constructed these amazing structures but by the blood and hands of many who suffered during his rein.

The four of us made up an interesting traveling mix, adding to the fact that we were traveling through Central Asia made for some interesting stories to tell…We had some difficulty crossing the border between Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. It wasn’t like we were in trouble (that’s later) but the border guards on both sides just made us wait to get through. We stood in front of the gates and waited (didn’t know why had to wait) for over 2.5 hours before we finally boarded a taxi on our way to Samarkand. Not to mention that majority of our wait was in ‘No Man’s Land’ (not in Tajikistan and have not entered into Uzbekistan) where in close sight was the view of a graveyard, just to remind us that there are landmines all across the border should we decide to make a run through the fields. After a 3 hour drive through old Soviet style towns, barren mountains and sheep, we entered the city of Samarkand. We stayed at a well-known foreigner guesthouse called Bahadir which was very close to many of the sights.

My favorite was meandering through a cemetery in the city through to the Shahri-Zindah “avenue of tombs”, the oldest structure in the city but had the most beautiful tile work that I have ever seen. This complex is an important place of pilgrimage for Muslims as Qusam ibn-Abbas, the cousin of Prophet Mohammed (who is said to have bought Islam to this area) is buried here. I have visited many grand Cathedrals and Churches but this was my first time visiting a holy Muslim shrine/mosque and it was breathtaking.

Funny moments:
-Going through the border, every single question directed at me by the guards was “Are you Japanese, Korean or Chinese?” It was hard for the others not to chuckle as I had to explain myself several times that I was ‘Kit tai from Canada’
-Ok but it wasn’t just me getting asked the same odd question by these same border guards. For some reason, every time it was Cole’s turn, the guards would miss his first name but read his middle name “Conway” which when we first heard it, we were like ‘huh’ where did that come from? So he had to correct them every time “no it’s Cole…Cole.”
-Turns out we met several Japanese backpackers and Tim from the UK who spoke Japanese at the guesthouse. On the second night, we met this guy who looked Japanese. Tim told us that he was from China so I thought it would be a good idea to make a new friend and practice my rusty Mandarin. I greeted him and asked him where he was from. He responded and said “Shanghai”. Well, it turns out he’s not from Shanghai but is Japanese who knows a bit of broken Mandarin and with my broken Mandarin, we caused a riot of laughter from the group who had NO clue what we were saying and what was happening until I explained that he was not Chinese and that Tim should take over and speak to him in Japanese.

Up until this point, I have no mentioned that we got screwed by the person who got us the visas to Uzbekistan. Instead of tourist visas, we got 3 day transit visas for $110 USD and the Americans were asked to pay another $100 USD (which they didn’t pay). There was obviously something wrong with relations between countries which I won’t go into but we knew there could possibly be a problem with traveling with a transit visa, which technically mean you are heading through the country onto another place. So when we tried to leave Uzbekistan to go back into Tajikistan, we had a problem. Well what could four unknowing foreigners do except to just stay quiet and just hope for the best? Well I was told later that the guards had no idea how to deal with this because they have never had this situation before. In the end, we were allowed to leave and cross back to our home country. Phew, little bit of luck and the charm of being the unknowing foreigner got us out of this one. I don’t think I’ll try this again.

Where to next???

I have posted photos on Google so enjoy!

The end of Ramazon (in Tajik)

Tomorrow is Eid al-Fitr which means celebrations of the end of Ramadan and also a day off from work! It is a day of visiting with family and friends and of course EATING! I have not yet blogged about Ramadan because the month of fasting came and went by so fast that I have no yet had any moments to reflect on it. Honestly, I have not truly experienced what the true meaning of Ramadan is (it was not really apparent if you understand what I mean). At work, except for a few who were missing from lunch, many were having lunch as usual. One coworker fasted for a week and was told by her mother to stop because she felt her daughter was looking pale and ill from the fasting.

One very odd time, we were visiting the house of a MEDA staff in the Isfara region and he made my coworker and I have lunch in his house but him and his wife did not join us. His wife naturally cooked us the meal and we ate alone inside the house. Talk about such devotion and inner power to deny the body from the temptations of the powerful smells of food. It is indeed a very spiritual and out of body experience to wake up at 5-6am (the women wake earlier to prepare the food) to eat and then to go without food and water until past 6pm for a whole month. I have fasted before for the 30 Hour Famine but it was only for 1.5 days and we had water. I can’t imagine not drinking any water!

Then there are the sounds of men chanting. I would hear it at home, at the office; the sounds coming from somewhere in the city. It is very mysterious but yet there is something peaceful and spiritual in the sounds. Nargisa (coworker) and I had a short discussion on prayer time and she told me how nice and calming it is to the body to pray five times a day. That is definitely something that I should pick up…I hope to learn more about the Muslim faith.

Yesterday, I woke up with the worse stomach cramps ever in my upper abdominals. I knew exactly what it was…I had either stomach flu or food poisoning. Anyways, I made several trips to the toilet and realized that I was STILL without water! It was a horrible discovery but of course the pipes in the apartment were broken so no water. I won’t go into details but you know this is bad news. Anyways, by the afternoon, things were looking a little brighter. Water came back (pipes fixed) and my cramps subsided. My body is still in a bit of shock but I’m much better today.

One last thought…I started listening to “The Life of Pi” by Yann Martel (I’ve dropped Collapsed for the moment) and I can’t stop! The tale is colorful, thoughtful, funny and quite hard to stop listening to haha. In the book, there is mention of the phrase, “secular like ice cream…” which I don’t quite understand. If anyone has any thoughts, please let me know!

Bye for now!

Nobel Peace Prize

Yesterday, Muhammad Yunus was awarded the prestigious Nobel Peace Prize for his work in starting up the Grameen Bank of Bangladesh and for being the founding father of Microcredit. As I have been interested in this area of development for quite some time, it gives me great pleasure to see the world embrace and be educated about the economic development tools used to provide the poor access to financial services. Not only did the concept arise from the developing world but it goes to show that the developing world is better at solving their own problems and have great ideas even for the powering nations to use.

News article on Muhammad Yunus winning the Nobel Peace Prize:
http://business.guardian.co.uk/story/0,,1922390,00.html

You may have noticed that I mentioned the term microfinance. This is an umbrella term for all the different kinds of financial products that can be offered to the poor such as savings, credit, insurance and enterprise development. I am fascinated by this. Coming from a business background, I have often wondered how I can merge my academic studies with serving others (esp the most needy and poor). Now I have an opportunity to learn and really get involve!

With MEDA, the area of focus for me is in microenterprise development, providing business services for small households to small medium-sized enterprises. It is literally providing consulting services to those in the form of agri. skills training, upgrading of technology and strengthening the value chain so they can build up their businesses. Of course as with most businesses, starting up and being success is not an easy task. Especially in a society used to a soviet-style of management, developing a business mentality and making changes is a slow step by step process. To top it off, the country is still recovering from the civil war in the 1990s so poverty is rampant; hence corruption and informal markets strive in this type of environment.

I came across a blog that discusses microfinance with a critical eye. http://www.owen.org/blog/386 .

Interesting points:
-Other well-known philanthropists have also jumped on the bandwagon such as Bill and Melinda Gates and Michael Dell who made considerable donations to microfinance organizations in the States
-MFIs need to minimize efficiency cost and aim to be sustainable (similar to other banking institutions)
-Donors and philanthropists should look at investing in microcapital (www.microcaptial.org) funds which serve to give a boost to potential entrepreneurs in developing countries instead of just providing grants or loans.
-There is a huge debate on whether microfinance should be operated similar to any other business environment in order to be sustainable and successful. This forces MFIs to focus on the groups that have the best potential to succeed which implies that the poorest of the poor (aka the weakest and the least effective) will be left out of the equation. IS the role of microfinance to be a sustainable institution for the poor or to be providers of capital for the poorest of the poor (who have no means of accessing capital) using whichever means possible?

ps. I've discovered how great audio books are! I finished listening to "the Devil wears Prada" and am now embarking on a non-fiction book called "Collapse" by Jared Diamond which analyzes why civilizations have failed and how this impacts our world today.

Bye

More travels and interesting tales...

I can’t believe that two weeks have passed since I’ve last blogged. What has happened to me in the last while? It’s a bit fuzzy but let me try to recap…

I visited Istarvshan for the third time but this time as a tourist. Frederick, one of his students (our guide) and I walked around the city and visited several mosques. We attracted quite a bit of attention from the children who wondered why this grey-beard American, young chinese girl and local Tajik were doing in their town. Highlights of the day: 1. Taking photos of children and 2. Visiting a mosque and meeting a group of Muslim men after their prayer time (you can sense the peace and spirituality emanating in the room)

With MEDA, I traveled to Isfara, another project region about 1.5 hours away from Khujand to visit with a few women farmers to tell them about MEDA’s matching grant program. The drive to Isfara was absolutely stunning. We drove pass dry arid mountainous landscapes that were of many different shades of red due to phosphate and potassium in the soil. Isfara is a part of the Fergana Valley, known for its rich fertile soil and great tasting fruits. This region is nestled between Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan with crazy jaggedly borders which were drawn up by Lenin back in the soviet times to separate groups considered a threat to the ruling government. There was this one section where the road we were on was in Tajikistan but the road on the right was in Kyrgyzstan! Yup no border control whatsoever.

Isfara is also considered a more conservative Muslim region. I saw many women draped in dark cloaks with their faces covered except for the eyes, however, the women farmers I met were dressed in normal Tajik wear so that was interesting. Many of the poor families are headed by females as the men have left for Russia to work. These women have had to become farmers so they can earn a living for themselves. The women farmer we visited had received assistance from MEDA before and was interested in applying for the matching grant to purchase a nut-cracking machine. She takes the apricot seed and uses stones (fetched from the river) to crack it open. A simple nut-cracking machine will save her time and she plans to rent it to other farmers, which also serves as a way to introduce the new technology to other women farmers. She is a perfect example of how MEDA’s support in providing agricultural training and funding can translate into giving women farmers the energy and excitement to be entrepreneurial and to lead others to improving their livilhoods. Highlight of the day: Enjoying the fresh air, sun and light breeze in Isfara (I swear it’s just Vancouver!)

As for my work at MEDA, I will be working on a few different assignments:
· I will be conducting a workshop in November on effective report and business writing to help improve capacity of staff (get to work on my training skills!)
· Helping set up and organize the womens’ group matching grant program. If anyone has resources or experience in this area, let me know!
· Research on the fresh herbs and seedlings industry for a project proposal targeting women farmers in the Isfara region

Outside of work, I am taking Tai Kwon Do classes three times a week. Our master is tough but the nicest guy (he totally reminds me of my Kung Fu instructor in HK). He makes us do split stretches which are a killer. Tai Kwon Do is a great workout on the legs esp. the hamstrings which aren’t used much but I think I’ve strained my hamstrings from all those stretches.

One funny incident occurred when a few workers came to my flat to install some cabinets in the kitchen. One guy showed me his mobile which was displayed in Chinese. He indicated to me that he couldn’t read it and wanted me to help him change it to Russian or English. I pretended to help him and actually figured it out from the few characters I recognized and changed it to English for him. It’s pretty funny though considering I’m not really fluent in reading Chinese but I pulled it off. haha

I’ve uploaded more photos from my latest trips so check those out.

Happy Thanksgiving to all my fellow Canadians!

Rachel