Random Ramblings

I have mentioned it before but everything about Tajikistan is unpredictable and unexplainable. Whatever is logical and common sense can all be thrown straight out the door. One of the toughest adjustments here since December has been the randomness of power, water and gas distribution in the city. It seems to change from week to week and no one ever knows when it will normalize. In a way, since February, it was a bit more normal in a sense that we are guaranteed at least 1-2 hrs of power/water but you never know when it will be on. Take this week for example; for once we had gas so I was able to cook my dinner. However, there was no power so I was cooking by candlelight which can be interesting (can’t see my food!). Around 8pm, the gas disappears and that’s when power comes on. Tonight, I was in the middle of washing my dishes during the 1 hour of running water when the lights went off and thus the disappearance of water soon after. Luckily the power came back five minutes after and who knows how long it will stay tonight…It sure can drain you having to deal with all this. The last three weeks have been extra tough with very harsh constant cuts. Thank goodness the weather seems to be warming up and has been quite nice lately.


Kids from my apt complex (aren't they adorable?):

Tomorrow is International Women’s Day and a national holiday. Just a couple of weeks ago, we celebrated Men’s Day but had no day off from work. I found it pretty amusing that our male coworkers were congratulating us as if to say “Thank you for being a woman!” We also each received the same deodorant stick as a gift for being a woman. Maybe it’s cultural or them trying to get back at us for giving them each the same cologne as a gift during Men’s Day. Such a hoot! Can you imagine this happening back home?? There is such a cultural difference between the West which promotes individual thought and the East which is very much a collective society.

A time of reflection…

It is officially six months since I left ‘Home of the Maple Leaf and Hockey’ and ventured to a fascinating land of the Tajiks. I finally have a bit of a break this weekend to sit back and reflect on my time spent here so far. I’ve noted down some of my memorable and worse moments so far. How fast time flies and how vast this world is that we live in…Rae

Most Memorable

-Tajik Children; they are everywhere, when the average number of children in a household is 5, you can imagine why they are everywhere
-Watching power cuts across the city
-Witnessing a turkey killing
-Eating pork shashlik and celebrating Korean New Years
-Tajik men dancing
-Extraordinary scenery: barren mountains against blue studded sky, oasis town full of mystic and marred with dichotomy
-My favorable place for baked goods: Lazzat bakery

Not so Memorable

-Harassed by Tajik guys and being stared at constantly
-Having to avoid spit all over the streets
-Lack of food variety especially leafy green veggies
-The culture of consuming pure mutton fat, it’s pure disgusting
-Power, water and gas cuts

-Miss watching the Vancouver Canucks, Grey's, my family/friends back home and most of all...my hubby

Tajik Tales

Here are some other funny observations I’ve noticed about Tajikistan:

Riding a marshuka (micro bus)

The city is filled with them and at 0.35 dirams (less than 10 cents USD) per ride; it’s the best way to travel around town. You flag them down like a taxi except you wave your hand around your waist level and to get off, you say “injor dored” which means stop here in Tajik. These micro buses are exactly like the “siew ba” or flying coffins in HK except they will pick up/drop off anywhere (no designated stops needed). Just have to know which number to take as they have specific routes they follow.

I flagged the wrong marshutka down one day and by the time I realized it, I was too embarrassed to get off and too cheap to pay another 0.25 dirams(price increased from last year) haha. I forgot to mention that they squeeze people in like sardines in these van-like buses. The problem is here these buses have low roofs so people end up having to bend over in whatever position possible to fit into the bus. I even saw a man put his head through the sun roof!

I know by now which micro bus to take with less people riding in it. However, you can’t really tell if it’s packed with people or not until you flag one down. By the time it stops and you realize it’s already jammed with bent over backwards men and women and you prefer to take another but you can’t cuz they stopped specifically for you! So again not wanting to look stupid, you hop right into the last foot of space and hang on. Luckily, crime isn’t an issue in Khujand so I don’t worry too much about pickpocketers.

In the dark

A bathroom with four walls is useless in the dark. I noticed a long tapered candle in our office bathroom and wondered if it was to take away the smell afterwards. Well it’s more for lighting the room up when there’s a power outage. The problem is there’s no holder so how are you supposed to hold a candle and unbutton your pants at the same time?!? I finally figured to leave it in a cup and lean it against the wall. It was quite a romantic atmosphere…hehe

Now I have experienced it all…the hot water pipe in my house was being replaced so after Tai Kwan Do one night, I had to take a shower at my friend’s place that lived in the same building. By coincidence his bathroom light has also burnt out so he bought a new light bulb to replace it. By the time I got there, he found out that the new bulb didn’t work! So once again we lit several candles and I showered in the dark. I kept worrying that something would light on fire from those candles!

Mystery at home

For some odd reason, the tap water in the kitchen turns a slightly browny-cloudy mixture after its boiled. I understand that the water here is not clean but I really can’t drink brown water (not even Gatorade can fix this!). However, the water from the bathroom tap doesn’t turn color after you boil it… What does this all mean? It’s probably from two different pipes and for my own peace and comfort, I will continue to take water from the bathroom.

Answering the phone

When you speak barely two sentences of Russian or Tajik, answering the phone can be quite a humorous affair when you get someone calling a wrong number which I find happens very frequently in Tajikistan. On many occasions, I would receive a call on my mobile and now my landline (which prompted me to write this) from a local. Of course I haven’t figured out how to tell them ‘they have called the wrong number’ so usually I just get hung up on. This time, I got a call on my landline and I thought it was my landlord calling. I recognized that she asked me “how are you” in Tajik so I responded in Russian but she kept talking and then hung up. I guess it wasn’t my landlord…

Paying for your landline at home is also amusing. You literally have to go to the telephone company to pay your debts which is approx. $1 USD/month for the phone line + whatever outgoing calls you make. They also have an automated phone message that calls the landline telling the customer how much they owe. Of course if the customer is a non-Russian speaker like me, then that would be a challenge. By the time I realized what this was about, the only word I heard was ‘dirams’ which is not going to help =)

Power Spoof

What can I say…power has been a serious issue throughout Tajikistan this winter. We are going through the third round of serious power cuts this week. What is disturbing is there seems to be a direct correlation between the temperature and power. When it gets increasingly colder, power is increasingly lessened. No rhyme nor reason…It’s Tajikistan. The problem is the temperature has dropped drastically so I literally went from wearing my spring jacket one day to 4 layers the next. And so is adjusting to having get used to 4-5 hours of power to only 2 hours at night with minimal running water (hint: live on the ground floor…). Whoever is charged with turning the power off must have much joy in doing so because one night after 8pm, the power cut. However, it came back on 15 mins afterwards so I blew out the candle only to find myself sitting in pitch darkness seconds after!


Night view of Lenina St. taken from my apt.


Perhaps one positive out of this dire situation is one night, I was sitting with a friend looking across the river. At 9pm, we caught sight of the power cuts take place before our eyes. It was pretty amazing how all the lights just turned off all at once, leaving us to feel at ease knowing we were watching the lights go out from the outside instead of experiencing it from within.

You might be thinking how bad the locals have it here but I’ve learned that not only do most locals have their coping mechanisms either through getting a ‘red line’ emergency line only for hospitals, police etc. or use wood/coal stoves to get them through. The strong family/clan based culture ensures that if you are a part of a family, you will have the connection to survive these circumstances. I heard recently that 80% of Tajiks have ‘red line’ power. The result is that since most are on the red line, the power through these lines has also weakened and in some cases also cut. This is very serious as these red lines are supposed to be for important life-saving institutions and I’m hearing that hospitals are also without power and water at times. Can you imagine not being able to wash your hand in the hospital? Or performing surgery using a generator?!? This is definitely a motivation to stay far away from having to go to the hospital.

Read the article below to see how Tajiks are dealing with it in their own hands.
http://www.iwpr.net/?p=rca&s=f&o=333463&apc_state=henh

Have you heard enough? Well I think everyone here is sick of me talking about it. I’m sick of talking about it =P

Frenzy Feb

Whoa! What happened? February, why are you leaving us so soon? This month has been quite a blinding whirlwind for me, so much that I have not been able to capture any of it here until now. Well, hold still cuz here’s a frenzy recap for ya =)

If you don’t already know by now, the news is I have extended my stay here in Khujand to work with MEDA until the end of May. This is a very timely arrangement as the Gender Officer who I’ve been helping with the Small Matching Grant Program has left MEDA so I have taken over the implementing of the grant program. I will also get many other opportunities to put on my ‘trainers’ cap in the next few months.

Next week, along with the AgriBusiness Development Specialist, we will be facilitating a two-day workshop on business management, and planning. There are approx. 15 farmers who are training to be MEDA’s AgriBusiness Consultants (ABCs) and their final workshop session will be conducted by us. Once completed their training, the ABCs will go back to their different regions and work with village farmers by providing agricultural advice and support, to help them improve their growing methods and as a result better yields and quality to improve their income. I’ve spent the last 3 weeks or so putting together various modules for the training on topics like marketing management value chain and can finally say I’m done writing! Now my focus will be on how to facilitate it.

Interesting Experiment – Count how many Merecedes and BMWs you see on the road. During my 5 min walk on the main road, I saw 6 Merecedes and 1 BMW on the street…hmmm