A week of Indian food, community action, learning about migration and being tourists for once

Last weekend started off really well, with going for the most amazing Indian meal out on Friday. We’d all had a really long day at the office and it was so delicious so definitely lifted our spirits. For the first ten minutes after our food arrived all that could be heard from our table was our little moans of delight; it was so tasty!

On Saturday morning we went for our third community action day at a local school. On arrival the director just had one thing to ask of us: that we don’t discuss HIV with the children. Bearing in mind that our program isn’t connected to health, and the fact that most of the students could only just about tell us their name and age in Tajik, we had no plans to bring the issue of HIV into our day plan, but clearly they must have had a bad experience with a group of volunteers before. Our aim was just to have some fun with the children, who were all so well-behaved and disciplined. So we played ‘wink sleep’ (a censored version of Wink Murder) which was really fun, some of the little children were just so adorable and some of them even made pretty good detectives. We then had a little art session where they were told to paint or draw something they did or saw during the summer. It was quite interesting to see that so many of them drew really patriotic pictures, many of them including the Tajik flag. I’m fairly certain when I was ten years old and someone told me to draw whatever I wanted I wouldn’t have been drawing the Union Flag anyway.

After the community action day some of us saw the opportunity to get down to the Aqua Park in the hope of getting a tan before returning to the UK (where it’ll be practically winter when we arrive). I’m sorry to say that none of us tanned even a little bit, much to our disappointment and utter confusion. Nonetheless the Aqua Park is just such a good place to chill and pretend that we’re on our hols.

On Sunday we finally managed to escape the city limits and get to Hissor, an old fortress and UNESCO site. There’s a museum there and you can walk around the old fort. It would be quite a peaceful place were it not for the numerous wedding parties walking around the site, taking pictures and playing really loud and annoying musical instruments. As is tradition, all the brides looked on with indifference bordering on unhappiness. As we all walked around we said how much we were enjoying being a tourist for once and shamelessly taking lots of cringe-worthy tourist photos.

Yesterday, my counterpart and I did our Global Citizen Day; we basically did a little presentation on migration particularly focussing on labour migration in Tajikistan. I organised for a speaker from the International Organisation for Migration to come and talk to us about of all the problems faced in Tajikistan. 1/7 Tajiks migrate to Russia for work, doing low-paid seasonal jobs in order to send back remittances to their families; over 50% of the GDP of Tajikistan comes from remittances. I really think we all learned so much about the problems that so many people face while working abroad, but also about the effects that labour migration has on the women who are left behind. We also watched a short film made by Aljazeera on Tajikistan’s Missing Men which was so well put together and really concentrated on the effects of so many men leaving the country. Would really recommend people to give it a watch.

This week has mainly been focused on trying to fulfil the personal aims I set myself at the start of the program (learn about the opportunities and limitations for women in Tajikistan, learn a bit about the Tajik legal system and learn some Tajik along the way) and planning for debrief weekend. I am so, so, excited for our debrief; we’re going to Iskanderkul for two nights, and staying in an ex-Soviet camp right by a stunning lake in the mountains. It’s going to be the last time when we’re all together as a team so it’s probably going to be a pretty emotional time, and it’ll be so good to have the opportunity to reflect on the experience while we’re still here. The planning process for the debrief trip is all pretty last minute, we go tomorrow and we’re yet to book our transport. And the weird thing is, I now see this as normal. I know that at the start of the program I would have found it hard to believe that things can get organised so close to the time, but after 11 weeks of adjustment, I don’t even feel remotely concerned. What I’ve learned in Tajikistan is that things are always fine in the end, and that ‘last minute’ to us is just the right time to them. I’m not sure if this is the sort of lesson I need to be learning just before last year of university, but it is definitely useful to realise that there is no value over panicking and stressing out about things.

Crazy to think that we’ll be home in just over a week. Lots to pack in: debrief, our community action day, our goodbye party. Tonight we’re going for yet another Indian, for no reason other than we bloody love curry. I’m excited.

xxx

“Yay we’re free! Oh wait…”

So after all the stress of the days coming up to the festival we were all really looking forward to chilling and making the most of our last few days in Dushanbe.

The day after the festival I had a well needed lie in, a relaxed breakfast with my host mum where we ate delicious honey and looked through old family photos while I showed her all my purchases from the festival. The kids had up go to school even though it was a Sunday to celebrate ‘knowledge day’, to mark the start of the new academic year. After a really chilled out morning I went and met the other volunteers in the centre for a picnic in Rudaki Park. We chatted about the day before, comparing out experiences and realising that we were all far too busy to see everything the festival had to offer, and played cards. Everyone was still exhausted from the day before and we were so glad that we’d been given the Monday off work too.

Monday: catching up on the happenings online, going to the fair near Ellie’s house; really dangerous sounding but actuallt safe rides; views of Dushanbe from the Ferris wheel; being chased in pedalos by local boys; questionable hot dogs; good, clean fun.

 

Last night we went to an event at a fancy restaurant in town that was meant to be a jazz night but was an eclectic mix of performances, a bit of jazz, opera and even some ballet.  I expected a jazz club, so was quite surprised when we entered the room to find something which closely resembled a wedding reception, with everyone sat at fancy tables listening to the music. The night was just starting to get good, a DJ had taken over and everyone was dancing when we had to leave to get home for our curfew. Heartbreaking. On the way home myself, Farshad and Dave tried to make ourselves feel better by getting the taxi driver to turn up the music and dancing away in the back for the journey. As frustrating as it is constantly having to be home so early, by the time I arrived home I’d danced away my all my annoyance.

 

At our team meeting on Tuesday we were brought back to reality with another huge to-do list for before we leave. Turns out we’re not free at all. How disappointing. Reports to write, contact lists to compile, de-brief to plan, two community action days still to be done, my Global Citizenship Day on migration is coming up next week so have to organise that too. In short, we have so much to do. And it all has to be done while we try to ‘make the most’ of the rest of our time here.

at our usual lunchtime haunt – 4 somoni osh!

being Tajik and overloading on carbs

the victorious ‘inflation for the nation’ team at Lizzie’s GCD

Starting to panic that we won’t be able to do what we want to do before we leave (a fortnight today!). We should be going to Hissor at the weekend to visit a fortress there and get out of the city for the day which I cannot wait for. We have our next community action day tomorrow, we’re going to a school for the day to teach them English and play some games with the kids.

So all is good in Dushanbe, still busy, still loving it here.

xxxx