My Apartment

Here's a video tour of my apartment! I said in the narration that the cat's name is Vasha--I can't remember his exact name, but it's something like that. Enjoy!

'Tis the Night Before Eid

Tomorrow (September 21st) is the holiday of Eid-al-Fitr, or the end of the month of fasting for Muslims around the world. "Eid" means "festivity" in Arabic and "Fitr" means "to break the fast," (Wikipedia). Here in Tajikistan, people generally refer to the upcoming holiday as "Eid-i-Ramazan." Tomorrow, schools and offices are closed. I don't know about the markets, since this holiday involves a lot of eating. Those who have family in other cities or villages have traveled to visit them if they were able.

I know many people who observed the fast, and also many who didn't, either for specific health reasons or because it is too difficult. For those who fast, it means no food, drink or other indulgences (smoking is one) doing daylight hours. At the end of the day, families break the fast together with the Iftor meal (pronounced Iftar in some countries). I was invited to an Iftor meal combined with a birthday party for a coworker this week. The other guests and I were ushered into a room with a long table laden with food: salads, bread, tea, fruit, vegetables, sambusas, jam...and that was just the appetizer. Then we were served soup with dumplings and vegetables, foil packets with roasted meat and vegetables, and cake. My friend's mother and other women in the household had surely been cooking all day long. It was delicious. As we were leaving, her mother asked us to come again, and my friend walked us down to where we would take minibuses to our homes. Part of Tajik hospitality is making sure that the guests get all the way home safely. The next day, 4 different coworkers who were at the party asked me how my journey home was, and I live a 5 minute bus ride away!

Eid is celebrated for 3 days, though the only school holiday this year is the first day. People go from house to house, visiting friends and family and sampling their spreads of food. Tomorrow I will go to another Tajik friend's house to celebrate Eid-i-Ramazan. She invited me, telling me to come at 9:30 or 10:00 AM, because her mother would have the soup ready by then and she wants me to be their first guest! I think I will also visit my neighbor's apartment too. I borrowed a traditional Tajik outfit from an American friend and I will wear it for the festivities. I love the Tajik clothing. Pictures of that to come!

Pedagogical Institute

This is my first week teaching at Tajik State Pedagogical University (aka Ped Institute or Teacher Training University). The first picture is not from the Ped Institute; it's a weekly discussion club at the Embassy-sponsored American Corner. I don't have pictures of my classes yet, but will post when I do. I'm working with 2 groups of 3rd year students, teaching grammar and "practice," which is a combination of reading, grammar, and other skills. There are 13,000 students in the university as a whole, and more than 1,000 in the English department, according to the department Dean. It doesn't seem like that many to me, but the classes are on 2 different floors, and 5th year students are gone on practicum.

The students are very friendly and generally eager to learn. When a teacher or administrator enters a classroom, the students stand until they are given permission to sit down. My classes are figuring out that this is not an American custom, so only some of them stand when I come into the room, which is fine with me. Women usually wear traditional Tajik clothing, and men almost always wear white shirts and ties. The students couldn't believe it when I told them that some American college students go to classes in their pajamas, basically--sweatshirts and sweatpants, and that male students almost never wear ties to class.

Though this is a teacher training university, most of the students I've talked to don't actually want to be teachers. They dream of careers as interpreters, translators, or local staff working for a foreign NGOs in Tajikistan. They see English as their ticket to the world--travel, studying abroad, etc. Students ask me how they can improve their English and beg me to visit their classes or help them individually. I tell them I can't be their individual tutor, but I will be helping to organize some discussion clubs they can participate in. If any of you want to come visit me, students would be THRILLED to meet more Americans. There are apparently direct flights to Dushanbe from Frankfurt and Riga, Latvia now...(hint, hint...)

I'm going camping with some new friends this weekend, so look forward to pictures of the mountains!! I can't wait.

The opinions in this blog are not the opinions of the US State Department or the English Language Fellowship Program.

My New Home

This is me outside my apartment building. It took about 15 min to upload this photo, so it's the only one for now.

First Impressions

I'm finally in Dushanbe! I'm not able to post pictures at the moment, but I plan to post some in the next day. I arrived Thursday morning at 3:30, went to an apartment, and slept for a few hours before going to a brief orientation at the Embassy.

First things first, the food: Last evening my fellow EL Fellow and I went to dinner with some other visitors to Tajikistan. We ate at a traditional Tajik restaurant, and the food was delicious. We ate lamb and beef kebabs (called shashlyk here) served on gigantic skewers. I was really tempted to challenge someone to a duel, but resisted. We also had a soup called lahman, which had beef, noodles and vegetables, topped with cilantro. We also sampled a dumpling filled with meat and had non, the traditional round loaf bread. Notice a trend here? Meat and carbs. There are lots of vegetables and fruits too, but veggies tend to be a little safer if prepared at home. Fortunately, another expat expressed an interest in running together, which will help with all the bread consumption. :)

Local dress: the majority of the women I see walking around wear the traditional Tajik clothing: a long dress with matching pants underneath. See the Flickr link for pictures. It's beautiful. Many of those women wear a scarf. Here in the capital lots of women wear Western clothing (pants, varied length skirts). Men wear Western-style clothing, for the most part--dress pants and polo or button up shirts. Some wear a more traditional round hat or long tunic with flowing pants.

People interactions: I haven't interacted much with locals other than those who work at the Embassy yet, but the people seem very friendly, and Tajiks are known for their great hospitality. They are very patient with my lack of Russian or Tajik when I've exchanged money or bought things at the store. Yesterday I need to use the phone and since I don't have one yet, I decided to go upstairs and knock on a neighbor's apartment door. Just as I was locking my apartment, a young father entered the building with his two daughters. I greeted him in Russian and there my Russian ended. He spoke English, though, so I explained that I need to use the phone, and he dialed the number on his cell. He introduced himself and his daughters and said they could help me if I need anything. I explained that I'm the "new Bruce" since the previous American in my position lived in the same apartment. I may switch apartments to one across the street, but either way I hope to stay in touch with this family. I was so thankful they came along just then!

The setting: I haven't seen the mountains yet because it's been dusty since I arrived. I guess this is unusual; normally the sun is incredibly bright, I've been told. I can't wait to see the mountains! Another American told me they went camping outside the city in a gorgeous area with a river that was bluer than any they had ever seen. I'm hoping I'll get to go camping! The main street in Dushanbe is tree-lined, and there is occasional grass but everything looks pretty dry and lawns don't exist here (I think it's a pretty American thing).

Well, that's all for now. More later.

The opinions and ideas expressed in this blog are not the opinions of the US Department of State or the English Language Fellowship program.

Istanbul and the Black Sea

Since I arrived in Istanbul on Saturday I've been walking around, seeing sites like the Blue Mosque and Hagia Sophia (former church, then mosque, now museum), sampling Turkish cuisine, and trying to avoid the people who want me to buy their entire shop when I haven't so much as looked at one carpet. Usually I just walk by without even acknowledging them, and a couple times I tried to pretend I only speak Spanish. Unfortunately for me, some of the shopkeepers speak Spanish too! I haven't bought anything but food yet--my suitcases are too full for anything else! The first picture is the beach near Agva (see below) and the second is me at the top of Galata Tower with Istanbul in the background.

Today I took a day trip with a tour company to the Black Sea, and it was absolutely lovely. We were a small group of 5: 2 Austrialian women and a couple from Spain besides myself. We went to a Sile (pronounced Shilay) and Agva (silent g), small tourist towns about an hour and a half outside Istanbul. We took a boat trip on a small river in Agva and then ate lunch at a riverside restaurant. Our guide, Umut, was excellent, and since we were such a small group we could decide among ourselves if we wanted to stay in one place longer or move on. I enjoyed getting to know the others in the group, and the Spanish couple was amused by my Mexican-accented Spanish. The Austrialian women and I were amused by watching our guide fall asleep repeatedly on the boat trip. (He didn't need to provide commentary for the boat ride).

I noticed a number of unfinished houses along the river and the road. They were concrete structures with several floors but no windows, doors, or other finishing touches, and it looked like noone had been working on them for a while. I asked the guide if the unfinished houses were related to the economic crisis and he said yes. He said that the prices of homes have dropped 40-50%, and that in the past rent prices went up every year to adjust for inflation, but this year he told his landlord he couldn't pay the increased price and the landlord agreed. In the past, a landlord would have found a new tenant in a week, but now they are holding on to tenants if they can. It's interesting and sad to hear about how other countries have been affected by the greed of the mortage fiasco.


In the afternoon, the 5 of us climbed down a steep hill to a small beach in a little cove. We swam, climbed on the rocks, and sat in the sun. I sat and marved at the awesome beauty of God's creation. It was gorgeous and totally relaxing. I want to upload more pictures, but the internet connection is really slow. Tomorrow I'm off on another day trip to see the ruins of Troy. As a literature person, I couldn't pass that one up.

Thanks for reading! I've never been known for my brevity. And the State Department wants English Language Fellow bloggers to note that all ideas and opinions expressed in my blog are my own, and are not the opinions of the State Department. :)

~Love from Istanbul~

The Journey Begins

Here I am in Washington DC, staying blocks from the Capitol for the English Language Fellow Pre-Departure Orientation. I arrived yesterday after packing all my belongings for storage (minus 3 very heavy bags and 2 carry ons), several goodbye parties, and many tears and prayers of blessing. I feel extremely blessed to have friends, family and co-workers like you all. I feel so loved and encouraged--THANK YOU!!

This evening I walked to the Capitol with Sharon, another Fellow headed to Tajikistan. When I arrived yesterday, I found out there are 3 of us going there instead of just 2! Suzanne was just hired last week and she will also be working in Dushanbe, but with a slightly different program. I'm excited to already know another person who will be in the same city! She will be going to Tajikistan in September, giving her only a month to get everything ready. I'm the only one here I've met so far who is leaving directly from orientation (since I opted to spend a few days vacationing in Turkey). Leaving right from orientation is mixed: on the one hand, I'm done with all the preparations others are still in the middle of; on the other, there may be information that could have been helpful in packing, like the teaching materials that should be already available at the Embassy.

The days are full of sessions with lots of information and more acronyms that I can keep track of. It's been helpful to talk with people who are going to the same regions and share information. At times I feel like my brain is going to explode! It's been very interesting to meet this group of people who are going to almost any country you can think of outside Western Europe: the Central Asian "stans," East Timor, Ukraine, Bangladesh, Brazil, South Africa... an amazing group of people--different ages and levels of experience in teaching English. If you want to hang out in a place where people love geography, languages, cultures and teaching, this is it! OK, I'd better get some sleep before another big day tomorrow. If I'm ambitious in the morning, I may get up and go running on the National Mall.