January 17, 2012

Stayed home to tackle the mountain of dishes and piles of laundry that had accumulated due to the lack of water. It was sunny all day and I could see the clearly outlined mountains. Try as much as I did, I wasn’t able to get the printer to work once the cartridge had been replaced. Asked Caroline about it and she suspected the printer might have been so sensitive as to detect that the cartridge had been tampered with and not respond. I’d hate to go back to making trips to the copy center every time I need handouts.

This must be of those misguided efforts of some international NGOs to encourage Tajiks not to litter and to recycle. People continue to litter and those who use the receptacles place trash in both of them as apparently no public service campaign has been conducted to teach them the difference.

Zoir stopped by this time with one of his “pupils” in tow. As halting as his English is I guess some parents still consider him to be competent enough to teach their children. This student was 14 years old, but looked about ten. He wanted to ask me, once again, if I could introduce him to my other American contacts in the Dushanbe area so he’d have more chances to practice his English. He had no idea how draining it’s to spend time with him when we don’t understand half of what he’s saying. He indicated his brother is only willing to pay for two years of his education and after that, he’ll need to get a job.