February 3, 2012

Another day to stay at home watching the rain carry away the remains of the  snow only to see it change to snow once again and this time, surprisingly, there was a strong wind bending the trees slightly and making the snow come in at an angle. I took a long bath, cleaned the kitchen, made a curried lentil soup, and filled all containers with water as the temperature is expected to drop to 5F tonight.

I got an email from Caroline, who’s spending a week in Abu Dhabi, telling me she  was able to find brown sugar for me. She expressed an interest in house sitting for Marydean so as to extend her time here in Dushanbe, something I don’t understand as she was so adamant about getting the hell out of here upon her return from the conference in Nepal. I promised to call Marydean and present her with the offer.

I texted Nancy and David to see if they wanted to meet Corrie and I for lunch when the workshop was finished and they agreed. I called Ruth to inform her of the same and found out that Corrie was visiting her at the precise moment. Corrie and coordinated the details for the Saturday workshop.

Elbek came for his class and then returned with his uncle who also wants to have a conversation class with me. As it happens with so many students here, his uncle doesn’t have enough vocabulary to hold a conversation and had to ask Elbek, in Russian, to translate for him. He works for the T-Cell Internet provider and his job demands that he deals with some customers in English. He indicated he teaches Russian through Skype and would be more than willing to trade classes with me. I told him I might not be able to do anything until after my return from Nepal and confirmation of my new schedule at the institute.

                                                   Tea cozy made by Maryam.

Nilufar knocked on my door to present me with a tea cozy Maryam had sewn for me out of my favorite fabric here, a cobalt blue velvet. Maryam’s daughter had problem with her passport and didn’t come this month as planned, so her visit is now expected for March.