March 11, 2012

Another rainy Sunday and my first instinct was to remain in my pajamas while catching up on my reading, both online and in my books. Instead, I forced myself to get dressed and traveled to the PedInst to meet with Oigul so we could travel together to her apartment. Farzona and another student joined us there and we took another mini-van to a nine-story building that looked like a relatively new construction. Oigul confirmed it had been built in 1991 and her mother had been given an apartment there because both she and her husband are disabled in one form or another. Oigul is an only child, something quite unusual here, and the apartment in question was really small: a combination living room/bedroom for her parents and a tiny bedroom leading to a kitchen in what was intended as a balcony. There was no source of heat in that room. The place did have a western-style toilet, for which I was grateful. Her mother is 46 years old, but looked much older than I do. Her plov was one of the best I have had in Dushanbe and I spent a very relaxing couple of hours chit chatting with the students, Oigul’s mother and a neighbor who came in to join us. This other woman is also 46 and has been a widow for the last 22 years. She complained of numerous aches and pains and acted like someone who was in her 80s. I got a brief tour of the apartment complex which includes a grocery store and a produce market. There is an adjacent field for playing sports and the elementary school where Oigul’s mother works is within walking distance.

I returned to my apartment and took a short nap before heading to Ryan’s house where he had invited another group of friends for dinner. This time there was Charlotte from the Netherlands, and a guy from India who had grown up in Kenya. They both work for Medicine Sans Frontiers and have been in Dushanbe for several months. Ryan dominated the conversation, as usual, talking about the Philippines, and all its ills while dropping names familiar to other people working in the field of developmental work. I could barely keep my eyes open and begged off before nine o’clock as did have to get up early to prepare for my three classes the following day.

When I stepped outside the building, the rain had already turned into snow. I was glad I had remembered to bring a flashlight with me for the alleyway was pitch black and someone had stolen the light bulb at the top of the landing. I continued to read another fascinating book that seems to dovetail perfectly with “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks”, a book on the history of cancer: “The Emperor of All Maladies”. Highly recommended at the last meeting of the Dushanbe book club.