May 15, 2012

Another beautiful morning to enjoy on my way to the embassy. I stopped by Jennifer’s desk and inquired about getting the permit issued to travel in the Khorog region as both locals and foreigners must register before heading to that area. Hillary commented on Sunday that the current government, in power since 1997, has done all it can to starve the population in this region because they fought on the losing side of the civil war and thus does not encourage any tourism to take place there. The region has been able to survive only because the Aga Khan Foundation provides food supplies, education and health services and even maintains the roads. I’m very curious to visit this place and to have a chance to speak to the locals.

I ran into Corrie while coming out of the embassy and she confirmed her plans to travel to China with Michelle between May 20-27 and her inability to be in Khujand with me on the second of June as she teaches on Fridays and could only fly on Saturday at midday. I told her I’d contact the American Corner there and try to rearrange the schedule to suit hers.

The roses were in full display as I rode to and from the embassy and a legion of female crew members could be seeing hoeing and clipping them into an even more beautiful display. I wish I could have been on foot to both admire them closer and to take more photos of such delightful sights. I rode in the mini-van all the way to the bazaar and purchased what I needed to replicate the fruit salad Aireen had made for the trip to Iskandarkul. Cherries, strawberries, blackberries, apples, pears, bananas, kiwis, and many others I could neither name nor identify, were on display there. I also stopped at the supermarket for heavy cream and condensed milk.

Eraj, Schahnoza and Zuleikho came by for a visit and I served them the fruit salad and other goodies. We spent a delightful couple of hours talking about their future plans and gossiping about the PedInst. Zuleikho is currently undergoing training to become a flight attendant for Somon Air and Schahnoza might be planning to get marry soon, but she’s already teaching elementary school. Eraj was going to the center to get his misplaced school bag and agreed to walk with me as I was going to develop some photos and drop off materials to be laminated.

We were passing a government building featuring an alluring display of rose bushes in full bloom and I pointed them out to Eraj. He asked if I wanted to take a photo and I said yes, as long as the guard posted at the gate allowed it. The young soldier said yes and I started clicking away. All of a sudden, an older soldier came out of the building screaming and demanded that I delete all the photos taken even though I had shown him I had only photographed the roses and the building was nowhere identifiable. I could see that Eraj was nervous and the young soldier was probably getting ready for a reprimand. I showed Eraj where the “delete” button was and he got carried away deleting in the process all the photos we had taken that afternoon at my house. When the display read “No Files”, the old soldier relented and let us go not before I had shown him my embassy ID and convinced him I had no idea I was taken photos outside of what could be considered the local KGB.

Eraj was more than mortified and blamed himself for the loss of the photos. I dissuaded him from that idea and told him we could still ask Zuleikho and Schahnoza to share the shots they had also taken. We returned to my flat after running our errands and I scanned his receipt for payment of his German visa and sent a message on his behalf that this requirement had been met.

When he heard about my plans to travel to Khujand, he offered to go with me and to ask his brother-in-law to offer us lodging there. I promised to discuss it with Corrie, who can only be there for a couple of days, as I’d like to spend more time in that part of the country and it’s a long way to go for such a short visit.