May 7, 2012

I really appreciated not having to report to classes this morning as I still felt tired from the weekend trip. I emailed Sandy and Tahmina to finalize the details on my participation in the upcoming Access program summer camps and worked on the certificates for the teachers in Qurgonteppa. Tahmina offered me a ride to the Millennium’s summer camp taking place in the Varzob Region on Thursday and I gladly accepted. I have the chance to attend two other camps in the Khujand and Khorog regions and hope they will be a lot of fun while exposing me to other regions of the country I have yet to see.

I headed to my class at Caritas where only Khurshed and Furkat were present as Takhmina and Nigina were out of town. We did body idioms and gestures and talked at length about the fact that Tajiks seem not to use any gestures at all, but the guys couldn’t say whether there was some cultural dictum against their use. I told them my anecdote about a friend of mine that figured I’d go mute if someone were to tie my hands as I used them so much.

When our class was finished, I proceeded to the printer center to get the certificates for the teachers in Qurgonteppa printed, so I could take them to the embassy the next day. Nigina told she had come down with a cold and didn’t have the energy to take part in a picnic as she had promised. We discussed going to the hot springs and were also dissuaded from doing so by a customer there who said it was still too cold to enjoy a visit there.

Corrie called as I was getting off the mini-van and told me the radio station where some of her students worked was throwing a party to celebrate their ninth year on the year and she wanted to have me come along. I said yes and we agreed to meet in front of the Poykhtak Hotel at 7:00pm. I wore my new pink dress and walked all the way there as the afternoon breeze made it a very pleasant walk. The guard standing outside the hotel struck a conversation with me and then informed me our group had been kicked out for the ETM conference because the government was hosting a delegation of taekwondo consisting of 300 people.

Corrie and Michelle arrived and it took some doing finding the entrance to the night club where the event would take place. When we finally located it, I was surprised to find it was the same place where the Latin dance lessons are supposed to start on Tuesday. There was a big cardboard sign advertising bachata, salsa and tango lessons and no mention of a cover charge. When we stepped inside, the first thing to hit me was the smell of cigarette smoke. I vowed to leave as soon as it was polite enough to do so. We were sat at a table already adorned with a myriad of plates containing a variety of salads, a basket of bread, cold cuts and bottles of beer, vodka, wine, soda and fruit juices. We had a waiter at our disposal and he agreed to chill one of the bottles of beer for me as they were being served at room temperature, which is the way Tajik prefer to drink them.

What followed were a series of speeches in Russian and then an almost embarrassing display of singing from various employees of the radio station and didn’t get any better when the DJ started to play what sounded like hip hop songs in Russian and the guests danced to whatever beat they heard in their heads. No, I didn’t join the crowd and only observed as the requisite disco ball came to life, the smoke machine started to emit its fake fog and then another contraption blew bubbles over the heads of the dancers. The club is called “Pyramida” and is decorated in faux Egyptian style with nary a nod to real Egyptian décor.

                             Something to be seen - Out for an evening event with Corrie

We were served cream of mushroom soup and I believe there must have been another course waiting for us, but I begged to leave at that point and my companions agreed we should share a taxi. I had forgotten to carry my U. S. embassy ID once again and wanted no trouble if stopped by the police.