July 10, 2012

I was up at five in the morning aware of the fact this would be my last chance to gaze at the Pamirs Mountains as the sun just started its ascend over their jagged peaks. I updated the folder with the photos for Logos and managed to pack my belongings into two bags as I had given Mavluda most of my teaching materials now that I was finally done with teacher training and couldn’t afford to carry them back to the States in my luggage.

I once again turned down the breakfast and had bread and Nutella with tea before repairing to the classroom to set up the board for the “Swat it” game. The students were divided into two teams and were fiercely competitive arguing with Mavluda as to which was had been the first to swat the proper word on the board. Following that, we went outside to form two circles and practice interviewing their classmates with the questions given to them on strips of paper. After several rounds of this game, one student commented that he had never spoken so much English in his entire life and had a headache as a result of having to think so hard.

I had urged the students to wear the Logos t-shirt they had been given earlier in the week so we could take a group photo for the embassy’s Facebook page. Some of the male students refused to do so and their teacher didn’t insist, an action I strongly disagreed with. Three of these students followed me to the house to help me with my luggage since it couldn’t be rolled along the rocky walkways leading to the school. The mini-bus came in on time, and Mavluda suggested that I travel with Tamriz to be more comfortable and avoid the noisy atmosphere that the students would create in the bus. And they were noisy as they greeted villagers along the way and the five cyclists, either Europeans or Americans, they encountered along the way.

When we got into Khorog, I immediately went to the Megaphon office and inquired why my service had been unavailable despite the numerous phone calls Mavluda had made on my behalf. They now claimed that Eraj had made a mistake when talking to the clerk in Dushanbe and my 50.00 somoni payment had been added to the unlimited coverage service and not the limited one I had asked for so the money would last until July 15. That was why after only four days the money was gone and now I had no way of disputing their version of events with Eraj in Germany and my unable to speak the language. I called them thieves and worse and told the woman how happy I was I would not need their services anymore. I was so angry that I didn’t even feel like going to lunch at the Indian restaurant I had so much looked forward to in the last few days.

The restaurant in question was a dark place with no air conditioning at all, but the waitress brought a floor fan and placed it directly in front of me when I complained of the heat. Most things I asked for from the menu were not available including the popular tali plate and lassi usually offered by all Indian restaurants. After the waitress made several trips to the kitchen window to speak to the cook as to what was or wasn’t available, I walked up there myself and convinced the cook, who was from Calcutta, to prepare a tali plate for me with lamb, but was instead served another portion of tough beef chunks. The vegetable raita was made with sour milk instead of yogurt and thus tasted more like vinegar. At least everything had plenty of spices thus compensating for the awful food I had had to eat these past ten days.

We had passed the American Corner on the way to the restaurant and so on the way back, I stopped there to use their Internet connection. I met the coordinator, with whom I had been in touch hoping to offer some teacher training during my stay not knowing I was going to be posted out in the boonies, and got to catch up on my emails and Facebook postings. Mavluda and Madina had offered to accompany me to the botanical garden, the one located at the highest altitude in the world, and they came to the hotel promptly at five with Firuza joining us as her husband had offered to take us there.

I could have skipped this visit entirely as the place is in complete disarray, overgrown and obviously not looked after by a team of botanists or even skilled gardeners. There were no flowers to look and not one of my companions could tell me if the garden was supposed to be composed of separate areas. We found an abandoned greenhouse where many starter plants had been left and some lavender bushes were growing wild. We did find a wedding party, two young people looking childish as if they were wearing costumes instead of formal wedding attire. The tea house I had been told would really impress me was occupied by government officials and we were barred from even getting nearby to take a good photo of it.

                                   Two of the few flower specimens found at the botanical garden.

Although I wasn’t even a bit hungry, the Logos staff insisted on taking me to dinner at a local restaurant where I ordered a bowl of razolnik soup and was served another tasteless broth with bits of beef and vegetables. Madina and Firuza said goodbye after dinner and Mavluda took me for a walk in the central park of Khorog maintained by the Agha Khan Foundation. When I returned to my hotel room, I was glad to find satellite TV available and was thus able to catch up on the news after taking a long shower and washing my hair under plenty of water.