July 9, 2012

It was our last full day at the camp and I decided to skip the usual porridge breakfast to have chunks of kolcha bread with the Nutella spread I had brought with me and just tea. We had the students play “Jeopardy”, which they enjoyed immensely, and also take part in a scavenger hunt for words and their definitions. Their last assignment for the day was to complete a worksheet about “The best of everything” that had ever happened to them. Mavluda informed me that July 11 was a holiday in the Pamirs as they celebrated some important Muslim event I couldn’t quite understand and that Tamriz had arranged for the band to return to play in the evening after the students had a chance to recite some poems, sing and dance for the occasion.

As part of the holiday, a group of villagers showed up at the school before lunch to display typical dishes from the region along with some handicrafts. I had just had some biscuits and tea for the coffee break and wasn’t even a bit hungry, not that I needed to be as none of the dishes looked appetizing since they were just different versions of the wheat and dairy combinations that had appeared at our table for the last seven days. The women had placed huge wooden spoons by their dishes and people were eating from these spoons in the absence of any dishes or cutlery of any sort. I took some pictures and tried to look truly contrite at not being able to even sample the wares.

 These village women prepared local food delicacies and offered them to the campers for free on a  holiday commemorating some important Muslim date. Most dishes consisted of flour and milk products cooked together and eaten from a common spoon.

At lunch, we were served the vilest dish yet: some small beans reminiscent of our pigeon peas, but hard and flavorless, accompanied by what looked like pieces of the ears of an animal, as they looked like cartilage of some sort. It was a little bit like the “cuajitos” Puerto Rican like to eat fried, but it smelled terrible and the dish lacked even salt. We had been served fish soup before and the kids had refused to eat it as they had never even heard such dish existed. I had eaten the pieces of white fish, but left the broth intact as it didn’t have any flavor whatsoever. I excused myself and turned down Mavluda’s offer to accompany me to the café for a proper meal. I told her I had some chocolates in my room and would be fine after all.

I took a snooze in my room and then compiled the photos I had taken during the week so the IT person at Logos could create a slide show for the closing ceremony. Mavluda had told me there had been a minor crisis in their office when Tahmina called to remind them that embassy personnel would be there on the 12 instead of the 16 for such ceremony. They group went  into a panic as the students hadn’t rehearsed enough and even the hall they had rented had been reserved for the 16.

When I went back at 4:00pm, Tamriz was already there making the arrangements for the evening program and lifting my spirits by telling me the cooks were preparing plov for dinner. I helped Mavluda with the spelling and proper wording for a couple of speeches the students would be delivering, and then sat for a while to read “Sister of my Heart”, which was getting quite riveting toward the end.

Musicians were present, and had dinner served outside, while we prepared the room for the evening program. I sat through the rather repetitious program with the students offering the same material I had seen for the Fourth of July celebration. I had  play “Pop my Balloon”, and they had a blast. I agreed to stay for a little bit only as I was already tired and needed to start packing my bags for the next day. I danced one lively number, took some photos and left accompanied by the school coordinator who has been so helpful during the entire week. The night sky seemed darker than usual, and I marveled at the number of stars visible at that time and continued to gaze at them as I brushed my teeth and walked to the pit toilet.

Despite my best intentions of devoting the rest of the evening to packing, I got quite engrossed in reading the novel “Sister of my Heart” and ended up leaving the task for the next day.