DUSHANBE DELIGHTS

Having been in Tajikistan now for ten days, I'm finally getting around to posting something about the country I'll be in for a good while. Sorry, but between work, socializing (as often as I can!) and moving into an apartment, I haven't had much time for blogging.

I arrived in the dark of early morning (6am) on a Tajikistan Airlines flight from Istanbul, and, contrary to general opinion of the airline, I had an enjoyable flight with very little confusion. Well, OK, they did change the boarding gate in Istanbul at the last minute, without any warning (at least not in a language I know!), and I almost wound up going to Egypt, but otherwise an uneventful 4-hour flight to Dushanbe. When we landed, however, we wound up standing on the runway in the rain (this is the rainy season, of course) without any idea where to go, as all the buildings were dark. Eventually someone signaled us to follow her to a building where the lights were just being turned on, and where we had to show passports, go through metal detectors (why? we're LEAVING the airport!) and fill out immigration forms. After that I was lucky enough to be met by a driver from the guest house I'd be staying at, who was able to direct me to the baggage claim area, which, of course, was in a different building, requiring another march through the rain. But the bags came quickly, nothing missing, nothing damaged.

The driver, who of course spoke no English (almost no one here does), took me to my temporary lodging, a beautiful and modern guest house (5 rooms?) set way back from the street in its own locked compound. Having been without sleep for eons I tried to get a nap but between Doris, the cat, who decided to camp out on my bed, and the excitement of being in a strange land, there was no chance of my sleeping. Fortunately our Country Director, bless her heart (no, Barbara, I'm NOT sucking up!), had left me a cell phone and a note to call her when I woke up. We met for tea and I got a quick tour of downtown Dushanbe, still, of course, in the rain.

Dushanbe is a true study in contrasts. The old Soviet infrastructure - both physical and cultural - seems to have deteriorated badly but is being replaced, gradually I think, by a new Tajik culture. For example, while most people speak Russian and business is conducted in that language, people on the street speak in Tajik (a Persian language, which I've heard referred to as "hillbilly Farsi"), and most signs, while in the Cyrillic alphabet, are in the Tajik language. I have to sound out the word, slowly, first, and then try to figure which language it's in!

There are no street signs here, and it seems that most people really don't know the names of the streets, with the exception of the major ones (Rudaki, Aini, Tursun-Zade and Ismoil Somoni). One asks and gets directions with reference to important buildings, monuments, etc.

This is the rainy season. It rains more than half the time now, generally lightly, and occasionally there's some wet snow. I understand this will be the case until April, when, reportedly, the weather will turn warm and dry. One hopes!

Food is really cheap here, and there are several very good restaurants. Generally an entree costs in the range of 10 somonis - aboutUS$3. Even at the fanciest restaurant in town - La Grande Dame, owned by the owner of the guest house (Marion, an Australian woman) - an entree with salad, bread and wine will run only about$10 at most. So far, I've had lunch or dinner at Tajik, continental, middle-eastern, Armenian, Indian, and Chinese restaurants, and haven't had a bad meal yet.

There is no bourbon whiskey (or any kind of American whiskey) to be found in Dushanbe. I'm on withdrawal from Old Fashioneds. I plan to bathe in them when I get back!

Bad things: the streets are full of potholes big enough to be tourist attractions. My apartment could double as a wine cellar; it's a constant 55 degrees there (but I have a space heater in the bedroom to keep me alive at night); the availability of utilities is random; a couple of days ago I had to electricity in the morning; yesterday I had hot water but no cold water (!) and, to make up for it, this morning I had cold water but no hot. I have a combo electric & gas stove, which is good, as one of those is guaranteed to be out at any given time. There are evidently no traffic rules at all, and crossing the street is an adventure worthy of the skills of Lewis and Clark. And the mud! Everywhere there is mud. One quickly learns not to wear good shoes or light-colored pants. There are, sadly, crowds of unemployed young and middle-aged men hanging around the streets all day - while Tajikistan is making progress, it's still a very poor country.

Good things: it is beautiful. Dushanbe is in a small bowl-shaped valley surrounded by high snow-covered mountains, which, on the odd day when it's not raining, I can see from my office window. There are trees everywhere, lining the streets, and an abundance of parks which, when the mud subsides, evidently will have grass. The city is safe, I've walked just about everywhere downtown at night without the slightest feeling of any threat. The people seem gracious and welcoming to foreigners. Speaking of contrasts: the pre-teen boy, dressed in Wal-Mart rejects, leaning up against a rusted-out, useless, Soviet-era dial pay phone, chatting on a cell phone; the old lady, dressed in traditional Tajik garb - long, flowery, multicolored dress and headscarf - listening to her iPod; apartment buildings looking from the outside like emigrees from the South Bronx, but beautiful and modern on the inside.

I went on my first shopping expedition Saturday morning, when I made the inconvenient discovery that the apartment came without a supply of toilet paper. Fortunately, there are supermarkets here, where most things are available on any given day, although any particular item but not be available the next day! But things are cheap; bottled water (a necessity!) costs about 17 cents a liter, for example, and a liter of orange juice is less than $1. Here one quickly realizes that numerous trips to the store are necessary as, without a car and having to walk about a mile to the store, you don't buy more than you can carry home.

Naturally, we have satellite TV at my apartment, about 500 channels, about 2 of them worth watching (the rest are bad Italian and Arabic stations showing bad movies and bad game shows). We do get BBC World and CNN International and, at odd times, C-SPAN, and on radio we get NPR for some reason.

Travelling north one day to the city of Khujand, I got to see the remains of a fortress built by Alexander the Great. Evidently that was one of the limits of his empire. I wonder if he got tired of power outages??

O, and the Chinese food here is delicious, and is nothing like that at home. General Tsao has yet to make an appearance in Dushanbe!

I'm beginning to feel the stirrings of an impresssion that had this country avoided Soviet rule for most of the 20th century, it would now be an exotic paradise. Just thinking of the opportunities for ski resorts here...!