Tajikistan - Stories from the Bazaar

We learn about our Surroundings

We are now concluding Day 4 of our Tajikistan adventure. Today was the last day we were together as a team before splitting into smaller groups.

We began the day by meeting at CADA's headquarters here in Dushanbe. Dave gave us an overview of CADA's operations in the area and then we went from office to office and learned in more detail what many of the workers do on a day-to-day basis.

On our rounds, we learned all about CADA's relief and development efforts from Ping (our main program coordinator). They prioritize Disaster, Disabled, Orphans, Widows, and Refugees in that order. That allows them to make difficult decisions regarding distributing their limited resources. They help with food distribution, but they focus even more on development - helping to educate and enable people to be self-supporting. They also work closely with other relief organizations in providing and transporting food so that efforts aren't duplicated.

In the neighboring office, Lai Keng told us about the financial aspects of CADA and much of what is being done in Afghanistan - including building schools, providing clean water, and heath services to villages in northern Afghanistan. Sharing an office with her was Sakume - a midwife who also goes regularly to Afghanistan. She's currently trying to affiliate with a health organization in the country to coordinate her efforts with them. Lai Keng and Sakume will be leading the team that's going into Afghanistan this week.

One thing that struck us forcefully as we listened to Dave, Ping, and Lai Keng, was how much very little money can do in this area. For example:

• $200 buys a car
• Only $4000 will refurbish an entire school in Afghanistan. 
• $300 will build a village well.
• The US will ship humanitarian items (clothing, food, and medicine) for FREE!

When we heard that a high school in Waukesha recently raised $8000 for rebuilding schools, our collective question was, "What can we do?"!

We continued around the building, learning about computer services, finance, English training and other areas covered by the CADA staff.

At 11:00, Ping sent us in groups of four to the bazaar! We each had a list of items we were supposed to buy and bring back from the huge, open-air market. The bazaar is the life-line to essentials for practically everyone who lives in Dushanbe. Think Super Wal-Mart meets open-air flea market and grocery store! The items we were after were:

• bread
• green tea
• Barf detergent ("barf" is the word for snow here, so the brand name for detergent fits. Of course, English speakers have a GREAT time with that one! - when's the last time you threw a barf ball?
• toilet paper (comes in rolls that look and feel like crepe paper!)
• head scarf (for the ladies)
• Tajik cassette
• candles
• eat a watermelon
• Tajik hat (men's)
• take a picture with the police

The team that came back with everything - and spent the least money doing it - would win. The bazaar is a great way to see many Tajiks going about daily business. Each team had a translator, but we still had trouble bargaining in a different language. The most time consuming part - for the ladies - was finding ready-made kurta (the traditional Tajik dress for women). Most women in the group are also having kurta made for us, but many are leaving tomorrow for villages and so needed traditional clothing right away. Only one team ended up getting all of the items - Forrest, Evan, Kody and Greg - so they won by default!

Stories from the bazaar:

Story 1:

Many of the kids followed us around trying to sell us plastic bags to carry our purchases, and also out of curiosity. While one of the teams - Denny, Mark, Eric and Jeremy - was waiting for Mark to buy a belt, they started teaching the boys English. The went through the numbers and then tried moving on to the days of the week. They wanted the boys to teach them the Tajik words for the days, but the boys did NOT understand what they were asking. Denny: "Monday, you!" boys: "Monday", Denny: "Monday, you!" boys: "Monday" was all the further they got.

Story 2:

When Erin, Angela, Shannon and Andrew (a US guy who is joining us for some activities as he's in the country for a similar purpose - he'll also be heading to Afghanistan with the team tomorrow) went dress shopping they had some trouble. First of all, they couldn't find anyone who made ready-made dresses. When they finally did, Erin and Shannon were able to find dresses, but Angela wasn't so sure about them. They looked around some more, but ended up coming to the same booth. The lady rubbed the sleeve of Angela's shirt between her fingers and wrinkled her nose and said, "synthetica, synthetica". Then she pointed at her dresses to show that they were made of natural materials. When Angela pointed out a dress behind the booth, the lady had her come behind the counter, and she held up a sheet of muslin and had her change into a traditional dress. When Angela finally found one she liked for the "right" price, the lady took her shirt, wadded it up, threw it in a plastic bag, and handed it to her friends, before she could blink! So Angela ended up walking through the rest of the bazaar in a traditional Tajik dress with her army-green cargo pants peeking out from underneath!

Friends Leaving for Afghanistan

Please think of Becky and Erin – two of the girls who will be going to Afghanistan tomorrow. Becky had a mild heat stroke mid-morning (we’re now all being even more diligent about drinking lots and lots and LOTS of water), and Erin has been fighting a bad cold for a week now. Since they’re heading off VERY early tomorrow, we’re all hoping they both quickly recover with a good night’s sleep.

We're off!

The team returned to CADA for lunch (it was great, although we couldn't eat the vegetables), and then had some free time. Several teams met for further preparation for tomorrow's projects. We then had dinner at the Lovett's. After the meal, we took time to touch base with each other on how everything is going and thoughts about the upcoming projects, and then we all went our merry ways! Think of us as we head out tomorrow!

Updates from the various teams, will be provided as we're able!

Back for lunch at CADA

Angela in the bazaar with the lady who had ready-made Tajik dresses... Looking Good :)

CADA's computer repair shop. They refurbish and cannibalize computers to donate to hospitals and similar organizations.

A keyboard on one of the internet access computers at CADA

Ping explains the relief work CADA does. The pictures behind him are some of the many relief projects they've done.

And here we all are, at CADA, in Dushanbe, Tajikistan

Kelley, Misty, and Kjirsten are ready to go after (finally!) a great night's sleep!

Tajikistan - Getting our Bearings

Going through the Logistics

At Dave and Pam's place this morning, we had an ethnic breakfast of nan (a yummy bread they make here). I'm not sure how authentic it was after we added peanut butter and strawberry jam, but it sure tasted great!

We were then briefed on our day and the weeks to come by Ping, the CADA worker in charge of organizing our trip. Click here to see of rough outline of the team assignments. After a few hours of rest and/or cleanup, we all met again at a Turkish restaurant downtown. All items ordered (anything went, as long as we made sure it was ordered MAYO FREE!-- We didn't ask too many questions on that one) soon became community property. There was a consensus for those who tried the rice pudding - thumbs up!!

Many of us decided to walk back instead of driving. It was quite long and hot! Halfway there, though, we stopped at CADA'S future home. It's a huge building that's being remodeled and will include classrooms, offices, conference rooms and much more. The parts that were finished were beautiful - it will be great to see it when it's completed. Lai Keng and Johannes were the tour guides. Lai King is an awesome woman from Malaysia who helps keep CADA running smoothly and also goes into Afghanistan regularly. She will be leading the team of us going to Afghanistan this week. Johannes is a Swedish guy who lived in Nepal as a child and is actually heading up the CADA remodeling project. It sounds like construction in Tajikistan involves factors quite different from those you would find in the U.S. or Sweden. Let's just say it would be a different project if OSHA were involved!!

After arriving hot and thirsty back at the Lovett's, several folks watched the news or fell asleep, while others hung around and tried to cool off! At 4:00 PM we headed to a church service for international workers. Here we met people from many countries, and sang and listened to a teaching on remembering who we serve and not getting sidetracked or falling away.

Tasty Cuisine & a Water fight

On the way home, some team members stopped at the bazaar for melons. Apparently, this is the time of year that melons from Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, and other places are available everywhere.

We wrapped up the day with a chicken dinner at the Lovett's and a quick briefing of tomorrow's orientation activities. For dessert? Warm brownies, watermelon, and a funky Asian melon that tastes like a cross between cantaloupe and honeydew! Several of the team members tried out the new trampoline, and we watched Johannes, Rachel, Justin (and even Dave) conduct a no-holds-barred water fight. Some innocent bystanders were caught in the crossfire, but Pam slowed things down in order to keep the pool intact.

Culture Shock!!

Due to huge differences between the Tajik culture and our own, many of us experienced culture shock sometime this morning. Whether it was the plane ride from Istanbul, the wait for visas in the Dushanbe airport, the driving and road conditions of the city, or the atmosphere in general, we've all discovered that we're not in Kansas any more. However, this transition has not been anywhere near as traumatic as it could have been, due to our incredible reception into the country by CADA and the Lovett family. They've supplied us with clean and fully stocked housing, transportation, a clear itinerary, and an a welcome enthusiasm about our presence here.

We are so excited to see what the next few days unfold as we finish orientation and break into smaller teams. We'll keep you posted!

Breakfast at the Lovett's

Safe and sound - breakfast at the Lovett's! In the picture is Jennifer (far left), an add-on to our group from the US by way of OM in Sweden, and Johannes

Finally in Dushanbe! Now if we could only get through customs!

Tajikistan - Arrived!

We Made It!

The team is in Tajikistan!  It's now 11:14 AM, Sunday, in Dushanbe, although it's only 1:14 Sunday morning in back in Wisconsin.  We have watched two nights fly by (because we flew directly into them!) and are pretty tired at this point -- most of us haven't yet gotten enough sleep for even one night!  That being said, everyone is happy to be here and looking about at this country and culture with interest.

Our trip getting here involved:

- meeting at Elmbrook
- getting shuttled to O'Hare airport in Chicago (thank you Erin's parents, Jeff, Katie and Brian!)
- flying 7.5 hours or so to Frankfort, German
- flying almost immediately to Munich
- exploring Munich for 2-3 hours

- meeting up with Shannon, another team member who flew separately and had a terribly difficult time making it in time for our flight (her flight from Chicago missed its connecting flight in Madrid.  After much hassle, she convinced them to fly her to Barcelona, and from there was able to make it to Munich just in time to head out to Tajikistan with us.  Her luggage wasn't so fortunate - we're guessing it's waiting for her in a German airport store room somewhere.  She will be in Tajikistan or Afghanistan for the entire summer, so hopefully it will arrive with the weekly Tajikistan flight next week.  Since there is only one flight a week from Munich to Tajikistan, we are VERY grateful Shannon made it, even if her luggage did not!)

- flying to Istanbul for 2-3 hours and staying there for an hour in the middle of the night
- flying to Tajikistan for about 5 hours and arriving here early on Sunday morning.
- waiting nearly an hour for our Tajikistan and Afghanistan visas to be processed through customs
- arriving at our housing
- and finally, meeting as a team at Dave and Pam's place.

More to Come!

We are so grateful to be here and we know that many things could have gone wrong at any step of
the way.  We know your thoughts of us have had a great impact on our safe arrival. We are looking forward to sharing more with you about our trip as it unfolds and when we get back.  Look for more updates soon!

Greetings from the entire team!

...and converting our money into Euro! (Eric)

... and playing guitar (Jeremy, while Evan sleeps)

... and sleeping (Kody)

Greg and Eric in Chicago

in Munich - waiting!

Misty in Chicago airport

Denny, Kelley, and Forrest in the Frankfort airport

Getting ready to leave Chicago

Angela, Jeremy, Evan and Denny on a Munich street

The restaurant had a really cool interior, and the gang's all here!

The Ratskeller Munchen restaurant in the Glockenspiel building where we had lunch (or was it breakfast?)

The Glockenspiel

Tajik Air was quite a shock. We had an hour stop in Istanbul. Here we are, getting ready to re-board. Cool stairs, huh?

Kelley, Denny, Jeremy, and Evan are tuckered out. Munich is a great city, but we haven't slept much and we have a long way to go!

Kids playing in a funky Munich fountain

Erin, Becky, and Mark in Munich

The church interior

A closeup of one tower, from the other one

A cool church in Munich

In Munich, trying to figure out how to see the city and find Tajik Air (and figure out what to do with our luggage in the meantime!)

German pretzels! This is living!

Menus

The Glockenspiel up close

Did I mention that it's a 45 minute ride?

Now we're leaving the airport via the subway to go downtown

Here's a store in the Munich airport that had all kinds of interesting stuff

Tajikistan - Wrapping up Kids Camp

The End of Kids Camp

Today we wrapped up the kids camp. It's actually a four-day program, but the fourth day, Friday, the kids will go to the mountains for a swimming day. Angela, Eric and Kelley will go on a one-day relief trip with Ping, and Andrew, Shannon and the Lovetts will take the kids to the mountains.

We began our time with singing. It was Andrew's first time playing guitar in front of people and he did very well. Kelley and Angela had fun leading the singing for the kids. Then we did a skit. Justin was a regular guy and Kelley and Rachel were bad guys that tried to distract him with many harmful things. Angela was a good guy who came to his rescue. The kids liked it - "I want to see it again!" I guess they're used to videos that you can rewind and watch repeatedly! Rachel followed the skit up with a talk about resisting temptation and making good choices.

Then we had time in our small groups. The small kids made salvation bracelets and then played with play-dough. We next went outside for lunch and games before heading over to the Lovett's for more trampoline jumping, cold-water dunking and movie junking!

Regroup!

Later the Hissor team (Forrest, Misty and Denny) came back for one evening, in order to give a rest to their host family (who had been graciously hosting a team of 9 teachers for the week!). It was wonderful to catch up and swap stories.

After a bit of catching up, we joined a bunch of CADA workers for an update meeting where we sang and heard them share. It was great to hear about the amazing things they're doing in many areas of the country. Prison work, water purification, teaching English, and much more. It was great to hear their stories and learn how to think about them in the future.

We wrapped up the evening with a huge meal of stuffed peppers and potatoes (excellent!) and more updates from the Hissor team.

Kelley with her small group

Bubblegum, bubblegum in a dish, how many people can you cram in a Land Rover?

Group shot II (ok, now you can be goofy!)

Group shot of Eric and Angela's group

Play dough cosmetics

having fun with play dough

playing "statues"

how did Adrianne get such long arms?!

Kieran as a hammock

Rachel giving the lesson

Eric with his buddies Kieran and Menke

Kelley and Pam, listening

Those bad guys don't stand a chance!

Kelley and Rachel trying to keep Justin from seeing Angela

Andrew, Kelley, and Angela helping lead singing

Singing with the kids