Thursday, October 27, 2005

Thumbnails from Varzob, Tajikistan

Here are some mental bookmarks which will help me remember all the fun I had in Tajikistan, The pictures are attributed to me, Simos, Peshka, Hetha, Kaladan, Sarafroz, Evgeny, and a slew of others, some of whom are depicted below.

(please peruse in moderation, as some images may inflict nostalgia, jealousy, or just painful memories)

  • Hydroelectricity (a new definition of the word): conduction of electricity through water coming out of the faucet….
  • Morning circle game of tag
  • The clicking song (eea, lindlela, olo lo wany)
  • Co-facilitation with Heather
  • The Bulgarians (bu-la-goo DAAAR ya)
  • BEDAR SHAV
  • Answering Abubakr at 1 in the morning about some CD he wanted
  • The eternal chase after the herd of laptops with the aid of several Tajik staff
  • The bonfire night: jumping over the fire in Iranian tradition, and dancing Tajiki with the Tajiks.
  • The Publishing track from A(aigul: Kh-zh-ph-rh-kuh-ding .....) to Z(ulu representative Heeeetha). And all the other letters in between.
  • The Russian Interpretter Dude...(arrgh)
  • The Iranian rock-star team; getting them to finally NOT speak to me in formal tones like I am an old uncle, and connecting me again to my hidden half.
  • The Games night: choking on a poundcake while folks chant your name
  • Chasing away the minister of Billiards from the publishing lab.
  • Getting chased from the publishing lab by the cold weather, and finding refuge near the kitchen
  • Being visited by the minister of wall hangings and electrical sockets daily in the publishing lab.
  • Watching the old-man housekeeper scurry around with his leak-stopping pair of pliers and the light-bulbed screwdriver in search of hot-wired doorknobs and shower-handles.
  • Muhammadi the DJ
  • Late nights in the Migration-lab (before the Great Flood) with Iranians, Bulgarians, a Greek-Aussie, and Abubakr
  • Aso, Aso, Aso (smiling, dancing, occasionally twitching and then smiling some more)
  • The bazaar, and trying the fruit-flavored rock (and of course the bum-belle-bee incident)
  • Playing poetry slam (bayt-barak) with the Tajiks at 2am (they were very gracious accepting our comebacks to their Rudaki poems as Sahar and I were either making them up, or singing
  • Ya Magoo Gavariz pa Russki
  • Learning Greek ΣE ΑΓΑΠΩ
  • Saying goodbye to the Iranians, and feeling really sad
  • Saying goodbye to Aso and feeling really sad
  • Leaving Dushanbe on Domododevo, and thinking the word must mean Sardines in Russian

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