Since we got here, the whole country has been in prep-for-independence-day mode. There are banners all over the city and huge signs with the flag on them, and lots and lots of excitement. We’ve been hearing about this huge, huge military parade, and so we really wanted to go! Most of our host families, though, were like “we’re over it,” so a few of us decided to head out together to watch, early Friday morning – like 8:30 – and I walked down to the Ped Institute (a big bright blue teacher’s college that is the landmark for my street: it’s on the main street of Dushanbe just before I turn off of it) to meet some Americans… and all along Rudaki Avenue was this flag that has been the talk of the town. It’s the longest flag in the world, and it’s over 2 kilometers long, weighs over 800 kilograms and had to be carried by 3000 people. Yep. Tajikistan: we don’t really have an education or sanitation system, but we have the longest flag in the world. Khub, Tajikistan, kheyli khub… It was actually pretty cool, though, like as far as you could see on the main road was just this flag with thousands of people holding it (and later, sitting on it/under it as they got tired of standing). The first part of the parade was military, which was really not that exceptional… picture your average military parade and you’ve pretty much got it. After that, though, were thousands and thousands of people – schoolchildren and teachers all dressed alike, all medical students dressed alike, a bunch of groups of people that we couldn’t quite figure out, and then lots and lots of women wearing traditional Tajik dresses, which was really cool to see, all just marching across the city. After the parade, I went to the Botanical Gardens to meet with my “hamsohbat,” my language partner, who I’m supposed to meet with a couple times a week to see Dushanbe and practice speaking Farsi/Tajiki. They were pretty standard Botanical Gardens… but really, really big, and with a few really beautiful buildings around. I went home for dinner, where my host family was having a party with a bunch of relatives – I’ve asked who they are so many times, and I think I get a different answer everyday – so of course they invited me to join and we ate A LOT. After dinner, my host mom and sisters were just sitting around, talking, and watching a performance on TV for the President. What seemed like all of the students in Tajikistan – including my youngest khahar, Munisa – were dancing in this show, and it was huge and really cool. At the end, there were some fireworks on the TV, and we heard them over our house, so we all ran out into the street to see them. They were the most sparkly fireworks I’ve ever seen, so GREAT! A 2-kilometer flag, and especially sparkly fireworks.
The next day, the Americans went to Varzob, where there are mountains to hike and extremely cold rivers to sit in. We wandered around the mountains for a while, had a GREAT lunch of Osh Palav, the Tajik national dish, which is basically rice with some carrots and tomatoes and beef, amongst other things, in it. After lunch we walked down near the river, and then along the road, just seeing what we found.
Sunday was pretty much a work day for me… I had put off my homework all weekend and I had a lot to do, so I pretty much stayed in the house for most of the day, except for a few hours that I spent in the American Councils office to use the internet. I was sitting in my room, though, and one of my sisters came in and told me that they were going outside to watch part of a wedding, so I went with them, to the house across the street. There was a stretch Hummer parked outside (random, in Dushanbe) all decorated with roses and ribbons, and lots of people running inside the house to the sound of horns, wearing everything from traditional Tajik dresses to Western strapless gowns (but not really so much in between)… Then everyone went inside and it got really quiet for a few minutes, until they all burst out again, this time with the bride in tow. Tajik brides aren’t allowed to smile or show any emotion at all, so she just looked at her feet, led into the Hummer by the groom.
Now it’s Monday, and the week is already looking pretty long… Lots of words to learn and work to do… This weekend one of my sisters is going back to her husband’s house with her son, so we’re having a big send-off party on Saturday, and the women of the house are busy preparing for that, and collecting all of the gifts that people have sent. The house is so full of things for babies… Cribs and cradles and a thousand pairs of baby shoes.
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