Winter Wonderland?

I am unofficially re-naming the blog  "In Tajik i stand...alone!"

As I (Sharon) sit here starting my newly (recruited) position as blogger I find myself stepping completely out of my comfort zone.  Contrary to popular belief I am a private person, I don't Facebook or Twitter.  I use technology daily and am usually pretty good, but when it comes to this kind of thing I am a Luddite.

I keep coming back to the very British "Keep Calm and Carry On", so that is what I will do.  I also have the line from Princess Bride "Remember, It's for posterity's sake, so be honest" (Jason and I always say that to each other) running through my head. So, here goes.

As most of you know by now, Jason has returned to the states to take up a position in a hospital while finishing his BSN (two years).  Moose and I will finish out the school year here then return to the states for a month and a half before Moose, Riley and I move to Krakow, Poland (two years). All these decisions happened in a three day span.  We only had a week to adjust to our new reality (before Jason left) and we realized that we had not even done the regular tourist things...just kidding there are no tourists in Dushanbe, but if there were, we felt sure that they would have done what we did.


So back to the title, Winter Wonderland.  It has been snowing off and on for the last week.  Snow is amazing, it makes all things beautiful.

Moose is out for a polar bear pee...he usually wears a sweater.

You would think he has all the time in the world, and that it was not 7 degrees.

The bench outside the door does not have the usual young couple that talk late into the evening, but you got to admit it's still very romantic.

Even the drains look better in the snow!

This  is the Writers and Poets wall that we walk by daily.  I have no idea who is who or what they wrote or waxed lyrical about.

This is a giant (they like big here, not sure if that is a left-over from the Russians or just a new country trying to show off) statue of two guys, not sure who.  Once I learn Russian I will call each of you personally with that info.

This is the new National Museum,  It is one of the center pieces of a sixty-five million dollar park.

You can't see this from the last picture, but there is this thing that looks like a tilted beer keg on the top of the building.  This is the view from the inside, it is all glass with this huge (remember they like big here) round window at the top .  That big piece of fabric is the Tajik emblem they put up to (presumably) block out the 111 degree heat in the summer.  Thoughtful planning at its best.

There are an abundant number of statues on the grounds.  Again, once that Russian kicks in I will let you know who they are.

Ditto!

Ditto, Ditto!

Ditto x3

Ditto..Oh you get the point.

Etc.

This is the center promenade with reflecting ponds all in a row, past the over sized eagle, the statue of...still don't know Russian, down to the (you guessed it) tallest flag pole in the world! This was Jason's favorite spot.  He found a better use for the ponds than reflecting on over-sized displays of stupidity.

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It was a beautiful walk and a leisurely stroll through the museum, we were mostly alone with no one to disturb us.

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But then again, it's winter and we (often) wonder why we are in this land and who is responsible for making economic decisions!

These are the road cleaning women (from Jason's last blog) on a break.  Not the great conditions of the government furnished break room.  These women will never be able to afford the 25S entrance fee for the museum two blocks down the road (they make 300S a month for back breaking work).

As is evidenced by the crowd! That's me, and that's the average crowd in every room in the museum.

This beautiful picture is looking out through the frost covered window on the bus these women will ride home at the end of a miserable day at work.

This is the bus they will ride.  Please note that the road is not sloped, the shocks are broken on one side of the bus and the tires are tilted out at a dangerous angle.

If they are fortunate enough to have access to a car they would drive on a two lane road like this one (note there are no longer two lanes) they only clear the two main roads,the rest of the roads look like this.

No one clears the sidewalks or stairs.  Unless you happen to have this gorgeous guy doing his best to make sure that you can step, not slide down.  Most stairs are beginning to resemble slides.

This is one of many under-road walk ways.  They are ALL covered in beautiful polished granite. Two steps down and Jason did an impromptu ice skating routine. 

This is part of the newly remodeled walkway.  Note the tiny leak.  This has been open less than two weeks.  The doors and windows replaced the spots where poor vendors would set up their tables.  Now they can rent the same space for a "small" fee.  All of the ones in this walkway are empty, and most are empty in all of the other locations around the city.

This is the foot path through the snow once you scale the snow slide(stairs) out the other side.  It leads in a circle around that shed.

This is the actual "sidewalk".  It is approximately 12 inches at it's widest point with cars turning the corner inches from the edge.

This is me, walking past the women on break.  Even though they are paid to clear the main roads, no one is paid to clear the walk ways and stairs.  

As you can see large amounts of the tax revenue is spent on keeping garbage picked up and removed by the city.  This is half a block from the stairs that Jason cleared for me.



And I have not idea what this is. But, like I said the snow is amazing and  makes everything beautiful!

We often wonder who is in charge of financial decisions.  They build gigantic 65 million dollar parks that the average Tajik has neither the time nor money to go to, and not a dime on improving the safety and quality of life for these wonderful people.

I want to hold your hand!

Speaking of hands, it's interesting to see all the jobs that are still performed "by hand" in Tajikistan.

Even though it is a modern country, Tajikistan seems to keep doing a lot of work without the use of modern machinery or methods.

Somehow, it seems that there is a far better way to do a lot of these tasks, but for some reason, Tajikistan hasn't quite made it into the 20th century...

 Although there are underground sprinkler systems in some of the areas of the city,

 people still water things by hand

The channels along the sides of the road always have water flowing.

People put in blocks (typically some plastic bags at a grate) to make the

water overflow and they flood the surrounding area.

 This method has obviously worked well since the Sycamore trees that line

Rudaki Avenue are massive and thriving.

It's a little odd to see what we would typically call "over-watering" or 

wasting water, but this is always flowing through the city so if its not

used for irrigation, it just flows down-city and ends up dumping back into the river.

Construction sites are interesting places in Tajikistan.
In the US, construction areas are cordoned off so no one can 

wander in and get hurt (and sue somebody).  Not so in Tajikistan.

People wander through the area without regard to the work being done.

The main trench was dug with a backhoe, but there were workers in with shovels to do a lot of the work.

However, along with the modern machinery of road construction, there's actual guys with hand-made

brooms sweeping the street in preparation for the asphalt truck to come through.

Think about how this compares to the giant sweeper brush that you see in the US.

After the hand sweeping is completed, the asphalt truck comes by and then the big steamrollers come in.

You would think that the manual labor sweeping wouldn't be able to get the surface really clean...

 

Working on the VERY high voltage lines that power the trolley buses.
The hand-built platform on the top of the truck is all made of wood so its a nice insulator.

However, the Soviet-era trucks are still being used, no modern boom lift trucks here.

Repainting the lines on the road.  

It almost looks like someone built this paint "truck" in their garage :) 

The guy walking along is the "cones" that would normally be put out to redirect traffic around the 

fresh paint so no one drives through it.  

Some things need to be done by hand, but some things need a little more precise

calibration.  This guy is literally holding a license plate (at what he thinks is a good

height) in order for another worker to align the new traffic cameras that were recently installed.

As you can see, his height is just a little off.  Perhaps mounting a plate to some type of 

lightweight framework might be a more accurate (and repeatable) method? 

"Helloooo Ladies!"  Just gonna hang out here with half a cow 

in my push cart and try to look nonchalant about it.

A lot of (US) people here are put off by seeing the butchers hanging meat in 

the open air, especially during the summer.  However, I don't think they realize 

that a lot of it is transported from a truck outside to the market using this method.

These guys are working to clean up leaves in fall.  They use brooms (made from local plants) to 

sweep the leaves by hand onto a tarp.  When the tarp is full, they lift it by hand into the trailer 

to dump it.  None of this is done using anything mechanical.  

What's more interesting is they don't even start the truck engine to move along the road.

These three guys are literally pushing the truck, trailer, and load down the street to move to their next pile.

Planting bulbs for the spring.  Of course, this does require hand work, but since it's my blog, 

I get to choose what goes in it :)

The doctors (that I experienced) don't do charting, notes, or anything else by computer.
It's all written by hand and in this instance, the government reads the doctor's book

every few months to see what they have been doing.

For all you medical people, imagine trying to read all the different handwriting from all the notes, prescriptions, etc. that patients bring in when they come to the hospital.

Here's the daily record of the EKG's that were performed.  

The spice mounds are re-built by hand many times each day.  The stall owners can be seen shaping 

and making them all look "just right" after they make a sale (or after a bird lands on it).

No leaf blowers here!  The day I heard a chainsaw running while workers were limbing a tree 

I actually stopped and just listened to it for a few minutes because it was such an 

alien noise for Dushanbe.

No truck with melting tar around these parts...

This pipe is getting a tar coating and then some type of insulating blanket wrapped around it.
The tar is put into a kettle and they build a fire underneath to heat and melt it.

And as a lot of Tajiks are unemployed*, this type of activity draws a crowd.

*I make no claims as to the employment status of anyone in this photo.

Since I wasn't able to find onion powder in Dushanbe (there's a lot of spices that 

are not available), I was forced to slice, dry, and grind my own...yes, by hand.

 

After a snowstorm, I saw these guys sanding the streets.  They are standing in the back of a dump truck 

shoveling out sand onto the street.  In the US, you can't drive behind the gravel trucks because 

they are automated and typically fling the gravel out.

Instead of a snow plow, there are groups of women who shovel the snow/slush off the sides of the road.

These women get paid an average of 300 Somoni per month to do this wet, cold, dirty work. 

For you non-math types, that equates to $60 US dollars per month.

Bear in mind, this is any weather condition and most are not dressed properly to combat the cold.

Here in Dushanbe, they don't worry about clearing the sidewalks.  

No liability for someone slipping and suing the city or even a business that doesn't clear the walkways.

Occasionally, a shop will clear the snow, but they usually only use a broom.   

The dirt from people's shoes makes the sidewalk snow really dirty.

You can definitely tell where the people walk and where they don't.

The dirty snow turns into a hybrid mixture that makes it feel like you 

are walking on sand (same consistency and sound).  It definitely 

gives your legs a workout as we have to walk an average of 2+ miles just to 

get to the market for fresh vegetables.

I'll leave you with this: 

sometimes giving a "hand" is the best way to do things!