Dachas

It's been a nice weekend, but maybe some of you are wondering what I'm doing in Tajikistan. Well, I'm studying with 10 americans, from all over the U.S.. I am in the Persian/Tajik language section. There are five of us studying either Persian or Tajik. Every day I have three hours of Persian language, taught by a nice Tajik man - only problem is his accent - which for me is sometimes incomprehensible. But this helps me understand better the standard Tehran accent that I am used to. During the afternoons, I try to do some language homework, have a lunch, work on my thesis for Iran and then go to dance class. Two days a week I take classical Tajik dancing and the other three days I have an arabic dance class. In another life, with a different body and stamina level, I'm sure I was a dancer. This weekend, we went to the countryside, about 45 minutes outside of Dushanbe. That was really fun...and so relaxing, because a river flowed just outside the dacha. The sound of a river for 24 hours has changed my mood entirely. I learned to play backgammon and compiled a list of vocabulary. We also discussed host family problems and how one of the girls got driven outside of town by a cabdriver and almost kidnapped. I think we all have these kinds of stories from every city we've lived in. The night we slept at the dacha was really cool and pleasant and the first night after which I didn't wake up drowning in my own sweat. In fact, I used a blanket and needed it... Today it's 95 degrees again...
Near the dacha was a little village with houses that had the most amazingly green orchards of apple and cherry trees. The lovely families came out to the road to greet us, take pictures and share their delicious apples. There were half-starved cows along the road munching at grass. We enjoyed the views of terraces of squash plants. because Tajikistan is so rural, if you drive for an hour you can see everything from rice patties to corn fields to wheat to squash. It's brilliant. I think it's really important when you visit a new country to take a few days and rest. It was fun to watch the world cup games last night, although both outcomes for me were a little disappointing...--I hope all my friends studying for the bar exams back home are not too stressed. I really don't look forward to the bar exam next summer. I've taken law school too easy to be ready for such a challenging exam.
The picture that you see above is part of my extended family. I am wearing a Tajik housedress. The woman to the right of me is my host mother. The woman to my left is my Tajik host grandmother. To the left of her is my host mother's sister. We are sitting where we had dinner - a nice cloth they set out for our food which was a big Plof., rice with carrots and chickpeas, fried.