FLOODS?

Well, today was an amazing day!! After cleaning the house for three hours in the morning (I have various insects trying to stay as guests), I agreed to go to Laura's house for lunch. On the way, it started hailing. But this was not just any normal hail but the second day in a row of hail after nearly a month and a half of rain. Within twenty minutes, the main street in Dushanbe was a river - as the drainage was completely clogged. There were no pedestrian pathways because the whole boulevard was a river - more than half a foot deep. We managed to drive through the main street, but Laura's house was on perhaps the worst side street in town. The taxi driver at first refused to take me onto that side street. Instead, he pulled over, turned on a DVD player and told me we would wait the weather out. But then our friend Samvel got on my phone and told him that he couldn't leave a woman in such weather without getting her to destination.

So, a few minutes later, we ventured into the side street where Laura lives (near the Korean embassy and the Youth Theater). The car couldn't get through so much water and it stalled twice. After ten minutes, we were 10 yards from her house, and the driver just refused to go on. He pulled over to the side of the "river" and turned another movie on. Laura and Sam were not willing to let this ruin our lunch. I looked over and Laura was attempting to walk through the flood to our taxi. I desperately tried to get her to stop with wild hand movements from inside the car. Eventually, Sam stopped her and instead put on some girly flowery flip flops and walked through freezing mud water to get to the taxi. I don't know why!! Anyway, after a few more minutes, the driver pulled up the side of the house. The landlord - a 70 year old man - gave me a pair of rain boots and then on top of it offered to put me on his back so I could make it 2 meters across the water. (Obviously that was a crazy suggestion!) When I stepped down, the water only made it half way to my knees but it had a relatively strong current.

In any case, eventually we all made it inside. The funny part was that on the way Laura didn't even know there was a river outside her house. I kept calling while we were trying to get through the water complaining that it was inappropriate that she should be asking me to go to her place under such circumstances. The best image I saw though was the head of a stuffed bear traveling down the main street nearly faster than the cars! I really wished I had had a camera.

There was so much hail on the streets I thought the city looked like a salt mine. - Later, we walked home after the flood had disappeared. All that is left now is a 3-4 inch spread of mud everywhere. On the way to my apartment, I saw this wonderful wedding dress. Outside the bridal shops here they place a sample wedding dress, and apparently one shop hadn't taken their dress in when the river of mud water was coming down from the mountains. The dress was its normal pretty shape - but up until the waste it was the color of mud.