Manijeh Sabi

20 October 2009 | 5 | sabim

The time passes by quickly here and I am not keeping up with my blogs. This time I am hoping that my blog will be a little more sophisticated and I add some pictures from outside of Dushanbe. The pictures are all over because I am not that much familiar to post pictures properly.

During Fulbright orientation in Washington DC, they told us about the famous Sunday hikes outside of Dushanbe. Every Sunday about 40 expatriates gather at one location in Dushanbe and mini buses and private cars take the hikers to various locations outside of Dushanbe (about 1 to 2 hours drive). We usually pass spectacular sceneries and traditional villages. The roads are not that safe and often there is only one lane for both sides of traffic.  In addition, on our way we are stopped by policemen several times who ask for bribes.  Paying bribes to policemen are entirely accepted here.  The drivers are quite nice to policemen and they just pay some money.  I suppose local people look at it like highway tolls we pay in the States. Drivers do not question the reason for paying bogus charges. We were told that policemen also ask money from foreigners and we should avoid them. So far, I have not had any problems. In fact, I ask policemen direction for different locations or just talk to them. Of course, they love to hear my Persian accent and keep on asking me questions wondering why I am in Tajikistan.

Usually, there are two hikes: Easy and one for experts. At first I wanted to go with the experts, but they did not let me. Then I found out even the easy one is much harder than I expected.  For my first hike, I went to Sirkent Valley, a difficult hike of 15000 feet climbing up. We were told we can see dinosaurs’ footprints, but I did not see anything close to it. The next Sunday we went to Sangalt Valley along the Sangalt River with clean blue waters. We passed the picturesque canyons and crossing the river is by the wooden bridges. I have some of the pictures below. I am the only Fulbright Scholar in Tajikistan (also the first one), but there are three Fulbright students here. You can see my picture with Diana, Jesse’s who is a Fulbright student researching Tuberculosis stigma in Tajikistan.  Diana is from Armenia and we spend a lot of time together.

Also went to Diamalik Valley just last Sunday and I have added some pictures from that hike below.

Another adventure was my trip to Norak Dam, which holds the Vakhsh River to create Lake Norak. The Dam is the highest in the world and one needs local police permission to visit. My landlady took me there right after I moved to my apartment. She is very influential and usually solves my problems immediately. We spent one day at Norak Dam on a barge, swimming in lovely clean water and cooking special local food on fire. Many people are surprised that I have already visited Norak Dam Here are pictures of the lake, my landlady with her colleagues, and the captain of the barge.

I am not able to post more pictures.

Teaching has been quite eventful here. Every day, something new happens and I need time to summarize my teaching experiences. One of these days I will get to it.