Central Asia
Dushanbe, Tajikistan, July 31, 2012
Salaroche

Getting out of Djibouti, a small country located at the foot of the Horn of Africa, in East Africa, was an adventure of the kind that may be good to experience once or perhaps a maximum of twice in a lifetime. In general, circumstances may vary according to the winds of fate, but sometimes it is us who force those winds to blow on our sails not knowing exactly where they will lead us. Fortunately, my dinghy has already been moored for a few weeks on terra firma in a country whose people are rather welcoming to foreigners in general and to Americans in particular: Tajikistan.

Tajikistan is a small country landlocked between Kyrgyzstan to the North, Uzbekistan to the West, Afghanistan to the South, and China to the East. It is the poorest among all of Central Asia's ex-Soviet Republics. It was first under Russian and then under Soviet domination for a few decades until it gained its independence on September 9, 1991, shortly after the fall of the Soviet Empire.

With a ninety eight-percent Muslim population, the country is said to be a secular state and, as far as I have witnessed, it is. In the capital city of Dushanbe, for example, you can have a couple of beers with your lunch or dinner at a restaurant any day of the week even during Ramadan. Most Tajik Muslims, however, fast from dawn to dusk during this time of year.

In general, Tajik people have a good predisposition towards each other and, by extension, towards foreigners as well. Most of them are bilingual Tajik-Russian and many of them speak at least some English, while a small number actually command English well enough to converse in it. This is a country with a high literacy rate, estimated at around 99.5%.

In Dushanbe, some women wear western-style clothes and there's a few who occasionally wear miniskirts, but the great majority of them wear the traditional long Tajik dress with flowery motifs and a wide variety of other patterns. In Dushanbe most men wear western-style clothes, but in the countryside things might change according to the province.

Tajik food has Arabic as well as Russian influence. Kebabs, Shawarmas and Sambusas abound everywhere, while Goulash and other Russian cuisine can only be found in some restaurants. Then there's the Chinese influence found in dishes like Mantú, which is similar to Chinese Dumplings (Won Ton), but larger in size. As is customary in many Muslim countries, Tajiks often eat natural yogurt with their meals.

Musically speaking, the most common local rhythms are the usual Arabic rhythms and melodies and the world-wide pervasive Hip-Hop. Then there are some Disco-like rhythms with their repetitive melodies and some of those Spanish-style songs that nowadays already sound like worn-out offshoots of Gypsy Kings music. I did hear once some local songs with rhythms that sounded like the Salvadoran "Xuc", which I thought was a rather curious thing.

Politics is a non-issue around here. Everybody takes it for granted that everyone in government is corrupt and nobody seems to have the least intention of doing anything about it. The same goes for the local authorities: Everything is fixed with briberies and personal influence. As a result, local policemen don't command much respect and traffic is sometimes a complete lunacy here. Frankly, it seems quite impressive for me to have witnessed only one minor car accident in the 30+ days I have lived in this city.

I did, however, once told the driver of a public transport minibus to stop and give me my money back when he was zigzagging like a lunatic and driving like a madman at high speed against the way on the left-hand side of the street. The funny thing is that nobody on that minibus was complaining about it, even though I could see in their faces how nervous everybody was.

There's a certain level of tolerance in this country that only begets abuse. In a way it reminds me of Barcelona, Spain, where I lived for a couple of years around 2005. There, scooters and motorcycles are allowed to circulate on the sidewalks with impunity and people are allowed to make all kinds of noises in neighborhood parks and plazas anytime they want, thereby entirely disregarding everybody else's right to sleep peacefully at night.

Similarly, living in Dushanbe during Ramadan is not exactly a piece of cake for non-Muslim people. This year Ramadan will last approximately from the end of July till the end of August and during that full month Tajik people will stay up past midnight on a nightly basis. Local Muslims usually break fast at around 8:00 pm and then play around and chat loudly in their home porches until midnight. Then they wake up at around 3:00 am to have breakfast and go back to sleep until 6:00 am or so.

This means that any non-Muslim individual living in this city is forced by the weight of traditions to get a total of only four or five hours of sleep every night during Ramadan, and not consecutively, but in small chunks of two or three hours at the time. In addition, working with the locals during this time of year requires some extra amounts of energy, as most of them don't sleep much either and they're somewhat weakened by their self-imposed fasting that keeps them from eating or drinking anything, not even water, during the day (non-Muslims can eat and drink as they please)

In general, however, Tajiks aren't as aggressive and disrespectful toward each other as Barcelonans are, at least not while they aren't behind the wheel. Just that factor by itself makes the city of Dushanbe much more livable than Barcelona, although in so saying I'm by no means implying that both cities are on the same league. The latter, for example, is many times as beautiful as the former regarding architecture, and no doubt Catalan cuisine is more sophisticated than Tajik Cuisine is.

On top of that, the artistic legacy that Barcelona has, Dushanbe could never claim to have. The only two reasons I compare these two cities is, first, that there are a couple of main streets in Dushanbe that remind me of those of Barcelona and, second, that the level of mutual abuse people inflict upon each other is often similar between the two cities.

As far as tourism goes, I haven't seen much of Tajikistan yet and, the way things are going, if I don't do a bit of domestic travelling in the next 30 days or so, I will never get to see much of it. Outside of Dushanbe, thus far I've only been to Qabodiyan a small town located in the southwest of the country, close to the border with Afghanistan (see photos here: http://www.salaroche.com/Photo%20Pages/2012/Tajik01.html ) I've read on the Internet about a couple of historic sites I would like to see and a neighbor of mine has offered to take me to visit his family's farm somewhere in the countryside sometime soon, but there are no concrete plans for any of that yet.

In any case, it looks like it's time for me to hit the road again. As it turns out, the situation at the Language Institute that brought me to Dushanbe is nowhere close to what I expected and a couple of days ago I gave them 30 days notice for them to start looking for a replacement. This time around, however, I already have a solid job offer in Foshan, Guangdong Province, China, that not only pays much better, but also offers much more attractive living conditions and contract terms than the ones I'm presently getting. 

In total, this will be the third time I go to China, although I've been in and out of that country a few more times, as while living there I've had to go to Hong Kong a couple of times to renew my visa to stay in the mainland. In general, I can frankly say I'm glad this time I'm not going back to living in Beijing, as over there life is much more hectic than in the midsize city where I'll be. It's true that I have a couple of good friends in Beijing, but I also have a very good friend in the city of Guangzhou, which will be barely an hour bus-ride away from where I'll be.

I like China and I like many aspects of its culture and if the Rinminbi keeps appreciating as it should, then things might start looking even better financially for yours truly.

In the meantime, even though I'm not sleeping much and I'm working very hard literally for just a few dollars more, things are looking acceptably well around these latitudes. On the other hand, I'm really looking forward to have my small boat sail away again.

May everything be well with all of you.

Salaroche