July 10th, 2019

The next test is fasting approaching and I am pretty worried about it. It has seven sections:

1.     A short poem by Rudaki (this I already have memorized)

2.     A much longer poem also by Rudaki (which I have about half memorize)

3.     1 short story that is about 2/3 of a page long (which I still have to memorize word for word)

4.     2-4 proverbs (I have one memorized so far)

5.     A speaking section where we have to stay 15 sentences about Dushanbe (we are allowed notes for this)

6.     A second speaking section where we have to have a conversation with a peer about a trip to a bazaar or exchanging money (relates to this week’s vocabulary)      

7.     A written test covering the grammar and vocabulary lessons of this week

The sheer amount of memorization just gets to be a lot. I don’t know how I am going to learn it all. I have been reading a lot, but I realize I need to stop and focus on my studies. As my host mother told me I could read in Boston (though to be fair I could also memorize poems/do homework in Boston). After class today, we had a dance class where we learned traditional Tajik dance. We will have to perform it at the final/farewell ceremony/party. Luckily the girls have to most of the dancing, the four of us boys just have to come in a bit at the bit and stomp around while gesturing with fists towards the sky. It is not exactly what you would call my cup of tea.

      After class, some other students and I went exploring. A lot other students had commitments, so it was just three of us (following the Buddy Rule which requires at least 3 students when going anywhere). We walked past the main street where most us live and past my house onto a side street. I had never walked in that direction before. It was away from the city center towards into the west. We could see the mountains very clearly. We cross a bridged, skirted a mosque, and entered a much less affluent looking neighborhood. We passed kids on bikes, men working, people selling watermelon and sunflower seeds out of their homes. Much of the paint was peeling and you could smell trash burning, but it was really nice. It was good to get away from our more affluent neighborhood and the main street that runs through Dushanbe called Rudaki Avenue. It was another side of Dushanbe that is always there but not as noticeable to us as tourists.

After a while, we turned down another side street. The street slanted downward, revealing a high bank and hills dotted with power lines and towats. The street led down to an overlook (really a landing between metal stairs and stone stairs). Looking down from the landing we could see a large blue power plant with smokestacks rising high to our left and then houses littered to its’ right. Looking across you could see a high (dead) grassy bank rose almost straight up and beyond to the hills with their crisscrossing powerlines. Tajik homes with their courtyards and platforms and high fences checkered the low valley that we looked across. The overlook had stairs that lead down to these railroad tracks. The track were heavily overgrow around the actually rails, however, next to the ties to the right was a dirt path and down the middle as well. It was well worn and dusty. We could see one or two guys further down the track. We turned right and started walking southward along the ridge that the rails ran along. To our right was the hillside we had taken the stairs down covered in brush and dust and trash.  To our left was a much steeper drop down into the homes we had seen on the overlook. The path was a bit rocky and there were a lot of spiky plants. Luckily I was wearing pants and my hiking-type shoe. My companions in Birkenstocks (one without socks) were not so lucky. We followed the tracks until we were very close to the plant and the trail seemed to stop. At least it was blocked by a huge pile of trash. The path did turn down into the streets of lined by the homes we had seen from above, so we scrambled down the rocky path.

The neighbor there was similar to the one we had passed through earlier, except it was much quieter with less commercial activity. There were still the usual kids on bikes calling “hello” when they heard us speak English amongst ourselves. Chickens also pecked in the grass beside the streets. It reminded me of my chickens back home. We passed a house with an open door, and inside you could see a woman cooking on an open fire while a half-dressed kid ran past. At some point, we realized the road was leading us away from the ridge where the rails ran, instead of parallel like we had intended, so we doubled back and found a side street that appeared to lead back to the ridge. We scrambled again back up a different much stepper path that spit us out at the train tracks. We reversed direction and headed back north towards the overlook. There were climbed quickly back up the steps, leisurely through the streets, across the bridge, and back into the neighborhood where our host families lived (making it home a generous 30 minutes before our 6 o’clock curfew).

            I didn’t have my iphone on me, so I couldn’t take photos, but one of the students I was with did. I’ll see if she’ll send them to me so I can post them. Plus this way I am working towards my live-in-the-moment goal.