July 14th, 2019

Nothing of note happened today. We had a painting class, which was really just smearing colors on a canvas, and then watching him add black lines and turn it into an idyllic village scene. Not super hands-on, but that’s typical of the Tajik teaching style. Some of us went to the National Library, impressed the Director with poem recitation enough for a free your, and got to the see the classrooms, including one devoted for people with disabilities. It is mainly a collection of braille books and crafting opportunities. After the painting class we went to a café that has in the past had wifi, but in typical fashion the Wi-Fi didn’t work, which was disappointing. We might be getting a modem at the school, which will be exciting. Hopefully I can finish downloading the Betternet VPN on my phone and finally access the New York Times. I didn’t not predict how difficult not having the news would be. It’s been a while since I have been so totally disconnected. The Tajik TV news has not been super helpful.

            I finished The Crossing today. Also The Crossing is definitely a misnomer. Billy crosses three or four times. The book reminded of Lord of the Rings in a really weird way, like it’s almost fantastical to be wandering through the mountains only to stumble upon a Mormon who spends several passages telling you his life story, life philosophy, and the life story of the man who gave him a crisis of faith. Compared to typical short and to the point dialogue or the brief free indirect discourse, these long philosophical ramblings seemed like a departure. The world feels so foreign from my own, filled with monsters from a different age, a different world almost. I also think this might be a good book to in a Commonwealth-School English class. The adventure aspects might appeal to a larger group of students in a way Jane Eyre does not. There are a couple passages I might go back and mark up later, but for now I have mostly been reading without a pencil in hand. On to Cities of the Plain, which unfortunately marks the end of the McCarthy books I brought to Tajik. I guess I’ll return to Hägglund and his philosophical ramblings (i.e. This Life: Secular Faith and Spiritual Freedom), though I already know they are very different from the way Billy or the Catholic Mormon see the world, from reading the introduction.

On propaganda and some observations from watching TV

            Driving through Dushanbe, one of the first things you notice is the massive posters of the president, Emimoli Rahmon (I got to check Latin alphabet spelling of that). They are everywhere: on every major road, on the side of building, on billboards in residential neighborhoods, in the fields of rural areas, at the foot of steep rocky hills with the audience being speeding cars and one or two cows. The posters and billboards often contain a few words alongside a full-body shot of Rahmon photo-shopped into various places like poppy fields. It’s really obviously photo-shopped as well. There are occasionally photos of him with children or greeting people, but it’s mostly just him alone. One student asked our Local Coordinator to translator the meaning of the words of one of the posters he spotted on the isolated road to Romit. She said it basically said “our president come from our God.” But there seem to be a number of different sayings on each of the posters. In the beginning of our time here, we would often point out the poster and laugh about the photo shop or his eyebrows, but now it has become so normal that we don’t even noticed them anymore. It was striking how quickly we became accustomed them and thought of having your leaders face plastered everywhere as normal.

            Last night, I was watching TV with my family. The Tajik language offerings are very limited. TV is mostly in Uzbek or Russian, or poorly dubbed Turkish. The Tajik shows are mostly news or this one channel, which I think was just Tajik facts. Text would appear in one of the four corners and the screen and images related to the fact would appear like a bad powerpoint as someone read the facts aloud. Besides the news there was also a channel that for the hour or so that I watched it was just a much of pictures and short clips of the President (with people thanking him): he was opening schools or visiting factories, or doing ribbon cutting or listening to fancy-dressed Tajik children and teens recite poems and thank him. It was all overlaid on very patriotic music. It was like the Rahmon propaganda channel as far as I can tell. The news I watched also didn’t offer any criticism of the president. I am grateful for the open criticism Americans can have of our president whether through the media or protests (also that his face is not everywhere you turn).

On being vegetarian in Dushanbe

            My family was informed ahead of time that I am vegetarian, which helped a lot since everything they make for mostly doesn’t have meat, though I am sure the broth of all the soups is a meat broth. It has been a lot easier to be vegetarian than I expected, but I am more vegetarian-lax now, since I do have a lot of broth and stuffed fired in what I think a beef fat. I also east food prepared with meat. I have lost count of the number of times I have found little pieces of meat in my food. My host mom also makes these stuffed papers than she cooks in a soup. Some of the papers just have rice in them, and the others have rice and meat. They are all cooked in the same pot, so there’s always like pieces of beef floating in the broth, which makes it very unpleasant for me to eat.

            On the plus side I guess, since I have been relaxed with how I am observing my vegetarianism, I have been eating gelatin and enjoying some gummy candies and marshmallows, though I am seldom hungry considering how much my host family forces me to eat. It does help during the long gap between lunch at school (12-1) and dinner (9 or 10 usually).

            There are actually 6 vegetarians in the group (out of 12 students), along with our resident director who is also vegetarian. Most families have been very accommodating. There was one time at school when they everyone chicken, since they didn’t really consider chicken meat. Usually at school they make two dishes: one bogusht (with meat) and the other begusht (without meat).