June 26th, 2019

I am going to stop writing the day in the title because of it just makes me depressed and feel guilty about my lack of progress.

We went to the National Museum today. It has to be one of the strangest museums that I have ever been to. It was a weird mix of history, art, and natural history museum. We started in the history part, which presented the entire history of the Persian Empire and much of modern Afghanistan and Uzbekistan (especially with its rich cultural history) as its own. Also, most of the artifacts were labeled replica, and many that were not labeled replica I would be skeptical of based on looking at them. But I also wonder if that suspicious is based on Eurocentric and colonialist ideas of who is capable of archaeology and such. The next section was the art section, where there was such a strange mix of modern art, impressionist-style, and even this one wall of still life’s sandwiched in between some paintings of Stalin and other Soviet leaders. Interestingly, in the section where the paintings of soviet times were there were no English labels on the paintings, just Russian and Tajik, whereas in the rest of the museum there were labels in all three languages. In that area, there was a lot of art of soviet leaders, as well as cotton, which during Soviet times many were forced to pick. In the art section, there was also a very tiny Quran among other Qurans. After the art section, we went down into the basement where we saw a lot of taxidermied animals, along some very funny looking ones. That guide spoke Tajik very fast and our local coordinator hardly every translated, so I can’t say much about the flora and fauna of Tajikistan.

Stray interesting observations

• ·      People like to show babies and toddlers videos of themselves. This may well be a common world-wide child rearing practice but it is new to me. Another student did tell me that showing images in a mirror and such were important for child development.
• ·      One of my teachers was in the Soviet Army for a couple of years during which time he was an Arabic translator in Libya for them. We are told not to ask about a number of topics including any of THE wars or the USSR but I really do wish I could hear more.
• ·      We got a list of verbs today! Hallelujah! (still need to make flashcards of them though… should be doing that instead of writing this L)
• ·       People pray after meals here. My family doesn’t do it often, but when we went to visit my host mother’s adult daughter they did pray out loud. Usually, I just see them cupping their face after a meal. When they pray, they hold their hands in a cup shape in their lap and say something that I didn’t understand, then bring their hands up and cup their face. I would ask about it, but we are told not to ask about religion and I don’t want to be rude. A good rule of thumb that we learned about at pre-departure orientation is “don’t have a conversation about any controversial subject if you don’t have a full command of the vocabulary and host language”
• ·      Index cards, while very helpful, have become almost impractical at this point. The sheer amount of words we are learning is not conducive to individual index cards. Quizlet pages that you can fold over would be much more helpful. Not being able to do this makes active review here is hard. One of the American things I miss most is Quizlet.

A description of a Tajik house

The houses in our neighborhood all follow pretty much the same pattern. There is a tall wall surrounding the compound. It usually has a metal front with a door in a frame. Almost all doors have a bottom of the frame that you have to step over. That has literally tripped me up a lot. Once in the compound, you enter a courtyard. The courtyard usually has a raised platform that looks like a bed with headboards on three sides. One of the long sides is open. The base is usually covered in a colorful fabric. It is about the size of a queen/king-sized bed as well. In the courtyard, there is also usually a sink or fountain or somewhere to wash your hands, since there is probably a small building with a squat toilet in it. Most homes have a squat toilet, but some have western upright toilets. Those homes that do have western upright toilets have very weak plumbing and clog easily. For these reasons, you will find a small trash bin next to the toilet. Once you wipe you put your toilet paper in there. For the shower, some homes have showerheads but those are usually the wand kind. Other homes just have a faucet, a bucket, and a big plastic ladle you use to pour water over yourself. By the door or just in the foyer is a pile of shoes. You have to take your shoes off when entering a home.