July 28th, 2019

In the morning we went to a bazaar in Khujand. I was able to buy presents for folks back home as well. In the bazaar there were cages filled with all sorts of animals, very crammed together. There were rabbits, pigeons, chickens, and little tropical birds chirping away. It was kind of hard to see. Also difficult to stomach there was the meat aisle. It was covered with a red trap, so an eerie color shone everywhere, and there were just stalls and stalls of huge caresses and massive slabs of bright red meat. Even the meat eaters in my group agreed it was an unpleasant sight. But I bought some nice apricots for my host family. I also got some funny looking Russian versions of movies, but I don’t know if the CD will work in the US.

            We also got to see the Mosque, which is more the 12^th century I think. You can still see the roof, which looked authentic, but you can never tell with Tajikistan. There was hundred of pigeons there as well. A women was selling seeds to feed the pigeons, which our guide bought for us (feed-the-birds lady from Mary Poppins anyone?). I still have some of my seeds left. Maybe I’ll give them to my pet chickens back home as a gift. Next to the mosque was a completely empty but very recently built library in the Islamic style. The different turquoise of its room contrasted with the faded blue tiles on the mosque.

            Then we drove to Istaravshan, which is a smaller city about an hour or 90 minutes from Hujand. We drove to more of the outskirts and stopped at another mosque with a mausoleum. After some talk from our guide and local coordinator, we were allowed in, where a man explained about the mausoleum and something about the trees. He told us who the people in the mausoleum were, but I did recognize the names, but I am not very informed on Islamic history. There were a group of boys from the village there. They ranged from maybe 5-10, with the average being maybe 8, but I am not very good at guessing ages. They stood around and shouted at us. A couple of them came up and asked for their photos to be taken, having seen us taking photos with our phones. I obliged. Like most people in region we’d met they spoke with a strong accent that I struggled to understand. As we headed out, they started getting rude. One particular boy spit at us and called what sounded very much like “F*ck your mother,” which seems to be the only English phrase besides “Hello” that most people know. That one boy also tried to get in one of cars. As another male participant and I moved back towards our car leaving three female students with the boy, he exposed himself and played with his genitalia toward them. It shows how earlier the sexist behavior starts. It’s awful.

            We got back in the cars, and, after lunch, headed back to Dushanbe. The car ride wasn’t even that long, though it was supposed to be the longest day of driving. But apparently before the tunnel of death was built it would take 12 hours to get to Khujand from Dushanbe. In the car whenever we started playing American music, the driver would put on his own music and turn the volume up, until we asked our teacher to ask him to play our music through the Bluetooth and he let us, which I really appreciated. But timing of his music always was funny, since it seemed so passive aggressive.

Once back in Dushanbe I went at dinner at the (adult) daughter of my host mother’s house. I had met her and talked to her multiple times before, but only at our house. The house was massive and they had a servant family, usually the kelean (who in this case is my host mother’s daughter) would do that work. They even had a pool. It was crazy. I also got to hear a lot of Uzbek and Turkish their, since her family is Turkish and my host mother spoke Uzbek to the family who works for them. I also want to draw a family tree at some point, and try to keep everyone who I have met straight.