Monday, October 22, 2012

Pop, whiz, bang.


Here we are.  Two months into my time in Tajikistan.  One-fifth of the way through.
Since my last post on my birthday, approximately one month ago, I have done a good amount of traveling around the northern region of Tajikistan, I have added Debate to the classes offered at the American Corner, I have become a consistent attendee of the Aga Khan Humanities Project’s fall Intro to Humanities course as a volunteer teaching assistant, I have moved even further than I already was into my host families hearts ;) and my mother has visited Dushanbe for ten days from America, on a whim.  I would describe the last month as a tornado in a valley, spinning pointedly around me.  I know there is much more I could do, but I already feel swept up in activities every day, minute, hour.  Most of them are small social obligations that I am struggling to fulfill – like a dinner with a new friend, a brainstorming tea time with a coworker, finding the right house-ware for my host mother’s apartment, negotiating shortest way home from a new building, or a day trip with my mom. 

In between these units of community building, I desperately try to maintain a semblance of preparation and lesson planning.  Usually I run with the first idea that comes to my mind for the four Beginner and Advanced classes I run.   I also try my best to attend services at Jamatkhane and make it to regular workouts. 

My favorite part of the city, just as it was the first week I arrived, is running into familiar faces.  In fact now, I constantly wish under my breath that the various units of activity that build up my day will all be scooted aside by an unexpected visitor.  

My biggest setback amidst all of this movement is that the Tajik language buzzes right by me.  I have not soaked it Tajik the way I soaked up Arabic when studying in college.  Arabic was like a hot lemon olive oil that brightened me up.  Tajik sits on my skin like cold grease.   That’s not to say I do not enjoy listening to it or studying it.  Even the coarsely ground specks of Tajik-Russian that the minibus drivers spit at me has a rugged charm.  (Perhaps because I cannot catch all that they are saying to the ignorant, Asian-looking, privileged little American devoshka).  But I do not have the time to steep in Tajik language the same way I did in Arabic-speaking countries The responsibility of constantly teaching English was not an issue while in Syria and Jordan, so I had plenty of time to learn.  It will take a renewed commitment on my part (a commitment I renew each morning) to learn Tajik as fast as I know I can.  Or as fast as I should, since after all, it is one of the most grammatically simple languages I could ask for.

Arabic has an interesting presence here.  A few young men I have met here have started learning Arabic very seriously in order to better understand Islam and the Qu’ran.  My host mother’s brother, who was present at the Eid celebration last weekend, gave me a fifteen minute talk on the merits of praying five times a day in Arabic.  We talked about dhikr, or meditation, in Arabic, and he quoted parts of the Quran that mentioned forms of prayer.  We didn’t come to any agreement on the essence of organized prayer in Islam, but at least it gave me a chance to practice Arabic.  My Arabic is being slowly sacrificed for Tajik (bad Eid-e-Khurbon pun intended).  I was replacing Arabic prepositions and conjunctions with Tajik ones all willy nilly.   Its funny how much faster the mouth is at forming words than the brain…

Meanwhile, other departments of Tajik living, like the weather, are kind of blissful.  I know everybody dreads the winter, and the snow, and the lack of street salt, and lack of sidewalk demarcations, and lack of minibuses, and presence of grey muck, and insufficient indoor heating.  Despite ALL of that, the fall is perfectly orange and yellow. The pumpkins.  Oh, the pumpkins.  And I’ve never experienced so many perfectly crisp light sweater days in a row.  And it’s having a narcotic effect on my mood to where everything seems light and easy.   

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