Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
well almost four weeks into my placement and it feels much longer. I am finally connected to the internet and am having to find my way around all those websites that i promised to use. It is extremely hot here in Duchanbe all of the time. In the car today it was reading 36 and we have no air conditioning, so with three of squeezed into the back of a small car it was quite hot!
My house in the city is for four volunteers, Lynne and i are both due to be here until next February, but Mary is due to move out at the end of June, as two new permanent volunteers are arriving and have been allocated space in the house. At the moment Jeff, an Indonesian VSO vol is also staying until the end of June. Lynne and I have the upstairs room, with balcony, so others come and go downstairs or in the gatehouse. We mostly eat together and are supportive of one another, so it is a good place to be in a new city.
But I have started to meet other people and do other things, apart from my work. I have joined the Duchanbe bookclub, a moving feast of many nationalities, all of whom review the book they have read in the lasts month, so a variation on a theme. I have also been approached to lead disccussion groups for Tajik english students at the Slovik university. I will do this on Monday and Wednesday, in return for being given Tajik lessons and the cost of my taxi home. It is a small college not far from where I am living, with air conditioned classrooms, so it may be interesting. If not I will have tried.
I have very few words of Tajik, but hope t hat the lessons will help a lot, although most people speak a mixture of Tajik and Russian. My manager, Nazira, speaks both and is determined that I will learn this language. She has been really helpful and kind in showing me things, teaching my local manners, taking me out to lunch, even though she has hardly any English and we can just communicate. But now I have the help of the competent Rahim, my translator, who will be working with me until he goes back to finish his masters in Spain in September.
I am off the one of the bazaars with a french lady called Cecile on Saturday, she is the in country lead on disability services, working for Handicap International (not very PC, but good work).
I was helped by Mahina to buy fabric to have dresses made and ealier this week I visited the dressmaker who will have them both completed by next Monday. Just in time for the British Embassy Queens official birthday reception in the poshest hotel in the city. So as I may never have the chance to go in again, I will thank the Queen for her hospitality and go.
as you can see from the picture I seem to spend a lot of time eating here. This is a picture of Nazira and I at a Tajik restaurant, eating with our hands. It is a skill that may take some time to acquire.
So at the end of my first month I miss everyone more than I had expected and am so pleased that I can now use Skype, text, email and hopefully now this blog. Thank you to everyone who has sent messages, emails etc I would feel very isolated without them. Will try my best to add some picctures so you can see Duschabe and some more pictures of the house and the people I am living with. Ian is coming to visit in September, which is very exciting, it will coincide with the 20 years of independence celebrations, so a really good time to be here.
Keep in touch everyone, love to you all. Yvonne XXXXX
- comments
Alison lovely to hear more news! It must be hard missing people, but it sounds like you're being made very welcome. You look like you're doing well with the eating by hand! xxx
Jan Brewerton What a fantastic experience! It all sounds so exciting and I am very envious, especially getting dresses made for a posh do! What shoes did you wear?? What is the food like? It certaintly looks like you are enjoying it. It sounds like you are getting lots of help and support. Hope you are not missing home so much lots of love xx
Helen Vidotto any finger bowls?!!! I hope you love the dresses and the party was fun. Someone I know goes to Cambodia to have shoes made. so much for British craftsmanship.......... thinking of you loads. Big hug xxxxx
Caroline So good to check the site and find something there at last! The first blog sets the scene now I can imagine you out and about with the names you mention - as it has been gloomy and rainy here for 2 days I am envious of the hot weather - be careful not to turn too pink..... love and hugs xxxx
Randi Good to hear news from you Yvonne, look forward to seeing more pictures! The food looks good, and I'm sure you'll get the hang of eating with your hands (just watch which one you use, as I learned from living in Africa that the other one is for a totally different purpose!). Ian made us very welcome when we stayed over after you'd left, and I'm sure you'll be glad to know the motorbikes are still kept in the garden - they have not migrated into the kitchen/living room/whatever - despite the rather damp weather that weekend. He should be coming down to see us in Cornwall sometime in July, weather permitting. We've just come back from a week working on Jason's brother's avocado farm in the foothills of the Sierra Nevadas in Spain. He has just bought more land which needed clearing, so we thought it would be fun to help out. Since it was around 40C when we were there I was rather pleased my brother-in-law is of the old fashioned gentleman persuasion (in other words, sexist as hell), so Jason did the work while I mostly stayed in the shade with my drink, thinking up new ways to serve avocados! Hope to hear from you again soon Yvonne - stay safe, and have fun! Lots of love from us both xxx