Well hello again, hope all is well in the ever wet England, in direct contrast to the ever very hot Tajikistan. We have had one day when it was over 50 (I am told), we have had an earthquake that was 6.2 on the Richter scale that I managed to sleep right through and not a drop of rain that I can report for weeks. Week 10 already and I have been doing some interesting things as well as feeling incredibly homesick and frustrated by my lack of ability to speak the...

Hello my friends I was going to keep my blogs to once a month, but sometimes things happen that I want to share with you and today was one of those days. July 8 is national disability day in Tajikistan, so my project had arranged an open day for people to come and see the work of the project and to meet some of the clients and their families. I am still not sure how things are planned and organised, but I increasingly have faith that on the day ...

Dear everyone, I have been in Tajikistan for seven weeks now and for the last three weekends I have had a chance to see some of the dramatic and stunning countryside. I have been very fortunate to join some other people visiting mountain areas for the purposes of tourism development, but also spend a bank holiday weekend camping with other VSO volunteers. Yes, me camping, I know it sounds impossible. If you take a look at the pictures you will see my visit t...

On the 14 June the British Embassy held a reception at the Hyatt Hotel in Duchanbe to celebrate the Queen's official birthday. All British citizens are invited, along with people from other embassys in the city and local partners. As you can see, Lynne and I dressed up for the occassion, the first outing for my newly made Tajik dress, the picture doesn't do it justice, as it has a lot of glitter round the neck and silver threads running through the fabric. Sad...

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 un...