Cotton Picking

I spent my first Sunday in Khujand cotton picking. Arriving at a parking lot in central Khujand at 7 am, we (four teachers from the Waldorf school, Gertruda a German friend of the school and myself) crowded into buses for the one-hour ride to the fields. I remember the ride well as I, already overwhelmed by language and cultural differences, attempted to understand the German chatter of Gertruda as she relayed stories of life in Kenya and Sudan. The other Tajik women on the bus, worn and tired from the fasting month of Ramadan, started muttering and complaining about us two foreigners talking (rather loudly) in a strange tongue. I felt so ashamed that already I was appearing as a loud American in Tajikistan yet that was unfortunately not the last time strangers reprimanded me for being too loud in public transportation.

I actually enjoyed the cotton picking because it gave me a chance to talk with and get to know Tahmina. We picked slowly, rested frequently and at lunch time fell asleep under the cotton bushes. But fortunately for us, we had to do this only once.

I have mentioned it before in the blog, but since it does not cease to astound me, I will write it again. The government requires that all university students pick cotton for an indefinite period of time every fall. Teachers are supposed to go on Sundays, their only day off from school. Starting in August, students live together, eat together, sleep together and pick cotton together not returning home until November or December. And this is because the government is committed to paying salaries and tuition.

At the end of the day I was tired and my back was sore, and the buses were over full with sweaty grumpy people, so I stood the whole way home. Tahmina and I, together, had picked only 40 kilos of cotton in eight hours, about 40 kilos below par. But we just laughed it off and were glad to return to the city, thankful that come morning we only had to teach children and not pull white fluffy lumps off brambly bushes for days on end. We decided not to return again.

New Years Resolutions

Since leaving Tajikistan, I have created a mental list of projects to complete and materials to bring back when I return to Khujand in 2008. Here is the written version:

Continuing work at Waldorf School where I will teach singing and recorder playing to students and teachers alike.
Needed: Wooden recorders (The baroque ones, not like those we use at AWS)
Waldorf song books
Old (or new) pencils
Any artsy-crafty materials deemed appropriate for 1st-6th graders

English Club a group for University students to improve their English and learn more about Western culture--held at Waldorf School)
Needed: ESL books or word game books
DVDs and movies (American movies are very popular, but are all dubbed in Russian)

American Corner Discussions- The American Corner is a room in the library devoted to English speaking and has a variety of books on American history and politics. Each of the hundreds of books has a sticker in the front cover which reads "In friendship with the people of the United States of America." It is funded by the American Embassy and hosts free English lessons and discussions. While it is filled mostly with Tajiks (and run by Tajiks), Americans are very welcome. This past fall, I was leading discussions and answering questions on such topics as American politics and relations between Eastern and Western Worlds. To read more about American Corners in Tajikistan go to:
http://dushanbe.usembassy.gov/american_corners.html
Needed: Good topic ideas
Questions for Tajiks (I'll post answers if any readers want individualized answers)

Russian Study- I seriously need to get serious about formally learning this language. I have already contacted a University Professor who has spent a year in New York (she speaks English!) who will tutor me privately in Russian. The cost of a one hour lesson is usually less than $5.

Farsi Study - Out of interest, I will study some Farsi, a language very similar to Tajik. The largest difference between the two is that Tajik is written in Cyrillic and Farsi in the Arabic script.

If there are any items on the "Needed" list which any readers have tucked away in a back closet, please feel free to donate them to the Waldorf students of Tajikistan. Everything is much appreciated, I guarantee.

Happy 2008 to you all!