Trip

Students always invite me to their villages. A lot of students at my univ. come from the countryside and they want to take me back to where they grew-up. So for the Navruz holiday I took time out forgot about my work and went up up up to the very top of Northern Tajikistan very close to the Uzbekistan boarder to the region known as Asht.
I left on Friday afternoon and we rolled out with a friend of mine and his friend was driving. We picked up another boy along the way who was also returning to his village. It was a 2 and a half hour drive over pretty bad roads. The landscape was desertlike similar to Nevada. But after the desert and the salt flats there are all these villages along the main road. My friend's village was one of the last ones. The first night I met his family and they were great. His father is in Russia but he lives with his mother, brother, little sister, gradmother, aunt and uncle and a lot of barn yard animals. We watched The Last Samauri with Tom Cruise the first night. The movie had English subtitles so I was able to follow along because it was dubbed over into Russian. It was noticably colder at night in this village I guess because it was a desert.
I'll have to show you pictures but for this holiday people make this dish called sumalak in huge calderons outside over a fire. They have to stir this boiling bubbling mixture of wheat, flour, walnuts, water etc. all day and all night with a stick and they put stones in the bottom. Anyway I got to stir this mixture a few times.
The next day it was just a parade to different houses to eat and party. I went to 5 different houses not including the one I was staying at and I also joined in a street party. The night before (Friday) I went to an old English teacher's house who was a beekeeper and he said that I was only the second foreinger he had ever spoken to. He remembered 3-4 years ago a woman from France came and according to him spoke a little English but I was the first native speaker he had ever spoken to. He surprisingly drank a little so I humored him and had some vodka with him and he told me how he gradutated the pedigocial institute in 1966. Then he broke out his homemade alcohol and diluted it down but I only had to touch it to my lips to know that it was not good to drink. Then after he wanted me to drink it he told me it was 96% alcohol just like gasoline so I'm glad I didn't drink it. Anyway I made him a very happy old man because I sat down and talked with him and even after all these years his could carry on a decent conversation.
Ok back to Saturday- sorry there is just so much to say. So in the morning we went to my friend's grandmother's house. My friend's whole family pretty much lived in this village. Everyone knows everyone else. They grow up together and live together generation after generation. They pump their water or collect it in jugs. They grow their own food, they have no indoor plumbing, they have outhouses. They live very simple, traditional, lives. The only signs of modernity are the cars, TV, DVDs, and mobile phones. The rest is pretty much as it would have been 100 years ago in the U.S. or in this place. They do have electricity in the mornings and evenings. But people still cook with outdoor fire ovens and stoves and the social laws are very strict and conservative. Women have their place and men their place. The local hangout spot is two billard tables in the center of town where you can find men playing billards morning, noon and night sometimes for money.
So anyway his grandmother treated us to more food after we had already had a totally organic breakfast. I loved their dried mulberries and milk and butter it was all very fresh. After grannies place we walked around the town. Women were hanging out in groups with other women and men with other men. Everyone was very eager to meet me and shake my hand we were always invited inside and I took a lot of pictures. But next we went to my friend's house and met up with 3 other young men and ate a big beautiful lunch with the main course being pilau or kinda like a rice pilaf. We sat at the low table and ate fruit and nuts and drank tea lots of tea and they do a lot with sour milk.
Then all 5 of us boys my friend, his 3 friends and me went to another boys house where the same process was repeated. We couldn't leave until we had eaten even though I wasn't hungry. Then as we were driving along we came across a street party and when they saw me in the car they stopped us and soon I found myself dancing in the street to loud Tajiki music with old men. Then we were offered more pilau and had to eat and more tea and bread. More sumalak but I was really full. Then off to another village to visit his English teacher aunt who had never seen an American before. She said she talked to a British woman 5 years ago but never an American. Luckily we begged off from having to eat any more food. She wanted to kill a turkey for us but I said no way. Anyway it was great to speak to her in English. This village was even more up in the Mtns. Then we went and played basketball. We played on dirt with a leaky ball but it was fun a little 2 on 2 action. The other boys were not very good they didn't really know how to shoot the ball. You know the ball over the head technique and all that.
Then back to my friend's village to go to the river that divides Tajikistan from Uzbekistan. But as we were walking to the side of the river we were stopped by Tajiki boarder patrol so we made a quick retreat. Then to eat surprsingly great ice cream and drink cola with local boys. Then to another local boy's house for more food, tea, bread, candy etc. His mother prepared fried beef and potatoes as the main course. Then finally at about 8 pm back to my friends' house for more food and another movie with Morgan Freeman, Robert Redford and J. Lopez. It was in English only so it was enjoyable. Then to be stuffed to the max. The next day I returned with the same driver as on Fri. back to Khujand but it was nice to get away to a slower life and see rural Tajikistan on their big holiday.
A lot of Uzbek people live in these villages and the only TV channel is the Uzbek one. So everyone knows Uzbek too.