hiking 4

We had 11 young people come out. There were 8 men and 3 women. All made it to the summit of a pretty tough new Mtn. When I first got to the foot of the Mtn. I saw a grey fox dash across the rocks about 50 m. away. We also see hawks circling patiently in the sky. There were also black slugs and when I asked one girl what the Tajiki or Russian word for slug was she didn't know. Apparently she didn't know what a slug was or had never seen one before. The Mtn. had rugged terrain which made it more dangerous and slow. But everyone made it up and back fine. It was great weather. I only needed a long sleeve t-shirt. No wind thank goodness. All the young people had a good time I'm sure. They can't wait to go again next week if I have time. One girl that came this week also came last week too. We named the Mtn. "Woman's Day Mtn." because it was Woman's Day. Every new mtn. we climb we give it a new name chosen by the students of course. We were back in the city by noon.

International Women's Day

International Women's Day is March 8th. It's a big deal here we even get Monday off from the university. So today Friday the sixth we had a little 2 hour woman's day celebration at the American Corner. About 20 girls/women came and listened to a woman guest speaker from a local NGO focusing on Tajiki women and leadership. Then we did a "conversation cafe" for an hour. We wrote 5 topics on 5 different sheets of poster paper they were: a. Tajiki women in leadership b. domestic violence c. Tajiki women in politics d. women in education e. arranged marriage.
Then we put each of these posters on a seperate table and asked the women to walk around the rm. for 10 min. and write their comments about the the posters about the topic written on the poster. The topics were written in Tajiki and Eng. to avoid confusion.
Then after they had 10 min. to write down their comments we told them to sit at a table around a poster and a given topic and discuss the topic. They could choose any topic they wanted and discuss it for as long or as short a time as they wanted and in any language. Surprisingly most young women chose to have all their conversations in English and most wrote their comments in English. These young women are great young people- very active and good in school.
The goal was just to give women a chance to talk and listen to each other and think about these important issues. I didn't participate but I did listen and observe I was the only man allowed in the American Corner for these two hours. I wanted to jump in a few times and say something though. There were a lot of good ideas and it was interesting. I took pictures and I'll put them up later.
The usual women's day program here consists of reciting poetry, dramatic scenes, dancing, singing, and games. Ok but not earth shattering. I love the substance that our program had because there is a lot of talk about and I don't want to shy away from it.

Khujand

I said in my post "article" that Tajikistan was stratigically important and this is true. But not only that where I am is even more important because I'm in the second largest city but it is a lot more conservative up here than in Dushanbe. It is getting to be more conservative all the time. If there is ever going to be an Islamic revolution to overthrow the government it will probably start here in Khujand. That's a ways off but you never know what will happen in 5-6 years. It's important I give people a positive opinion of americans.

Garbage Behind an Apt. Bld.

Article

http://experts.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2009/02/26/to_win_hearts_and_minds_get_back_in_the_game

Above I've included a link that I hope works. It is to an article by Senator Lugar. I agree with him. We are losing the game to win hearts and minds. But that's why my work here is so important because what he suggests doing is exactly what I am doing. I'm out in the community every day giving lessons, running activities. I can't go a block here without someone stopping me and wanting to talk to me. It's a problem I'm too popular almost. The American Corner here is accesible to people here and it is getting better with new computers, a real budget and fair compensation for services done. I'm having a huge impact but I'm just one man we need more people and resources to do more I can't do it all. I'm already working myself to exhaustion almost every day. I'm in competition with Iran and Russia here and I don't think I'm winning enough of the time.
You may not realize it but because of its location, and cultural heritage Tajikistan is a very important country for the U.S. Its kinda a cross between Iran/Islamic and Russian/Old Soviet. Both these countries and ideas have really shaped this country. People here have a lot of misconceptions about Americans they just believe what they see on MTV and in the movies. They are surprised when I say I don't do drugs, smoke, or have casual sex. That's why I'm here to teach people more about what Americans are really like. This is just what Sen. Lugar from Indiana suggested.

Mtn. Rocks

hiking 3

5 boys, 2 girls and me made the summit today of the highest closest Mtn. to Khujand. The same Mtn. we did two weeks ago for the first week of hiking club. It was a cold windy day here. We even got hailed on while climbing. But two teenage girls summited and were very tired but very pleased I think. The girls took a little longer but they did and it was a big step for them. They are revolutionary young women going to new heights and not giving up. They'll never forget this experience - this is what they told me. The boys are getting to be a lot better hikers.

Pics will come eventually