Dushanbe has a lot of fountains, which some of my American friends think is so make the country seem less like a developing country. These things called minibuses, which are like vans for public transportation, are also not allowed to the main road Rudaki, possibly because they look third world. Here is a picture of a minibus.
Instead of minibuses on Rudaki, only these buses are allowed on the main road. They are very slow though. They have Chinese writing on the side, as do the trashcans here. I guess China is their closest provider of goods. The buses are electric and are attached to wires in the air, and sometimes they become unattached! This is very entertaining for me. The man who takes your money (60 diram per ride, which is 14 US cents) has to get out of the bus when this happens and grab the strings connecting the bus to the electric wires. The bus then moves forward, and he has to try to jump the connecting wires back onto the wires in the air. Haha. I'm not sure if I described it well because really I don't even know what is going on, all I know is that the guy is trying to fix the connection of the bus to the wires. Here is a picture of this happening.
Anyway, I have completely strayed from the topic of this post, which is the beautiful park at night. There were loads of people walking around the park, a lot of families with their children, and of course lots of children selling things. The fountains in the park were all lit up different colors, which in my mind sounds incredibly tacky, but was actually really beautiful. The statue of Rudaki was also lit up, and everything looked very nice.
On the way back, Ivana really wanted to buy some Pamiri socks as souvenirs before she left for the States. Pamir is the region I am traveling to on Saturday, and it is like a different country within Tajikistan. People speak a different language which is closer to old Persian, and Pamiri and Tajiki are not mutually intelligible. The area has lots of beautiful mountains, and tourists like to go there for hiking. My boss and his daughter who translates for me are Pamiri. Anyway, they have these awesome warm socks because it gets cold in the mountains, so we searched all over until we found a store that sold them. The store owner was this totally wacked out Uzbek guy. His wife called him on the phone, and he kept giving the phone to me to speak to his wife in English. Except at the time I had no idea who was on the phone or what was going on, he just kept shoving the phone in my face. And she kept getting confused and hanging up, and then she'd call back and he'd shove the phone in my face again. It was totally wacky, and in the end his wife finally said in English, "Can I please talk to my..." I guess she didn't know the word for husband. It was fun though, and he gave us a gift of Pamiri socks for babies when we left. I guess he judged that we are of reproductive age.
I thought he was super friendly, however I passed by his store a couple days ago and he was in there. He pulled me in and tried to communicate for a little while. I pulled out my Tajik-Russian-English phrasebook, and we went through it, him teaching me Tajik and me teaching him English pronunciation. Then he asked me what religion I was. When I told him I was Buddhist, he pointed to the sky and said "Allah," and then when he pointed to the sky and said "Buddha," he made an X with his arms and a whistling noise. Then he took his cell phone and pretended it was Buddha, and then pretended to chuck his cell phone out the door. Hahaha, I was so shocked, I actually yelled! But then I just sort of ignored it and we talked about something else. I was wanted to leave to eat dinner, and kept telling him I was hungry, but he told me not to go. Luckily an American friend of mine, Dan, passed by the shop, and I yelled at him to come in. Dan speaks Farsi, so he spoke with the Uzbek guy in Farsi. Apparently the Uzbek guy kept asking if I was married, and if I lived alone, so Dan told him I live with my brother. Haha.
I guess guys here can be sort of creepy. I was really confused, yesterday I was walking around by myself and all these guys kept being creepy, especially groups of guys. They start harassing me in the street, asking for my number or just intimidating me and getting in my way, or snickering and saying something in Tajik or Russian. And at the bazaar this one guy started talking to me in English, and suddenly I was surrounded by 10 Tajik guys. I am confused, I could never attract 10 guys in the US just by walking around in my wildest dreams! :) Later on, a bunch of Tajik guys started to corner me and I had to run away! One of them even tried to tangle me up in a tent string! I am very confused by all this, I guess foreign girls walking alone are big targets. Because I see groups of Tajik girls walking around by themselves all the time. I guess I don't see that many single girls walking around, but I don't see that many single guys walking around either. I am going to try to go more places with friends.
One other thing I want to mention, there are these awesome kids who live in my apartment complex. They are always playing soccer or goofing off in the courtyard outside my apartment, and whenever they see me they giggle and say salom or ni-hao. Then they giggle some more. I told them I am American, but I guess they think the Chinese is funnier than English. They asked me my name yesterday, and then when they told me their names, they all rhyme! Their names are Sharon, Kakaron, and Baharon. Haha. Baharon is very nice and probably the cutest. There is also a crazy dog who lives in my apartment complex, and growls and bites my ankles every time I leave or enter my apartment. It's pretty freaky. Baharon sometimes steps on the dog for me when I walk by, as he is doing in this picture.
This crazy woman who I think owns the dog tells everyone to bring the dog food. She told Ivana to bring the dog bones, and she told my boss he should bring the dog sandwiches. My boss got super pissed, and asked the woman if he should just keep sandwiches in his pocket all the time in case he runs into rabid dogs. Hahaha.
The park looks wonderful. I like all the lights.
ReplyDeletePlease stop walking around at night by yourself. You are small and easily kidnappable. Also, thank goodness your friend Dan is quick on his feet (with the brother comment).
That dog sounds terrifying. Please don't get rabies.