Steve touched down in Almaty around 5:03 AM Monday morning, and I have been the happiest girl in Almaty ever since I saw him through the glass wall separating international arrivals and the throngs of people anxiously awaiting them. He immediately saw me, as I shot up into the air and started jumping up and down and waving. So I was excited. Sue me.
Ever since we have been hanging out, walking TONS through the city admiring the fountains, memorials, and parks, shopping for pomegranites and other local fruits, veggies, and other goods at the Green Bazaar, and just enjoying each other's company. I had forgotten how we revert to snickering 13-year-olds when together. :)
So I will be logging on very little while he is here! So sorry, dear readers. But I'd much rather spend time with him than look at a computer screen. There will be time enough to do that again when he leaves....
Thursday, September 20, 2007
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
is someone at the NYT reading my blog?
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/10/world/europe/10sitcom.html?em&ex=1189656000&en=53663b3615f7d656&ei=5087%0A
I scooped the grey lady. Not bad for a public health person.
It is soooo good to be back in Almaty. Sunday I went to the green bazaar and saw my sweet Turkish lady who sells me homemad bread, cheese, and yogurt. When I got there, her bread was still hot. Hubba hubba. It's nice to be back where you know how to get around, where things are, etc. My colleagues were a bit amused that an American was showing them around Almaty while they were here.
Fall is slowly setting in and now it's lovely to sit around with open windows. Daytime is warm, and nighttime is cool. Perfect walking weather. And perfect weather for wandering about Almaty at night. My Turkmen colleague kept commenting about how alive and young and energetic Almaty is. Any time we were walking about, there were tons of people about, especially youth. Ashghabat was kindof a dead city---not a lot of people walking around. So I can see why she said what she said. Here even neighborhood supermarkets are open 24 hours a day. Whereas my 7-11 in Mt. Vernon closed at midnight!
My landlord changed cable companies again. Every time I come back from a trip all of the channels are different. So I have to learn them all over again, which is a PITA. I have about 5 US channels now, including CNN, a channel that shows American football, and I even stumbled upon a Seinfeld episode last night. So Steve will have more selection while he's here. Unfortunately, last night I couldn't find the channel the Bukhin family was on. I am hoping I didn't lose them for good...
I scooped the grey lady. Not bad for a public health person.
It is soooo good to be back in Almaty. Sunday I went to the green bazaar and saw my sweet Turkish lady who sells me homemad bread, cheese, and yogurt. When I got there, her bread was still hot. Hubba hubba. It's nice to be back where you know how to get around, where things are, etc. My colleagues were a bit amused that an American was showing them around Almaty while they were here.
Fall is slowly setting in and now it's lovely to sit around with open windows. Daytime is warm, and nighttime is cool. Perfect walking weather. And perfect weather for wandering about Almaty at night. My Turkmen colleague kept commenting about how alive and young and energetic Almaty is. Any time we were walking about, there were tons of people about, especially youth. Ashghabat was kindof a dead city---not a lot of people walking around. So I can see why she said what she said. Here even neighborhood supermarkets are open 24 hours a day. Whereas my 7-11 in Mt. Vernon closed at midnight!
My landlord changed cable companies again. Every time I come back from a trip all of the channels are different. So I have to learn them all over again, which is a PITA. I have about 5 US channels now, including CNN, a channel that shows American football, and I even stumbled upon a Seinfeld episode last night. So Steve will have more selection while he's here. Unfortunately, last night I couldn't find the channel the Bukhin family was on. I am hoping I didn't lose them for good...
Friday, September 7, 2007
party time
I have a full house! Or rather, full flat.
My colleague, Lola, from Dushanbe flew in with me yesterday and is staying in my flat until Sunday.
Today another colleague, Aina, flew in from Ashgabat and is staying in my flat until Sunday.
Tomorrow, Nazgul from Bishkek is driving in and is staying in my flat until Sunday.
It is going to be like one giant sleepover. I feel like I'm in college again! :) Fortunately, these women are all great, sweet, and fun to hang out with. And my favorite colleague from Almaty, Galina, is also in on the fun.
Tonight we're going to Turandot, the Chinese restaurant we went to for my birthday. Tomorrow we have a meeting that I've insisted on having on improving data quality while they're all here. Then tomorrow night, it's party time. We will have to bust into that Turkmen cognac I brought home.
For two of the three guests, it is their first time in Almaty. I am so pleased to be able to repay all of their help and kindness while in their towns with showing them around my city. Despite being on the road more than being in Almaty, I can still act like an "Almatinka" (native Almaty-woman)!
Too bad they all have to fly to Romania Sunday. At least I'll be able to sleep in. :) I've done enough travelling for the time being, let someone else deal with early-morning wake-up calls and airports! And seatmate B.O.
My colleague, Lola, from Dushanbe flew in with me yesterday and is staying in my flat until Sunday.
Today another colleague, Aina, flew in from Ashgabat and is staying in my flat until Sunday.
Tomorrow, Nazgul from Bishkek is driving in and is staying in my flat until Sunday.
It is going to be like one giant sleepover. I feel like I'm in college again! :) Fortunately, these women are all great, sweet, and fun to hang out with. And my favorite colleague from Almaty, Galina, is also in on the fun.
Tonight we're going to Turandot, the Chinese restaurant we went to for my birthday. Tomorrow we have a meeting that I've insisted on having on improving data quality while they're all here. Then tomorrow night, it's party time. We will have to bust into that Turkmen cognac I brought home.
For two of the three guests, it is their first time in Almaty. I am so pleased to be able to repay all of their help and kindness while in their towns with showing them around my city. Despite being on the road more than being in Almaty, I can still act like an "Almatinka" (native Almaty-woman)!
Too bad they all have to fly to Romania Sunday. At least I'll be able to sleep in. :) I've done enough travelling for the time being, let someone else deal with early-morning wake-up calls and airports! And seatmate B.O.
Thursday, September 6, 2007
pretty as a picture
This monument is to a king named Somoni. He is on Tajik currency, and much revered. Some presidents claim to be descendants of this king, who evidently did some good things for the Tajik people that I don't know much about. Which is not a good thing. (The museum I actually made it to on my last day was closed for repairs!)
This is the garden behind the monument. There were lovely roses everywhere amongst the dirty, shoddy, and mostly non-functioning fountains.
And this is Lenin pointing the way out of that depressing amusement park! Check out his cap and vest. So proletarian, eh? I can't figure out if that's bird poop on the base of the statue or something else. Either way, the distressed nature of the statue is rather fitting, don't you think?
This was an interesting contrast to the Lenin statue. It was about 10 feet behind Lenin. The Soviets tried to Rossify Central Asia, but it didn't quite work out.
Alas, I never made it to the kareoke bar/disco club. So I have no idea what kareoke-ing is like in Dushanbe. 'Tis a pity. In my 20s, I would have been there every night, Copacabana-ing like a superstar! I'm getting far too staid in my old age.
Tomorrow I'll download the photos from my camera and post the beautiful mountain scenery. I was so taken with the scenery on today's flight back to Almaty that I didn't even sleep on the early morning flight. And am paying for it now! :p~ I think it's time to go home and take a nap.
Wednesday, September 5, 2007
road weary
Just flew back into Dushanbe this morning. I was in Khujand for a few days, where we stayed in the best hotel and largest city in the region. The price we paid for that luxury (despite the "hot water" being slightly warmer than freezing cold) was that we had to bump and jog along the road to cities in the sticks like Konibodom and Isfara for an hour-and-a-half each way, each day. And because the only available flight back in today was in the AM, we had to hit three hospitals in two days. Which made for some very long days. (Thank goodness for Baltika beer. It hits the spot after a 14-hour day.)
I have calculated that I have been on the road 60% of my time since I got to Central Asia, and am definitely feeling road weary. This last trip was nearly three weeks, and Tajikistan was a bit rough on my psyche. Women's options are very, very limited here and it's hard meeting really sharp, strong-willed, hard-working and very competent women and know that they can only achieve so much. Maybe I'm hyper-sensitive to male chauvinism, but it appears that the men here pretty much have carte blanche to treat women like crap. That bothers me. And that I can't do anything about it bothers me even more.
But I won't bore you with my culture pains.
Out in the boondocks of Tajikistan it's very evident just how poor the country is. The first hospital we went to was built in the 1960s and hasn't been touched ever since. You don't want to imagine the structural, sanitation, and modernization issues there. Or the maternal morbidity rate.
Wintertime they only have electricity about two hours a day. Can you imagine running a maternity hospital under such circumstances? Yet the women we met working there were so kind, generous, and giving. I was telling them how delicious I found their fruits and vegetables and they gave me a watermelon to take with me. And they kept feeding us. And feeding us. After lunch, we came back and they had a huge dish of plov waiting for us. Literally expecting us to eat just after lunch! Mercy mercy.
So if the winter is especially cold, people are essentially freezing 22 hours a day. It's rare to acquire a generator, and even if you had one, gas is expensive when you're talking about a salary of about $30 US a month.
The regional maternity home was way better, but it's also a much newer building in the main regional city. They even had AC there.
I saw lots of Soviet-era stuff there still standing: Lenin statues, monuments to WWII, monuments to Soviet astronauts, general big Soviet monuments and lots of Soviet-era buildings. Alas, it was all out of the back of a moving car. I did manage to get some gorgeous aerial shots of Khujond and the mountains separating Khujond and Dushanbe. I also got some shots of some Tajik Air planes.
The flight into Khujond was on a small, old two-prop (AN-45, I think). There was no safety briefing, no cabin announcements, no assigned seating, and 4 pilots in the cockpit. The motors on the engines smelled like they were burning out as we were sitting on the runway and taxiing. People were talking on their cellphones during takeoff and landing. Not to worry--the plane was so old that there was no way that the cell technology could interfere with that instrumentation. The best part was that the seats were collapsable. If you pushed the seatback forward, it would totally fold over like a lawn chair. Once we did that to the seats in front of us, if I had put my feet up on the seat in front of me, I would have more space than a first-class seat in the US. *snork*
On the way back we were in a shiny new 736. Everyone here considered "BO-veeeng" (Boeing) the best so my colleague was happy about the "Boving" back. The two-prop feels a lot more like flying, though. On this flight, we got announcements from the crew in Tajik, Russian, and even English. I was definitely impressed. And on this flight, I knew better than to ask for a window seat. (When I asked on the outbound flight, I couldn't understand why the airport staff gave me a funny look. It's because there's no assigned seating. This time I knew the drill and didn't make the same faux-pas. By the by, the Tajik Air ground crew make the men wait to get on the plane--they say "Women first" and the men stop in their tracks.)
Tomorrow I have an early-morning flight back "home" to Almaty. In 12 days Steve arrives and I need to get ready for his being here! I am going to take the two weeks that he's here off, so have a lot of data to finalize before then. I will definitely get some sightseeing in and cultural events in while he's here, so soon enough will be able to post about something other than pregnant women, data, and maternities! I am sure that will be a pleasant change of pace for you, my dear readers.... and I'll be able to post some good photos, too!
I have calculated that I have been on the road 60% of my time since I got to Central Asia, and am definitely feeling road weary. This last trip was nearly three weeks, and Tajikistan was a bit rough on my psyche. Women's options are very, very limited here and it's hard meeting really sharp, strong-willed, hard-working and very competent women and know that they can only achieve so much. Maybe I'm hyper-sensitive to male chauvinism, but it appears that the men here pretty much have carte blanche to treat women like crap. That bothers me. And that I can't do anything about it bothers me even more.
But I won't bore you with my culture pains.
Out in the boondocks of Tajikistan it's very evident just how poor the country is. The first hospital we went to was built in the 1960s and hasn't been touched ever since. You don't want to imagine the structural, sanitation, and modernization issues there. Or the maternal morbidity rate.
Wintertime they only have electricity about two hours a day. Can you imagine running a maternity hospital under such circumstances? Yet the women we met working there were so kind, generous, and giving. I was telling them how delicious I found their fruits and vegetables and they gave me a watermelon to take with me. And they kept feeding us. And feeding us. After lunch, we came back and they had a huge dish of plov waiting for us. Literally expecting us to eat just after lunch! Mercy mercy.
So if the winter is especially cold, people are essentially freezing 22 hours a day. It's rare to acquire a generator, and even if you had one, gas is expensive when you're talking about a salary of about $30 US a month.
The regional maternity home was way better, but it's also a much newer building in the main regional city. They even had AC there.
I saw lots of Soviet-era stuff there still standing: Lenin statues, monuments to WWII, monuments to Soviet astronauts, general big Soviet monuments and lots of Soviet-era buildings. Alas, it was all out of the back of a moving car. I did manage to get some gorgeous aerial shots of Khujond and the mountains separating Khujond and Dushanbe. I also got some shots of some Tajik Air planes.
The flight into Khujond was on a small, old two-prop (AN-45, I think). There was no safety briefing, no cabin announcements, no assigned seating, and 4 pilots in the cockpit. The motors on the engines smelled like they were burning out as we were sitting on the runway and taxiing. People were talking on their cellphones during takeoff and landing. Not to worry--the plane was so old that there was no way that the cell technology could interfere with that instrumentation. The best part was that the seats were collapsable. If you pushed the seatback forward, it would totally fold over like a lawn chair. Once we did that to the seats in front of us, if I had put my feet up on the seat in front of me, I would have more space than a first-class seat in the US. *snork*
On the way back we were in a shiny new 736. Everyone here considered "BO-veeeng" (Boeing) the best so my colleague was happy about the "Boving" back. The two-prop feels a lot more like flying, though. On this flight, we got announcements from the crew in Tajik, Russian, and even English. I was definitely impressed. And on this flight, I knew better than to ask for a window seat. (When I asked on the outbound flight, I couldn't understand why the airport staff gave me a funny look. It's because there's no assigned seating. This time I knew the drill and didn't make the same faux-pas. By the by, the Tajik Air ground crew make the men wait to get on the plane--they say "Women first" and the men stop in their tracks.)
Tomorrow I have an early-morning flight back "home" to Almaty. In 12 days Steve arrives and I need to get ready for his being here! I am going to take the two weeks that he's here off, so have a lot of data to finalize before then. I will definitely get some sightseeing in and cultural events in while he's here, so soon enough will be able to post about something other than pregnant women, data, and maternities! I am sure that will be a pleasant change of pace for you, my dear readers.... and I'll be able to post some good photos, too!
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