We started our schedule with some sightseeing. We went to the sanitarium, which has a famous teahouse located on its premises.
This is more of a ‘de-stress’ type location instead of a proper medical one. They even had a pond and paddleboats. Of course we had tea in the teahouse, admired its wonderful architecture and just relaxed a little bit. The sanatorium is located next to a river and is a pleasant place. Then we were off to see a famous woodworker. We arrived and he had samples of his work laid out for us on a kot.
We examined and had stories told to us about the pieces or the woods they were made from. He also showed us the sharpening stone that had been in his family for 7 generations. His family had been doing this for quite a while. The he showed us his little setup that was his ‘no electricity’ workbench. Basically the guy had a hand powered lathe. It was quite ingenious and looked over 100 years old besides the rusty bolts that maybe have been a little less then 100, but definitely we added later as an upgrade. What was kind of neat was this setup required both hands and both feet. He operated it in lathe mode and drilling mode. All I can say was it was too impressive to see how this simple thing worked so well. Sharp tools are an essential, we determined, and that must be why he was so proud of the family sharpening stone. We were then back to the kot to started trying to buy his goods. Unfortunately the majority of the good stuff was not for sale as he had a competition he was going to soon and needed those for the competition. I ended up getting an unvarnished non-stamp, as they traditional use a device to make patterns in the top of the non here. Bread is a big deal here and one of the custom I read about was don’t lay the bread upside down, and I’m thing how can you tell the top from the bottom? When I got here, I was educated, they mark the top with patterns before baking. Since my was unvarnished, I asked that he sign his name, expecting a pen or marker. Nope, even better, he used is wood burning tool and signed his named and added the towns name. I heard the nearby street is named after his family. Got some fabulous pictures of his elders, and his daughter, typical dress, in a nice environment. All the other stuff I wanted to buy was not for sale.
We were off to lunch, but not at a restaurant, but at another school in town. Again, wonderful greeting, plenty of presentations in English, very cute children. The two things making this one unique was they actually had a redish carpet rolled out for us, and among the presentation, they ‘performed’ Little Red Riding Hood in English with costume. We had lots of laughs on this one, it was so entertaining. When everything was over, we headed into the school for lunch, but unfortunately the staff wasn’t able to eat with us because the Ministry of Education people had shown up for an ‘audit’ and they were busy with them. After lunch we hoped in the car and headed back to Ibrahim’s school.
This time our presentation were for the teaching staff, primarily what they call the lead teachers. George and I were doing them simultaneously. Mine was on two main areas; resources on the internet for doing simulations, and online educational content and online college courses. All internet resources were free. I wasn’t on a projector, so my audience of 5 gathered around my laptop, but it was connected to internet so I could demonstrate some of the sites! I found it a pleasant experience.
I had double duty today, as mentioned these are my ‘Tajiki’ kids, so I was allowed to interact with them a lot. [Thanks Susie] So the next thing I did was the letterboxing activity with the students while Andy hid and documented the clues while I was doing the presentation. Most schools have little vendor stalls right on campus or next to it, with snacks and school supplies. I bought 15 extra erasers when we were walking back from lunch earlier, to be sure with my supplies everyone would have one to carve. My presentation went very well, and the kids started carving as soon as the tools were in their hands. I had a departure deadline last school we did this at, so we only had time to go out together and find one, using the one I had carved earlier on that day.
Well, during my presentation, Andy went back and check on his placement, of the four, two were already missing, so we took my fifth and put it out, and as part of my demonstration, I started a sixth and let a student finish it. We were using 35mm film canisters as our letterbox containers. These kids were impressive carvers, many doing both sides of their eraser, and also planning multicolor designs. Well, we had 4 teams worth of students, so we had 3 teams go after the 3 remaining boxes, while team our planted the new stamped the student finished for me. These group totally got all phases of the experience and totally understand what the activity is like, so hopefully they will continue. I had all the finished stampers stamp in my logbook and put their names for me, so I could be reminded of this fun experience. Because of its low investment to participate, this hobby actually works well in this environment because they also have plenty of green spaces and also places with holes in walls, to hide letterboxes. I am curious to see how things are six months from now, maybe they’ll start a letterboxing club at the school or even setup a Tajiki language letterbox site with clues!
More pictures and this time I had them do the names and faces picture again. Fun activity for them because now they are posing. I was surprised how individual students throughout the afternoon would bring me gifts or gifts they told me to give to McKenzie. Since I had been there they day before and did the home and family presentation, I guess a few of them decided to find gifts for me they could give on my second visit. I was given all sorts of things; from a large Tajiki dish to bracelets and books. [If Isfara students are reading this – you are #1] I also gave out a few more things I had, and if anyone gave me a gift, I tried to give one also.
The disappointing thing, and all three of us teachers really wanted to do this, one of the students the day before had mentioned she and her family would be honored if we could visit their home. This is one of our favorite things to do. We are here to learn about typical Tajikistan, and the home visits have been so enlightening. Unfortunately, because of prior commitments, we couldn’t go, but we weren’t able to find the young lady to give her the unfortunate news until late in the afternoon, and I’m sure her family had already made preparations for our visit. Disappointing this girl has been the only low point of our entire trip so far. We have made so many efforts to put smiles on people’s faces any chance we’ve been given. And I knew her’s was fake as she was given the news.
Well, as mentioned though, the day was a super success in all of our opinions, so we wanted to celebrate and find the appropriate place for a “cold one”. A ‘cold’ beverage is a rare commodity in this country as mentioned. We found the beverage, but temperature was typical, but it was the symbolism that was important. We were up on a elevated platform and just below us were three Tajikistan Army officers, based on all the stars. I said “I wonder if I should go down and entertain them”. Susie, our supervisor said “I’d like to see that”, she was expecting I would do it. If you know me, you know I did. I got three new comrades from that experience! Stop and think, you got three high ranking military officials enjoying dinner, and here comes a red/white/blue bandana wearing “Amerikanski” sit down, doesn’t say and word and starts working with these guys to do the ring and chain trick. We had some laugh at the table, so good hand shakes, smiles and I left the trick with the guy with the most stars!
My group quit worrying about me when I returned to the table. They were all totally in shock, especially the locals. The ring and chain have made me invincible in this town. As soon as people figure out I am doing something to put a smile (or puzzled look) on their face, I am their friend!
After our beverage we returned to Ibrahim’s home for dinner. It was dark by now and when we drove up, I noticed 3 children outside playing. I went inside, put my stuff downand got three of the glow bracelets and headed outside, followed by Ibrahim and his mother both probably curious what I was up to. I made a little drama with the boys and then got each one a glowing bracelet. They have never seen anything like these so they were total in awe of the presents they got for no reason at all except that they crossed path with an American. When we got back inside his mother brought out gifts for us, to our total surprise. First, there was a handmade dress for my daughter. Then she gives me a full length coat, again handmade, traditional styling. I’d hate to put a price on this thing. My shoulders are a little broad, and the circumference is a little short, but I think with minor adjustments, this will fit my wife wonderfully, and she’ll have one of the few coats like this in North America. We were also given the waist scarves that men wear. Ibrahim gave me one his personal Tajiki Ties, and some Chinese papercuts from his collection and gave each of us a cdrom full of Tajiki mp3 files! Dinner was a tasteful and social event, as usual!
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