more of the same.
on Pam Kerruish (Tajikistan), 18/May/2010 13:59, 34 days ago
Well ,theres been a real invasion in Dom Invalide today. Some of you will remember that the place where I live is an old folks home with a wing for random visitors - which is where I have my room.I got here because the VSO partners ,the people volunteers work for, are supposed to contribute the digs. As this is a government place and Degmai is a government place they seemed to do a deal and I (happily ) ended up here ."Happily" because the water and electricity supplies are protected in Government places so we dont get so many cuts as elsewhere.Anyway, while I have been here I have had company only twice. Once a small group of people who nearly drove me mad( they had no boundaries at all ) and the second time someone I hardly noticed.There are two rooms which are normally free and I was hoping that Midge Dunn, an ex colleague who is coming out to help at Degmai for a bit,would have the one next door.Anyway two men arrived a couple of nights ago and went in that so we were reduced to a smaller back room.Then today a about 7 people have arrived. Evidently unexpected as they caused quite a kefuffle .I have a theory that they are government workers up from Dushanbe . The first two definitely are.Anyway Sonia , the manager,managed to reassure me that there will be a place for Midge ( whether she will want what they offer is another matter) when she arrives so perhaps the big group is on a fleeting visit.It seems to me that Tajiks never make any firm arrangements so they do everything last minute ( the difficulties of travelling in the winter make that understandable,but I am less sympathetic now ) -but to be fair ,they are good at dealing with these last minute happenings.{re the last minute ,I went to get plane tickets for my next group of visitors to fly from Khojand to Dushanbe on the 10th June today (24th) - only to find they wont be available until the 1st June.}They are tarting up the children's parts of Degmai at the moment .My future visitors will have me for a liar if they make it decent!. One building should be though,as it is being refurbished. Unfortunately they are not making any alterations to make the building fit for purpose, just tidying up the roof , windows etc. and cladding the children's rooms. But with this going on and the others given a slick of paint ( which does more to kill the smell than clean up the walls ) it will be almost respectable! In respect of "fit for purpose" its interesting to note that in 2 of the 3 current buildings and their sunrooms you have to go up three steps to get in - great for children with disabilities.The saga of the grass in the playground continues .The water supply there is not working properly ( tho there is plenty of water about).Luckily we have had rain so the seeds will not be killed off yet , but I hope they can fix the supply as otherwise all our efforts may come to nothing.Yesterday I had a lovely chance meeting with a lady me and Clare met while waiting for the plane to Khojand when Clare was here in January .The lady is from Isfara , about 2 hours away, and I met her in the crowds around Panshambe - the bazzar here. It was a really nice suprise.Thursday 20thI have has another interesting evening. The staff asked me to join them for a meal last week and at that meal I suggested that I take them our for an ice cream at an ice cream parlour near here.It was agreed that we would go out on the day that the three staff I am most friendly with would be off shift ie today.In the event Saodat couldn't come as she has had a new grandaughter today -but a couple of extras + daughter came anyway. As I thought we would be sauntering up the road, I was suprised when Rabhoiree took us to the mischoukra stop;I got in happily as it was obvious they knew what they were doing . That turned out to be taking us to the funfare in the park on the other side of town for shashlik and icecream.I have been to the funfare before as its part of a walk in a park but as all funfairs , it looked much better at night. After eating , I had relatively mild ride with the lady who had brought her daughter but I found that I dont have the stomach for fairground rides anymore.What a pity!Friday 21st.This heap of stuff destined for a shop on the outskirts was waiting to be loaded on the Mishoukra when I got to the bus stop today-the normal amount of stuff - no sacks of sausages this time though.They put the stuff on and under seats and in any nook and cranny because the Mishoukras rarely leave until they are full ( of people.)IT was raining hard when I went to Degmai this morning and this would have put paid to the walks if it had continued. Luckily it cleared up and one of the boys came to tell me that it had now cleared up and that the rain , "boron" had stopped. He shouted into the sky in a very elated way " Good Boy Boron!" It was really lovely.Midge finally arrived after 2 unscheduled days in Riga. Apparently some Baltic Airline staff had directed her to wait in a certain place and dismissed her doubts when Midge suggested she should be getting her plane and seemed to be in the wrong place. As a result Midge missed the plane - much to the embarrassment of said staff.Anyway she is now here safe and sound .I was amused last night when we arrived at Dom Invalide and one of the temporary visitors , Bachor , greeted her warmly and showed her the photographs I have on the walls ofmyroom.He is forgiven his lack of boundaries today though as he asked how old Midge was and when I said "21" he protested that she wasnt but said she was 35 .As she is a little older he is now in favour . His lack of boundaries are typical and I find them funny as he is obviously a nice young man. Midge and I had a bit of a walk around Khojand today. However , the boron was a bad boy today and it rained a lot which didnt make the town seem very attractive.. While we were out I collected£50 worth of Uzbeck "sooms" ,ready for my forthcoming foray into Uzbekistan, and I now feel extremely rich. It seems like an awful lot of money! There are a lot of "clumps " in the picture -when spread out I could paper the walls of my room with it.Sunday 23rd May . Not my nephew Fletchers birthday but,not to be deterred I got it into my head that is was and rang up and sang " Happy Birthday " to him. I told him I thought I must have put it on the wrong month on the calendar ,but the fact is I havent.Another example of my deteriorating condition.Anyway we had another good day out today . We went to the North East of the country to Asht , right on the Uzbek border.On the way we went to a "Sunday Market" and I saw this toddler with the wonderful hat. I was also impressed with the ancient and modern methods the stallholders use to shift their stuff - by donkey or Mercedes!Unfortunately the taxi we'd hired broke down on the way home and we had to hang about for ages while it was being fixed - miraculously we broke down right by a mechanics house - but it was fine.We could pick apricots off the trees and when the lady of the house came home she gave us an impromtu tea.In the event the problem was more major than it had seemed at first so Said, our driver, got us another taxi back to town while he waited til his car was ready. The second driver had a beaten up Lada which he drove like a madman when he arrived so we asked Said to get him to slow down when he taxied us.We got back safely as you see. all for now.Pamx