This collects my posts about my time in Tajikistan
Are you considering a trip to visit Central Asia? Are you planning to move here? Or are you curious to read more scholarly and better-researched and better-written stories than I have here on my blog? Fear not, because I’ve spent enough time here now to be able to give you a reading list of my 10 favorite books about Central Asia that can help you better understand it and get pumped up about visiting. Continue reading “My Top 10 Books About Central Asia”
The cafeteria is lively and buzzing. Kyrgyz music videos blare out of a nearby television as a few ofitsantkas run back and forth to the kitchen carrying plates overflowing with lagman, mastava, samsa, and pirozhki. I sigh heavily as I pour another cupful of green tea into the small bowl called a piala that is used as a teacup here in Osh. People come and go as nearly every table remains full, people wrapped in faux fur coats and hats, with several pieces of luggage by their side, each carefully wrapped several times in plastic wrap.
It’s 2am, and I’ve learned a very important lesson about flying in Central Asia: your flights are scheduled at the airline’s convenience, not yours. Continue reading “Midnight At A Central Asian Airport”
When I first visited Central Asia in 2013, one of the first things I noticed was the emphasis placed in Tajikistan on defining what it means to be a citizen of Tajikistan and a practitioner of Tajik culture. In Kyrgyzstan, I’ve come upon a similar phenomenon, and upon further reading, have also seen aspects of it in other countries in the region. It’s been so interesting for me to explore because it has unexpectedly cast a new lens on how I see my own identity as an American. Continue reading “Development Of A Kyrgyzstani Identity”
So, based on reader feedback, I got a bit ahead of myself by jumping deep into grammar before actually, you know, explaining how to read. So today, I’m going to walk you through standard Cyrillic, and the modified versions used to write the different languages seen here in Kyrgyzstan! Continue reading “Language Lessons: Reading And Cursive”
Something I’ve come to love over many years living near mosques is the “adzhan,” or call to prayer. It’s an omnipresent sound and inimitable piece of the landscape in many countries with large Muslim populations, and serves to help Muslims pray at the proper times of day. Let’s dive in a bit to learn more about this beautiful tradition. Continue reading “Adzhan: The Call To Prayer”
Any visitor to Central Asia, Iran, and a bunch of other places has probably noticed that just about every road is flanked on both sides by channels that flow with water or fill with trash. They’re everywhere. And even though they have a name, very few locals know it, let alone dictionaries, and despite their ubiquity, almost no one has researched or written about them. But given that falling into one is one of my funniest stories from when I lived in Tajikistan, it’s about time that I educated myself! Behold, let’s learn about the famous aryk (арык)! Continue reading “What Are Those Concrete Ditches?”
I’ve talked way too much on this blog about how much I prefer taking marshrutkas and buses to riding in taxis. But, sometimes, you can’t get away from the fact that taxis are the only way that you’re going to get from point A to point B. Confounding all of this is the fact that just about every city in the former USSR has a different approach to taxis. Here’s a rough guide on navigating the major taxi systems of Kyrgyzstan (plus Almaty and Dushanbe). Continue reading “The Secret To Kyrgyz Taxi Fares”
One thing I’ve noticed about a lot of Central Asian houses is just how sparsely furnished they are. A family usually owns a dining room table, a table for the topchan outside, a bunch of chairs, some couches in the guesting rooms, maybe a wall cabinet unit for memories, and possibly a few desks and wardrobes in the bedrooms. You probably have noticed that beds are not on that list. In fact, my room is the only room in my house that actually has a bed in it. Continue reading “Sleeping On The Floor”
Get ready, because this week, we’re going to learn how to make one of my all-time favorite Central Asian dishes: Plov!
Continue reading “My Kyrgyz, Uzbek, and Tajik Kitchen: Plov”
Some of you may recall my post last summer called Attack of the Tajik Tummy in which I recounted in lady-like detail my first encounter with the vagaries of Tajikistan’s many gastrointestinal flora. Well, after discussing my symptoms with a travel doctor, apparently, the 25 hours I spent in bed with an insane fever, migrane, inability to retain anything in either end, and a general feeling of death, were actually the result of typhoid. Hooray, I got an illness that I only knew of because of the many hours spent playing Oregon Trail as a kid!
