From Russia With Puppets

This past Tuesday we made a return to the Dushanbe puppet theater, together with all of our friends from sadik.


There was a troupe from Russia in town, and that was all I knew setting out. It turned out to be the actors from the Kemerovo Provincial Puppet Theater named for Arkadii Gaidar, who had come on a springtime tour to Dushanbe.

The last time we went, I complained about the lack of puppets, but this time the puppets and the staging were great -- very clever and interesting. The production was "Bear Cub Rim-Tim-Ti," the story of a boy/bearcub home alone with his dad while his mom is away on a trip. The kid is lonely and his dad is loving but a bit aloof and doesn't quite get what his little boy needs or is capable of. When Rim-Tim-Ti convinces his dad he's a big enough boy to go to the market and get the last egg to complete his dad's recipe for a "five-egg omelet," he meets a puppy. He wants to bring the puppy home, but dad will have none of it. Whatever Rim-Tim-Ti finds lovable in his "pyosik" (pup), the dad can't see -- all he thinks is this is a dirty "sobaka" (dog), and he refuses to let him in the house.


When Pyosik thwarts a fox/robber (who was surprisingly charming -- I thoroughly enjoyed the interlude where he is introduced and sings about how he's a "khooligan" to a crazy combination of a Russian bard's outcast song set to the tune and rhythm of a tango), and returns Dad's stolen pants, the father relents and lets Rim-Tim-Ti keep his friend.

Whether she is just a bit older, or the story was more engaging, or because we were seated right in the front row (or a combination of all three), Anya actually sat in pretty much rapt attention the entire hour-long performance.

The actors were all visible behind and above their puppets -- it was the kind of production where they make no effort to hide (you can kind of see what I mean in the large picture above, with the woman in the yellow hat manipulating Rim-Tim-Ti). The funny thing was, the actress bringing Pyosik to life looked really familiar to me, and I couldn't stop trying to figure out where I'd seen her before. All I could think is this was some famous actress (puppeteer?) from Russia, when finally in the last few minutes of the play I realized where I'd seen her: she had played Mashenka to Baba-Yaga in the New Year's production! (B.Y. made an appearance in "Rim-Tim-Ti," too, playing the brash & busty chicken/market-egg-saleswoman who sells Rim the 5th egg.) Once I realized that, I was starting to wonder whether this was truly the visiting troupe we'd been promised, but our sadik teachers reassured me that it was indeed the visiting company with a few local actors added into the mix.

Piknichok in the Hills

After some off-road exploration on the third or fourth dry day in a row, Dan boasted of the beautiful views and firm traction on the dirt paths out east of the city -- basically in the same direction I'd walked last week, but a lot further.

Today, after an afternoon and night of rain, we returned, only slip and slide our way over the terrain. There were only a few moments where my jaw was tightly clenched in order to stave off rolling down the hill. A big improvement over some of our off-road adventures in Primorskii Krai.

And it was indeed very beautiful:



When it started to rain again, we figured we ought to get moving or we might get mired in the hills, never to come down again. We escaped in time to help a 2-wheel-drive car out of the mud (thus christening our tow-rope), see both a sunshower and what I think was hail as we headed north on Omar Khayyam St., and pull into our courtyard just as the warm afternoon sun was returning in earnest.

Head For the Hills

I had a good writing day, and the weather outside was gorgeous, after a very, very rainy day yesterday. My treat to myself was to take a walk.

I headed east on Timur Malik and liked the look of the hills off in the distance, just over the crest:



And as it happens, that is exactly where I went.

I continued east past the students milling around at the Ag Institute, wide neckties and all. (Apparently another empty rule about form over substance in Tajikistan is that the men at institutions of higher education are required to wear ties. Some would say they ought to actually learn things and be encouraged to think critically before they're forced to do a Windsor knot each morning, but who am I to judge?)

Skirted south through the sorry little park in front of (our local) statue of Rudaki. Noticed a billboard that had a notice about what seemed to be repairs in the sorry little broken down park, and a photo mockup of better looking fountains in the park. Noticed the date was 21 April. Got interested. Then noticed it was 2007. Got a little disappointed.

Then I headed east again, on Karamova and decided, why not make my ascent close to home? I started my little climb just west of Tursunzoda. I passed the requisite group of kids who yelled stuff in English at me. Today it was "oh! let's go!" At least that's a little more creative than "hello!" Then I passed the requisite adolescent boys who greeted me in Russian. Then I got a young woman peeking out over a roof, who asked, strangely, whether I had a pen.

I continued a short way and the paved road ended, and a dirt path doglegged north and kept going upward. I rose up up up above the neighborhoods below me and got some beautiful views of the green foothills and the snowy mountains:


Then the Tajik woman who'd wanted the pen appeared again, and we had a friendly conversation in Russian. I continued on and two kids on bikes were hanging out enjoying the view. Had a short conversation in Tajik with the friendlier one, who, after of course asking me how old I was (another requisite question), said the Tajik equivalent of "dang, you're old!" (My main clue was 'pir.') Then I think he was trying to recommend some more good places to enjoy the view (I kept hearing 'tamosho'), but my Tajik was ebbing and I decided to leave while the time was right to have more walking time to myself. All in all, a very enjoyable afternoon treat!

A Day in the Garden

Poppy In the Breeze
Originally uploaded by lkwalker71

After an unexpectedly vodka-soaked evening spent guesting with our nanny's family, an unexpectedly beautiful Saturday spent on hobbies and relaxing in the yard.

The Day In Pictures

Yesterday: The view out the window at the Morningstar Cafe, during a rare workday lunch (and on a rare warm, sunny April day) with Dan.


Today: Anya and I take a break on the way to sadik to admire the "guest" in our yard, whose origins we haven't yet guessed. Must have something to do with either a lot of digging or a painful toss over our high compound walls.

Surviving the Crisis, Tajik Style

From a funny advertising leaflet that was passed to me as I exited the car and went around to get Anya out of her carseat just outside of sadik. (You have to understand that I have never before seen this type of advertising in Dushanbe, so that in itself already made it interesting.)

“Hooray!!! It’s finally happened!! At last, the new stock has arrived!

“Central Asia Trading”

in the form of

“The Korean Store!”

is rushing to help the irresistibly finer half of humanity, i.e. the captivatingly beautiful women of Tajikistan, survive this pervasive Economic Crisis!!!

How??!

In the first place and Especially for the ladies, we are offering a wide assortment of items from South Korea!!!

This is just what you need to live beautifully, and not just to survive but rather to CONQUER this crisis of the economy!

New arrivals:

shoes jackets dresses blouses suits suit-jackets skirts shirts
slippers fabric bags socks tops hats rings

And something else as well…

[on the flyer's other side]

Ladies bags, little bags, and little baggies:

[small images of bags are arrayed on the page with descriptive titles and sample prices inside, in the vein of a bunch of bag-shaped thought bubbles]

The “Little Red Riding-Hood” -- 35 som.

The “I love to rob BANKS!” [no price]

“Unforgettable” 40 som.

The “When is vacation coming?” model -- 35 som.

The “I take everything with me wherever I go” – 40 som.

“Village Mood” [no price]

“Dushanbe is my village!” -- 40 som.

“I love the sea” -- 40 som.

The “Let’s go on a picnic!” -- 40 som.

“Sister-suitcase” [no price]

“Maybe…” -- 20 som.

“Nothing’s better” -- 30 som.

“The ABYSS!” -- 40 som.

“Immensity” -- 40 som.

The “Bolshevik” [no price]

The “Excuse me!” -- 40 som.

“The city in the country!” -- 35 som.

The “I’m from the village!” model -- 30 som.

“Ladies’ fancy” -- 30 som.

“A girl’s dream” -- 20 som.

The best part of this to me is the fact that not one, not two, but several of these models proudly proclaim the owner’s origin in the sticks, which is actually very appropriate for the bulk of Dushanbe’s residents. (Or at least I have that impression, given where we live, in a northern neighborhood up Rudaki Prospect, and given where I was when I was handed the flyer, just down the hill from the very village-like section of town called Sari Asiyo (which I think means “the start of Asia,” but I could be wrong about that). It is true that I am constantly reminded when I leave those areas and especially when I travel out Somoni into some of the more recently built Soviet areas that not everyone looks as fresh-from-the-village as many of the people in our neighborhood.)

Although it included a rather detailed schematic map on that second side, nevertheless I have no idea where the Korean Store is located, since none of the landmarks on the map (including “Mosque”) were familiar to me. (Sure, “Sweets of the East” I know, but which of the many branches scattered around town are they talking about?)

So I guess I’ll have to settle for enjoying their ad campaign, rather than digging into the new stock and seeing whether anything at the Korean store strikes my “lady’s fancy.”

Being Green

A friend who has also been away from Dushanbe for at least a few weeks returned this week and commented at how green the city is. I noticed it right away, too -- apparently it rained for practically the whole two weeks we were away.

This meant that, first of all, that there was no need for me to lie awake at night wondering what the swift change in weather in the two weeks before we left, from modestly chilly to downright hot, and possibly a continuing rise in temperature might mean for our little garden, left without anyone to water it while we were gone. We came back to a bushy garden full of all kinds of plants that I haven't even had a chance (because of the continuing rain) to parse out and edit. Among them are definitely a profusion of mint, what looks like maybe some carrot greens, definitely some light green lettuces, and a bunch of flourishing beet greens. And our rose bushes look very fine.

The rain also means that truly the hills surrounding Dushanbe really are a beautiful shade of green, which was especially striking to me, I think, because of where we'd been most recently.

We spent about a week in "La Ville Rouge," Marrakech, which really is quite ruddy red -- mainly I suppose it's the architecture and the old medina walls, but the overall sensation is definitely Red. Of course, I haven't yet uploaded all our photos, and anyway I didn't take anything so beautiful or illustrative of the red as this:


Then we hopped our plane from Casablanca to Istanbul, where everything is more grey-blue. Again, not my photo, but it easily could have been:


And now we're back and find ourselves in a curiously green environment. And, yet again, since I haven't yet gotten a snapshot of it, I will refer to Flickr for illustration. Even though this is outside Dushanbe, it gives a good sense of what those hills look like right now, and what I see every time I look out our upstairs window at the hills on the city's northwest edge:

Vacations Are Bad For Blogs

... but good for people.

Here are the some of the sights from our last two weeks:





There's more (still in the process of being uploaded) here.