We Have Landed

Yes, we arrived in Dushanbe as planned, safely but extremely tired, and everything here is pretty much fine. The hectic schedule of our home leave in the US -- and now the lack of internet connection within convenient reach for me -- have made for a pretty long hiatus from the blog, and I will try to fill in the blanks.

One thing that has impressed me this second time arriving at an overseas post with Dan is how much our processes of getting settled and establishing a routine differ. For better or worse, as the one with the job that brought us here, of course, Dan is off to work pretty much as soon as we arrive in our new home. And, as he may or may not want to report, that comes with its own problems and intricacies.

For me, it seems like getting all the pieces to line up and getting the freedom to move about and work or at least become active at all in a professional way is slower. Even getting myself and Anya organized to go out to the store to get as many groceries as I can carry home can seem like a big undertaking when the logistics are new and we're still sort of operating on the few supplies and clothes that have trickled in to us so far. I know there are pluses and minuses to this side of things -- I'm sure, for instance, that Dan would love to have the freedom to hang around the house with no real schedule and explore the city more than he can from the office -- but for me these beginning weeks can be a little frustrating.

But these beginning steps are also exciting and fun in turns, too, and I think there must be a graph formation, something like a bell curve, that represents the general trajectory of one's emotions during a transition like this. I think the first few days are truly exhilarating: everything is new and interesting, and whatever aspects might soon turn out to be a bit of a drag haven't yet gotten on your nerves. Our initial impression, which hasn't changed in 2+ weeks, is that Dushanbe easily seems like it will be better overall than Vlad was. Yes, some of the material conditions are harder, and you might say we've "traded down" in that regard. But the human situation is much better, with enough more people (expats) and enough of an existing social buoyancy among them that by our first full week in town (after our arrival at 3am Thursday on the twice-weekly Istanbul flight) I already had been included in a "girls' night" viewing of the Sex and the City movie on DVD (OK, so it wasn't a film buff's gathering, but it fit the occasion, and it was a lot of fun); Dan had learned of the existing weekly poker night; and we'd been invited out or in to meals on 4 different occasions with 3 different couples or families. Locals are more friendly, too -- mainly so far that has come in the form of less stressful interactions with taxi drivers and store clerks, but we hope soon to have a chance to do something with a few colleagues and people we've met.

We've been here 2 full weeks now, from start to finish, and we've enjoyed 3 weekends in Dushanbe. At the start of the first full work week (after Columbus Day), I got to work calling and interviewing in order to hire a few people to help us out. Mainly what we need is a nanny, but we also can use (and afford) to hire someone to help keep this rather big house clean by coming in a couple of days per week. We're considering hiring a part-time driver to help us get around in these weeks (months?) until our car gets here. (The news on the bulk of our shipment, the stuff that was not flown in but went "slow boat to Dushanbe," as Anya heard me say many times and now chirps on her own, is slated to arrive in late November... in Antwerp. From there, hey, who knows, but we hope they may be able to get it on a Central-Asia-bound train for arrival by New Year's. Big thanks to the head of General Services in Vladivostok at the time we left, who felt it wasn't necessary to think even anywhere close to the edge of the box on expediting the transport of our stuff. And big prayers that the alcoholic purchases in our consumables, coming according to about the same schedule from the US, will not freeze and/or burst over the wintertime crossing.)

The nanny market here, or at least the flow of market information, is also much better than in Vladivostok. I don't know whether that will ultimately mean our caregiver will be better than in Vlad -- I would be hard-pressed to find someone better than Marina. But after spending a week on the phone, using the Embassy recommendations, and the ads and recommendations published over the last several months in the weekly Dushanbe newsletter that caters to international community, I winnowed down 8 people to 2 good candidates, and we are now in the process of trying them out. Anya got along well with both ladies during the brief initial meetings we had, and in principle I think that either one would be a fine nanny. At this point we just need to work out the smaller details and figure out who seems like the overall choice that will work the best. We're starting out with a similar schedule to the one we had in Vlad, with a nanny in the mornings, a nap and then afternoons with me. If all goes as planned, Anya is likely to start in December at a small informal preschool/daycare that a couple of expats have organized, and at that point we will actually be very well covered for childcare (I even fear too well-covered: part of me can't really imagine spending so little time with Anya over the course of the week and wonders what I'd do to fill the time!).

But filling that time is the very next thing on the agenda. Of course, one thing that can easily fill time freed up from childcare is the domestic organization and errands that concern us as we continue to settle into the new abode and even after we feel settled. A few sessions of washing thoroughly the fruits and veg that I bought at the local market in order to make them usable easily impressed on me how, even more than in Vladivostok, domestic tasks can eat up a hell of a lot of your time here. We're partway through all of those initial errands that need to be run: buying all the cleaning supplies for the household was actually a big one: getting everything from cleansers and various wipes and rags to a mop and a bucket and brooms to sweep the courtyard took a few trips around town. The major thing we still want to find is a few pieces of plastic furniture for the patio area just outside our kitchen window, where we had a lovely breakfast on Sunday, while the sun was out and the generator off, making it really perfect. We may not have too many more mornings like that one, since it has gotten wet and chilly quickly this week, but as long as there are sunny days the 3 of us can still put on a few sweaters and pairs of socks and have a coffee and warm milk out on the deck.

We still need some smaller organizational things like shelving and organizers in the bathrooms and near the front door -- we still lack even some kind of coat rack or hooks for our coats, which are draped over the many dining room chairs (that may be the only good reason for us to have so many!). For some reason here the houses really are not equipped with these kinds of things, and as much as we read about it in the material we received before our move, there still wasn't much we could do about it until we arrived and saw what it was we needed. We haven't seen much on the local market, and it might be easiest and cheapest to order some stuff online.

But ultimately I aim not to be so preoccupied with the domestic and to turn my attention outward: first up is getting my presentation in shape for the annual Aaaasss convention (OK, normally "triple-A-double-S," but some people just can't resist the alternative pronunciation). I am (crazily) going to board that same early morning flight on its return to Istanbul -- after it stops over in Dushanbe it seems just long enough to refuel and tidy up -- and then traveling onward to JFK as soon as the third week of November, all for the Advancement of Slavic (and Eurasian!) Studies. I'll be in Philly for the conference, and truly do expect to have a good time seeing old colleagues and meeting new ones, and have a few days before and afterward to kill and enjoy "real civilization" before I return. Next up after the conference is getting my bearings in the basic historical background and current historiography on Central Asia and Tajikistan, and doing a little more poking around to see what diseases and pestilences might make a fitting comparative case to pair with tick-borne encephalitis in the 1930s-50s in the Russian Far East. I plan to spend some time in the library/ies and will also try to get into the archives (although the paper chase recounted to me by a young colleague here on fieldwork gave me some pause and tells me I need to gird my loins for a possible bureaucratic battle of my own before I can actually sit down with documents). Ultimately I also need to figure out how precisely I'm going to spend the grant money I was awarded in the spring and whether I can really take any more long-distance travel away from family (probably only to Tashkent or Moscow, but still), and I still have to work on getting a few publications! All of that will be plenty to fill my plate from now until it warms up, I think.

Up next (and sorry for all of the mundane reporting this time): a better description of our house and neighborhood, and maybe even the main north-south boulevard in town, Rudaki, which we travel up and down the most.

What We're Saying:
inna BIIIIG Dushanbe -- exclaimed from our first entry into the courtyard, and used to mean just our house, but now there seems to be an understanding that Dushanbe is the broader place where we live

What We're Listening To:
Franco's hits from the 50s and 60s

What We're Watching:
can't get enough of the election updates from Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert! Thank god AFN still carries it.

P.S.: VOTE!