Test Test 1 2 ...

Long long ago, google disabled the app for blogger - the website that hosts this Blogovel. Sadly the only app I found was created by the developer “Made in Russia” which is a little suspect and also costs money. Since my next trip will be without my laptop I need to test out a few mobile work-arounds.

Enjoy this photo while I experiment.

Today I learned ...

Today my host mother walked into the room and handed me a nondescript packet of beige powder.  No explanation. No modeling of what one should do with this packet. Just sort of a "Here.  This is for you" motion.

I proceeded to smell it ... nothing.  Try again ... burnt?  One more time ... 

Me:  Burnt coffee?
Mom:  Corn.  Burnt corn.  
Me:  What do I do with it?
Mom:  Eat it man!

Then she proceeds to pour a small amount from her own packet onto her palm and licks it off.  

I've made many questionable decisions in my time here, and I think this qualifies as one.  Oh well, trust the Mama.

... kinda tasteless, then grows to something akin to flour.  Oh there it is!  Just barely burnt popcorn, with a hint of sugar.  Okay.  No regrets.

Thanks Mom!

Today I learned about Kasham.

Today I Learned ...

... that lime trees have thorns!  They're like enormous rose bushes except incredibly practical and way more dangerous.  I'm not likely to try to venture into the middle of a rose bush to pick a flower.  I might try to navigate a lime tree/bush for some delicious key lime.  

If knowing is half the battle, the other half - to my brain - is defense.  

Blizzard Bliss

 Today seems like a good day to announce that this blog-o-vel will soon be approaching the equator.  Today is the best day, because so far today I’ve spent 2 hours shoveling snow.  By the end of my last round of shoveling, my clothes were soaked through and I was frozen to the bone.

It was wonderful.  I haven’t been that thoroughly cold, wet, and entertained by the snow for a very long time.  As much as I’ll be pleased if this is the last big storm I have to shovel, I was glad to have one more big day this year.  

Hot Cocoa is 20% more enjoyable on days when you're cold*. 

I’m reminded of a time approximately 10 years ago when I was traveling with a very good friend of mine.  She and I had been living in a desert climate where temperatures often soared above 100 °F (37 °C).  I can’t tell you for certain what the temperature was; it was so hot that all of the thermometers being sold in the local bazaars had broken because the climate exceeded their heat tolerance.  Community members told stories boasting temperatures over 50 °C, which seemed a tad hyperbolic.  Later, I scoured internet records and find at least one day there was a recording of 55 °C (131 °F).  That’s hot.  My little temperate brain never learned words that adequately describe that kind of heat.

She and I had dreamt of cooler temperatures.  We’d been in the heat so long that we couldn’t even imagine anymore what it would feel like to be cool.  We wished for it.  We dreamt of it without really being able to conceptualize it anymore.  Then we crossed a border. 

We had left the desert and it happened to be monsoon season in one of our destinations.  Neither of us had fully researched the local weather patterns and - it only being the first storm - we decided to push on through the rain.  In a mad dash we raced through the mud and the torrent of water and arrived sopping wet, covered in red clay at the border crossing just as the rain petered out.  It had stopped raining 30 minutes after it had begun.  Apparently that was the norm.  Clear all day.  30 minute cloud burst in the afternoon.  Clear or cloudy in the evening.  Brave tourists that we were, we carried on despite the monsoon and arrived 5 minutes before the rest of the border crossers, just that we arrived a hot mess.

Once we got to the other side, we found a cab and paid our fare to head back to the capitol. That’s where we encountered it.  Glorious.  Idyllic.  Air Conditioning.  It had been so long since either of us had been cool.  It was a marvel.  For a solid 15 minutes in the back of the cab we celebrated.  For the next 15 minutes we relaxed and enjoyed, and for the following 3.5 hours we froze. 

When we finally arrived at our destination, I couldn’t stop shivering and remember being so cold that my muscles ached, and it was hard to get out of the car.  She and I talked after the car ride and there were two things keeping us miserable for those 3.5 hours.  One was a very real language barrier.  The cab driver imagined himself a fluent English speaker, but neither of us was able to understand him nor he us.  That was really only a half excuse though as she and I are both adept at communicating even when we do not share a common language with the other person. The real reason we both sat in pain in that car, with very real physical responses to the cold, was that we knew it could be a very long time before we experienced such a marvelous chill again.

It is with this story in mind, that I try not to wish away the last remaining chill before heading to 2+ years of equatorial bliss.  

 *not a real statistic 

The facade's facade

There are so many places in the world with distinct architectural styles.  When presented with a picture of a city, just by analyzing the structures that humans create upon the earth one can pin point the city's location and sometimes even the year in which certain structures were created. 

I had a conversation with a friend this summer that probably would not be very popular with many of my friends and fellow travelers.  It seems that in any new place a traveler may go he is compelled by some force or another to tour the architecture.  In our cases those forces are almost never internal.  An overly excited local resident, fellow travel companion or tour guide attempting to do her due diligence will impress upon us the importance of noticing this curve or that buttress as though it were the defining characteristic of any society worth noticing.  Quite frankly ... I just don't find it that interesting.  Yes, I do like seeing the shape of a city and noticing the nuances of style and I do find the structures we create to be both impressive and interesting.  I do not find spending hours analyzing these structures and their timing to be as fantastic as it is often made out to be.

All that said, I have recently found an technique that caught my attention and I thought was worth sharing.  Please be warned that this post risks becoming overly intellectual and perhaps a little confusing.  Below is an example of the decorative work, but I assure you the picture does not fully express the revelation that I had:

Notice the trim around the door frame, and the crown moulding.  While this may seem like ordinary house-finishing-touch type stuff, that is where the magic comes from.  It was explained to me yesterday as "Poliplast".  This roughly translates to: Styrofoam.  That's right.  The crown moulding here is Styrofoam.  And not just here in my apartment ... but also decorating the government office windows and teller desks.  In order to add to the magic, it isn't universal.  While this stuff is carved and decorating in many locations all over Tajikistan, it is frequently interchanged with real wood.  With every finished edge of man made structure, one never knows just what medium one will find.

Another fine example of the Styrofoam moulding in my apartment:

I hope you have enjoyed this discovery nearly as much as I have (although I highly doubt it).  Please also know that I am giggling at the fact that you actually made it this far into this ridiculously silly post.  Some people will read anything!

Love, love, love.
The Writer.