In my house in Tajikistan, it was perhaps around 800-900 square feet. The residence included a small havli, or courtyard, in the entrance of the house. After passing the havli, there is an entrance to the kitchen of the house. The kitchen was extremely narrow. To the left, there is a radio handing on the wall. Every morning, my family would turn on the radio, and it continuously played the same music. I would hear an amalgamation of Hindi, Tajiki, and English songs on the radio. The songs in the specific aforementioned languages would comprise of the same songs being repeated. For Hindi, it would always be the romantic song of “Tum Hi Ho” and “Manwa Lage”. For Tajiki songs, the radio would always play songs about “Nozanin”, which is a female Tajik name, or songs by the popular artist, Nigina. The English songs would consist of old Taylor Swift songs or Justin Timberlake. To the left of the kitchen is the hamom or the bathtub. The bathroom is separated into two separate rooms: the bathtub and a room with the toilet. My room had blue striped wallpaper that made the room much darker. There was a small chandelier that held onto the ceiling. On the right side of the room there were two small wooden nightstands, and one large wardrobe. My bed had a maroon blanket with a matching maroon pillow with frills on the end of it. The pillows had light pink flowers sewed onto them. The room contrasted the brightness of the outdoors as it was extremely dark especially with a dim light. The room was small and narrow, but it had a pleasing mood to the room. The frills on the pillows lightened the coloring of the wallpaper. My aunt pushed me inside, and told me the drawers were for my clothes, and informed me that if I needed anything to let her know. She said that if I was tired, I could go to sleep. However, I informed her that I was not that tired, and that I would probably come outside my room once I finished unpacking.
When I was left alone, I sat on the bed, and I immediately wondered how I was going to live there for four weeks because the bed was completely hard. The blanket had a silk texture, and was not that comfortable. I yearned for my bed back in America, however, I realized that in order to make it through the summer, I would have to be mentally strong. Therefore, I quickly unpacked all my belongings and went to the living room. There, bibijon and padarjon were sitting in the living room watching Russian television. Russian television is popular among Tajiks because most of the population especially the elite speak Russian. Bibijon’s face brightened because of her smile, and she called me over to sit by her. Bibijon asked me if I had homework, and I said that I had a little bit. She told me to bring a notebook and a dictionary along with it. Bibijon sat with me and went over the assignment, and she corrected some of my grammatical mistakes in my notebook. Bibijon was extremely patient as she read an entire story and helped me pronounce some of the words in Tajiki that I had trouble with. Bibijon critiqued my writing, and corrected how I wrote some of the script in Tajiki. She opened the dictionary and told me in Tajiki that if I needed any help with anything, to ask her. She said that she would come out of her way to help me if I needed it even if she was busy. The entire house is embellished with tacky wallpaper. The wallpaper is not color coordinated, and the colors differ between the rooms. The wallpaper had sparkles that colored the wall, and usually flowers as part of the design of the wallpaper. The windows of the house had a grill on the outside and this is traditionally seen in Dushanbe. The exterior of the house was painted a light blue color that resembled the color of the sky on a sunny day. The black windows superimposed to the sky resembled a sharp contrast.
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As the group congregated on a large van, the driver was extremely generous and greeted all of the students of the program. As we headed to Camp Umeda, the mountains surrounded the landscape. The mountains created a tranquil atmosphere, and the vast mountain range, made me feel smaller than I have ever felt before. The snow-capped mountains created an aura of peace and serenity. The snow on the mountains hinted a contrast from the hot land of Tajikistan. However, that particular morning was fairly cool. Houses that were three to four stories were at the base of the mountain, and the elite individuals in Tajikistan were reported to live there. The houses were quite expansive and usually had balconies on the third level of the house. The roof of the houses were of a familiar pyramid-shaped roof, however, the roof of some houses were also flat. On the top of the mountains, the houses were smaller and more crowded together, however. The mountain landscape was rugged, and a river ran through the base of the mountain.
The camp was in a small niche, and there was a small river that was in front of the camp. The river water in the valley was a warm welcome before we entered the gates. There was a gate guard sitting in front with a chair, and he was awaiting us. As he opened the gates, the van parked to the side of the camp, and we were welcomed to the place we were going to stay for 2 weeks. The gate was a soft metal opening us to the unknown. In the camp itself, there were five cabins that were the shape of a pyramid. The mountains surrounded the camp, and there was a sparse forest on the right of the camp. The mountains were even larger than ever before, and even farther. Even though the altitude of the camp was higher, the mountains looked different in the sense that the snow caps were more prominence, and the mountains were completely expansive. It was as if the mountains were melting like ice cream, with the snow trickling down to the base of the mountain. There were trees that were evergreen, but the majority of the trees were annual trees that would wither away during the winter time. There were also two swimming pools. One swimming pool was shallow, while the other swimming pool was quite deep, perhaps around 6 feet deep. The depths of the swimming pool were uniform. There was a small building for the bathrooms, so the building was our designated bathhouse. The girl’s bathroom had 6 stalls and 6 bathroom sink, and 3 showers to the left side of the bathhouse. There were two classrooms to the far right of the camp. The classroom were tiled and had separate air conditioning units. Adjacent to the classrooms was the kitchen where I had only entered once. The kitchen was staffed with chefs who were paid to cook for us. That day, we all showered and went to bed because we had class the day we had arrived. Although class was short, everyone was exhausted from the trip. We reviewed the alphabet in the first day of class, and some vocabulary. The teachers introduced themselves. The teachers made a dynamic duo because the way they taught complemented one another. The teachers then split us up arbitrarily into two separate groups, and these groups were determined permanently for the rest of the summer. Our teachers also assigned us Tajik names that would be our cultural identity throughout the summer. My name was “Mijgona” or the beauty of the eyelash. After instruction that day, all the students went back to their respective cabins. I was extremely exhausted and fell asleep immediately. Usually, during class we would perform skits by reading off of our black Tajiki textbooks. As we were flying into Tajikistan, I glued my eyes to the window to see if my expectations of Tajikistan would be debunked. The International Airport of Tajikistan was extremely small, however, the city was much more developed than I had expected. The outside of the airport was extremely colorful like strands of the rainbow rippled together and the colors tangled with one another to make the airport the first place to be attracted to. The airport stood out in the field of homogenous buildings. As the feet of the plane touched the ground, I was in disbelief that I could visit a country that I had never dreamed of visiting. I was visiting a country that not many people know about, this thought was exhilarating and nerve-wracking. Once we arrived at the Dushanbe International Airport, we headed straight to baggage claim.
After we scanned our luggages through the security machine (where there was no one watching the contents of the baggage), the group headed to the side. There was a restaurant for Burgers, however, on their menu it was anything but burgers. Most of the items comprised of hot dogs, chicken, and shashlik, or kabobs. There, we met our assistant director. Once the group was gathered together, we all headed outside. The land was very arid and dry, and I was nostalgic for the green grass and trees in Indiana. Tajikistan was not a very green country. As the group was walking towards our rented car, there was a fragmentary path in place as we edged outside of the airport. Tajikistan had a similar feel to Bangladesh because of the wild dogs that roamed around outside of the airport, and patches of dry land. However, at the same time, I realized that Tajikistan was very different from Bangladesh. When I heard about the National Security Initiative for Youth, I went on the website to learn more about the program. On the website, I noticed that one of the languages was Persian (Tajiki), so I clicked on it to learn more about it. To my knowledge, I have never heard of the country Tajikistan. Thus, I spent hours and days looking up pictures online and reading pages and blogs about the country Tajikistan. From my research, I developed a vague picture of the country Tajikistan, but I never grasped a holistic idea of what the country would be like. I imagined that the images of the romanticized mountains would populate the entire country, and the tranquil, blue lucid water would be the zenith of the beauty of Tajikistan. I chose to study Tajiki because it utilizes the Cyrillic alphabet implemented by Russia, while also having 40% of Arabic influence in the language. However, I realized that my distorted and romanticized version of Tajik culture was only a small portion of the beauty that Tajikistan actually holds. The covert beauty that is encapsulated in the country of Tajikistan is hard to capture in words. Although the natural beauty of the mountains, lakes, and gardens is quite evident, the Tajik people are also beautiful themselves, which I will elaborate later on.
So, I took a deep breath and selected Tajikistan as my number one choice and Russia as my second choice. I was interested in learning Russian as well, and I thought it would also be equally exciting to visit Russia as well. After I passed the semifinalist and moved to the finalist stage, going to Tajikistan was becoming a reality. However, I would have to participate in an interview in order to be considered to move forward as a finalist candidate. When I went to the interview site, the interviews were conducted at a library. Subsequent to my arrival, I along with other NSLI-Y candidates, were placed in a room. We all signed in. The room had a comfortable atmosphere with couches, tables, and large pictures. An exchange student from Pakistan greeted us and talked about her experience here in the United States so far. I remember her talking about how, at first, she went through culture shock and how she was very homesick. However, after awhile, she grew accustomed to the culture of the United States and started to love her time in the United Sates and got really close to her host family. I was able to converse with some other candidates and there were a couple of girls who were applying for the year-long program. I was the only one in the room who had applied for the Persian program. When I was declared as a finalist, my heart started racing and I was in utter disbelief. I hugged my mom and my sister, and screamed because I could not suppress my excitement. Taking risks and gambling on a country I had never heard of was nerve-wracking, but the uncertainty that lay ahead of me was exhilarating. Dreaming of going somewhere that people around you, and you yourself have knowledge of causes you to picture what kind of experience you will have in that area. Just to have an idea of immersing yourself completely in the culture by living with a host family also causes to imagine your life differently and takes you out of your comfort zone. When I first landed in Washington D.C., I was introduced by the program director. At the airport, I was acquainted with another member of the group, who was also going to be a participant in the program. We talked about how we learned about NSLI-Y and where we are from. We both hauled our luggages or at least some baggage in a taxi and we were off to the hotel. At the hotel, we were not able to unpack yet, so we headed straight into the NSLI-Y office. At the hotel, we checked in and handed our baggage off to the security guard, and the baggage was placed in a storage room.
Our hotel was right across from the NSLI-Y office, so it was approximately a breath away. The NSLI-Y office was absolutely stunning. As a short person myself, I was astonished by the tall doorway and high rise ceilings. The elevators themselves were equipped with a small television. My honeymoon phase was just starting. I was circling the room and looking at the pictures and maps that were posted in the office. In the office, there were pictures of not only Tajikistan but also of other countries in Central Asia such as Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan. The first picture of Tajikistan was of a small boy in the middle of arid land. When I went in the proximity of a map of Central Asia, I was not familiar with other countries surrounding Tajikistan. As I gained exposure to Central Asia, and Tajikistan itself, my curiosity regarding my experience there increased exponentially. I was asking myself: was it the right decision to choose Tajikistan? What if I do not have a pleasant experience? How am I supposed to stay in a country for 6 weeks that my mom was afraid for my safety? How was I supposed to make it out alive? These pertinent questions were not masked by only negativity though. I also inquired how my experience would be positive and rewarding. How will the experience shape my life for the better? How will I be changed as a person in a positive way? What will I be able to take away from the program that I can do to help better the world? How will my host family treat me, and what can I expect from being a part of the family? I would be able to educate my community about my experience in Tajikistan During the workshop for Tajikistan it mostly consisted of safety precautions and what to expect when travelling in Tajikistan. In the workshop, guidelines were laid out and we were expected to adhere to them as participants of the program. As I reflect back to Camp Umeda, I remember the day I first arrived there. It reminded me of my time in Bangladesh because of the dry land in the city where grass was scarce. When I stepped out of the airport, a stray dog scavenged for food, and I ran quickly to the bus, afraid that the dog would chase me.
The bus was a white minivan and fit all 11 participants. The driver greeted all of us amicably and we all greeted back with the little Tajiki that we knew. The infrastructure, particularly the road, seemed to be akin to a Westernized road. I was a little surprised because I had low expectations for a country that was completely once unbeknownst to me. Once we started driving, we slowly moved away from the city. Suddenly, we The mountains and valleys were surreal. I scrutinized the stark contrast of the houses in the mountains. Some of the houses were extravagant bungalows, while others were small huts that were of a modest nature. The Dushanbe River flowed through the mountain, right in front of the extravagant houses at the foreground of the valley. Once we arrived at the main gate, there was a river in between with a bridge that connected the camp to the mainland. When we arrived at camp, it was early morning---like about 5 or 6 am. The cabins were triangular prisms with two floors. All the girls were in one cabin, and we decided to all live in the 1st floor. The boys were separated into two separate cabins. The bathrooms and showers were in a separate building outside. Beyond the bathrooms, there was a forest behind. On the right of the bathrooms, there was a separate building with two classrooms and a kitchen. I was exhausted, so I took a shower. Afterwards, I took a nap because we all had class the first day. I am currently learning the Tajiki alphabet, and I believe I have made progress. The alphabet has 35 letters and 10 vowels. I can read Cyrillic now, but at a really slow pace. The alphabet is similar to Arabic not in writing, but in the character sounds. There are several parallels between Tajiki and Arabic. Persian is often referred to as the poetic language, and Arabic is often referred to as the language of religion. I've been reciting the alphabet several times a day, and I hope I can soon write it!
Calom! I received a scholarship to go to Tajikistan this summer to learn Persian. I am extremely excited for a new adventure. Tajikistan is an extraordinary place with virgin lands and a rich heritage. The language is especially fascinating. I am departing from the United States on June 20 and arriving back on August 1st. I will probably have limited Internet access, but I will try my best to share my stories and photography, which will illustrate my trip.
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