Running in Khujand

The good news is that 2 minutes jog down the hill from my apartment block there is a park with a 400 metre track round the outside. Even more good news it is free and uncrowded.  Even more good news it is a cross country track. It has a granite gravel surface with a water jump and lots of plants. small children will pace you as long as you just jog.

In three weeks i have not seen a single runner on the street. As I live 5 kilometers from the clinic and there is a basin and a coat stand in the office I have taken to jogging in or out and sometimes both. I now wear Adidas track suit bottoms at all times and thereby attract least possible attention. When I stop I think I pass for Russian unless I try to speak.

I had been worried about frenzied dog attack, and so had topped up my rabies shots before coming out. So far I have never seen a dog more than readjust their sleeping position as I pass.

The weather turned cold and rainy this weekend thus finally justifying the tracksuit and even my fell running gear. The mountains north of the ring road were snow capped. Snow line is 2500 m . Here is my view jogging in to work. I have not found any local person expressing any interest In running or walking in these rocks. i think the season has passed in any case.

Training at the Polyclinic

In the physiotherapy room of the poly clinic I meet with the paediatric staff three times a week for a seminar. We chew over cases together. We drink green tea. We discuss topics. Left to right are Adolat, (Speech & Lang  therapist) Mararam (psychologist) and Barnot (SLT )  then me then Mohabat ( paediatrician) Marbuba (paediatric neurologist) Jamilla ( Opthalmologist) Zulfia (Physiotherapist) Manzura ( SLT)

It was Marbubas birthday and we were discussing the development of behaviour of small children, We discussed the difficulties the might come from speaking both Tajik and Russian if a child speaks a different language at home and school. This is a familiar topic to me from the UK. Most of the staff in this seminar had their professional training in Russian language and tend to use this if discussing technicalities. When I learn new words from people they don't normally say whether it is a Russian or Tajik word. For example beer is always 'piva', a russian word. So I am learning a mixture of both. It is slightly like the number of English words that we have forgotten were originally french. And on the subject of language here is a picture that one of the seminar took of myself and my translator Farangis.

This is what I do in Poly Clinic Number Two

Every week day I come to this clinic In the middle of Khujand. In the mornings from about 10 till 12 I join staff in the clinics. Sometimes I just observe, sometimes we discuss the case or the diagnosis or treatment. Sometimes it is a more formal consultation and people ask my opinion.  Patients will talk a mixture of Tajik, Russian, Uzbek and sometimes even English. I always have a translator with me, though often I understand the technical words much better than they, even in a different tongue. Here is a picture of Manzura, a speech and language therapist working directly with a mother and child.

Wedding Band

Sunday afternoon and I am sitting my apartment writing up my diary when a loud and unmistakably brassy sound fills the air outside. I can see nothing out the window but grab my camera and rush downstairs. There is a Band in the car park with some decorated cars and they are clearly calling someone forth, maybe to a wedding. Adiba tells me afterwards that first they call the groom then they go to the brides house and last they play at the restaurant. I so want to join in but know that cannot be. These are effectively trombones without slides. Enjoy!

Tajikistan Family friends

I am living about 5 kilometres from the centre of Khujand on the third floor of a soviet built apartment block in micro-district 8. There are two adjacent flats, one used for storage and visiting guests: The annex you might say.  The connection is that Adiba has a disabled child and has worked as a translator for my local NGO Ranginkamon.  They have been feeding me every evening and I really feel part of the family.  Two days ago Adiba’s father had some work colleagues visit from Dushanbe to attend meetings. They are all doctors, parisitologists in fact, and had come to talk about malaria. Usually we eat in the kitchen but on this occasion the evening meal was set out in the living room

One of the doctors took this snap.  You can see that everyone is relaxed and at home. Seated on my right is my host Moomin, and on my left is Tokhir, his colleague.   Seated by Moomin is his daughter Adiba with her 5 month old girl Ozoda.  Adiba is the only one who speaks English and does all the translation, though everyone else can understand more English than they can speak. On the right of the picture is Moomin’s  wife Sonot holding Adiba’s 3 year old daughter  girl Farzana.  There were many toasts made. Tokhir has insisted I stay with his family when I pass through Dushanbe on my way back to UK at the end of November

 'the views expressed in this blog are the author's own and do not reflect those of VSO'.