Trip to Kulob and Departure from Tajikistan

For my last day in Tajikistan, I travelled to the southern city of Kulob to visit with some NGOs that work with migrants and the families of migrants. I made the trip with several friends carrying out research in Dushanbe. We found a taxi going to Kulob and by 7:30 am were on our way. The drive was beautiful, and it felt so good to be leaving the capital. First we drove through small towns and villages, where people, mostly women, were just starting to go about their daily lives. Soon we began to climb a winding mountain road into breathtaking scenery. To one side of the road, a body of water became visible in the valley far below. This was a large reservoir formed by a hydroelectric plant. Hills were partially covered by the water, and their peaks jutted beautifully from the water to catch the morning light. We quickly left this site and descended to slightly lower ground. The landscape assumed a parched look as the temperature rose. On either side, rolling hills covered in yellow grass stretched to the foot of high mountains. People were harvesting hay in these areas. In some places they could be seen in the fields cutting it. Other fields were already full of hay bales.
Soon we entered Kulob city, after having driven for about three and a half hours. We found the first NGO on our list of those to visit. This one dealt with helping rural people, especially women, obtain knowledge and access to the law. In Tajikistan, particularly in rural areas in the countryside, many people are not even aware as to what rights they have under the law and as such cannot benefit from the laws which do exist to help them. This NGO tries to bridge this problem by training both people and local governments. We discussed these issues for nearly an hour and a half over tea, with me serving as the translator from Russian. Then we took a tour of the organization’s library and computer resource center, where locals, mainly women, come for training. Afterwards, the director was kind enough to drive us to the next NGO that awaited.
At this NGO, the main purpose is to prevent HIV/AIDS among the many labor migrants that travel to Russia, a growing problem in past years. It was explained to us that trainings were held among local communities, for migrants who would soon leave, their wives, and the children of the community who are viewed as future labor migrants. Several outreach workers joined us who target the train station, bus station, and airports as large numbers of migrants leave to pass out information. The NGO also is responsible for an amateur theater group that presents such issues to school children. While we talked about all of these over an even bigger spread of coffee, tea, cookies, candies and the boiled ears of corn that are for sale everywhere and that I love, we then taken out to lunch and treated to an enormous amount of food at a café.
After this, we made a last visit to another NGO, accompanied by everyone from the second. This one happened to be housed in a maternity hospital and its director was a medical doctor. The work they did was specifically with problems facing the children of labor migrants, exactly what I was most interested in. I discussed the possibility of collaborating with them on future trips to Tajikistan, and they were very open to the idea. They had also prepared us delicious plov for lunch-so we ate twice. The entire trip filled us with such good feeling, both because of the incredible work we saw being carried out by local organizations, and because of the overwhelming Tajik hospitality. I sincerely hope to visit this city again.
For the drive back to Dushanbe, we called the same driver. This time I rode in the front seat. The driver was incredibly talkative, and since for some reason his Tajik accent was very hard to understand I relied on Russian. We talked for the entire trip back and by the end, it was like we were family. He told me that he had been a C student but fell in love with, and married, and very intelligent woman who became a doctor. She soon found that she was unable to have children, and his family advocated divorce. He protested because of his love for her and they stayed childless but together for thirteen years, as which time, as he said, God gave them first one son and then three other children. I thought that was a wonderful story. He was always willing to stop for pictures and at one point stopped to treat us to fresh figs, a particular favorite of mine. He even halfway understood when at a police traffic point I noticed a puppy wandering into the road. Fearing it would be run over (I had already seen one dog hit by a car that day), I rushed out in front of an approaching car to scoop it up and carry it to safety. The traffic police stared in bewilderment as he yelled at me for not valuing my own life but then told me I should take the puppy with me to Afghanistan. From there we began to talk about the dogs the Soviets sent into space and the space program in general. He was a really good guy.
After returning to Dushanbe, I called my good friends Sitora and Nazir. We walked for a while and sat at a café together to say our goodbyes. I will miss both of them very much and hope to see them in the future, although both talk of leaving Tajikistan. I returned to the empty apartment to sleep for a couple of hours and left for the airport at 3 am. Upon arrival, I found that no one was being permitted into the airport because of the departure of the presidents of Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Russia, who were in town for a visit. People milled around outside in the dark. Most of them were clearly labor migrants bound for Russia, apparently still willing to take their chances there despite the crisis. Finally we were allowed in but I found that the women security agents had not yet shown up for work. Once they arrived, I was checked through to the waiting hall where I waited. And waited. And waited. Apparently Medvedev had not yet departed. His helicopters sat on the tarmac, but until he left no flights were allowed to take off. After close to three hours the Russian president finally was seen to be hurried into one of the helicopters and all took off. Almost immediately, boarding to Kabul started. We were bused to a small propeller plane which was only half full. The short flight crossed some of the most breathtaking mountain scenery I had ever seen.