It wasn’t supposed to be like this. Central Asia was supposed to be cheap. I was supposed to stay in yurts and with local families and eat cheap street food. The money I saved in the ‘Stans was supposed to make up for the expense of Russia and my splurges in adding Italy and Turkey …
By the time I boarded my flight out of Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan on September 16, I was ready to say goodbye to Central Asia. My three months in the region left me physically and mentally exhausted and all I could think about was getting back home. I struggled through difficult border crossings. I endured hot, sweaty …
I resisted the urge to turn around and smile. But I couldn’t help smiling to myself as the Uzbek immigration officer moved a metal barrier aside and ushered me past the dozens of Tajik women who had tried so hard to keep me from the front of the immigration line. And I smiled again when …
I panicked. It was only my second day teaching English in Tajikistan and I panicked. I sat alone in my room flustered and close to tears because I had no clue how I was going to come up with four hours of English lessons every day. I planned out what I thought would be …
A small tear formed in the corner of my eye as I stood in front of my host family, modeling the brightly colored traditional Tajik dress that Mavzuna and Ganjina spent much of the previous day making for me. “Ochen kraseevaya,” they exclaimed with excitement. “Tajik devushka,” proclaimed my host mother Mouhayo with huge smile …
Growing up in middle class America, I take a lot of things for granted. I freak out if a thunderstorm knocks out power for even a few hours and heaven forbid I lose my internet connection at home. I have never known life without indoor plumbing and driving on dirt roads has never been part …
The first thing I noticed as I waited in the departure lounge in Istanbul to board my flight to Dushanbe, the capital of Tajikistan, was the fact that I was surrounded by people speaking English. Americans, British, Swiss – you name it, everywhere I turned were government and nonprofit workers headed to Tajikistan. Aside from …
No service. No signal. I stared at these words in the middle of my laptop screen in despair, hoping they were just temporary. But no, they stayed on the screen, a glaring indication that I no longer had any internet access. When I arranged to spend a month teaching English in the Zerafshan Valley in …
My Unexpected Internet Hiatus (or, How I Spent 12 Days Totally Offline) Read More »
Upon arriving in Baku, Azerbaijan, my first mission was seemingly simple: head to the embassies of Tajikistan and Uzbekistan to apply for my visas to both countries. Easy, right? Not so much. Both embassies are located outside of the center of the city, off the Badamdar Highway. The addresses themselves were weird, with …
