Tajik Tales

Flying from Dushanbe to Khujand a hole opened up in the sky and swallowed The Coruscating Camera. When I landed I couldn't post anything. Finally, I changed blog services. I think Wordpress is being blocked by Uzbekistan so I switched to Blogger.So sit back and enjoy the flight. I spent about an hour looking at this seat back. I decided it was beautiful.

Once we landed in Khujand, Tajikistan Vivian had to run off to the University where a pile of people were waiting for her to do a presentation. I wandered around outside as she was teaching, "Mares eat oats and does eat oats and little lambs eat ivy."I met these guys on the overpass. Body language is an art in Tajikistan. It was like these guys were models for a 1959 fashion shoot.

Inside the girls were primping as if for a photograph by Garry Winogrand. More body language from a gone world.

Back to my search for man in the landscape, I found this guy out on the overpass.

After Khujand University we went over to the American Corner where I met this guy and his poisonous snake. He caught it in his village and he wanted to show it to his class before he ate it. He said that most people just boil it and drink the broth, but he likes the meat too. He'll be going to Iowa in a few months, so he might be a good guy to hang out with, if you are wandering in a snake pit.

That reminds me of why I like Ireland so much (no snakes). Back at the American Corner, Vivian is hanging out with a gang of young people for a Q and A. I got to explain Buddhism to them. Anything that is not monotheism is a mind bender for them. I did not illustrate limpid clearness in my explanation.

This is a picture of an army camp set up along a wall that Alexander the Great built over 2000 years ago. These guys are just sweeping the dirt and doing their laundry, but they remind me of the Chinese road crews. China outbids all the road contractors in Tajikistan because they have few labor costs. They use Chinese prisoners to whom they offer one half sentences. So these guys come and work for a year instead of sitting in prison for two years.

Back to Ancient history. Almost every museum we've gone into has some kind of stone age tableau set up. This family was in the cellar of this fancy museum in Khujand.
I have more pictures to upload, but I want to make sure this new blog works. I'll blog again soon.