Tajikistan is the poorest of the former Soviet Republics. I don’t know how that’s all worked out (whether that’s income per capita versus cost of living or employment rates or what) but I must say that it is rich in so many other areas that really are more important to quality of life. I’m thinking about this today because yesterday the electricity cut out for about 3 hours in the late afternoon/evening and it was HOT. Hannah and Emmett woke up from their naps just after Rees came home and they were sweaty and hot (no AC, no fans, no running water when the electricity is out and temps are well over 100 these days with humidity still in the air). Usually on Thursday evenings we eat an early dinner (or really late dinner) so that Hannah and I can go outside and visit with the women and children from about 6pm til dark (8:30 or 9). Rees stays home with Emmett because he goes to bed early. Because it was so hot in our apartment, Rees decided to go outside with us – which is a spectacle in and of itself since most of the men aren’t outside playing with children! Hannah and I found some neighbors who were cleaning up after canning about 30 jars of tomato sauce (which they had cooked outside over a fire – very typical). They welcomed us to their circle and we all talked about how hot it was and they told me about all they were canning and how it was better to can together and they wanted to make sure I understood that it’s a good time to can tomato sauce. All the while the little kids are happily running around playing, one of the women is nursing her baby, other neighbors are talking to us out their windows and we are all dripping sweat. After some laughs and making suggestions for what to make for dinner and where to get nectarines for the cheapest price, one of the women looked at me and said (more or less), “Tajikistan is naughty. No electricity, it’s hot, we’re sweating. America is better.” I answered this how I normally do, “yes, America almost always has electricity, but I think most Tajiks would be very sad there.” I went on to explain that most people live by themselves (with their own nuclear family if they have one) and there aren’t many women close by who sit outside taking a break from their work talking to each other. In fact, many neighbors don’t even know each other. They can’t even comprehend that it’s not unusual for neighbors to hardly say a word to each other in 20+ yrs of living next to each other. Here there is so much visiting, sharing and dividing work, “living off the land,” neighbor kids helping with smaller children, commitment to families, etc. It’s obviously no utopia here as dysfunction can be found on every front but I looked at this neighbor’s smiling, sweating face, looked at all her jars full of the spoils of summer to be eaten in winter, looked at the women around who had helped with the work and who were laughing with each other and I thought, “she probably doesn’t know how rich she really is.” I suppose that could be said of each of us.
