I must apologize (again and again) for not writing more and not posting more pictures. Life in the developing world just requires a lot of time and the internet requires a lot of time to load and stay connected and all that. It just hasn't made it to the top part of my priority list to use the time I've got for blogging as much as I intended to. That said, while we are in the U.S. I'm hoping to load more pictures of these last years assuming that internet speed is faster. Don't quote me on that, I'm just sharing my intention :)
I realize that we've really adjusted to living here in a lot of ways in that life here is quite different than it is in the U.S. but I actually have to sit and think about what the differences are anymore. There are moments that the differences are difficult to miss, like finally figuring out that there is a broom season here. Just like there is strawberry season, blueberry season, apple season, pumpkin season, there is broom season here. There are people that go around with brooms stacked up on their bikes and they holler out, "Jorub da biyo!" which more or less means, "Come for brooms!" and if you need a broom, you walk out and buy one from the guy. Well, a year and a half ago (fall) I bought two brooms for just over $1 each (5 Tajik somoni each with an exchange rate of about 4.85 Tajik somoni to 1 U.S. dollar). Well, anymore I hear them outside selling the brooms for 14 TS. Inflation makes a bit of a difference but once you see a broom tree you figure out that brooms are seasonal so if you buy them out of season, they are more expensive (just like anything else would be). There really are little trees that grow that get harvested, dried and bound to be sold as brooms. So we have broom season here.
Now another way in which life is quite a bit different here is the focus on the group as opposed to the individual. Most Asian people understand this (if they aren't too far removed from their respective Asian cultures). You reward the group and you punish the group. In the U.S. we highly highly highly value the rights of the individual. You don't really see that here so much. Here's a case in point, about a month ago, the bill collector for city water came around. Apparently many people were in arrears for their water use. He went to every home multiple times and many people balked and sulked and said that the water isn't coming out very well or they don't have any money or it's too expensive or whatnot. Others of us paid for our water usage. Me, the only Westerner in our building, heard the bill collector was here and immediately got my receipt book and wallet and stood in my door, waiting for him to come. We don't have a mail system to speak of and certainly can't use credit cards anywhere so we literally just wait around for bill collectors to come and we pay them when they do. Well, apparently my neighbor (who has been renting his apartment since the fall) was behind like 4 years in paying for water. Of course, he shouldn't have to pay for the water that was used before he moved in so he paid for his own water usage. Others had similar situations or just used the above excuses. I ended up paying for our water usage til August when we will be leaving (practical, right? Why wait around for this guy to show up again when I can take care of all of it now and have records of it). Well, the long and the short of it is, the bill collector tried collecting the money for three weeks, threatening to turn off our water if the money isn't paid. He even posted the names and apartment numbers of every home and how much they owed and posted it at every entrance. Apparently the money wasn't paid so just a day or two after our American guests came to visit, our water was turned out. I mean our whole apartment building's water. Can you imagine how this would go over in Amercia? :) We were totally caught up and even ahead of schedule paying, but we are part of the group so we get a collective punishment. I thought that it would be off until the money was paid but this sweet girl who comes and helps me at home twice a week told me it was just a punishment and that it would be off for a week no matter what. Fortunately for us, we are accustomed to the water going dry on occasion so we had like 30-40 liters stored up and we'd end up with a trickle coming out of the faucets in the middle of the night so we'd fill up our containers all over again. We also have friends who had water so we showered and bathed our kids at their place (thanks Readys and Wilburs!). I still feel a mixture of indignity and hilarity at these kinds of things but they just don't surprise me anymore. So, there you have it - broom season and collective punishment for a few people not paying for their water. The fact that many could have paid for water and didn't is a whole other topic :) We'll see how it goes in a few months when the water collector fellow returns.
