Make a difference in the lives of women and children in Tajikistan - no amount is too small!

Monday, February 1, 2010

Meeting Other Volunteers in Tajikistan






Wow, to my delight I was accompanied to Tajikistan by another Canadian (British Columbia) VSO Volunteer!! Thank goodness too because it was an exhausting 3-day trip traveling Victoria, Vancouver, Montreal, Paris, St. Petersburg then to Dushanbe, capital of Tajikistan. There we spent 2 weeks with 4 other new volunteers from Germany, USA, England and Ise of Mann! It is so rewarding to meet like-minded people - not everyone understands why I would go to Central Asia to volunteer; least of all the citizens of Tajikistan.

We didn't have time to rest after landing in Dushanbe; we went directly into our 2-week in country training. It was very useful and a great way to introduce the culture. The greatest difficulty was getting used to the absence of street lights at night! Not to mention it was still like summer there and I had nothing but winter clothes with me – YIKES. Secondly was learning how to walk again as all the roads are in very bad shape and there are uncovered man-holes. I didn’t see much of Dushanbe when walking.. always looking at my feet. Dushanbe is about the size of Victoria BC. There are a number of different volunteer agencies working in Dushanbe, so I didn’t stand out as much as I was worried I would. Whew.

Myself and another volunteer were heading south to work in small communities, 2 others were heading north, and 2 were staying in Dushanbe.

I was off to Khorog, a small town boardering on Afghanistan. I had read that the flight from Dushanbe to Khorog is the hardest in the world; the plane doesn't have the luxery of digital technology and dependens on the sight and sound of the piolot. As the plane negotiates the peaks and valleys of the Pamir Mountains, I sat in awe and fear LOL. Although, they say the plane has only gone down once, 10 years ago - it was shot down by Afghanistan.. oh really!!! Nice, didn't want to know that.



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