This morning I awoke to raindrops trickling down on the metal roof of the shack moments before my alarm went off. It was 7:30 am and I dragged myself out of bed to open the gate to the compound so the water truck could fill up our bathroom facilities. The rain was falling rapidly and I ran through a puddle on my way out to the gate and cursed the morning that brought this dreary weather. We’re in a place where rainfall is very uncommon, yet the day that I have been slated to go on a humanitarian effort outside of the base is the day the rain has chosen to descend. I ran back to the shack soon after opening the gate and returned to my bed with wet legs.
I dreamed of chaos and disorder overcoming the shack with visitors of a ragged sort populating our quarters with various forms of alcoholic beverages and black licorice. My roommate became distraught and decided that he was leaving and my trip was cancelled. I vaguely remember something about a chimp taking his place but I don’t think the thought was complete at the time that the sun began to shine through my window. The clouds of misfortune disappeared as I rested my weary eyes and I awoke to a new day and delightful weather.
I laid my Luigi T-shirt and took a shower but decided on my Nite Owl Shirt before leaving the shack. I ate nachos and French fries at the chow hall. This is the meal that I always eat when there is not anything good being served. I ate alone, as always, and tried to spot some of the others that could be going on the trip with me. A big Asian soldier kept glaring at me and I realized that he had seen me in there before and in uniform. He was probably thinking to himself that I was breaking the rules and wondering what he should do about it. He was an MP. It’s been my experience that MPs don’t like seeing people getting away with things that they can’t. I found some joy in knowing that there was not anything that he could do to me because I was allowed to be wearing civilian clothes in this circumstance.
When I arrived at the meeting point everyone else was already sitting on some stools just outside. I noticed a girl that I had seen before at the gym here and knew right away that I would enjoy the trip. We all exchanged names and had some small talk before out host came out and gave us our plan of action.
I sat in the back seat of the van squished between the two biggest men on the trip. The girl sat in the
middle row. I noticed that there were tons of children on the streets on a Thursday afternoon. We
were told later that the kids had a mandatory cleaning day as a part of their child development. They went to school 6 ½ days a week with one full day dedicated to cleaning. Some of the kids were dressed in suits and many of the girls were wearing dresses as they swept away at gutters and streets. Our first stop was a tower. When we arrived there were many little children sweeping away at a pot with a fire burning at the bottom of the tower. As we walked up the dark winding staircase to the top with the skinny steps there were children to greet us on every landing.
When arriving at the top our guide notified us that this was one of the biggest make out spots in the city
and that we were interrupting all of the kids on the landings on our way up. There were big metal cabins around the edge, which could easily fit two couples. I pictured myself going to school in this country and going up there to put these metal cabins to some use. I could see why it would be a big make out spot. There was nice view, empty cabins and plenty of room. It would be like the equivalent of “the lookout” in our culture. We took pictures with the children who followed us up to the top, boys then girls. The girls refused to take pictures with the boys.
The next shop was a library, where we spoke at length with English language students. The females in our group spoke with the girls alone at a separate table. A boy named William approached me very early and kept mentioning Scary movie. Apparently this is one of the only American movies that he had seen. He asked me for my email address and I gave it to him. Later I had wished I hadn’t. While I was drawing diagrams in order to explain football and baseball to one of the sophomore boys who was a fencer and spoke very clear English, William approached me and said he would like to talk to me in private. I told him I would when I was done with my drawings. In the hallway he assured me that he was not weird and then asked me if I had any sisters that I could hook him up with. Nothing
weird, he just wanted their email address so that he could talk to them. I walked back into the room without answering his questions. We took more pictures and then made our way to the next stop.
The “Weeping Woman” was a sculpture of a woman on her knees who looks to be involved in some sort of prayer in front of a fire. The sculpture was erected to commemorate all of the soldiers that they had lost in both the Afghanistan war and World War II. In back of her there were big golden pamphlets with names inscribed on each one. Each pamphlet represented a different region and included thousands of names on them. There must have been 16 of these pamphlets and these only represented the deaths of the different areas of the city. Uzbekistan lost millions of people in World War II. Millions.
Our last stop was a place that is sort of a mixture of a Planned Parenthood, a car wash and a resort of
sorts. The main reason we were there was to donate clothes and food. Inside the main area we were
introduced to the woman that runs the Planned Parenthood side of things. She was wearing a purple
scarf and a grey outfit with purple slippers. She radiated something beautiful that I’ve been having a
hard time describing. It’s almost like there should have been a halo around her. She just radiated this
goodness that told me that she was trying to heal the world and succeeding. She was a very nurturing soul. We sat at their table with elegant woodwork with a middle section that was cut to allow plants to
overflow from underneath and onto the table. The food was great and we all indulged in a glass of vodka that tasted like rubbing alcohol before taking a tour of the rest of the complex.
The woman’s husband owned the complex. Just outside the back door was where the car wash as well as an open courtyard and gardens were located. We were informed of a spa and a pool on the complex but were not shown them. As I’m describing this to you all I get the sense that I’m not really going into enough detail. Mainly because I don’t want to bore you out of your mind but understand that the car wash and the spa and pool and gardens are not of the type that we are used to seeing. You would hardly know what you were looking at if you weren’t told.
I wanted to hug the lady before leaving but I wasn’t really sure what their culture permitted so I didn’t.
While we sat at the gate to the base with a 50 Cal. machine gun pointed at us I thought about something that the woman talked about while we were eating that I didn’t mention. She talked about the days when they were part of Russia as though they were the glory days of the country. She said that they have been on a steady decline ever since gaining their independence. The value of their currency has dropped significantly; unemployment is rampant and inflation increases dramatically every year that passes. The communal mentality of their nation has had a difficult time adjusting to the western individualistic mentality that we want the entire planet to experience. It made me think maybe some countries are better off doing what they are already built to do.
I dreamed of chaos and disorder overcoming the shack with visitors of a ragged sort populating our quarters with various forms of alcoholic beverages and black licorice. My roommate became distraught and decided that he was leaving and my trip was cancelled. I vaguely remember something about a chimp taking his place but I don’t think the thought was complete at the time that the sun began to shine through my window. The clouds of misfortune disappeared as I rested my weary eyes and I awoke to a new day and delightful weather.
I laid my Luigi T-shirt and took a shower but decided on my Nite Owl Shirt before leaving the shack. I ate nachos and French fries at the chow hall. This is the meal that I always eat when there is not anything good being served. I ate alone, as always, and tried to spot some of the others that could be going on the trip with me. A big Asian soldier kept glaring at me and I realized that he had seen me in there before and in uniform. He was probably thinking to himself that I was breaking the rules and wondering what he should do about it. He was an MP. It’s been my experience that MPs don’t like seeing people getting away with things that they can’t. I found some joy in knowing that there was not anything that he could do to me because I was allowed to be wearing civilian clothes in this circumstance.
When I arrived at the meeting point everyone else was already sitting on some stools just outside. I noticed a girl that I had seen before at the gym here and knew right away that I would enjoy the trip. We all exchanged names and had some small talk before out host came out and gave us our plan of action.
I sat in the back seat of the van squished between the two biggest men on the trip. The girl sat in the
middle row. I noticed that there were tons of children on the streets on a Thursday afternoon. We
were told later that the kids had a mandatory cleaning day as a part of their child development. They went to school 6 ½ days a week with one full day dedicated to cleaning. Some of the kids were dressed in suits and many of the girls were wearing dresses as they swept away at gutters and streets. Our first stop was a tower. When we arrived there were many little children sweeping away at a pot with a fire burning at the bottom of the tower. As we walked up the dark winding staircase to the top with the skinny steps there were children to greet us on every landing.
When arriving at the top our guide notified us that this was one of the biggest make out spots in the city
and that we were interrupting all of the kids on the landings on our way up. There were big metal cabins around the edge, which could easily fit two couples. I pictured myself going to school in this country and going up there to put these metal cabins to some use. I could see why it would be a big make out spot. There was nice view, empty cabins and plenty of room. It would be like the equivalent of “the lookout” in our culture. We took pictures with the children who followed us up to the top, boys then girls. The girls refused to take pictures with the boys.
The next shop was a library, where we spoke at length with English language students. The females in our group spoke with the girls alone at a separate table. A boy named William approached me very early and kept mentioning Scary movie. Apparently this is one of the only American movies that he had seen. He asked me for my email address and I gave it to him. Later I had wished I hadn’t. While I was drawing diagrams in order to explain football and baseball to one of the sophomore boys who was a fencer and spoke very clear English, William approached me and said he would like to talk to me in private. I told him I would when I was done with my drawings. In the hallway he assured me that he was not weird and then asked me if I had any sisters that I could hook him up with. Nothing
weird, he just wanted their email address so that he could talk to them. I walked back into the room without answering his questions. We took more pictures and then made our way to the next stop.
The “Weeping Woman” was a sculpture of a woman on her knees who looks to be involved in some sort of prayer in front of a fire. The sculpture was erected to commemorate all of the soldiers that they had lost in both the Afghanistan war and World War II. In back of her there were big golden pamphlets with names inscribed on each one. Each pamphlet represented a different region and included thousands of names on them. There must have been 16 of these pamphlets and these only represented the deaths of the different areas of the city. Uzbekistan lost millions of people in World War II. Millions.
Our last stop was a place that is sort of a mixture of a Planned Parenthood, a car wash and a resort of
sorts. The main reason we were there was to donate clothes and food. Inside the main area we were
introduced to the woman that runs the Planned Parenthood side of things. She was wearing a purple
scarf and a grey outfit with purple slippers. She radiated something beautiful that I’ve been having a
hard time describing. It’s almost like there should have been a halo around her. She just radiated this
goodness that told me that she was trying to heal the world and succeeding. She was a very nurturing soul. We sat at their table with elegant woodwork with a middle section that was cut to allow plants to
overflow from underneath and onto the table. The food was great and we all indulged in a glass of vodka that tasted like rubbing alcohol before taking a tour of the rest of the complex.
The woman’s husband owned the complex. Just outside the back door was where the car wash as well as an open courtyard and gardens were located. We were informed of a spa and a pool on the complex but were not shown them. As I’m describing this to you all I get the sense that I’m not really going into enough detail. Mainly because I don’t want to bore you out of your mind but understand that the car wash and the spa and pool and gardens are not of the type that we are used to seeing. You would hardly know what you were looking at if you weren’t told.
I wanted to hug the lady before leaving but I wasn’t really sure what their culture permitted so I didn’t.
While we sat at the gate to the base with a 50 Cal. machine gun pointed at us I thought about something that the woman talked about while we were eating that I didn’t mention. She talked about the days when they were part of Russia as though they were the glory days of the country. She said that they have been on a steady decline ever since gaining their independence. The value of their currency has dropped significantly; unemployment is rampant and inflation increases dramatically every year that passes. The communal mentality of their nation has had a difficult time adjusting to the western individualistic mentality that we want the entire planet to experience. It made me think maybe some countries are better off doing what they are already built to do.
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