Tales-Chapter 2

Taking the advice of a few of my fellow bloggers, I will quit whining about my new place of residence and instead regale you with stories of places I have worked in.

Prior to moving to Dubai, I worked in Tajikistan, in the Gorno Badakhshan region, a country that I spent 2 amazing years in. Every time I try to write down my experiences of living in that country, I fail, because the sheer beauty and fullness of my life there are difficult to put down on paper. I wish everyone could visit Tajikistan at least once in their lifetimes, to witness the beauty, serenity and hospitality of the people who live there. I learned so much from my time there, professionally, as well as personally. I have never felt fulfilment in my life like I did there. There are no gadgets, gizmos, distractions to life. I felt like I actually experienced LIFE there.

For example, one evening, when the electricity had shut down (at 5pm), after dinner (sardines and naan again), my friend and I decided to go for a walk. It was October, just beginning to get cold, but not so cold that you couldn't enjoy a nice evening walk. We left my neighborhood and headed towards the airport. The leaves on the trees had started to turn yellow and orange and we crunched through them on our way towards the outskirts of town. Headlights of the occasional car would make us turn the other way, to the mountains of Afghanistan and the scattering of lights of homes with electricty. After walking for around thirty minutes, we came to the lookout point. In the dark of twilight, the darkest dark I have ever been in, where it is hard to see even your own hand, we climbed the rough rocks of the mountain to the flat space that afforded us a view of the entire valley and Afghanistan beyond. We had clear views of the majestic Pamirs, the river Panyj and the night sky which at this time was a remarkable shade of blue. Not quite indigo, not navy, but something in between. Stars, (so close we could touch them couldn't we?! ) were everywhere: bright, big, luminous, gorgeous. And the silence. If you have never experienced absolute, utter silence, it can be quite freaky. It was so quiet that we could hear the river gurgling down below, we could hear the marmots rummaging around in their homes behind us, and the tumble of rocks as some nocturnal animal made it's way around the mountain. Isat there, in this peaceful place, filled with happiness and wonder at the world, at my life, at the fullness of it all. And I wondered, how little one needs to feel truly alive.