Khorog and the trip to it, some pictures ...

in the Antolov on our way to Khorog, finally

arrival at Khorog Airport, left Zaro, our program manager and on the right Rod, our new friend and co-volunteer from Calgary Canada.

first view of Khorog, a river runs though it..

a walk in the Park (Central Park)

this is the bridge we take every morning for our early commute, certainly no A1 , M25 or 405

first look at the local market (bazar)

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Cross Border Markets and our First Tajik Wedding

The kids (here at a wedding) are all right - always It's Friday afternoon, 4:30 pm and a colleague mentions, by-the-way, that Monday is a holiday as Constitution day falls on Saturday, 6th November. A long week-end with places to go and things to see!! To hell with a two week pile of unwashed clothes! Here in Khorog, every Saturday morning there is a cross-border market, which is the closest we can get to actually visiting Afghanistan. View from the bridge in our village towards Afghanistan At 10 am Jelte, Rod and I hail a 'cab' and for the price of just one Somoni each (the equivalent of 30c or 20p) we share a 'golf cart' - commonly known as a Chinese van - with 4 other passengers to take us to the site of the cross-border market. When we arrive, things are just beginning to come alive. Standing out in the crowd We wander around the few stalls of fruits and clothes and odds and ends. Jelte and Rod si...

Boom-boxes, Birds and Bush-masters

Memories go back to Tajikistan; here an Afghan trader at one of the border markets Our memories drift back to October 2010, Dushanbe, the Prospekt Medical Clinic at Rudaki Avenue, the boulevard that dissects the capital of Tajikistan......... .................As part of the VSO-CUSO in-country training programs, new arriving volunteers have to meet with the staff of an always private local hospital to understand, what living in a new environment means and what bacteria, viruses and rabid dogs are on the loose and will visit the ignorant new-comers (unfortunately with alarming frequency). In Dushanbe we meet with the (German) Herr Dr. Andreas Hencko, an interesting, quirky and fascinating character. The older volunteers, quite unceremoniously, refer to him as Dr. Death. In a mere 20 minutes he manages to scare the bejeezus out of us hardy volunteers, with stories about the use of un-boiled or untreated water (filter first, boil twice), meat bought at the local ...

Dongles, Trotters and Opera

Detail of the famous Rohat National Tea House Welcome luncheon with VSO Tajikistan staff Ten days into our arrival and we're finding our way around this fascinating part of the world. We're still in Dushanbe, waiting for permits to allow us into the GBAO (Gorno Badakhshan Autonomous Oblast); our final destination is Khorogh, in the Pamirs. The town nestles between the mountains of Tajikistan and Afghanistan and is the Oblast's capital. Twenty-eight thousand people, predominantly Ismaili Muslims, live here. From Dushanbe, Khorogh can be reached by either road (497 km) or small aircraft if the weather permits. So, now we have completed our 10 day In Country Training and are ready and raring to start work as Tourism Advisors to the MSDSP (Mountain Societies Development Services Programme)....... Still in a holding pattern: gives us time to explore Dushanbe and its attractions. Saturday, one of our co-volunteers...

GOING-GOING-GONE

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