Village Life

Thursday Eliana and I got back from 3 1/2 days in the village of my babysitter.  It was a good time and I'm glad we did it, but man, it was hard!  Everything from language to parenting was hard and I was stretched in so many ways.  The whole time I was there I just prayed that God would show Himself through me even though I was struggling so much.  I pray that they saw that in my weakness He was strong.  I will try to share some of my thoughts and reactions to my time there this week in hopes of processing and so that you can understand more about life here.

First of all, it was cold and rainy for the first two days.  As you can see from the picture there was even snow on the hills behind us when we woke up on Tuesday.  Houses in the village really aren't insulated at all so it was cold inside too but I was able to discover the brilliance of Tajik sewing ingenuity as I slept under one of their blankets and even got hot!  It was great!  They have learned how to stay warm and I got to see that and it was really cool.  Eliana and I also shared a bed (they were so sweet to let us sleep in their only bed) which was fun because she is so cute and how can you not love waking up to those big eyes, but also not so fun because she laid right up next to me the whole time making any movement difficult.  She also was wide awake at 6am each day, which made for some long days.  We made it though!

Most Tajiks who have houses have gardens and fruit trees and this is especially true in the village where you really must grow all your food.  This family had a beautiful garden that was almost all planted and ready to grow.  I love how well they still live off the land.  The produce is delicious too!  They also can a lot of things for the winter and they also had a basement that of course stays very cold so they can store vegetables there too.  I would like to go back sometime in the summer when they are canning and see how they do it and perhaps lend a hand.

Let's not forget that we are still potty training right now, which was another hard thing to deal with it.  I'm so thankful I brought diapers!  Eliana was having accidents faster than the pants could get dry (of course there is no dryer, not even a washer actually, and the weather was cold and rainy so air drying wasn't fast).  I'm so thankful for our modern conveniences of a washer and dryer and for the ladies being so sweet to handwash her clothes!

There is no running water into the house so they have a sink outside that has a spigot and there is another spigot close to the kitchen.  Can you imagine washing dishes outside all winter with cold water?  These ladies work so hard!  I know I am so spoiled and I was so thankful for their hospitality to cook and clean for me as well while we were there.  Oh yeah, that building down to the left is the outhouse.  The funniest thing to me about their outhouse is that they had built up a wooden platform and actually had a toilet seat on it so you could sit and use the bathroom, in addition to the spot for squatting.  Creative!

Those are pictures of the kitchen and that small, red box on the bottom shelf is the oven.  There is also only one electrical outlet in the whole kitchen so they just use an extension cord to plug in the oven (which is the same cord they use in the living area for the TV and heater) when they bake.  I taught them how to make chocolate chip cookies which was fun.  I'm not sure how much they loved them but I had fun doing it.  They also have a room next to the kitchen that houses two wood ovens for baking bread.  I LOVE homemade Tajik bread.  It is so delicious and was this time as well.  They also cooked traditional foods for us while we were there and even though in their eyes I didn't eat enough (you can't really ever eat enough when you are a guest!) I ate a lot and enjoyed the delicious food.

This canal runs through their yard and they can dam it up to water their gardens.  Once again, very creative!  I also need to mention that all the men in their family are in Russia right now working, which is very common here as the unemployment rate is extremely high.  So these women are running their homes all by themselves and doing it well.  Amazing!  I must not forget to mention that they also don't have a refrigerator so there is a lot of fresh cooking going on.

My babysitter's daughter is just three months older than Eliana so it was fun for them to be together.  Eliana was obessed with playing in the water and just loved every minute of it, even though the water was freezing cold!  I think the coolest thing about taking Eliana was seeing how much more she can communicate in Tajik than I realized.  She understands so much and even says more than I knew.  She will be better than us before long!  On the hard side, she was very hard to discipline and a lot more delicate than usual.  This was made more difficult by the fact that we just parent a lot differently than Tajiks and they just did not understand how I was handling her.  It was tiring and stressful for me and reminded me of how thankful I am to have learned about other cultures and how to respond to people who are different.  Their yard is also not child-proofed and there are lots of opportunities for falling so I had to be on constant look-out to make sure Eliana stayed safe.  She is also not the most physically agile child, making that part even more difficult.  I'm not sure they have ever had other foreigners in their home so I can imagine we were a bit crazy to them.  It was a stretch for all of us I think!

Of course there were animals everywhere and Eliana just loved that!  Goats, donkeys, cows, dogs, cats- animals all around.  The neighbors had a little calf tied up outside their house and she was brave enough to pet is and also petted some goats we saw.  We definitely don't see that in the city and we definitely would not see that living in Raleigh!

Seeing the beautiful mountains is always encouraging and I needed it since language also was really difficult on this trip.  I just had a really hard time understanding their speech.  A lot of it is because they just speak differently and less "book-like" in the village and I don't hear that a lot here.  Part of it was also that they were talking a lot to each other and it is always hard to understand when Tajiks speak to each other and not just to me specifically.  I was very humbled to be reminded of how much I have to learn.  I did have a couple of encouraging times when I was able to speak one-on-one and understood what was going on very well.  It's just hard when you've worked so hard and then still feel so inept.  Once again, I was just praying that in my weakness He would be made strong!

These little children came out when we were on a walk.  I know their lives are hard as well and I am so thankful for the privileged and blessed life I and Eliana get to lead.  The lady I stayed with is a local "healer" and lots of women come to her for help with ailments.  My babysitter said that many young women come to her because their wrists and arms hurt from all the hard work.  I am certain they have carpel tunnel syndrome from all the repetitive motions of sweeping, kneading, washing and other activities they do.  They don't really understand what is going on and how to care for themselves.  Oh how blessed I am to have an easy life and to have doctors who can help me when I am sick!  I am thankful they have this lady to work with though because I know she has knowledge to help with pain, just not full knowledge or equipment to do it completely.

The pace of life in the village is a lot slower as there isn't really anything to do except housework things and perhaps visit some friends.  This was hard for me as we are pretty much always "doing" something, especially as I try to help Eliana learn and grow.  We did have fun going for some walks though, even though it was really muddy, and I enjoyed being in nature and away from the busyness of the city.  This is also perhaps the most beautiful time of year here as all the grass is green and growing before the rain stops and everything gets brown.  It was also fun seeing these women interact together and just enjoy spending time together.  They don't get to see each other often, as no one has a car, so their times together are rich and full of conversation.  They also enjoy sewing and while we were there Eliana got a new korta from the daughter in our family.  Our babysitter sewed it using an old hand-crank sewing machine, sitting on the floor in a dimly lit room.  Once again, amazing!

I just LOVE this picture of the girls!  It turned out perfectly and you know that isn't easy with two two-year-olds.  Sometimes I think about the life Eliana is living and how different it is than my childhood and am amazed.  I am thankful we have been led here even when it is hard.  The hard realities and trying to live in and fit in to a different culture were loud and clear this week.  All my expectations were not fulfilled but I'm not sure they were all correct.  Drew (and earlier Bianca) reminded me that I have to not base my evaluation of my faithfulness on other people's responses but only on my actions.  My personality has a hard time with this as I often feel the need for that affirmation but I need to trust that I did what He asked me do and that it was better to go than to stay here and that there will be benefits simply because I was faithful.  I look forward to going to visit again and hope I can continue to be a blessing to this family.  I don't think I will do something like this again by myself with Eliana until she is older though.  I think it would be easier to focus and be useful.

I am thankful for this opportunity.  I feel like I learned so much and was stretched in ways that were necessary for me to keep growing.  It's not easy but that's life, right?  Feel free to write if you have any questions or would like to hear more.  Thanks for reading!