The Tajik Way
“I’ll be interning in Tajikistan for three months.”
*cue the confused facial expressions*
“What?”
“Where is Tachikistan/Tajistan/*insert some version of the name*?”
“Huh? Can you repeat that?”
“Is that even safe?”
“I’ve never heard of it.”
— — — — — — — — — — — — — — —
This is how most of my conversations transpired (or some variation of it) in the months leading up to my departure for Tajikistan. Friends and family had never heard of Tajikistan before. My aunt (basically my second mom) still hadn’t bothered to learn the name of the country as my departure date arrived. She kept calling it “Kajitstan”.
I will be embarking on a 3-month internship with a reputable NGO who we will call Org X, in Khorog, Tajikistan. This internship is part of my degree requirements in order to graduate with my Masters of Education (MS.Ed) in International Education Development. To help you all out, here’s a map of Tajikistan and the town of Khorog, which borders Afghanistan.
I’ve started this series to document my journey — start to finish — of my time here in Tajikistan. I’ll be posting thoughts, observations, random snippets here and there, as well as work related things.
Little bit of context:
- Org X truly massive international non-profit working in many areas of development
- Dushanbe is the capital of Tajikistan, but I will be based in the Khorog office
- I’ll be working on a pilot program for adolescent health and wellbeing in Central Asia
- I’m a Master’s student at the University of Pennsylvania’s Graduate School of Education
I invite you to follow my journey, and if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions, feel free to post them below!
Pre-departure
Before leaving, I was all sorts of terrified. Yes, I’ve lived abroad before but I’ve never lived anywhere where I don’t speak the local language. I also had no idea about the logistics of where I would be staying, how long I’d stay in Dushanbe before going to Khorog, and honestly didn’t really know what to expect. All I knew was that a staff member from Org X would pick me up at the airport and take me to a hotel for the first night.
So to sum it up, I felt uneasy and scared leaving the comfort of Bangkok, but this was something I had willingly chosen to do, so time to make the most of it!
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