sketchy

So this is the blog that will definitely need to be kept away from my mother, at least until I come back. We made some contact to talk to sex workers. We take the train to the end of the line and then take the city bus to the outskirts of town, where, along the highway, there is a construction yard and a market. We walk through mud towards the inside of the market. This is where tajik men live and work. Every morning they line up to wait for construction hirers to show up and take them for odd jobs for the day. Behind the rows of lumber, brick, and odd auto parts, they have some ‘dorm’ where they all live. Also here are the shanty-huts of cafés. This is essentially a construction yard and shanty town in one. We go through it to the end and stop by a field, where a strange tajik man comes out to tell jonbek that women are shy and are waiting for us in a hut in the middle of the field. This does not sound like a good idea so jonbek goes with the man to check out this hut (literally). We are left standing in the middle of the field alone. Now, it should be added that it’s raining and the sun is sitting right above the treetops of a forest ready to set. This is a bad idea. We are attracting attention, and every tajik passer-by looks at us as if we were penguins in the middle of a desert. Suddenly, my phone rings, it’s my mom. ‘how is it going? Where are you?” ‘in a field?” ‘what do you mean you’re in a field?’ ‘mom, can you just call me back?” jonbek reappears and says that he didn’t even make it to a hut, so we’re leaving. We walk back through shanty-town under eyes of confused tajik men and get into a car. (this whole car ride back, really, deserves its own separate blog, that cabi made me so happy)

Next day, after spending 2 hours drinking coffee and talking to this fabulous Ukrainian prostitute, we are to meet jonbek at a subway station because he had made another contact. Suddenly, we are going back to the same place, but this time we are assured that the ladies will come out to the subway station and meet us in a café. We wait, we wait more. Something isn’t functioning, so we go back to the shanty town to meet them in a shanty-town café. We wait some more. It’s Friday night, men are off work and are congregating all around the shanty town getting ready for the night, either resting or partying. We are attracting attention. I suddenly feel like I’m back in Tajikistan. It smells like roasting meat, there are men running around in sandals in the mud, tajik music is blasting from every corner. Everyone stares. We stick out, we’re women in the middle of this men world, we’re blatantly white. This is bad. We wait some more and I convince jonbek this is a bad deal and we should leave. Suddenly, a car pulls up. Apparently there are 4 women inside willing to talk. We are going to find a café somewhere. So we immediately find someone who knows someone and get him to drive us, following the car with women and the sketchy guy who is making the deal. The car drives out of shanty town into the, essentially, an interstate highway. We have just passed the sign leaving Moscow. We turn into a village (named Borodino, which actually is the site of the 1812 battle with Napoleon army at which, although technically victorious, the French advance was haulted turning the tide of the war). We drive along paths through people’s backyards to a house. We are told this is the café. I don’t see a café. It’s really a house but there are tables inside and women are making food to order. I do 3 interviews. The women are actually very nice. After, we would like to leave, but the car that brought the women here needs to take them back. So we wait for it to return for us. I’m wondering if it will. We’re freezing: it has gotten colder in Moscow and this house is really a hut, with open windows and doors. It’s cold, it’s about 9pm at this point. Finally the car arrives to drive us home. We walk out into the pitch darkness and I hope to god there is no one in the car as we get into it. Safely home. Village, field, sketchy dudes, I have done 4 interviews in 1 day. No more fields.