Dushanbe, Tajikistan

Before coming to Almaty, I was able to volunteer for a project that involved interviewing businesses and organizations in the countries of Central Asia to learn about their perspective of the business and political environment in their respective countries.

The project started a couple of weeks ago, and my team visited Dushanbe, the capital of Tajikistan. We stayed for just a few days and didn't really have any time for sightseeing. This photo was taken from a window at our hotel. There was a lot of other interesting things to see down there, but I'll have to get pictures the next time I go.

While I was there, I received a request from one of my co-workers to bring back some tea. Apparently, you can get really good tea in Tajikistan, but I was told that Tajikistan doesn't actually produce any tea. Regardless, I had a task, but there was no time to get to the market to buy the stuff. Our last meeting took place right before we needed to get to the airport for the trip back. When I got to the airport, our logistics coordinator was waiting for me with a plastic shopping bag. He had asked one of the drivers to get some tea, and the driver got some -- about 5 pounds or so.

I was happy that he was able to get this tea, but I wasn't sure how it was going work out going through customs -- at airports in two different countries. Of course, it seems that Americans tend to get treated more easily than others in developing countries, and I also had my diplomatic passport to help the situation as well. When all else fails, pull the dip card.

As it turned out, there were no questions at all. Most likely, the customs staff see this all the time because there is significant traffic between Kazakhstan and the other countries in Central Asia. Often, people are bringing huge quantities of stuff to sell or to give to family members. And they could probably identify tea if they saw it.