Not Quite a Lemonade Stand

Remember the kids in the neighborhood that would sell lemonade from a stand on the sidewalk? Well, it's not quite the same thing in Central Asia. (OK, I'm stretching the joke. This photo really isn't typical.)

It's hard to see on the side of the tank, but this is a квас (kvass) stand. Kvass is some kind of alcoholic drink that sounds pretty interesting, but I haven't tried yet. I saw these two kids operating this thing and had to take a photo. I've joked with cashiers in the US about whether they were old enough to sell me the beer I was buying. I don't know what the law says in Tajikistan, but I guess these kids are old enough.

Hotel Minibar

Normally, I let things like this slide. We've all seen funny examples of poor translations in English, but this one really made me laugh.

Hopefully, you can see in this photo that item #3 is a "bear". I looked inside. There was no bear.

Quick Russian Lesson

While I was on temporary duty in Tajikistan, I saw these billboards all over Dushanbe, and I thought they were pretty amusing. I'll explain why.

People in the US have been talking about "energy independence" for years, and they talk about it even in developing countries like Tajikistan. But it's not quite the same.

At the top left of this sign is the name of a big Russian oil and gas company, Gazprom (and I guess this is a bit of a lesson on the Cyrillic alphabet as well). Below the company name, it basically says "foreign oil and gas" (zarubezhni neft i gaz). The next two lines below that are in Tajik. Then the last two lines are in Russian. They say "Together towards the energy independence of Tajikistan!"

In the US, we're trying to reduce foreign energy sources, but Gazprom wants to think that energy independence will come from relying on a foreign provider. Maybe Gazprom thinks that no one in Tajikistan remembers Russia cutting off Ukraine's gas supply a few winters ago.