Tajikistan

A young girl on the side of the road intrigued me as we passed. She stood there with such a resolved and exhausted look on her small face, her body sagging; her hands hung limply at her sides. The pail at her feet told the story; that she had been retrieving water from a distance away for her family. Tajikistan's water supply is by any standard undrinkable, yet most Tajik people, whether by lack of proper means or education, still drink from wells, rusted pipes, rivers, and lakes.

My husband and I spent the last year of our lives living in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, a small impoverished country in Central Asia. During our time there we traveled throughout the country; to its cities, villages, farms, to the cotton fields, the aluminum factory, monuments, archaeology sites, and museums. We participated in an intensive Farsi language program through the American Councils for International Education Organization. Learning the language opened wide doors for us to understand the culture, the people, and the politics of Tajikistan, Iran, and Afghanistan. While there I also interned with The Urban Institute, a local NGO working for the betterment of society through simple things like water purification, waste removal, and citizen participation in local government.