rŭshan

luckily, there was a guy with a flip phone in the village who arranged transport back to rŭshan for us. back in town, we got the rest of our stuff back from the store and before we knew it, we were already sitting in the store owners kitchen, where she made us a whole dinner buffet. apart from the greedy drivers, the hospitality in the pamir is really almost as good as in iran. and they vehemently refuse to take money, even the smallest amount.

we spent the evening with the family and played some backgammon. what's interesting in the pamir is that there seems to be a lot more gender equality than in other islamic countries. just like the great lady that owned the guest house in khorog, the woman seemed to be the boss of the household here too. also, those english students that i mentioned, were all female. it's really refreshing to see all this after all that time in iran and pakistan. we were told that the relatively liberal ismailite branch of islam as well as the aga khan foundation, which provides hospitals, higher education as well as infrastructure to the region. go donate, i guess.Read more