Learned to cut a rug today before visiting a gym to watch wrestlers work out. It was a traditional group work out where there was a singer and a drummer and they did exercises and dances to the music and demonstrated different skills that represented traditional weapons. There were men of all ages from young boys to older men and they all got the chance to show off their expertise. It was a pretty neat experience and I learned that gyms everywhere all smell exactly the same. That smell isn't pretty, especially when it is intensified by the fact that they make all the smelly tourists take off their shoes to watch!
I'm in a city that is on UNESCO's list of longest inhabited cities (although I've been told that a lot in the last week or so). Much of today was spent learning about a very old monotheistic religion that began in this part of the world although many of its strictist followers left this country for their own protection. I am in a city that is home to some of their greatest monuments. I had the opportunity to warm myself at their fire and listen to the sounds of silence. Fortunately there hasn't been anything there for the birds to eat since the 1970's so I didn't have to hide from birds. This evening I also visited a building very important to another religion and filled with beautiful mirrors, inlaid wood doors and people praying. Despite a few wardrobe malfunctions on my part it was an amazing experience (and I'm sure I amused the locals).
This is a hard place to get a handle on. Usually by this point in a trip I have an idea about the preconceptions that I inevitibly come in with from the American media. I can usually start to understand a little bit about what's true and what's not. That's not the case with this place. I don't know, maybe with this place the preconceptions are so deeply ingrained that I can't see past them. The people here are continually fascinated with the fact that I'm an American. Tonight I was sitting in the hotel lobby and a group of about 40 men from the northern part of the country filed in after a day tour. One spoke English and asked me where I was from. When I told him I was American I could hear the word American filtered down the line of the 40 of them like a game of telephone and they all wanted to look at me and ask questions. The one English speaker tried to ask me a bunch of their questions. The most difficult question for me to answer was "is life more difficult here or in America?" I mean, how do I answer that when I speak none of his language and he speaks only a few of mine without causing an international incident? This place has a long and fascinating history but what's harder to learn about is the present. Unlike the last country I was in where they were in a state of change and presented their nation "warts and all" things are a little harder to understand here. In some ways the people are very liberal while in other ways they are so conservative that it's hard for me to accept. It's only been today that my guide has begun to talk to me more about reality here for everyday young people (she's in her 20s). This is what some of our conversations were like today
Her: We should be friends on Facebook
Me: Umm I thought it was banned
Her: It is but I use a proxy, we find a way
Her: Look at this map on my Ipad
Me: Ummm I thought they were banned
Her: I bought it on the black market, we find a way
Her: I saw that on the BBC
Me: Ummm I thought that was banned
Her: I have a satellite dish, it's illegal but we find a way.
Maybe that's the takeaway from this country - the resilience of the people. They follow laws that to me seem very antiquated and silly and seemingly follow them without question. Maybe it's because those laws don't matter to them. But maybe, the younger generation is gathering strength and maintaining hope by subverting government control of technology. Maybe that's the way this country will find its way.
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