2003-03-15 - 9:57 a.m.
On Thursday, in an intense battle with Iraq, Uzbekistan destroyed the Al Talaba defences. By continually pressuring the weak strategic system inplemmented by the Iraqis, outmanuvering the slower men and withholding quick offensive strikes until they were most damaging, Paxtakor, the Uzbek national soccer team, won a decisive 3-0 victory over Al Talaba (meaning student in Persian), the Iraq national team. For the past two weeks, the neighborhoods of Parkent have been silent between the hours of five and seven. The Asian Football Champions (AFC) Championship Series has been playing itself out, and the locals are glued to the television to see the victors. Paxtakor, or cottonworker in Uzbek, has been on a roll. They defeated Iran 1-0 on Monday. Iraq beat Turkmenistan as well. But this week's final between Iraq and Uzbekistan was a lopsided affair, as the Uzbeks took control earlier and ran away with the game.
March 8 in Uzbekistan is the holiday known as Women's Day. A mixture of Mother's Day and Valentine's Day, the women of Uzbekistan look forward to this day and plan around it for weeks before, and as I've since witnessed, weeks after. At our school the students put together a series of skits and plays highlighting the importance of women in society. Of course, Uzbekistan has many gender issues. Girls are married off by parents. Many are forced to abandon professions for a life of household work. But on Women's Day, the men showed that they could work. Several of the teachers and I prepared Palov, the national dish, for our female teachers. Boys were seen in the hallways of school carrying wrapped gifts, flowers, and sweets to give to a sweetheart or teacher. And at home, for my mother and sisters, I used fresh Kattik, Uzbek for keifer, from our cows to make delicious apple pancakes. As an American, I placed a great amount of pressure on myself in selecting gifts for my female family members. I wanted something original, appropriate, and memorable. So I went to our physics teacher, Holimboy, and purchased four lotto tickets. The grand prize for the drawing was a new car. Women's Day night my host mother, Marifar, and sisters, Nilufar and Nargiza, gathered around the television to watch the drawing. Unfortunately, they did not win the car. Nilufar was especially disappointed as her 16th birthday was March 7. It is for this reason that I gave her two lotto tickets, and the others one. After the grand prize was selected, the lotto also drew second, third, and fourth prizes. The second prize was 24,000 soum, or $24, a little less than my counterpart's monthly salary of 30,000 soum. For this drawing, Nilufar was not as disappointed, primarily because her ticket was a winner, giving the 16 year old girl enough money to begin a shopping spree, perhaps multiplying her wardrobe many times over.
