When I was younger, perhaps 13 or 14 and in grade 7, I got into my mind that Germans were a gruff and somewhat unfriendly people. I know the impetus for this thought and she was my German teacher Frau “Something”- I forget her name. She disliked me and would not allow me to continue German the following and my for my part I did many things to piss her off. My impression of Germans remained the same for many years albeit I did not come across that many during that time. When I was 22, I moved to Germany for several months to be with Rossana who had won a scholarship to study at the University of Heidelberg, and I intended to use this trip as an opportunity to study the Germans and to try and understand what made them grumpy and gruff (and also I guess to see if my impression of them was wrong).
Well the first potential clue to the cause of their gruffness came to me the first time I did the old number 2 in the bathroom and went to grab a piece of German toilet paper. I know they are green friendly and environmentally conscious but there is a limit; you cannot wipe your ass with that rough stuff on a long-term basis and be a happy smiley person.
Or so I thought until I arrived in Tajikistan. More similar to industrial strength highly abrasive sand paper than to anything you would want to apply to any of your body parts least of which your ass, this is the stuff they use in this part of the world and yet the Tajiks are some of the nicest, kindest, most hospitable, smiley and seemingly happy people in the world. And this is despite the obvious hardships of their lives. Tajikistan was the poorest of the Soviet republics and went down the tubes faster than any of them following the break-up of the USSR in 1991. Civil war coupled with infrastructure break-down and brain drain meant it was the biggest loser in the downfall of the USSR; and yet what a people. The world could learn some manners from these people and I have certainly appreciated the short time that I have been here and hope to be able to come back again and again and hopefully help in the story of re-birth and growth of this fantastic country.
That being said, I will be bringing my own rolls of TP the next time I come to Tajikistan and my questions about the Germans remain (although I have to say that I keep this impression of the Germans more for fun as I now know many happy Germans although even the happy ones wonder why the German government donated 1 billion dollars to the Shanghai government to build a magnetic propulsion train from Pudong airport to the middle of Pudong!! Go figure?? Certainly Siemens and Thyssen Krupp, the main builders of the Maglev, did not mind the gesture!!)
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