our apartment "dvor"

We live an in an old apartment complex that takes up about a city block. The side that borders the main street, Rudaki Avenue, has shops for high end clothing, jewelry, and stationery; an art gallery (which has been closed for a while); and a cell phone store. 

our apartment block from across the street

the Rudaki Blvd side of the apartment block

Once you go through one of the three gates...

...you enter the enclosed communal inner area that is called "dvor" in Russian and that we call the "courtyard."

It was quiet in the winter, but began to come to life as the weather grew warmer:

It has some dilapidated areas...

caretaker's (?) house, electrical building (?) and trash

...but they seem to look better when surrounded by green.

the view from our kitchen--the back side of the trash area

And there's some fixing up going on:

white washing the electric building--perhaps this houses the boiler for the old-style communal hot water heating pipes

Not sure what's being built. Could it be preparation for actual pavement? It would be nice to have some pathways and areas really paved well, but I hope they don't take out the green space to accommodate the growing number of cars that need to be parked.

Householders are coming out for spring cleaning:

Carpet cleaning--a little boy is helping push the wooden scraper (behind the bush)

Hanging out laundry

Detailing a car

Vendors are coming by:

The seller of brooms

This bread seller caught the attention of the women who can frequently be seen sitting on this blue bench as well as the girls coming home from school

Kids are out in full force:

A card game like "war" and "rock paper scissors" to resolve ties

They couldn't wait to change out of their school uniforms

These high school guys had picked up soft ice cream on the way home

There are probably over 100 separate apartments in this courtyard. Some, like ours, contain renovated interiors. We've seen Indian and Chinese here, and some diplomatic license plates. We talked with a single American guy who lives in a tiny one-room apartment rented via AirB&B from a local who now lives abroad. But there also seem to be people who've lived here for decades and remember its glory days.

We haven't had a lot of contact with our neighbors (winter, busy lives, language barriers). But the kids have proved to be quite friendly.

They say, "Здравствуйте," hello, in polite Russian. Some try out their English, "Hello!" One asked me one day, "What is your name?" "Kitty," I told them. Now they call out, "Hello, Mrs. Kitty!" (Who taught them that polite title?)

(I tried to take a picture of three girls playing, but one didn't want to be photographed. Instead, she grabbed my camera and took this photo.)

[Want to find out more about other housing options in Dushanbe? Here's a blog post I wrote on that topic.]