MALIKA MALAEVA

OSHOBA VILLAGE, TAJIKISTAN

Malika is 40 year old and she has three children, two sons and one daughter. Her husband works in Russia usually 5-6 months per year. Malika likes to look after her garden but she does not like washing windows. She loves when the whole family comes together, they sit behind a table, eat and talk. This is because they are rarely together. When her son is home, her husband is in Russia and when her husband is home her son is in Russia. Other women say about her that is pretty and also a very nice woman. Her childhood was the happiest time of her life. She remembers playing with other children outside, dancing, and putting makeup on in front of a mirror. She likes to spin yarn because it is a very calming work. When she spins she is relaxing. She dreams about remodeling an old house they inherited from her husband’s parents and marrying her daughter and sons. After that she also wants to go to Russia with her husband and see other countries. Other women in the workshop like her because she jokes a lot. Before she started working there she sat at home but now she has a good reason to leave. Every morning she quickly runs of to the workshop because if a guest comes over she has to stay home. She has three close friends in the workshop and they talk for hours. They go home only after their husbands start calling them. She has a high blood pressure and every year she went to the hospital because of that. But since she started spinning her blood pressure has been stable and she did not need to take medicine for it. She now plans to make yarn until old age, as long as she can see and her hands remain steady.