It is nine in the morning on my last day in Dushanbe. I have been here just 14 days and in eighteen hours I will start the journey back to Ireland. I had originally hoped to take the train from Dushanbe to Moscow and document the trip that many of these labor migrants take. Unfortunately the process for securing all the correct visas (you travel across four international borders) takes nearly three weeks to complete.
I do not have the time or the money right now to wait three weeks in Dushanbe while the visas are arranged. Perhaps in the spring I will try and make that part of the story happen.
Tajikistan is a beautiful country. Its terrain and climate remind me very much of California, particularly the Bay Area. It is a mostly mountainous terrain with one large valley in the Southwest part of the country which is where Dushanbe is located. The city itself is a fairly new creation having been build by the Soviets only 70 years ago. There was once a small village and market located here. In fact the name Dushanbe simply means “Monday” in Tajik as this was the site of the “Monday market”.
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I am sitting in a hotel room in Dublin waiting to head to the airport to board a plane for Dushanbe, Tajikistan. It is the next step in my story on Russian migrant workers from Central Asia. 
As you know I spent two weeks in Moscow and got some good work done there and made some very good contacts.
My next trek to Tajikistan will help to round out the story. I want to show where the workers are coming from and the families that they are leaving behind. To do this I will spend about two weeks Traveling around Tajikistan meeting and documenting families. The final piece of this journey is to take the four day train ride from Dushanbe to Moscow.
My plea to you is for financial assistance. If you remember reading my previous post on my new ideas to fund documentary photography you are familiar with my concepts. If not you can find them here. I have reopened the Pledgie page and would love for everyone that read this to send as much as they can afford. Even $5 would help.
Now it’s time to put your money where your mouth is. If you really feel my photography is good and that this story needs to be told then step up and help me make sure I can finish shooting this story and get it sold. After spending two weeks meeting these people I feel now more than ever that their story needs to be told. Please help me click the link above and make a pledge.
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