In August 2001, I was fresh out of college and eager to see the world. I left to be a part of the 12th group of Peace Corps Volunteers in Uzbekistan, a former Soviet republic in Central Asia. Three weeks into my experience, I found myself watching the World Trade Center fall and the Pentagon burn on CNN in Russian. I thought I was watching a movie. Two weeks after that, around the end of September, all Peace Corps Volunteers from Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan were evacuated as the United States prepared to take action in Afghanistan.

    Instead of taking another Peace Corps assignment, I decided to wait for the chance to return to Uzbekistan. The year that I spent in the States waiting was not unfruitful. I spent three months working at a media research institute at Northwestern University. I spent about four months as a Peace Camp counselor, living in the woods in rural Indiana and teaching conflict management and peace education to inner-city 6th graders from Indianapolis. And finally I spent the summer in Vermont attending the Arabic Language School at Middlebury College.

    On August 15, 2002, I will leave again for Uzbekistan with the 14th group of volunteers, also known as the Uzbek-14's. (Rumor has it they skipped 13 because of superstitions.) Like before, my primary assignment will be to teach English at the secondary school level. This Web site is dedicated to sharing my experience with anyone who is interested. If all goes well, I will post journal entries, photographs and any other interesting morsels of information that come my way during the next two years.

    The Web site will be a collaborative effort between myself and my brother, Imran Javed, who will be managing the technical and creative aspects. I am very grateful for his help and his artistic contributions.

    The site right now is in it's very initial stage. It has been put together very quickly. But we expect its content and design to develop significantly along the way. We've never done this before, so it should be an exciting experiment.

    Please take a look around and let us know what you think. We've already posted photos and letters from my first Peace Corps Uzbekistan experience. I hope this keeps you interested until new content arrives. Enjoy.

Read Sofia's e-mails from her pre-9/11 visit to Uzbekistan

NEW:Uzbekistan Image Gallery

Read an interview with Sofia for the Daily Northwestern
(10/25/01)