Deans: Time to pitch in for cafe

By Sue Deans
Thursday, March 15, 2007

Remember when you were a kid and Mom told you that you had to give Mary a birthday gift if she gave you one?

Well, we're still $200,000 short of paying for a gift we owe to Boulder's sister city Dushanbe, Tajikistan.

This exchange of gifts dates back almost 20 years. It's time to get out our checkbooks and complete the funding to finish a cyber cafe in Dushanbe.

And in case you don't remember, the gift Dushanbe gave us is the wonderful, hand-carved, hand-painted teahouse at 1770 13th St. Not only is it a work of art, it brings in more than 100,000 customers each year for tea and food.

"Boulder Sings for Dushanbe," a benefit concert at 4 p.m. April 1 at Macky Auditorium, begins the push to raise the rest of the $200,000 needed to complete the $1 million Cyber Cafe project.

The concert features musical groups Boulder Chorale, Jubilate and Kutandara Marimba.

The relationship between the two cities dates back to Cold War days, when Boulder residents wanted to forge ties with the people of the former Soviet Union.

In 1987, Dushanbe became a sister city.

In 1989, residents of Dushanbe sent Boulder the teahouse, which sat for years stored in 200 crates at Boulder's sewage treatment plant. Eventually the city donated land for it, and it was assembled "like a jigsaw puzzle," said Don Mock, president of Boulder-Dushanbe Sister Cities.

In 1998, the teahouse opened for business.

Mock said enough money has been raised to finish the cyber cafe building. Ground was broken a year ago. Remaining costs are for furniture and technology.

Doing business to build the cyber cafe 12 time zones away and in an entirely different culture has been no easy task, he said.

"It's really exciting to have enough now to get through the most difficult phase," Mock said. "It's been a long haul."

After the first set of plans was prepared, Dushanbe officials ordered the project moved to another site, and it had to be redesigned to fit that space.

Dushanbe is paying costs for that move as well as for landscaping, a parking lot and a bus shelter, contributing a total of $206,000.

Mock hopes the cafe will be finished in 12 to 18 months. He visited Dushanbe a year ago and said the city is isolated, but like Boulder, it sits next to the mountains.

It's become easier to get there from here in the last couple of years, since Turkish Airlines has begun flying there from Istanbul.

Mock said Navruz, the Persian New Year to be celebrated Wednesday, is a great festival in Dushanbe and could attract tourists at some point. He thinks Navruz, in the next couple of years, would be a good time to dedicate that cyber cafe. And if you're interested, a Navruz celebration takes place here at the teahouse Sunday. Call (303) 442-4993 for information.

To donate to the Dushanbe cyber cafe project, send checks payable to Cyber Cafe Project to Boulder-Dushanbe Sister Cities, P.O. Box 4864, Boulder CO 80306.

Ticket information for "Boulder Sings for Dushanbe" is available at the Boulder Theater box office at (303) 786-7030 or www.boulder-dushanbe.org. Tickets range from $10 to $150.