16 Days To Go...

The countdown continues. I thought I would share some of the reading I've been doing about Turkmenistan and Peace Corps. Below I've listed some quotes from books that I have been devouring recently and short blurbs about the books they are from. Enjoy!

From Living Poor: A Peace Corps Chronicle by Moritz Thomsen: This is one PCV's (Peace Corps Volunteer's) account of his time in Ecuador with the Peace Corps. He spent a total of four years there. The book was published in 69' so he was one of the first groups of volunteers to participate in Peace Corps.

"Living poor is like being sentenced to exist in a stormy sea in a battered canoe, requiring all your strength simply to keep afloat; there is never any question of reaching a destination. True poverty is a state of perpetual crisis, and one wave just a little bigger or coming from an unexpected direction can and usually does wreck things. Some benevolent ignorance denies a poor man the ability to see the squalid sequence of his life, except very rarely; he views it rather as a disconnected string of unfortunate sadness. Never having paddled on a calm sea, he is unable to imagine one. I think if he could connect the chronic hunger, the sickness, the death of his children, the almost unrelieved physical and emotional tension into the pattern that his life inevitably takes he would kill himself." (p 173)

"Poverty isn't just hunger; it is many interlocking things - ignorance and exhaustion, underproduction, disease, and fear. It is glutted export markets, sharp, unscrupulous middlemen, a lack of knowledge about the fundamental aspects of agriculture. It is the witchcraft of your grandfather spreading its values on your life." (p 260)

"To work harder a man has to eat better; to eat better he has to produce more; to produce more he has to work harder. And all of this is predicated on a growing knowledge of nutrition, basic hygiene, and the causes of the diseases that ravage his body; an understanding of agriculture and a respect for new farming techniques, new seeds, new ways to plant, new fertilizers, new crops." (p 261)

"As Peace Corps Volunteers we come to give of ourselves, but we are almost all a part of the Puritan ethic, and we make rules and set limits as to what we will give and on what terms, and what it is legitimate to ask of us. We want to be loved because we're lovable, not because we're rich gringos. But the people in the town don't know the rules. After six months, when they know that you're not there as a spy or to exploit them or to live apart from them, they claim you; they want to touch you, watch what you eat, own you; they want to be Number One with you; they want you to solve their problems. They start twisting the relationship around trying to make a patron out of you, and it takes another heartless year to convince most of them that you aren't a patron." (p 282)

"I began to be aware that in the town there was scarcely a moment when a baby's crying didn't fill the air, and there was a resemblance between the violence of the babies' furious raging cries and the violence of machetes slashing through flesh. Like a revelation, I suddenly realized that these screams were the screams of human beings learning about poverty. They were learning about sickness and about hunger; they were learning in a hard school what they could expect from life, learning to accept their destiny and the futility of revolting against it. They were being twisted and maimed. They were being turned from normal human beings into The Poor. After the age of six they are ready for life, and as for being poor, they know all about it; there isn't a thing they don't know. There are no more tears. They play quietly, gravely in the dirt before their houses, and there is something terrible in their eyes, a kind of blindness." (p 284-285)

The following quotes from the Bradt Travel Guide: Turkmenistan by Paul Brummel

"The ferry terminal at Turkmenbashy is at the eastern end of the port. The port facilities in Baku were being reconstructed when I visited, and the location of the ticket office for the Turkmenbashy ferry was remarkably obscure. If it has not moved to a move central location by the time of your visit, look for the modern ten-story building at the east end of the Gagarin Bridge, across the railway tracks fro the center of Baku. From here, take the minor road running along the city-center side of this building, marked with a sign for the 'Parom Restaurant'. Some 300 m along this road, you will see a stretch of crumbling wall decorated with a mosaic of Lenin's head. The unmarked white metal door on the opposite side of the road is the Caspian Shipping Company booking office. The unhelpful ladies inside will sell you a ticket for the ferry, and may even be willing to offer a vague opinion as to when it is likely to depart."
(p 33)

I am also reading Night Train to Turkistan by Stuart Stevens published in 88'. This book recounts a trip across the Silk Road which of course went directly through Turkmenistan.

And Rukhnama: Reflections on the Spiritual Values of the Turkmen by Saparmyrat Turkmenbashy (the former President of Turkmenistan). This large pink book is a directive to live your life by (if you are a Turkmen). It is rather interesting and if you get a chance check it out!

In other news I am all packed save a few last minute items (finishing up sewing a skirt and shirt I'm working on, finding a small world map to bring with me, buying an extra battery for my watch, locating my money belt, finding duct tape, adding some pictures from home to my photo album, purchasing/finding/creating gifts for my host families, and deciding if I should purchase a computer to bring with me). I have also created a list of meals that I want to enjoy before I leave and created a menu from now until I leave. In case you are interested the following are meals that I will be enjoying before departing to Turkmenistan:
Lasagna, bar food with cheap beer, homemade pizza, Thai food from a restaurant, Manacotti, Venison Parmesan and amazing spinach salad, burgers (fake for me) and potato salad, spaghetti, eggplant Parmesan, Rama's Delight, Tacos, and Enchiladas!

Other news: I have already learned that the world is a very small place and getting smaller due to the Internet. A few weeks ago I received a facebook message from a friend of mine from HS. She said that one of her former suite mates from Yale was also going to Turkmenistan this fall. We began emailing and now I will know someone when I arrive at staging. Yesterday I was checking this exact blog and found that two people had commented on my most recent post. Both of them are going to Turkmenistan in 16 days as well! Additionally, I've had all kinds of people talk to me about people they know in the region, about when they were personally in the area or about their Peace Corps experience! I love how all of the connections you make in life seem to show themselves when you least expect it!

I'm getting very excited for my send-off party (I like to refer to it as a goodbye party but my family isn't terribly fond of that terminology). There are friends coming from St. Paul and Minneapolis, Madison, Colorado, and of course Waukesha and surrounding towns/cities. I think it will be an excellent chance to spend time with people who really mean a lot to me!

16 days left in the country and counting!!!