Thanksgiving, and Language Mishaps

It is Black Friday in Türkmenistan and I didn’t think about shopping once, unless you consider the food we are going to buy tomorrow for the celebration we will have on Monday to thank all of our counterparts. (Kärdiş Toý) A few stories/experiences to share with you all are listed below. As always thanks for all of your support! Keep sending me letters! I will also hopefully have a cell phone soonish for anyone who might want to call! I will have free incoming calls and texts!
Thanksgiving – Turkmen Style
Thanksgiving in America – Macy’s Day Parade, Lots of food, Football
Thanksgiving in Turkmenistan – A classroom of children all singing Yesterday by the Beatles and Hound dog by Elvis. (If I can figure out how to post video on the blog I will!), Palow (rice, meat, carrots and onions) followed by an entire afternoon making a lot more food, and some more singing!
Thanksgiving menu: Baking powder biscuits (made with baking soda and vinegar), Mashed potatoes and gravy, Sweet potatoes with sugar (not brown sugar), Stuffed Chicken killed the previous night by Jessie’s family, A ton of stuffing (which we realized was actually very similar to Turkmen dograma – a dish I have not found a liking to), Pumpkin pudding (we used a pie recipe but didn’t have a crust and didn’t let it cook nearly long enough because we needed to cook the chicken, but it turned out really really good!).
We invited my host family to eat with us as well as our LCF (Language and Cultural Facilitator) named Soltan and the only thing the Turkmen actually seemed to enjoy was the pumpkin pudding. But we didn’t despair because each time we’ve made ‘American’ food Turkmen don’t really seem to eat much if any of it.
Language Misinterpretations 101
It is strange what a person dreams about while in new and unpredictable situations! This story begins with my good friend Jessie and I’m publishing this with much thanks to her for any embarrassment that may be a result of this publication. Jessie, similar to many of us (myself included) woke up before her alarm this morning. Instead of going back to sleep she began to daydream. The goal was a simple romantic dream in London. Instead she began to daydream about eating eggs for breakfast. Naturally, she shared her dream with each of us this morning as part of the morning ritual: How did you sleep? Are you gastro intestinally healthy? What did you dream about?
Several hours lapsed and we are at lunch. I was in a rather grumpy mood all day and when Sarah suggested we watch some Pride and Prejudice on her computer rather than the normal MTV in Russian I voted yes! We watched the entire second episode of the BBC version. It put me in a better mood and the girls in my group were talking with Soltan about the movie and Amy mentioned “Maña Mr. Darcy gerek” (I want/need Mr. Darcy). Sarah repeated the same statement and I followed suit. Jessie, however, commented, “Maña yurmurtgalar gerek” (I want/need eggs). Soltan began laughing hysterically and asked, “Really?!?!?!?!?” and continued to laugh. We all joined in and Jessie began to think if she said what she really thought she said. She then had a moment of clarity and realized the word yurmurtgalar sounded a lot like yurmurtgalich which means testicals. She clarified to Soltan and we all marked it up to another linguistic misunderstanding.
I can’t say I’ve had any misunderstandings quite that entertaining but I have absolutely messed up leaving and coming verbs. I’ve told my family and a bunch of community women that I have kids and am unmarried (this was because I thought I was asked if I liked kids to which I responded yes). I quickly clarified and their looks of shame changed. I’ve also found some fun verbs. For example :çykmak means: to exit, to climb, to seem, to appear (as in to appear that you are correct), to appear (materialize), to perform (i.e. a play), to take off (i.e. clothes), to come from, to deviate from, and finally it is also used after a gerund to indicate a completed action (like I am done cleaning my room – çykdym would go at the end of that sentence). Just imagine all of the complications this verb alone could cause!
In less than 1 week I will be an official Peace Corps Volunteer! I am very excited and daunted by that fact. During the swearing in ceremony two of my fellow trainees will be giving speeches in Turkmen. The group voted on Joshua and Nancy. Several groups of trainees will be presenting music in various forms. I’m hoping that our training group will be able to pull it off but we’re hoping to perform a traditional Turkman piece of music with dutar (Turkmen guitar with two strings) played by Joel and the lyrics sung by some portion of the rest of us. We shall see. I’ll keep you posted. Becoming a PCV is different from a Peace Corps Trainee in only a few ways. First, and most obviously I will no longer be in training. I will be alone in a village where the nearest American is a 30 minute Taxi ride to the south. I will be getting paid a real wage (although even in Turkmen standards we are paid subpar). We get 2.8 million manat .8 of which goes to our families. The average teacher gets paid 4ish million manat. We will also see how/if that changes when the economy is switched to the new currency system. I am not complaining, however. I will probably have to work fairly hard to spend that much money each month. I’ll probably be cooking for myself several dinners a week, getting a few more new dresses made, and traveling to the regional capital of Lebap several times a month. But other than that I just won’t have anything to spend money on.
I hope everyone had an awesome Thanksgiving! Wishing you all a beautiful and joyful start to the holiday season! Send letters!!!