Sex and Gender

I found this interesting and thought you might as well. Today I did a
gender and development exercise with my oldest kids. They are 6th
through 8th graders. I have two groups one girls and one boys. Each
group had 6 students today.
We first learned about what the difference between sex and gender is.
These two words (in Turkmen) were words the students had never heard
before. It was a very weird feeling teaching Turkmen students,
Turkmen vocabulary. I’m normally the one doing all of the vocabulary
building. Therefore we spent nearly 15 minutes going over the
definitions and trying to figure out exactly what the differences
were. Then they had to assign a bunch of words into two categories:
either “girl/woman” or “boy/man”. Initially they were made to assign
very quickly, but they were given a second chance to make any changes
they thought should be made as a group. Then we decided which of the
words were learned differences and which were biological differences
(sex vs. gender).
Both groups agreed on the following as “boy/man”: driving a vehicle,
serving others (this I found surprising), authority, army, strength,
power, money, athlete, loud, and bravery.
Both groups agreed on the following as “girl/woman”: weak, pregnancy,
art, fetching water, beauty, nurse, cooking, creative, compassionate,
education (I found this surprising) and sweeping.
The following are words that both groups claimed for themselves (girls
thought “girls” and boys thought “boys”): leadership, quiet, doctor,
work, family decisions, intelligence, and raising children.
There were words that each group assigned to the other (boys to
“girls” and girls to “boys”): disloyal, dowry, and love. Decision
making was in this category at first, but the boys then changed it
from girls to boys at the last minute.
Another interesting thing to note is that the girls created a third
group – the “in between” group. They placed the following in this
group after being given a chance to change their minds about any of
their initial placements. The following were the words the girls
placed in the “in between” group (note: these words are repeats and I
listed them above according to the girls initial reaction): driving a
vehicle, serving others, creative, education, money, fetching water,
intelligence, family decisions, work, raising children, leadership,
doctor, disloyal, love, and dowry.
When I asked them to determine if these words were biological
differences or learned differences we had some general disagreements
as to what I was asking, but once they figured out exactly what I
meant both groups assigned all words to learned differences (gender)
except for pregnancy and weak. Those were, according to both groups
biological differences between males and females.
I know that I learned a lot from watching the students interact and
discuss this topic and I hope you found it interesting. I plan to
continue doing gender activities with my older students and I have the
Gender and Development Committee (GAD) in T-stan to thank for the
activity ideas.

Misunderstandings and New Beginnings

Today is day 20 (when written) with host family number two.
This change was the result of over a month of awkwardness and cultural
misunderstandings. The cultural misunderstandings were mostly focused
on the fact that my previous host family was not being direct in
telling me they wanted me to move out. They never directly told me.
My host father called Peace Corps. That resulted in a mediated
conversation via Ashgabat in which I was reassured that they still
wanted me to live there. My host father told Jessie, a PC friend. I
then called Peace Corps and was again reassured that I was still
wanted and it was simply a misunderstanding. When I tried to give my
monthly rent to my host father he asked if I shouldn’t give it to one
of my friends and move in with them. This time I didn’t call Peace
Corps but instead started looking for a new home. I figured I had
time but would move out soon.
Peace Corps did a site visit on Wednesday November 18th where a PC
staff member talked with my host father then came and informed me that
my host family wanted me to move out now. My counterpart found me a
new house that night. I visited Thursday afternoon and decided things
looked good. Peace Corps came to visit on Monday and Monday afternoon
I moved from the old host family into the new.
My new host family is amazing! At home I have a host father named
Begglych, he is a gym teacher at the school. A host mother named
Bibinyaz. A host sister named Aksoltan. A host brother named
Mammetmyrat. I also have three other siblings who are not living at
home right now. One is a brother, in the army, I think, in Mary.
Another is a brother, married, living with his wife and going to
medical school in Ashgabat. And the other is a sister, unmarried,
living in Ukraine, studying English. I have met the brother and
sister-in-law from Ashgabat but have not, yet, met the other two
siblings.
There are a lot of differences between my two host families and while
I will absolutely miss several members from my previous host family I
do firmly believe that this new change is a very positive one. I
believe it will not only revitalize myself and my service but it will
be a blessing. I have already met new community members, I feel much
more a member of this family than the previous one and, because I
spent more time with them I also have an excellent opportunity to
continue my Turkmen education.

Tstan

News from T-stan. The presidents of China, Uzbekistan, and Kazakstan
will all be in the same city as myself tomorrow! They are coming to
officially open a gas line from Turkmenistan all the way to china.
This is huge news because it made the BBC radio news I get. I'd love
to hear if this made the news back home!

Peace!
Kelsey

Cotton Picking

It is Saturday and I just got home from work. I drop my things off in my room and help put lunch on the table. Dilber (sister-in-law) asks me if I want to pick cotton after lunch. I immediately reply, “yes!”.
I have been asking various family members for the past few weeks since the cotton harvest has started to take me with them out to the cotton fields. I even had one date all set up but because of some language misunderstandings it never happened.
Several hours later Dilber knocks on my window and says they’re leaving. I have a koýnek (long dress) on with a white long sleeve shirt over the top and I’m wearing a scarf over my hair. I grab my very large bottle of water and run out the door. Outside my family’s truck is sitting. In the bed of the truck I see nearly 15 women and young girls. My host father is driving. We head east out of town. We pass field after field of cotton, many of which have women and children already picking. We weave through dirt back roads for about 20 minutes and then my host father stops. I can’t see any cotton fields which is rather odd since that is what we have come to do.
Dilber jumps out of the truck and wanders to the side of the road and peers into a very large ditch. The dirt on the opposite side of the ditch is built up higher than our truck. She yells, “no water!” and all of the other women proceed to jump out of the truck and trudge through the ditch that is filled with weeds and grasses that are over my head. After we’ve descended and ascended this huge ditch I finally see the cotton field stretching out in front of me. I smile to myself and then greet various family members, friends and acquaintances who know me. I even get a hug from a host sister.
After the initial greetings I stand around awkwardly while everyone is prepping to pick. They are tying long aprons to their fronts, then tying one, two, or more bags to their front, back, and sides. Many put gloves on (these appear to be pairs of socks where the toes have been cut off and a slit has been made for the thumb). I am beginning to think I am not nearly prepared enough.
Another sister hollers at me and I follow her. She starts to walk into the field and I mention the fact that I don’t have a bag or apron. She passes me onto another sister who provides me with the essentials. My apron is a striped white and grey that covers from the outside of one thigh to the outside of another and goes all the way down to my ankles. I am only given one cotton picking bag but it is rather large. I have no idea how much cotton will fill this bag or how much work it will require to fill this bag so I don’t ask for another.
With around 40 women on my left and another 10 young girls to my right I walk bravely into the field and the row that has been assigned to me. The cotton plants start at around waist height and continue growing in height as I reach further and further into the field. Very quickly the plants are at my eye level and I have to jump in order to see over them.
The cotton we are picking today is on the bottom of the plant. This is the second time this field has been picked and I later learn that it will be combed through at least four times before the harvest is considered done. I take a step forward, bend at the waist and reach down, form a claw with my hand and pluck at the cotton. Every move I make in the field releases hundreds of small bugs from the plants and clouds of dust that bellow up around me and make me feel dehydrated and cause me to sneeze. (I did have the forethought to take allergy medication before I left, but still am feeling the effects)
Each plant has about 4 – 8 cotton bunches ready to be picked. Some come off very easily and are then stuffed into my growing sack tied to my waist. Others I have to pry each individual pod of cotton away. Some cotton pods have molded and are rotten. Nearly every pod is covered by a spider web and I pray that I don’t run into any of the poisonous spiders that live in Turkmenistan.
Very quickly my back and upper thighs begin to ache with all the tension and it gets worse as my bag gets bigger. I resort to squatting each time I venture to new plants and find new body parts that begin to ache.
I glance back toward where the large truck that will take the cotton away is parked. It keeps getting smaller and smaller.
I’m keeping pace with all of the children to my right but the women have forged ahead and I wonder if it is simply because I’m so slow or if I should only be taking the cotton that comes off easily. If I had to wager a bet I would probably go for the first option.
After just over an hour my bag is filled. Now I have no idea what to do. If I go back I’ll probably not be able to figure out exactly which row is mine and it looks like the women are expected to finish an entire row. I’m only about 1/3 of the way through my row. As I weigh my options one of my host nieces appears behind me with an empty bag and offers to take away my full one. I gladly give up my burden, don the second bag and get back to work.
The second bag fills slower than the first bag.
Some of the women who started around the same time I am are headed back toward the truck, they pass and yell hi.
The women from the kindergarten yell at me across the field, it takes me a while to realize they are talking to me. Their laughter and joy waves over me and I smile. This is truly place for women to gather, gossip, and grab cotton.
My second bag is slowly filling up, the truck is even further away, I can’t tell if I’m closer to the far end of the field or the truck. The cotton is so high here it is hard to see anything other than what is right in front of me. My previously white sleeves are black and my hands are covered in mud and stains. I can’t see the bottom of my dress as the bag in front of me is getting so large.
Several hours after I initially set out my second bag is full, my body is aching and I need water. I decide to head back with my full bag for a break.
When I return to the truck my bag is immediately weighed, my niece adds the weight to what she weighed my previous bag at and it turns out I have picked 9.5 kilos of cotton! I’m surprised by the weight, it seems like a lot to me.
I sit down on top of a random bag for my break. The people by the truck are all family members – a host sister, niece, and nephew. I begin a conversation with Gülçer (the sister) about the field and cotton business.
This field and one other cotton field are both owned by my family. This field and the other will both be picked through 4 times before considered done. A very strong young woman can pick on average between 120 – 150 kilos of cotton a day. (My 9.5 kilos is seeming like nothing now) The government pays 500 manat (old manat) for every kilo picked. As I do the math in my head I realize I would make about $.30 for my several hours of cotton picking. Even one of those strong young women would only make about $3 – 4 per day. The families who own the fields take people out to their fields, record how much each person picks, drop the cotton off at a local processing plant, and when the season is done the government pays each family accordingly, the families then pass the money onto the pickers.
Our family has 1 field with grain, another with watermelon and two fields of cotton (my host family is very wealthy in Turkmen standards, especially for a village).
I pass nearly as much time talking with my family members as I did picking. No one seems to care if I go back out to the fields or not. After spending 4 hours in the field all of the women are called in to the truck and madness ensues. Each woman/girl is gathering around the scale. My sister-in-law is weighing each persons’ cotton, my sister is recording them all in a small book, the women/children then take their bags of cotton and toss them up onto the truck which is by now overflowing with cotton. My niece and nephew are trying to grab the bags, empty them onto the huge pile of cotton in the truck and squash the cotton down in order to fit it all in without blowing away on the trip to the processing plant. The next hour is spent in this way. I help out where I can.
Finally, we’ve picked most of the cotton off the ground that fell and the cotton on the truck is sufficiently pressed down I make the trek back across that huge ditch to find my family’s truck with nearly 30 people all packed into the bed. I don’t know how they fit in any more, but somehow another 4 women find places in the back. I am sitting safely in the front of the truck. We make the trip back into town as the sun is glowing bright red and rapidly disappearing beyond the horizon and I am smiling.

A Beautiful Week!

My initial thoughts are, “it is about time!” and “thank God!”.
After struggling for what seems like forever to do anything that seems worthwhile and feeling like I’m constantly pushing my own ideas on my community I am finally feeling success. (Note, this week I celebrated my 11 month anniversary in Turkmenistan). The last month I have been experiencing a depressed mood and constant frustration so this turnaround couldn’t come at a better time!
My work before this week consisted of a weekly visit to the Kindergarten (where I am rapidly running out of ideas), and several clubs for school aged kids where we cover everything from English language to health to geography. That is ALL I have been doing since I’ve gotten here. I had a weekly meeting with the doctors and nurses that lasted about a month where we learned a little English and I talked a little bit about what I thought my job was, and how we could work together and then I asked them what they wanted from me and got no answer.
This week has been HUGE in the number of changes that have seemingly come out of nothing. I have been praying for a long time that someone would come to me with an idea rather than me constantly forcing my ideas on people. That is not why I joined Peace Corps.
Saturday I am at my clinic drinking çaý with my co-workers when one of them compliments me on the way I look and says that I have lost a lot of weight and look really good (I have lost a lot of weight – nearly 40 pounds and am very proud of this fact). I thank her and she asks how I managed to lose that much weight. I am inwardly rejoicing at this question because nearly all of the Turkmen population over the age of 30 or 35 is overweight. I tell her (regardless of how much this is true or not) that I exercise every day, I eat very little oil, and fat and that I don’t eat really big meals. (I personally think a lot of my weight loss is moving away from a ‘western’ diet back to a much more natural, closer to the earth diet rather than the amount I am exercising and the amount of oil I eat or don’t eat) The doctors and nurses then lapse into a debate about when I exercise, but in Turkmen style don’t actually ask me about it and rather debate it until they are bored.
At the end of the day I head off with several of my co-workers, including my counterpart, hospital director and one of my host sisters, for what turns out to be a 5 hour guesting (visiting another person to eat). During the time that my mind wanders from the immediate conversation I begin thinking about my earlier conversation. I realize that this may not have been a direct request for me to do something but that this could be a perfect opportunity to implement an exercise club at my clinic! I sat on it for the weekend and planned.
Tuesday morning I have a short conversation with my counterpart and mention that the doctors and nurses and I had this conversation and suggest that we have a yoga club (I begin with yoga because I feel it is a very relaxing kind of exercise and can be modified to be as simple or as hard as you may need). I give her several possibilities of times that would work for me and ask her to see if anyone would be interested.
10 minutes later…she returns and says, “Kelsey, we’ll do it at 8:30 on Friday morning”. Because most of you don’t know much about Turkmen culture this may not seem as monumental as I feel it is. This is HUGE! I am so excited and floating on air.
If this were the end of my amazing week I would be totally psyched, but it isn’t.
School started back up on Tuesday this week and to celebrate I made BINGO cards that are really beautiful for my school aged clubs. They totally love the prizes I’ve been giving out (many of these are thanks to people who have sent packages!). And for the kindergarten I wrote and illustrated an ABC book. They loved it! The teachers went crazy about the things I used to make the book (colored paper, puffy paint, string, and foam letters and shapes). They all wanted to examine it very closely and wanted me to give them all the supplies I used to make it. When I leave I’ll give them the book and whatever supplies I have left.
Wednesday mornings I go to the Kindergarten and as I said the book was a hit, then I go to my Turkmen tutor’s house for lunch, and then fun. Today we practiced the yoga session I’m planning on giving to the doctors on Friday to see how I was at explaining things, then we baked a chocolate crazy cake to celebrate 11 months in the country and finally we watched the final 2 episodes of Top Chef Season 5. My Turkmen tutor, Arzuw, doesn’t speak any English (other than the bits and pieces she has picked up from being around me and watching 2 seasons of Top Chef like peanut butter), so everything we do is 100% in English. I’m finally getting to the point where I feel totally comfortable having real conversations with her and she LOVES Top Chef!
As I leave her house after 3 or 4 hours of chatting, yoga, Top Chef, and cake I am walking back to the clinic in a very joyful mood. I had made an appointment with my counterpart to discuss a document I had given her the previous week. It is a powerpoint presentation about Yokary Gan Basyshy (High Blood Pressure). Another volunteer gave the same presentation at her clinic and my hope was that I could convince my counterpart to present it to the other doctors and nurses at my clinic as a refresher. The presentation includes lots of preventative measures. When I arrive at the clinic there are patients! I could probably count the number of patients that I have seen at our clinic on my fingers and toes (and I’ve been here for 11 months). I very quickly realize that these are all pregnant women and that somehow I have missed that they always show up at the clinic for an hour or two on Wednesday afternoons. I always thought that our gynecologist was only in 1 day a week when she is actually in 2 days and sees patients the day I’m not there. She directly asked me if I could give a presentation to the pregnant women. Again – someone asking me to do something! Initiative from my community! So, my new goal is to have a presentation ready for next week. I promised all of the women there that I would be back the next week and would give them a lesson.
In summary I have renewed spirit in my clubs and kindergarten, a new exercise club starting with my co-workers and a new opportunity to present to pregnant women at my clinic on a weekly basis!
I feel as though I am flying! I would like to thank all of you who have kept me in your thoughts and prayers and for those of you sending me peace.
All I can hope for now is that these new endeavors will continue and thrive and that my contribution to my community will be received and people will take the things I say to heart and that there will be change. I’ve always maintained that my life will have been worth living if even one person’s life was made better. I just hope that I succeed.
Thank you again for your faith in me, your constant encouragement, your letters and emails, and all of your lesson plan ideas. Please, keep them coming!
In Peace
P.S. I will be sure to keep everyone updated as to the result of my new projects.
The first update is now: This morning was my first yoga class and while I only had a fraction of the nurses and doctors attend it was fairly successful. There were 3 women who did the entire practice with me, and another 2 who did parts of it but opted not to do other parts. They all acted a bit sad when it was done and asked me if I was going to do it again next week. Thus far everything looks very positive and I am still very hopeful that this will work out well! Please keep me and my new endeavors in your thoughts and prayers!

50th Aniv

 

Well, I didn’t manage to get the hottest temperatures of the summer because I had assumed that the hottest month during summer is August (like it is in Wisconsin). That was not true. Therefore I do not have very many temperatures for you. Note these are temperatures that were taken not in the shade and also my thermometer’s maximum temperature is 52 C (125.6 F). I’ll do my best next summer to get better and more detailed temperatures.
Date C °F time of day
Friday August 7, 2009 52 125.6 1:45 PM
26 78.8 9:00 PM
Saturday August 8, 2009 30 86 8:15 AM
39 102.2 11:45 AM
52 125.6 3:10 PM
26 78.8 9:10 PM

Top 10 Reasons to Visit Turkmenistan

1. See the dinosaur footprints (koýten dag).
2. While visiting ancient ruins you are guaranteed to be the only people there (Merv, Nisa, Moorgenç, Koynergenç).
3. See a huge hole in the desert perpetually burning.
4. A chance to see the result of many years of soviet control.
5. A chance to experience a society that has been closed to outside influence for a number of years.
6. The Turkmen culture has proclaimed itself to be “guest-loving”.
7. If you visit you could go weeks without paying for any food (because people will constantly force-feed you).
8. One of the few places in the world where people (women mostly) wear traditional dress daily.
9. Natural gas, water, electricity, 30L/month petrol, salt (uniodized), 20 Kilos of flour, and local telephone service are all free.
10. Opportunity to visit the only “peaceful, independent and permanently neutral government” in the world.

Top 10 Turkmen Health Beliefs

1. Spinach raises your blood pressure (sometimes causes high blood pressure).
2. Drinking water makes you fat.
3. Consuming cold liquids and solids will cause a cold or cough (so will cold wind from your window, or a fan blowing on you while you sleep).
4. The wind makes you feel bad (emotionally) and as a consequence raises your blood pressure.
5. Apples contain a lot of iron and will cure anemia.
6. A meal that doesn’t contain a large amount of animal fat is unhealthy.
7. Anything made with flour will make you fat and raise your blood pressure (yet, nearly every meal is made with flour, bread is the #1 staple of the Turkmen diet)
8. Praying Mantes will eat your warts to make them disappear.
9. Putting bread under your pillow wards off bad dreams.
10. Injections/shots work better than tablets.

A Lesson In Hygiene

I’ve begun teaching several weekly clubs for the students in my village. This week was my fourth week of lessons. The club’s theme is “fun”, each week we learn a little English then we do some sort of activity. Thus far we have covered a little geography, played some games, learned about abstract art then created our own, and this week we talked about hygiene.
Now I’m sure some of you are thinking, wow, that sounds fun…
This week’s lesson began with the regular English lesson where we covered the alphabet, some phonics, reviewed hello, my name is___, how are you?, where are you from?, and then learned I am a student.
I then read two short stories that I wrote in Turkmen and illustrated (I am not an artist). The first is about a girl named Gülşat who goes to the outhouse but doesn’t wash her hands directly after. She then is very considerate and helps her mother to make dinner, eats dinner with her family, goes to bed and wakes up the next morning. When she wakes up her entire family is ill.
The group and I discuss what went wrong in the story and what things that Gülşat did well, then we talk about germs and where they are located and how they make us sick and how to prevent getting sick.
The second story is about a brother and sister (Begenç and Günça) who live in my village. Each step of the way Günça obeys and does what she is supposed to while Begenç is not a good boy. All of the general hygiene issues are covered in the story as well as things like listening to your parents, and helping around the house. The story ends with Günça enjoying playing in the yard while Begenç must sit because he has cut his foot, he also has swarms of flies, fleas, and lice swarming him and looks generally miserable.
Again we disucss what each person did well and not so well, what we should do differently and how we can apply this to our lives.
Then I introduce each of the following terms in English: Wash your hands! Brush your teeth! Wash your clothes! Take a shower! And wear your shoes outside!
Then for each of the phrases we add an action. Washing your hands you rub your hands together. Brushing your teeth you smile really big and pretend to brush your teeth. Washing your clothes we mock hand washing (which is how the majority of people here wash clothes myself included, and we don’t have wash boards). Take a shower we mock dumping a bucket of water over ourselves and then scrub our arms (again very typical of a normal shower here myself not included – my family has a shower head with running water). Wear your shoes outside we walk with really high steps.
The end purpose is playing musical chairs. There are a few differences between our version of musical chairs and what you may be used to. First: there are not nearly enough chairs, so we use pieces of paper on the floor. Second: the music is not music, rather a student or myself yelling out the phrases in English that they have just learned while the rest of the students walk in a circle doing the actions we just learned. Finally: my students, just like many other students around the world, like to find ways to make themselves win. They resorted to dragging the pieces of paper around the floor with them, or even two pieces with them. Several students would not move off their piece of paper until the one in front of them was deserted, then they all caught on and no one moved.
Overall it was a very fun and entertaining lesson.
This coming week I’m planning on teaching about the U.S. I realize I’m a health teacher here, but there are 3 Peace Corps Goals that all volunteers are always striving to achieve.
“The mission of the Peace Corps is to promote world peace and friendship by:
Helping people of interested countries in meeting their need for trained men and women
Helping promote better understanding of Americans on the part of people served
Helping promote a better understanding of other peoples on the part of Americans”
Therefore, teaching my students about the diversity of life in the United States is implicit in my role as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Turkmenistan. I’m very excited to start sharing some of this information with them.
On a final note, if anyone has any great lesson plans or activities for students that cover any area but specifically health related feel free to pass them on to me! I currently have many ideas for these groups of students, but know that my bank of ideas will run out at some point.

Top 10 Fruit To Eat In Turkmenistan during the Summer

1. Apricots (erik)
2. Watermelon (garpyz)
3. Apples (alma)
4. Grapes (üzim)
5. Peaches (şetaly)
6. Tomatoes (pomidor) – I know, perhaps a veggie, perhaps a fruit but regardless I eat a ton of them!
7. Cantaloupe type melon (gawun)
8. Strawberries (tudana) – these are only available for a few weeks in the city, but are really good!
9. Cherries (ülje)
10. Quince (not sure about the Turkmen, and in fact I had never heard of this fruit until I got here)

around the house

Pictures

The Peace Corps Benefit Package

I found myself lying awake last night wondering how difficult it would be to compute my hourly wage. There are many things that have to go into the accounting process. Firstly there are all of the specific allotments that we receive. There is the living allowance (the money we actually get every month), travel allowance (money that is given to us on a quarterly basis specifically for travel out of country), readjustment allowance (money that is given to us once we complete our service) and settling in allowance (a one time payment used to furnish your living space). Then you have to take into account that most of the money we don’t get until we are finished with service (in my accounting I discounted this and added it in as if I were getting it spread throughout my service). You also have to account for mandatory expenses, namely, my monthly payment to my host family. Finally, being a PCV is a 24/7 job.
After changing all of the manat payments into dollars and calculating the hourly amount of each of those allowances listed above I have determined that I am making a grand total of $0.52 every hour of my service in Peace Corps. If you decide to join Peace Corps for the money you will be disappointed (until you get 1/3 of your readjustment allowance upon leaving the country). However, I assume most people do not join Peace Corps to make their fortune.
I am just beginning to learn about the wealth I am reaping from this experience. I have been in Turkmenistan for the past 9 months (yes it has been that long) and every day I seem to gain something new. I have had ample opportunity to think about my life and where I am headed in the future, I have anthems of children’s voices following me everywhere I go, I have reflected upon what opportunity truly means and realized just how privileged I am having been born in the US, I have several good friends who will live here for the rest of their lives, and I can truly appreciate how frustrating grass roots change can be. These are just some of the things that I will cherish for the rest of my life, much longer than the money I’m making will last.
I truly believe that wealth lies not in money but in experience, knowledge and love. I will gladly live on $0.52 an hour when it comes with such an amazing benefit package.

Public Transportation - PC Turkmenistan

Getting around is, generally, a universal concern. As such, I figured I would talk a little about how I get around and compare it to my host family and other Turkmen that I know.
I travel to visit other PCV friends, to go to Ashgabat for PC business, to go to Halach for my monthly living allowance, to go to Charjew for internet and mail, and to travel to other countries for vacation.
The first step for all of these trips is to catch a taxi. I am lucky to live less than 15 minute walk from the one road that travels between Charjew (and north of the city) and the Afghan border. Every vehicle traveling along the road serves as a taxi. Essentially I am hitchhiking, I throw my arm out to my side and wait for someone to pull over. I inquire if they are going where I am going and then (according to PC policy) I am supposed to ask how much it will be. For most trips that I usually take I know how much they will charge and therefore rarely ask.
There are four ways to get from Lebap to Ashgabat: train, plane, taxi, or marshrutka. The train costs 70,000 ($4.92) and takes 14 hours to get from Charjew to Ashgabat. I can take the train from a village near my village and it costs an extra $.50 or so but takes an additional 5 hours. The plane leaves from Charjew and costs 250,000 ($17.59) and takes 50 minutes. The taxi and marshrutka I hear are extremely painful ways to travel and while they are between the cost of train and plane it seems like something I won’t do without large amounts of encouragement. When I moved to my site I took a marshrutka with 3 other volunteers and all of our belongings and it was extremely cold. We all pulled out sleeping bags in order to stay warm. I was lucky enough to be able to join a Peace Corps driver coming out to Charjew on my way back from vacation but the PC vehicles have air conditioning and are very comfortable, clean, and the driver is nice and not constantly bugging you.
My host family has a vehicle which they use when my host father goes places, however if my sister-in-law needs to go to the bazaar but my host father isn’t going she takes a taxi just like I would. When traveling within my village the most common modes of transportation are walking or biking, however after dark cars are most often used.

 

How hot is hot - Installment 1: Spring

I have been warned repetitively about the horror of the summer heat. Some of the common expressions I’ve heard regarding the heat include: “insufferable”, “more than halfway to boiling, literally”, “there are flies landing on my butthole”, “debilitating” as well as a few phrases I won’t print here.
This leaves me wondering – is it really going to be that hot? My Encyclopedia Britanica on my computer generously given by a fellow volunteer (thanks Elliot!) says that in the summer the temperature rarely falls below 35 C (95F) and in the southeast Kara Kum (pretty much exactly where I am located) can be 50 C (122 F) IN THE SHADE! The average yearly temperature is 14 – 16 C (57 – 61 F).
I figure many of you may also be wondering what the temperature really is here in the desert. Therefore I have decided to start a small series of blog posts. I plan to spend about two weeks each season taking several daily readings on the thermometer that is attached to the outside of our house and report my findings here to you. The last two weeks were a great time to start because I didn’t have all that much to do considering I am leaving on vacation as I am posting this entry.
Please note: I am not a meteorologist, not do I aspire to be one, and our thermometer is attached to the brick exterior of our house and is in perpetual shade. So, this is what it was really like the past two weeks as far as the weather is concerned. Enjoy!
Date Temp F Time
Tuesday May 5, 2009
66.2 8:30 AM
82.4 2:00 PM
83.3 5:00 PM
Wednesdsay May 6, 2009
85.2 9:30 AM
86 2:00 PM
Thursday May 7, 2009
71.6 8:00 AM
77 12:00 PM
82.4 2:00 PM
Friday May 8, 2009
69.8 7:45 AM
84.2 3:00 PM
Saturday May 9, 2009
66.2 8:00 AM
77 12:00 PM
Sunday May 10, 2009
66.2 8:00 AM
77 12:00 PM
71.6 9:30 PM
Monday May 11, 2009
71.6 9:00 AM
77 5:00 PM
Tuesday May 12, 2009
71.6 8:00 AM
82.4 4:15 PM
Wednesday May 13, 2009
73.4 8:00 AM
89.6 3:00 PM
78.8 7:45 PM
Thursday May 14, 2009
71.6 8:30 AM
87.8 5:00 PM
Friday May 15, 2009
69.8 7:45 AM
71.6 9:15 AM
77 11:45 AM
87.8 3:00 PM
Saturday May 16, 2009
69.8 7:30 AM
95 3:00 PM

Adventures with Money

Many of you may have heard from me at one point or another some of the issues surrounding the change in currency from old manat to new manat here in Turkmenistan. There have been countless times when the things that come out of my mouth just don’t make any sense, or I’ve gotten exceedingly confused on a taxi ride, or when telling people about my Peace Corps income. I’ve decided to write up a few stories and share them with you.
First, you will need some background information to attempt to make sense of the following puzzles. The old manat bills were nearly all 10,000 bills. There were also 500, 1,000 (bills and coins) and 5,000 bills. With the exchange rate 14,215 manat to the dollar you can imagine many purchases were made with large bundles of bills. I was even considered a millionaire once or twice during those first few months in country.
As of January 1 (this year) both sets of currency are legal tender and will be until January 1 of next year when only the new currency will be considered legal tender. Many Turkmen were very worried about this transition because a similar change in currency happened several years ago that left many Turkmen hurting. I don’t know the exact specifics but I understand it had to do with the exchange rate with the dollar. Many people here keep their savings in their homes in US dollars rather than in manats or in banks.
The new manat has been changed so that 5,000 old manat = 1 new manat. They have also introduced a cent type unit called the teňňe (pronounced teng-ay) with 1 teňňe being 50 old manat (yes 50, not 500, or 5,000). The coins come in 1, 5, 10, 20, and 50 (the 1 and 5 are utterly useless) and the new bills come in 1, 5, 10, 20, 50, 100, and supposedly 500 (I’ve never seen these). While having a large range of bills is helpful getting too many 50’s and 100’s at the bank can be not helpful when I’m buying a kilo of tomatoes at 15,000 (old manat) a kilo. The new exchange rate is that 2.843 new manat = 1 dollar. So, please enjoy some of the following stories all about the strange changeover of bills.
A fellow volunteer (Jessie) and I were debating if we both ended up paying the same price for a taxi ride and I said, “I gave him a 5, you gave me 10 and he gave me 2 so you would owe me another 2.5 if we’re both even”. Let’s review that again, “I gave him a 5 (new manat = 25,000 old manat), you gave me 10 (10,000 old manat), and he gave me 2 (new manat = 10,000 old) so you would owe me another 2.5 (new manat = 12,500 old) if we’re both even”.
While arranging with a taxi driver the price of a potential ride across town (in Ashgabat) he said “10”. This is an EXTREMELY confusing answer! It could mean any one of the following possibilities – none of which would be totally outrageous for a taxi driver to ask a group of foreigners. 1) 10,000 total for everyone involved – a very cheap taxi ride one that I would take. 2) 10,000 per person – this is an expensive taxi ride but depending on the time of day and how desperate or in a hurry might consider. 3) 10 new manat which would be 50,000 old manat and again very expensive. I wouldn’t take this ride no matter what, but that won’t stop a greedy taxi driver from asking for that much.
The first montly living stipend we got in 2009 was in new manat. We picked it up at the bank and it was about 530 new manat (a huge difference from our 2.5 million stipend before). Because it was so new the bank teller gave each of us (myself and two other volunteers near me all go to the same bank) 5 – 100 bills, 1 – 20, 1 – 10 and a few 1’s. I took a look at it and asked if I could have different bills, but they didn’t have any. In order to be able to buy anything – anywhere I had to ask my family if they could break one of my 100’s. (Again many Turkmen have large amounts of money hidden under their carpets in their homes.)

The Flies

When I think of flies the first thought that comes to mind are the HUGE horseflies in northern MN that always used to find the one bit of skin outside the water during the summer and bite down hard. I do associate flies with the summer, but they never really bothered me (except horseflies of course). As the summer season starts I find myself exceedingly annoyed by flies.
A few weeks ago while a fellow volunteer was visiting and we were sitting in my room watching movies, or chatting I got so annoyed that I pulled out my mosquito net (one that many volunteers return unopened at their close of service) and rigged up a system so I could sleep under it (and continue watching movies with Jessie and not be so annoyed).
As I sit on our porch during lunch I find myself constantly moving my arms, toes and head to keep the flies from landing on me and hovering over my portion of food to protect it from the nastiness that define flies.
I am currently working on teaching a series of lessons to the kindergarteners about flies. We spent a week learning about the animals, then made small paper models of them, then put their small feet into some green paint (representing feces) and then each child took their fly and flew it to our lunch time meal (represented by a very nice drawing of food that I had created the day before), and finally we will be talking about the disease spreading capabilities of flies and expanding that to the constant issue of diarrhea during the Turkmen spring and summer.
Those of you who know me know that I do not advocate killing anything (no, I don’t even kill mosquitoes during the WI/MN summers) and I have felt no moral issues with the small trays of fly poison that my family has lying around our house and kitchen. My only concern is that I will end up ingesting some or, worse, Kervan will.
My biggest concern right now is that they will only continue to get worse. This is what I’ve been told and what I am dreading will happen.
Wish me the best in my battle with the flying insects.

What is Health Committee?

While I did not get a peer support position (a thing I am realizing more and more was probably a good thing – isn’t it amazing how short sited we can become and how relying on God’s plan can save us much disappointment and negativity), I am currently applying for the Health Committee.
I also figured I should write up a short blurb on what the health committee is and what they do. There are two Peace Corps Programs in Turkmenistan – Community Health and TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language). Each of these programs has a committee of volunteers that meet with the staff on a quarterly basis. The purpose of the health committee is to, “act as a conduit for sharing resourcs and project ideas among health volunteers from different regions, preserve and promote the use of quality health resources developed through the history of Turkmenistan’s health program, collaborate and provide input to health program staff for PST (pre-service training) and other projects as needed and mutually agreed upon, and act as an intermediary for communicating between volunteers and Peace Corps staff on issues related to the health program”.
They work on project plan review, training design and priority setting, and reviewing, archiving and organizing PCV materials.
The more I thought about what my reasons for joining Peace Corps were and how I was fulfilling those goals (or in many cases not) I realize that the Health Committee is more in line with following through on my original goals in Peace Corps, briefly: to create and encourage sustainable changes in personal and community health in Turkmenistan.
The applications for health committee are due on July 15th, and I would guess they’ll decide on the new members 2 – 4 weeks after that date. It sounds like it will be very competitive, however I feel very strongly about my application.

What is Peer Support?

As most of you know I did not get a Peer Support position, but I felt that because so many of you asked about it I should write up a little summary of what it is.
Actually, as I type this up all of the Peer Supporter’s are meeting in Ashgabat for their annual meeting that will be beginning in about 4 hours.
Peer Support is a system of current Peace Corps Volunteers that are spread evenly throughout the country. They have several main jobs responsibilities: they are confidential sounding posts, someone to go to if there are issues and problems, they are responsible for keeping in contact with volunteers around them to ensure everyone is emotionally healthy and to address any situations they encounter where volunteers are not emotionally healthy, they also serve as a greeting committee for incoming volunteers and are a great source of information for volunteers both before and after they join our Peace Corps community here in Turkmenistan.

A Day in The Desert - aka an excuse not to work!

Today (April 21, 2009) I went to the desert.
I had planned to go this weekend with two other volunteers but it didn’t end up working out (we did go for a walk but didn’t make a picnic out of it). So I was very excited when at 9:30 (30 minutes after I arrived at work) my counterpart comes into my office and says, “we’re going to the desert! Are you coming?”. I immediately replied, “Yes!”.
It took 30 minutes to figure out the transportation plan. Then a total of 8 minutes in a car to drive to one of the cleaning ladies houses (which is located on the very edge of town). From her house myself, my counterpart, and the two cleaning ladies at my clinic walked toward the road where we were going to put up some sort of signal so the rest of the women (who either walked or got a ride) would see it and know to start walking into the desert. The walk from the house of origin was about 20 minutes.
On the way I watched these HUGE ants scurry underfoot. I saw a small herd of cattle being shepherded by two young boys. I looked for the sometimes illusive desert poppies. I found several bunches of them. And I enjoyed simply being outdoors in the warm weather relaxing on a walk.
When we arrived and finally decided on a final spot to do the cooking and eating I snapped a few pictures of a turtle one of the women found then walked back toward the house to get water. I took one trip there and back with water and a second trip half way to help one of the other women. When everyone successfully met up we put together the cooking area (a large black pot balanced on a metal stand that was balanced on three large rocks), gathered fire wood and began cooking the soup. Then we relaxed, drank çaý, and I began to bake in the sun (very glad I managed to remember to bring my sunscreen in the rush).
When the meat was cooked in the soup we began our feast: soup (pretty good soup), tomatoes, cucumbers, nuts, cookies, chocolate, çaý and, of course, vodka. We managed to finish two bottles over the next 20 minutes. We subsequently sank into a chaotic bliss where we stayed for the next hour and half.
The return trip I opted to walk (it was just under an hour from our picnic site to my house). When I finally returned to work it was 3:45pm. This means that I had an hour and 45 minutes left of work. Which makes a day that would normally be 6 hours a mere 2 hours and 15 minutes, and all of the doctors and nurses left long before that hour and 45 minutes were done. I ended up locking up the clinic by myself after I had done a significant amount of work. I still had to spend about 2 hours this evening finishing up the work I needed to do today.
Overall, it was a really great day! Even if I did bring my work home with me (although as a PCV I am constantly ‘at work’ so I guess that means I ALWAYS bring my work home…).
Follow up: several days later.
I ended up going into the desert another two times this week, although, each time was to work. My host family has a large plot of land out in the desert a little way where they grow grain and watermelons. We had a rather nasty hail at the beginning of the week which apparently ruined the watermelon they had already planted so we had to plant again. The first day I spent following a hole – digger and dropping 6 – 7 seeds placed in a circle into the hole. With all of the bending over my thighs and lower back were in a lot of pain.
The second day I did more of what we did on the first day, but then we spent 40 minutes pulling weeds. These are huge mini-trees that we were pulling, with our hands. They are resting in sand, so most are not terribly difficult to pull out, but I did end up cutting my hands and getting many barbs stuck in my palms and fingers. Again, my thighs and lower back were in pain. But it was a very enjoyable time, I got to talk with some of my family members, and got some good exercise and sun out of the deal.
Also, my father said a few days ago that we would go into the desert, I believe his exact words were, “We’ll show you a prettier part of the desert”. So, I await that experience.

My 23rd Birthday - Turkmen Style!

In an effort to explain how Turkmen birthdays work and are similar/different to an American birthday I have decided to tell you about my 23rd birthday which I hope will be a blend between traditional Turkmen and American. I’ll write throughout the day and let you know how it is going.
It is 8:36 in the morning, I woke up to a phone call from my family in the states wishing me a Happy Brithday, then went to the tualet and banya (bathroom and shower room to brush my teeth), got a text from another volunteer wishing me a happy birthday and sat down for breakfast. Today it was a hardboiled egg, bread (not hot, but made yesterday so still semi-soft) with fresh butter made this morning, and of course çaý. I am now pulling everything I need together for work and will be departing shortly. On my way I plan to stop at the dukan (store) to see if they have tomatoes. I checked yesterday but was told they would have them today, we’ll see. You will see what the tomatoes are for later in this post.
6:25 pm: Work was nice and relaxing, I finished the lesson plan for my kindergarten trip tomorrow. Then I read a book on travel in Italy to prepare for the cruise my wonderful parents are taking me on in May.
At 11:45 someone came to pick me up for the lunch toý that my counterpart threw for me. It was an overall exciting toý on that lasted for 3 full hours and included at least 4 shots of vodka on my part and a lot of meaty meals. There were seven additional people there; 4 doctors, 2 nurses, and one of the women who cleans the clinic. I think we all enjoyed ourselves.
Immediately upon arriving back home I began to prepare my special birthday meal. Lasagna. I began by making the noodles (I’ve only done this once before and didn’t have a recipe either time). I included an egg, water, a little oil, salt and flour. Then I rolled out very thin dough and cut them into long slices and laid them out to dry. I proceeded to make the sauce (tomato paste, tomato mix my sister-in-law made, onions, garlic and Italian spices). Then I went to the garden to pick some spinach from the garden. As the sauce simmered away I proceeded to make a cake (crazy cake recipe) and as the cake baked I made the icing (powdered sugar, butter, vanilla and some water). When the cake came out of the oven I layered the pasta, sauce, spinach and this cheese I bought in Charjew called toureg – it is similar to ricotta. Then at 6:15, a full 3 hours after I started the lasagna went into the oven. It took me another 15 – 30 minutes to clean everything up and now I am simply waiting for it to be all done and ready to eat. I will pull it out at the same time that my family puts the palow out to eat. We will end the evening with a cake. I’ll let you know how the rest goes later tonight, right now I am going to watch some of The Office.
Dinner and dessert are both over and done with. The lasagna didn’t go over as well as I had hoped. I really enjoyed it but there is a lot leftover. I feel like I’ll be eating lasagna for the next week. The cake I made went over really well. My sister-in-law told me it was a really good cake (Turkmen will generally always say food is good because they don’t want to insult you so really good means she truly enjoyed it). Although, there is a lot of that left over as well. I think they were all worried I might not have enough to eat and because I made it for myself they were worried it would be bad if I didn’t have enough. However, I have ¾ of a very large pan of lasagna leftover and over half a cake. Overall it was a very nice day.

The Great Candy Scramble!

Before I tell you the story I have to tell you this is not an isolated event. It has happened several times since arriving at site, however, for storytelling purposes I will explain one of the occasions in which it happened.
Last night I went to a doglan günün toý (birthday party) for the husband of a woman who works at the kindergarten, she and her husband are also related to my host family in some way. After the meal was over (a two course Turkmen style toý with soup and palow – rice with meat and carrots and onions) everyone still at the house gathered in the room I was sitting in and had the birthday man try on most of the clothing items he got as gifts for all of the awed spectators. Then, naturally, everyone says, “Mädik bolsun” – congratulations on your gift! After he has tried on most of the clothing items a woman standing behind him begins to throw candy in the air, there is a great squeal from all of the women in the room and everyone begins to scramble to pick up as much candy as possible. I don’t, unless it happens to fall in my lap, because I’m not a big fan of Turkmen candy. The mysterious hidden woman throws handful after handful of candy onto the tablecloth in the middle of the room. Children are grabbing for the candy but the older women are the most ruthless, pushing children aside to get to the candy and squealing with delight when they have finally captured said candy.
The event sucked me back to my former years standing on the side of the road watching the parade go by. First, the large marching bands with huge drum sections that scared our poor puppy so she cowered beneath dad’s lawn chair, then the floats with people throwing candy. I specifically remember the joyful spirit of the whole event. ‘The Great Candy Scramble’ always brings back those memories and makes me smile, until I am scolded for not scrambling myself, at which point I grab a piece of candy nearest me, smile, and place it in my lap.

Challenges in Language

Last week I was doing my weekly health lesson at the Kindergarten. The theme was, “I love myself” and I asked each child to draw a picture of them doing something they are really good at. It was an extremely simple concept and one that I thought would be good for this group of kids. I didn’t expect a lot from their pictures because they have really just started to color (I am the only person to have ever given them crayons to use). Before I came they were given colored pencils about once a month to use in the classroom and I have never seen small children using any art tools in the home.
I began the lesson by giving them a few examples then handed out the paper and crayons. My first classroom (4 – 5’s) didn’t really seem to understand the assignment and most of their pictures turned out to be of fruit. We spent the first four or five weeks learning about food so they usually resort to food drawings if they don’t understand. I didn’t worry too much because one of my goals is to get the children to be proud of their work. I walked around the room giving out lots of praise and encouragement.
My second classroom (3 – 4’s) was even worse. I didn’t get a single thing that looked like it could be something that they do well. Again, I got more fruits and vegetables, a lot of circles and then some that are best described as scribbles. But then again, some of these children are only 3 years old.
My final classroom (5 – 6’s) I was a little discouraged about the topic but had a bunch of really great pictures that I love to put up on my wall to decorate and to send home to those of you who send me letters. I am explaining the topic and assignment to the students and then pass out the paper and crayons and they look at me like they don’t understand. So, I ask, “Do you understand?”. They all say yes and then look to their teacher. [This is part of the non-direct nature of Turkmen culture]. The teacher goes to the board and draws a bunch of grapes. [Again because the students have just begun to draw a lot of the time they want to have an example on the board that they copy, I try to get away from this because I want them to be creative and not simply copy what already exists].
I stared at those grapes for a good minute before I understood what was happening. In Turkmen “I love myself” is “Men özüm söýyän”, while “I love grapes” is “Men üzüm söýyän”. It took me another minute to recover from the shock of why no one in the previous two classrooms seemed to understand me. I guess the idea of loving yourself is not prevalent and therefore they assumed that I meant grapes. This is why I got so many pictures of fruit and vegetables. Once I explained the difference this oldest group produced some beautiful pictures of people. The people were still not doing anything, but I had made progress. And I still make mistakes with my language…

Dr's

International Women's and Girl's Day

International Women and Girls Day is theoretically an international holiday to appreciate all of the things the women and girls do in all of our lives. It is on March 8th each and every year. In Turkmenistan the day involves giving presents to the girls and women in your life. I have received (as of March 4th) two silk flowers. I purchased a bunch of candy for the women and girls in my life here and have begun distributing it as I see fit.
One of the neatest things is that the President of the country takes part in this event. He has set aside enough money for each woman and each girl to get 40 new mannat ($13 – 14). This may not seem like a huge thing, but I could go back and forth between Charjew and home twice for that amount of money. Remember this is a 2+ hour drive each direction.
For my International Women and Girls Day I went to a toý at my counterpart’s house. It also coincided with her husband’s birthday. The toý was split into two halves, the first half was made up of about 6 young women with their very young children – all were under the age of 2. Then the second half was myself, my counterpart, my counterpart’s husband, my sister-in-law (my counterparts daughter), Kervan (my nephew), and an older woman who I believe is my counterpart’s mother. We ate and drank and ate and drank. It was a very nice small gathering which I really enjoyed.
Because the United States does not celebrate this holiday I ask each of you to do one thing when you read this – please let the women and girls in your life know how much you love and appreciate them and in our own way we will spread knowledge of this very important idea. Peace!

Wierd Wednesday

Today has been a very odd day, but I think it has been very ‘Turkmen’, therefore I have decided to share it with you.
The day began as many others do. I woke up, very groggily, proceeded to breakfast and then prepared for my Wednesday. As I’ve previously mentioned I spend Wednesday mornings at the kindergarten and I’ve begun (today) to spend Wednesday afternoons teaching girls ‘American cooking’. I had a lot to prepare for today.
Once it was all loaded into my backpack I began the trek to the kindergarten. On the way I stopped at the dukan to purchase a few eggs for the food we were going to make later.
My lesson for the kindergarteners today was not health related. This week is international Peace Corps week so I dedicated my lesson today to talking about America. My goal was to show the students the diversity of America. Diversity of people, places, landscapes, holidays, beliefs, traditions, etc. The students really liked all the pictures I showed them, although I could be mistaking that for their love of my computer. The lesson went really well and I was pleased. I also got a silk flower from one of the girls (this weekend is women’s and girls day so most women and girls get presents, but look for another blog entry on the details of that holiday).
Following the three lessons I walked to the kitchen to say hi to the cooks and chefs and they of course offered me some food. I ate a little knowing that I already had lunch plans but not wanting to offend. I had some bread, some potatoes (served with sugar), and some soup along with the traditional tea.
Onto my next location – a woman named Jemagül who lives near the kindergarten. Her daughter and a few friends taught me how to make Turkmen carpets, it was hard and I am really bad at it. The muscles in my lower arm hurt for a full day after I learned. Anyway, her daughter Arazoul is really great and I have been visiting their house for lunch most days after I’m done with the kindergarten. I’m also supposed to be teaching her and her friends how to make American food (today was going to be our first lesson), but they are all busy making another carpet at another house. We might try to make start this club in a week or two. I hope it all works out! So, I ate lunch there (komelekly işlýk – mushroom Turkmen pizza, which is really more like a calzone). I stayed for a while and chatted and showed some pictures because I had my computer with (I used it to show the pictures to the kids at the kindergarten). After I have spent nearly 2 hours and it is clear the girls are not coming this week to make food I decide it is time to go, I have some things at home that I have to do. I make my polite excuse to leave and begin the walk back home. At this point my backpack is feeling really heavy and I am getting tired and warm.
I walk past all of the school students who are outside on their break and are all staring at me and commenting to their friends. Have you ever walked into a room where you know everyone is talking about you? It was like that except that I can’t help but laugh. The situation is simply so absurd, I know they are all talking about me, about what I’m wearing, about how strange I am and whispering things like, “that’s the American”. And unlike in America where people will avoid looking at you when they’re talking about you Turkmen are not afraid to stare and to continue staring.
So, I’ve past the mob of kids at the school and am nearly back to the dukans (very close to my house) when this guy comes running across the street yelling my name. He looks vaguely familiar. I’m in a friendly mood so I decide to stop and talk with him. He also knows my name (although this isn’t too hard to figure out, I’ve had people who I’ve never met before come up to me and call me by name). He says, where were you? I think, hmmm, I’m really close to home so maybe I could make a run for it. I look at him in that look of nonunderstanding and he says, “Bibi, Ogulgeldi, Jemagül, and Akjagül are all at my house, where have you been?” I know all of those individuals (they are co-workers) so I decide this guy might be trustworthy, I know I can get myself back from nearly anywhere around here, the village is so small that everyone knows everyone else, I handed around a sheet last week to all my doctors and nurses and asked them to sign up for me to myhman (I didn’t see the sheet after it was passed out) and I figure this could be one of those times, and frankly I don’t have much to do that afternoon. The guy points to his car and says, “yer” (come). I hop in the backseat and off he goes, flying at incredible speeds through the mud streets. He pulls up to a house that I know I’ve seen someone at before and I think, it seems like this guy was telling the truth. He honks his horn as I get out of the car. A girl comes out of the house and then turns and yells, “mom!”. Bibi emerges and looks really happy. I am relieved.
At this point I’ve already eaten two meals and I am brought into the house where all the settings for a mini toý are set out. I know that I have to eat a fair amount of food not to offend. Then I notice the main dish – pumpkin manty – one of my favorite meals and I know that these were made for me. Now I have to eat a lot… I proceed to eat as much as I can. Then the vodka comes out and we toast. I ended up spending another hour and 15 minutes there eating and talking with my co-workers. I also made a date for yet another myhman event on Saturday.
On our walk back we ran into many people and it took us another 25 minutes to go on a 5 minute walk. Now, I am here (at my house) exhausted but in a good way, tired due to the alcohol, but really quite pleased how the day turned out. It was weird but good.

Kelsey with counterpart and supervisor. Kelsey wearing her Turkmen Don that she had made. Note the earlier blogs and the challenge to have this made. Note the mothers every where unite.

Kelsey's family

More pictures

Father Mother Nephew in our home

Carpets

Carpets here all all sizes and cover most of the floors in homes. They are also what most sleep on. Checking into what it might cost me to bring a carpet back home of maybe settle for a small carpet that will count a one of my bags when I return.

Kelsey and her teachers making carpets

I want to ride my bicycle

Back home during the summer my family has spent a fair number of hours biking the mountain biking trails for the past few summers. I really enjoy this pastime. In a lot of ways I miss the workout that really doesn’t feel like a workout because it is too much fun.
When I arrived at site I observed the large number of women riding bicycles and was very excited to be able to ride a bike myself. The price of bikes here is fairly steep for a Peace Corps salary. I could get one if I didn’t spend practically any other money during a month and I plan to save up for one or purchase one off another volunteer when they leave in a year.
I found out a few weeks ago that my family has a few bikes that they use to get around on occasion and I’m constantly asked if I know how to ride a bicycle. I reply, of course I know how to ride a bike. Today I rode my first bike since arriving in the country. All of the women here ride with skirts, I’ve never ridden with one so I chose to go with my sweat pants (especially since I already had them on). I approached the bicycle and was informed there were no brakes (I didn’t actually know the word for brakes but my brother did a good job of acting it out and pointing).
I have never ridden a bicycle without the brakes and while mountain biking I rely on them to reduce the number of times I crash. The roads here aren’t exactly mountain biking trails but they are not paved sidewalks or roads either. There are huge potholes, cars, motorcycles, large puddles of water, deep ruts, holes, small hills, etc. They are dirt/mud roads that are never maintained.
Given all this I did manage to go a ways, turn around, and return home and get the satisfactory rating of “gowy” or “good”. My family approves my bike riding skills. That doesn’t mean I didn’t get a little freaked out when I reached to hit the brakes and they weren’t there. So, instead I crashed into a fence (this was before my jaunt while I was riding in our backyard).

The Joy of Kervan

The joy of Kervan (aka the joy of children)
For those of you who don’t know one of the members of my host family is a little boy who is 9 months and one week old. He is my host nephew. The people who live in my house are my parents, one of my brothers, a sister – in – law (who isn’t married to the brother living at home but a different brother who lives two hours away) and Kervan. Kervan literally means caravan. I keep meaning to ask my family why they named him that but as of now don’t have the answer.
I have spent my fair share of time with children. While growing up I earned a living by doing copious amounts of babysitting, I’ve taught Sunday school lessons, school aged children, and have a number of cousins who were at one point very small. I have not, however, spent a large amount of time watching the development of one child. I have been living with my host family for the past two months and a week and have had the opportunity to watch Kervan change dramatically in the past few months.
He is, as many other little boys are, very active. Dilber, his mother and my sister – in – law, asked me a few weeks ago if he was a good boy. I replied that he is very curious and always happy, so yes, he is a good boy. She said, but he’s always dirty, he gets into so many things that he shouldn’t.
Kervan began attempting to walk several weeks ago. I don’t know exactly when the transition from not walking to walking happens, but I think he is currently somewhere in the middle. The first step was being able to pull himself up. In Turkmenistan that step proved somewhat difficult as there really isn’t anything to pull oneself up onto. There is very little furniture and therefore human beings became his playground. My favorite is when Kervan sneaks up behind you, uses his arms on your back to kneel and then pushes at your back until he finally is standing upright. It is rather challenging to prevent him from falling backwards when he is behind you.
Turkmen have a small celebration when children begin to walk. I had the opportunity to take pictures and some video for this celebration for Kervan. The general idea is to have him walk and then roll several rounds of çorek shaped similar to tires on either side of him. Then you congratulate him (Kervan) on his ability to walk. My favorite part of this celebration was the noise coming out of his mouth. It was some combination between a screech, yell, howl, and grunt. I believe I managed to catch this noise with my camera in a short video. If I (or my family at home) can figure out how to post video it will appear here at some point.
When I first arrived Kervan would find pleasure in staring at me. This is because I have glasses. There are very few ophthalmologists in Turkmenistan and therefore very few people get their eyes checked – ever. As a result the only people who ever have glasses are usually doctors and a few older members of the community who read. My glasses were a source of initial fear (doctors give shots) and now they are a source of entertainment. Kervan finds extreme pleasure in attempting to touch my glasses. He hasn’t had the opportunity yet because I’ve seen what he does with things that he finds fascinating (he pounds them into the ground and into other things). I’ve seen my father’s glasses broken, a ceramic tea pot, and numerous small toys.
Now, don’t get me wrong, he is not always a perfect laughing, bubbly, curious child. He does cry, make large messes, and today I had the pleasure of watching him throw up a large amount of milk (those of you who know my reaction to vomit know this was not a pleasant experience for me). Most Turkmen call all children haýwan (animal) or maýmyn (monkey) whenever they do something that isn’t in good behavior. Kervan gets called haýwan almost as much as he gets called Kervan.
When I found out I was going to be living with another small child (my training family had a baby a week after I arrived) I was disappointed. Children are fine, but they tend to cry and get into things they’re not supposed to, and generally make trouble. Whereas a girl aged 15 – 21ish who is unmarried (a sister) could be a great source of joy and entertainment. I didn’t get a sister but I did get a sister – in – law who is fantastic and I got her beautiful son. I am very happy how everything has worked out. I wake up every day and have a constant source of joy. I simply need to look into Kervan’s eyes, see him smile or laugh at me, and I’m all set. My only hope is that I will eventually be trusted to take care of him and not to screw up! I’ve already let him fall over when he bumped his head and I’ve given him the crust of the bread which he can’t chew. But just a little over a half hour ago he crawled into my bedroom unaccompanied sat down on my floor and watched me clean my room. Then I sat down and gave him the three toys I have in my room that are exciting (a stuffed lion that my family sent which will be his when he turns one, a plastic coca-cola bottle that I use to store clean water, and a jiff peanut butter jar filled with permanent markers that sounds very similar to a rattle). There we played until Dilber came to take him away.
I’m sure to those of you with children this is not anything new, but for those of you who don’t have children this post may be of particular interest. Everything is new and shiny through the eyes of a child. I’ll be sure to keep you posted on any new/fun changes in Kervan’s life.
As always I hope you are healthy, happy and that you find peace.

Wednesday

I love Wednesdays!
And today was no exception (1/21/09)! I begin every Wednesday with my weekly trip to the kindergarten. If you haven’t already heard this is one of the highlights of my week. There are several reasons for this. Firstly; it is the only real Peace Corps Health related activity that I have right now. Secondly; I get to see around 75 children ages 3 – 6 who are generally well behaved and are gradually getting more and more used to me. Today on my way to the kindergarten (a half hour walk away) someone said hi to me before I said hi to them – progress! When I arrived at the K-garten I went to my first classroom (4 – 5 year olds) and the teacher who is my father’s sister was there. She is wonderful! As I was walking into the classroom a particularly cute little girl sees me and runs to give me a hug. She is one of the most enthusiastic children in this classroom and it immediately brightens my day. I teach my lesson which includes “head, shoulders, knees and toes” then a short lesson on why fruits and vegetables are important to us. I’m in the middle of a very long nutrition theme at the moment. The children then all draw pictures of their favorite fruit or vegetable. Then they all gave them to me. So, in addition to the few that will make it up on my wall I’ll probably be sending some home in letters in the future. Then I move onto the 5 – 6’s. Each classroom has a special place in my heart but this classroom is special because these students usually understand my message better than the other two classes, and they really get into any games or songs we do. They sing along, loudly, to “head, shoulders, knees and toes” and at the end of the lesson I tried fruit basket mix up, it was entertaining! Then I moved onto the 3 – 4’s. I’m still working on this classroom, several of the children are scared of me in this classroom. They do the motions for the song but only one child actually sings it with me. At the end of their lesson I also had them draw pictures of their favorite fruit and while some children understood the concept others weren’t quite there yet. Today was my third week at the kindergarten and each and every week after I’m done the cooks in the kitchen have boiled pumpkin ready for me to eat. They know I don’t eat meat and that I really like pumpkin (this is Turkmen pumpkin and it is slightly different than what we have back home). So, I sat in the kitchen talking with the cooks while eating my pumpkin. I left to walk home. After the enjoyable walk I arrived home to the smells of one of the most surprising meals I’ve had while here. Even though I had already eaten almost an entire meal at the kindergarten I ate some of the foil dinner. I then retreated to my room to take a nap because I knew I was going to help get ready for a birthday toý this evening and I would need as much patience and brain energy as possible. I awoke and my parents, who were sitting outside in the beautiful weather, said that I should go over to Aysoltan’s (my counterpart) to help prepare for the toý. This particular toý was a birthday party for my counterpart’s one year old granddaughter, Enejaň. (Translation of this name is mother dear. A lot of times when someone dies the next child born in that family receives this name or the male equivalen Atajaň or Babajaň, the children also receive a second name that is used more informally I believe Enejaň’s is Lila or something similar to that). I put on my toý koýnek (party dress) and walked the two doors down to help prepare for the toý. I basically placed a bunch of different kinds of salads on various plates and then brought those plates to one of the five different rooms where food was set up. During this process I, naturally, tasted the food as I went along. There were four different kinds of salad. The first was a beat and mayonnaise salad. The second was a cabbage, dill, pickle, garlic, salt, and mayonnaise salad. The third was basically a potato salad containing potatoes, carrots (baked), pickles, peas, and mayonnaise. And finally, my favorite, the bread salad which has peas, spinach, little pieces of bread (kind of like stuffing sized bread), cheese and mayonnaise. Then we put compote (homemade pickled juice) into bowls. There was erikli (apricot), almaly (apple), pomidorli (tomato), and another fruit whose name I can’t seem to recall in either English or Turkmen. I was then taken to one of the five rooms which was where I was supposed to eat. I sat and relaxed while people arrived. This toý was particularily exciting because I knew a lot of the people who came to it. Several of the doctors and nurses came and I was able to talk with them. Several of my sister-in-law’s siblings as well as friends of my family who I had previously met were all in attendance. This makes talking a lot easier. They all know about where my level of Turkmen is. We have some history together which makes talking much easier and they all like me, I hope! The pinnacle of the evening was when Enajaň received her gifts. I was the evening’s photographer because I was the only person with a real camera. There were two other people taking pictures (or video) on their cell phones. The present giving was essentially Enejaň and her mother sitting on a sheet in the middle of a room with probably 50 other people crowding in trying to give their presents, most of which were 10,000 manat bills which they stuffed into her clothes. She was obliged to try on everything she received which was just about enough to make a person cry. It certainly was enough for Enejaň. When my watch finally read sometime after 9pm Dilber (sister-in-law) asked if I wanted to go home. I was most certainly ready to retreat so I said my farewells and went outside planning to walk home alone and found my brother who escorted me home (the whole two houses over). We talked about the toý and he mentioned that he doesn’t like a lot of people. I mentioned how we had that in common. The evening is winding down and on the way back from my nightly trip to the bathroom I looked up into the sky to see the beautiful sky filled with bright stars. I truly love being so far from main cities at night. It makes the sky so much brighter and more beautiful. Today was a beautiful day!

Thoughts Jan. 12

Sorry for the mixed up order of my blogs

I thought I should write another blog, even though many of you may not read this until several weeks to months after I write this. It helps to write down my thoughts and share them with you even if I don’t get this posted for a whileJ. I was just composing a few emails and thinking about my time here thus far and I thought I should share some of my thoughts with you. I have had a lot of time to read while I’ve been here. At this point (January 12, 2009) I have finished 19 books totaling over 6,000 pages. I am also currently in the middle (or somewhere) of seven other books. Those 19 books span the various genres. Through that reading I’ve gained insight, had a laugh or two, cried, and overall enjoyed the momentary escape from reality. However, some books forced me back to my reality through their words and passages. I thought I might share some of those excerpts that I found particularly influencing in case any of you are having similar thoughts or experiences. One of the books I read was an anthology of medical literature. It was overall an enjoyable book, one that I had purchased probably a year before I left and had every intention of reading but never got around to doing it. Each individual story, poem, or essay had a point to make but I think it was the last essay that I enjoyed the most. Perhaps it was because the book was finally over (I get this strange thrill out of finishing a book and I started this one when I arrived in T-stan so it was especially exciting), perhaps it was because it was relatively short or perhaps it echoed what I was thinking about at the time. It was a ‘gentle reflection’ by David Loxtercamp entitled “Facing our Mortality: The virtue of a common life”. He wrote several things that I believe are quote worthy, “We [doctors, nurses] are relief workers in a refugee camp, supplied with an insufficient stockpile of loyalty, friendship, and love. It is ordinary human relationship we engage in, no matter how much is made of the gap in power or degree of intimacy” He went on to discuss community in a hospital setting and how he felt it was lacking, but had this to say about community, “The purpose of community (because, in an affluent age, we no longer need it for physical survival) is to remind us who we are. This message is refreshed every Saturday morning at public market, along the Fourth of July parade route, at yard sales, benefit suppers, community plays, and YMCA runs”. I believe, Loxtercamp was chastising doctors for their disconnectedness as many of the authors in the book I read did. He also noted that, “It is a shame, really, that doctors spend so little time in the communities where they practice. If we did, we might come to see our patients from a different angel, as real people on equal terms, capable of returning more than they receive”. This, naturally, made me happy because this is one of the prides of being a PCV. Finally, he noted, “If there are any heroes or saints left in the world, they are each of us at our best, responding to the worst that the world imposes. Like a photo mosaic, our lives create the ethereal outline of virtue. But it is in the individual faces, or parts thereof, that virtue becomes most worthy of emulation”.
One of the seven current books I’m working on is entitled Soul Cravings by Erwin Raphael McManus and was sent to me by my pastor from back home. His book is split into three sections and the section that I chose to begin with is entitled destiny. In one of his entries he writes, “All of us are called to a place we have not been. Our lives were always intended to be journeys into the unknown. The invitation is both personal and mystical. No one else may fully understand what you are being called to. You may not even fully understand. The path you must walk may appear to others as strange or unreasonable, but you know there’s more going on than meets the eye.” I do believe this sums up the beginning of my Peace Corps experience more succinctly that I could have.
In case you are really interested in the other books I’m working on reading they are: African Nights by Kuki Gallmann, Yoga 28 Day Exercise Plan by Richard Hittleman, At Play in the Fields of the Lord by Peter Mattheissen, Great American Short Stories from Hawthorne to Hemmingway Edited by Corinne Demas, The Spirit Catches You And You Fall Down by Anne Fadiman, and The Beach by Alex Garland. They are all good in their own ways and I’m reading each to fulfill a different reason. I just finished a romance novel in which the main character was an avid reader and had a book for every occasion – her breakfast book, her lunch book, dinner book, her relaxing book, her soak in the tub book, her night book, etc. I like to think I have something similar.
As always I’m sending you peace and love. I hope all is well with you and you are happy and healthy. Keep the letters/emails/packages coming and I look forward to hearing from you!

I did it!

I did it!
Did what? Well, I crossed off another one of the bazaar things that I have wanted to do since I’ve gotten here. The list keeps growing but it includes things like make çorek (Turkmen bread) start to finish, learn to can things, garden our HUGE backyard, milk the cows, etc. One of those things was to make peanut butter from scratch. It is that item that I have officially crossed off my list. The story for the motivation behind the peanut butter is not short. It begins with a fellow PCV, a T-15 who is extending (this means she has already done two years and is starting her third year as we speak). Her name is Adrienne. Adrienne has done a lot of things over her two years in country and one of those things was having a girls’ club in which they participated in all sorts of activities including milking goats and making cheese out of those goats and, naturally, making peanut butter from scratch. This got me excited because as an avid peanut butter fan living in a country that does not have peanut butter is a challenging proposition. I slyly inquired how one might go about making said peanut butter and her reply was something along the lines of buy a bunch of peanuts, take off the silly brown casing (peanuts here come pre-shelled but with that dark brown covering), grind them really small and add salt and oil. I think, that doesn’t sound too hard I just need to get a grinder. I contemplated buying Adrienne’s when she leaves but that leaves me at the mercy of friends and family for my peanut butter needs for another entire year.
One week ago I found out, or realized, that my family has a grinder. I was elated! I made this realization after eating something very similar to foil dinners on several occasions. These dinners included ground beef along with the normal foil dinner ingredients. Now I had all of the necessary items (once I bought peanuts) but I needed some motivation…
I have been spending one morning a week at the kindergarten in town and we are currently doing nutrition. I have had brilliant ideas for the previous three weeks and this week we are covering the meat and protein group. I suggest you try to come up with a good idea to keep 3 – 6 year olds enthralled with meat for a half an hour, especially when you, as the educator, don’t like meat or talking about it for that matter. I thought about it for a while and thought, hey, maybe kids would like it if I made food for them. And I love to bake, so perhaps I could make some sort of baked good. But then we run into how a person is going to link baked goods to meat. I don’t bake with meat and even if I did I have no idea what I would make. Here comes my motivation for peanut butter…peanut butter cookies!!! I know…it is a stretch, but I’ll make it work (the lesson is tomorrow morning).
Now we return to the making of the peanut butter. I walk to the dukan (store) and buy a kilo of peanuts because I figure the container that my parents sent me fits 2 pounds 8 ounces of peanut butter and since it is empty it needs filling up. Once I’ve purchased the peanuts I settle onto a cushion on the floor with my bag of peanuts with the annoying casings, a ziploc bag for the good peanuts, and my garbage bin to throw all the brown casings and I pop in a movie (The Prestige). I finish the movie and look at my progress…hmm…well I thought I had done a lot of peanuts! I opt to put in another movie (The Bee Movie). Cute movie…well this is going to take longer than I had anticipated. I continue putting movies in and watching them while shelling peanuts and before I know it I’ve seen Eastern Promises, Babel, The Last King of Scotland, Capote and Enchanted. At this point I know I’m in trouble it took me 7 movies to get rid of the stupid brown casings on 1 kilo of peanuts and I want to make peanut butter cookies out of this which will involve using at least half of it during the making. Why did I have to get myself into this? Onto the next phase – the grinding, I take all of my peanuts to the kitchen along with my oil and set up the grinder and begin to grind. I quickly discover that the grinder doesn’t want to stay put. Although even with that obstacle this task took a mere 30 minutes (and that included a twice through on the grinder). The result is a fine paste of peanuts. I am adequately satisfied but now comes the guessing aspect. How much salt do I put in and how much oil? I know the consistency I want so I simply add small amounts of salt and oil and then stir and taste. The answer – a little salt and a lot of oil (well maybe a half cup or so, maybe a cup). The final part of this horror project will take place tonight when I make cookies for 75 children their 5 or so teachers and the 10 or so other workers at the kindergarten. That is 90 cookies, let alone the ones I’m obliged to make for my family any time I bake and if I want to have any for myself I’d better first make some for my coworkers at the clinic. We have a weekly English meeting on Thursday that I should probably bring some to. My guess is I’ll end up making 90 small cookies (very small) and then another 50 – 60 for everyone else. 150 cookies, no sweat…well maybe not much but there will certainly be no sleep! It is already 6:17pm and I have to wait to make the cookies until after we eat dinner which won’t be for another hour or so. I also HAVE to take a shower tonight. Don’t ask how long it has been, you really don’t want to know, it may scare you! Take care! As a final thought I’ve included my ‘to do in Turkmenistan’ list as it currently stands below. Enjoy!
Learn to pickleMilk the cows on my ownBe trusted with Kervan for more than 5 minutesMake a real friendMake Peanut Butter from scratchMake butter/Yogurt/Sour Cream/Cheese from scratchFarm/GardenRide a camelRide a donkeyBe able to understand a conversation during mhykmanning (guesting)Go to 75 toý’s (parties – I’m already at 12)Make an artistic masterpieceMake çorek start to finish (bread)Watch the tamdyr being made (tamdyr is the oven that bread is made in)Learn to make Turkmen carpets!