My Turkmen New Year’s

My first Turkmen New Year’s began in a surprising location. I found myself at a holiday work party Monday night (before New Year’s) with 4 (out of 5)of the doctors at my clinic. I arrived to the director of health in my etrap (county) greeting me by name at the door, and entered the room to find around 150 or so other people. In many respects it was similar to one that many of us have attended in the past; there was food, music, decorations, presents and even some dancing.
Let’s begin with the room. The room was a large rectangualar room with a large stage occupying one entire end. In the center of the room was a Charlie Brown looking Christmas tree that was hovering around 25 feet tall. It was covered in tinsel and neon, metallic colored garland in an effort, I believe, to cover the sparseness of the boughs. The tree had a very homey feel. Two of the walls were covered in color penciled drawings of Santa Clause, a very young looking Mrs. Clause, some animals frolicking in the snow and welcoming the new year of 2009 with their words and happy expressions. The final wall had what I would consider to be the head table that I’m assuming had the head health administrators for our region. I was seated on the opposite side of the room, right in front of the stage.
The food was very untraditional for a Turkmen Toý in that each individual hospital brought their own food. It was very potluck feeling, however there wasn’t much sharing happening. My clinic brought manty (meat filled steamed dough packets), çorba (soup) that had an inch of ýag (oil) floating on the top. By the end of the evening it had gelled into a solid that my spoon was sitting on top of, therefore, I was able to get a fairly accurate approximation of the amount. In addition to these main courses we had all of the traditional party foods: several small bowls filled with peanuts, several apples, oranges/tangarines, sweets, cookies, tea, and of course one bottle of vodka. I have only begun to have experiences with drinking with Turkmen and because I am a woman I hear it is not nearly as intense. At this dinner I had three shots of vodka in 15 minutes and a half a glass of really bad wine and then we were done.
The evening began with the eating, then progressed to the entertainment and finally to dancing. The entertainment was defiantly entertaining. Throughout the entire evening there was Turkmen music performed by a live Turkmen folk group which I, unfortunately, was unable to really watch because my back was to the stage. Periodically we watched two guys who I understood to be a comedy group. They were really great, especially when I could understand what was happening. In fact, I think the best part of the evening was when they performed essentially a lip sync song that had been edited to have several different songs come in and out. The entertainment came in that they were supposedly ‘playing’ the music on the piano and ‘singing’ the music and when the song changed they freaked out and eventually ended up throwing the keyboard on the ground which of course made it fall into several pieces. I also saw them perform the first Turkmen drag I’ve seen. Then there were several word comedies that I didn’t understand. We also had a group of young people dressed in really shabby clothing with masks on. I think they were all girls but were dressed as two girls and two guys. They were each wearing masks. Three of the masks were cloth and painted and the fourth looked like it was right out of the Halloween bin at Goodwill. They begged for food by dancing and entertaining people. It was really confusing and I really didn’t understand what they were doing or why. My best guess is that they were paid (or perhaps children of some of the doctors) and they were supposed to represent the old year in some way. Perhaps the passing of the old year. Any other insight on that feel free to email me. I asked about it but didn’t get an answer that I really understood. The final entertainment aspect was ayaz baba (santa clause) and garpamyle (snow maiden). Santa wasn’t wearing red but rather blue and white. He greeted everyone then sang a few songs, one of which reminded me of a Christmas carol, and then he and the snow maiden danced with us. The dancing was …. well it consisted of nearly two thirds of the people standing up forming small concentric circles and walking around in a circle stepping in time to the music and waving their hands into circles. It was different from previous Turkmen dancing that I’ve done in that it was co-ed. I actually danced with several old men (including santa) and it is much more interactive. The men have some sort of signal and then if he is looking at you you both go into the circle do this greeting dance step in the middle and then switch sides of the circle. I’m not entirely sure if I figured it out but everyone seemed to think it was great that the weird person was dancing. I didn’t look too out of place because I was wearing my toý koýnek (party dress) but I still wasn’t wearing a head scarf, I’m fairly light skinned, and I wasn’t wearing the traditional Turkmen coat (don) but instead my fleece and a huge bulky scarf. The dancing was a lot of fun and I really began to connect with my co-workers in hopefully a way that will help me to be able to do some good work over the next several years.
The final part of the evening was announcing all of the head doctors at each of the clinics. Presents were given to each of these people as well as several other positions high up in the etrap health system. I noticed as all of the presents were being given out that they were very untypical for what I would normally give a person in the states for something like a holiday party or even for a raise at a job or a congradulations for a new position. Each of the head doctors were given a gift package that included a plate, 4 cups, and a teapot. The lower of the ‘higher up’ positions were given fancy glass serving dishes and the two really fancy exciting positions were given refrigerators. All of which were household items. I really enjoyed noting this difference in cultures. I have stopped trying to figure out why things are done and try more to simply accept that the difference exists and then putting together all of the differences I see and then trying to figure out what lies behind those differences. For example; in Türkmenistan people are extremely hospitable, I believe this is because Turkmen used to be a nomadic culture and therefore one community is really just a large family. Because of that guesting (yes I know that isn’t a word but for me as a PCV in T-stan it is) and visiting is expected and therefore having extra dishes, serving dishes and refrigerators would be a very good thing to have. In America we are very individual. You cannot simply show up at someone’s house. It would be considered rude. If you want to visit someone you have to give them a several day to several month advance notice (depending on how far away you live). If someone comes to visit in the states it would be normal to offer them something to drink, but normally you would not spend time to cook them an entire meal complete with salad, several appetizers, desert, and then sit and talk with your guest for the next three hours. You would ask them very quickly why they were there and what they wanted. There are many differences between where I am and where you are and I am constantly learning about them. Something new each and every day.

The second part of my New Year’s celebration occurred on New Year’s Eve with my family. Something you may not know about my Turkmen family is that I have 12 brothers and sisters. Only one of whom still lives at home. Throughout the evening we had four maybe five of my siblings stop by with their spouses or grandchildren so it was a very festive family feeling. The first thing I noticed was several days before New Year’s we had a Christmas tree decorated outside of our house that was tied to the ceiling by thick wire (rather than placed in a tree holder). It was covered in tinsel and neon, metallic garland just like the tree at the party. It was so beautiful I took a picture. Because the celebration was at my house we spent all day getting ready. I baked those peanut buttery cookies that you put hershey’s kisses or those chocolate stars into the middle of. I chose to put half pieces of mini reeces peanut butter cups. They were fantastic and went over huge with the Turkmen! I’ve baked probably four times since I’ve arrived here and those were by far the best received, which is really entertaining because there is no peanut butter here, a fact which I am having a really hard time reconciling. I also put out plates of peanuts and several containers of homemade, canned juice – one tomato and the other apricot. I helped my sister-in-law bake a Turkmen cake (torte). And after all our preparations we placed everything out onto the large table we had set. One of the awesome aspects of floor dining is that the table can be whatever size you need it to be! We sat down in the living room with the tv blazing Russian New Year’s entertainment which was almost like the New Year’s Eve countdowns from home. Then the soup was served and my father opened up the vodka. He poured shots around for everyone and gave a toast. Three minutes later it was one of my sister’s turns to toast. Another shot. Five minutes pass and my mother has her turn for a toast. Another shot. Two more minutes and it is my turn. They tell me to do the toast in English (one of my nephew’s down from Ashgabat translates for my family) and I end the toast with Happy New Year’s (in Turkmen). One more shot. The bottle is finally empty and I figure I’m safe. I continue to eat my soup and all of the other foods accompanying dinner, then I pull out my camera and start to take pictures of my family members which naturally leads to a family portrait which I gladly take. Then we sit for a while and the alcohol that I drank in ten minutes is finally hitting my blood when my sister-in-law’s father shows up and my father opens up another bottle of vodka. I must say, however, that I was never pressured to drink the alcohol. I was always poured a shot and even one of my sisters would only sip at it each time a toast occurred. The boys went outside and began to light firecrackers and run around the neighborhood setting them off and generally scaring people like me. I had planned to stay up with my family until they went to bed, assuming they would stay up till midnight, but the alcohol, all of the Turkmen (and Russian tv), as well as my ever pervading stomach ache and muscle aches only allowed me to make it until 10:45 at which point I turned in, laid out my bed on the ground and settled in to (hopefully) sleep through the night. I was woken up at 12:30 by firecrackers outside my window as well as yelling. Then again at 2 by similar sounds and again several more times but those were because I’ve been having trouble sleeping not due to New Year’s festivities.

The final exciting part of the holiday is that I get days off work. So I can spend time with my family and watch a lot of dvd’s and read a lot of books. Originally I was told I got the 1st off. So, I showed up to work on the 31st and the nurse whose office is across from mine told me to come and talk with her so I did. When the talking was winding down an hour later I told her I was going to go do some work and she told me we weren’t doing any work that day. So when we all went home for lunch they told me not to come back. I then clarified that I was supposed to be back on the 2nd for work. I was informed that the 2nd was a holiday and that we were going to work on the 3rd as a normal work day and that the 4th (Sunday) was a makeup day for the 2nd. It was all very confusing but I did get several days off of work and had a chance to relax and enjoy myself and spend some time with my family.