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.