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.