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!