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