Train Adventures

I wanted to share two experiences I had recently on the train. But first, a little about the trains. The cheapest way for me to get to Ashgabat is to take an overnight train. It costs about $5.50 to get a train from a village about 20 minutes to the north all the way to Ashgabat in a cupe (cabin with four beds). There is a cheaper ticket, but I have heard horror stories so as long as I have a choice I’ll pay the little extra to get a nicer place to stay. The trip from Ashgabat to Charjew or vice versa is about 12 hours. If you want to travel all the way to my village (well close to my village) it is about another 4 hours (this takes 2 by taxi).
Each cupe has four beds like I said before. Two are at the level that normal chairs would be and the other two are hung higher up on the ceiling. Under the two bottom stools there is storage room. And There is also storage on the top level at the end and between the upper beds (above the door to the cupe). Whenever traveling on the train you never know what kinds of cupe mates you will be assigned so whenever possible I try to travel with another volunteer so that I at least have someone sane and ‘normal’. The following are descriptions of two different trips that I’ve recently taken. Both trips I was accompanied by Jessie – a fellow volunteer. I believe both trips were from Ashgabat to Charjew.
Trip #1: The Plant Lady
Jessie and I were running late and I was worried we weren’t going to make it on time so we are running to the train. We get on and realize we are the first in our cupe. So, we arrange our things below our side of the bench and it takes up about half the room. Then we each grab books and our iPods and relax for the long trip.
We have barely gotten settled when a woman comes in with her arms filled with huge boxes that she has lashed together with rope to make handles. She sets them on the empty bench and disappears. Jessie and I look at one another, make that slightly suspicious/wondering face and return to our reading. Two minutes later she returns accompanied by a man (we learn later this is her father) and both of them are loaded with more boxes. The woman puts the boxes on the table we are supposed to use for dining and the man sets his down next to the ones already on the opposite bench. They both disappear again. Now half of the other bench is covered with these boxes and all of the dining table is covered. I glance at Jessie and give her an apprehensive look and we both return to our reading. The man and woman return with yet more boxes and again disappear. Now nearly all of the opposite bench is covered, the dining table, and part of one of the upper bunks. I look at Jessie and we start laughing. The woman and man return yet again with more boxes and disappear. Both of the opposite bunks are covered, the dining table and part of the floor. I begin to wonder if they are expecting to place themselves in this cupe as well as all of these boxes. The woman and man return one more time and now it is impossible for us to get out and for more than one of them to come into the cupe. All three beds are covered with boxes, the floor, the dining table and there is a box sitting outside the door. Our cabin mates begin to settle all of their boxes and the woman shows us what is inside them. They are all filled with plants. I have never seen plants for sale in T-stan – only seeds.
The man and woman fill the storage under their seat and the remaining half of ours as well as the storage overhead, two boxes end up under the dining table and another two boxes end up on top of it (we’ve all agreed that we’ve already eaten dinner and therefore don’t have a need for it). There are still a few remaining boxes. One ends up on the bed the woman is sleeping on and the other sits on the floor – severely limiting the space in our cabin. Jessie and I have been eyeing one another the entire time attempting not to break out in hysterical laughter. The woman and man both felt that this was a totally normal thing to travel with so many items that they overflow out of the storage containers and spill onto the floor and beds. The woman also stated – I would never put them into storage (I guess the trains have luggage compartments but I have no idea how one would use them) because she is responsible for the life of these plants and if someone treated them badly she would be out of money.
Overall it was an enjoyable, however bazaar, experience.
Trip #2 The Russians
Jessie and I were once again traveling together and arrived in the cabin to find it empty. We settled in, grabbed our books, but started talking instead of reading. We just finished with our Mid-service conference and felt the need to discuss it.
Several minutes later an older man and younger man entered our cabin. The older man smelled distinctly like vodka and cigarettes while the younger man was decently attractive and had rather large muscles.
We discovered very quickly that they were Russians. There are a fair number of Russians living in Turkmenistan – mostly in the cities. Most Russians living in Turkmenistan don’t know Turkmen because Turkmen became the national language after the country declared independence in 1991 and in the city you don’t NEED to know Turkmen. All restaurants and public services are offered in Russian (often only in Russian). Jessie and I silently breathed a sigh of relief as this meant we weren’t expected to interact with them because of the very difficult language barrier (we spoke almost no Russian).
Once they got settled the older man started trying to talk with us. He soon discovered what we had already determined. We spoke only Turkmen with tiny snippets of Russian while he and his son (we were able to figure this out) spoke only Russian with tiny bits of Turkmen. Normally this would prevent most people from making an effort to communicate (especially when communication is not strictly necessary) but not this man.
Given the language restrictions we learned that this man, his wife and four children lived in Charjew. The man worked in Ashgabat fairly regularly and the son was attending school in Ashgabat. The man is an animal lover and they have two dogs and several cats. We even were privileged to see a video of the mans’ family at a celebration attempting to include the dog in the toasts.
We also learned that his mother (or grandmother, not too sure) is a psychic/fortune teller. And, she passed on those traits to him – the son/grandson. At this point he pulls out two decks of tarot cards and proceeds to read my cards. Remember – we can’t communicate more than the most basic sentiments.
My reading: There will be two important men in my life. The first will be important but not the one I end up with forever. The second one, will have a farm, a good job, and he won’t be American. September is a very important month for me. There are at least 3 or 4 things that will happen to me during September. One of them involved one of those two men from above. I will have children – many of them. I am not allowed to become bored – as that will cause my mind to _____(this word was bad, but I have no idea what exactly he was saying, it was obvious this should not be allowed to happen).
The above was all I managed to understand in the 25 minute (or so) reading that he gave me.
You just never know what you might end up with when traveling by train.
Last year I took the train to get to Ashgabat to go on vacation and the man insisted that I had to call him when my family came to visit (in over a year). I had just met this man.
When I travel in a cabin that is all Americans the train directors (I’m sure they have a name but my English capabilities are declining rapidly) open our cabin every hour or so and bring spectators to stare at us. This happens even when we lock the cabin.

Top 10 reasons to live in Labop

1. Most verdant welayat in Turkmenistan.
2. Greatest access to water as a result of the Amu Dariya.
3. The regional capital is probably the only place in the world where the local dialect combines Turkmen, Uzbek and Russian. Volunteers (and some residents) have dubbed this unique language “charjewski”.
4. We have the best kBac. (a drink made of fermented bread)
5. We also have the best cocktails. (tiny portions of milkshakes that aren’t cold or made with ice cream)
6. Koyten Dag/Dinosaur footprints (beautiful national park with waterfalls, caves, and fossilized dinosaur footprints)!!!!!
7. Most awesome volunteer living quarters with the most educated, most married, and most gay volunteers in the straightest line.
8. Most liberal welayate with the most liberal people like my host father who said when discussing world travel, “people must travel if they can, they need to meet more people because, afterall, we are all just people”. We also supposedly have the only free radio in the country. Supposedly, because we can’t confirm its existence as we are not allowed to talk or meet with its producers.
9. We know how to party – every gathering is guaranteed to discuss public radio (specifically This American Life), AI, and the paper game (don’t ask).
10. We don’t have stinky camels or çal (fermented camel’s milk)!

16 months and counting

Today is February 4th. I have been in Turkmenistan for 16 months and counting. I have somewhere between 9 and 10 months left of service. Last week all of the volunteers were in Ashgabat for our ‘mid-service conference’. It is hard to believe that I’m already well over half done. I thought that instead of having a theme to my post today I would take some quotes from things I’ve been reading lately and comment on them and why they have spoken to me.
“And we shouldn’t be here at all, if we’d known more about it before we started. But I suppose it’s often that way. The brave things in the old tales and songs, Mr. Frodo: adventures, as I used to call them. I used to think that they were things the wonderful folk of the stories went out and looked for, because they wanted them, because they were exciting and life was a bit dull, a kind of sport, as you might say. But that’s not the way of it with the tales that really mattered, or the ones that stay in the mind. Folks seem to have been just landed in them, usually – their paths were laid that way, as you put it. But I expect they had lots of chances, like us, of turning back, only they didn’t. And if they had, we shouldn’t know, because they’d have been forgotten. We hear about those as just went on – and not all to a good end, mind you; at least not to what folk inside a story and not outside it call a good end. You know, coming home, and finding things all right, though not quite the same – like old Mr. Bilbo. But those aren’t always the best tales to hear, though they may be the best tales to get landed in! I wonder what sort of a tale we’ve fallen into?” Lord of the Rings The Two Towers p 321
I haven’t read LOTR in such a long time that I decided it would be great to re-read them. When I read this part I thought how wonderfully true it was. If I had known everything Peace Corps entailed before arriving in Turkmenistan, I’m not 100% sure I would still have done it. However, having said that, I also am so incredibly happy that I made that leap. This experience has been more than I ever would have thought and I will forever be different as a result of being here and experiencing this place.
“Everyone thinks of changing the world, but nobody thinks of changing himself.” Tolstoy
This isn’t actually from a book, because I have not (yet) read Tolstoy. I feel like this is very true of myself right now. I plan on returning back to the states to get further training to do the kind of work I feel I need to. Specifically I will be getting either an MPH/MD or an MPH/MSN degree. I then plan to work internationally on public health.
“It’s good to meet new people [and travel to new places], we are, after all, all just people” Begglych – my Turkmen host father, translated by myself
My new host family has been truly amazing I could not be happier with them and this quote embodies so much of what I love about them. My host father said this during a long conversation Jessica, Jessie (two other PCV’s) and I had with him about three weeks after moving in. I have never heard another Turkmen talk about anything remotely like this. And the fact that my host father believes that all people are equal is a sentiment that nearly brought me to tears. I am so thankful to be here and living with this family.
“All people have to lead good, wholesome lives. It doesn’t matter if you are a Muslim, a Christian, or a Bhuddist. Live a good life and you will be a good person.” Begglych – my Turkmen host father, translated by myself
Again, my host family is very welcoming and I think that one of the great benefits of Peace Corps is this ability to meet people who are so different from you and have so many new and different experiences. I am so happy that my host family has taken the diversity they have come into contact with and incorporated that into their worldview. I think this is one of the first steps towards a happier, more understanding, peaceful and loving world.
“It was very important to Paul to witness things,” Mountains Beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder p98
Mountains Beyond Mountains is an amazing book about a man named Paul Farmer who started a non-profit called Partners in Health. The work that he does is truly amazing and if I had his personality I would strive to become Paul Farmer. I do not think it would be possible, but the book about him speaks volumes to many of the problems with international public health. I also feel the need to witness things. I find it makes me a more compassionate person.
Society during the Stalin era left open no real opportunities for self-realization or self-expression except within this perverted system of the Communist Party. Lenin’s Tomb by David Remnick p 171
Lenin’s Tomb is a discussion of the fall of the Soviet Union and life in the Soviet Union and former-Soviet countries. I would never have read it before coming to Turkmenistan. A lot of cultural, social, and economic practices in Turkmenistan make a lot more sense after some of the things I’ve read in Lenin’s Tomb. Self-expression (and to some extent self-realization) is something I’ve been really working on with the students in my clubs and my kindergarten students.
“Lives of service depend on lives of support” Mountains Beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder p 108
I wanted to end with this quote because I can’t express my appreciation for all of you in any adequate way. The letters, packages, prayers and thoughts have made this experience and the past 16 months a very enriching experience. Thank you so very much!

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

Cotton Picking

It is Saturday and I just got home from work. I drop my things off in my room and help put lunch on the table. Dilber (sister-in-law) asks me if I want to pick cotton after lunch. I immediately reply, “yes!”.
I have been asking various family members for the past few weeks since the cotton harvest has started to take me with them out to the cotton fields. I even had one date all set up but because of some language misunderstandings it never happened.
Several hours later Dilber knocks on my window and says they’re leaving. I have a koýnek (long dress) on with a white long sleeve shirt over the top and I’m wearing a scarf over my hair. I grab my very large bottle of water and run out the door. Outside my family’s truck is sitting. In the bed of the truck I see nearly 15 women and young girls. My host father is driving. We head east out of town. We pass field after field of cotton, many of which have women and children already picking. We weave through dirt back roads for about 20 minutes and then my host father stops. I can’t see any cotton fields which is rather odd since that is what we have come to do.
Dilber jumps out of the truck and wanders to the side of the road and peers into a very large ditch. The dirt on the opposite side of the ditch is built up higher than our truck. She yells, “no water!” and all of the other women proceed to jump out of the truck and trudge through the ditch that is filled with weeds and grasses that are over my head. After we’ve descended and ascended this huge ditch I finally see the cotton field stretching out in front of me. I smile to myself and then greet various family members, friends and acquaintances who know me. I even get a hug from a host sister.
After the initial greetings I stand around awkwardly while everyone is prepping to pick. They are tying long aprons to their fronts, then tying one, two, or more bags to their front, back, and sides. Many put gloves on (these appear to be pairs of socks where the toes have been cut off and a slit has been made for the thumb). I am beginning to think I am not nearly prepared enough.
Another sister hollers at me and I follow her. She starts to walk into the field and I mention the fact that I don’t have a bag or apron. She passes me onto another sister who provides me with the essentials. My apron is a striped white and grey that covers from the outside of one thigh to the outside of another and goes all the way down to my ankles. I am only given one cotton picking bag but it is rather large. I have no idea how much cotton will fill this bag or how much work it will require to fill this bag so I don’t ask for another.
With around 40 women on my left and another 10 young girls to my right I walk bravely into the field and the row that has been assigned to me. The cotton plants start at around waist height and continue growing in height as I reach further and further into the field. Very quickly the plants are at my eye level and I have to jump in order to see over them.
The cotton we are picking today is on the bottom of the plant. This is the second time this field has been picked and I later learn that it will be combed through at least four times before the harvest is considered done. I take a step forward, bend at the waist and reach down, form a claw with my hand and pluck at the cotton. Every move I make in the field releases hundreds of small bugs from the plants and clouds of dust that bellow up around me and make me feel dehydrated and cause me to sneeze. (I did have the forethought to take allergy medication before I left, but still am feeling the effects)
Each plant has about 4 – 8 cotton bunches ready to be picked. Some come off very easily and are then stuffed into my growing sack tied to my waist. Others I have to pry each individual pod of cotton away. Some cotton pods have molded and are rotten. Nearly every pod is covered by a spider web and I pray that I don’t run into any of the poisonous spiders that live in Turkmenistan.
Very quickly my back and upper thighs begin to ache with all the tension and it gets worse as my bag gets bigger. I resort to squatting each time I venture to new plants and find new body parts that begin to ache.
I glance back toward where the large truck that will take the cotton away is parked. It keeps getting smaller and smaller.
I’m keeping pace with all of the children to my right but the women have forged ahead and I wonder if it is simply because I’m so slow or if I should only be taking the cotton that comes off easily. If I had to wager a bet I would probably go for the first option.
After just over an hour my bag is filled. Now I have no idea what to do. If I go back I’ll probably not be able to figure out exactly which row is mine and it looks like the women are expected to finish an entire row. I’m only about 1/3 of the way through my row. As I weigh my options one of my host nieces appears behind me with an empty bag and offers to take away my full one. I gladly give up my burden, don the second bag and get back to work.
The second bag fills slower than the first bag.
Some of the women who started around the same time I am are headed back toward the truck, they pass and yell hi.
The women from the kindergarten yell at me across the field, it takes me a while to realize they are talking to me. Their laughter and joy waves over me and I smile. This is truly place for women to gather, gossip, and grab cotton.
My second bag is slowly filling up, the truck is even further away, I can’t tell if I’m closer to the far end of the field or the truck. The cotton is so high here it is hard to see anything other than what is right in front of me. My previously white sleeves are black and my hands are covered in mud and stains. I can’t see the bottom of my dress as the bag in front of me is getting so large.
Several hours after I initially set out my second bag is full, my body is aching and I need water. I decide to head back with my full bag for a break.
When I return to the truck my bag is immediately weighed, my niece adds the weight to what she weighed my previous bag at and it turns out I have picked 9.5 kilos of cotton! I’m surprised by the weight, it seems like a lot to me.
I sit down on top of a random bag for my break. The people by the truck are all family members – a host sister, niece, and nephew. I begin a conversation with Gülçer (the sister) about the field and cotton business.
This field and one other cotton field are both owned by my family. This field and the other will both be picked through 4 times before considered done. A very strong young woman can pick on average between 120 – 150 kilos of cotton a day. (My 9.5 kilos is seeming like nothing now) The government pays 500 manat (old manat) for every kilo picked. As I do the math in my head I realize I would make about $.30 for my several hours of cotton picking. Even one of those strong young women would only make about $3 – 4 per day. The families who own the fields take people out to their fields, record how much each person picks, drop the cotton off at a local processing plant, and when the season is done the government pays each family accordingly, the families then pass the money onto the pickers.
Our family has 1 field with grain, another with watermelon and two fields of cotton (my host family is very wealthy in Turkmen standards, especially for a village).
I pass nearly as much time talking with my family members as I did picking. No one seems to care if I go back out to the fields or not. After spending 4 hours in the field all of the women are called in to the truck and madness ensues. Each woman/girl is gathering around the scale. My sister-in-law is weighing each persons’ cotton, my sister is recording them all in a small book, the women/children then take their bags of cotton and toss them up onto the truck which is by now overflowing with cotton. My niece and nephew are trying to grab the bags, empty them onto the huge pile of cotton in the truck and squash the cotton down in order to fit it all in without blowing away on the trip to the processing plant. The next hour is spent in this way. I help out where I can.
Finally, we’ve picked most of the cotton off the ground that fell and the cotton on the truck is sufficiently pressed down I make the trek back across that huge ditch to find my family’s truck with nearly 30 people all packed into the bed. I don’t know how they fit in any more, but somehow another 4 women find places in the back. I am sitting safely in the front of the truck. We make the trip back into town as the sun is glowing bright red and rapidly disappearing beyond the horizon and I am smiling.

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!