Fitting In (Different or the Same)

Fitting In (Different or the Same)

I have moved in with a family in Turkmenistan and I wanted to let you know what the home is like.

The floors are wooden covered with tapestries.
The toilet is in the farthest building from the main house. It has a cement slab 6'X6' and 8' tall walls with a hole and a basket of paper (not the best stuff). A friendly goat wandered on the trail side (we will come back to the goat).
The wash room (Banya) is 10' X 8' and heated with free natural gas. A pile of clothes is usually piled in one end next to an old fashion tub. There is a drain in the center of the floor and a sink on the wall with a faucet that doesn't work. A bucket of water is on the stove and buckets of cold water are all around. You mix the hot and cold water to get the temperature you want and dump it over yourself while simultanously scrubing. Clothes are washed by hand and hung out wrong side out. this prevent evil spirits from entering your clothes as they dry.
The sleeping area is large with a 2" mattress on the floor and neatness is of high value so everything is lined up along the wall neat and tighty.
Water comes from an underground well. I was issued a water filter but it is missing a piece so I might get sick.
There is a new baby in the family a boy born Oct. 19. He has a 3-year old sister a 5year old brother. This is a reason for a celebration. After a full day of training, I returned home to a car full of grocieries. On the first trip to the storage area I spoted the head and legs of the family goat on the floor. Goat for dinner! I cooked for four hours. The morning came fast and guests arrived. During dinner I was served a big helping of goat and given the high honor of being served some of the goat liver.
All women wear dresses all the time. There are three types of dresses; those for everyday at home, those for everyday when leaving home and party dresses. I bought material to have a dress made by a mom of one of the other volunteers and maybe embrordied by my host sister inlaw that has the new baby.
Our training with 5 volunteers other in same town requires us to run a camp at the school. Language is still a challenge but I am learning all the time.

Thanks for all the letters, thoughts and prayers.
Kelsey

First update from Turkmenistan

October 5, 2008

Salaam Blog Readers!

I have officially been in the country for two weeks today! It is hard to believe! I have been staying with a family for the past 5 or 6 days now and am learning new things every day. Some days it is frustrating and some days it is very rewarding (usually everyday is some of both). I am staying in a small town just west of Ashgabat and learning Turkmen as fast as I can. When I first arrived at my host family I could say (in Turkmen) Hi, How are you, Where is the toilet, Where is the wash room, How old are you, Are you married, and I could ask about your family and say I don’t understand. Now I have also learned about housing and family and food and tomorrow I’ll begin learning about the post office which means I’ll be able to send you all the letters that have been piling up in my room. As of yesterday I had 15 letters – that means I’ve been writing an average of 2 a day. I’ve lost count for now. This experience has already been nothing I could have imagined. Every single day I face unbelievable challenges but I’ve heard that those kinds of challenges produce the best rewards. I’ll give you one example: I arrived at my host family’s residence and immediately I placed my belongings in my room and we sat down for chai. We drank around three cups while I exhausted my Turkmen and we sat there for about a half an hour – me in near silence and my gilnege (sister-in-law, also a word for woman older than me but not old) and her mother in niece(I think) talking. Prior to this we had been spoiled (we were given chairs anytime we wanted to sit down). The half hour I spent on the floor attempting to find the best way to be comfortable. It wasn’t easy but I finally figured it out. Then we attempted to communicate (this consisted of my host sister in law and her cousin saying the same thing over and over and over again while I sat there dumbfounded repeating I don’t understand!). I was then taken inside the house and shown how to vacuum, sweep many rugs, wipe down with wet rags anything that was not covered by rugs and then repeated the process in each room. For those of you who know me I am someone who cooks, not someone who cleans! The cleaning process was repeated the next day (they show me how to do something, take it away from me when I do it wrong, show me again and then return the task to me). Meanwhile anytime we take a break from cleaning we are either cooking or sipping chai (sitting on the floor of course). So right now my lower back and hips hurt in places I didn’t know existed. The hurt is a constant reminder of just how much I am going to be changed (and hopefully the change that will occur because of me). Finally, I thought you might be interested in some of the current ideas, thoughts, quotes, etc. that are getting me from moment to moment.


From Planet Walker by John Francis (thanks Leeann!)
“I have taken the first step on a journey that will shape my life. I cannot stop now”


From my journal thanks to Steve (although I don’t know who the original author is…ask Steve!)
“If you ever feel stuck, and think you can’t do much, look past the structures of today, because love will flip the world sideways.” I like this one because one of my major complaints or grieves is the extreme division of men and women here. It is noticeable in each and every day in many ways. And once I move past that and remember the intense swell of love that I feel for our world the little things no longer matter.

Thanks everyone for your support! Send letters, send letters, send letters! You have no idea how wonderful it is to receive a small word of support from home! Sunday I was feeling so negative about my situation until I had a chance to talk with the other Americans in my town. The whole world changed in an instant (or more likely my whole world). A little bit of the known makes the unknown much less scary!
Sag bol!


KELSEY

P.S. I’ve been trying to take lots of pictures and will hopefully send/post some of them soon-ish!

Hello from Turkmenistan!

I only have a few moments to update this blog, so I'll make it brief. My parents should be posting a short note I composed last night (assuming there are no technical problems)!

I am currently sitting in the Peace Corps Office listening to odd sentences and conversations in a bizarre conglomerations of Turkmen and English. It is truly amazing at how the human mind picks up language. We are in Ashgabat to get some shots, get a chance to send a quick email and have a super quick training on using the work stations. So exciting!

Important stuff: I am happy (most of the time :)) and I am finally healthy after a week long bout of intestinal issues. Life is good and very busy!!!

Send me letters!!!

One Moment

This is it! One moment to take life and make it what you want.

Staging was a unique experience filled with 43 strangers (all fellow volunteers), skits, discussions, new friends, meals at exotic restaurants, a roommate named Mallory, and a capstone in which we each chose among the following: actor, dancer, storyteller, artist and musician/poet. Now those of you who know me should know that I wear my heart on my sleeve (therefore I cannot pretend to be someone who I am not) - no acting...I only dance on very rare occasions and while I can appreciate interpretive dance I cannot necessarily perform it...I suck at telling stores as EVERYONE who knows me can attest...and while I play the flute I am not necessarily a musician. So I chose (drum roll please!)...musician/poet. Our job was to explain the importance of cross cultural integration and the aspects we had learned in some sort of musical/poetic way to the rest of the group. Well we were fortunate to have several volunteers with musical instruments with (Joel and Russ both had guitars and Kathy had a trombone!) and several people in the group could sing. I cannot. Therefore we created a haiku to explain what cross cultural integration would mean to each of us. The haiku is as follows:
Salaam new family
Firm Peace and Understanding
Now we all see green.

For most of you this poem may not make any sense...let me expand.

Salaam means hello in Turkmen and we will be living in host families for the majority of the time while in Turkmenistan. One of the main goals of Peace Corps is to be able to have a successful term of service all volunteers must integrate into the community and gain a new understanding of their community. Finally Sheila (our Staging Director) told us a story. There are two communities in the world. In community one every person born from today on has and will always be born with two legs, two arms, two ears, one nose, one mouth and a pair of yellow sunglasses. In community two every person born from today on has and will always be born with two legs, two arms, two ears, one nose, one mouth and a pair of blue sunglasses. Now a person from community two decides to join this organization called Peace Corps and visit community one. They are going to stay in community one for two years and three months. This person lives with the community, works in the community, learns the language, and has a profound connection with community one. When the person returns to community two they explain to all of their friends all about the community across the world and they very precisely explain the central cultural trait or difference: In community one everyone has green sunglasses! It is supposedly most important to begin a cross cultural experience by first and foremost understanding your own culture and knowing that that culture forms your expectations/experiences/history and therefore is the basis for you as a person.

We sang this haiku with Joel, Russ, and Kathy playing beautiful music in the background and I was so superbly entirely in touch with Peace, the world and myself that I began to tear up.

I feel so blessed to be starting this experience and I look forward to the 'new me' of 2010! Look out world - here I come!

Thanks everyone for supporting me and for all of the letters you will be writing, I truly appreciate it!

This is the last chance I'll have to update my blog for a while, so thank you to my family for updating it and keeping everyone posted!

All my love.

Salaam new family
Firm Peace and Understanding
Now we all see green.

Peace Letter

So three posts in one day is a bit excessive, I know. I just received a letter from Bud and Sara Hudson who I have known since we moved to WI over 14 years ago. They included a wonderful excerpt from a book called Practicing Peace In Times of War by Pema Chödrön. It reads, "It's also the case that the seeds you sowed yesterday have their result in your own life today. And the seeds that the United States has sown in the lst year, five years, fifty years, hundred years, and so forth are having their impact on the world right now - and not just what the United States has sown but all the countries that are involved in the world situation today, being as painful as it is. We've been sowing these seeds for a long time. I know many of us feel a kind of despair about whether all this can ever unwind itself. The message of this book is that it has to happen at the level of individuals working with their own minds, because even if these tumultous times are the result of seeds that have been sown and reaped by whole nations, these nations of course are made up of millions of people who, just like ourselves, want happiness. So whatever we do today, tomorrow, and every day of our lives until we die sows the seeds for our own future in this lifetime and sows the seeds for the future of this planet. The Buddhist teachings also say that the seeds of our present-day actions will bear fruit hundreds of years from now. This may seem like an impossibly long time to wait, but if you think in terms of sowing seeds for your children's future and for your grandchildren's future and your grandchildren's grandchildren's future, perhaps that's more real and immediate to you. Nevertheless how we work with ourselves today is how a shift away from widespread aggression will come about." (86-88)

Thanks Sara and Bud!!! Your note is already inside my journal!

Staging: Itinerary

Flight #1 Saturday September 27, 2008
Midwest Express 150 to Philadelphia
Leave 7:50 am Arrive 10:50 am

Saturday September 27th
1:30 Registration
3:00 - 7:00 Welcome to Peace Corps and start of Training Program including: Welcome and Introductions, Peace Corps Approach to Development, Personal Definition of Success, Safety and Support, Anxieties and Aspirations, and Nuts and Bolts

Sunday September 28th
8:30 - 12:00 Training Program Continued including: A Slice of Life: Coping with Unwanted Attention, Managing Risk, and Policies in Practice
1:30 - 6:00 Training Program Continued including: Change 5 Things, Crossing Cultures, Staging Capstone, Bridge to Pre-Service Training, Logistics of Departure, and Evaluation and Closing

Monday September 29th
7:30 Check out of Hotel
8:00 Bus arrives for Loading and departure to JFK airport

Tentative Flight Itinerary to Turkmenistan
Flight #2 Monday September 29th
Delta Flight 72 to Istanbul, Turkey
Leave 4:30 pm Arrive 9:55 am on Tuesday September 30th

Layover in Istanbul 11 hours 10 minutes! Hopefully we'll be able to leave the airport!

Flight #3 Monday September 29th
Turkish Airlines Flight 1362 to Ashgabat, Turkmenistan
Leave 9:05 pm Arrive 2:45 am on Wednesday October 1

94 hours 5 minutes left until take off!

It is a whirlwind last few days!

Writing thank you notes, updating my blog, deciding which grammar book to bring, spending every waking moment with friends and family, finishing all the reading I want to before I leave, and trying not to think about how slowly (or quickly) the time seems to be drifting by. Tonight on my menu of favorite meals: Rama's Delight (Homemade Thai)!

A few more quotes from Rukhnama (see below)
"Sometimes, I wonder whether I feel too proud of my nation, or whether my eyes are dazzled by the light of the word "Turkmen," or whether I am enchanted by the magic of the word "Turkmen." However, so far human beings have never been damaged by affection. Nobody has ever been injured by his or her love of the nation. Be afraid of those who do not love their nation. If everybody likes their own nation, then the nations will like each other. Those who do not like their own nations cannot like other nations. The word "Turkmen," lies in my bosom like a beloved baby warmed by the heat of my heart." (145)

"The Turkmen sees other nations as his own brothers, his own friends. Racism cannot find a place among Turkmens. Turkmens respect the languages, the religions and the traditions of other nations. The rights and responsibilities of all citizens living in Turkmenistan are equal before the law of the Turkmen state" (148).

"Thus, when I was a small child, I learnt who the Turkmen is and what the homeland is. I have consoled myself with the epigram, which is firstly recorded in my heart and then in my diary, 'The one who bears the sufferings of the world earlier can understand the realities of the world earlier.' In the course of time, I have realized that those injuries which were done to my heart have been removed." (150 - 1)

"Our state structure is harmonious with our national characteristics, the traditions of the Turkmen people, and the 'Universal Declaration of human Rights' of the United Nations. In all of our policies we consider the national interests of Turkmenistan on the one hand and the stability of the region and the strengthening of international security on the other. We always see that all of these are indivisible realities" (154)

"We have huge resources. We want to draw maximum benefit and maximum utility from them. Thus, we are ready for relations which rest upon reciprocity, equality and cooperation. Destiny has bestowed on Turkmenistan the opportunity to be at the centre of international relations between Europe and Asia. Our underground and surface resources are evidence of the possibility of a golden life for the Turkmens in the golden century." (154 - 5)

"In the past our ancestors presented themselves to the world by the strength of their swords; now, we should present ourselves with our rationality and with our immense spiritual values. Turkmenistan is known for its unique Akhalteke horses, for its carpets that are examples of the wonders of the world's art, and for its limitless wonders of nature. Today, in its peaceful policies, the Turkmen nation displays endeavours worthy of recognition by the world. As our great thinker Maktumkuli Pyragy once said, 'Look at your future, do not forget your past, utter polite speech, restrain your anger. If you are able to speak, please say pleasant things; the public has suffered much from bad things.' I can see happy days in the future. I believe that nothing is able to damage our happiness today and in the future and I am always proud of our statue of impartiality." (155)

"Our beautiful land will regain the beauty and fertility that was hers in the era of our ancestors through our 'Rainbow' project, by which the natural gas is delivered to the public for no charge." (175) I've never heard of this project before, but it sounds interesting.

More Quotes from Books

I believe I wrote something about the Rukhnama (the book that the former president of Turkmenistan wrote) in a previous blog. In my opinion the book was written to tell the people of Turkmenistan what they should be. Saparmyrat Turkmenbashy, the former President, says his, "Basic aim in writing "Rukhnama" is to open the dwindling spirit of national pride by clearing it of grass and stones and letting it flow again. I hope to enliven the heart with the medication of Philosophy. It is like replanting the arid land of the past, which has become unproductive and useless, with the pine trees of the Turkmen plateaus. In this way I wish to rid us of the disease, trouble and anxiety of insensitility" (63).

A few more quotes from the book follow.

Turkmenbashy is talking about the 'Prophet Noah' and states that Noah established 'rules of good manners at home for TURK IMAN'. They are, "1. respect your elders 2. love your juniors ... 3. respect your father and mother ... 4. Wear clean and decent clothes. ... 5. Keep goods at your home that have been earned by your own labor and efforts. ... 6. The decoration of the home, its order, cleanliness and appearance should be very good. ... 7. Protect the home and its exterior and neighboring areas and the place you live in. ... 8. Spiritual sublimity ... 9. Women's make up 'Do not be mean with emerald stones for your daughters and wives. Find them wherever they are and give them to the woman. If one upsets his wife or daughter, he is not a TURK IMAN since they are very pleasant by nature, and their souls are pleasant too. Please them if you want to treat them well. Give them valuable pieces so that they may wear them on their breast, neck, and back.' " (11 - 13)

Thus far this is my absolute favorite quote from this book. I was very surprised to find that I actually enjoyed a part of it. I am reading this book more for a cultural link to Turkmens rather than as an exercise in reading.
"Everyone's soul is so sweet for him; everyone's destiny is blessed for him." (101). I love this quote because prior to this Turkmenbashy tells a story about a poor man talking to Allah near the end of his life and Allah uses various examples and experiences to show the man that his life was perfect and could not have been better if he had more money, had a different family, etc.

Last one for today talks about covering of women. "The 10th century historian Ibn-i Fadlan wrote about the Turkmen as follows: 'The Turkmen people do not cover the faces of their women and girls like their neighbors. Their women are free. However, they do not know what it is to be unchaste. Turkmen women throughout history have lived without the slightest stain to their honour' " (105).