YAY new blog!!

Oct. 31, 2007

So today was halloween and it's the first one that I've spent without dressing up, which is kind of sad. But, the PC staff gave us all American halloween candy which consisted of candy corn (of course), hot tamales (yes!!!! great care package idea *hint hint), runts, and a blow-pop (which I haven't had in forever). It was nice of them, and I ate it all in one sitting, which was a bad idea, but you'd do the same in my position. Then tonight we (my training group, who i will describe in detail later) all decided to celebrate by making American-ish food and watching a scary movie. One of the things I brought from home with me was velveeta cheese, but I hadn't gotten a chance to use it yet, so I decided tonight was as good a night as any. So I brought over my two packages - one plain, and one spicy mexican. In the end, we figured that between the six of us (our Turkmen teacher was also there) we could finish off both packages in one night. So we heated up the regular cheese, got some tomato sauce (which they have here - they can their own) and some chorak (Turkmen bread), and made our version of pizza. It didn't turn out exactly like we thought it would, but honestly, I couldn't have cared less. You should have seen my face when I took my first bite of the spicy mexican cheese - I'm sure it was hilarious. I was so happy I almost cried tears of joy. To say that Turkmenistan doesn't have much cheese is a sever understatement - they have what they call "cheese" but its nothing like what you can find at home. And I realize that velveeta isn't really cheese - it's cheese product in fact - but compared to what I've had in the last month, it was the best cheese ever! Also, Turkmen don't have much in the way of spicy food, and for someone who's favorite foods are mexican and Indian food, that's rather disappointing. So the combination of spicy and cheese all at once was almost too much for my hopeful heart to handle. Needless to say, I ate way too much and my stomach was NOT happy with me, but it was totally worth it. So, spicy velveeta cheese is something I would be eternally grateful to have sent to me. But I'd recommend only sending one package of it at a time, because I WILL eat it all in one sitting, and that's really not healthy. Anyway, I wanted to tell you all about tonight first because it's fresh in my mind. The rest of this blog will be snippets of things I've found interesting in Turkmenistan and what my daily life is like here. Also, I'm really sorry for not posting anything sooner, but during my three months of training, my schedule is PACKED with things I have to get done, places I have to be, and stuff I have to learn, and travel for us has been somewhat restricted for us until this week because we didn't really know the language well enough before to get around (or more importantly, get directions if we're lost). My time is no less packed now, but I've free to travel, so hopefully I'll be able to get on a little more often. And I'm also very sorry that I haven't sent any letters yet - they are written and sealed in envelopes, but sending things here is harder than you'd think. But I've got it figured out now, so look for them in the next month or so. And I may end up just sending a whole bunch of letters to my mom, and then asking her to give them to you (for those of you in the KC area anyway). My

Turkmen Family

The day that we met the people we'd be living with for three months was a bit crazy. We were all extremely nervous. Would they like us? Would they be offended by our clothes, our actions? And its not like you can explain yourself when you mess up because the most we could say in Turkmen was "Hi, how are you? I'm doing well/not well. I'm from America. I'm 23. I'm not married." You've got a million questions for them, but no way to ask them, and even if you figure it out from the Turkmen/English dictionary, it's not like you'd understand the answers. And you know that they are bursting with questions for you (and they did try to ask most of them), but all you can do is stand there and look confused and shake your head helplessly. Anyway, so we (the volunteers) are all standing in the big hall and we see the families being brought in and they all stand on the opposite side. One of the LCF's (I can't remember what it stands for, but they're the Turkmen language teachers that live in our villages with us during training) went to the middle and started calling out the volunteer's name and then the family's name. Each volunteer went, in turn, to meet their family in the middle. With each meeting came an awkward exchange of hello's and hugs, and then they went upstairs where we were supposed to eat lunch with our families. When they called my name, I was greeted by my eje (mom) and my gyz jigi (little sister). They looked really excited, and I really wished that I could have told them how grateful I was that they were taking me in to their family. As we went upstairs, I went through the questions and answers I knew (which took all of 30 seconds) and then the rest of the communication consisted mostly of jumbled words and pantomiming. But they seemed very nice and happy to have me, so most of my nerves were put to ease. Now, I've lived with my mashgala (family) for a little less than a month, and they are very nice people. My eje's name is Ulgashirin, my gyz jigi's name is Enejan, my gelneje's (sister-in-law) is Ulgashat, and I also have a host father and host brother, but I hardly ever see them. Out of respect for me, as an unmarried woman, the men of the house avoid me as much as possible and have yet to utter a single word to me. It's weird to live with someone and never speak to them, but its one of the many cultural differences that I'll get to deal with on a daily basis. It could be much worse - I don't have to wear a burka, or cover my face, and they tolerate my knee-length skirts and my short hair that I wear down occasionally. Enejan is the person I interact with the most. She's 16 and still in school. She's very out-going and we joke with each other a lot now. Ulgashat is 23, married to my host brother, and has a 3 month old son named Ekrem (pronounced A-krem). We get along pretty well, but it's a strange relationship sometimes because we're the same age but lead such different lives. My host mom is 54 and she's extremely sweet. She tells me that she is so happy now because she has three daughters instead of just two. She worries if I don't eat breakfast and if I don't make it home before the sunsets. I pray that my family at my permanent site is HALF as good as this one. We live a pretty rural area, but not exactly a farm because our land isn't that big. We've got a decent sized house which is kept very very clean. We have a small garden with a few date trees, lots of egg plants, and a few other things that I haven't identified yet. We have a couple of cows (who like to moo at me when I go to the out house), and a few sheep/goats. Apparently they slaughtered a goat in honor of my arrival. I didn't see the slaughter (thank God), but just about every meal we've had so far has been goat. Because of this, I've learned something unfortunate about myself - I really really REALLY don't like goat (I'll expand on that more later). But, regardless, it was an extremely nice thing for them to do in my honor. Oh, and they also gave me a Turkmen name, Beygul (pronounced BAY-ul), which means "rose".


Turkmen Food

While I certainly miss the food I ate in America, it turns out that Turkmenistan has a few things that I'll miss when I leave here. The fruit here is generally smaller and not as pretty as the fruit you can get at your local Hy-Vee store, but the taste is SO much better and all of it is extremely fresh, and I'll bet that it's smaller and less pretty because they don't use pesticides and genetic alterations here like they do in America. Here, EVERY grape tastes as sweet as candy - none of them are sour. Turkmenistan is known for its melons, and they are wonderful! The watermelon you all are eating in the states tastes, well, like water, compared to the one's I get here everyday - they taste amazing! And we get pomegranates ALL the time and they are very tart, but very good. Sadly, when winter comes, the fruit will be too expensive to get as often as we do now and I'll have to settle for the jams and preserves they make, which are good, but not as good as the fresh fruits. For veggies, it's mostly cucumbers, egg plants and tomatoes, but we get carrots, cabbage, peppers, and onions fairly often as well. In the winter we'll mostly just get canned tomatoes and peppers though. My chief complaint with the food here is the amount of fat and oil. It can be quite disgusting how much of it is used. They fry half of their food, which does taste pretty good, but it gets old after a while. My secondary complaint is goat. I really hate it. In fact, I dislike it so much that the first time I put it in my mouth, I had an instant and almost over-welling urge to vomit all over the dinner table. And I'm pretty sure that it isn't because of the way its prepared because all of the food my family has given me, sans goat, has been really good. The best meat here, by FAR, is shashlik. It's Iranian, not Turkmen, and it's not easy to make at home, so my family has never served it, but you can find it in the city and in bazars. I know that it's beef, that it's smoked and I know that it's delicious, and beyond that, I probably don't want to know because I think it'll be ruined for me if I really find out how it's made.


Getting Sick

My first week here was good until about the fourth day. What I experienced has been dubbed by some other volunteers as a "gastric calamity", which is a pretty accurate description. I'll spare you the details, but I will say that it was pretty horrible and I am thankful each and every time that I go to the outhouse and I don't have to experience that anymore. I was one of the lucky ones because it only lasted for about two days, while other's were sick for a week. I've been told that you aren't a "real" PCV until you have a gastric calamity accident (i.e. you don't make it to the outhouse in time). Thankfully, I was given some advice in this department that has saved me on more than one occasion - "Never trust a fart."


My Training Group

The group of about 40 people who joined Peace Corps in Turkmenistan with me are called the T-16's (we're the 16th group of volunteers to work in Tstan). We spent about a week together in Ashgabat, and then we were split into small training groups and sent to some villages outside of Ashgabat. The people in my group are the people that will live in the same village with me, they'll go to Turkmen language class with me, and they're the people I'll get to hang out with on a daily basis. We are really lucky because we all get along really well and there hasn't been any drama so far. We're all pretty laid back, and we all have a similar sense of humor. My group consists of Anita, Brian, Clemens, and Halley. Our LCF, Gyzlgul (we call her Gul), also lives in the village with us and she's a big part of our lives during training. Anita is 23, speaks spanish, and was a teacher for a year before she became a PCV. She's really outgoing and fun, and has a really strong personality. She's from Texas and has been to sever South American countries. Brian is 27 (I think that's right, give or take a year or two) and he was a house appraiser before he joined. He's lived in several different states, including Minnesota and Washington and he's traveled all over Europe. He's an outdoors-man and likes hunting and fishing. He's just about the most courteous person I've ever met. Clemens is freaking hilarious! I'm not entirely sure how to describe him, but I'll try. He's spent more time outside of the US than in it because is parents are US diplomats. He is 22 and has dual citizenship - US and Germany. He speaks German and Russian pretty well. Before he became a PCV, he did some kind of computer technical stuff in Washington D.C.. He's very talkative and very funny, but sometimes not on purpose. Halley, is also very interesting. She's from Pennsylvania and has done just about every job you can imagine (but they all slip my mind at the moment). She delights in all things different and quirky and has a very "go with the flow" attitude, or as Brian says, she's "casually disinterested". She's also the only other Health volunteer in our group besides me, so we spend a little more time together. Gyzlgul is probably one of the most wonderful people I've ever met. She was born and raised in Turkmenistan, but she spent 2 years in Indian. She speaks fluent Turkmen, Russian, and English, and a little Hindi. She is an AMAZING Turkmen teacher. She is in her early 30's and has a very fun, open, strong and out-going personality. Without her, I wouldn't be able to get any complicated idea across to my family, or understand a complicated idea from them. Without her I wouldn't have been able to leave the village, or buy anything from the bazar, or even know where a bazar was at. So basically, when training is over, I'm going to be a mess because I'll have to leave these five people, as well as my host family. It'll be a little like leaving America all over again - not quite as hard because I won't have known them as long, and they'll be somewhat closer than my real family is, but harder because when this is all over, I don't if I'll ever see them again. But, for everyone at home reading this, rest assured that at least for these next few months, I'm in very good hands :)


And a note for the blog comments: I have to approve the comments before they will appear, so if you write one, it won't show up until I get on and approve it. So don't worry, it's working even if you don't see it.

Oh, and i've been trying to upload pictures, but its not working and my time here is really limited. I probably won't have them up until training is over, sorry :(