Today is Christmas Eve, and I am in Turkmenistan. You will all be surprised to know that Ashgabat is decked out in true Christmas fashion. Multicolored lights snake around and around large, previously unadorned trees. Garland, in a wide variety of colors, hangs above many doorways and even above the blackboard in one of my classrooms. According to reports, the bazaars are far more packed than usual. The only thing is, Turkmen, as a general rule, do not celebrate Christmas . These decorations are not Christmas decorations at all! They are New Year's decorations. It seems that New Years here in T-stan is celebrated in much the same way as we celebrate Christmas in the US. This makes my answer to the question, "How do you celebrate Christmas???" really anticlimactic. My answer to the question, "How will you be celebrating tomorrow?" is even more anticlimactic. I will be teaching at the institute. On second thought, this isn't anticlimactic at all. I am truly enjoying my time at work.
Because I have a full two week rotation, I am still in the long process of meeting all the classes and all of the students with whom I will work. In each class, I do a variety of get-acquainted activities. In all the classes, I allow each student to ask me one question about myself. Here are some of the questions I am asked (the order of questions doesn't vary much between classes) :
What is your name? (Response to my answer: that is a really long name)
How old are you? (Response to my answer: oooohhhh, young)
Are you married?
Why not? (My answer: in America, I am far too young to marry)
Do you like Turkmen boys? Will you marry here?
What is your favorite Turkmen national meal? (My answer: Manti!!!)
Do you like the Turkmen national dress? (My answer: yup because its super comfy)
Why are you here? (My answer: your country asked my country for English teachers)
What is one thing you like in the world?
What are your hobbies? (My answer: reading, running, and I used to play soccer) (Response to soccer: mouths dropping open)
Tell about your family.
How do you define love?
Etc.
I hope this give you some insight into my day!!
Merry Christmas!
I love you all and stay safe!
Wednesday, December 24, 2008
Monday, December 15, 2008
Bazaars and Brain Barf
Where I am and what I’m doing:
Permanent site WOOT! I’m living in the big city (A-BOT) now with a new host family. I’m learning the bus system, walking around in an attempt to situate myself, spending quality time with the new family, cooking (I made tortillas and salad dressing from scratch) and exploring the bazaars. I love bazaars. I am particularly familiar with four bazaars here in T-stan.
I frequented the small bazaar in Anew throughout training and would like to take a moment to wish both the cake vendor (who allowed me to bargain for the unbargainable: the Turkmen cake) and the Russian dukan (shop) woman (who provided me with school supplies and moist gingerbread) the best. For better or worse, I have moved on to bigger and more expensive bazaars.
Teke bazaar is perhaps the most aesthetically pleasing of the A-bot bazaars. The entire front side is populated by flower vendors. Teke only recently ticked me off by providing me with four almost entirely meatless chickens for Thanksgiving dinner. Before this little incident, Teke was indisputably my favorite because of the flowers and because of its convenient location next to the Peace Corps office.
Note: Despite the insufficiencies of the “turkey,” Thanksgiving Turkmen style was a huge success. Pictures are on their way.
The Russian Bazaar is quickly replacing Teke as the favorite. The Russian Bazaar is much larger and provides a wider variety of dukanlar. One end of this bazaar is dominated by this huge white abstract sculpture that towers over the fruit and vegetable section. I have made friends here. My most notable and most visited of these friends is the shaslick (spelling?) vendor. A shaslick is a small piece of Russian deliciousness. Laura, I hope for your own sake you have experienced the wonder of the shaslick first hand. Also at the Russian bazaar I discovered soy sauce. The purchase of said soy sauce furthered my endless scavenger hunt for ingredients I know how to cook with! Hurra!
Finally, there is Talkucka. I am so very intimidated by Talkucka. Talkucka, located a ways outside A-bot, claims to be the largest bazaar in Central Asia. Here, reputedly, are the best deals. I believe it. However, I have no idea how to find them amidst the general chaos and the dust. Talkucka did, I must admit, provide me with some incredibly warm winter man boots. For this I will be eternally grateful despite my intimidation.
Why am I not working? During my first full day at my permanent site, I taught two lessons. Both went well. Day two at my permanent site marked the beginning of four day national holiday (plus weekend) hence the exploration of bazaars. I am itching to get started.
The following probably warrants its own post. Prepare yourself mentally for a drastic shift in tone. Take a deep breath. Maybe take a bathroom break or go make yourself a cup of tea. Ok. Now continue reading.
What I feel:
I feel entirely undereducated. What have I done with the last 23 years of my life? Yesterday, I rediscovered a large patch of white hair. These white hairs are quickly developing into a white streak. A white streak! I am far too ignorant to have a white streak. I am the antithesis of distinguished. Someone please take my education in hand. It is long overdue.
No. No. I need to take myself in hand. I need to self-educate. Too bad I don’t even know where to start. I am daunted because I know nothing. History? History would be a good place to start. But I fear I would never catch up to the present. Economics? I know nothing of economics. Yes, it is bad that gas prices are so low. That means less money spent which is bad because that means there is no money to spend. Which is bad. I know exactly what I’m talking about. Just press me on this, and I’ll come up with this incredibly eloquent defense of the above statement. Or not.
So economics. But then how deep do I go? How long do I spend dwelling in the realm of Mr. C, the monotonous high school kill-joy? How do I doll out the days of my life to the diversity of subjects at hand? How do I go about the deliberate process of learning everything in an observable, measurable, and achievable way? If and when I do in fact achieve this, how ever will I retain all this information?
And here is the thing: If I spend the necessary time, if I devote myself fully to the study of [insert whatever is most important to learn] and give this discipline the attention it deserves, my present will cease to exist. This is horrifically unsatisfying. I hold my college experience up as an example of full and unsatisfactory devotion to learning. Four years of present-less living drove me to the Peace Corps, brought me to Turkmenistan, and now, here I am willing and ready to give up my present once more. I am faced with so many conspicuous opportunities for immediate action, but instead of embracing these opportunities, I am ready to go back into the closet of in-action.
Buck up! Support yourself with all those wonderful motivating clichés! Grab hold of the reins and ride! Take that leap of faith! Etc.
But no, this isn’t it either. It isn’t one or the other. It isn’t learning or action. I must take action and hope and pray that my knowledge acquisition can keep pace with all the doing that will quickly commence. No, that’s not right either. Hoping and praying isn’t enough; I must inundate my free time with books.
Even if I read fiendishly, I will not always have the knowledge to support my actions. I should face this fact now. I should face this fact and prepare myself to admit this openly to my students, to my colleagues, to my host family: I messed up because I had no idea what to do, but I had to do something.
And this will be ok. It will be ok when I fail. If I accept this, I can relax. I can enjoy learning and doing without trying to conquer all knowledge. I can admit that I have a lifetime. This is not some test. I cannot learn everything in time. This is true for two reasons. First, I can’t learn everything. Second, my time is unlimited. I mean the whole thing about death, by disregarding that little hindrance, I’ve got all of eternity. So, give me some more of those nice resource books, please Peace Corps. The heavier the better. I am ready to sift! That is when I’m not fully occupied with functioning in an absolutely new present I have found here in T-stan, a present that requires energy and focus because it is so entirely new. The bazaars are a very good example of this newness. You like that little tie in?
I am whelmed. And content.
I miss you all!
Permanent site WOOT! I’m living in the big city (A-BOT) now with a new host family. I’m learning the bus system, walking around in an attempt to situate myself, spending quality time with the new family, cooking (I made tortillas and salad dressing from scratch) and exploring the bazaars. I love bazaars. I am particularly familiar with four bazaars here in T-stan.
I frequented the small bazaar in Anew throughout training and would like to take a moment to wish both the cake vendor (who allowed me to bargain for the unbargainable: the Turkmen cake) and the Russian dukan (shop) woman (who provided me with school supplies and moist gingerbread) the best. For better or worse, I have moved on to bigger and more expensive bazaars.
Teke bazaar is perhaps the most aesthetically pleasing of the A-bot bazaars. The entire front side is populated by flower vendors. Teke only recently ticked me off by providing me with four almost entirely meatless chickens for Thanksgiving dinner. Before this little incident, Teke was indisputably my favorite because of the flowers and because of its convenient location next to the Peace Corps office.
Note: Despite the insufficiencies of the “turkey,” Thanksgiving Turkmen style was a huge success. Pictures are on their way.
The Russian Bazaar is quickly replacing Teke as the favorite. The Russian Bazaar is much larger and provides a wider variety of dukanlar. One end of this bazaar is dominated by this huge white abstract sculpture that towers over the fruit and vegetable section. I have made friends here. My most notable and most visited of these friends is the shaslick (spelling?) vendor. A shaslick is a small piece of Russian deliciousness. Laura, I hope for your own sake you have experienced the wonder of the shaslick first hand. Also at the Russian bazaar I discovered soy sauce. The purchase of said soy sauce furthered my endless scavenger hunt for ingredients I know how to cook with! Hurra!
Finally, there is Talkucka. I am so very intimidated by Talkucka. Talkucka, located a ways outside A-bot, claims to be the largest bazaar in Central Asia. Here, reputedly, are the best deals. I believe it. However, I have no idea how to find them amidst the general chaos and the dust. Talkucka did, I must admit, provide me with some incredibly warm winter man boots. For this I will be eternally grateful despite my intimidation.
Why am I not working? During my first full day at my permanent site, I taught two lessons. Both went well. Day two at my permanent site marked the beginning of four day national holiday (plus weekend) hence the exploration of bazaars. I am itching to get started.
The following probably warrants its own post. Prepare yourself mentally for a drastic shift in tone. Take a deep breath. Maybe take a bathroom break or go make yourself a cup of tea. Ok. Now continue reading.
What I feel:
I feel entirely undereducated. What have I done with the last 23 years of my life? Yesterday, I rediscovered a large patch of white hair. These white hairs are quickly developing into a white streak. A white streak! I am far too ignorant to have a white streak. I am the antithesis of distinguished. Someone please take my education in hand. It is long overdue.
No. No. I need to take myself in hand. I need to self-educate. Too bad I don’t even know where to start. I am daunted because I know nothing. History? History would be a good place to start. But I fear I would never catch up to the present. Economics? I know nothing of economics. Yes, it is bad that gas prices are so low. That means less money spent which is bad because that means there is no money to spend. Which is bad. I know exactly what I’m talking about. Just press me on this, and I’ll come up with this incredibly eloquent defense of the above statement. Or not.
So economics. But then how deep do I go? How long do I spend dwelling in the realm of Mr. C, the monotonous high school kill-joy? How do I doll out the days of my life to the diversity of subjects at hand? How do I go about the deliberate process of learning everything in an observable, measurable, and achievable way? If and when I do in fact achieve this, how ever will I retain all this information?
And here is the thing: If I spend the necessary time, if I devote myself fully to the study of [insert whatever is most important to learn] and give this discipline the attention it deserves, my present will cease to exist. This is horrifically unsatisfying. I hold my college experience up as an example of full and unsatisfactory devotion to learning. Four years of present-less living drove me to the Peace Corps, brought me to Turkmenistan, and now, here I am willing and ready to give up my present once more. I am faced with so many conspicuous opportunities for immediate action, but instead of embracing these opportunities, I am ready to go back into the closet of in-action.
Buck up! Support yourself with all those wonderful motivating clichés! Grab hold of the reins and ride! Take that leap of faith! Etc.
But no, this isn’t it either. It isn’t one or the other. It isn’t learning or action. I must take action and hope and pray that my knowledge acquisition can keep pace with all the doing that will quickly commence. No, that’s not right either. Hoping and praying isn’t enough; I must inundate my free time with books.
Even if I read fiendishly, I will not always have the knowledge to support my actions. I should face this fact now. I should face this fact and prepare myself to admit this openly to my students, to my colleagues, to my host family: I messed up because I had no idea what to do, but I had to do something.
And this will be ok. It will be ok when I fail. If I accept this, I can relax. I can enjoy learning and doing without trying to conquer all knowledge. I can admit that I have a lifetime. This is not some test. I cannot learn everything in time. This is true for two reasons. First, I can’t learn everything. Second, my time is unlimited. I mean the whole thing about death, by disregarding that little hindrance, I’ve got all of eternity. So, give me some more of those nice resource books, please Peace Corps. The heavier the better. I am ready to sift! That is when I’m not fully occupied with functioning in an absolutely new present I have found here in T-stan, a present that requires energy and focus because it is so entirely new. The bazaars are a very good example of this newness. You like that little tie in?
I am whelmed. And content.
I miss you all!
Thursday, December 4, 2008
Just a Few Pics
First picture: Camel hair belt vendor in Talcucka, the largest outdoor market in Central Asia. Check out the typical Turkmen dress!Second picture: view from the health walk.
Third picture: My host mother, me (in koinik), host sister during training.
Fourth picture: Learning Turkmen!
Fifth picture: Me in front of Turkmenbasy's Mosque- I'm stylin'!
Sixth picture:Kristen, Annie, Me, Chase, and Ariel in Blue Mosque during layover in Istanbul.
Seventh picture: Host family sisters and I cooking in Anew during training.
Eighth picture: Typical apartments in Ashgabat.
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