So I guess they weren’t kidding…

I am so excited to get my rabies shot today!! We have to come in to Ashgabat to get our shots, and that means that I get internet time in the Peace Corps office for ten minutes, yippee skipee!

Turkmenistan is a-maaaaazing. I have done so many things that I didn’t even think possible of myself. This is hands-down the coolest and most challenging experience ever. I even went to services at the metjit (mosque) by our house a couple of nights this week. It was about the time that I was kneeling down in prayer along with hundreds of other women that I realized this is the real deal. I am really in the Peace Corps and it kind of makes my head spin with how intense that is. As a disclaimer, I miss and love all of you soooo much, but I am trying to avoid making reference to it, because that only makes it worse. The best cure for homesickness around here is to just ignore it. The less we acknowledge it, the easier it is to keep going.

So to update…. I am now living in a village that is approximately 15 minutes outside of Ashgabat. Herrikgala has about 12,000 human residents and around 20,000 residents of the barnyard variety. My host family is composed of a mom (eje), a dad (kaka), 3 brothers, 3 sisters, a sister in law, and 2 grandbabies. No animals, but there are cows, goats, and camels that live near us. We live in a compound that has a big gate around it and a couple of different buildings inside of it. The main house is where I live, and my bedroom is really big.

I was shocked to walk in my huge room and see only carpets from wall to wall, along with a wardrobe and a dressing table. No bed. Anywhere. Oh surprise, they sleep on these roll-up mat things, not beds. Seriously, they’re maybe an inch and a half thick. How I missed that memo is beyond me, but after a week of sleeping sans-mattress, I think I am finally beginning to get used to it.

We have 5 volunteers that live in our village. There are 4 girls (Carrie, Kelly, Lex, and me) and 1 guy (Dan). We all go to language school with our teacher Maya. Maya is like superwoman. She’s 18 years old, and is not only responsible for teaching us Turkmen, but also for babysitting all 5 of us twenty-somethings constantly. She basically rocks.

There were a lot of things I heard about serving in the Peace Corps in Turkmenistan.

I heard that there weren’t any toilet seats, only a hole in the ground with a little shack around it. I heard that you had to squat while going to the bathroom, like for the whole time. I heard that there wasn’t any toilet paper, only magazine pages. I also heard that you had to have a flashlight to go to the bathroom any time after dark, otherwise you might accidentally pee on your shoes. I assumed that it was all a half-truth, like some sort of urban myth about how “real volunteers” operate. I was wrong. It’s all completely accurate. I will leave the details to your imagination for the time being.

I heard that they drink a lot of tea. By “a lot” I figured they meant maybe 2 teatimes a day. Um no. Try maybe 5 or 6 teatimes a day. Each teatime typically finds my glass being refilled upwards of 6 times. I want you to imagine how strong my thighs are after a week of constant tea drinking, with squat toilets. I am going to have the most incredibly muscular legs by the end of 27 months.

I also heard that our host families wouldn’t speak any English. Yeah sure, whatever you say Peace Corps. No English probably meant the parents don’t speak English, but the kids would have to, right? I mean, who doesn’t speak English? Wrong again. The only people in Herrikgala who speak English with me are the other Peace Corps volunteers and our teacher Maya. Seriously, that is it.

I have never realized how entirely possible it is to function without any common language. The first day I got to my host family’s house, I was so nervous about this whole communication thing. Literally, I knew maybe ten words in Turkmen, and all of those revolved around how old I was, where I was from, and the fact that I was a volunteer. No knowledge of “I’m hungry”, “I’m tired”, or “I’m totally freaked out and want to go home”.

I realized after about an hour of politely drinking my fifth cup of tea that there were very few important concepts that could not be conveyed with a variety of noises, motions, and pointing in my Turkmen-English dictionary. Don’t get me wrong, I will not be discussing the problems of the world or my life’s goals with them any time soon, but I think we’ve got a basic understanding going, and now that I know the words for apple, and tomato, I really think we are going to have a long and happy three months together.

I have to go, but enjoy the pictures and look forward to next time’s installment entitled “Dogs, Bucket-baths, and other things I don’t like very much….”