November 22nd

I’ve been hanging out with my host sisters more, I really feel like we’re starting to bond. They all came trooping into my room the other night with a tub of ice cream and four spoons. We sat there looking at pictures from America and eating ice cream, it was great. I even helped (sort of, at least) them make dinner the other night. I’m tragically bad at cooking and preparing Turkmen dishes, but they were patient and I think they anjoyed the fact that I was trying to be helpful, even if it wasn’t necessarily the end result.

The big battle at my house right now is breakfast. “Breakfast” actually only consists of a cup or two of green tea, along with a slice of bread with some jam on it. It’s hardly what you would call a hearty start to your day. I’ve been really bad about hitting the snooze button on my alarm clock lately, and will wind up getting out of bed in the mornings only ten minutes before I need to be at Kelly’s house to go to school. As a result, I’ve been skipping “breakfast” in favor of those few extra minutes of sleep. My family finally confronted me in an intervention of sorts, and told me I was no longer going to be permitted to leave the house in the mornings without breakfast. Apparently even if it is only one cup of tea, it is the only way I’m getting out the front door to go to language classes. Oh lord. Bring on “breakfast”…

We went to see Iran. Okay, not literally, but sort of. There is a big mountain range that separates Turkmenistan from Iran, and there is a cable car that runs up the side of the mountain for people to go up to the top and appreciate the view. There are still a few mountains that technically obstruct the actual view of Iran, but to know that it’s that close is kind of cool. It was a beautiful day, and it was really nice to be up in the mountains, it reminded me a lot of home (except that Alaska’s mountains specifically will always have a special place in my heart).

Monday was quite the day for me. Lex and I spent the morning in the clinic, pbserving the dentist at work. This was horrifying and fascinating all in the same moment. I got to see a molar pulled out with a pair of plyers. I’m not kidding. It (the molar) had a hole the size of a ballpoint pen head, that went all the way from one side to the other (from a cavity), and I couldn’t imagine what would have hurt more, having a tooth rot completely through, or to have the tooth in question pulled out with a pair of plyers similar to what I would fix my kitchen sink with. Hopefully I won’t ever have to find out firsthand…

After our morning with the dentist, I went home to help my family get ready for our “gelin party”. In Turkmenistan (and especially in the more conservative villages), it is a big deal to be a Turkmen bride (a gelin). They have this special bridal clothing they have to wear, along with about 80 pounds of silver jewelery (no, I swear I am not exaggerating) for forty days after their wedding. They have to have an escort walk around with them due to the extreme weight of the stuff they’re wearing, and they don’t really talk to anyone, their escort talks for them. People will hold “parties” for these new brides, and they’ll make a lot of food and invite all of the neighbors to come over to look at the new gelin. The tragic part of all of this is that the gelin doesn’t really even eat at the party, she just sits there, trying not to move or talk, while everyone else stares and eats.

Anyway you cut it, our family hosted a gelin party on Monday. I helped them set everything out and then I pigged out on a spread of vegetables, salads, fried rice, and beef. Yyyuuuum. I also took a few pictures of the guest of honor. She was absolutely gorgeous, I was so impressed with how many details go into her outfit. The embroidery on her dress and robes was amazing, and the jewelry was absolutely stunning. The jewelry is so extravagent and there’s so much of it, that most Turkmen actually just rent it for the forty days that the gelin has to wear it, instead of buying it. Kind of like tuxedos in the US, except a whole lot more intense.

The biggest deal this week was the announcement from Peace Corps as to where our permenant sites would be. We all were together for a hub day and there was this big map of Turkmenistan on the floor of the room we were in. They called each of our names one at a time, told us where we would be going, then had us stand on the map in the approximate location of our site. We had all been DYING of curiosity for weeks to find out where we were going to be working for the next two years after training, as well as to find out who our American neighbors were going to be for that time. It was a big day.

I had been campaigning with the staff to be sent to Dashoguz weleyat (the Turkmen word for province), which is the northernmost weleyat, and also the coldest one in Turkmenistan. I figured it would be the most like home for me, and I also heard it was the least conservative out of the five Turkmen weleyats. As much as I enjoyed my long dresses and demure behavior in public, I thought it might be a nice change to see how the less conservative Turkmen conduct themselves. Sure enough, when my name was called, I was told that I was going to Dashoguz weleyat, to a little village by the name of Gok Chage.

I’m in excellent company. There are seven other T-16 volunteers going with me. (This is how we refer to people in our training class. We’re the 16th training group to come to Turkmenistan, hence “T-16”s, the group from last year were T-15s, the group next year will be T-17s, etc.). On the Dashoguz roster is myself, Val, Jon, Alice, Noah, Dennis, Julia, and Kelly. I realize these names may not mean much to you right now, but I get the feeling that I’m about to get to know these guys a whole lot better over the next two years. I think they all seem really great so far, everybody has a good sense of humor, and they’re all pretty outgoing. Of course I’m really exciteds that Kelly and I are still going to be close to one another. After being neighbors for the first two months of training, it would have been really hard to have to say good bye to her at the end of December. After site announcements, the Peace Corps staff let us know that we’d all be going to visit our new site in the last week of November. I’m a little nervous, I really hope my new village likes me…

Thanksgiving was an interesting day here. It was cold. The weather has been consistently hot since we came from America, it rarely went below eighty degrees (which for an Alaskan is HOT!), even at night. There was actually rain on Thanksgiving, and a cold wind. I think its possible that fall actually might be coming. Our training group all got together and made a big Thanksgiving lunch (all vegetarian for Kelly, carrie, and Lex!), then we went into Ashgabat to drink some beers and hang out for awhile.

It really hit me while I was sitting there with the girls as to how much in my life had managed to change in the course of only one year. Last year, at Thanksgiving dinner was when I told mom and dad that I was thinking about joining the Peace Corps. I had never talked about it before that day, and I think they were a little skeptical at first as to how serious I was about going. Only one year later, here I am sitting in a café in the middle of Turkmenistan… I really hope I made the right choice.