Toyly Bolsun!

The past few weeks at my house have been incredibly hectic, with my host cousin getting married this weekend, and in all honesty, I spent most of the time being irritated by the whole process. I mean, it was so much work, there was so much hoopla over these insignificant details and I just wasn't into dealing with it at all.

But on the day of the wedding celebration I found that I was actually jealous, and I even started to cry a little watching her dance with her new husband.

All those little insignificant details, and all the fuss and hoopla the families went through and everything was actually so beautiful. Here this woman is so tightly surrounded by family and so loved and cared for in every possible way. The culture here is incredibly rich and all these things I see as silly and unimportant actually hold meaning that I can't really understand.

The morning after the first celebration we all met up at her house as she began to dress in the traditional bridal clothing. She wept as the woman braided her hair, covered her head and face and laid the traditional bridal coat around her, because this is the time when she would be taken from her own family to begin a new life with her husband's family.

When the groom's family arrived, a few boys began to play the drums and clarinet outside and a bunch of us women stood guard at the entrance to her room. The bride's brother came through and gave us all money as payment for us to allow them to get through the door to take her away. We began loading all her things into the cars, and then her new husband came through to take her away.

We all headed into Ashgabat that afternoon for the second celebration in the evening. Here is where they signed the official documents and toasted to the beginning of their new lives together. She looked so incredible...so beautiful. I can't imagine how she felt during this time because I barely had a chance to talk with her.

But I understand a little bit better, because here is a close friend of mine, someone I've grown to know and love for the past year and a half. And now she is gone, and I don't know how often I'll get to see her again over my remaining eight months here.

I don't know why I never saw the true beauty in life here...I don't know why I complain so much sometimes. But I do believe people here are luckier than they really know.

Bread and Butter

March 12, 2009

Last night my friend and I were laying on the floor of my room going through the People magazines my mother recently sent and we started talking about her birthday next week.

We went through the list of food we would make and discussed what other things we’d put out for people to eat.

“I will get some nuts and raisins for the table,” she said.

“Why don’t we just put out some bread and butter for everyone? That’s simple enough.”

“Bread and butter!” She exclaimed. “BREAD AND BUTTER?”

And she then proceeded to burst into uncontrollable laughter.

“What?” I asked. “Why is that funny?”

“BREAD AND BUTTER!”

She wouldn’t stop laughing.

“WHY IS THAT FUNNY?” I yelled.

“You eat bread and butter for BREAKFAST, Angela! Not at dinner!”

“What? You can’t eat bread and butter with your dinner? We do that all the time in America. It’s NORMAL.”

She was still laughing.

“Ohhhhhh they would just laugh at me and gossip about me if I were to put out bread and butter at my BIRTHDAY dinner!”

“IT’S NORMAL!” I yelled.

“You are so strange,” she said.

“I’M STRANGE?” I exclaimed. “You think I’M the one who’s strange? You guys sweep your carpet and sleep on the floor! You think if I sit on cold ground I’ll become infertile! And you think I’M strange?”

We were laughing so hard tears were streaming out of our eyes at this point.

“Okay, Angela what else? What else you got?” she asked. “Come to my house and we will have a birthday BREAKFAST with bread and butter if you like!”

“IT’S NORMAL TO EAT BREAD AND BUTTER WITH YOUR DINNER!”

“You are so strange,” she said.

Kids on Coffee!

If you love me you'll send me coffee.

Real coffee. You know, the ground stuff that you have to put in a filter...

Oh coffee...sweet wonderful coffee...