News, News and More News

April 26, 2009

Great news is bouncing all over Yoloten, flying through the skies right now and I am beyond ecstatic.

First of all, I’d like to announce with EXTREME pride that one of my students became a FLEX finalist and will leave at the end of this summer to study for one year in America. FLEX is a program sponsored by the US Embassy that allows hardworking, dedicated students from age 14-17 to do one of their high school years in a small, US town. The goal is for them to learn about US culture and have the unique experience of exchanging cultural information and broadening their horizons.

It’s extremely competitive, thousands apply and there are only about 60 available slots open per year from Turkmenistan.

So when she told me, I was so proud I just about broke down in tears. Sometimes these kids just blow my mind with the things they make possible for themselves.

I went guesting last night in a small village in Murgap, about 40 minutes north of where I live and a young girl I met there told me that my Turkmen was perfect.

“PERFECT.”

I don’t think anyone has ever used that word to describe anything about me before…I gave her a hug because she just about made my entire month.

Speaking of this month, in honor of Earth Day, I have been doing environmentally-themed lessons over the past few weeks and one day we started talking about contamination. One of my students told me that he sometimes sees people cleaning their dead animal carcasses in the canal, a water source for many nearby houses.

I just about threw up thinking about that, but it pushes the point further of why it’s so important to be environmentally friendly.

“Don’t teach your trash to swim!” I yelled at them as they were leaving class.

Then on Earth Day itself we went down to the Murgap River to clean up trash and talk about the ecosystem. I think it was a good experience for them, even though it was kind of gross.

Since my shoes broke on the hillsides of Gushgi last weekend, I took them to the old Russian man who sits in a chair across the street from the park in Yoloten. When I went to pick them up today he smiled a big toothless grin and said, “You have something that’s broken? You take it to me! The only thing that I can’t fix is an airplane!”

Nice sales pitch, eh?.

In other news, spring is in the air and the flowers are flooding Yoloten, bringing a constant smile to my face. I sat outside and ate pistachios all afternoon today and watched my chickens fight with each other.

I’m really glad we don’t have turkeys.

The Storm from Hell

April 20, 2009

Today started out as any other typical day in Yoloten…beautiful sunny skies, warm weather, etc.

I wandered through the bazaar wearing jeans, a t-shirt and flip flops, buying tomatoes and looking for some cheap apples.

Then, all of a sudden, I looked up at the sky. It was dark brown.

I turned in the other direction and within two minutes a powerful gust of wind came sweeping through, knocking over the sellers’ products and causing a massive panic.

It didn’t stop.

The wind came rolling through, more powerful than I’ve ever experienced before and the sellers started screaming, grabbing their things as fast as they could.

I turned to go back to the street to find my way home and the rain had already started, but it was unlike any other rain I had ever experienced. It pelted down viciously and turned to hail in less than a few minutes.

I was completely soaked, so I just started running.

I wasn’t the only one…everyone was running for cover, running for their homes, running somewhere to get out of this madness.

The electricity was out the entire day and parts of the roof came falling off. Some people lost their entire roofs, and the trees remain overturned in the streets.

Rumor has it that there will be another storm this week. I don’t know what’s up with this weather, but it’s been pretty insane out here…

The Journey to the Border

April 19, 2009

After waiting weeks and weeks for a visa, we finally got permission to go down South to the Afghan border, and it was every bit as gorgeous as we thought it would be.

The hillsides of Serhetabat (Gushgi) are just covered in flowers, so many that all you see for miles are splotches of red, yellow and purple.

We hopped on a train early Friday morning, paid about 70 cents for the seven hour journey (the train always takes ridiculously longer) and plastered our faces to the window to see the beauty of this country that only a small handful of other Americans have ever seen.

About an hour before we arrived we were hauled into a separate compartment to be interrogated by a couple detectives.

“Why are you here? What are you doing here?” they demanded.

We gave them everything- our passports, identification cards, the address and phone number where we were staying, etc. but they were still skeptical.

“Are you going to Afghanistan?” they asked repeatedly.

“NO!” we replied. Why would I willingly stumble over the border? Doesn’t exactly seem like a fun adventure…

But after about 20 minutes or so we became friends. It also helped that they were friends with the husband of who we were staying with.

“We’ll show you the best restaurant in town!” one of them said excitedly once we arrived.

We spent two days wandering around, taking a gazillion photos with the multitudes of flowers. Up on top of a hillside a group of Afghan train mechanics pointed to the border.

“It’s right there!” they said. “You want to go?”

Was this a trick question?

As school kids learned there were four Americans in their tiny military town they began to swarm us. Some of them didn’t understand our Turkmen at all, which was interesting.

We accidentally wandered onto a military base and a group of officers started yelling in Turkmen. We could understand everything they said though, which was funny- “Who speaks English? You- go talk to those Americans! Talk to them in English! Tell them they can’t be here!”

A young officer came over to us and talked nervously. “Excuse me. What are you doing here?”

Then at night a large storm hit briefly and all the power went out. I’ll never forget how amazing the sky looked that night- just completely full of stars forever and ever.

The next day we met a dude named Begmurat who said he’d take us all the way back to Yoloten and stop wherever we wanted along the way..and that’s exactly what we did. Begmurat became our new best friend running through the flowers with us, helping us take photos and find mushrooms. They’re totally not poisonous here (I hope- I eat them all the time) and they grow all over after the rain.

We wandered through the caves of Ekedeshik at Tagtabazar on the way home- a settlement that wasn’t discovered until about 1885, although no one knows exactly how far they date back. The caves extend about 35 km but only part is safe for people to wander around in. Begmurat came with us and kept cracking ridiculous jokes like, “here’s where the disco was, guys!” or “here’s where they had a swimming pool!”

Oh what a funny dude he was.

We ate ice cream and stopped off the side of the road where a group of beekeepers kept their bees. I was surprised how calm I was surrounded by millions of bees…Begmurat wore a net.

We made it home in about 3 hours total, less than half the time it took by train, and collapsed at the local Yoloten bar to drink some really gross beer…although I’ve gotten used to it, really.

I’ve gotten used to a lot of things, and wonder if I want to stay longer out here sometimes. We’ll see what happens.

Food, Wonderful Food

I had intestines for dinner two days ago.

I can still taste the cow stomach in my mouth.

I miss shrimp burritos.

Angels in the Bank

March 27, 2009

Bad news: I ran out of money...

It happens sometimes (I make about $120 a month) but this time I didn't have dollars to change. So I was about to depend on friends when I decided to try an experiement.

Our bank in Mary City has a lovely little "Mastercard" symbol on the front door. Now, signs here don't really mean much- I know this. But regardless, I waltzed inside to see if I could actually try to use the "atm".

But when I got in, the sweet lady behind the counter told me that my salary had come a week early. I was super excited and she started the necessary paperwork to get it together but unfortunately at that time they were out of currency.

So I went to the next window and pulled out my Mastercard.

"Mastercard?" the other lady said in wonder. "Hmmm...."
She opened up a cabinet and took out a credit card machine that had never been used before.

"Angela, you're the first person to ever do this!" she said with excitement. They tried hooking up the machine and turning it on, but they couldn't get it to work. I watched for the next forty minutes as they tried different outlets, plugs and attempted to call Ashgabat for help.

"Really, it's no big deal if it doesn't work," I said.

"No we want to learn this!" they replied.

But finally they gave up. It just wasn't happening, and I thanked them for trying.

"Wait, Angela," they said, as they turned around to shuffle through their bags. And then they proceeded to do the nicest thing anyone has ever done for me here. They took out their own money and gave it to me.

"No, I can't take this!" I said.

"It's fine!" the ladies said, smiling. "We'll just replace it tomorrow when the money comes. You have no money! What will you do without money?"

They actually gave me my salary from their own pockets.

And so it goes, I met some real-life angels in a bank in Mary City. The beauty in the people here never ceases to amaze me.