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.