In the Beginning… (Oct 9th, 2007)

In the Beginning…

We had a wonderful four days in Ashgabat when we first arrived here in T-stan but Saturday was our last day in the capital, and the serious training has now begun…for the next three months my life is going to be much more stressful, and extremely hectic. We have language and culture training six days a week, and then soon we’re going to actually start spending some time in the classrooms at the local school. All 38 volunteers have been spread out, outside of Ashgabat, in various villages. I’m in the village Annau which is about fifteen minutes south of Ashgabat. I can actually see the mountains that border Iran from my house. How many other people that you know can say that?

All is well on the north middle eastern front J.

What can I say about Ashgabat? If you’ve ever wanted to see a ton of gleaming white buildings in one place, it’s definitely where you want to be. Other than that, I don’t know much about the capital, except that you can get away wearing pretty much whatever you want (within reason) here.

Turkmenistan has a country-wide curfew of 11:00pm. If you’re out past then on the streets you will be stopped by a police officer. I received my official T-stan ID booklet last week and it’s pretty spiffy.

Every car is a cab here, and basically 5000-10,000 manat (about 20-40 cents) will get you anywhere you need to go. You just walk to the side of the road and put your hand out, and someone will stop for you. Everybody does it here, and seatbelts are pretty much never used.

Turkmenistan is a Muslim country so Christmas for us is not a holiday. We don’t get it off at all…it is just another day of work. I guess I could whine and moan about it, but I’m sure us Americans will figure out something to do to celebrate anyway.

The squatter in my house is basically a ceramic basin with a small hole at the bottom. The problem is you have to really be able to aim appropriately…the hole isn’t all that big. But it’s all good…I’m just grateful that there is a light in the bathroom….

I bought a box of Barf the other day, which is coincidentally the Iranian brand of laundry detergent. But then I found some Tide at the local bazaar so I’m thinking I might do a nice switch and bring home the barf for the friends and family that ever so want it. Who doesn’t want barf in a box?

My home life is extremely chaotic and it’s a bit unnerving at times…I have a phenomenal host family but there’s so many people that it can be pretty crazy. Tonight, for example, there were even more people over and my host mom was rushing around upset about something and people were bustling around like crazy so I decided it was best to retire early and finish emails rather than be social…something that I don’t normally do. Last night I helped my host sister with her English homework and had some help by everyone else with my Turkmen.

We’re all about the cross cultural experiences here, that’s for sure.

Especially when you’re walking to school and you see graffiti such as “Punk Not Dead” on the wall, and someone drives by bumping Enrique Iglesias in Russian.

The bizarre cross-cultural experiences keep coming…and I’m loving every minute of it. Just wait till you see the Turkmen Black Eyed Peas! No words can explain it. It’s simply the most exquisite of its kind.