America club is great. I teach about everything you could think of. I taught what a typical American house looks like (Turkmen don’t have garages or attics or basements or their own bedrooms). I taught about our three branches of government, what our schools are like, what our weddings are like. And about a month ago I taught about animals native to North America, especially animals whose names come from Native American words like skunk, moose, and opossum. Skunk is my favorite because it comes from a Native American word that means “urinating fox.” Anyway, while preparing a slide show for my students, I realized that at my home in Michigan I would typically see robins, blue jays, sparrows, cardinals, mourning doves, finches, toads, rabbits, fireflies, deer, turtles, frogs, squirrels, chipmunks, muskrats, and occasionally a skunk, raccoon, opossum, hawk, eagle, heron/crane, wild turkey, hummingbird, or snake. I may even be forgetting a critter or two. But in Balkanabat, all I see are feral cats and dogs. To see camels, I have to leave the city. I saw a toad once. In fact, I was so surprised by the fact that I took a picture. I saw a turtle but it was on a trip in the mountains; I’ve never seen one in Balkanabat.
Peace Corps has three goals. Goal #1 is to provide skills/training to countries who ask for it (for me it is teaching English). Goal #2 is to teach others about America. Goal #3 is to teach Americans about others, namely about our country of service. I fulfill Goal #3 through this blog and by participating in World Wise Schools. I fulfill Goal #2 by having an Amercia club. As you may have picked up from my last blog, sometimes I get homesick because of Peace Corps goal #2. America club is great. I teach about everything you could think of. I taught what a typical American house looks like (Turkmen don’t have garages or attics or basements or their own bedrooms). I taught about our three branches of government, what our schools are like, what our weddings are like. And about a month ago I taught about animals native to North America, especially animals whose names come from Native American words like skunk, moose, and opossum. Skunk is my favorite because it comes from a Native American word that means “urinating fox.” Anyway, while preparing a slide show for my students, I realized that at my home in Michigan I would typically see robins, blue jays, sparrows, cardinals, mourning doves, finches, toads, rabbits, fireflies, deer, turtles, frogs, squirrels, chipmunks, muskrats, and occasionally a skunk, raccoon, opossum, hawk, eagle, heron/crane, wild turkey, hummingbird, or snake. I may even be forgetting a critter or two. But in Balkanabat, all I see are feral cats and dogs. To see camels, I have to leave the city. I saw a toad once. In fact, I was so surprised by the fact that I took a picture. I saw a turtle but it was on a trip in the mountains; I’ve never seen one in Balkanabat. I’m not a nature nut. I’m not planning on holing up in a cabin by a pond and writing about it and getting all transcendental or anything. But I definitely appreciate nature. And I appreciate the wildlife back home even more now that I’m here. Every summer back home, one of life’s little pleasures that my father and I indulged in was a walk by the river so we could see all the turtles on a fallen log sunning themselves. I miss that. I miss the sound of crickets and frogs making their summer chorus. I miss looking out at my mom’s birdfeeder to see what species was feasting that day. Sometimes it was a squirrel and my mom would rap on the glass of our window to shoo it away. But you really can’t blame a squirrel for being a squirrel. At least I never will when I return. I miss their bushy tails.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorTaking John 10:10 to its logical conclusion and sucking the marrow out of life. Archives
August 2019
Categories
All
|