We had dinner at her house and watched a movie before turning in for the night. The next day, we headed into Dashoguz City where Jovanna showed us the American Corner. American Corners are resource centers established by ACCELS to offer students access to computers, English language resources, classes and information about studying in the U.S. Every welayat in Turkmenistan has one except Balkan, which makes us Balkan volunteers angry because it puts our students at a disadvantage and eliminates one more opportunity for us to work. Many volunteers teach classes at the American Corners in their welayat.
After that, Jovanna had to leave to go back to her site for work, so Phil and I went to the Dashoguz museum. It’s similar to the Balkan museum but focuses on the Dashoguz welayat, of course. These museums aren’t particularly riveting, but they only cost us 1 manat admission, so it’s a nice diversion for the price. Then we went to the bazaar, which is bigger than any I have in Balkanabat. I was hoping to find a cheap talpek but it’s getting to be summer weather and they’re not worn as much in the summer months. I did find some other souvenirs for cheaper than they are at my site.
When we were done at the bazaar, we took a taxi to Akdepe, Brian’s site. He showed us his chicks. Apparently about a week ago, you could hold them, but now they’re too old and will run away. We had fun trying to catch them though. Brian had planned to make us dinner with the stipulation that we bring a salad from the bazaar. Some salads from the bazaar are pretty decent and I realized on this trip that I should incorporate them into my diet as a cheap and easy way to get some vegetables. The salad we picked out was carrots and lettuce and cucumbers with a vinegary flavor. As we helped Brian prepare the beef with curry and rice he planned for dinner, we listened to one of his Mitch Hedburg albums. I remember seeing Mitch years ago on David Letterman. I liked him but have never listened to his albums so it was nice to hear some new media.
After dinner, we walked a bit around Akdepe with Brian, although it was dark. We got 30 tenne soft serve ice cream cones (half the price of Balkanabat cones) and then just chatted at his house until bed. In the morning, Brian negotiated a good price for us at the taxi stand so we could head to KoneUrgench, the reason I wanted to go to Dashoguz.
After that section of KoneUrgench, Tao showed us the bazaar and took us to a restaurant for lunch. After lunch we grabbed soft serve. Four actually, eating a cone while we walked and stopping at the next cone stand. Then we went to another site which is considered the holiest site in KoneUrgench, again, a mausoleum, and the museum next door. The museum was much better than I thought it would be and only cost 40 tenne admission. There was a group of “VIPs” at this site so we had to wait for them to finish at each building before we could go in. Turkmenistan is notorious for closing things to the public (buildings, streets, etc.) when VIPs are going to be there. Not for security reasons but because of the idea that VIPs (that is, government officials) shouldn’t have to be see plebians.
When we had finished with KoneUrgench, we taxied back to Dashoguz City, had dinner and checked into a hotel. It was nice to shower and sleep in a bed. The volunteers in Dashoguz live much more rural lifestyles than I do in Balkanabat. They sleep on dushaks, which gives me a fitful night of sleep and their toilets are hole-in-the-ground outhouses. I hate the idea of getting up in the night and having to flashlight my way out of the house through the yard to the outhouse so I tend not to drink much in the evening when I guest at volunteers who have those accommodations. That combined with all the walking and the heat meant that I got a little dehydrated during the trip. I got a charley horse in my quad while climbing ruins at KoneUrgench. I’ve never gotten cramped in the quad before; it’s always my calves. So at the hotel, I could drink a lot of water at night knowing the bathroom was right there.
Saturday we flew back to Turkmenbashy and after lunch, I taxied back to site. It was very good to sleep in my own bed again and to know I still had Sunday to relax before returning to work.