I also had to see my doctor to turn in some expired meds from the warden kit and to talk about an issue I’ve been having. She ordered blood work to be done, so that meant a trip to the Turkish hospital. I haven’t heard from her, so I guess my blood was normal. We suspect that what’s going on is my body’s response to stress. (If you’ve been reading my blog from the get-go, you know stress does weird things to me).
The original reason for coming in this weekend was the Peer Support meeting. The Peer Support Committee is in charge of helping volunteers feel, well, supported. We had a lot to discuss including how the sudden departure of the T-18As affected morale, planning our own group’s COS conference, and what role we’ll have in welcoming a new group of volunteers if they come.
The really nice thing about this weekend was that I got to hang out with some volunteers that I don’t usually hang out with in small groups. Sure I see everyone when we have a volunteer party. But it’s rare to have just a handful around and be able to sit and eat and talk. I had a particularly nice time one evening making a healthy dinner with two other girls and chatting for hours.
The problem with Ashgabat is that it’s proven to be impossible to get everything done that I want to get done. Every time there’s something on my list that’s not crossed off. This seems to be a problem for most volunteers. Part of the reason is how time consuming travel within the city is, another is that there are three, slow-moving computers for 18 vounteers, and another is there’s always volunteer social activities that tempt you away from business. I wanted to get some American money off my credit card and put some money on my phone. But I couldn’t get money off my Mastercard debit card at the new bank volunteers told me about and didn’t have time to go to the usual bank for my Visa. So I had to give another volunteer manat to put on his phone and then transfer to mine. Which will work out for now, but eventually I’ll need that American cash to pay for a carpet I ordered and probably plane tickets for vacation.
My last day in, the other volunteers told me they were going hiking and tried to get me to go. I decided I would really be pushing it if I went in terms of getting back to find a taxi and getting home at a decent hour. I had told students I would go to the Bbat Russian Orthodox Easter service, so I didn’t want to let them down if they decided to go with me. Otherwise, I could have stayed another day. I was disappointed because I would have liked to have gone hiking and then to a staff member’s house for dinner which was offered them. It turns out I made a wise decision because they got lost for four hours and their marshrutka (van) left. They left the PCO at 11am and to find a marshrutka that would take them out to Chuli where they wanted to hike. When they got there, they told him to wait until 4pm. At around 8:30, I got a call from one of them that they had gotten lost and the marshrutka left and they were still in Chuli. They had to have a PC vehicle come out and get them and they didn’t get to the office until 10:30pm, so they missed dinner too.
I, on the other hand, had returned to site by 6pm with enough time to make dinner and watch some of the Grimm episodes my very dear pal sent me before I headed to Easter mass. I was able to take video this time which I wish I could post here. You may be confused that Easter mass was this Sunday. The Eastern Orthodox Churches follow a different calendar than the western churches. Last year, our Easters happened to fall on the same Sunday, but this year, while I started eating chips and dyed some eggs last Sunday, the mass at the churches here was this Sunday. So I got two Easters this year.