I was supposed to fly in on Friday since the test was Saturday morning. I wanted to see the medical officer too, to discuss my sprained neck. That was an adventure itself; for a few days I had unbearable pain. It was mostly healed by Friday but I still wanted to check in. However, Thursday night it started snowing and by Friday morning there were at least six inches of snow on the ground. Turkmen are not equipped to deal with that kind of snowfall in any sort of timely fashion, so I reasoned that there was a good chance my flight would be canceled. I had to decide, though, if I wanted to wait until 3:30, when my flight was scheduled, to find out. The problem was, if I waited that long and it was canceled at the last minute, I’d have to take a taxi and would be on the roads in the dark. So I decided to take a taxi that morning.
I lucked out as far as taxis go. As soon as I got to the autostanziya, a woman in the passenger side of a Jeep asked if I was going to Ashgabat and I joined her vehicle. There was only one guy in the back and there were still seatbelts intact. So even though the roads were bad, I had a seatbelt and the driver drove carefully (which is almost unheard of here). We saw several cars spun out into the side of the road on our way. And the whole trip took about eight hours (still shorter than my taxi ride from hell) instead of four or five. I had a book with me and between reading and napping, it didn’t seem too long. I still didn’t make it to the office in time to see my doctor but I spoke with her on the phone, and she gave Linds, who had come in a day earlier, some meds for me.
It was bitter cold the whole weekend. So cold, in fact, that the pipes to the PCO shower froze so we couldn’t shower. The only hot water to be had was from a sink on the other side of the building. I washed my hair there on Sunday after I couldn’t stand it anymore.
In the evening, ACCELS (American Councils for International Education) held a workshop for volunteers who would like tips on how to prepare our students for the SAT. Ten of us went to that and I got some good information to use in my TOEFL/SAT prep club.
Sunday was a lazier day. Seven of us went as a group to Yimpas, a three-storey shopping complex. There are restaurants, bowling, pool tables, ping pong, and a children’s play area on the third floor; stores and Altyn Asyr, the phone company, on the second floor; and the first floor is a grocery store where you can buy things that most places in Turkmenistan don’t offer, like peanut butter, soy sauce, or frozen chicken nuggets. As one of my peers, Casey, said, going to Yimpas requires moral support. It’s because it’s on the other side of town so you have to take a bus. Travel in this country is never quick and convenient. So, we all went and had lunch and did some shopping. I didn’t buy much since I only brought my backpack in for the weekend and didn’t have much room.
Casey went to the train station to get tickets for all us Balkan volunteers but he could only get tickets for Ilana and her sister in plotz car to Serdar and one for him in a coupe to Balkanabat. He lives in Serdar but he figured he’d just get off there. They told him there weren’t any other tickets for Balkanabat. Still, Linds and I went to the station a little after 6 and managed to get tickets in separate cars. I got one in plotz car because the woman at the desk said that was the only one. Then Linds asked if there were any to Serdar, thinking she’d buy one for Serdar, then join me in my cabin and we’d share a bed from Serdar to Balkanabat. She got one for Serdar in the same car as Casey. So she and Casey just traded tickets. However, somehow the train guy knew they traded tickets and tried to tell them there was a fine for doing that. Really he just wanted a bribe, so Linds gave him 5 manat and it was okay.
I generally dislike riding the train because it leaves at 7pm and by then I’m too tired to deal with the inevitable questions that strange Turkmen ask. It’s always the same things, and while I understand it’s new to them, it’s so boring and annoying to me by now. If I had a manat for every time I had to tell how old I am, where I’m from, whether I’m married and that I don’t speak Russian. Sometimes I feel like how I imagine actors feel when they’re on tour promoting their latest movie. I bet they get really tired of giving the synopsis of their film a hundred times and having to act like they’ve never been asked that litany of questions a million times before. Plus I still function under my cultural upbringing, so I see it as rude for someone to ask me how much money I make or why I’m not married. And I see it as rude when they keep interrupting me when I read or when Linds and I are talking to each other. One time when we rode together, we were in the middle of some serious conversation and the guys in our compartment kept interrupting us to ask us these stupid questions. You can’t get too angry with them because meeting an American here for most of them is like riding a unicorn; it wouldn’t ever occur to them that it could happen.
At any rate, we made it back to Balkanabat where the roads were still pretty slick. I came home and went back to bed before club. Now I have a month or so before I go back to Ashbagat (and facebook access). I just hope the weather warms up soon. Life is so much better when you’re not bundled up in layers of clothing even in your heated house.