She came to visit yesterday (Oct. 15) and it was really nice, actually. She’s a good person and it was helpful to have her translate what my family was saying. My host mom said I’m her daughter and Kera is her daughter. She had her picture taken with us. It was good to talk to a volunteer who’s been here several months to get her perspective on things. She says in her permanent site, she has a washing machine and a shower, so things only get better. We’ll see where I’m placed.
Eating Disorder
Turkmen pressure you to eat when you’re at their table. It’s really annoying because I don’t want to eat that much, but I also don’t want to offend them. (And it is offensive not to eat something, so if I ever want to skip a meal, forget it.) I take bites of everything but they keep saying iyyan, iyyan (eat, eat). It’s really frustrating. I try to take small, slow bites or linger over my tea. But still, iyyan, iyyan. It’s not healthy. I’m starting to get a complex. At the same time, my host mom called me fat the other day. To be fair, she also called herself fat, which is more apt. I suspect they just don’t have any idea that calling someone fat is considered rude in American culture.
I got my first bout of diarrhea today (Oct. 13). I thought I might be able to make it through training without it happening, but no such luck. It came at the same time I’m fighting off a cold and menstruating, so it’s been a blast (no pun intended). I am happy to report that I have not pooed my pants. I say this because at the beginning of training we got a seminar on diarrhea. We were told we would all get it and that going in your pants was pretty common. We were told to buy plastic buckets with a lid to keep in our rooms in case we can’t make it to the toilet and how to discreetly dispose of soiled underthings. I apologize for the scatological content of this blog, but this is the reality of our lives here. I’ve been downing Pepto Bismol tablets from my med kit and debating whether my case is bad enough to dump the (I suspect) bad tasting rehydration salts into my bottled water. Even now, my host mom is trying to get me to eat. Earlier she made me rice, which I ate a little of since it is in the recommended BRATT diet. But now she’s offering me cookies and what appear to be pastries. Since I’m sick, I’m able to get away with saying yok sag bol (no, thanks).
Turkmen toilet paper is about the consistency of crepe paper (but not as soft or as pretty). You can buy Turkish toilet paper in the bazaar, which is more like our tp. I bought some since we were advised to carry it with us at all times just in case. And there’s isn’t any tp at my school. (Or soap and water; glad I brought hand sanitizer.) I use my family’s tp at home, though, which makes my current situation even less comfortable. I really hope a good night’s sleep will fix things. I already missed today’s language lesson, which puts me behind!
Even though I’m an adult and my host mom means well and Peace Corps has great medical staff, I still want my mom and maybe my teddy bear.
Down time
I don’t have any. Except now when I’m sick and trying to keep occupied between skips to the loo. But I really look forward to the time when I will. The Peace Corps library here is huge and has many books I’m eyeing for future reading. I already borrowed Crime and Punishment, a Max Lucado study of the Book of James, Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger, and Revolution, a book about social justice from a Christian perspective. I know I won’t get to Dostoyevsky until I’m at permanent site, but I am setting aside time each night to do James.
Training is exhausting. We go from 9-6 with an hour lunch. We have language, cultural, and technical training. I feel like I’m never quite caught up. I try to go to bed by 10pm and sleep until 7:30, but I invariably wake up at different times throughout the night as there is loud traffic, a neighbor baby who cries, and a rooster that crows way too much. Plus my family yells. It’s a Turkmen thing, I guess, because other volunteers have noticed it. The LCF’s say that doesn’t happen in the cities as much because they are more educated. I am very uncomfortable around loudness, and especially when the yelling is angry yelling. It is not uncommon for parents to hit their kids here and I really hope that doesn’t happen in my host family because I don’t know what I’d do. Other volunteers in my group have heard it happen in their homes. It is frustrating to know that our influence here will not be as great as we would like. We are not capable of eradicating child abuse or sexism here. We must measure our successes with lower standards. Changing only one life, maybe, and remembering the Serenity Prayer and the Starfish story.
Scary Medical
I mentioned that we have a great medical staff here. It’s true. However, in their efforts to educate us on health here, they kind of freaked us out. Last hub day (when all the T-18b’s come to Ashgabat) we had a session on common problems and their treatmenst. Seeing pictures of bedbugs, fleas, burns, boils, scabies, lice, pink eye, etc. was unnerving. We all have a medical handbook as well that talks about symptoms and remedies for tons of things. I’m not planning on reading it for fun, like one of my peers did. I’m sure I’d start thinking I had half the stuff. Still, it’s comforting that my med kit has tons of useful stuff, including sunscreen and insect repellant. One of the volunteers already used his on his host brother who was attacked by a dog. We’re not supposed to give any of the medication away, but using the antiseptic and gauze is fine.
Not Your Father’s Peace Corps
I’m glad to be serving in the PC at a time when technology is what it is. There was a technology jump here in Turkmenistan. They skipped CD’s and went straight to mp3’s. Internet is increasingly available and everyone has a cell phone. I’m so happy to have my laptop, so I can type up blogs ahead of time and post them quickly when I get to an Internet provider. I’m listening to Chopin’s Nocturne in E flat right now. How soothing it is. A few days ago, when I had the episode at the soccer field I watched the pilot episode of “The Vicar of Dibley” and felt better. Plus, I had downloaded a Turkmen language program and did some of it while sick, at least learning colors while my peers spent four hours in language instruction at the school.
Turkmen Values
In one of our cross-cultural sessions at hub day, we did an exercise where as a group, we had to list the 5 most important things in life. The group I was in came up with Independence/personal freedom, family, belief system, good health, and realizing goals. The group of Turkmen LCF’s came up with family, the opinion of others, prestigious job, good appearance, and enough food. Comparing the two lists spoke volumes of the cultural differences between Americans and Turkmen and gave us a window into some of the difficulty we might face in integrating into society here.
For example, appearance is a serious thing here. They expect clothes to be ironed and shoes to be clean, as in, always carry around a rag to shine your shoes before entering a building. If your shoes are not clean, no one will respect you. Turkmen care a lot about what others think of them, which is the opposite of the American mentality that one ought to be an individual.