When I came to site, I discovered that I had a T-18A site mate, Lindsay. Over the past 15 months we’ve become friends and even did a grant project together. She was supposed to leave Turkmenistan May 9. However, two weeks ago we got news that the Turkmen government still hadn’t approved the 18As’ visa renewal request. The Turkmen government has a habit of being reticent about visa renewal then finally renewing them (sometimes only for six months instead of the requested year, as happened earlier in the As’ lives here), so we waited. Peace Corps decided the As’ should plan to leave in March and Lindsay originally thought she would fly out early morning March 26.
To complicate things, this news came to them while they were at their Close of Service (COS) conference where they learn about all the paperwork they have to fill out, insurance, RPCV services offered, etc. So Lindsay called me and asked if I’d pick up some last minute souvenirs for her at the weekend bazaar on Saturday, the 17. She wouldn’t be coming to Bbat until the 20th and would leave again for Abat on the 22nd or 23rd. So I went with one of our students in the rain and found everything that she had asked for. Part of her requests were for material that needed to be sent to the tikinchi (seamstress) to sew or embroider.
On Tuesday morning the 20th, Linds called and said that the Turkmen government had sent a dip note denying the visa renewal and that because they were being so douchebaggy about the As not staying a minute past when their visa expired, she had to fly out on Thursday night/Friday morning. That meant she would have a little more than 24 hours at site before turning back around to go to Ashgabat. When I got off the phone with her, I walked to the Air Kassa to get a ticket from Turkmenbashi to Ashgabat so I could travel with her to Ashgabat. Then I went to my school to hang a sign on my door, cancelling clubs. Then I went to Lindsay’s house where I started taking down all the photos she had on her wall. After that, one of our students went with me to the bank to close Lindsay’s account. The next two days were the Nowruz holiday so nothing would be open and Lindsay wouldn’t be able to do it herself. (We’re pretty sure the Turkmen government’s timing with the dip note was intentional in that regard.)
Lindsay’s flight got in at 4pm and she went straight to her clinic to say her goodbyes there. Thank God her students were able to organize a last minute party at a restaurant that evening so Linds could get some closure. She spent the next day packing until 5pm when friends came to say their goodbyes and see her off. Then she and I got in a taxi she hired and rode to Turkmenbashi (about an hour and a half drive) where we boarded the 8:20pm plane to Ashgabat.
There she had a lot of paperwork to do which consumed pretty much her entire day on the 22nd. Late that night a few of us went with her and another volunteer to see them off at the airport. And that is how my site mate came to leave a couple months early. She’s the fifth good friend of mine to leave here. I knew she was leaving before me, but not that soon, not like that.
It was very difficult for me to watch her go through that. It was such a slap in her face and the faces of the other As by the Turkmen government. She has dresses at the tikinchi’s that haven’t been sewn yet. She put down a deposit at a toy hall for her going away party in April that she couldn’t get back (again because of the holiday). Her kids have six fewer weeks of clubs with her. There’s a package on the way from her mom with presents that she won’t be able to give to people herself.
I got back to site on Friday. I was going to stay until Saturday but I initially told my methodologist Friday and when I called to tell her Saturday she said she was in Ashgabat and couldn’t go to the ministry and that if I stayed until Saturday there would be big problems. So instead of getting to relax a little in Ashgabat and fly back on Saturday, I took a taxi in the evening. Luckily I got a seatbelt. In some ways maybe it was better I came back Friday night. I got to sleep in my bed and I crashed for almost eleven hours, not having gotten much sleep in the preceding days.