FIRST THOUGHTS OF TSTAN
Trip Start
Sep 03, 2004
1
5
27
Trip End
Dec 28, 2006
Bekrewe,
Turkmenistan
Monday, September 27, 2004
I am now sitting in Ashgabat Turkmenistan! I really made it and I have been doing really well. To be honest, there have been no major incidents. I am one of the only ones not to have any GI problems and my host family is great.
Right now I am living about 3 km south of Ashgabat in a family with a mom, dad, 4 brothers and a sister. I have a huge room, a toliet and a "shower" so my life is going well. The food is ok, I have only had one aorta in my soup! So far I have been to a couple of bazaars, and a lot of language training. We are having about 6 hours a day of language, and a few hours of teaching. My school is really cute, there are about 1000 studnets, but it should only hold about 400. Kinda crazy to think about. The teachers are overworked and rarely paid and most of the English teachers don't speak english. IT is nice to know I am needed. Training is tough,every part of my body is adjusting to one thing or another. My stomach makes crazy sounds everytime I drink water or eat anything and I am already down 6 lbs. I have to walk about a mile to work through dirt and I only know which house is mine from the pile of rocks and rusted truck out my door. The walk wouldn't be that bad if the kids didn't throw rocks and pomegranits at us, but we are told we can put that to a stop once we can learn enough Turkmen.
It definatly is the PC. All things are true, but I am really enjoying it so far. I have a whole email written out, so I will probably just head back here later this week to update this a little more accuratly. It is hard to think right now with this internet knowing it could crash at any time.
My Turkmen is coming along well. I can get around and this weekend I actually understood sentences out of my host mom's mouth! It was very exciting after a very frustrating week. My host sister is 19 and is very annoying. She can speak a lot of English and constantly asks me questions about stupid stuff over and over. I know it is cute and all, but really she drives me up the wall.
I just wanted to let you all know that I am ok and I will probably be checking my email about once every other week. But don't let that change your letter writing. So far I have gotten two postcards! Thanks Krissi and Scott!
I am writing as much as I can, but honestly I am just always tired. I hope that you all are doing well...keep me updated on any news. I will get a better posting this week, I promise.
Have fun and write!
katy
