December 1st
Trip Start
Sep 03, 2004
1
12
27
Trip End
Dec 28, 2006
Turkmenabat,
Turkmenistan
Wednesday, December 1, 2004
Hello again everyone! Well I am over my bitterness of not being home for the holiday, but really it wasn't all that bad. I have been at site now for 2 weeks and am really enjoying being out of training. I didn't realize that most of my frustrations were coming from people in my training group or from just the restrictive atmosphere of training.
My work is going really well. I was super lucky in my site because I had a great volunteer to follow. I came in and they were ready for me to work. That doesn't happen often and I don't have to waste a lot of my time explaining what I am here to do. They already know the program and what they think I should be doing. It does present some challenge because of the expectations: i.e. I am doing a drama club because a past volunteer did one, yeah; I have no idea what to do in a drama club. If any drama dorks have ideas for me, please email them on to me!!! I have a new found respect....
Right now my schedule is filling fast. I have about 4 clubs: advanced English, Gender Development, debate and drama. I am really working on trying to get some sports clubs going and turning that into my secondary project. I think it would be really cool to get a recreation basketball league started for both boys and girl in my state. I have a few teachers all for it, but I am in the process of thinking up where we can get balls and maybe some new hoops. I think I have to wait 5 months to write any grants, so it will be awhile to get this one off the ground. But I have 10 kids that come play basketball with me on Sundays. It is something to do. I can't stand sitting around the house all day, there is nothing to do and Russian TV doesn't interest me too much.
My host family has turned into an amazing support system. I am getting used to them coming in and organizing my room and sweeping my rugs that I swept 10 min before....but really, they are great. My host brother and sister fight over who will spend time with me. My brother goes running with me every morning and my sister waits to see how I did my hair before she does. Although yesterday I was not the coolest thing in the house! My family got a new stereo...a really nice one. It plays video cds (if anyone knows what those are and they are cheap, you can send those to me, my fam would love you) and they have been playing all my music for the past day and a half. This morning I woke up thinking, "thank god I don't live in the same house" because there was Eminem BLARING at full blast from across the way. I am sure the parents are happy I have that CD! The mom just keeps asking me if I like that kind of music, I just say, not everyday!
My Turkmen is getting worse by the day I think. I might be because I just want to say more and more and I give up a little easier. I have found a tutor and I will start buckling down soon. I am getting really lazy with it, just because my work doesn't require it. My two counterparts are AWESOME! They are 28 and 30 and they are both unmarried women. They are very interested in changing their style and really love English. They both speak very well and are helping me get into the whole teaching thing. They fight over me and my social life, it is funny. But it is fun to have friends already, and I really see me being able to talk to them when I need to. I will send you all some pics, and boys I am sure they would take any of you to marry! They are pretty much worthless here, but they still want to marry.
Don't worry; I have been getting much better at writing letters. I finally have some time to sit down and write. During training, I had too much going on and now I have some time to write. I wonder how long they will all take to get out there...maybe you will get them by Christmas.
I found out I get to leave for Christmas. I am not supposed to leave site for 3 months, but I will be going to Ashgabat for medical tests. Nothing too serious I hope, but we will see. My weight has been flocculating too much and they don't like that too much. At first, when I was losing all that weight, I was hoping it was a parasite so I could go to Thailand, but now I have gained it all back and more...so they think it is the thyroid. Who knows....I am still hoping the parasite just got really fat and is holding it all in. Bangkok or bust man!
I got two new dresses this week. I originally took them to my host mom's seamstress and left them there. I came back from the city and my host mom marches over to my room and says, "Katy you will never believe what she tried to do. She was going to charge you 45,000 manat instead of 35,000. (The difference of 20 cents!). She figured you have dollars and you are rich and I told her she lost my business and all of yours! I can't believe she did that." So she decided to take these two dresses to the sewing school, where they completely messed up my dresses and now I have 2 ugly dresses that I have to wear because I desperately need them. My counterpart saw the new dress and said, "That is horrible, you look so fat. The blue one is much better; you look good in that one." I love how they say it right to your face that you are fat, but you can't mention the word bathroom in any conversation! So for 20 cents more I could have had the dress I wanted.....oh well. I guess I need to look at 20 cents as a lot now. But I did just get a raise! I am up to 83.26 dollars a month! I am rolling in it!
Ok, well this is all. I will probably get to update this next week. Looks like I will be in the city every Wednesday for a Women's club and for camp meetings. Somehow I got elected director because of my camp experience! We will see how this works out, at least I like being in charge...;
Have a great week everyone! Send me some mail, and if it is a package make sure it is express mail or I will never see it! Hint, hint!
Miss you all!
katy
