Chicken season
Trip Start
Sep 03, 2004
1
20
27
Trip End
Dec 28, 2006
Danew,
Turkmenistan
Friday, April 8, 2005
First I will apologize for the April fools joke, many of you loved it and some threatened to come to Turkmenistan to hit me. That was the purpose; I would love to see anyone of you out here!
So school started again, after an amazing trip to the Caspian Sea (I would like someone to find out why it is called a sea and find out if it is salty or not, there are some bets on the table). I flew to Ashgabat and saw my old host family for a night. It was good to see them again and realize how much happier I am out in Lebap. I can honestly say that if my site were in that conservative of a region, I may be sitting in Colorado right now. The next morning we all met up and took the party marshutka taxi up to Turkmenbasy city. It was very interesting to see the rest of the county and look at other people's sites as we went. That part of the country is actually really beautiful and there were plenty of camels to keep me entertained for 7 hours. We made it to the sea and checked into our luxury hotel right on the coast with an indoor swimming pool and spa and just relaxed and hung out with other volunteers for 2 nights. It was great to just have fun and not worry about the normal things that stress us out. The ocean itself was really pretty. I couldn't believe that that exists in Turkmenistan, but it was very fun to see the coast. It was a little too cold to really tan or swim, but we did get in the water once and sat out on the beach most the days playing football and telling stories. Many laughs were shared and I really came back to site pretty motivated with a smile on my face because March was almost done!
March was a bad month. I was very excited to cross that month off the list. I do think that will go down as one of the harder months in the Peace Corps. But it is now April and there is no looking back. My schedule is in full swing and I have started to work with the other teachers a lot more. We will see if any of them turn out to be motivated, probably not, but there are only 8 more weeks of school! WAHHHHOOO! Teaching in the schools sucks. No better way to describe it. There is no consistency in the kids, discipline is a huge problem and there are so many strategies to make it impossible for me to teach English. But 8 more weeks of school and then I am off until December (summer break and then all my kids will be picking cotton until the beginning of December). I am talking to some aid agencies and working on reviving an old center that could be very successful here, and even if it isn't it will give me a place to teach on my own for the next 20 months. So that is the school/work update.
To bring in the new month, my site mate and I decided that we needed to go to Ashgabat to say goodbye to a volunteer that is heading home. He went to Thailand and took an English teaching job there that will start up in October, so he called it quits. So we took the train to Ashgabat. We were lucky enough to score first class tickets that we were told, "it is for two people, table, bathroom and air conditioner!" They forgot to leave out the part of wildlife, but it was great to see some cockroaches and mice for free! Plus, it made great time, 600 km in 14 hours! I tell you they got the train system down. Apparently there is a train that goes from my town to the northern part of Tstan that has to cut through Uzbekistan for a few miles. Well since the train doesn't meet the standards they have to leave half the train in Tstan and meet another in Uzbekistan! If a train doesn't meet the standards of Uzbek railways, you know that is not a good sign. We made it to Ashgabat, and had a good 24 hours in the city. Went to the disco with our friend one last time and started to plan the big birthday party in the desert! I am way excited for that, it looks like about 30 volunteers are going to come out here for my birthday and we will go camping in the desert. Should be fun, but a little sandy.
So now I am back at my site getting ready for the week. It is nice to come home from a trip and know that I have so much to do because I went somewhere. Before it was very easy to just stay longer and not worry about it. But the big news of the week is: I BOUGHT MY TICKET TO THAILAND! I am so excited to go ride elephants on the beach and meet some new people. I love all the volunteers, but I haven't met one new American in 7 months! In Tstan, my tourist sighting number is up to 6: 2 Germans, 2 American hunters, and 2 Italians. I am sure I will meet plenty of Americans in Thailand and get some crazy stories out of here without being monitored. I am going there from the 1st of May to 8th of May. I am pumped, I have always wanted to hit up Asia and now I get to for a whopping 169 dollars (it should have only been 160, but we had to fly business class....boo hoo). So if anyone is in the neighborhood, let me know and we can meet up. I know a few of you are in Japan...who knows right?!
So my tidbit from Turkmenistan for this update will talk about spring. It has defiantly come in full force. It is already hot, it was 32 degrees the other day, I am guessing about 90s and it is only getting hotter each day. The sun comes up now at about 6:30 and goes down about 9....wow, when it will in the summer I am quite nervous. But what is really cool about this spring, is it is one of the first times I have observed nature in the spring time. I can say, the baby sheep (I think it is a kid) are so cute. I want to take one home, but I know my host family would eat it pretty quickly, and I don't need to skin any more. There are baby everything everywhere. Goats, cows, chickens, geese, frogs all are here and louder than ever. Our chickens are now laying about 30 eggs a day and I am feeling my cholesterol points skyrocketing now! Well with this spring brought what I call "chicken season." It is a pain in the ass, every where you go there are damn baby chickens. They are in the busses, in the bazaar, in the street, EVERYWHERE! Everyone sells them for about 15 cents a piece. Great deal if you ask me. Well, I said they were everywhere, but my quality of life dropped many points this week. My host mom was telling me to start wearing my shoes in the bathroom and I was like why, won't the rugs get dirty. She kept saying juyja and I had no idea what she was talking about. I go into my bathroom and there are 25 baby chicks running around. So now I get to shower with them...I am trying to remain calm about the situation, they are cute, but they smell. I have also somehow been giving the job of feeding the damn things too, and what do you feed a chick do you ask? Nothing but a hard boiled egg. My sister died of laughter when she came in one day and I was feeding them going, here chickie, here is Cousin Murat....for some reason I was speaking in Turkmen to myself. She has told about 40 people the story now. It disgusts me. But what can you do...so that is my rant on chicken season.
Have a good April! I miss and love you all! Let me know if you can make it to the desert party on the 23rd! Happy trails to you until we meet again!
Love
katy
