Camps, Taxis and Ambassadors
Trip Start
Sep 03, 2004
1
23
27
Trip End
Dec 28, 2006
Turkmenabat,
Turkmenistan
Wednesday, July 13, 2005
Long time no updates! I apologize for the lack of communication in the past months. There are so many excuses but I will not give them to you now. Maybe after reading all the updates you will know that I was either super busy planning camps of which most won't happen, taxing around the county to eat with ambassadors or working at some of the most rewarding camps in the world!
June started out in a pretty depressing way. Fortunately I became healthy again and was able to pull off the most amazing week in Turkmenistan. I received permission for GEAR camp in my village exactly 2 days before the beginning of camp. In those two days, I was able to gather local teachers, find 25 students and go to Ashgabat for our 4th of July celebration. Camp was a huge success. The laundry list of things that we did included: watermelon eating contest, an American wedding, Win Lose or Draw, a production of Cinderella, a mini-Easter with an egg hunt, and a fashion show through the decades of Turkmenistan. It was great. It was the first thing that I did that was successful. I had 25 kids at the beginning and ended up with 32 on the last day. It was hot, but so much fun. My junior volunteers were amazing as I thought they could be and all of the hard work paid off. I think that is the most difficult thing here is that you have to keep believing in yourself and your mission here. I was at the lowest point at my service and had people telling me this will never happen, but somehow it did. I have been invited back into my school, have a new counterpart and my old counterpart even managed to say to me, "now you are doing good work." (Like I was doing bad work for the past year! But she was just jealous she couldn't have fun with us!) I will try to get some camp pictures out for you, but to see those kids smile and be early everyday for camp meant that they loved it. Crazy to think they probably will remember that little day camp for the rest of their lives, just like those of us that have been to an American camp will remember that. I am glad it worked out and it saved my service for the time being.
I was also amazed at how when the camp ended, I went directly back to my bored and lonely state of mind. The high of camp wore off in approximately 25 minutes and I was back to reading and realizing that many of our other projects won't go off. But luckily, I was off to the Caspian Sea for an overnight camp there. It was the best camp I have ever worked at in my life! They rented out one of the nicest hotels in Tstan and the counselors had a summer house right on the beach. This summer house made me the most home sick I have been in awhile. It was a replica of an American town home. It had a full size refrigerator, an upstairs and downstairs with AC, I had my own bedroom with a bed and closet, two bathrooms with running water and showers, stoves and privacy! I started to remember what it was like to have roommates and a job. We had a mission and all did our work. I do miss the productivity of work and deadlines and most of all the pride that goes along with doing a project well. I was in college again for a week, playing in the ocean and doing great work with some amazing kids. These kids were the best speakers in Turkmenistan, and I was very impressed with the things they could do. My favorite class I taught was snowboarding history. I researched the history of snowboarding and made a dictionary of about 100 slang words! I had an email from a "friend" in Colorado and they had to write him back using the words and the dictionary! It was great. So fun to hear the kids talking about a blue bird day on the Caspian! It was very cute!
Camp ended very quickly and unfortunately I got sick again. Very sick. It is very difficult to not eat as many fruits and veggies as possible, but I have decided that every 40 tomatoes I eat, one of them is bad and makes me really sick. So I found myself in Ashgabat again and sleeping at the nurse's home. It is a slice of heaven to go to a staff member's house, but once again makes you think how easily I could have all of that again. I got healthy pretty quickly, it is amazing with Cipro will do to you and I got permission to stay in town for the embassy's 4th of July celebration! I have never been so happy to be in Ashgabat at the right time. We ate hamburgers and hotdogs, drank Budweiser beer (I did mention to the Ambassador next year I request Coors Light, and she laughed.) and had a great time dancing to a live band. They eventually had to kick out the volunteers because we were drinking too much Jim Beam and were worried about the stock of beer. They told us, "there is a bus outside, it will drive you wherever you need to go.....LEAVE!" It was rather amusing, but we did walk out with some good souvenirs. They certainly don't live in the Tstan I live in, but it was very kind of them to invite us to the party. The ambassador gave a great speech and I spoke some German to the German ambassador! It was a high class event and we as volunteers represented well.
I returned to site this past week and found out that we just received permission for our overnight kids camp in the city. So once again we are running around trying to find teachers, students and plan a camp that we thought was going to be cancelled. It will be a success, I know it, but very annoying to have to throw together like this. I have my classes planned and ready to do one more camp in the heat. I am drinking up to 5 liters of water a day and still worry about hydration! It is so flipping hot, but I am getting used to it. I will keep you posted on how the camp goes.
I also came to site and found out that my site mate will be moving to the city. His work tells him that it is better if he is in the city, so he must move after orphan camp. I think this is the hardest news I have heard since I have been here. That will leave me about an hour from another volunteer. I am really worried about what I am going to do and how I will react to it all. On one hand I am worried that I will be the next one moved to the city, and I don't know if that is what I want. On the other hand, I am worried about my sanity. He is a huge reason I am still here and was a pillar of support for me. He promises to come back but I know the city is where he will stay. They all say they will come to the village and it rarely happens. That makes me and one other volunteer left in the villages and they are only putting new volunteers that will come here in the city. So I was very sad to hear this news, and feel bad for my site mate. I can't imagine a year of this and being told you must start over at a new site. They tell you that you need flexibility, but I think a better description is be ready to submit to everyone telling you what and when to do it and not to complain about it.
So if you can't tell, this month was full of crazy emotions and taxi rides. Camps have been huge successes but in the midst of news that will really change my time here. I officially have been really home sick but also know I can get through it. So to help it all, I am taking another vacation in August. I am going to go to Germany for a week. I am very excited to see my host family, my old friends and eat some good food. It will be a short trip, but it will be the first trip to help me adjust for the trip to the USA. Summer is flying...I can't believe I am starting to think about August and September and know that the year mark is quickly approaching. I can't believe that I have been here as long as I was gone for Germany and how differently I have approached all of these situations. I keep thinking about the fact that these people have taught me more than I have given them. Hopefully I will be allowed to give them things next year.
Ok, I am off. I am sure I have some funny stories to tell you, but I have been rambling on for a little bit. I need to go plan and figure out a way to kick my host sister out of my room. My host brother is away for 20 days working in the fields and she is bored out of her mind. It is crazy that she can just sit and watch me type or work for hours. Anyway....not going to let it bother me!
Talk to you all soon! Or better yet, see you soon! 8 weeks and counting....
katy
