Long time, no talk....update from the desert
Trip Start
Sep 03, 2004
1
25
27
Trip End
Dec 28, 2006
Danew,
Turkmenistan
Friday, April 14, 2006
Well, I guess I should start off with an apology or state why I haven't had a chance to update this much. To begin with, I returned to site to find that my computer battery will not charge anymore, so that has significantly limited my transformation from all my thinking and journaling to typing time. Also, email and internet has been oddly weird here...I have created a new email address to respond from...so if you get an odd email from katydieters@rambler.ru, you know why. So I will try to sum up the past two months as concisely as I can.....
So to begin with, returning to Turkmenistan was the "right" decision. Things have been amazing since I have been back. I think that I have taken full advantage of my 5 month break (no pun intended) and really been able to be aware of my prior mistakes and realize what I need to do to make things happen here. I defiantly got hurt at a time that was positive: after camps and successful projects. I was worried that I was romanticizing about the success of these projects, but overall, it was true; we are here for two years for a reason. After the initial Turkmen relearning, I was able to really start communicating and feel like I have found a place in such a foreign place. I returned to my host family, who were very happy to see me, but weren't overbearing with excitement. It was perfect. Over one bottle of vodka, all was shared, and I was back in Turkmenistan. I think that a neighbor put it well in this conversation:
N: Katy, are you here?
K: Yes, I am back.
N: What happened?
K: I broke my ankle.
N: Oh, that is too bad. Is it better?
K: Yes, much. Thank you.
N: Well we missed you. You missed winter. It was cold for ten days. We are glad to have you back.
K: Oh, I heard it was bad.
N: Yes, it was. Well, have a good day at work!
So apparently in some of the most mentally changing months of my life, it was only cold for ten days here! But I have taken that to heart and jumped right back in. Coming back, I noticed that the cows were a little skinnier, the dresses a little more elaborate, and the roads a little more bumpy, but overall, I came back and all went well.....
My work is going really well....everyday it gets better. I am teaching at my old school working solely with the teachers and then I go to a new school for my own courses. I am have a teachers club three times a week where we practice new methodologies and games, vocab and grammar and a song or fairy tale. Singing in front of the class reminds me how humbling the Peace Corps can be, but it is only the "itsy bitsy spider" so it is all good! My teachers are very happy to have me back and are attending all my seminars that they can. It is fun to see them and realize my mistakes of last year and adjust my expectations to what they are expecting of me. So far so good.
I also have partnered out with a local English club to start up a new language center in my town. We will have all the students come there for extra English lessons and I will hold my own courses there. The progress is slow, but eventually I think the remodeling will be finished and classes will start. I have about 30 kids signed up for classes and I am just waiting....I guess that is what this is all about. But during the waiting, I have started up an amazing sports club. Basically, we play whatever sport we have a ball for (aka what the kids bring!) I have played handball, Frisbee, soccer and basketball. It is fun, we run laps at the stadium for a warm up, play for an hour and then do a quick health lesson. It has been great to improve my Turkmen and just find kids that are willing to have fun. It is interesting how your basic interests in life continue on in life! So, overall work is going really well.
Since being back, I really have found a peace at living out in the village. I was really nervous of returning back here without a site mate, but really the city is so crowded with volunteers now that I don't know how to act when in town. I am really enjoying not coming in contact with another American for weeks at a time and when calls come from home, I am not feeling that void as deeply. I guess you can say I have finally fully adapted to living here. Not to say there aren't days where I am missing home, but I guess overall my appreciation for being here on my terms has changed my outlook on the experience.
Summer is coming soon...that means lots camps in the planning. I am planning my local GEAR English camp, the big camp in the city and also this year, a sports camp in danew. I am writing a grant right now for the sports school to get new balls and uniforms for the programs in my town. The director of the school is really excited about it and I am really excited to try to repave the track and basketball court! I will let you know the progress of that.
Some funny things that have made me laugh these past few months:
1. Seeing a man cross the road with his goat on a leash
2. Going camping on land where Ghangis Khan sent his brother...come on Ghangis Khan!
3. Playing Sorry! With my host sister nightly...and actually building strategy in the game.
4. Reading 6 books in 4 weeks and listening to the shortwave BBC....I am a PCV
5. Going to school is like the paparazzi....kids just shoot your pic at any time and I find myself hiding my face from the camera!
6. My German language coming in handy for the competition of the tomatoes book.
Overall...I am alive and well. I am figuring out my travel plans for the next few months. I know June will have a vacation in it, depending on the Chinese people, I might go to Beijing or second resort Dubai and UAE.....either will be exciting.....although I am not itching to leave like I was before. I am ok here....
I do want to let you guys know of a project that we are working on here in Turkmenistan. Last year, we conducted a camp for the disabled children of our state. Here, when a child is born with a disability, they are considered an outcast. There is no way for them to go to school, so they often go without ever learning to read or write. We held a camp for these children last summer and really saw how difficult it is for these families to take care of these children; but, also saw how much community support can make them feel normal. We had kids with different problems, but many were unable to walk. Due to the lack of wheel chairs here, many kids brought their sisters, brothers, mothers or whoever else could carry them to participate in our activities. Together over the past month, we have written a grant that would give over 300 wheelchairs to the children of Turkmenistan. This project is very big, one of the biggest ever written for Turkmenistan. We need over 21,000 dollars to make this happen, but every contribution can help. This will help children from my village to villages that do not have PCV's so please, if you have anything to give, it would be greatly appreciated. The information below will allow you to donate to the project and every donation is tax deductible. One wheel chair is $75 dollars....so maybe you can brag at work that you donated a bolt to some kid in Tstan! Please if you know other people interested in the project, let them know the website. I know the forwards that happen at work, so please add this plea for money to all the corporations out there! We really want to prove what is possible here! Lets see what happens!
So that is the news. For those of you that need it, my address and phone number have not changed.
Turkmenistan
Lebap Velayat
Turkmenabat-22
Central Post Office
Mail Box 46
PCV Katy Dieters
0011 993 446 55 1 69
Feel free to send letters, packages, and whatever else will get here! I miss you and love you all!
ONE LAST THING! I went rug shopping the other day. Basically if you are interested in a rug, I can get one sent to you for about 250 dollars. That is, now I think, 2 meters by 1 meter long (bigger than you are imagining, would fit under a dinner table or a center piece for a room). They come in all kinds of colors and designs, but typically they are the teke design in a deep red. Do some internet research on Turkmen rugs and you will see the pattern I am talking about. I will do some shopping this summer for rugs, so if you are interested, let me know and we will work out how to get the funds here. They are beautiful and if you let me know what colors you want we can get it to you. They do get bigger, so if you want it bigger.....you will have to pay! Maybe just let me know if you are interested so I can think about the quantity I am in for and we will start individual emails about how big, what color etc...
I love you and miss you all. Please keep in touch. I can use some spices: maybe the Mrs. Dash pre-made spice kits. Any add water meals and soups, protein fortified anything, children's songs on tape, and creative fun things that would be nice in tsan....I would love!
Sorry I asked for so much in this email....no pressure. An email is all I really need.
Peace out!
katy
