October 28, 2007

First update from Turkmenistan

At this point it seems a weird exercise to update this thing. I left on September 28th and I am writing this on October 25th. So many incredible things to talk about and describe. A straightforward list would be most beneficial in this situation, I think:

- Toilets, for one, don’t exist in most places. I’ve become accustomed to a squat toilet, as much as Westerner can get accustomed to such a thing. It’s not as bad as I thought it would be, though to me a porcelain commode is preferable whenever they are available, which is infrequently. It’s cold now, but I can only imagine what they’ll be like in the summer. My family uses toilet paper, but many use newspaper, old Russian books, and magazines.
- The host country nationals are great. I feel safe and welcomed here. I love my host family and they’re incredibly generous to me. I’m never hungry or in want of something to do. I’d like to be able to iron my own shirt or do my own laundry sometimes, but my host sister and host mother don’t allow it really. My host father is the director at a theater in Ashgabat and I’ve been to a play that’s the Turkmen version of Romeo and Juliet and also a German jazz concert, both of which were great experiences. I do have pictures, so maybe you’ll see them one day, as the internet here is prohibitively slow. I can’t do much beyond checking email.
- We sleep on the floor, eat on the floor, and sit on the floor. This is a holdover from nomadic times where you carried your home on your back and a chaise lounge or Eames chair wasn’t the most practical thing to keep with you moving around the Karakum Desert. Eating and sitting on the floor were easy to adjust to, though sleeping did present a problem for me personally. I had my first night of sleep only this week where I was able to sleep the whole night through.
- Marked gender differences, but they’re things one might expect. The power differential is more transparent and it guides more behaviors than in the US. Women wear these beautiful dresses and they wear a head scarf if married. My sister has a lot more work around the house than do my brothers. I never see women driving cars. Things of that nature. There is one thing that I envy the women for: if you are in the presence of your father-in-law and you don’t want to talk to him, you can cover your face like a blinder and you don’t have to talk at all.
- It’s a muslim country but beliefs are deeply mixed with tribal and shamanistic ones. The “Evil Eye” is a big deal here and there are innumerable talismans and practices against it. You can hang these triangular woven things in your home, for example, or you can hang peppers at the entrance of your home, or ram’s horns – all to protect against the evil eye. A cute practice that I’ve taken up is when you pour your tea. If there are bubbles in the tea, and the bubbles haven’t yet escaped to the periphery of your bakal [mug or cup], you must touch them with your finger and then touch your forehead. This means money is on its way to your household. Additionally, something that I’ve taken up, is not whistling inside nor shaking out the water from my hands after washing them. Both of these actions attract the Evil Eye and the money and luck will flow out of your household. It sounds silly but a volunteer reported that he was caught shaking out the water from his hands and the next day his host mother’s purse was lost.
- My fellow PCTs are tremendous. I like them a lot and I certainly hope they like me. I feel at times I come off as an insufferable know-it-all, or simply an asshole (it wouldn’t be the first time), so I seriously hope this isn’t what my actions and behavior betray to my new friends. We were informed that all PC volunteers talk about is food, sex, and poop, but so far my group has been talking about geopolitics, linguistics, science, public radio, books, and travel. But also sex and food and poop, for good measure.
- The town where I’m living until December is at the border, and over the mountains is Iran. PC has done a good job informing us on what to do and what will happen to us in case the US acts against Iran militarily.
- Miss a lot of you, one of you especially. Please write me letters; I have only received stuff from my family so far. Letters and parcels make dealing with mortality easier!