Staging

I'm in Washington, D.C. at staging (orientation). Got in last night and there was this guy at the baggage claim and I think I got hustled by him. He took me to his car, which didn't have a meter or look like a taxi at all (it was Cadillac), but I got to the hotel fine, even though the fare was $45 flat. I shouldn't have followed that Ethiopian man.

But were given today a debit card to cover expenses and the government was surprisingly generous. I have plenty of money for incidentals and food and taxi rides. I had great Thai food tonight.

Today we went over a bunch of things, like our anxieties and fears and expectations for Turkmenistan. One really cool thing I learned was that Peace Corps is the only game in Turkmenistan, that we are literally the only aid group over there. No Habitat for Humanity or World Bank or UN or CARE. Just the Peace Corps. The awesome thing about this is that, as a volunteer, your results are more apparent. A common complaint (and reason for ETing) among volunteers is that they can't see the effects of their accomplishments. It was reassuring to learn that in T-stan that this won't be an issue.

Peace Corps really does open you up to many new experiences. For example, the guy I'm rooming with during staging, he had never ironed a shirt until I showed him how this afternoon. And as for me, he showed me his socks, all of which are tye-died. No joke.

Packing post

6 white undershirts
18 t-shirts
5 polos and button-down short-sleeve shirts
12 dress shirts for work
3 sweaters
2 long sleeve shirts
7 pairs of pants
exercise pants, shorts, and long-sleeve shirt
silk underwear bottoms and tops
one vest, one cardigan, one hoodie, one medium-weight coat, one heavy-weight coat



crushed red pepper
cumin
cinnamon
Sri Racha hot sauce
onion powder
garlic powder
curry powder
Italian mix



Sambas, brown loafers, black loafers, Chacos, running shoes
frying pan
hat
sleeping bag and insertable mat
English/Russian dictionary, field guide to birding around USSR, Donald Barthelme short stories, Limits of Language, God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater
pens, pencils, sharpies, pad


ties
belts
underwears
socks



Macbook, charger, sweater
external hard drive, mouse, camera, cords
USB thumb drive
headphones
binoculars
iPod shuffle
digital watch
toiletries



calendar and bookmarks (gifts for host family)
combination lock
laptop lock
Leatherman Multi-tool
Gameboy DS, games, charger
handcrank flashlight, keychain flashlight
international voltage converter

My burgeoning food blog?

I have a slight inclination to start a food blog, based on the 1100 varieties of melons to be found in Turkmenistan. It would be popular, I feel, because food buffs love exotic fruits. The mangosteen was recently legalized in America and already I've seen several proclamations of "the new pomegranate!"

It wouldn't be difficult to look into the melon-describing semantic sphere and pick up several words and phrases. I already have a name for it, which is personally the biggest motivation to start the blog. Turkmelonstan.

Also, it's surreal that I'll be there in two weeks.

Turkmenistan

I'll be going to Turkmenistan for my PC service. I will be in D.C. on September 29th for orientation, and then in Turkmenistan on October 3rd for pre-service training. My volunteer service ends December 21, 2009. So I'll be home for Christmas. I also plan at least one trip back to the states

Here's what I know about Turkmenistan and my service so far:
- Free water and electricity everywhere (vestiges of communism)
- Ashgabat, the capital city, is fairly modern and it's all white marble and real gold
- Turkmenbashi, the recently dead dictator/president-for-life, ruled with Soviet-style harshness
- The PC office there recently got satellite internet
- I will probably be in a rural area living with my host family for the entire two years.
- They eat lots of lamb and get lots of produce imported from Iran because the seasons are wonky. They have 100 degree summers but it also snows in the winter.
- I'm guessing that if the USA goes to war with Iran, I will be evacuated and my service will end, or they'll send me to Guatemala or something.
- 87% Muslim, though I hear it's not like Saudi Arabia. They are more culturally Muslim in the way that we are culturally Christian, someone said.

I have to go to work now. More later.

It should be here tomorrow

It should be here tomorrow.

Notified of my invitation

FINALLY.

After several months of checking my email first thing every morning, after expecting it to come by the time I finished school, then by the time I had my going-away party, then by the time I left Texas, I checked my email this morning and found this message from Peace Corps:

Peace Corps has updated your Application Status account. Log in to http://www.peacecorps.gov/mytoolkit to see the latest information.

This means that my invitation (exactly where and when I will be going) is in the mail. The mailman here is going to become shortly acquainted with me as I wait for him daily at the mailbox. What happens is I get the invite in the mail, and see what it says, and then respond within 10 days to either accept or decline the invitation. Should I decline, I would have to wait longer for another assignment to come up. This would annoy my PO because she'd have to do more work, and it'd annoy Kristofer and Ashley, since I would have to live here longer than expected.

Here is what I am predicting based on my internet research: Turkmenistan, departing for staging September 29th, returning to the States January 2010.

(this paragraph is mostly for Ben)
So. Turkmenistan. The large majority of the population speaks Turkmen, while a minority speak Balochi (Western) and Kurmanji. I am betting that I will not have to learn the minority languages. Turkmen is an Altaic > Turkic language, meaning it has strong vowel harmony, restricted voicing between vcd/vcl with few minimal pairs even intervocalically, short/long vowel opposition, and simple syllable structure (CVCC at the most complex). It might be agglutinative, I'm not sure. All nouns decline the same way; all verbs conjugate the same way. There are no classes. It has number and case, with a basic set of case markings (NOM/ACC/GEN/LOC/DAT/ABL). Its word order is strictly verb-final.

Thank you to Kerry, who was able to quickly get his recommendation stuff in before my PO went on vacation. I most likely would not have received this today if he didn't complete his shit on time. I finally get to update the timeline in the sidebar.

Finally a second nomination

My PO Julie Thompson called me this afternoon and gave me a more accurate nomination:

Late September 2007
Teaching English as a Foreign Language
Central Asia


This is exciting because TEFL was my first choice of assignment because that would work better when I apply to grad school for linguistics. It's not that teaching science would have been bad, but I just would have rather taught English. Now I need my linguistics books! And I was also reading a book earlier this year by Comrie about Caucasian languages, which might be of use if I learn one of those.

According to the PC website, "Central Asia" is the following countries:

Armenia
Azerbaijan
Georgia
Kazakhstan
Kyrgyz Republic
Turkmenistan

A little closer

My PO called my Saturday afternoon. I was surprised she was working then, but she said it was busy season at the placement office.

We talked for an hour about how prepared I am to serve and several other issues like coping with stress, Kristofer, communication with people back home, and timelines.

She said she'd call me back this week, so this definitely means my application is in motion.

Placement officer

I contacted the Placement Office yesterday (1-800-424-8580 opt. 1, opt. 2, opt. 1, ext. 1850) and they gave me a teensy bit more information.

I told them I felt very much in the dark about the status of my application, which is true. It's been 22 weeks since I was medically cleared and there have been no developments since then. I told them that my original nomination was to a place I can't go any longer and that I wanted to know what my new nomination was. That in the very least I'd like a vague timeline of future events so that I'm not sitting on my ass until October or something.

The woman who answered the phone was really nice. She told me she didn't have a lot of information about the things I wanted to know, like a list of countries I'm eligible to serve in, but she was able to tell me my PO's name.

Julie Thompson.

All PC employees in DC have the same email format: first name initial then last name @peacecorps.gov. So I sent an email to JThompson[at]peacecorps.gov hoping it was her. I haven't heard anything back. That was on Friday so maybe I'll hear from her next week.

Fingers crossed

The invites for people departing in July finish this week. The invites for August and September have already started.