The memories I'll keep
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| Meretbibi and I, dancing at my first Turkmen wedding (a "toy"). She was my primary counterpart ever since training, as well as my second mother. She tried to take care of my every need, walked me around town, helped me buy things at Talkuchka, had me over for dinner - she even took me out with her students to the theatre and to the country. We had our moments of disagreement, and it was hard dealing with her stubbornness and lack of motivation to change. I appreciate her kindness, however, and her genuine care for her students. |
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Abadan,
my shy and insecure friend. She was the teacher who
supposedly needed the most
help - well, she was certainly the one who improved the most and
eventually surpassed the others, even though she was stuck with the
toughest kids. I had the most
consistent time with Abadan, and she took all my advice to heart. Even
when she had to spend whole weeks "marching" with other university
students for national holidays, she still wrote her lesson plans and
developed new
English games that resulted in immediate visible enthusiasm and
improved language skills
from her students. Pictured here, she took me to a nearby cotton field
to
show me how to pick cotton - one of my favorite memories right before I
left.
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Maya
was by far
the best English speaker at School 41. It took me
a while to meet her because she just had a baby when I started. I
love Maya, with her youthfulness, sarcasm, and openness in expressing
her disgust
about the present system and her desires to get a job as a
Russian-English
translator for a foreign business or embassy. With two
young kids, she didn't have much time to devote to teaching, a source
of
frustration
for both of us. Well, I value our friendship above all else,
no matter if she continues teaching or not.
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My
teacher friends at School 41 - all Russian speakers, even though some
are ethnic Turkmen. They certainly knew how to party without
being shy about consuming alcohol, telling witty jokes, and sharing
unforgiving gossip.
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| Maya, Gulnar, and Mehri - English teachers at Toplum, the new school in Ruhabat. All of these young women come from families very loyal to the government or else very wealthy, otherwise they would not have such cushy jobs at the "model" school right outside of Ashgabat. With such corruption and a strict focus on appearances, students did not receive authentic grades or instruction - half the time they were being filmed by Turkmen TV to propagate the notion that Turkmen children were smart, healthy, and well provided for. Nevertheless, I still befriended these young women and shared with them thoughts about love, loneliness, frustration, and hope in the future. |
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Hanifa
and her family
are an inspiration to me. Run out of
Afghanistan by the Taliban seven years before I met them, Hanifa and
her family were forced to live as refugees in Ashgabat; all seven had
to
cram into a small high-rise, Soviet-era apartment,
separated from family and familiar culture. Hanifa took the
initiative to learn English and apply for refugee status in America
through UNHCR. I was privileged to partake of their
hospitality (and yummy Afghan food!), as well as see them off to
America (they now live in Tennessee). Their spirits were
never crushed, and because of the mother's foresight, all the children
have also learned English and are doing well in their American schools.
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| Picture on Left: Gulshat,
a "happy
flower" and friend. She took me under her
wing ever since our first days of training in Chuli. She and
I remained friends after I settled in Ruhabat for the long haul.
Almost every Sunday we got together at her sweet Ashgabat
apartment to exchange cooking secrets - she taught me how to cook
Turkmen and Russian dishes, while I taught her how to bake yummy
desserts. For a time, we even went to Catholic Mass together - we
studied Bible passages, and shared prayer requests. She has
an understanding of God's love and peace, and I pray all the time that
she will continue to seek Him and stay strong as a woman unwilling to
abide by other people's expectations. Picture on Right: Father Andre (standing on the left next to my PCV friend Jason) was a kind and jovial man who encouraged me in my faith and daily walk with God - he knew how it was to find refreshment and rest in a harsh and barren environment. He and Father Tomas (not pictured) were "cultural attaches" from the Vatican, Polish priests who conducted Mass in Russian and English at the Vatican Embassy in Ashgabat. They both faithfully attended my Bible studies and put their heart into their sermons, prayers, and worship (even though English was their third language). Thank God for the support He provided through our small community of believers (mostly ex-pats from European and SE Asian countries) - such weekly morsels were small but enough. |
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Team Brazil, my camp kids at the Model UN summer camp for the best and the brightest kids in the Ahal Veleyat. With Heidi, my co-counselor, we took care of these kids and had lots of fun making up country skits, winning scavenger hunts, burning effigies, and teaching them how to respect themselves and each other. "Ole, ole, ole, ole! Brazil, champions!" |
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Bahar
and Bahar, pictured with my friend Jen (on
right), the two
producers of "Beauty is a Beast", the spoof
play performed by the kids from the American Councils in Ashgabat. They
took
care of everything after PCV Shawn ET'd (early-terminated), directing
the
group of kids who had never performed in an American play before.
I really respect them (they both left to go to colleges in the
States) and I hope they will continue to inspire their younger peers.
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Some
of my favorite students - Class 9B (who graduated after my first year
of teaching), Ayna (with her mother), and Aybelek (Ayka) and her
friend, Shemshat. Class 9B were the misfits of the school,
the smart and cool kids who didn't listen to authority most of the
time. I befriended most of them and hopefully taught them
practical life lessons along with some popular English songs
("Yesterday" by the Beatles was a big hit). Ayna was one
of my best students, the one who really understood English concepts and
the one
who ended up studying in an American high school for one year (in
Phoenix,
AZ). I still keep in touch with Ayna and hope that one day
she will attend college in the US and then return to her country to
create positive change (she is already making a difference in so many
ways). Ayka and
Shemshat took care of me before I left, advising me on who the best
Turkmen and Russian pop singers were at the time. Plus, they were the
best at picking up American football.
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| Photo by Jane Bardon |
| Now onto Peace Corps people... the well-known wall map in the office that recorded the locations of every PCV in the country. Each year a new group of volunteers arrived from the States to replace the group that had just finished two years of service; therefore, there are approximately 70-80 volunteers in the country at one time, each group overlapping another one by a year. Near the end of my service, the number of faces on the wall map dwindled, and yet my T-12 group (the twelfth group of volunteers in country) all stayed fairly close as friends and colleagues. |
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| Photo by Jane Bardon |
Megan
and Carmen were
good friends of mine throughout service,
partially because we had to survive training together in Ruhabat. We
learned Turkmen in the same classroom, learned how to eat on the floor,
and
how to live with Turkmen families. Each of us had our stomach troubles,
bouts with homesickness, and joys of trying on our first Turkmen
dresses - fun
stuff!
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| Photo by Jane Bardon |
| Becky was everybody's friend, as well as one of the most motivated volunteers in our group. Here she is filling her cup with filtered water that was either treated with chemicals or boiled first. Each volunteer took one of these filters to his or her site (along with a mosquito net, medical kit, and volunteer-authored cook book); volunteers in Dashaguz (the velayat, or state, where high salt and mineral content spoil the water supply) had to pick up a distiller as well. |
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Larry
and Patty were
constant sources of Minnesota dead-pan humor and
fresh
perspective. Their projects out in Tejen (in the Mary Velayat) were
famous - one being "Camp Cornucopia" (where all the camp
participants were divided into food groups and given food names
appropriate to each group). Other favorite events were when Larry led
the camp morning workout by singing "George Washington Bridge", and
when Patty acted out the Flaming Lips' "Yoshimi battles the
pink robots".
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| Photo by Jane Bardon |
| Enesh is one of the sweetest Peace Corps staff members. She is the receptionist at the Peace Corps office where she answered the office phone and kept track of all our packages. Always with a smile, she had a beautiful child during the span of our service and we were all so happy for her!! |
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| Photo by Jane Bardon |
Speaking of care
packages... Jen always got the best packages from her
friend who would send two paper-ream boxes at a time, stuffed
with canned and packaged goods, candy, drink and spice packages,
and cured meats that she would share with all us by
stuffing random foods into our mailboxes. My favorite package sent from
home was the big padded envelope my parents sent me during training,
full of M&Ms,
re-addressed by my PCV friend Rob to himself because he was jealous of
the number of packages
I was receiving... I almost fell for it. My most unfortunate missed
package was the one
Peter sent me with the Girl Scout cookies inside. The PCVs and I would
joke about
how there must be a group of really fat Turkmen
officials who feed on American goodies stolen from Peace Corps
packages.
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| Photo by Jane Bardon |
| One of the many things we did to occupy ourselves during our down times included planning all-volunteer parties (this one for Jack and Jane's 50th anniversary) and organizing random contests for everybody's entertainment. Here we have Sam and Tom competing to see who can eat the most cabbages the fastest. Not only could Sam not eat as much as Tom, but he also couldn't keep down what he did manage to eat (not a small amount). |
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| Photo by Jane Bardon |
I
also had the chance to travel around Turkmenistan with my fellow
PCVs. Here I am with T-13s, Jen and Sarah. We managed to get visas to
the restricted area, Bahara, only because we went with Ed (PC country
director) and Judith (PC medical officer). The coolest thing was
looking
over the 50 foot drop down the waterfall we are standing in front of
in this picture.
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| Of course I will never forget Jack and Jane, my friends since training, who had to endure many hardships (brucellosis and an abusive host family) and yet accomplish so much - they outlasted some other volunteers younger than half their age, a feat in and of itself! They also compiled and helped translate a tri-ligual medical dictionary, the first of its kind, for doctors and nurses to use in Turkmenistan after they left. I learned so much from their perspective and experiences, as well as from their example of being loving and supportive partners through many good and bad times. |
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And last, but certainly
not least, my friend Elynn is one of the most
giving and adventurous
volunteers who traveled with me through Central Asia, India, and the
rest of SE Asia. This picture
is at an elephant farm in Chiang Mai, Thailand, where we hiked for 3
days and 2 nights through steamy jungles, river canyons, and hill tribe
country. Throughout our experiences, we shared a lot,
put up with many uncomfortable situations (train ride from Delhi to
Agra, hotel schemes in Siem Riep, visas to Central Asia, malaria in
Vietnam),
met some amazing people along the way, and just became great friends.
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| Photo by Jane Bardon |
| The T-12
group of Turkmenistan volunteers after six weeks of training: 52 arrived on September 11, 2003; 48 were sworn in on November 14, 2003. |
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| Photo by Jane Bardon |
The
T-12 group after two years of service: 34 volunteers
made it to the
COS (Close of Service) conference in August of 2005; the Peace Corps
staff was nice
enough to have the conference in Turkmenbashy, a city in the Balkan
Velayat. It was
strange and exhilarating to realize that we were almost finished, to
reflect
on our Peace Corps experiences, and most especially to spend some good
time with the friends we made during the past two years. The beautiful
Caspian Sea is behind us.
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