2 December 2008: Teaching, Thanksgiving, LPI Test, Cool Turkmen Must See Sites, and TRAINING IS OVER!!!!!

Ok so a lot to update for you all night. As you can guess, I’ve been really busy since I last updated this thing. I apologize, but now hopefully I will be able to update more regularly because…. TRAINING IS OVER!!!!!!!! WOO HOO!!!! Last week was a crazy busy week studying and preparing for my LPI exam. On top of trying to prepare I also had to teach a ton of classes and clubs, which meant tons of lesson planning. So I have been insanely busy. The language learning finally slowed down for a bit and I actually felt really comfortable with the language I had learned. That was very comforting with the LPI coming up. The lesson planning was a little annoying, but I know that it is totally necessary. I had a moment after one of my lessons that I taught where it was like, “wow these kids really get it…” In one 7^th grade class I taught them about the various directions (NSEW) and a few prepositions (on, under, near, ect… yeah that’s right I know stuff like prepositions… take that Ms. Talbot! Just kidding).  To make the lesson more fun I decided to hide a piece of candy somewhere in the room and had two kids try to find it using the directions I had written on the board (East, under the chair). So they totally had a ton of fun with it, but I wasn’t all that sure if the students understood it. Well, as I was walking home from school one of my student was following me (actually there were about 15 kids following me home… a normal occurrence, but this one was brave enough to actually try to talk to me) so I decided to ask her a few questions to try to make conversation. I asked her (in Turkmen) where she lived and she responded “West!” and pointed in the western direction. It was one of those moments where I was like wow they are really getting this stuff! I had another one of those moments on Saturday walking around Ashgabat with Mayagozel and another trainee, Janelle. We were in a store and all talking in English when suddenly the girl behind the counter asked if we were American and spoke English, to which Janelle and I responded yes and we were Peace Corp volunteers.  The girl then got very excited and started speaking to us in perfect English, she said that she had just met another volunteer last year and he had taught her English in his English club! She had only been learning English for a year and her English was spectacular! It was an awesome moment and when we left the store Maya, Janelle, and I were totally pumped. It’s little victories like that that encourage us to keep doing what we’re doing! 

            So Thursday was Thanksgiving and it was a bit weird being out of the country and not with my family. I think we all felt it, in fact I know we did. We did our best to celebrate by having our favorite Turkmen meal: Manty! Manty is basically a boiled dumpling that can be stuffed with just about anything. Our group has been “Manty Pioneers” here in Turkmenistan because we put a combination of potato, garlic, and cheese… oh man is it delicious…. Anyways, we spent a lot of time talking about our families and our home Thanksgivings and it really helped us feel better about being here, though we really missed home. I also coped by teaching my English club about how and why Americans celebrate Thanksgiving. The kids loved it and afterwards I asked all of them what they were thankful for: almost all of them responded “I am thankful because I have a great English Teacher.” Overall, that totally made my day.

            So yesterday I had my LPI test and man can I say how glad I am that that is over!!! My tester was really cool; she’s actually one of Maya’s good friends, which was fun. Overall, the interview was pretty good. I was super nervous, but overjoyed when it was over. As soon as my tester turned off the tape recorder I do believe I said “Oh thank you, Jesus!” to which the tester just laughed. I know I made a few mistakes, for example in my situation where I had to ask for a hotel room and ask a variety of questions I first asked her if they had “Gassy Water” as opposed to hot water (by the way ‘gassy water’ mean soda). I got it right eventually though which was good. You have no idea how much of a huge weight it is to be done with the LPI. I’m not sure what my score is yet, I’ll find out on Thursday. The main Peace Corp Office in Washington has set a standard for volunteers to score “Intermediate Low” on the LPI, there are no consequences if you don’t score that, but I think it has something to do with program funding because they make a really big deal about it. If by chance you don’t score Intermediate Low you are asked to find a Turkmen Tutor in your permanent site that PC will pay for, that’s kind of dumb though because just about everyone needs to hire a tutor in either Turkmen, Uzbek, or Russian. I personally know that I am going to focus on learning Turkmen this year and Russian next year. Right now though I am just so relieved that I am done with training.

            As a result of finishing up training I got to experience a few cool cultural things this weekend/week. On Saturday Janelle, Annie, Owez (another Turkmen LCF), and I went out to go see Neysa: a really old fort. Owez told us that it was from the “Parthian” but none of us knew what that meant. Basically, Neysa was this really cool old fort ruins. It looked like something that was pre-Roman Empire. I’m going to do a bit more research and get back to you on that, but either way it was wicked cool. I would love to do an archeological dig there, but alas I am not an archeologist or an anthropologist. There was also a lot of clay pieces just laying around that we thought could have potentially been ancient pottery shards (probably not though) so Annie and I smuggled some out of the fort to take home with us. We were a little bitter because some dude charged us 5,000 manat to take pictures in the fort. Granted, 5,000 manat is like 50cents, but it’s the principle of the matter. Overall, a sweet trip.

My other cool cultural activity was today. Mayagozel took Janelle, German, and I to go see the Turkmenbashy Mosque just outside Ashgabat. The Turkmenbashy Mosque is, apparently, the largest Mosque in Central Asia and 2^nd Largest in the world right behind Mecca. The whole Mosque was beautiful! Unfortunately, because we are American and some police members think we are CIA spies we were not allowed to take pictures of the Mosque (that and it’s highly disrespectful to take pictures inside of any Mosque). The outside is gorgeous; it has this huge dome roof that is made of gold and the traditional mosque pillars, to mark the four main directions, also topped in gold. The inside was also just as beautiful. If you’ve never been in a mosque (this was only my 2^nd time in a mosque both times in Turkmenistan) you should know that there are tons of little rectangles (hundreds in this mosque) that line the carpeted floor where the people pray (only men pray on the first floor, women on the 2^nd).  Each rectangle is big enough for one person to kneel and bow, and all of the rectangles are facing Mecca (in an American mosque this would be East; Turkmenistan it is West). Anyways, the Turkmenbashy Mosque’s inside dome had what looked like a mosaic tiled ceiling with the word “Allah” written in Arabic in the very center of the dome. There were also 48 windows that surrounded the lower portion of the dome to represent the terrible earthquake that happened in 1948. On the floor under the dome there was this huge beautiful 8-cornered carpet that covered the regular praying carpet where people could walk. The carpet had 8 corners because there were 8 main entrances to the mosque and the large carpet allowed visitors to come inside to see the beautiful dome (you’re not allowed to walk on the praying carpet). If you stood directly in the middle of the huge carpet and looked up you would be directly under the Arabic Allah and thus would be looking at God. Also on the inside the walls were all made of marble and there were beautiful chandeliers hanging from the ceiling. Overall gorgeous mosque. The Turkmenbashy Mosque is also the gravesite of Turkmenistan’s first president, Turkmenbashy (gee I wonder why it’s called ‘Turkmenbashy Mosque”…) and his family. Actually, Turkmenbashy, wasn’t his real name, that means the Father of Turkmenistan. Anyways, Turkmenbashy’s tomb is a separate from the Mosque and looks like a smaller version of it (same gold domed roof). Two soldiers who are supposed to be like the soldiers at Buckingham Palace and do not move or break concentration always guard the tomb. Unfortunately, these soldiers weren’t very good at that game because they totally looked at us as we entered into the tomb, I’m pretty sure one even smiled at us, it was funny. Anyways, inside the tomb was completely covered in white marble while the tombs themselves were made of black marble. There was also this interesting statue of Turkmenbashy’s mother trying to save him and his brother’s from the earthquake. Unfortunately, only Turkmenbashy survived the tragedy. Once again, the tomb was beautiful. Overall, it was a beautiful place, I only wish I had been able to get a picture.

Alright, well that is about all I have for you tonight. On Thursday I will leave my current host family and move to a hotel in Ashgabat for a few days (totally sad about leaving my family… they are awesome). Then on Friday I will swear in as an official volunteer… woo hoo!!!! Finally Sunday it’s off to meet my host family and begin my 2 year service as a real volunteer!