Trip Around the World With Abby Teacher Heartbreak June 27, 2009

It’s been a challenging week here in Turkmenistan, but all things considered I am doing well. I had been planning this summer camp for kids at my school for about 3 weeks on and off and it was supposed to be this week. I did a bit of publicity for it at school before the year ended and when I had free time went around the village to tell all of the kids about it to come. Overall, I had gotten a pretty good response from the kids about it and expected somewhere between 15-20 kids to show up (a big response rate for my school as you will see). The camp was called “5 Days Around the World with Abby Teacher” with the general plan of visiting 5 different cultures and transforming our classroom into a cool cultural trip with the culmination being a Mexican Fiesta complete with a homemade Piñata (that I spent the better part of 3 days designing and making). So I was really pumped up for a good week when Monday rolled around and all of my plans and ideas came crashing down. On Monday I had 4 kids and one older student that I recruited to help me show up and those 4 kids weren’t really too interested in doing much of anything. We tried to do the activities that I had planned for Chinese New Year, but they were just overall not really interested. I tried playing some games with them outside, but again it was like they just didn’t care about anything. After a very frustrating Monday, Tuesday was even more of a crushing day when just 1 student showed up to learn about Australia. Not really being prepared for just one student I basically told him a little bit about Australia and then we watched Finding Nemo (as it’s based in Australia). Wait let me back up a bit and say this camp was designed for 4th-8th graders.

Being completely heartbroken about the lack of attendance I decided to talk with one of the programming managers at Peace Corps to figure out just what I should do about this dilemma of complete apathy and attendance on the part of my village. She listened to my story and thought about all of the advertizing I had done and was able to see that I really made a good effort to make this week a success. She ended up coming out to my school to talk with me and some of the teachers at my school (not English teachers mind you) about the lack of students. Well, I was under the assumption that the students had just forgotten, but that wasn’t the case. It turns out that parents had actually told their children they couldn’t go to the camp for one of two reasons: 1) they thought it was too hot and didn’t want their kids outside and 2) the parents didn’t want their kids learning from the American (though they see me in the community all of the time and I always make an effort to be friendly and talk to them). This was totally crushing to me. To hear that students wanted to go, but that their parents had actually said they didn’t want their kids spending time with me because I was American! It was totally heart breaking and I had serious considerations of just saying forget it, I’m going home, nobody wants me here anyways.

Fortunately, the other teachers were able to see just how frustrating and upsetting that was for me and they told me that I could work with a first grade camp that was going in and help the teacher with games (which basically meant Abby makes futile attempts to teach basic English to 35 screaming 1st graders while the other teacher goes to the store, another teachers house, and eventually home without so much as consulting or considering helping me wrangle the kids). So I spent the rest of the week trying to figure out how to teach to 35 screaming 1st graders that barely understand Turkmen let alone English, but I gave it my best effort. Today, Friday, was my last day working with the 1st graders for the week and now I can take some time to actually design some sort of age appropriate lesson plans before I have to go back next week (I’m only going to teach on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays though). Today was kind of fun though because I let the first graders attack the piñata, unfortunately I forgot my camera at home. They thought it was a ton of fun and only 2 kids almost lost their heads by the wielding of the bat (just kidding! No children were injured during the piñata game Thank God!).

So after the heartbreaking beginning of the week I realized a few things about my community, again. First off, I need to keep reminding myself that I am the first volunteer at my site, thus Americans are not trusted in the community and I probably won’t be until I am about to pack my bags and leave. Again the work I am doing is to set up the next volunteer to be a bit more successful in my village, I sure hope they appreciate it. Second, the teachers at my school really have no idea what to do with me and are really surprised that I am intent on working during the summer (hello it’s my job), but they’re letting me work with the first graders so I’ll take it I guess. Finally, I need to continue to invest in those students that do want to learn English, particularly the older girl that showed up every day faithfully to help me with the kids. If I can work with her and my host sister and help them achieve their goals then I can say I was a successful volunteer, even through all of the hardship (which honestly is a lot).

The Beginning of the Turkmen Summer aka “It’s hotter than Hell and it’s only June! I might die in July or August!” June 20, 2009

Hey there readers! Well, I’m back in the T-stan after a minor mishap getting back from Thailand. I am safe and overall doing well. I’ve been back for about 2 weeks now and honestly have nothing to report work related because I really haven’t done any work! My first week back all of my teachers were repainting their classrooms and insisted that I didn’t help, though I did help a little bit. Then this week all of my English teachers just kid of disappeared for some reason leaving me to just sit at school by my lonesome. It was ok though because I occupied the time by fighting with paper mache and a balloon to make a pinata for my summer camp next week. Which was a pain to try to explain to the other teachers because there isn’t really a word for paper mache in Turkmen and they were all thoroughly confused! Anyways when I do work at the school during the summer its only for about 3 hours a day, just liek the other Turkmen teachers. You really can’t work much more because its way too hot, this week I’m certian that it was about 105 degrees F! No humidity thank goodness, but still hot!

I have been finding other ways to spend my time though, unofficially working. I’m trying to spend more time in the community just walking around and visiting houses talking to people. Yesterday I had a nice dinner with three of my students and their parents (the mother is also a teacher at my school). Its nice to have time to just go out and walk around the community, if only for like an hour in the evenings. I am finding my walks are becoming increasingly more difficult though as sometimes I just want to walk, but everyone wants me to sit and drink tea with them. Alas such is the life of a PCV… everyone wants to be your friend.

I’ve also been able to spend some quality time with my family. Every evening I help them in the yard to pick cherries and appricotes from our trees so we can make jam and juice. Its overall good times and makes me think of Good Ole Cedar Michigan and Uncle John’s Cherry farm. As a kid I never really had the opportunity to go and pick cherries (probably because as my mom would put it “You would whine the whole time there!”) so its been nice to get that experience that many of my cousins and aunts and uncles had in their childhood. Beside from cherry picking my family and I also had some good family bonding a few nights ago when we went to Turkmen Disney World! Now, I am 24 years old and have never been to Disney World, I know to some of my friends (mostly Liz and Jacki) thats almost a crime against humanity, but we just never did that growing up. But I can say I hav been to Turkmen Disney World! The actual name of the “theme park” is Fairytale World, but everyone calls it Disney World, I’m sure the Disney Corporation Loves that! Anyways, in American standards TDW is nothing more than a county fair. There are the standard rides like the tilt-a-whirl, ferris wheel, and merry-go-round. There’s even a small rollercoaster and mini Splash Mountain. So nothing too extreme by our standards… it’s no Cedar Point by any means! But the way my family carried on about this place you would think they were at Disney World! They loved every minute of it and I just loved watching them have fun. My sisters thought I was so crazy when I had my hands in the air on the rollercoaster, but after they saw that I survived they tried it too and screamed their heads off the whole time. It was seriously great!

Next week my sumemr schedule should start to pick up considerably. I am having a summer camp at my school titled “Travel the World in 5 Days with Abby Teacher!” It’s basically a 5 day trip in the classroom around the world stopping to visit different cultures. we’re going to learn about China, Austrailia, Africa, USA, and finishing off the week with a Mexican Fiesta complete with a pinata (hence the need for paper mache). I’m really excited about it and I have talked to a lot of kids in my village who are excited to come too. I’m hoping to get a good turn out. After that week I will be really busy with working with other organizations and their summer camps and working with my teachers (who should re-appear soon) to do some good lesson planning. Then on August 15th I will fly out to meet Mom, Cherelle, and Danielle Drumm for a girls week in London! Overall its going to be a good/hot summer!

Bangkok Trip with Special Guest Bloggers! June 5, 2009

Salam from Bangkok, Thailand! Well, I am just chilling here in the hotel before I head off to the airport to head back to Ashgabat at 4am. To give you a short over view of the week I have had a great trip here in BKK. It has been wonderful to be out of Turkmenistan for a bit and even better to spend the week with friends. Cathy and Kenny have been great hosts around BKK and I have really enjoyed spending time with them and just seeing the city. They are awesome tour guides and can take you to anywhere you want to go in Bangkok, even the not so good districts which I am convinced they might have stumbled upon on previous trips.
Cathy and Kenny have actually spent the majority of their time here in Massage School learning how to be trained Thai Massagers (hit them up for it later!) so I have been left to wander the city by myself for the most part. I have gotten to tour most of the big temples and the grand palace spending a lot of my time down by the river (if you know me I can usually be found around water… with the exception of T-stan). I also got to venture to some of the shopping districts and found some good new clothes that actually fit (considering that the majority of my clothes are like 4 sizes too big for me).
I would have to say that the biggest changes that I faced were just adjusting to “civilization” again. I just realized today that I went from a country that had 6 million people to a city that has over 14 million people, that’s a huge jump! So for the first few days I had to go through a little bit of culture shock. It was kind of funny on the second day we were here we went to a big shopping mall that had a good international food court that you got to chose whatever you wanted. Well, Cathy and Kenny were able to find their food pretty easily, but I just remember standing there looking at all of the options and feeling completely overwhelmed. All I really wanted was some sort of shrimp (not getting it in t-stan), but was faced with over 15 different options of a shrimp dish from 3 different cultures! It was a very overwhelming experience I seriously walked around for about 7 minutes before I ended up getting some good Vietnamese shrimp soup.
Anyways, I won’t take up too much time here because I have asked Kenny and Cathy to give you all some updates (three bloggers for the price of one! Sounds like a good Thai deal!). I’ll just rundown a few of my highlights: All of the temples; especially the Golden Palace and Emerald Buddha, the zoo, hanging out by the pool, actually seeing a movie on the big screen (Angels and Demons), Bacon, McDonalds, and other delicious food, crazy jumping fish (see video at the bottom), getting regular internet to actually see and talk to Molly, Molly, and Jason, and of course spending quality time with Cathy and Kenny!
All right, now onto our guest bloggers!!!
Here’s a note from Kenny:
Well, hello from Thailand everyone. Abby has assured me that this will get moved to the top since Cathy took a long time and a lot of space below, and did an excellent job describing the trip and time spent with Abby. She is doing very well, a little lighter but still her ever cheerful self. She is loving working with the children and helping improve her adopted home. She has made many friends, and loves showing off the pictures and talking about all of her experiences.
Time spent here was busy, starting with meeting each other at the airport with Cathy waiting near starbucks and me walking back and forth between the 2 exits of international passengers. Fortunately the starbucks somewhat over looked this area and I saw 2 sets of arms waving for me to come up and join them, and the travels begin…One of the highlights you should see is the video of the girls feeding the fish along a pier, I still am not sure who was more excited – the fish or Abby and Cathy. Cathy does a good job summarizing the trip so I will be short, but know that Abby is doing well in both mind and spirit, misses all of her family and friends, but is doing great work in helping our small little world.
Here’s Cathy’s note:
Greetings from Thailand. Abby has asked Kenny and I to write a guest blog. Abby arrived here in Thailand the same night as us, about 1 week ago. She is now heading back to Turkmenistan on a 4 a.m. flight – in about 6 hours. During our time together, we’ve rode the sky trains and river taxis, taken a tuk tuk, and had a few taxi adventures. We’ve visited the Wat Arun and Jim Thompson’s house – and done some shopping and experienced culinary enjoyments apparently not available in Turkmenistan. During the week, Kenny and I were in massage school, so Abby ventured off on her own to see some other temples, the Grand Palace, shopping, and a few other sights. Abby is very industrial and spirited, so she enjoyed venturing off – Bangkok is quite safe and easy to get around in… but we had cell phones just in case we needed to get in touch with one another.
Some quick observations on Abby from a first hand view — Abby has lost a tremendous amount of weight. She is thinner than when I first met her as a freshman in college. You can really see it in her face. She looks very healthy, but you can tell that the Turkmen diet has made an impact… Abby’s hair is also quite long – about 10 times longer than the usual Abby haircut. She wears it back in a ponytail at the base of her head most of the time. She even got a hair cut when we were here – cost her a whopping $8, but the back of her hair is nice and even now, and all of her split ends are gone. I was excited to learn that she’s considering growing it out during her time abroad and donating it to Locks of Love/Beautiful Lengths or another agency that makes and gives away wigs to individuals suffering from cancer or other diseases that result in hair loss. As you can guess, Abby’s spirit hasn’t changed – she’s the same ol’ quirky good-hearted, sincere, caring, giving girl that we all know and love.
As for a quick Thailand story…
Kenny and I had wanted to take Abby on a dinner cruise for her birthday. But, Abby being the frugal soul that she is, she just wanted to go down to the riverfront to see the sun set and river life in the evening. A dinner ticket on a nice dinner cruise ship would have run about 1440 baht, or about $30 per person (which isn’t bad!). So we took the sky train to the river (approx. 40 baht / person), hopped the river taxi (18 baht per person) and rode it past the temples lit up at night (beautiful), and watched river life. We got off at stop 15, because it was toward the north of BKK city center and we could see a nice riverside restaurant there. We were able to sit outside right on the river at the pier, order several dishes for dinner, watch the catfish in the river (see pictures and video to follow), have live music sung by an acoustic guitar player, and enjoy good company and ambiance. We laughed because the Thai guy at the next table was singing loudly to every song that the musician sung…. We figured we were sitting next to the male Thai version of Abby. And when the musician played “Happy Birthday” (don’t ask why, we have no clue, but it was in English and has one of those tunes that you can’t help but recognize), Abby sang along too. The food at this restaurant was very good. They also sold bags of day old bread that you could throw down to the fish in the river. The fish are well trained, because they go crazy when you toss a slice in. So, you know us, the simply entertained…. Abby got a 40 baht bag and we fed the fish. And it was great. You have to click and watch the video. We had a good time; we’ll leave it at that. So…. Best part – when the bill came, it was 705 baht – about $15.00. So we spent 120+54+40+705 = 914 baht for all of us, or 2/3 the cost of one dinner cruise ticket. And we had a great time. Good company, great atmosphere, cheap entertainment (feeding the fish), what more could you ask for?

Abby has enjoyed wearing shorts, eating pork, getting in the pool upstairs, having the sun on her skin and enjoying the reasonable weather here, and being around English speakers and diversity. We’ve enjoyed having her here with us, catching up on her Turkmen adventures. We’ve also gotten a kick out of her hoarding and gorging of pork products, Pringles, Mtn. Dew (we brought it from the states), licorice, and other western products. She always laughs when we ask, “So, do you have ________ in Turkmenistan?”. The answer is pretty predictable – if it is commercial, western, a chain (like McDonald’s or Starbucks), or otherwise universally found everywhere in the world – it’s not in T-stan. Funny. I have never seen anyone woof down Pork products like Bacon at breakfast like Abby. We went to the grocery store the other day – Abby stocked up on Pringles and spices to flavor her foods – Italian flakes and curry and a few other non-central Asian spices. For those of you that mail her things, those little envelopes of pre-mixed spices might be a wonderful treat in the mail. She describes the food in T-stan as bland and having no flavor, so flavoring and spices will likely be a big hit with Abby. For those of you mailing packages – I would recommend Abby care packages containing Pringles, licorice, drink mixes like Kool-Aid, crackers, and anything sugar loaded and calorie packed (she needs all that she can get).

We have thoroughly enjoyed spending our time with Abby here. I’m glad we were all able to meet up here. I remain very proud of her and even more impressed at her resolve to do much to improve the education system for the children in her village. Like I said at the start, her spirit remains intact and stronger than ever. She’s strong in spite of the toll the diet has taken on her body. She’s now, more determined than ever to make a difference in the world. She and Ghandi have that in common. I have faith in her resolve that she will. Keep her in your thoughts, prayers, and mailing lists. Take care!