This week was a surprisingly satisfying and relaxing workweek, if those words can go together. I spent the week working with the IREX Organization and their Tech Age Girls conference. Tech Age Girls, or TAG, is a yearly conference/competition among girls in Turkmenistan. Every year 15 girls are chosen as finalists to come to Ashgabat and learn about technology, the Internet, professionalism, and leadership through a 10-day conference. PCVs are invited to stay at the hotel with the girls and lead sessions about leadership and team building and because I am good friends with the organizer, Ayna, I got to help out for 5 days. Because the girls were busy all day and my sessions were not until night it gave me time to hang out with the other PCVs who were there helping, Annie and Kim, and time to relax by the pool of the hotel. Then at night Annie, Kim, and I led some sessions and assisted with some other sessions. It was a really relaxing week and I really enjoyed spending time with and being a role model for the girls.
I decided throughout the week that these girls really need good positive women role models in their lives. They need someone to teach them how to be feminine and strong women without being over sexified (yes I realize that isn’t a word, but you know what I’m talking about). I feel like this is a problem among for a lot of young girls, the only real “role models” they have are those women they see on TV in music videos and the like. I came to this decision just by the way some of the girls talked and danced when we had a dance party, it was just sad. So I’m hoping to be working as a role model for the girls in my village, to show them they don’t need to be super sexy to be a strong woman. I think that I can and am making a real difference in the lives of those girls.
I also spent the end of my week working with another organization’s camp in the town next to my village. Here I got to teach again about leadership, team building, and volunteering. I again really enjoyed working with these kids and teaching them new skills. It was so fun for me to watch them try to use their critical thinking skills because that concept is so foreign for them. One day we did a team building exercise called “the magic carpet” where they must stand on a sheet and as a team to flip it to the other side. It was hilarious to watch them try to figure it out, get frustrated, but then come together as a team to actually succeed. I could tell they really had to think in different ways. Overall I really enjoyed the week teaching leadership instead of just English for a change.
I did have a bit of a realization this week though. I realized just how much older I am. I was talking with Kim one day and we were discussing how we remembered going to camps in high school and the rules the chaperones made, we decided that at that age we never thought we would be chaperones, but here we are 10 years later, being chaperones for a group of Turkmen kids. It’s kind of a scary thought to think just how fast time goes.
Since When was I Old Enough to be a Chaperone??? July 18, 2009
Grant Writing, 4th of July Embassy Party, and Staff Changes July 14, 2009
Hello again everyone! Hope this blog is finding everyone well! A lot has been happening since my blog, but not a lot of time for me to sit and type this out for you guys. So I’ll do a little highlight of everything for you guys!
After the frustration of the camp I have been working a lot on writing my grants, that has basically consumed my work. I finished one grant to get volleyball equipment so I can have a volleyball club for my girls. The grant is basically for just some volleyballs and 2 nets for the school. I’m hoping it passes because I have a few girls who really want to play, which would be awesome because it would give them something to do. The 2nd grant is my big grant for English resources which includes books, a cd player, a guitar, and a dutar which will be used in the fall music club. I actually am in the process of finishing that one and should hear about approval by the end of August. Overall, I think I’ve got some good things happening for the fall and I am thoroughly excited for the fall to actually start a school year at my site. I think starting a new school year will be so much better than coming in at the middle of the year, I can start setting down the ground rules from day one and stay firm with these rules.
Also had the opportunity to celebrate the 4th of July with all of the volunteers and Embassy workers at my first US Embassy party. It was a really fancy party with amazing food and an open bar (not a very good idea for PCVs, but I think we handled ourselves ok). Anyways the party was really cool the US Ambassador gave a speech, but unfortunately I wasn’t able to hear it because there was a problem with the microphone. From what I hear though he said something about Turkmenistan relying on the youth that study abroad to be the leaders of industries and the country in general. The party was also a bit of a goodbye party too because we lost 4 PCVs and our Training Officer. The PCVs were ending their service while the Training Officer left to go be the Training Officer in Romania, all of them are missed, but we all hope they are doing amazing things. The 4th party was technically celebrated on the 2nd, leaving us PCVs around Ashgabat for the next few days to catch up and hang out which was a ton of fun. On Friday we actually played a game of softball, T-16s VS T-17s, to celebrate just being American. Ended up that my team the T-17s was slaughtered by the T-16s, but we all had fun nonetheless (although we decided that next year we will play kickball instead of softball). Overall, it was a great way to celebrate Independence Day.
As I kind of mentioned, Peace Corps Turkmenistan has been going through some staff changes. Our old PTO, Betsy, left us to go to Romania so we now have a new PTO, Melody. Our Health Program Manager, Jannet, will be leaving at the end of July to go study in Amsterdam leaving no one in the health position. Our Training Manager, Mahri, who has worked for Peace Corps Turkmenistan for 14 years, is leaving to get her masters in Costa Rica, again leaving her position open. Finally, just the other day our Country Director, Stephen, announced that he too was being transferred to be the new Country Director in Macedonia. All of these staff changes have taken me by surprise. I know that as with most government agencies Peace Corps does a usual 2 year rotation with staff, but I didn’t expect it all to come at the same time. I will deeply miss the old staff as they have been so supportive to me and just a consistent positive force in my life here. That’s not to say that the new replacements will not be the same supportive force, but it’s just dealing with changes again. I guess change is a part of life though, which is a lesson that I am constantly learning here.
