Wow what a week/month it’s been. As of about 30 mins ago I officially completed my Peace Corps Service in Turkmenistan. Now some of you who might have been following my blogs for a while may be asking yourselves “Wait a minute, Abby! I thought you were extending for another year in Turkmenistan?” To give you the short version of a very long and sad story, I was intending on extending and probably still would if they asked me to, Peace Corps endorsed the extension, but unfortunately my visa extension was denied so I had to what we PCVs call “COS” (close of service). If you see me and want the long story I’ll gladly tell it, but this isn’t the time and place for it. I am leaving on a happy and good note.

The month was a month of goodbyes. Goodbyes with my American friends, my Turkmen friends, counterparts, students, family, and Peace Corps Staff. I took the time to visit all of my close friends one last time and we reflected on our friendship together, it was sad, but good at the same time. My school threw a huge party for me complete with all of my favorite Turkmen food, a beautiful Turkmen Yangsyz (a coat) and dress, my favorite students and teachers. I gave one final demonstrative lesson for all of the teachers in my district and my favorite class put on a wonderful play complete with poems, Santa Claus, and a joyous round of “Jingle Bells” and “We Wish you a Merry Christmas.” I was so proud of their progress over the past two years. Despite what the Russian Teacher thinks, we defied her and played one last round of Hangman. We took traditional pictures with a Turkmen carpet, the flag, and a picture of the President. Everyone wished me safe travels and was so thankful for my service to their country, I could truly feel their appreciation.  I had my last meal with my host mom and sister, Merjen and we cried as we embraced for the last time. They had truly become my family. Then on my last day in my village as I was leaving with all of my worldly possessions something happened for the first time in my service. Every day for the past two years my students would yell in English “Hello Abby Teacher!” but on this day all I heard was “Goodbye Abby Teacher, Thank You!”  I’ll never forget these people, they left an impression on my heart and I on theirs.

I can’t really describe the work that I’ve done here and how it all has changed me, but I know that it has. I feel as though I’ve learned to embrace a different culture and accept a different way of life. I have learned to be more tolerant and patient. I’ve grown spiritually and find myself being open to other ways of worship simple conversations with others, appreciating nature, and simply slowing down your life to stop and think about just what God is doing in the moment. I’ve also learned a lot about simplicity, Turkmen people live very simply… not a lot of stuff. There is a saying in Turkmen that says “If I have bread then I am blessed” (or something along those lines). That’s an amazing mentality to have. I’ve learned so much here and I feel as though I now have two motherlands, the USA and Turkmenistan.

Thank you for those of you who have followed me in this part of my journey. I hope to continue to update as I re-integrate. Until then all I can say is “Sog Bol Turkmenistan, menin ikinji watanym!”

Day 1 At Guluk
The first ceremony that takes place at the groom’s house is a prayer celebration on the first day of the wedding. It’s where the groom’s family sacrifices a goat to Allah and shares it with their family, friends, and neighbors. The guests will all come with some sort of a gift for the bride and groom and will also give a congratulatory gift to his mother and father and they will congratulate everyone. For the mother they will usually bring material for a new dress or a headscarf and for the father they will bring a prayer hat (takeya) or a new shirt. The bride and groom will usually receive a new blanket, scarves, or some baby clothes in hopes that they will soon have children. The blankets, scarves, and clothes are then tied onto a long post that stretches across the room (see picture below). The scarves will be used the next day to tie onto the windows of cars for a different ceremony. The name “At Guluk” literally means “horse’s ear” and it symbolizes in traditional times when the family would tie scarves to the ears of horses and process to the girl’s home to take her away, a ceremony that happens on day 2. After everyone gives their gifts they all eat traditional prayer food of dograma, which is essentially goat meat, bread, and onions boiled in a very oily soup. Finally, after lunch everyone gets ready for the bride’s wedding in the evening and the groom, his sisters, and his mother go to the girl’s house to get her for the official wedding service with the Mullah (Muslim priest).
The official ceremony is very small and I actually wasn’t able to attend it, it’s only for the bride, groom, and one or two witnesses. After that ceremony though they are officially married in the eyes of God.

Night 1 Brides Wedding Reception
Turkmen really like to party for their wedding receptions so there are always two wedding receptions. The first reception is the Bride’s reception and it is usually more modern and very similar to our wedding receptions. In the Ashgabat area it’s usually held at a restaurant in the city. The bride wears a puffy western styled white dress and the groom a suit. The guests are generally segregated into groups and the groups take turns giving toasts of congratulations to the couple. My oldest sister for example gave a toast for all of the guests who were there for my brother. The bride’s family, friends, and parent’s colleagues also give toasts. After each toast is given that group is allowed to dance, if your group didn’t toast and you’re not a guest of the bride you should not dance. The evening mostly proceeds like that, but there are a few pauses in the dancing for traditions. For example they cut the cake, the bride and groom have their first dance, and the throw the bouquet to the unmarried girls. There is also one Turkmen Traditional dance that the bride and groom perform called the Lizingka. During the Lizingka the bride and groom take turns showing off their fancy footwork before the come together and dance together.

Day 2 Gelinjek
The next day has the most interesting and traditional ceremony: the “Gelinjek” or “Taking of the bride”. During this ceremony the groom’s family will take the bride from her home and take her to the groom’s home where she will live. Everyone meets at the groom’s house and dances outside with a three-piece band consisting of a drum, an accordion, and a clarinet, that has been hired to go around with the group. After the dancing everyone comes together for a prayer ceremony and then they divide into cars that have been decorated with scarves on side mirrors and outside the windows (these scarves are actually pretty important for when they are driving because it let’s them drive crazy without getting pulled over). Then the groups take off and drive like maniacs to the bride’s house swerving in and out of lanes, speeding up really fast and then slowing down really fast, and honking horns like crazy. Now, as a passenger from a western country this process is terrifying because there are no seatbelts in Turkmen cars, most of them come from Russia or Dubai and the seatbelts have been cut out. I was fortunately with a very good driver, my brother-in-law, but that still didn’t take away the fear.
After many “Hail Mary’s” on the road we finally arrived safely at the bride’s house. Now the groom rides in a very nicely decorated car, which is the main car in the procession, he however is not allowed at the girl’s house and must wait on the side of the road for our family to take his wife. When we got to the bride’s house we danced again to the band and all of the bride’s aunts were standing outside of the front door guarding it. They started to say, “No, we won’t let you take her!” This is a very traditional process. The men from our family must beg them and bribe them with money until they finally agree and let us open the door. The bride and her mother meanwhile are sitting inside and crying because the bride will be leaving home. The groom’s mother goes in and comforts her and tells her that everything will be ok and finally the bride emerges from the house wearing a large coat, metal armor, and a “kejebe” coat with a white curtain to symbolize the traditional camel basket seat that the bride would ride on to the groom’s house. The whole outfit weighs 36 kilograms or 80 pounds! She has to walk the rest of the day in this heavy, awkward outfit for the rest of the procession. Imagine having a 3rd grader on your head (not your shoulders) for about 3 hours, obviously she needed some help to walk. She knelt down outside and again her aunts said that we were not allowed to take her and our men had to pay them more money. Finally they relented and our family celebrated by throwing little toys, coins, and paper money into the air and the Gelin was taken away.
After we picked up the bride we picked up the groom and again took off like bats out of hell in the cars. Again after many Hail Mary’s we arrived at a famous statue in Ashgabat to take wedding pictures. Everyone in the procession took turns posing with the bride and groom in front of the monument. After the pictures it was time to go home.
When we back at our house there were a few more ceremonies that needed to take place. First the bride was cleansed with holy burning grasses and had a large Allahjan with a blue eye attached to it hung around her curtain. An Allahjan is a rope that is woven out of camel hair and yarn, the camel hair and blue eye are considered holy and protect the wearer from the “Evil Eye” (a common custom for Muslims). After blessing the bride she was led inside the house where she again knelt and had her hand dipped into a pile of flour and a bowl of goat fat to symbolize that she will always be taken care of in the new family. Then she was led to her new bedroom where the another woman was knelling. This woman was the last woman to be married into the family and it was her time to give her place to the new bride. Before she gave up her place though my host mom had to give her a new piece of material to make a new dress. Then the “old” bride and the new bride changed places, like a changing of the guard. My new sister-in-law will have that place until another woman marries into our family (the next eldest boy is 3 so she’ll be there a while, but the last woman was apparently there for 10 years). After the changing of the guard, as I like to call it the new bride was again blessed by our family and friends and finally left alone to rest and get out of her extremely heavy and hot outfit. Thus the Gelinjek was concluded!

Night 2 The Groom’s Wedding Reception
The Groom’s reception is typically more traditional and occasionally is also held at a restaurant, but often times in the village at his family’s house. Ours was at our house and in my opinion village weddings are more fun than restaurant weddings because literally everyone from the neighborhood can come, eat and drink as much as they want, dance and go crazy, and not have to worry about driving home drunk. It honestly felt like a huge block party because the entire street was shut down with two big semi-truck trailers one that held the bride and groom’s table and one for the singer and his band.
For the Groom’s wedding the bride wears a white or red traditional silk dress and a crown. She also has a scarf to cover her mouth during the ceremony. The groom wears a suit again, or in my brother’s case a tux. They process into the yard from the house with sparklers, what was adorable about our wedding was that my niece Enesh and my little cousin Atajan processed in in front of my brother and sister-in-law. It was adorable because Enesh (2 ½) was wearing an adorable yellow dress (made by our new sister-in-law) and Atajan (4) was wearing little tux with a bow tie, it was an adorable hopeful portrayal of the future.
Then much like at the Bride’s reception, different groups took turns congratulating the bride and groom and dancing. I also gave a toast where I toasted in both Turkmen and in English; everyone was impressed with my mad language skills. As the evening wound down there was one last tradition to be preformed to test to see how good of a wife the new bride would be. My brother’s friends gave him a dong, a long coat that older men wear, and a talpak, a sheep skin hat, and tied a rope around his waist in a tight-knot. The bride had to untie the rope belt from him, if she could she would be a good wife: strong and hard working. After she was successful she gave the rope to my brother and he proceeded to beat his friends away because they were threatening to interrupt their first night together. Being the good protecting husband that he is my brother successfully beat off his friends and they didn’t have any interruptions on their honeymoon. Thus closing the Groom’s wedding reception.

Day 3 Bash Salmek
The last tradition for Turkmen wedding ceremonies takes place the day after the wedding night it’s called the “Bash Salmek” or “Pretend Fight”. First off, someone needs to check to make sure that the new bride was pure before the wedding night so someone must check the sheets that the couple slept on, this is performed by the groom’s eldest married sister. If for some reason the bride was not a virgin the family could take her back to her family in shame and sadly this does happen, but not with our family. After her virginity was confirmed she bride is taken outside for my favorite tradition in Turkmen culture: The fight between the girls and women! The bride comes out again in her hood and curtain and knells on a carpet outside the house. All of our female relatives and neighbors come over to participate in the fight for the new bride between the girls and married women. The girls form a wall around the bride and start taunting the married women saying that they can’t take her and make her a women, they won’t let her go! The women obviously don’t take the taunting very well and they start to fight with the girls and try to break through the wall to get the new bride. Sometimes this can get very intense with a lot of pushing and hair pulling, but ours was pretty low key, the girls didn’t stand a chance against some of our older and bigger women.
After the pushing fight between the girls and women the men hold a wrestling contest for the women and girls. The women will actually wrestle against the girls one on one for a prize of 50,000 manat (roughly $3)! I don’t think I can explain accurately in words just how awesome and hilarious this is, but the women essentially throw one another around until one of them falls over. My personal favorite was the match between the two dayzas (older married women) because it was literally like a sumo match!
Thus, the wedding ceremonies and traditions come to an end, but there is still one more thing left for me to write about in this process that I will have for you next time. Thanks again for reading and I hope you enjoyed about the Turkmen marriage process! Until next time, sog bol!

Part I: Amsterdam and Istanbul

Yes, it took us five different flights to get to Turkmenistan. After leaving Detroit, we had stops in Chicago and Minneapolis, followed by the nine hour flight to Amsterdam. Arriving in the morning, we didn’t even know what happened to Tuesday – it disappeared. After checking in the the hotel in Amsterdam, we made our way to the downtown area on the tram. What a lovely city. We were very impressed with the bicycle lanes and the cleanliness. The day we were there, we toured the Van Gogh museum and the Anne Frank museum. The Van Gogh museum included over 150 paintings by the famous artist. The Anne Frank museum was quit impressive. We really didn’t know that the hideout was in Amsterdam. We thought it was in Germany. The hideout was much larger than we envisioned. Rather than being cramped into a small area, the hideout included two floors and about seven rooms. There was plenty of room, but little daylight. It’s hard to believe the family hid out for two years. We were able to walk up the same stairway, behind the bookcase, that the family used. It was a wonderful experience. One suggestion for anyone going – purchase your tickets on line. We were taken to the front of the line (the line was about two blocks long). Same suggestion for the Van Gogh museum. On our second day in Amsterdam, we toured the around the city in a boat. Almost every street in Amsterdam is on a man-made canal. The canals were not very wide, and there were many old bridges to pass through. Before leaving the city center, we had a wonderful dinner outside on the street, and listened to the street musicians. These are things we can’t experience in Montrose! That evening, we boarded another plane to go to Istanbul.

Arriving in Istanbul around midnight, we hired a driver to take us to our hotel. The hotel was located about two blocks from the “blue masque” and other very old historical buildings. When we arrived at the hotel, the clerk had a funny look on his face. He stated that there was a problem with our reservation, and that they didn’t have a room for us. That was the bad news. The good news was that he had us a room across the street. He was very apologetic, and offered us a free breakfast the following morning. The room was fantastic. After walking around the street (and getting lost), we finally retired about 3:30 am. The street was very busy at this hour, as there were many people at the bars and restaurants. The next morning we ate our free breakfast on the roof of the hotel, where we could see a panoramic view of the area. The waterway was fantastic, with lots of freighters. We toured the Blue Masque and the Sultan grounds. The Sultan grounds and palace were ancient structures, that included many buildings from the 12th – 18th century. After showering, we were driven back to the airport, where we continued on our trip to Turkmenistan. In just a few hours, we would see our beautiful daughter. We were very tired, but were very excited. Not many American’s have even heard of Turkmenistan, and we were three hours away from being there.

We had another full day in Amsterdam on our way home. This time, we felt that we knew exactly where we were going. The Saturday we were there, was a special day. This is the day where the women dress as guys, and the guys dress as women. The street was packed and there were many more “women” then “men”. It was a very interesting day, with lots of pictures. As most people know, prostitution and drugs are legal in Amsterdam. The “XXX” moniker on the city flag has nothing to do with the sex industry. It has more to do with a 15th century church symbol.

Part II: Asgabat

When we arrived in Ashgabat at 2:30 am, we were whisked through customs and there she was. What a lovely sight and a fantastic welcome. Abby was there holding a sign that said “Welcome to Turkmenistan”. After hugs and kisses, we ventured to the car and were driven to our hotel. After a little conversation, we all slept well. Turkmenistan offered us the opportunity to see many things. Below are some of our collective thoughts.

Asgabat is a beautiful city with numerous monuments and parks. There are many high rise buildings (reminding us of the condo’s in Florida’s coast). Construction was ongoing. Although there were many buildings, there weren’t many people. Safety was never an issue. Throughout the entire stay in Turkmenistan, we always felt safe. The local people are very friendly. Many times when they knew we were from America, they had many questions for Abby. Abby was the official translator. It was very interesting to hear her converse with the locals in their native Turkman language. The museums in Ashgabat are awesome looking, but unfriendly to tourists. After trying to visit the National Carpet Museum, we decided to not get ripped off by paying a high price. The one museum we did go into (in Mary), we were the only people in the museum. It appeared to us that the museums were for show only. Our trip to the bazaar outside of Asgabat was a challenging cultural experience. The bus ride was interesting – it was an oven. There were about 60 people on the bus with 20 seats. The bus was a very old bus. Dad dripped sweat all over the cute 12 year old girl sitting in the seat below. She was very friendly, offering him her school notebook as a fan. The day we went was about 110 degrees. At the bazaar, we saw many animals for sale (including camels). You could purchase anything, including clothes (including underwear), carpets, animals, food, household items, and appliances. The bazaar was located on the sand outside of town on about 20 acres. The “merchants” would lay down their carpet and sit on them on the ground with their wares. Abby and Judy bargained for the best deal on multiple scarves.
During our stay in Asgabat, we had the opportunity to have dinner with Abby’s school counterpart, Sedar and his family. They welcomed us like we were old friends. Mike tried the camel milk (don’t try it). Sedar and his wife made us a fantastic dinner. We enjoyed their hospitality.

One day, the carpet maker picked us up and we went to his house for lunch. His wife made a wonderful Turkman lunch with all the fixings. After lunch we went to the carpet store. Judy had been saving for her carpet for over a year. Today was the day. After much discussion, she selected a fine rug for the dining room and another one for the bedroom. Again, the hospitality of the Turkman people shined.
Leaving the beautiful city of Asgabat took us to a the village where Abby lives and teaches. It was like a step back in time. Abby’s host family is a simple, loving gracious family. They reminded Judy of her childhood, where there was a large family meal, then dad going off to work. At one point, mom went out back to milk the cow. There were chickens in the yard. We were made to feel as we were part of the family. When the vodka came out, Abby translated a toast. Judy enjoyed teaching the little kids some American nursery rhymes. Mike did his juggling act. It was a wonderful visit. We are truly great full for this family taking Abby in and making their home, hers.

There were stark differences between the “city” life and the “village” life. In the city, there are numerous fountains. In the village, there is no running water (yes – water is drawn from the well with a bucket and rope). The city has beautiful buildings and fantastic paved streets and roads. The village has buildings and dirt roads with many potholes. Even though there was the noticeable extremes, the village people appear to be very happy. The simple way of life, where the family sleeps together on a a raised platform (due to the extreme hot weather), appears to be embraced by the people. There was not one hint of negativity due to their living circumstances.

Part III: Mary

Onto the desert. The six hour trip to Mary was quite an experience. Some would call it the “road of death”. We can see why. There is no road in Genesee County that compares. Although our driver was very competent, we thank God for being with us on that road. At times we traveled 80 miles per hour, only to slow to 30 mph. The pavement and shoulders of the road were not very developed. It appeared that it really didn’t matter what side of the road we traveled on, as long as no one was coming and we would win the race. Mike continued to look for his driver education brake! They normally don’t wear seat belts in the back seat. Not Judy, she demanded to have seat belts. The driver quickly found them.
One thing stands out. The further out of the main cities of Ashgabat and Mary we were, the more primitive the transportation. At one point, we passed a donkey cart with a young boy controlling the reigns. As he was “driving” the cart, he was texting on his cell phone. Would have made for a very interesting picture.
It was amazing to see many of the ruins of the ancient cities of Merv and Mary. Some of the ruins dated to 2300 BC. After traveling six hours the previous day, we had another three hours into the desert. Once we turned on the “road”, all we could see was a “sand” road. For the last 25 miles, we saw no people. Mike was worried what would happen if we got stuck. It was only 125 degrees out. Although most of the time the heat was tolerable (no humidity and slight breeze), this day was hot. Mike had to go back to the shade about half way through the tour.
It was in Mary (day 4-5 in T-stan) that our stomachs began to disagree with us. The food was fantastic (lamb and chicken) and the beer was cold. For the last five days of our trip we couldn’t venture too far from the bathroom. It took us almost a week after we got home before we could keep food in us.

On one of the tours of ancient ruins, we ran into a group of teenage Turkmenistan girls (probably high school age). They were quite curious about us. After Abby started a conversation and they realized we were from America, they wanted pictures. All they could say in English was “Arnold Schwarzenegger.” Mike was then known as Arnold to them.
Part IV: Conclusion

The anticipation of our trip gave way to the realities of the travel. The trip home included four planes (Ashbabat to Amsterdam to Minneapolis to Detroit). Nine planes in thirteen days.
The Peace Corps staff and PVC’s were awesome. A group of wonderful, competent young adults making a difference in the world. I’m sure we speak for all PCV parents that we are honored to have these young adults representing our families. Our thanks to Earl and staff for watching over them.

This is one trip we will never forget. Turkmenistan is a beautiful country, with lots to offer. It would be nice to see the improvements to the countryside in about 50 years. Our visits with Sedar and his family, the carpet purchase, and the visit to Abby’s host family were highlights of the trip. We had a WONDERFUL time with our BEAUTIFUL daughter. We cannot say how proud we are of Abby. She has grown to be a fantastic young lady. Thank you Abby for sharing your world with us!

Now, I cannot tell you all that was on the list, because frankly I don’t know everything, but to put it into an America prospective it was a lot like having a bridal shower. In the US couples have bridal shower where their friends and family literally will shower them with gifts that they have pre-registered for at department stores. Well, Turkmen dowries are not that different. The bride writes a list of what she would like to receive and the boy’s family must provide her with everything at a party that is held at the girl’s house. The main difference is that the gifts are all provided by the boy’s family, but extended family members help in this process. Our new bride’s dowry included things like dresses, pillows, and a stereo. It also included more traditional items like 5 kilograms of flour, fried bread, and money to purchase a goat that will be sacrificed at her house the week before the wedding.

It took us a long time (about 6 months) to compile everything that she had requested on the list and then we were able to present her with our gifts at a party at her house. This party was only for the women of the families and in Turkmen it is called Ot Guluk. So a few Saturdays ago we called all of our women relatives and neighbors to our house and we had our Ot Guluk. It was quite a festive affair. It started with all of the women dancing and celebrating at our house as the gifts were loaded into the cars. Then we all piled into a bus and drove over to our new bride’s house to present her with the gifts. Upon arrival we got out and our musicians started up the music for us to dance again as the gifts were brought into her house. Then it was time for everyone from our family to meet the new bride (the Gelin in Turkmen) and welcome her to the family. She was sitting at the head of the “table” (there was no actual table as Turkmen eat on the floor) wearing a small gold crown and looking as demur as a Turkmen Gelin should look, she was very beautiful. Then we all proceeded in a procession to present her with a new head scarf for her to wear when she got married. We all came in a line and laid the scarves on her head, a sign of respect and welcoming her into the family. After the food the real show began, by real show I mean it was time for our family to give everything away.

The presentation of the gifts was done in a separate part of the house because the Gelin should not see the new gifts. When you entered the other room you could see the two families divided waiting in anticipation to see what we would present. There were family representatives with their own copies of the Gelin’s list out ready to check off items as they were presented. Our neighbor and Aunt, Lachyn, was our representative. Then the items were read individually as my host mother and Lachyn passed the gifts to her mother. With every gift there was a gasp of awe at the beauty of our offering. Finally, in the end her mother said we had sufficiently provided for her family and we celebrated with the new Gelin in the other room with cake. The cutting of the cake was interesting because it seemed like the Gelin had to feed everyone. She fed my mother, her mother, her grandmother, and all of my sisters. Then my host mother fed her, her mother, and her grandmother. After the cake ceremony we all went outside, with the Gelin, and she danced for the first time with our family. It was fun to see everyone let lose a little bit. Finally after the dancing we loaded onto our bus again and left. Thus ending the Ot Guluk Ceremony.

The next portion in our saga will be a big one; the weddings! Yes that’s right, plural! Both will take place in September so be on the look out for that post then! Stay tuned as next time I will have more guest bloggers. My parents will be taking a 7 day trip to Turkmenistan to see me, meet my family, and get a real taste of Turkmen culture! It should be a good one! Until then, Sog Bol!

So before I talk about how to identify a Turkmen Carpet I need to talk about their significance in Turkmen Culture. As I’ve mentioned the Turkmen were nomadic people so they had to carry all of their possessions whenever they moved. The carpets were important in their traveling process because they insisted on sitting and sleeping on something that was not the desert sand, the carpet was an ideal solution to the problem because it could be folded and carried from location to location. Not only that but the carpets were used for everything from carrying silverware to the door of the yurts. Carpets were also essential to the Turkmen tribes. Each of the five regions and tribes has their own carpet pattern. These five regional designs are called “guls” or flowers and are featured prominently on the left side of the Turkmen flag (see below). While these are the five main designs not all carpets are adorned with these guls. In fact all of the tribes have two or three different styles of guls.

Regional Guls Top to Bottom:

Akhal, Balkan, Mary, Dashoguz, Lebop

Traditional regional guls are very intricate as you can see from the side of the flag. These guls would often make up a pattern on the carpet. Basically, if you know the gul designs you can identify a Turkmen Carpet and what region it most likely came from. A few of the guls will give hints about the region that they came from. The two most famous examples of Turkmen guls are the Balkan Yomut and the Ahal Teke guls. The Balkan Yomuts live along the Caspian Sea and in their gul you can see what looks like ship anchors and fish. The Akhal Teke live in the most fertile region of Turkmenistan and if you look closely at their gul you can see cotton and a horse, coming out of the edge of the flower design. Cotton is the main crop in the Akhal region and the Akhal Teke horses are famous lean racehorses that come from the region. The most interesting regional carpets that I have seen though come from the Lebop region. They come with various animals that you would see roaming in the desert like scorpions and snakes! These animal designs are not traditional though. All traditional Turkmen carpets have a deep red background and all natural colors, silk, and hand crafted. These days you can still find handmade, all natural carpets made of half silk and half cotton fibers; the main difference is that they will probably have a different background color (tan is a very popular background color). Some companies are now producing machine cotton carpets with Turkmen designs (rumor has it that you can find a Akhal Teke style carpet at Ikea in the states… no joke).

Balkan Yomut (note anchors and fish)

Akhal Teke (look at the black protrusions from the inner design… the three black things are 3 cotton flowers and the horse head is at the top protruding inward towards the cotton, these are a little harder to distinguish)

Now I always have reasons as to why I post these cultural blogs and this week’s reason is because I purchased a Turkmen carpet last weekend! My family (American that is) decided that a carpet would be a wonderful birthday gift for me and gave me the money to purchase my own Turkmen carpet and ship it home. So huge shouts out to my family for helping me get this awesome souvenir! Now onto the story of the carpet that I fell in love with when I saw it (you can see it pictured below). This gul is an Akhal Teke gul, which is the region and the tribe of people that I live and work with. It’s not their famous traditional gul though; this gul’s name is the “Kejebe Gul.”  When the Turkmen lived in yurts they often traveled with camels. Whenever the Teke tribe would welcome a new bride to their tribe they would carry her into the settlement in a basket on top of a camel, this procession was called the Kejebe. Because the trip was usually a far journey through the hot desert the basket would be covered with the carpet to shade the new bride from the blistering heat. So this style of carpet was appropriately named Kejebe and refers to the traditional wedding procession of the bride to her new homeland and tribe.

My Akhal Teke Kejebe Turkmen Carpet

Close Up of the Teke Kejebe Gul

When I was learning about the history of this carpet I learned another interesting fact that I didn’t realize about modern Turkmen culture. After women are married they are paraded around their new in-laws families and neighbors to introduce her to the members of her new “tribe.” We’ve had many new brides presented to our family and we always serve them with a large meal whenever they come to show our hospitality. When the new brides come though they wear huge and heavy tent like structure on their heads, I had never known why until today. The tent is made to symbolize the Kejebe Carpet tent that covered the bride’s camel basket as she traversed the desert. It’s the modern Turkmen’s way of connecting to their beloved traditions and history!

So as you can see, Carpets are truly the pride and joy of Turkmenistan. They even have a holiday to celebrate their beloved carpets (which just so happens to be the last Sunday of May). Everyone that comes here cannot leave without a beautiful carpet, it’s an essential part to the Turkmen cultural experience and I am proud to say that I will be taking such a huge piece of Turkmenistan home with me.

To give you a brief rundown of the Bulgarian portion of the trip, Katie was a great host! We started off going to the posh European town of Plovdiv where I got to meet some of Katie’s American and British friend. There we got to explore an ancient Roman stage, drank some good cheap Bulgarian beer (did you know that a beer in BG costs less than water?!) and ate delicious Chinese food. The next day we trained it to Samokov where Katie lives and works and we spent the next few days exploring her city, hanging with her counterparts, and having fun with her kids. Now let me say this for Katie, she is one lucky PCV. Not only are her counterparts awesome and amazing, but she lives in a really cool town! Her town has a professional basketball team and she lives really close to the highest peek in the Balkans, which means ski resorts! While Katie has hung up her ski boots for a long time (with good reason) she does live really close to the ski hills and can get a plethora of European exposure (super jealous about that). After spending a few nights in Samokov we went back to Sofia and spent the evening with some of her American missionary friends who spoiled us with delicious American food before we headed off on the night train to Istanbul. Overall Bulgaria was awesome!

Before I get onto Istanbul I want to say a few words about Peace Corps Bulgaria. Now, sometimes PCVs in other countries like to complain about the fact that in their eyes Peace Corps isn’t needed in some of the more developed countries like Bulgaria. I have heard T-stan PCVs say “Bulgaria’s in the EU why do they need Peace Corps?!” They will say that it isn’t Peace Corps, it’s “Posh Corps.” I can say though after visiting BG and seeing the population of youth Katie works with I can say that PCBG is necessary. Katie works with Roma students (we would think of them as gypsies) in BG to empower them and advocate for better services for them. She spends time with these kids that a lot of people don’t care to think about and is motivating them to make positive changes in their lives. If you could see the way the Roma live in BG it would break your heart and you would want to do something for them too. I am very proud of the work Katie is doing advocating for her students and while I wish I had some of the amenities that BG has in T-stan I know her life isn’t “posh” at all, it can be frustrating and heartbreaking just like that of any other PCV.

That being said onto the second half of the trip, Istanbul! Ah Istanbul… how I love thee… So as I said we took the overnight train again to Istanbul and were able to spend 3 days and nights there. We spent most of our time in Sultanhammet which is probably the most famous district in Istanbul because it has the Blue Mosque, Aye Sofia, Topaki Palace (and harem), and the Grand Bazaar. Given we only had a few days we spent the majority of our time wandering around these places. Each day we picked a different place to visit in the morning. For lunch we wandered around back streets to find an off the beaten path to find where the locals eat, which we did successfully I might add. Then we had dessert by eating our weight in the most delicious treat known to man, Turkish Baklava! Seriously… so good! After baklava I was pretty much put in a food coma so we would go back to the hostel and relax a bit before dinner and evening activities. For dinner we would again eat traditional Turkish food with delicious Turkish beer or tea. Then in the evening we would find a bar to hang out in and meet new people and try new things! One exciting in devour for us was to try hookah! If you don’t know what hookah is it’s a water pipe filled with flavored tobacco, it’s very popular in Arabic and Turkish cultures, so we tried our hand at it. We managed to do pretty well without getting too sick, though we did have the strongest tobacco apparently (apple) and both did get a little light headed. In the end it was a fun week of exploring new foods, dodging creepy Turkish guys who like to hit on Americans, and overall bonding after a 2 year lapse!

In the end it was an awesome trip without any awkward moments, only good times and laughter. It’s funny when I met Katie two years ago and told her we we’re going to be BFFs (that’s ‘best friends forever’ for those of you who don’t speak teenage girl) I was only half serious, I didn’t expect us to be that good of friends, it’s a good thing that God thought differently! I’m so blessed to be friends with Katie; she’s a passionate sassy girl with a heart for God and social justice, all things I could ask for in a BFF.

Thanks for everything, Katie, you’re amazing, I can’t wait for our next reunion! Also, for the record I would like to state… “This never happens to me!”

9 Months Left of Service… What to do?

So I got a letter from my dear Aunt Kay this week and she asked me to share with you all what my goals are for my last few months of service and seeing as how I’ve been at a lose of what to write here lately I thought she had a good idea. She challenged me to think about what I want to accomplish over the course of my last year of service (the letter was themed around New Year… gotta love the international postal system… it’s officially the end of February). So anyways back to the point what am I going to accomplish this final 9 months of service. Before I think about the future I think I need to think about the past and look at all I’ve accomplished over the past 15 months.

I thought about this actually around New Years time, but never actually published it for some reason. Over the past 15 months though my community and I have accomplished a lot (because let’s be honest, this experience and job isn’t really about me, it’s about the us that I’ve formed with my community). We’ve successfully completed two grants one for volleyball equipment to open a club for girls and one for English resources and materials to use in our classroom. We’ve opened three clubs in our school, two English and one volleyball club. We’ve incorporated new teaching methods into our classes like games, songs, and new books and made our lessons more interesting for our students. Our students where we teach different methods from the institutionalized curriculum have shown higher scores in English, mostly As and Bs when before we had mostly Bs and Cs. More students have become more interested in English clubs as a result. Two of our teachers have expressed more interest in learning about Methodology in teaching and one is considering continuing her education to get her masters. Finally, two of us have learned how to play instruments, both guitar and for my fellow teacher Serdar, dutar. So we’ve done a lot over the course of the 15 months!

Now we do have a few things we want to accomplish these next 9 months and their coming fast! The first thing is we would like to make our new library that we have developed more open to our students. I ideally would like to see our students checking out books from our English room and reading them at home. I want to see the library run by teachers and students. We’re going to start that this month hopefully. My school also really wants to put on a summer camp for our students this summer that the students will actually attend. In case you don’t remember last year that didn’t go over to well for me, this year I’ve got a lot of good ideas and I think my counterparts will be really excited about it, but I’m not telling just yet! You’ll have to wait! My school has also expressed interest in building two new toilets. We hope to build those this summer through yet another grant and have those open by this fall! Finally, a goal that Serdar and I have is to help train one of our students to apply for the FLEX program next October. In case you’re not sure what the FLEX program is, it’s a program for Turkmen students to go to the US for one year and study in an American High School as an exchange student. The girl we want to train is a really good student and with some extra practice I really think she can do it, Serdar does too. So there you have it Aunt Kay, those are what I hope my school can accomplish with me in the next 9 months. It’s a lot, but I really think it can happen! Ench Allah!

Addition to the Family!

So I was having evening tea with my family tonight and it turns out that my host brother had an exciting piece of news. He’s getting married this fall! Obviously, we were all very excited for him and his fiancé and I thought this would be a cool cultural thing to blog about. I think I’ve mentioned before about how important weddings are to Turkmen, but I don’t think I’ve ever gone into detail about marriage in Turkmen culture and how it works. So seeing as how my host family is going through this new process I thought I’ld give you a bit of a play by play as it all happens!

Let’s start from the beginning, dating in Turkmenistan. Dating is very secretive in Turkmenistan because of how much of an impact it can have for young women. Basically, it’s ok for a Turkmen young man to date and have a girlfriend, but if a young girl has a boyfriend people will start to gossip about her as being, for lack of better word, loose. So while my brother and his girlfriend were dating (they’ve been dating for over a year now) my family knew about it all, but her family didn’t know anything about it. This was pretty interesting because he could never call her house and she always had to call our house. If he was to call and ask for her, her father and brothers could have figured it out and that wouldn’t be to good.  For example one of my friend’s brothers found out that she had a boyfriend and he found the guy and kicked the crap out of him, according to her it wasn’t pretty. So she would call our house and at first always ask for my younger sister. We’ld give her the phone and then she would immediately give it to my brother, it was pretty cute. Sometimes his girlfriend would whisper if my brother was home, but she has to be very careful about it. I always found that to be pretty cute. I’m not for sure what their actual dates were like, but going off of what I see on Turkmen TV and have seen in real life, dates mainly consist of walking in parks talking and whatnot, not a lot of physical touch that we Americans traditionally think of.

Now if you are a guy and you decide that you want to get married proposing is a lot different from our culture. In Turkmenistan men do not propose to women necessarily, I mean yes it’s a conversation, but they don’t have proposals like we have, the man must propose to the woman’s family, or actually someone from his family must propose to them on his behalf. That may sound confusing, but it basically looks like this. The elder women from the man’s family will go to the woman’s mother and plead the case of the man on his behalf. Usually two or three women will go from the man’s family to the woman’s family and they must talk about how the woman will be provided for and how the man is a good an honorable man. Fortunately for my family, my brother really is a good guy and they only needed to make one or two trips to his fiancé’s house before her family gave their blessing. Sometimes this can take three or four trips though. My brother in law for example had to make four trips to my family to marry one of my sisters, not because he’s not a good guy, but because she was the first daughter from the family to get married and they just weren’t ready to let go yet.

Once the family gives permission they are officially engaged, which is what we were celebrating tonight. The next step in the process is for the woman and her family to write out her “list.” That is her dowry list. In Turkmen culture men have to pay dowry to the women’s families in order to get married. This dowry can consist of anything from money for the family, clothes for the woman, TVs, gold jewelry for the woman, basically anything under the sun, and it can get quite expensive. Dowries can cost anywhere from $4000 to $16,000 depending on the families. One of my friends said he knows a woman in his village whose dowry was close to $24,000… this is US dollars mind you.  My brother’s fiancé and her family are now in the process of writing their list and they should have it available for us next week. So stay tuned to see just what is being asked for! As I said I couldn’t be happier for my brother, he’s a really good guy and someone that I really respect because he doesn’t drink (a rarity here). I’m excited to help my family plan his wedding and excited to report it all back to you!

The Death of a Hangman

            Recently I taught an open lesson for the teachers at my school. The lesson was very interactive complete with music and a crossword puzzle and the students were thoroughly active the entire lesson, a rare occurrence at my school. Towards the end of my planned lesson I realized that we would have a few minutes left in the class so being the good TEFL volunteer that I am, I pulled out the game Hangman to kill some time. Apparently, it wasn’t just the time that I would be killing that day. After a very tense game, the man was on his last leg, the students finally were able to come up with the correct answer to the riddle “We like English Class.” I concluded the lesson and waited for my jury to deliver their verdict.

            Seeing as how my students were very active and actually participated in the class without me going postal I thought I was in for some high praise for my lesson. Trying to remain humble I nonchalantly walked over to my fellow teachers and asked for their opinions of the lesson, expecting them to extol my well-planned lesson. I was anticipating a “berek ella” or maybe even a “moledes.” Unfortunately my ego would not be stroked, immediately, the Russian teacher who had observed the lesson stuck her nose high in the air and said the lesson was “Boljek” crushing the high vision I had of myself. I asked her what I could have done better and she spat at me in Russian words that I could not understand further deflating my pride. I quizzically turned to my counterpart who explained to me that the teacher was upset that I used “violence” to teach my English lesson. She said that by playing “Hangman” I was encouraging violence and immoral thinking in the classroom by letting my students try to kill an imaginary stick man that I had drawn on the board. I was flabbergasted. Didn’t she see how hard my students tried to save the man?! Didn’t she see the agony in their eyes and hear their groans as I drew the man’s first leg?! These students didn’t want this man to die! They were doing all they could think to save the man from his death by noose! To them the game was not encouraging violence, but acts of bravery! That student who called out the last “k” left the class a hero because he had saved the man from his death! How could this game be considered anything but a game of heroic proportions? But alas, all that the teacher saw was a game where a stickman almost died and that was detrimental to the 9^th form students’ psyches. To her these students would all become future murders.

            I am no longer allowed to teach with the game “Hangman” and am now forced to use the alternative of “Old Car.” That is instead of drawing a man on the board to encourage valor I am to encourage vandalism by drawing a car on the board. Whenever the class says the wrong letter I am to deflate the tires, break the windows, and kick in the doors all in the name of morality.