Sorry this has been a bit lapsed, but I had to wait for my computer to be fixed before I could post it. Anyways, here’s my last post written in Turkmenistan… 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 [...]
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So if you’ve been following along with my blog you know that I’ve talked a lot about the Turkmen wedding process. As I mentioned previously (in case you forget) I’ve been privileged to see the dating, engagement, and now wedding process and ceremonies first hand because my host brother just got married. Today I’m going [...]
NINE PLANES IN THIRTEEN DAYS” 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 [...]
Hello all! So if you remember all the way back to February I told you all about how my host brother was going through the process of getting married. At that time my family had just received the dowry list to begin purchasing items for the new bride. So I’ll pick up where we left [...]
Hey everyone! I hope you all have had a good relaxing start to your summers. The heat is starting to roll into Turkmenistan and I have a feeling that this summer is going to be a hot one. Just last week the radio said the weather was 50 degrees C, which is 122 degrees F, [...]
Hello all! I’ve got another interesting cultural post for you guys today, but fair warning: it’s a long one! But I think it’s totally worth it. You cannot come to Turkmenistan and experience Turkmen Culture without talking about the pride and joy of Turkmenistan: Turkmen Carpets. As a lot of you may know, the Central [...]
So I don’t have any really interesting stories this month and I tough I’ld tell you about a farytale that is centered aroud my village! I may have mentioned before, but I live near one of the Turkmen historical sites. It’s known as the Old Mosque of Anew, but locals call it Sanjemal Edin. Sanjemal [...]
So when I told friends here in Turkmenistan that I was going to go meet a friend that I had met once, 2 years ago, on a week trip to New York City they all thought I was nuts. “What if you guys don’t get along, what will you do?” “What if it’s weird and [...]
So it’s been a while since I’ve wrote here for the shear fact that I haven’t had a lot of stuff to update on. Well, today I got 2 pretty big pieces of news that are blogworthy. One inspired by someone in America and the second inspired by my Turkmen host family. So feel free [...]
So I wrote this article for our volunteer newsletter about an incident that happened to me. I found it humerous so here is the article that I wrote and will now share with you all. I call it “The Death of a Hangman”
The Death of a Hangman
Recently I taught an open lesson for the [...]
Hey all! Just wanted to post another quick note about one of the coolest Christmas experiences I have ever had. I started off celebrating the holiday on Thursday by throwing a Christmas party for some of my students. I explained the holiday to them and talked a little bit about Christmas traditions. Then we decorated [...]
Merry Christmas from T-stan. In lue of some sort of heartwarming blog I decided to have some of my students help me out in spreading holiday cheer. All of us here in T-stan are wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a Happy Holidays!
This past week the volunteers in my area got together to celebrate Thanksgiving. We decided as a group to celebrate 2 weeks early due to the fact that this week we will begin to lose members from our group as they COS (completion of service) back to “The America.” We decided the best way to [...]
So after being in Turkmenistan for a year I finally get to check something off of my list that I had been wanting to do since I found out I was going to be serving in this country. A group of us took an overnight camping trip out to the former town of Derweza, a [...]
Hey everyone! So I’ve had another few good weeks here in T-stan. We just wrapped up our first quarter of school so I am on a week long break which is very nice. Before the break though I actually got my volleyball club going and thought I would share with you all how that all [...]
Hey all! So I am officially back in T-stan and in general it’s good to be back. The flights were interesting and long. I ended up having to have a day layover in Istanbul and was unable to save money by sleeping at the airport, which was my cheap idealistic dream. So I had to [...]
Hey everyone! Once again I am slacking on updating this thing, but seeing as how it has been a whirlwind few weeks I am sure you all will forgive me. I am actually writing you all this email from my home here in Montrose, MI. Now before any flags go up in your heads just [...]
Hey All! So school has officially started and in full swing and I must be honest it’s really great. I feel really good about this school year and the work that I am doing at my site. 2 weeks ago was the kick off to the school year and I have noticed that with all [...]
Hey all! Well, as promised (a little late) I have updates about London. Overall the trip was great. I’m so glad that I got to see Mom for a week and it was great to spend it with Cheryl and Danielle. Although I knew from the get-go that I was going to be in charge [...]
Hey all! Sorry I’ve been MIA for a while again… I’m alive, I swear, just busy. So anyways, I wanted to give a quick note about praying with expectance. So towards the end of July I came to the realization that I have been trying to do a lot of things by myself at [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
Hello all! So I’ve got some time to kill before I take my first vacation as a PCV to Thailand. I just thought I’ld give you all an update about my first birthday in Turkmenistan. I must say it was a pretty rememberable experience. The celebration actually started off the day before my birthday on [...]
Hey there everyone! Once again I have fallen into a slump in updating this blog, I apologize again. I am finding though that not a lot of stuff happens one a weekly basis here so thus I am usually at a loss of what to write. Since I last wrote though I have been very [...]
Hey all! Just thought I would give you all a bit of an update about the happenings here in Turkmenistan. Last week was an interesting week because I had a week long conference in Ashgabat all about community development and grant writing. It was a very interesting conference and basically covered everything I learned about [...]
Hey everyone! Well, spoke with the parents last week and I promised Mom I would update this thing today. It’s been a busy couple of weeks for me so allow me to try and recapture some of it for you. Last week was my school’s spring break, which basically meant that I didn’t have to [...]
Hey guys!
I just thought I would update a little bit, not too much has happened here in a while. I keep teaching every week which has gotten a bit better. My kids are getting a bit more involved in the lessons, but I fear that I am becomming the game person… In fact I know [...]
11 February 2009
Hey all! So I wrote a blog last week and then I was a jerk and didn’t post it. Sorry I forgot my flash drive at my house. But bonus news for you all… an extra blog about my happenings!
So every Sunday I take a walk around my village just to get out [...]
4 February 2009
Hey all! So it’s been a few weeks since I’ve updated this thing. Sorry about that, it’s not like there haven’t been things to update on it’s just that I’ve been a little busy actually working which is awesome.
Before I get into the work business though I want to give a [...]
Hey all!
So this week I had my first real week of teaching and it was, well, interesting. I’m finding it a little difficult right now to actually co-teach with my counter-parts. The main problem I am facing is co-planning mainly because my counter-parts and I have different definitions on co-planning a lesson and how lesson [...]
Hello all! Well, I am officially on winter holiday, which basically means I am spending a lot of time with fellow teachers. For the past few days I have had to go to our district teacher’s meetings with my counterparts. The district meetings are very interesting. Basically, we are all divided between subject areas [...]
1/2/09
Hey there all!
Happy New Year! I officially survived my first Turkmen New Year and I’ve got to say, holy crap was it cool! To start the new year’s eve my family’s cow decided to go into labour (I didn’t even know it was pregnant) and at around 7:30 we had a brand new baby cow! [...]
So I have officially survived my first Turkmen Christmas. I’ll be honest it was difficult to be away from home, the holidays are my favorite time of year because I literally get to see everyone; family, friends, everyone. It’s the only time of year that ever really happens. My Christmas wasn’t that bad though. I [...]
So I’ve been working at my new school for a few days now and the teachers want me to tell about Christmas in America and compare it to Turkmen New Year. Not having experienced a Turkmen New Year I was unsure what to do. So I found “The Night Before Christmas” online and read it [...]
5 December 2008 Swearing In an Official T-17 Volunteer
Well folks it’s official. I am officially a Peace Corps Volunteer as of 12pm (Turkmen Time). Before I get into that though I should inform you all that I did indeed pass my LPI test! I received a score of Intermediate Low, which basically means that I [...]
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 [...]
4th November 2008 A day in the life of a Turkmen Parahatcylyk Korpusy Inlis Dili Molum Melitinchy (Peace Corps English Teacher Volunteer)
So I’ve talked a lot about the language and cultural things here, I think it’s time to tell you a bit about the Turkmen school system and my technical training. On the mornings [...]
Well, I have officially finished up the first half of PST! Week 5 is down and I have a feeling the next few weeks are going to fly really fast. Unfortunately, for my group this week was a very sad week. We went to language class on Tuesday and learned that Mayagozel’s (our teacher) [...]
**Because I Cannot Get the Internet Everyday I Have Written Multiple Blogs**
1 October 2008 TURKMENISTAN!!!!!
After 3 hrs on a bus, 4 hrs in an airport, 10 hrs on a plane, 12 more hours in an airport, 3 more hours on another plane, Turkmen Customs, and hauling over 150 pounds (give or take) through [...]
Just real quick because I am exhausted… I made it safely to Staging. Woo Hoo! There are 44 people going with me to Turkmenistan, a lot more than I expected but it is very cool. I have actually met 5 people from Michigan, which is totally random! I even fly out here with a guy [...]
Well, the day is finally here. I am leaving tonight to go spend the night with Tim and Jess and then tomorrow I am flying out to Philly. I think it all hit me this morning when I went to mass with Mom and Dad to get a blessing from Fr. Jerry. The scripture for [...]
Hey Everyone!
Once again another round of thank yous must go to my fabulous Peplinski half of the family. Thank you so much for the great party and all of the well wishes. It was great to see all of you and spend time at one of my favorite MI locations, Leelanaw County. Thank you all [...]
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