So I’ve been tutoring a woman in English who is quite Turkmen, and it turns out her sisters make the famous carpets of T-stan. I got to go watch them, and the process is amazing. Four of them sit in a line and tie the individual strands in a pattern that is quite intricate and totally memorized. Then they switch the base threads and pound—literally pound—the cross string against the finished side. Hard to explain but amazing to watch. These are the most valued objects to the Turkmen, selling at $200-300 each—even to natives.
I have the crazy idea that I’m going to learn, and the girls are willing to show me. So hopefully I’ll be able to observe them and then have them help me set up a small carpet (not room-sized like theirs), and I can work on it in my spare time!
I learned to knit this week, and I’ve knit myself almost 1/3 of a scarf, too. I love being in a situation where it’s normal to be learning things from scratch. At home there’s this pressure to do what you already excel at. Here I don’t have to worry about being bad. Of course, this is my first carpet. And so what? Hopefully that will start soon.
We started vacation today, but mostly I sit around and watch the news about the earthquake. And knit. I have a lot of planning to do this weekend for clubs that start in January.
So—a funny story . . . I’ve got hot water upstairs now, but it’s very tempermental and often the whole room smells of gas before the water’s hot enough to shower. I was taking my second shower upstairs ever when suddenly the water goes ice cold. I’ve seen family members in towels before, so I wrapped up and went down to finish my shower in the family bathroom. Little did I know that my family had two conservatively dressed Turkmen guests in the living room.
I barge in stammering something incoherent in Russian/Turkmen/English (Rurklish?) and proceed to freeze in embarrassment, dripping on the living room carpet, until I realize that the damage is done and I may as well continue to the bathroom. Minutes later my mom hands in a robe (hint, hint) for me to make a smoother exit. Culture fo-paux? (Hmm . . . not fluent in French yet.)
That’s actually the second blunder, though the first wasn’t my fault. They have no handle on the bathroom door, and during my first shower here, Agbar, my 15 year old brother, burst in on me. I squealed in time for him to turn away quickly, but he’s been the butt of endless, “I’m taking a shower later, Agbar, are you busy?” jokes until we got it out of our system.
New Year’s is tomorrow and I’m not sure what is going to happen. I got everyone small gifts and wrapped them up, but I don’t really know if it’s appropriate. That’s the hard part. It’s a guessing game. I can’t ask how much I should pay for a present because they’ll say I don’t need to buy one. I got little for my birthday from them, though, so I’m probably okay just having put in the effort.
I hope your—what—late January is going well.
Tell Grandma "hi"!
Love,
Kari
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December 31, 2004
So, volunteer number 2 left today—again affecting me! Liz from Balkanabat took the dive! She and I were roommates in Chuli for the first 8 days, and she was the only other Russian speaker here. So that leaves me alone for the T-13s here. Balkan has been cursed with ETs [early terminations] recently, though, so we knew something was coming. She had been our unanimous vote for “most likely to marry a Turkmen”. So she’s back in the free land.
Strangely enough I got your second letter today, written on Dec. 12th. I actually got a letter that was written and received between phone calls!
As for the weather--it must be nice having a cold winter with snow! Here it’s just cold some days and not others. Today it was about 60 degrees and sunny. I hear we get no snow either. So I told all my students about what a “white Christmas” was and tried to live vicariously through my explanations.
So I’m going to be the warden of our velayat. I’d be excited about the nomination, but since Liz is gone, I’m the only one in the central city. So I’m it. I do get to go into Ashgabat Jan. 11-13 to get trained, which should be nice. Steve and Heidi—both great friends—are also going to be the wardens. So I should get my fabric from Nicole’s city brought in and have a nice reunion with good friends.
Say hi to Grandma!
Love,
Kari
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