Some Things Make You Bigger and Some Things Make You Small
I don’t know what I ate last night but my insides are killing me. Not in a food poisoning kind of way, but more like a burning sensation. Must another bout of acid reflux or something. Went out with my friend Kamal and his girlfriend Inna to a Turkish restaurant and we ate a lot of delicious food, drank tea until closing time, then did a drive around the city. Maybe it was the amount of food I ate that’s causing me problems. I told myself that I’d watch what I eat here and lose some weight—this is not getting off to a good start I suppose.
Kamal has been waiting for me to come to Turkmenistan for a long time. He went to the US on the FLEX program (the high school exchange I work on) in 2003. I brought him and a group of students to the US. It was on the plane as he was filling out his customs forms that I noticed he was going to Charlevoix, Michigan, my family’s summer place, and we bonded instantly. Later that year I found myself in Charlevoix and went to visit him. He has the distinction of being the first student ever that I visited in the US in their home. He had a crazy placement, his host mom took in elderly people and ran an assisted living home for about 6 adults upstairs while Kamal lived downstairs. It wasn’t the idyllic placement but he got through it and he says that experience helped make him a stronger person.
Since that time, he has visited me in New York, we have hung out in Bishkek where he went to college (American University of Central Asia) and now after a long wait can spend time in Ashgabat. His girlfriend is a lovely young lady and I think they are going to get married soon. Maybe even while I’m here! They haven’t told their families yet that they have been dating already 4 years because they don’t want the pressure from both sides to get married. They’d rather wait untilt he time is right.
After dinner at the Merdam restaurant, we took a drive around town to see how much this place has changed since I was last here in 2003. Man has it changed a lot! A lot of old buildings have been torn down to make way for big, white marble buildings and tall, fancy structures glistening in the illuminated glow of the many floodlights that shine on them. When I was last here they were knocking down the old neighborhoods; walled individual homes with their gardens and shady trees to make way for the giant, white apartment buildings that no one can really afford. Built by the Turkish, these structures rise into the air, glowing white in the night sky like giant sentinels. Most of the windows are dark but a few windows show signs of life with a light shining out as if to say, “We are here, we are here!”
Ashgabat has definitely changed in my 8 years absence. Coming back here is like the end of “It’s A Wonderful Life,” when Jimmy Stewart goes back to Pottersville and is shocked by what he sees. I am not shocked but I am in awe of all the building that has gone on and the spectacle of it all. Part Las Vegas, part Dubai, Ashgabat is poised to host the world with all it’s apartment buildings, fancy hotels, nice shops and parks with fountains and statues of horses and famous Turkmen of yore. The funny thing is, I ask myself, who are they building all this for? It’s obvious people are not clamoring to come here and Lord knows the local can’t afford to live here so then who is it for? Is it a self-satisfying move of a repressive government to prop themselves up and feel important? A hollow showcase to impress themselves and the few foreigners they let in? Or is it all for the people of Turkmenistan, to make them feel proud of their capital? Maybe all of the above, it depends on who you ask. Well for what it’s worth, it is quite beautiful at night driving around, giant floodlights and neon making things as bright as day, trees festooned with lanterns that light up and chandeliers dangling between giant marble pillars lining the wide boulevards between the giant apartment blocks. Electricity is almost free here for the masses so they spare no expense when it comes to lighting up their city here. I can assure you it is safe to walk alone in any park in town given the amount of lights there are in them.
The locals like to show their humor with all of the building that goens on around here by giving nicknames to all the towers and giant buildings that go up. Trinoshka, Pyatinoshka, Vosminoshka (3-legged, 5-legged and 8-legged respectively) that refer to the 3 towers around town and the number of “legs” that hold them up. There’s also my favorite--Sorokanoshka, 40-legged, which is a big statue of 10 horses in a park. 10 horses x 4 legs each =Get it?? There’s Sozhigalka (the Lighter building) which is the Oil and Gas Ministry building and does look like a big Bic lighter. Shashlik another new tower that does look like a giant shishkebab (that’s what shashlik means). It’s nice to see that whether they approve of al these fancy buildings or not (most don’t really approve) that people can still have a sense of humor about it.
As we drove around taking in the sites, I was of two minds. Part of me thought, Wow this is so amazing and I can’t wait to walk around at night checking everything out, and the other part was saying Tom, where in the hell did you land yourself this time and why? I’m still figuring that out day by day, as I navigate my way through this new project, a new routine and a new, temporary life. Maybe after this project in two years, I’ll take some time off to stay in one place, my house in Brooklyn. That’s some ways away but for now, I’ll blossom where I am, here in Central Asia.
Kamal has been waiting for me to come to Turkmenistan for a long time. He went to the US on the FLEX program (the high school exchange I work on) in 2003. I brought him and a group of students to the US. It was on the plane as he was filling out his customs forms that I noticed he was going to Charlevoix, Michigan, my family’s summer place, and we bonded instantly. Later that year I found myself in Charlevoix and went to visit him. He has the distinction of being the first student ever that I visited in the US in their home. He had a crazy placement, his host mom took in elderly people and ran an assisted living home for about 6 adults upstairs while Kamal lived downstairs. It wasn’t the idyllic placement but he got through it and he says that experience helped make him a stronger person.
Since that time, he has visited me in New York, we have hung out in Bishkek where he went to college (American University of Central Asia) and now after a long wait can spend time in Ashgabat. His girlfriend is a lovely young lady and I think they are going to get married soon. Maybe even while I’m here! They haven’t told their families yet that they have been dating already 4 years because they don’t want the pressure from both sides to get married. They’d rather wait untilt he time is right.
After dinner at the Merdam restaurant, we took a drive around town to see how much this place has changed since I was last here in 2003. Man has it changed a lot! A lot of old buildings have been torn down to make way for big, white marble buildings and tall, fancy structures glistening in the illuminated glow of the many floodlights that shine on them. When I was last here they were knocking down the old neighborhoods; walled individual homes with their gardens and shady trees to make way for the giant, white apartment buildings that no one can really afford. Built by the Turkish, these structures rise into the air, glowing white in the night sky like giant sentinels. Most of the windows are dark but a few windows show signs of life with a light shining out as if to say, “We are here, we are here!”
Ashgabat has definitely changed in my 8 years absence. Coming back here is like the end of “It’s A Wonderful Life,” when Jimmy Stewart goes back to Pottersville and is shocked by what he sees. I am not shocked but I am in awe of all the building that has gone on and the spectacle of it all. Part Las Vegas, part Dubai, Ashgabat is poised to host the world with all it’s apartment buildings, fancy hotels, nice shops and parks with fountains and statues of horses and famous Turkmen of yore. The funny thing is, I ask myself, who are they building all this for? It’s obvious people are not clamoring to come here and Lord knows the local can’t afford to live here so then who is it for? Is it a self-satisfying move of a repressive government to prop themselves up and feel important? A hollow showcase to impress themselves and the few foreigners they let in? Or is it all for the people of Turkmenistan, to make them feel proud of their capital? Maybe all of the above, it depends on who you ask. Well for what it’s worth, it is quite beautiful at night driving around, giant floodlights and neon making things as bright as day, trees festooned with lanterns that light up and chandeliers dangling between giant marble pillars lining the wide boulevards between the giant apartment blocks. Electricity is almost free here for the masses so they spare no expense when it comes to lighting up their city here. I can assure you it is safe to walk alone in any park in town given the amount of lights there are in them.
The locals like to show their humor with all of the building that goens on around here by giving nicknames to all the towers and giant buildings that go up. Trinoshka, Pyatinoshka, Vosminoshka (3-legged, 5-legged and 8-legged respectively) that refer to the 3 towers around town and the number of “legs” that hold them up. There’s also my favorite--Sorokanoshka, 40-legged, which is a big statue of 10 horses in a park. 10 horses x 4 legs each =Get it?? There’s Sozhigalka (the Lighter building) which is the Oil and Gas Ministry building and does look like a big Bic lighter. Shashlik another new tower that does look like a giant shishkebab (that’s what shashlik means). It’s nice to see that whether they approve of al these fancy buildings or not (most don’t really approve) that people can still have a sense of humor about it.
As we drove around taking in the sites, I was of two minds. Part of me thought, Wow this is so amazing and I can’t wait to walk around at night checking everything out, and the other part was saying Tom, where in the hell did you land yourself this time and why? I’m still figuring that out day by day, as I navigate my way through this new project, a new routine and a new, temporary life. Maybe after this project in two years, I’ll take some time off to stay in one place, my house in Brooklyn. That’s some ways away but for now, I’ll blossom where I am, here in Central Asia.
posted by Tom T at 4:17 PM
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