The Schirm Project

This blog will discuss my journey with the Peace Corps in teaching English in Turkmenistan as well as my development an annual sports camp for youth. The views that are depicted here are soley mine and do not reflect the views of the Peace Corps or its staff.

Name:
Location: Denver, CO, United States

I'm a fiancee soon to be husband, an RPCV from Turkmenistan and a former Public Affairs professional. I started the Foreign Service process in March 2010 and am currently on the registry for the Public Diplomacy tract. I am happy to help any and all people that have questions about my experiences.

Wednesday, November 02, 2005

Alive and well down on the farm in Gokje

Hi everyone,

It has been a while since I have gotten the opportunity to actually sit down and post something to the blog since I have been here. As you may or may not know I am now living in a town just to the west of Ashgabat, called Gokche. I am living with a host family that has now four cows, they killed one last week in celebration of Turkmenistan's Independence day, which is October 27. I get up every morning and feed the cows and muck the stalls, thankfully I have yet to have the pleasure of milking the cows.

I am working in School 18 within Gokche working with all different age groups. I have already started teaching practice lessons, organized and ran a camp with the other Gokche volunteers, and have started beggining planning a teacher training session and a number of clubs. Plus with working six days a week, we stay busy whether it is learning language or in the classroom.

Learning the language is coming along. The basic grammar of Turkmen I understand, now I just need to build up my vocabulary. Wish me luck. I will find out where I will be placed for the next two years in three weeks. I will definetly let you all know as soon as I find out what my new address will be after December.

Thank you to all of you that have sent letters already. If you have any juicy questions that I havent answered in this post, please write me a letter. It takes about 2 1/2 weeks for the mail to get here, so just be patient with my response.

Peace

Chris

"Remember its not about you, its about how open you let yourself become."
-Matt Cregor 2005-