Melon Day

Melon Day was Sunday, August 9th


Hey folks! Well, I'm back into the swing of things in Turkmenistan. The last week went well and everybody missed me so it wasn't too bad. I still miss my Mom and my daily gelato, but that's the way vacations go -- they end. Anyway, yesterday was Melon Day in Turkmenistan. Supposedly there are many varieties of melon in T.stan, but truthfully, I've only seen two: watermelon and another football shaped honeydew-like melon. And, in fact, at my family's home, we've only eaten watermelon. It's really popular -- tractors with wagons teeming with watermelon trawl the streets honking their horns to attract customers. You can buy however much you want right in front of your home. It's like our equivalent of an ice-cream truck -- only watermelon! In my family, we eat watermelon every afternoon somewhere between 4 and 6 depending on when my host mom gets up from her nap. And, because they're Turkmen, they eat their watermelon with bread. My host mom thinks it's very strange that I don't each much bread at all, and since I came back I've been eating even less. And I would definitely not eat bread with watermelon -- weird taste combo. That's culture for you. So yesterday, as usual, I sat down to my afternoon snack and she offered me bread and I declined. Then, she started telling me about a group of doctors from T.stan who visited the States two years ago. They were impressed by our hospitals and our hospital beds (they go up and down at the touch of a button!), our cities, our "bazaars," our hotels -- everything. They said it was amazing -- you could get anything you could possible want ... EXCEPT Turkmen bread. They missed their bread and no rye or pumpernickel or zucchini or banana or pumpkin or foccacia or French loaf would suffice. The wanted Turkmen bread cooked in a Turkmen tamdor (clay bee-hive shaped oven). Turkmen are serious about their bread. Now, I would argue that it's not very open-minded -- just because we aren't ritual bread eaters doesn't mean our bread isn't good. But hey, what do I know? Zohre (host mom) told me that these people were also surprised that there are poor people living in the streets in America. She said, "We don't have that in Turkmenistan!" Which I guess is true -- I haven't seen any except for the beggar kids at the bazaars in the city who burn grass in your face and try to get money for you (the grass is supposed to be good for you somehow -- same stuff my host sister burns at home -- but I hate the smell.) In T.stan, I have a feeling that if anyone finds themselves homeless, someone in the extended family would take them in -- one of the benefits of ginormous family circles. I've also heard that the government "hides" them, so there's that possibility, too. But it got me thinking, how is it that Turkmenistan does homelessness better than we do? (assuming the destitute aren't "hidden") And then I remembered that their population is only about 5 million people (the government says 6 million -- it's debatable) and that seems like a much more manageable figure than 330 million (give or take). Anyway, it was an interesting conversation and I actually enjoy talking to my host mom when she's not nagging me (a lesson well learned: I hate it so much that I will strive in my life to never be a nag ... or at least not as bad as she is -- she nags me about stuff weeks after the fact. AH!) However, she ran out of stuff to say and by the third time she started repeating the story I got up and left. So yeah, that's Melon Day for you. There was a party last night that I decided not to go to -- I asked my sister if they'd have all sorts of melon to eat and she said no. It's just like any other party: same food, same people, no melon. In honor of melon day, make a nice fruit salad. Know what melon they DON'T have here? Cantaloupe. Mmmmm, I love cantaloupe. Enjoy your week!Hugs,Jessica