Chasing the Sea

One of the best things established by PCVs is the library in the Peace Corps office. It is in dire need of organization, but the library has hundreds of books donated by volunteers. And because I can never say no to a book, I now have my own fledging library in my room of books of my own, books from friends, books Priscilla has sent me, and books I’ve borrowed from the library. And when I’m done with all of those, I can start on all the Vietnam books my school’s English-language library has (don’t ask me why).

On my last trip to Tirana, I brought five books home with me. Good thing my host father had bookshelves built into my new room where I’ll be staying, in the family home, for the next year. Having my books near me provides such a comfort and reminds me of home. Maybe “home” is really where my book collection is.

So aside from a Guenther Grass and all those Weisse Massai books, I picked up Chasing the Sea by Tom Bissell. Bissell was a PCV in Uzbekistan in 1996 that ended up ETing (early terminating; or what I call “boomeranging,” which I definitely mean in the pejorative). Even though he only stayed seven months into service, he still managed to write a great book. It’s part travelogue, part memoir, part history, and part adventure story, as he returns to Uzbekistan five years later to examine the disappearance of the Aral Sea. Along the way, he recollects on his terminated service, details Central Asian history and introduces us to a whole set of characters and places that are at once exotic but yet familiar.

What I appreciate most is the parallels I can draw between his experiences there and mine here. I laughed out loud when he talked about how everyone knows where they’re going in Tashkent but no one knows where anything is (uhm, Tirana?!), or when he goes into detail about food preparation, PST and inter-PCV relationships, largely because it all seems so familiar. Part of me also wanted to read this because my first placement was to Central Asia (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan or Turkmenistan) and I often think about how different my experience would have been if I went there. This book gives me a lot to think about.