What Color is Your Lada? November 8, 2012

Close of Service Day

Today is my last day in Azerbaijan. I have had to force myself down to write this. I started to feel very disconnected and I have not been able to concentrate enough.  Leaving Azerbaijan was much more difficult than I ever imagined it would be.

The last month was very slow. At the school, it takes the teachers many weeks to arrange the schedules and it makes scheduling clubs with my students very difficult. Furthermore, many of my students are at an age where they start going to tutoring all day long. They are allowed to little outside of their studies-which I always find very sad and stifling for them. Yet I was able to do a few things. At the end of September I took my students to the FLEX exam in Mingechavir. I traveled down to the south of Azerbaijan for a few days to sight see and visit with friends. I attended many weddings for close friends and was not sure how to feel about it. I finished up the organization’s grant and painted a blue dove on the wall.

By the end of October, it was time to start saying good byes. I have guested so much over the past week and have cried with so many people. I have put away so many little gifts and politely explained how it probably would not be a good idea to take any jam in my suitcase. Several little children how come to ask me if it is true that I am leaving. Yes, I say. Why, they ask? Oh, because my family is in America. When are you coming back? I get this question from many adults too. I would love to come back one day, but cannot see the future. At the beginning of October, I could not wait to return back to America. Now, I am very tentative about the whole idea and am very sad to leave everything behind.

It’s all so strange to me. Everyone told me about the second year and how much easier it would be. I did not believe them but it was true. Everyone told me that coming home would be overwhelming. I thought they were crazy but it is true. The idea of returning has gotten so much more difficult. I have a whole life here that I’m very comfortable in. I will miss so many friends, Azerbaijanis and Peace Corps Volunteers. There are so many unknowns waiting back home for me in America and so many decisions to make. . . And am I going to forget my Azerbaijani language skills? Who is going to make me plov? Am I going to have to shower every day and wear more than one outfit in a week?

Looking back on everything, I am so grateful I joined Peace Corps. I have learned so much about myself and my capacity and potential. I made so many wonderful friends and experienced so much. I have great hopes for so many of the people in Barda and for the country of Azerbaijan. It has its problems, a great many of them. But so does America.

I wish the people of Azerbaijan all of the best in the world and could never forget this experience or the kindness that was shown to me.

Post COS Conference September 16, 2012

September 16, 2012

It feels like I just wrote my last post a week ago. Right now, I feel like 2012 has been the fastest year of my life. I swear we were just taking the gas stove out of my house and giving everything a spring cleaning. And now here I am thinking that it will not be long until we have to put the stove back in. 

The past month has been filled with lots of different stuff. First there was the Close of Service (COS) Conference in Baku at the Aqua Water Park. It was quite an interesting couple of days. We talked about a lot of emotions, highs and lows of service, and how to say good-bye to our communities. It was good to reflect on our time and we even got our aspiration statements from before we joined Peace Corps back. It was so strange reading them-I was so impressed with my range of vocabulary from two years ago! But at the same time, it was funny to think how little I understood about into what I was getting myself.  Also, we talked about how to handle conversations back home when people ask hard questions like-what’s Azerbaijan like? Because I could talk for days about it, but most people want an answer in a few sentences. I think one of the hardest things at the conference was knowing that there were a lot of volunteers who I will not see again after the conference.  

Of course, the waterpark area was interesting too at the hotel. There were virtually no lifeguards and it was a free for all. The lifeguard in me just cringed and had to look away during several times to keep from streaming. We went down a whole bunch of slides and I was pretty banged and scratched up afterwards.  And whether or not it was a good idea, we went swimming in the Caspian Sea since we were right on the beach. It was not quite as disgusting as I thought it would be and I have not spouted any extra limbs yet. But I’ll keep you all posted if there are any developments.

Being on this side of COS means a lot of work. I think I have eight different reports to write. Then there are graduate school applications. And then a job search and networking profiles to set up. I’m so glad I have access to internet at home. This past week, I was in Baku again for a COS medical check-up and dental. I was nervous about going to the dentist. My mother has always worked at the dentist office.  I cannot remember the last time I was at the dentist and there were no pictures of me or the donkeys on the walls. They used a really scary electric tool to scrape of the plague on teeth, instead of the hand tools-I was not a fan and am actually starting to sympathize with Azeris who never go to get cleanings. But I had no cavities again, which I still find unbelievable considering how much sugar I eat around here.

Back in Barda, it feels like everything is starting to come back to life after everyone has been hiding in their homes during the hot summer. I have three weddings to go to this month-the first of which I actually really enjoyed for once because I knew so many of the people there. School started yesterday with a ceremony. It was the first time at my Russian Sector School that the ceremony was not in Russian and I actually understood quite a bit of it. They even let me speak at this ceremony for the first time ever!  I have a few clubs still going at school and the office, but mostly I’m trying to wrap up things. The only major things I have left are FLEX and a Halloween Party. With the fall weather, another mouse has decided to move in. Yet I’m not complaining because it sounds like a volunteer in another region has a plague of locus right in their apartment!

As for some of the stuff you see on TV about the recent anti-Muslim film, there are no riots here. It has been really upsetting to hear about it on the news. The American Ambassador to Libya was a former Peace Corps Volunteer to Morocco and it’s sad to see how much damage one person can do when so many other people have worked so hard to build bridges of cultural understanding. I have not been asked about it by any Azeris but they know about it. I was riding back in a minibus on Friday evening and had a very friendly conversation with the couple sitting next to me about where I was from and what I was doing in Azerbaijan. A little while later, a radio report described the video and the embassy attacks on the minibus and it does make a person feel nervous. However, true to their hospitality instincts, I was still invited to sit down for tea at the rest stop.  The people I have met here have been some of the kindest generous people I have ever met. Of course, I have had my ups and downs with Azerbaijanis, but I would say the same things for Americans and anyone else I have met.

Olympics and Chickens August 18, 2012

So speaking of the Azerbaijani wrestling team, they went on to win two gold medals at the Olympics. But I think that might have been the most exciting thing that happened this week. I did go to the village this week to visit my counterpart’s family and it was a very long day where I got to pursue one of my new favorite pastimes-roosters chasing hens through the yard. Not to be crude, but it’s amazing how fast they are.

It seems like everything is very quiet around here and everyone has gone to rest somewhere cooler or they are just hiding indoors. My landlady and now her entire family are in Baku. And few kids are showing up for clubs. I don’t blame them, and am waiting for that promised rain should come this week.

I am trying get everything organized. I have most of the reporting done on my organization’s grant. I wrote graduate school applications this week and dusted off my resume. In a week or so, I’ll be heading off to the Close of Service Conference in Baku. It’s at a waterpark and I couldn’t be more excited. I have every intention of being that annoying kid in the pool who the lifeguards can’t get out of the close at closing time! At the conference we should be discussing details of how to finish our projects and say good-bye to our communities. Also it will be a chance to discuss preparing for returning to America.  I know you might be thinking it’s still a long time off; it’s less than three months.  And considering how fast time flies around there, the pace of Azeris, and school won’t be on track until the middle of October (at which time I believe there will be a week’s break for the Gurban Holiday…) it does not seem like there’s a lot of time for all that’s left.

The Hills Are Alive…. August 10, 2012

It’s been another hot week in Azerbaijan. I’ve been drinking a lot of water and the fan is my new best friend. I dream of air conditioning and pools. To get away from the heat a bit, my office went to the mountains on Saturday, to a place called Acikend. It was absolutely beautiful. We picnicked on the bank of a mountain stream and watched the cows and the sheep roam the mountainside. I hummed The Hills Are Alive with the Sound of Music to myself the whole day but managed to stop myself from twirling around. It was quite the trip to get to this place on the unpaved roads and the old marshrutkas. We had to get out of the buses at several points so that they could get up a difficult part of the road and on the last time, the buses missed their turn and got lost and we spent a good thirty minutes shouting upwards from our picnic spot trying to locate them because nobody’s phone worked that far up and most of us had left them in the bus anyways. I saw many donkeys on this trip and the whole bus would get excited because everyone in Barda knows that my family loves them so much. And we went hiking and drank the water. It was a pretty great trip all in all, except I really annoyed because the mentality of not leaving anything behind is lost on the Azeris and they littered a great deal-despite my pleading to stop. Sunday I was pretty beat. We didn’t return until around midnight the night before and I felt pretty anti-social and I spent most of the day trying to clean my house. It’s been pretty peaceful at home lately because my landlady went to Baku for the month and it’s quite a difference from last month when she had so many guests for days and days. Tuesday night I spent the night with my host mother. She is fasting for Ramadan so she has a wonderful supply of special sweets for when she finishes the fast at night time, including fresh dates and Turkish Delights. It seems that very few people actually fast in Azerbaijan but for those who do it’s very difficult because the days are so long and hot right now. They don’t even drink water (or tea!) during the day. The night I stayed was a special night when Muslims stay up all night and pray. I didn’t realize she planned on doing this and I woke up in at around 2am to hear her and just listened. She seemed to go to bed again around 5am and was up already at 8am. I am so glad we just do Lent, I don’t think I would last very long if I tried to do Ramadan. As for the Olympics, they do not seem to be that popular there. I keep on thinking about all the Olympian athletes who are fasting now while training. Also, has anyone seen the Febreeze commercials with the Olympic Azerbaijani wresting team? They have been quite entertaining to us here, especially when we can show them to the Azerbaijanis.

July in a Nutshell August 3, 2012

It has been a while since my last blog. It has become harder and harder to write blogs. Everything has become very normal to me here.  I don’t notice things that I once thought were strange or out of the ordinary anymore.  I feel like the focus has changed a lot here. We are talking about new volunteers and where they should be placed. We are discussing who will move in after I leave. I’m wondering if I should do anything with the last of my vacation days and how I am going to get to those few places in Azerbaijan that I have missed. The Close of Service conference is coming up at the end of this month were we will talk about wrapping up or service and readjusting to life in America.  While I am still thinking about bringing my girls to their FLEX exams and about putting together another Halloween party, my mind is also worrying about graduate school applications and what I will do for those nine months or so before I can start school again.  And of course, I’m very excited at the same time-only 97 days.

July was a hot month. My sitemate Alise hosted a 4^th of July party for Azeris and got to use all of those Pinterest.com ideas. My other sitemate, Gretchen and I started a yoga class for woman at my house. There are not a lot of women now, but we hope it will grow. I helped out with the Frisbee club at the park. I continued my art club and FLEX is still going despite the heat.

 I visited two other sites. One was Zerdob  which despite it only being about two regions over and just off the main roads, it was surprising hard to get too.  The Baku bus drivers were rather mean about it-wanting the whole price to get to Baku, only four hours away while the road to Zardob was closer to forty-five minutes.  I visited a friend there who lives in this beautiful oasis with a brand new outhouse. She made plum jam and hamburger buns while I was there and it was so good! We had a Disney marathon to pass the time.  I also went to Ismayilli and from there to mountain village of Lahic.  In this village there were some foreigners and it was hard not to stare at them like Azeris do to us. The roads were horrible to get up to  this place-it’s exciting because a lot of roads are being repaved-but until they are finished, the off roading is not so great.

This month, I made a pair of mittens. And I baked another chocolate cake, a peach tart, lasagna, and sweet rolls all from scratch.  The peaches and watermelon are pretty great right now-but the tomatoes don’t seem to be as cheap as last year.  I finished several books, including one called Red Square Blues: The Beginner’s Guide to the Decline of the Soviet Union. It’s about this young  Australian woman who goes to Moscow in the late 1980s and stays with some connections she has made through her parents back in Australia and then continued to return for various trips all over the former Soviet Union for the past twenty years.  It was a great book. 500 pages of “Oh, that’s happened to me!”   My house is still under siege from ants and I think that they are winning. But there are not as many slugs so I’m happy.

 

Lazy Summer Days June 29, 2012

Nothing much as happened here this week either. Everything seems so laid back with school out of session. But this week went by much faster and I feel much lighter.  I am so pleased with the weather; it has some variation.  This is unlike last year, which seemed to be 95 degrees every day without any change at all-it only rained once in two months. We had a rainy day today, and I spent the whole morning in bed reading. The temperatures are closer to 85 to 90 degrees-which is not bad at all.  Everything else is doing well, including clubs and guesting schedules. And I have begun lugging huge and insanely cheap watermelons down the street to my house.

Even so I miss home in the summer. So much that I started to channel my ma this week. I baked up a storm and spent a lot of time weeding in my pumpkin patch. I miss swimming and long walks where the only street harassment came from one particularly aggressive looking penned-up bull in a field.  I dream of going camping and back to the cabin we rented the summer before last. I miss playing Euchre with Grandma and Grandpa on Sundays. As much as I will miss it  here, I’m excited to go boating next year, spend hours picking berries, and even help Pa with haying.

The Longest Week Ever June 23, 2012

After the excitement of the camp last week, this week just dragged on and on. I can’t believe it is only Saturday. I am not exactly sure why I feel this way. Plenty happened-not that I can remember- it was a long time ago after all.  It’s just that sometimes after getting off of my routine; it takes forever to get back on.  So I apologize for the short blog.  But instead of the usual, I want to repeat a legend about Barda that I heard for the first time this week and have been rather fascinated with.

Nushaba meeting Alexander

This story is mentioned by Nizami, a famous Azeri poet and is about Nushaba, a ruler of Barda during the time of Alexander the Great. She was not married, had a palace full of beautiful young slaves, and was very clever. When Alexander came to Barda, he was dazzled by the city and its riches. He wanted to meet the ruler of this beautiful city. When he met with Nushaba, she asked him not to destroy her city. She then called for dinner and instead of food, she had big platters of gold and jewels brought to them. Alexander was bewildered and Nushaba said, “If you cannot eat this, why do you kill for this? If it cannot sustain you, go home and leave us in peace.” Impressed with Nushaba and her wisdom, Alexander left the city in peace.

Now who knows how this story came about, but I’m fascinated by the image of a powerful woman ruling Barda. (I wonder if Antiga is related to her.) And furthermore, curious about how this could be the first time I heard this story. Now one of Barda’s main attractions (of which there are very few now) is the Barda Turbasi, which is a mausoleum and was supposedly a watchtower of sorts. But there are some mud walls from the 6^th century and happened to be called Nushaba Qalası, somewhat unrelatedly I think. But I just think that I should have heard this story before considering how proud Azeris are of their history.  I am going to ask as many people as I can to tell me their verison of this story this coming week.

Camp Week June 18, 2012

 

If you were worrying about my camp, you can stop! The girls did come.  I had fourteen out of twenty-one girls who had signed up and it made a nice number for the week. The camp was held at the school were I have been working, both inside and outside.  It took place every day last week for three hours in the morning before it got hot and before we would have had to worry about lunch. The only real hitches were the projector cord dying and on the first day we had a bird fly into our room.

 The themes of the camp were health, critical thinking and team building.  For health, we had sessions on Healthy Eating, Importance of Exercise, Dental Health, Body Image, and the Effects of Early Marriage. We did a lot of teaming building and critical thinking games as well. We had an egg drop. We had teams design free standing towers from only newspaper and tape. We had a fashion show with designs made only from toilet paper and tape. And we had an origami boat race. In addition we must have played 50 different camp games.

The whole thing was a lot of fun and I do believe we all enjoyed ourselves. My counterparts helped out a lot in translating. And other volunteers, including my sitemates, came to the school to help out. I had a few volunteers staying at my house and it gave me the chance to bake and cook quite a bit. I never realized how easy baking was. I made chocolate cake, brownies, scones, and pancakes all from scratch and they all turned out pretty well.  During my Peace Corps experience I have come to understand that cooking from scratch is actually pretty enjoyable and not as time consuming as you would think-what you have gets used. This week I realized that baking really doesn’t have to be all that complicated either.

Kilos of Cherries! June 6, 2012

Cherries!

I feel like I spent most of May running around and I can’t believe it’s already June! Returned Peace Corps Volunteers will tell you that your second year goes by so much quicker than the first. I certainly did not believe them a year and half ago but they were right. This year is flying by and it’s crazy to think that I only have five months left. I have become very comfortable here and have started forgetting that I’m a foreigner sometimes. I love starting conversations with people and impressing them with a few Azeri phrases or surprising my host family with the new words that I have learned! I was in Baku with Donna last Saturday and an older Azeri man addressed us very politely in decent English about how happy he was to hear more people speaking English in his city. He wanted to know if we were in Azerbaijan for Eurovision but did not understand when we tried to

 tell him that we lived in the regions. So I switched from English to Azerbaijani, and the man was so shocked to hear a foreigner speak Azeri that he literally took a few steps back in shock with his hand over his mouth! Also, I find myself not receiving as much harassment from men on the streets. And I am gorging myself on the fresh fruits with vengeance like everyone else around here! I’ve probably ovedosed on cherries, and unlike last year, I don’t check for worms….

Last week was the last week of school. I went with the 9^th formers to Qax in the mountains to picnic. We piled into a marshrut at 8am with a few teachers and sang Eurovision songs the whole two hour drive. I must have seen about 20 donkeys on the drive! There is a famous waterfall to see up there and Azeris really know how to picnic. I think we spent two hours eating and making tea in the samovar.

Waterfall

A lot of things ended up taking place last week. My camp finally seems to be coming together as I finally got enough girls (and then some!) to sign up. Now I am gathering up supplies, not an easy feat, and waiting to see if the girls actually show up next week. We ended up meeting a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer from Togo who was visiting one of the international organiza

Qax Mountains

tions in Barda and it was interesting to see the differences between what I  think of a more “traditional Peace Corps experience” and Azerbaijan and how some things are the same.

Thursday was Sonn Zeng, or last bell. It is what senior graduation is called here. It is a lot more laid back here than in Ameria, and I was surprised by how few parents seemed to be there, especially compared to last year. After the diplomas are handed out, all the classes perform more traditional dances. Luckily this year I was seated closer to the back and end up texting with other volunteers across the country who were also at Sonn Zeng, trading opinions and puzzlements. Of course, since I am at the Russian language school, I was a lot more confused than the average volunteer.

Baking Bread

I also went to visit with Vefa and Mashallah, the IDP family with the big garden. I was allowed to help make bread (although they sent me home with the loaf I make along with bags and bags of fruit) and I wandered around with their daughter Medina grazing in the garden. I love this family, and when my family and Paul came to Azerbaijan, I took them to meet this family. Even so I was surprised when I was told that Medina is thinking about coming home with me in the fall and her family is on board! Now, I don’t know if this will actually come to pass-it’s always hard to tell when they are serious-but stranger things have happened here! But I was so pleased that her parents have given her permission-I really felt accepted by that more than anything else. And it would be so much fun to take one of my Azeri friends home with me for a while and show her around! It would be like saying, “Hey, you know all those weird things I do and say? Look, I’m not the only one!”

Over the River and through the Woods May 25, 2012

This week is the start of Eurovision in Azerbaijan. Now I had no idea what Eurovision was until I came to this country. Eurovision is a song contest in which every country in the European Broadcasting Union submits a song and all countries vote for the other countries songs to determine the most popular song. ABBA won in 1974 with Waterloo and Celine Dion won in 1988. Last year, Azerbaijan won the contest with the song entitled Running Scared, which has been playing on the radio nonstop ever since. And I see the performers, Eldar and Nigar, everywhere from ads to concerts and could tell you quite a bit about them based on countless retellings by Azerbaijanis.

Azerbaijanis have been quite pleased with themselves for winning this contest, as they are whenever they are given the chance to showcase their country. If your country wins the song contest, the event then takes in your own country.  Baku has been really cleaned up for the event. Metered purple taxis, resembling the cabs in London were introduced for the event. Futuristic buildings have been rushed to be finished. The Flame Towers are finished, at least on the outside. Of course, there have been a lot of politics surrounding the event which is easy to google, if you’re interested.

People keep on asking me why I haven’t gone to Eurovision this week. My neighbors and friends have quite the hard time accepting that I have no real interest in the whole thing, especially considering how much a ticket costs. I am constantly reminding people that Eurovision is a European thing, and most Americans do not follow it. But everyone keeps saying that many Americans are going to Eurovision and I must have watched it because they broadcast the contest on American television. Sometimes it’s interesting to watch my American cultural ignorance go up against Azerbaijani cultural ignorance. Nobody ever seems to win, but it highlights the differences in our thinking.

Aside from Eurovison, it’s been another busy week. The grant is going well. But we are hoping once school is let out that we will have some more students because it is a bit slow at the office. At school, the year is wrapping up. Many students have just stopped coming because all the books were sent back to the library a few days ago-even though there is a week of school left. . .This has made me a little nervous. I am planning a camp for the girls at my school, and I feel the need to constantly remind them of when it is-even though permission slips were sent home with them. I’m afraid that they will forget to come, especially since I have all these fun new games to play with them!

On Saturday, I went to school for my student’s own vision on Eurovison-which seemed to be a lip signing contest, but entertaining nonetheless. Then I hosted a Peace Corps Volunteer birthday party, and I think about 12 volunteers ended up at my house for dinner. The neighbors tried to sell them Azeri dolls and piroshkies. We made stir-fry and while guests played a lot of board games left by previous volunteers. It was quite the tiring little event, but I got to meet an AZ9 who actually was in the same class as me at UW-Madison. Small world, big campus. I had never met her before.

On Sunday, Alise and I joined Donna and her visiting family in Sheki. Sheki is a couple of hours north of there and is Azerbaijan’s best known tourist spot. It’s located on the side of a mountain and looks like a little European village complete with a palace, a charming caravan hotel, and an old Albanian church. It was quite the day. We rode up with an ex-pat from Red Cross living in Barda and got to meet up with a Sheki volunteer. We had lunch in this beautiful little spot, called the hunting lodge. We probably ordered too much food, but it’s always so difficult at restaurants because there are never any menus, so you just start asking for food you think they might have and hope they bring out the right amount. All in all, it was so beautiful there, I wished I could have stayed!