backtracking: two sitemate birthdays: laura and sean

behold laura (right) and her shiny new azeri boots

laura's bday song from brandon

random pic from pizza night at my place. only the black cat is mine.

Grant 2, Stage 1: Complete

For the past two weeks I've been working on a SPA (Small Project Assistance) grant application for an English Language Resource Center (ELRC). SPA grants are actually USAID monies given to the Peace Corps to distribute to worthy applicants. Even though I spent a good deal of time on my application, there is still the chance it will get rejected. Usually, SPA grant applications are not rejected, but instead PC asks for improvements and changes. All in all, if I do receive the grant, money will not be distributed until the end of March.
Generally, creating English language resource centers is one of the most (if not THE most) generic grant a PCV can write. But does that matter? Since my second day of training in Philadelphia the PC has emphasized working on projects that HCNs (Host Country Nationals....a lot of acronyms?) want. Ideally, in a grant writing situation, it will seem as if the PCV merely facilitatesthe grant process and all the work truly comes from the HCNs instead. Well, the reason I wrote a grant for an ELRC is because my self declared Counterpart (CP) wants one. She is an Azerbaijani school teacher who recently worked as a staff member with PC training new volunteers (PCTs...now i'm just including all the acronyms to be cute...or uncute really). I promised my CP that if she worked with PC (ha!) I would help her write a grant for ELRC. Well, a good PCV must live up to her word with a CP for the good of PC and USA, right? So, ELRC it is.
If the thing gets approved, then I'll post some of my grant writing on my blog for those who are curious.

is it just me, or is there a religious war out there?

i'm reading the nytimes online today and i've already come across the following headlines:

-Churches Attacked in Malaysian 'Allah' Dispute
-Egypt: Suspects in Shooting at Coptic Church Surrender
-Anger Over Move to Bar Sunni from Iraqi Elections
-France: Imam Deported to Egypt
-Philippines: Fighting In South (Fierce fighting erupted between rogue Muslim rebels and an armed group believed to have been involved in the massacre of 57 people in the southern Philippines)

And this is just the obvious stuff. I'm not even discussing Israel vs. Iran or the United States for that matter. Not too long ago the Swiss (the SWISS?!) passed a law banning the building of any new minarets on mosques in Switzerland. Just so you know, minarets are historically where the call to prayer emanated from. They are basically tall pillars. They definitely add to the unique aesthetic of mosques altogether and in my opinion, they don't really differ from putting gigantic crosses on the top of churches.
So yes, there is a religious and cultural war going on. Worldwide. But....
But?
I don't feel it here in Azerbaijan. I really don't. In Azerbaijan just about everyone is Muslim, but mostly this post Soviet nation is just excited about the prospect of religion. In other words, Azeris are not very open minded towards Atheists, but otherwise (from my experience) they love hearing about foreign religions. Well...monotheistic religions for the most part. They will listen to you talk about Hinduism and try to understand. I've never heard an Azeri actually criticize Hinduism, but then again knowledge about the religion hardly exists here altogether. Sometimes, I feel I disappoint Azeris by telling them I'm Jewish and not because of Judiasm per se, but because they seem so damn excited to meet Christians. But when I tell people I'm Jewish they treat me like I'm this special foreign object...but that treatment has been totally devoid of cruelty and aggressive bias. Perhaps they are silently judging? Probably some are. Why? Because, just as Azerbaijanis don't know that Americans speak English and that all English speakers are not some ethnicity called English, they don't realize that the Jewish diaspora is super strange in that it has a million different manifestations. I might be Jewish, but I'm not religious, I'm not a Zionist, and I'm not Israeli. Generally, I'd say that Azerbaijanis are not anti-Israel, but they absolutely worry for the horrifying Palestinian condition.
SO, back to the point.
There is a religious war everywhere....but somehow it isn't so present here. I recently visited a Jewish village in Quba where people actually say "Shalom" instead of "Salam". Also, for the first time, I recently saw a swastika on a wall near where I live. It sticks out. People have already tried to paint over it. When I show it to people they tell me: "Oh, I don't think whoever put that up knows what a swastika really is". Maybe they are right. After all, most Azeris do not know about the Holocaust and its association with the swastika.
All in all and if anyone actually still reads this blog, I just want to say this: peaceful Muslims exist in this world. I just hope we can continue to reach out to them before they too get absorbed in this world wide war. I guess what i'm saying is: hoooray peace corps. (i'm patting myself on the back).

t minus 11 months

but hey, who is counting anyways?

right now i'm busy. i'm trying to finish a SPA (small project assistance) grant before january 15th, trying to write a grant for a community garden project, and trying to revamp the environmental committee website. also, i watched my sitemate's two cats for nearly a month. so i've had three cats for a month. i'm also getting some major reconstruction done to my apartment. as a result i have strangers walking in and out of my apartment at a minute's notice everyday. busy busy busy.

new years was great. i went to baku and lived it up with my friends. at this point, my group of volunteers are very close to one another. whether we ever wanted to or not, we know each other and far too much information about each other. so, we've all learned to love one another in some manifestation of the meaning of the word. i've never really experienced a small community like this before. as a consequence it is hard for us to meet the new volunteers because it feels strange to start all over or to be newly judged again. however, we'll all just have to get used to it, like everything else in the peace corps.

on a side note, i visited two new cities/towns here: Xachmaz and Quba. I will post pictures as soon as I get my camera back. I left it with another volunteer..here's looking at you amy.

view of lesser caucasus from my back balcony

so the city sleeps, Christmas in Mingechevir

Smokey cold washes the low hills
Makes creeping funnels
That swing slowly
With a creak
As they reach my unfinished house

Up high
Partially embedded in sky
The sun can’t reach the river
So the blue washes out
And becomes
Grey today

Huddled in a warm corner
Hugging knees to chest
The electricity is rickety,
But on

Across the whole city
Gas fires burn orange

Rusted roofs disappear
The grey today
Has taken them
And collected them
in one hand
Cupped closed
For warmth

beast and oscar...sibling love

recent work

sorry the quality of my photos has decreased. because of my slow internet speed i've decreased the value of the photos on my blog in order to upload them.

kitten take over situation

right now i'm watching three cats...and i will be watching three cats until my sitemate andrea returns in early january. it is pretty hilarious having them around. they are damn cute when they want to be. they also produce way too much poop. boy do i miss kitty litter! i have to clean out boxes filled with sandy dirt and crap every other day. but, i guess i'll do anything for love. just a note: the three cats are brothers and sisters...all descendents from my sitemate kim's cat scout. they are generally used to each other and get along. i've got beast, the girl, and andrea has felix and oscar (formally baskin and robbins), the boys.
in other news we received four new sitemates. mingechevir now has 8 americans residing in it. it's nice having all these newbies. i want to start a number of projects and i'm hoping that some of them will join and help me. wish me luck. just to break it down: we have three women, two in their twenties and one who is older...i dont know her age. this latter volunteer has got a treasure trove of experience to pull from and i'm excited to have her here. luckily peace corps azerbaijan gets its fair share of 50 plus volunteers and i love having them as sitemates. when you are stuck in the same small town with someone for a year or two the more stories they have to tell the better. we also got one guy in his twenties. we badly needed a male to help us with all the young males in our community so this is a relief.

new projects i hope to start soon:

community garden project
art mural
some stuff with my host org regarding diversifying funds, etc
build a website for environmental committee
internet course at the IDP school

let's see...what else. well, the other day in an extreme wind storm i thought i might lose an entire wall. that was plenty scary. i have a wall mostly made from wood and glass windows. the whole thing starting leaning inwards towards me in the wind. infact, most of the frames (around windows, doors) got somewhat dislodged in the storm. so i ran around my apartment trying to board up the window/door/wall with wood and nails in hope of saving my wall. of course i had no electricity at the time too. eventually i sat on the ground with hammer, nail, and flashlight in hand just watching the wall, hoping i could stop the boarding process. i'm happy to report i still have a home with all of its walls.

a word about Save the Children and other things I once thought

The other day I traveled to a region called Ismaili to help my good friend move her belongings and to help her organize her living situation. Unfortunately, PCVs are often kicked out of their housing with little notice. In Azerbaijan, it is incredibly weird for PCV females (and males) to live by themselves. In Azerbaijan no one lives alone. No one moves out unless they are married and even then they move into another family's home. The nuclear family structure here is large. So, when PCV females live alone, they seem highly suspicious...we seem like we might be prostitutes. PCVs have asked PC Azerbaijan to change their rules regarding this, but to no avail (PCVs must live alone or with a host family, no exception). So, to make a long story short, my friend ran into housing trouble and I headed north.
On my return to trip to Mingechevir I caught a free ride with Mingechevir employees of Save the Children. I remember, distinctly, my biases against Save the Children while living in the states. I couldn't tell if this organization was legit or not. In NYC, you will often run across canvassers for Save the Children asking you for your money in the name of children. These canvassers always annoyed me for a number of reasons: They tried to make me feel guilty and the only thing they asked for me was money. The latter bothers me because I believe organizers should provide a way for people to help beyond just reaching into their pockets. What if I'm entirely broke, but I want to help? I asked a canvasser this question once and they had no suggestions for me. They had no petition for me to sign, no issue to educate me on, etc. Consequently, I decided Save the Children just wasn't good enough to consider.
Well, I've changed my mind. Save the Children really exists, it really employs HCNs (host country nationals...locals) in developing countries, and it certainly does provide assistance to children. The Save the Children employees I rode home with were returning from an awareness event with Ismaili government authorities regarding children with disabilities. I still think canvassers for Save the Children should diversify, but I was wrong to dismiss the organization entirely.
The things you learn out in here...you never know.