Friday, January 9, 2009
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
random pics 'cause my mom asked for them.
me looking goofy at swear in
all of CED (community economic development) program at our last trainingMonday, January 5, 2009
back to vagabond
twas a good week. i saw some sights, i met up with some people. i went from ujar to mingechevir (for less than an hour) to zaqatala to baku and back again. azerbaijan is truly diverse in its own way. ujar and zaqatala couldn't be more different. and, same goes for mingechevir. strangely, of the four places, it seems that ming and baku have the most in common: they are both modern cities.
ujar is a city in the middle of the country and it is rather flat. on a beautiful clear day, like the one i arrived on, you can see some amazing mountains in the distance. i would post a picture, but i'm an idiot and i lost my camera in baku (typical of me, i think). ujar is, for lack of a better description, just a seemingly typical azerbaijani town. it seems both heavily soviet and yet strangely middle eastern. while in ujar, an az 5 had a christmas party and for said party the volunteers bought and killed a chicken. yeah, i watched a chicken get its head cut off. it is about as fascinating as it sounds. the volunteers preceded to pluck it, skin it, and do to it whatever meat eaters do to chickens they kill. i'm proud of them though: if i were to eat meat, then i would want to go through those motions as well. i do think that people ought to know what they are eating and how it gets on their plates. however, i'm vegetarian so screw that :)
don't get me wrong though, i definitely ate well anyways.
i took an early marshrutka (small mini van) from ujar to goychay and from goychay to ming again. then i got into my host family's car about 30 min later and headed straight north to a small mountain town near russia called zaqatala. zaqatala is home to about 5 volunteers...5 lucky volunteers bc it is beautiful. sometimes, it is maybe even too quaint, but to be a volunteer there is to be a lucky volunteer. zaqatala is a liberal mountain town with good people, nice architecture, a billion places to hike around. while there i spent one night with an az 5 named donnie and an az 6 (josh). the next night i stayed with my friend (az 6) loki and her host family. her host family is absolutely hilarious...she basically has 4 brothers. luckily, zaq is more liberal than other parts of the country so being around so many young men wasn't awkward at all, just hilarious.
on the night of 30th, loki (from alaska...i actually ate some canned salmon from alaska while in zaq, hell yeah!) and i took a night train from zaq to baku. basically, that means we traveled from one corner of the country to another. the night trains are slow and it took about 12 hours. it was incredibly surreal when the soviet train pulled up. it was just so big, clunky, and...i dont know. ancient looking. we bought the cheapest beds and were crammed with a bunch of othe relatively young night riders. we got seated across from a young english teacher who was very enthusiastic about speaking english with us, but of course her english was rather poor. so, essentially she interrupted loki and i's conversation every 5-10 min or so with completely out of context questions like "i have heard of brunch. do you have brunch?" or, "do you know words to Titanic (a seriously popular movie in azerbaijan", etc. loki faced the brunt of all that...i kinda laid in my bunk and listened to the ten new albums i got in ujar from jeff (the az 5 we stayed with).
finally, loki and i arrived in baku and were greeted with quite a lot of snow. and, well...this snow didn't stop coming for the next 30 hours or so. it was approx. 8am and we needed to find our way to the peace corps office so that we could hangout in the volunteer lounge until hotel check in time. we only got lost once (damn you 116 bus! the most ghetto bus in all of baku). then eventually we made our way over to the hotel in which all the volunteers were checking in. i won't mention the hotel by name because i want to discuss its "not so niceness". man....o man. first of all, my room had a whole in the door. next, i could lay in bed and count the number of squashed flies on the wall. i also had to ask the xanims (ladies) who work for the hotel to help me in order to get heat...after they had supposedly already turned it on. also, half of the window panes were knocked out so we had half the protection against cold elements. the stairway right next to my room had a trash pile in it and a leaky roof that let water drip directly on it. there was a mattress hanging out in the hallway. and so on. i don't know, you gotta see the rooms at this establishment in order to understand. but, regardless, it housed us and it served its purpose. and don't misunderstand: this place is peace corps pre-approved...it is safe. so, overall i was satisfied.
the day after new years baku was a sheet of ice and so no one could leave the city. this caused us all to become a lot poorer. baku is expensive! and we are all volunteers. but hell it was fun. even though i lost my camera.
on jan 2nd we were all permitted to leave (buses were running) and 6 volunteers came back to ming (on top of the 8 who already live there) just to hangout. i really enjoyed it, but it was chaotic. unfortunately, none of the az 6rs can have their own place right now. therefore, the responsibility for housing etc ended up falling on the az 5s. i feel really bad about that. i cannot wait to have my own place. but, despite that, hilarity was had.
and how, back to "normal" life: not understanding what people are saying about me and using my computer for internet access at work.
ujar is a city in the middle of the country and it is rather flat. on a beautiful clear day, like the one i arrived on, you can see some amazing mountains in the distance. i would post a picture, but i'm an idiot and i lost my camera in baku (typical of me, i think). ujar is, for lack of a better description, just a seemingly typical azerbaijani town. it seems both heavily soviet and yet strangely middle eastern. while in ujar, an az 5 had a christmas party and for said party the volunteers bought and killed a chicken. yeah, i watched a chicken get its head cut off. it is about as fascinating as it sounds. the volunteers preceded to pluck it, skin it, and do to it whatever meat eaters do to chickens they kill. i'm proud of them though: if i were to eat meat, then i would want to go through those motions as well. i do think that people ought to know what they are eating and how it gets on their plates. however, i'm vegetarian so screw that :)
don't get me wrong though, i definitely ate well anyways.
i took an early marshrutka (small mini van) from ujar to goychay and from goychay to ming again. then i got into my host family's car about 30 min later and headed straight north to a small mountain town near russia called zaqatala. zaqatala is home to about 5 volunteers...5 lucky volunteers bc it is beautiful. sometimes, it is maybe even too quaint, but to be a volunteer there is to be a lucky volunteer. zaqatala is a liberal mountain town with good people, nice architecture, a billion places to hike around. while there i spent one night with an az 5 named donnie and an az 6 (josh). the next night i stayed with my friend (az 6) loki and her host family. her host family is absolutely hilarious...she basically has 4 brothers. luckily, zaq is more liberal than other parts of the country so being around so many young men wasn't awkward at all, just hilarious.
on the night of 30th, loki (from alaska...i actually ate some canned salmon from alaska while in zaq, hell yeah!) and i took a night train from zaq to baku. basically, that means we traveled from one corner of the country to another. the night trains are slow and it took about 12 hours. it was incredibly surreal when the soviet train pulled up. it was just so big, clunky, and...i dont know. ancient looking. we bought the cheapest beds and were crammed with a bunch of othe relatively young night riders. we got seated across from a young english teacher who was very enthusiastic about speaking english with us, but of course her english was rather poor. so, essentially she interrupted loki and i's conversation every 5-10 min or so with completely out of context questions like "i have heard of brunch. do you have brunch?" or, "do you know words to Titanic (a seriously popular movie in azerbaijan", etc. loki faced the brunt of all that...i kinda laid in my bunk and listened to the ten new albums i got in ujar from jeff (the az 5 we stayed with).
finally, loki and i arrived in baku and were greeted with quite a lot of snow. and, well...this snow didn't stop coming for the next 30 hours or so. it was approx. 8am and we needed to find our way to the peace corps office so that we could hangout in the volunteer lounge until hotel check in time. we only got lost once (damn you 116 bus! the most ghetto bus in all of baku). then eventually we made our way over to the hotel in which all the volunteers were checking in. i won't mention the hotel by name because i want to discuss its "not so niceness". man....o man. first of all, my room had a whole in the door. next, i could lay in bed and count the number of squashed flies on the wall. i also had to ask the xanims (ladies) who work for the hotel to help me in order to get heat...after they had supposedly already turned it on. also, half of the window panes were knocked out so we had half the protection against cold elements. the stairway right next to my room had a trash pile in it and a leaky roof that let water drip directly on it. there was a mattress hanging out in the hallway. and so on. i don't know, you gotta see the rooms at this establishment in order to understand. but, regardless, it housed us and it served its purpose. and don't misunderstand: this place is peace corps pre-approved...it is safe. so, overall i was satisfied.
the day after new years baku was a sheet of ice and so no one could leave the city. this caused us all to become a lot poorer. baku is expensive! and we are all volunteers. but hell it was fun. even though i lost my camera.
on jan 2nd we were all permitted to leave (buses were running) and 6 volunteers came back to ming (on top of the 8 who already live there) just to hangout. i really enjoyed it, but it was chaotic. unfortunately, none of the az 6rs can have their own place right now. therefore, the responsibility for housing etc ended up falling on the az 5s. i feel really bad about that. i cannot wait to have my own place. but, despite that, hilarity was had.
and how, back to "normal" life: not understanding what people are saying about me and using my computer for internet access at work.
warning: this is about being a woman in az
again: if you are squeamish about the female anatomy or about periods, then don't read this post. however, for some women in my family, this has to be said and will be fascinating:
having your period in azerbaijan is rough. i mean, really strange and difficult. first of all, if you happen to actually have a western style toilet, then it is very likely that there is no trashcan in the bathroom. also, you can't flush anything down the toilets. on top of that, apparently the topic of periods is taboo in this culture, so it isn't ok to ask other women what they do when they have their periods. on top of that, i've been told that it is also taboo to show blood. so....what am i supposed to do with said tampon? the blood issue matters because, if I elect to stop using tampons and to use more eco-friendly products (which i want to do), then these things require cleaning. it is not always the case that the sink is with the toilet. in most cases, the toilet is separate from the hamam (the rest of th bathroom). Therefore, I would have to carry whatever i use from one place to another). let me also clarify: there are hardly any trashcans in azerbaijan in total. in my home, which is really nice, there is maybe one mini trashcan in the kitchen...but certainly none in the bathroom. so, if i wake up in the middle of the nite and i need to change my tampon, then i have to go outside (its FREEZING...its winter), take out my tampon, and take it....where (i have a western style toilet)? i've got a similar problem at work too. it is just frustrating. i guess this all goes to show that there are advantages to having the squat toilet.
having your period in azerbaijan is rough. i mean, really strange and difficult. first of all, if you happen to actually have a western style toilet, then it is very likely that there is no trashcan in the bathroom. also, you can't flush anything down the toilets. on top of that, apparently the topic of periods is taboo in this culture, so it isn't ok to ask other women what they do when they have their periods. on top of that, i've been told that it is also taboo to show blood. so....what am i supposed to do with said tampon? the blood issue matters because, if I elect to stop using tampons and to use more eco-friendly products (which i want to do), then these things require cleaning. it is not always the case that the sink is with the toilet. in most cases, the toilet is separate from the hamam (the rest of th bathroom). Therefore, I would have to carry whatever i use from one place to another). let me also clarify: there are hardly any trashcans in azerbaijan in total. in my home, which is really nice, there is maybe one mini trashcan in the kitchen...but certainly none in the bathroom. so, if i wake up in the middle of the nite and i need to change my tampon, then i have to go outside (its FREEZING...its winter), take out my tampon, and take it....where (i have a western style toilet)? i've got a similar problem at work too. it is just frustrating. i guess this all goes to show that there are advantages to having the squat toilet.
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
findiq insteyirsen?
today i got to go out with our kend teserrufati (agriculture) loan officer to check out some new mushteri (clients). Essentially, i watched as the loan officer filled in a form assessing the client's assests in terms of collateral. i'm willing to bet there is a professional term for that, but i didn't go to business school. it is interesting how i understand the purpose and function for everything, but i don't know the official terms in english for them just becaue i didn't go to business school. no matter...
so the best part was when we went to the second farm and met a woman and a man. the woman insisted on feeding us, but of course we didn't want any food. well, she had a mind of her own. she ran into the kitchen, got a plate of nuts, and ran with the plate out to us. When the two other employees declined she forced the nuts into both my pockets. and the employees laughed and let it happen. thanks guys....
however, they are great nuts: hazelnuts and walnuts.
sigh
:)
so the best part was when we went to the second farm and met a woman and a man. the woman insisted on feeding us, but of course we didn't want any food. well, she had a mind of her own. she ran into the kitchen, got a plate of nuts, and ran with the plate out to us. When the two other employees declined she forced the nuts into both my pockets. and the employees laughed and let it happen. thanks guys....
however, they are great nuts: hazelnuts and walnuts.
sigh
:)
Monday, December 22, 2008
yeni IL!!
thats me and my brother. obviously, i'm the one with a santa face. but...in az it is not santa claus, but instead a new years/winter non religious affiliated kind of guy. i'm forgetting his official name here and hating myself for it. i hope to find it later. but, in general, christmas and new years is rolled into one holiday for azerbaijan. of course, christmas is not really christmas, but the faces of santa claus and the yeni il (new years) tree, as i've said before, have been integrated into new years. this is completely normal for me...i don't celebrate christmas. however, for some of my pcv friends, this is hard to take. i've never met so many people who are somewhat disturbed by the idea of a lack of christmas in their lives.
on otherhand, chanukah started yesterday and i actually got a chanukah present! ha! my friend Andrea, as usual, was on top of it and she got me a stuffed kirpi!!!!! i love it. ohhhh man. kirpi = hedgehog. so now i have a stuffed animal hedgehog. my old cluster loves to tease me (mene satashir ?) about my love for kirpi. happy jew time to all.
ayhan (moon king)...my little bro in az
here is my adorable host brother ayhan...which means moon king (ay =moon/month, han = king/tsar). he is 11 and already very good at english. my host family prioritizes english language learning...and language learning in general. he is extraordinarily well behaved. i'm very lucky indeed. and i love playing with him.
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
quasi bizarre moment. a day in the life.
yesterday as i was walking from the bus stop to home for lunch i came across a huge gap in the road. come from the gap was a large flame. apparently some sort of pipe burst and caught on fire (natural gas?). so what did i do (being the foreigner i am?)? I took out my camera and started taking pictures. immediately an old old man with one tooth and a long stick (makeshift cane?) came up to me and started asking me why i was taking pictures. i told him that the situation was very interesting for me. then he started saying some other things including the words danish and olmaz (to speak, not allowed) and i had no idea what he meant so i made a joke saying how it was so nice and warm near the fire hole. he maybe laughed....well, his eyes looked like they wanted to laugh (or so i tell myself) and then i walked away. he at least said goodbye to me.
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
my new mailing address
Central Post Office
Samad Vurgun Kuch 20
Mingechevir, Azerbaijan
AZ 4500
i trust this address...laura has already received stuff from the states. also, the lady who works at the pocht (post office) is so nice that gave us her personal phone number.
Samad Vurgun Kuch 20
Mingechevir, Azerbaijan
AZ 4500
i trust this address...laura has already received stuff from the states. also, the lady who works at the pocht (post office) is so nice that gave us her personal phone number.
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