During the Day...

So in response to a couple of questions about what I’m doing at work, here goes:

I’m continuing to teach conversational English classes two days a week. Right now this consists of getting the kids to talk – a lot of their English language knowledge is grammar and while that knowledge is necessary, it means they can tell me about the types of nouns a lot better than they can tell me what they did yesterday. So I’m sure they’re sick of all of my questions, but they are speaking more than they used to and that’s good – even if it’s not perfect they are hopefully increasing their confidence in it. They’re also recognizing that they don’t need to know every English word before they can speak English – for example, they’ll ask me a word in English and a couple of times I haven’t known the answer – not the translation, but the English word. Part of it is because I’m not a walking dictionary and part of it is that I don’t know British English – what, a swine is the same as a pig?

My organization also has computer classes at our center in Ucar. There are many villages that surround Ucar and are varying distances from the actual town. We currently have locations in a couple of the villages and would like to expand to another one. This village, Shadlig, is about 20 – 25 minutes from Ucar and only has public transportation into Ucar once a day. So this town is ideal in its location because the residents do not have easy access to the center in Ucar unless they have their own transportation, which is not common. An arrangement has been made with the local school for use of one of their empty classrooms, now all we need to do is get the computers. But to get the computers, we need money. That’s where I can help. I’m going to write a grant that will hopefully be approved and then we’ll be able to purchase computers for this village “branch” of our center. Right now I’m working through all of the logistical questions:

• What besides the actual computers do we need?
• What’s the budget?
• With this grantor the organization needs to put in 20% – can they afford that?
• What are some of the risks associated with undertaking this project?
• How will it continue to be sustainable after the computers are installed?
• What exactly will be taught in these classes?
• And on and on and on...

Well, now I’ve written on my blog about it. I guess it’s about time to work on the application…

In Azerbaijan They Drive on the Right (Most of the Time)...

Riding in a car in Azerbaijan is an adventure. As Peace Corps Volunteers we are not allowed to drive or own a vehicle. This is for two purposes (that I know of): one, it increases our safety and two, we are expected to live at the level of the locals, and owning a car is not a common thing here. As the title of this entry foretells, they do drive on the right, which is helpful as a foreigner (knowing which way to look – very important as pedestrians are not given the right of way) but that doesn’t tell the whole story. Very few roads have lines – down the middle, between lanes, or on the sides. There are very few traffic lights. Roads are pretty much open territory. If the right side of the road has a big pothole in it, why not drive on the left to avoid it? If there are cows or sheep being herded across the road, drive on the left or wait for them to finish crossing (herds can be from just a few animals to over 50, which usually takes up more than one lane). If the road curves to the left, drive in the left lane to make the trip that much more efficient. And while I’m not saying this is wrong, I am saying that it’s very different from the order/attempted order you see on American roads. There is also a different sound associated with driving here. In America the sounds I associated with driving are braking and crashing. Here it is the honk of a car horn.

• Honk: I’m turning here.
• Honk: Random animal, get out of the way.
• Honk: I’m passing you now.
• Honk: Hi, how are you?

So even though there are less cars on the road it seems noisier to me (and I’m in a small city). A couple of weeks ago I was travelling to another city and I took a taxi part of the way. Sitting directly behind the driver the thought popped into my mind that this is what it must feel like to be in Mario Kart (or some other car racing video game) – he had his hands at 10 and 2 (the proper driving position), was hunched over (like he needed to get the best view possible), peered in the rearview mirror as necessary to pass another car, and was driving as though a record was at stake (when really all that was as stake was another fee – the sooner he got rid of us the sooner he could pick up another paying customer). So, like the bull that jumped in front of the car I was riding in yesterday (the brakes worked), combine all of these things together and anytime you get in a car it’s an adventure and a story waiting to happen.