Peace Corps Volunteers = Cultural Exchange Agents

Being that I am 29, single, and living in Azerbaijan, a question that I am repeatedly asked is if I will marry an Azeri. While I’m not so close-minded as to rule out the entire Azerbaijani male population, the odds are quite low that this will happen. First, I haven’t become fluent in the language or met a man who is fluent in English (at least in my region) and I think that’s kind of important. Also, the division of family work is very different here. Women do pretty much everything related to housework, cooking, family rearing, etc. (even when they also work outside of the home). The parts that I have seen men participate in are house maintenance (plumbing, electrical, etc.) and farm work. So this means I have very entertaining cultural exchange conversations relating life in America to life in Azerbaijan. What, men cook in America? Yes, men cook in America and they also clean and do laundry and help with the kids. By saying that I would like to marry someone who will share those things with me has brought some Azeri men (co-workers in their early 20s) to laughter. But it’s true – I remember being a kid and my mom would mow the front yard and my dad would mow the backyard. My mom would cook some vegetables and my dad would cook the meat and that would be dinner. If my dad was in town and my mom needed something from the store, he’d stop and pick it up. If my mom was busy and there was something involving me or my brother, my dad did it. So while this is all true, there is also an ulterior motive behind these conversations – afterwards people are not quite as insistent about trying to set me up. (Herein lies some of the pros to being a married Volunteer, no set ups attempted and the locals can see these things in action.)