Guesting...

As I’ve previously mentioned, I’ve been assisting and teaching some English classes at my organization. Before we all left on the holiday one of the students asked if the English teacher and I would come to her house during the holiday break. The English teacher, Mesme, had to check at home so after doing that we decided that we would go this past Friday, and after my travel adventures it was moved to Saturday.

Mesme and I met in town and Ulvia, one of the students, came and picked us up with her uncle, who has a car. We were then driven to Sevinj’s house (three of the students, Ulvia, Sevinj and Lale, are very good friends and all live in the same village just outside Ucar) where we were greeted by her mother and fed tea and snacks (baklava, cake, etc.) while we looked at Sevinj’s pictures – with school friends, with her family, at weddings and just general growing up pictures. So there were the three students, Mesme, me, and whatever members of Sevinj’s family seemed to wander through. These are the times when I wish there was some sort of program where I could just absorb the language while I sleep and wake up fluent – I know I was being talked about but I couldn’t understand everything. And having Mesme there was both a positive and negative experience – if I had a question there was someone to direct it to and help with translation, but I know she also answered questions that were directed at me when I could have answered on my own.

After 45 minutes or an hour we left Sevinj’s and walked the equivalent of a block or so and ended up at Lale’s house. There we were welcomed by more family members, ushered into the dining room, and had fruit and nuts set out before us – along with tea, of course. After some chatting came more food – chicken, bread, etc. Tasty chicken, but it’s hard to know how much to eat when the hosts aren’t eating – they’re watching you eat. It’s that tricky balance between eating enough to be appreciative and not offend anyone, but not so much that they think you’re starving and try to give you even more…

So an hour later the three girls, Mesme and I left Lale’s and we walked along the village road that leads to the main road into Ucar. When we reached the main road instead of turning toward Ucar, like I thought we would (maybe to catch a bus home), we turned the other way. Now, it was time to go to Ulvia’s! Maybe I should’ve asked at the beginning – I initially thought all of us would be getting together at one of their houses, not all of us going to each of their houses… So Ulvia’s house was more of a walk, 15 – 20 minutes away, and when we arrived we were greeted by her mother. Into another eating room, we were welcomed with tea and sweets (mmm…baklava). We all looked at Ulvia’s pictures and then came more food: cabbage dolma, salad and bread. Dolma is a traditional Azerbaijani dish that is a meat and rice mixture wrapped in cabbage (or grape leaves) and cooked. After that the sweets returned, along with fruit and more tea. I really should have known what we were doing ahead of time, that way I could have staggered my eating a bit more – it was all so delicious! Then we were at Ulvia’s for a bit longer – doing the typical teenage girl kind of thing – watching some TV and listening to music. From there Sevinj and Lale walked home and we waited for Ulvia’s uncle to come by with his car and give us a ride home.

Retrospectively, it was an interesting day. Not entirely what I expected, but even better. It was good to see the girls in their element, outside of the classroom. And not only outside of the classroom, but in each of their homes, being the host. Each home we went to it shifted – you could see the girls and how they were almost ready to have a home of their own, and do this on a regular basis. I saw the same thing with my host sister during training – she’s 17 and not yet engaged, but her family was already planning her dowry and she couldn’t get enough of looking at home decorating magazines or helping her mother around the house. I’ve noticed that it’s much more forward looking here than what I remember growing up. I learned how to bake cookies because I wanted to, not because I would need to know how to cook for my household one day. I had chores because my parents wanted to teach me responsibility, not because I needed to know how to do laundry for my future household. Here it seems that the end result is always in mind – girls will grow up and get married, so these are the things they need to know.

I’m sure this was just the first of many visits to friend’s homes, so we’ll see what’s to come. Obviously all of Azerbaijan won’t be represented in what I see, but hopefully I’m getting a well-rounded view during my time here.

The Main Ingredient for Traveling in Azerbaijan...Patience!

So this past week I decided to visit some friends for the holiday (New Year’s is the holiday that people have time off work for here; I worked on December 30th and then didn’t have to be back until January 5th). Here is not so much of an account of what I did (it was nice and relaxing, but not super eventful) but how traveling works in Azerbaijan.

So Wednesday morning I woke up to snow. I had planned to meet Chris and Katie in Ganja around 12pm and Ganja is about two hours west of me. But it was cold and I didn’t get as early of a start as I would have liked, so I left my house about 9:45am. I took a taxi to the bus station because it’s on the very outskirts of town and it would have taken a good 40 – 45 minutes to walk to, especially with the new snow. So after arriving at the bus station it was a matter of waiting for a bus to come by that’s going west. There was a cashier open who I asked when a bus would arrive, but he didn’t know. There aren’t really schedules. So after an hour and a half of waiting (inside, thankfully) a marshrutka came through that was going to a town west of Ganja. That was okay because they make stops along the way so I hopped on. On the positive side, I discovered that I won’t have to wait much if I’m going east (Baku) because MANY busses came through headed in that direction. It took just under two hours to arrive in Ganja. I met up with Chris, Katie and a couple others and we spent the afternoon in Ganja but then we picked up another marshrutka to take us to Shemkir, which is where they live. From the bus stop we grabbed a taxi to take us directly to their house. Unlike the big cities (Baku, Sumgayit, Ganja) the smaller ones (Shemkir, Ucar) don’t have marshrutka routes, so it’s either walk or take a taxi, and after a long day it’s definitely worth it (usually only about 1 manat for an in-town destination).

My initial plan was to leave Thursday afternoon between 2 – 3pm, which I thought would be plenty of time to get back home at a reasonable time (before dark). So on Thursday Chris and Katie took me to the bus station to catch a bus. Kind of like going west, it was just a matter of finding one that was going at least as far east as I wanted to go – I wasn’t going to find one going directly to Ucar. So there were lots of busses going to Ganja, every 10 – 15 minutes or so, but I needed to go further east than Ganja. There was one marshrutka headed to Baku but I was told it was full (more people then got on…grrr). So we asked around and a man who seemed to know what he was talking about said the next bus for Baku would be coming in 10 minutes. Okay, not a bad wait, we thought. 45 minutes later we were still there. Did I mention that Shemkir’s bus station is not a building? It’s just a location on the side of the road where all the busses know to come. Brrr. So at this point I was contemplating just taking a bus to Ganja, but I didn’t know where to pick up the Baku busses once I got there or how often they left. Looking back, I probably should have just gone to Ganja right away, but I can’t change that. So the last straw was when two big busses (charter bus size) headed to Baku passed the bus stop without even stopping. At that point we’d been waiting in the cold for almost an hour and a half and it would have been kind of late to arrive back home. So I headed back to Chris and Katie’s to stay another night.

Friday morning I got up at a decent time and left Chris and Katie’s at about 9:45am. After a couple tries I got a taxi for a reasonable rate (there’s snow, so they wanted to charge more) and headed back to the bus station. Pulling up to the bus station I saw a bus waiting there…would I be that lucky? Was it going where I needed to go? Yes! So I got on the Baku bus, made sure they knew where I wanted to get off, and sat down to wait for departure. We left after a short wait and made our way east. During this time I got to answer the woman sitting next to me as to where I was going, why, do I have family, am I married (no, why not?), etc. It’s good to carry on a conversation in Azerbaijani but it can be taxing, especially when they are asking questions that you would never ask a complete stranger in America. So the windows of the bus were not the cleanest and it was very foggy out, so it was hard to tell how far along we were. After a couple hours I started to ask the woman next to me what town it was whenever we made a stop because I didn’t want to miss my stop and have to figure out how to get back to Ucar from wherever I ended up. So the attendant (I’m not sure what to call him – not the driver, but there’s someone who collects money and seats people, etc.) walked by me to collect money from a couple people who had just boarded and I caught his attention. He said Ucar was soon and to follow him to the front of the bus. So I grabbed my stuff and ended up in the front row, I’m assuming so the stop would be as short as possible. About 5 minutes later we pulled into the Ucar bus station and I was back to familiar territory. I got a taxi home from there and that was the end of my trip. Time to warm up in front of the stove!

It's That Time of Year...

If anyone’s looking for a good cause to contribute to before the end of the year for taxes purposes, check out the following link. Here you can donate to the Peace Corps general projects or search for specific countries and/or programs and as it says on the site, it’s all tax deductible!
http://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=resources.donors

Settling In...

So I’ve been in Ucar for a little over two weeks now and I’m settling into a bit of a routine. I’ve been going to my organization each weekday and have become involved in the English classes they offer. This is an area where I could start to contribute right away while my Azeri is still improving and I’m learning more about what the organization does and how it operates. I just observed at the beginning but have been teaching some classes since my second week. There is an English teacher who teaches English grammar three times a week and then the other two days I am teaching conversational English. I’m trying to coordinate what we speak about in my class to what they are learning or have already learned, which can be kind of tricky since there’s not really a “curriculum” like there would be in a traditional school. So I have lots of ideas of things to do – the least of which is cheering the room up with some visual aids – but right now it’s just a matter of participating and involving the students. The students are anywhere from 10 – 25 years old and it’s been great getting to know them and the area through them.

We have an AMAZING store in Ucar which I’m sure I won’t fully appreciate until I move out on my own and cook for myself all the time – items that you can’t get in many parts of Azerbaijan. We also have many train tracks – the ones from home in Michigan have followed me and multiplied! I have to cross them to get to and from work each day, but at least I’m not stuck in a car waiting for the train to pass – I use the pedestrian overpass if a train is moving or just walk over the tracks. And I had mail waiting for me two days after I moved (Thanks Mom)! It’s the little things that give a lift to your day – an unexpected letter or package, a great meal, an email from a friend, the absence of mud, etc.

And while Christmas is not a celebrated holiday here, New Year’s definitely is. There are New Year’s trees and Saxta Baba/Santa Claus (Grandfather Frost) and holiday music. Saxta Baba is even on the Coke bottles! And there’s a “Merry Christmas” decoration/ornament on the New Year’s tree outside the Cultural Center at the end of my road (I haven’t seen any New Year’s trees in anyone’s home, just in outdoor/city areas). I worked on Christmas like any other weekday, but we’ll have some Christmas celebrations with other volunteers over the weekend.

Earlier this week I worked with Jeff, who is an AZ5 TEFL volunteer in Ucar, to meet a teacher at his school who might be interested in tutoring me in Azerbaijani. She wasn’t able to do it, but she introduced me to another teacher whose daughter is an English teacher that would be interested in helping me. The Peace Corps reimburses us up to a certain amount for continuing our language learning, so I’ll start that up right after the holidays. I feel like I’ve improved on some of my vocabulary since moving but I think I’ve forgotten some of the grammatical stuff. I can usually get my point/question across, but it’s definitely not how an Azeri would say it.

The End of PST & Becoming a Volunteer...

The last couple of weeks of PST were pretty busy. We had language class as normal every morning and a CED session pretty much every afternoon. With the permission of my program manager I did make a 24 hour trip back to Ucar for a meeting that he wanted me to attend. Because of the time of the meeting, I left the previous afternoon, stayed the night in Ucar, and then went into my organization the next morning. I sat around for a while and then finally had a chance to talk to my director and it turned out that the other half of the meeting unexpectedly showed up the day before. So the meeting happened, just not with me there. I was told they tried to call me, but I didn’t answer (I don’t have voicemail…) But according to my phone, the only call I missed was when I was already on the way there, so it wouldn’t have made much of a difference. While I’m disappointed that I didn’t get to attend the meeting, I’m sure this won’t be the only scheduling conflict that I run into while I’m here. The concept of time is just a little different here – I saw it when I was in Peru during college as well – and we just have to come up with a happy medium of compromise.

The CED sessions were interesting – I think it comes more from knowing how we’ll be using the information now that we have our site assignments and have been there rather than everything kind of being up in the air like it was two months ago. We learned about grant writing and some of the resources available, the banking environment in Azerbaijan and other relatable topics. (Does a 15% savings rate sound good? What about when I say that the inflation rate is in the 20’s? Makes a difference, doesn’t it?)

We had a cultural event towards the end of PST at the local Sumgayit music school. One of the teachers had made a connection with one of the LCF’s and the result was a three hour musical program for us, half consisting of traditional Azerbaijani music & dancing while the other half consisted of a more traditional concert (we even recognized some songs…raindrops falling on your head…in Azerbaijani of course) with a choir and musical ensembles. It was amazing to see the talent, especially in the youngest kids, dancing these intricate dances and playing instruments that we’ve never seen before.

Our last two days before swearing in were hub days, which are days when all 61 of us gather together to have sessions that apply to all of us instead of just the individual programs. This was essentially their last push to get us any information that we may not have received yet during training. A small sampling of this was reviewing our EAP (Emergency Action Plan), receiving contracts to pass on to our new host families, an overview of what reporting we need to do, what our first 90 days should look like in our new communities (with corresponding assignments), clarification of money, elections for the VAC (Volunteer Action Committee) and instructions for the swearing in ceremony. I was interested in the VAC and ended up being the alternate, so should one of the six people elected not want to continue as a committee member or if they leave before their two years are up, I’ll end up on the committee. We’ll see.

These two days were also a holiday here in Azerbaijan, Qurban Bayrami. Here’s the link to the Wikipedia page telling you about it http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qurban_Bayram. Let’s just say there were lots of sheep around that had a red marking on them signifying their impending doom.

The actual swearing in ceremony was on Wednesday, December 10th at a local cultural palace. All of the Peace Corps staff as well as the trainees/new volunteers were in attendance. Invitations had also been extended to the directors of the schools where we did our training, our host families, representatives from our new organizations, government officials from the corresponding ministries (for TEFL, the Minister of Education, for YD, the Minister of Youth and Sport, and for CED, the Head of Regional Development Program, Ministry of Economic Development) and current PCV’s. Some of the government officials came themselves while others sent a representative in their place. Our actual oath was administered by Donald Lu, who is the US Embassy Deputy Chief of Mission. He’s a former Peace Corps Volunteer (along with our Country Director, Admin. Officer and Program & Training Officer) so it’s a little more authentic/meaningful to be sworn into something by someone who’s actually done it. Although I think we were all a little jealous when he mentioned during his speech that he was dropped off at his site by the Peace Corps, while we all have to get ourselves there. The ceremony was followed by refreshments with the guests and then most of the newly swore in PCV’s headed to a local gathering spot to enjoy the rest of the day and say goodbye to each other since the next day we departed for our sites.

Thursday was traveling day. Lucy, a volunteer who lived near me, and I shared a cab to the bus station in Baku. It was more expensive than taking the marshrutka, but definitely worth every qapik. This way we didn’t have to try to explain all of our luggage and we also got dropped right at the bus station entrance instead of having to walk a ways. At the bus station I waited for Kevin, my new sitemate, and we got a bus. We ended up on a bus to Berde instead of a marshrutka to Ucar, which was fine with me – the busses are the size of charter busses in the States so there’s room underneath for luggage, and they said they would stop on their way through Ucar. Now Ucar is not huge and I’d only been there twice, so by the time it started to look familiar I saw us passing the bus station. Kevin noticed the same thing and he was closer to the front of the bus, so he got the driver’s attention and the bus stopped. So we arrived in Ucar! We didn’t go backwards to the bus station but were let off on the side of the road about 100 meters away, with our luggage piled around us. Kevin’s counterpart was coming to pick him up and was nice enough to give me a ride home, but we had to fend off a few taxis while we were waiting. So I was ushered into my new home and of course was given tea right away. Now to just break in the fact that I don’t really like tea that much.

It was sad to say good bye to my first host family. I really enjoyed them 98% of the time and hope to see them again. It’s just hard to start all over again with a new family – what you’re like, how social you are, what you like to eat, how much you eat, etc., etc. I feel like it was just towards the end of my time with my first host family that I was finally getting reasonable portions of food instead of these huge servings that could serve a whole family! But I’m also excited for this new family because from what I experienced during my site visit they are very different, and that’s good to experience to have an accurate understanding of Azerbaijan. Would a foreigner have an accurate perception of the US if they only met one family or visited one city? The difference isn’t good or bad, but they are much more social than my first family – the only people I ever saw in my first host family’s home were family and the student my host mother tutored. During my site visit there were always people over and I even went to a wedding. A new adventure to discover!

I’ll write more about work and such later. I miss you all and definitely miss the holiday season in the US! It’s just not the same but I’m doing my best to be in the holiday spirit by playing my Christmas music and watching Rudolph. I’m honestly ready for January to come for the holidays to be behind me and there only to be one more Christmas to go through halfway across the world. I’ve definitely come to realize how much I took it for granted that I have always been with family on holidays.