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.

It's All Around Me...

One of the issues facing Azerbaijan as they continue to transition from Soviet rule is the environment. This includes the pollution and contamination from the massive factories (some of which are still in use) as well as establishing the infrastructure for trash removal. Following is a conversation that I had with an Azerbaijani last week while walking in Ucar. She had just finished a snack and threw the wrapper (about the size of a small chip bag) on the side of the road.

Me: Why did you just throw that wrapper on the ground?
Her: Because there’s no trash can here.
Me: What do you with your trash at home?
Her: I put it in the trash can.

In my mind, I would put the wrapper in my pocket and throw it away when I got home. I can’t say if this is an overall Azerbaijani perspective because I only had this conversation with one person, but there is a lot of trash around. Some areas are very clean and I’ve seen a garbage truck picking up trash on a daily basis; however, I’ve also seen people throwing trash into a pile which has been here since I moved. So I don’t know if the basic infrastructure of trash removal is in place and it has yet to progress beyond its current stage, or if people just choose to ignore it. And while this is not something that I can change on my own, hopefully I made the person I was walking with think about her actions and how it affects the area around her…

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!