Novruz...2010 Version!

The Novruz 2010 experience was different than the 2009 experience. Last year, during the holiday, I was still living with a host family. This year I'm living on my own and I chose who to spend the holiday with and how much time to spend there.

During the week(s) leading up to the holiday the women of the household are busy baking up a storm. Now not being a typical Azeri woman I didn't have all this preparation to do on my own. But they are some tasty treats, and I wanted to learn how to make them! So I spent three afternoons at my tutor's (and friend's) house baking with her and her mother.
     Day 1: şor cörəyi (sweet bread with sugar & nuts inside)
     Day 2: şəkərbura (pastry with sugar & nuts inside)

     Day 3: paxlava (baklava)

For those days, I was her substitute daughter. My friend is in her early 20's, but she doesn't really like to bake (or cook, for that matter) and hasn't learned. So I was the Azeri daughter, learning to cook from her mother - for preparation of having a family of my own, of course! Here are a couple pictures of our days.

Now I just have to try these recipes on my own before I leave the country. But first I have to translate a couple spices that I couldn't find in the dictionary...

The actual day of the holiday I spent with the family of a couple of teenage girls that came to camp last summer, are in my cooking club and are my neighbors since I moved a couple of months ago. While I could have gone many places, I chose to go one place and spend the entire day there. I received instructions on how to cook our meal, looked at tons of pictures, played catch with the kids, helped one of the girls write a letter in English, ate a ton, and much more.

Like last year, there was a fire. And fire jumping. And dancing around the fire. But this celebration had the added excitement of fireworks! And I remembered just how jumpy I am to loud noises. After dusk, when we had the fire festivities, we headed inside for our gigantic meal - plov, dolma, compot, and more sweets. Then the kids and I went out for papaq atmaq - literally, to throw hats. We knocked on neighbors' doors, left our hats, and then ran away before they came to the door. Then the neighbor would fill our hats with candy and fruit. While these are traditional ways of celebrating Novruz, it can vary a little from family to family just depending on the ages of the kids, etc. - for example, with my host family the two girls were older, so they didn't throw hats. But the meal was mostly the same - just like how most Americans have turkey as the main dish for Thanksgiving, plov is the main dish for Novruz.

It was a great day, with a wonderfully welcoming family, and I'm glad that they invited me into their life and shared their holiday with me.

Want Another Point of View?

Maybe you're reading this because you know me. Or maybe because you're interested in Azerbaijan. Or the Peace Corps in general. Or living in any foreign country. Or you just randomly stumbled on to this blog and really have no reason to read this except that you already started and don't want to waste the time you already spent getting this far...

Well, if any of those are true, here's a link to some other opinions you might be interested in - you can read other Volunteers' blogs who are anywhere from Albania to Zambia, including other Volunteers serving with me here in Azerbaijan.

Note: the link above will take you to the Azerbaijan page. If you want to explore other countries, just click on the "country" tab and select the country of your choosing.

Price Controls...

On a typical day in Michigan I would drive by any number of gas stations, check the prices to see how they've changed overnight (or even during the workday) and what the difference is from the gas station across the street, and decide if I need gas that day or if I can wait for a potential price drop. Here it doesn't exactly work like that. First of all, as Volunteers we're not allowed to drive. But we do obviously need to travel. I've been on my share of roads in Azerbaijan and stopped at gas stations for the marshrutka to fill up, and at first I didn't notice the phenomenon. Then I began to pay more attention and began questioning it - do the gas prices not change here? Really? Really. The picture here is indicative of the past 17 months that I've lived in Azerbaijan - the prices have been exactly the same throughout the whole time. In the States we're lucky if they're the same for an entire day!

The other interesting aspect of this is that I always thought that living in an oil-rich country would produce some benefits - namely, gas would be a better deal here than in places that require long distance shipping. But using the A-93 gas as an example:

     0.55 AZN/liter = $0.685 USD/liter

     1 gallon = 3.78542 liters

     so, 1 gallon = $2.59 USD

Price of gas in Michigan last week: $2.59/gallon.

Snowed In!

Last week my Volunteer group (AZ6) had our Mid Service Conference (MSC). It was a chance to reflect on our first year + of service, talk about our current and future projects, and start to think about life after the Peace Corps. I think I gained a few things from this: an increased motivation for my projects, the realization that I can’t compare my service to anyone else’s since everyone’s experience is unique due to their organization, community, resources, etc., and that what I see in my experience is but a small portion of what I’m doing. We had a guest speaker who had been taught by a Peace Corps Volunteer in Turkey in the 1960s, and it was incredible to hear his reflections from something that happened over 40 years ago.

The conference was officially over on Thursday evening, and Friday was supposed to be our travel day. Well, we all woke up to text messages saying that we weren’t going anywhere at the pre-arranged time, and to stay tuned. At some point during the night it had started to snow and Baku was pretty much at a standstill. So the Peace Corps put us up in the hotel for another night, arranged for our meals, and we finally left late Saturday morning. I don’t think there was a line item in the budget for that cost…but since we were in for a conference (and not just for a weekend away) it was their responsibility to make sure we were safe. That’s a BIG thanks to the Peace Corps for being flexible and working on their snow day (the office was closed because of the weather). Once we all determined we were in for the day, it was a lot of fun – good food, games, movies, time to catch up with friends, etc. (and no meetings) – but I think we would’ve gone a little stir-crazy if it was for much longer.

The weekend was wrapped up with SuperBowl XLIV, showing at the Hyatt bar at 3:30am local time (someone knew someone who knew someone who arranged the place). There were probably about 30 PCVs there – some still up from Sunday and others with short naps keeping them up. It was a very American feeling experience – minus the commercials. Then everyone dispersed, and we won’t be together as a whole group until our Close of Service (COS) Conference later this year.

The New Normal...

Different no longer seems that different. I’ve been here long enough that things I would’ve noticed a year ago I no longer notice – they’re just part of the normal, everyday environment that is my life. That is, until I see something that before coming here would have been normal, but now the absence of it is normal. A few days ago, I saw a woman driving a car. Not only was she driving a car, but she wasn’t alone, and her passenger was a man! Shocking! In my town I can count on one hand the number of times I have seen a woman driving a car. So many people are surprised to learn that I know how to drive a car, and that I did so on a daily basis in America. Here driving is a man’s world. I’ve never seen a female taxi driver, and there are as many taxi drivers as there are men standing on corners eating sunflower seeds (and that means a lot). Even when I do see women in cars, the majority of the time they are sitting in the backseat, even if it’s a family member’s car. It’s just tradition, how it’s done. When I go somewhere by car, sometimes I get put in the front seat and it’s odd how I can feel people looking at me – granted, I’m probably being put there so I don’t have to sit next to a man I don’t know, but observers don’t know that. It makes me wonder what else I’m no longer noticing…

(As time goes on, interesting blog entries get more difficult to think of for the above reason – if you have any questions or suggestions, feel free to let me know!)