Haven't you heard? All the Americans have Donuz Qripi!!

It's been a slow week for me here in Azerbaijan. We were supposed to have 3 days of practice teaching to finish that portion of our training, but instead the school in Ceyranbatan where I live and have been working was closed for 2 of the days. So instead I was forced to hang around and watch lots of the show Dexter on my computer (I became addicted to watching it when my foot was fat and I had to lay in bed all the time...I've now watched the whole first 2 seasons haha).

We've heard conflicting things about if this is a school vacation that happens every year or if school was specifically closed because of swine flu (or as we call it here, donuz qripi). We haven't had any actual cases in Ceyranbatan, but supposedly today they are spraying down the entire school to disinfect it (my host mom even used the word "prophylactic" so I guess that translates to Azeri?? who knew?? I can't successfully communicate simple sentences most of the time, but now I can talk about prophylactics). One of my little sisters specifically is super paranoid about getting sick. She was giving me daily donuz qripi updates last week about how many people in AZ are sick and has been asking to eat fresh garlic so she'll be protected. She has also been begging my mother to buy her one of those medical masks to wear. She even pretended the Peace Corps had called to say that the family needed to buy a mask for me so that then she could steal it...pretty creative if you ask me! Oh 11 year olds haha.

Unfortunately the big event this week was that one of the girls in my language group had to go home (as in to the US home). Poor Mary was literally allergic to Azerbaijan itself and was just coughing and sneezing the whole time she was here. It's really strange with her gone because our language group really spends all day together...and there is no one to cough and sneeze through every language class! The extra nice twist is that there were already rumors going around Ceryanbatan that all of us Americans have swine flu and are going to make people sick, so Mary leaving probably confirmed the idea that we are all sick in their minds! The concept of allergies doesn't really seem to translate as well as prophylactic...

Saying goodbye to Mary! (sorry, the picture is kind of blurry)

Mary - Azerbaijan style: always with a tissue haha

I miss all of you and love hearing from you, so send emails, letters, blog comments, and all that good stuff! I tend to make it to the internet cafe most Sunday mornings (what in the US is Saturday night, around midnight on the East Coast and 9PM on the West...you can figure it out if you're in between the two) so if you're around you can find me on gchat and usually even video chat (I know, it's pretty crazy, I can video chat at the internet cafe here) at that time.

To keep you in suspense for my next post: I find out Wednesday where my permanent site for the next two years is....!!!