First Update from Site!

So, to say that a lot has happened since my last post is an understatement…seeing as I swore in as a Peace Corps volunteer, moved across the country, have been observing potential classes in a new school, and have been trying to integrate myself into a new community. I guess what I’m trying to say is this will be a long post, my apologies in advance if I bore you haha.

First, to go back to what feels to me like years ago, on December 9th we had our Swearing-In Ceremony. It was this big affair where we had to get all dressed up and all the news media came to video tape it (yes, our swearing-in made national news). We all invited our host families to the event and I was so excited that almost my whole family came. Even four year old Cavad was there and sat through the whole ceremony for me. My family had been telling me that after the ceremony they would have a surprise for me, so instead of staying at the volunteer party, I went home with them and, in my honor, my mother prepared a big “bayram” (holiday) dinner. It was super cute and made me even sadder that I was leaving them the next day. I miss them a lot.

The day after swearing in as a volunteer, I loaded all of my possessions, along with my friend Beth’s, into a tiny taxi and we made the 8ish hour drive to Tovuz with our taxi driver who spoke no English. The ride was cramped, but not too bad given that it was an 8 hour car ride and the roads in Azerbaijan do leave something to be desired of (there is a lot of construction, so while the drive apparently could be as little as 6 hours, it wasn’t…). Along the way, my Ceyranbatan host family called several times to check on me and to let Cavad say goodbye to me (we intentionally didn’t wake him up before I left because he would cry too much, he had even showed me how he easily fit inside my suitcase the night before). It was really sweet of them and made me “homesick” for my host home.

But now, I’m in Tovuz! My village is really a sprawl of villages, but let me tell you, they make it feel pretty small. If one person learns something about me in the morning, you can bet that the whole village will know by lunch time. For example, the whole town knows that I like to eat an apple for breakfast and twice now huge bags of apples have been sent to my house for me. Everyone knows that my mother doesn’t think I eat enough because I’m afraid of getting fat and when they tell me to eat something will tell me it’s good for me and won’t make me “kцk”. They know I don’t like mayonnaise or fish and when they have me over tell me proudly that their salad is made with cream and no mayonnaise because I am there. They all watch me run (especially because for a few days they were telling me I should only run on one field…which happens to be in the village center) and tell me for days afterwards that I run well. And, when I go for a walk, my school director calls my host mother to see if I am angry with my family because I am “wearing pants and walking fast.” It’s comical really.

My room at my new house is gigantic and my family has been gradually giving me more furniture, so now I have almost more than I need. My house doesn’t have gas (although there is the promise that gas will come) even though it seems like every other house in the village does. But I do have an electric space heater in my room that I sit in front of whenever I’m in my room and just yesterday Peace Corps sent me a hot water bottle for my bed, so that is super exciting.

My house is very close to my school, which is convenient because I really hate waking up for school (it’s still really dark…to the point that I have to carry a flashlight when I go to our latrine, to me that means it’s still time to be sleeping). After my apple breakfast, I go to school and observe classes. I will start co-teaching in January, which will be exciting because just watching classes gets old very fast. In Azerbaijan, Peace Corps volunteers always co-teach (the idea is that we will also help the teachers improve their English and show them new teaching methods), so I will be working with three of the English teachers at my school. When I start teaching, I will also be getting my own classroom even though other teachers don’t have rooms but move to the students. What I mean to say is, I’m really lucky. And, my room has even recently been wired with electricity for me, a luxury not many rooms in my school have, because (as my one of my co-teachers told me) the director is afraid that if I have to make a fire in a wood-fire heater like the other rooms have, I will light the school on fire haha. He’s probably right. In January I will also be forming conversation clubs which I can have in my classroom after school. The students are very excited about this and I get asked questions every day as to when they will begin, how I will form them, etc. It’s good that the students are so excited, but at times it is overwhelming! I particularly enjoy when they ask very simply “How can I learn to speak English?” as if I should be able to give them a list of maybe five things and magically they will be fluent.

Speaking of languages, I’m still working very hard on my Azerbaijani and am told I am doing a good job and “speak sweetly.” But I certainly make my mistakes, and I have to tell you that my favorite one was in the teachers’ meeting they had when I arrived. In my speech to introduce myself, I told all the teachers I would be living in the village for four years instead of two…oops. A teacher interrupted me to ask if I meant four, and even though I corrected it then and there, I was asked for the rest of the day if I was really going to stay for four years. Even by my host mom, who is a math teacher at school.

My host family tries very hard for me to feel welcome and comfortable, which is more than I could ask for. They have planned a big birthday party for me and my mother is constantly asking me how to make recipes more American since the party is for me. They are also very excited for Christmas and my mother is even going to cook me a turkey because I told her that’s what my family does in the US. They are also getting a new New Years Tree (yes, here they have small, fake Christmas trees which are for New Years instead of Christmas, and the fact that we have trees for Christmas not New Years to them seems very strange). I also really like the Santa Clause (or as we say, Şaxta Baba – which means Frozen Grandpa) decorations everywhere that prominently say “Merry Christmas” even though no one celebrates Christmas. I have asked what Santa does around here, since he doesn’t come and give gifts. From what I can find out, he is unemployed in Azerbaijan and has no real purpose (except to have a great name, in my opinion, and to have mini chocolate versions of him sold…next to the mini chocolate Easter Bunnies – I don’t want to know if they are left over from this past Easter or tester versions for the next!).

On that note, I’m gonna head out and just say Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays to all of you! I hope you are all healthy and happy and that Şaxta Baba brings you everything you want!