Daily Life

So I wrote this with the intention of posting it a week ago, but through a series of internet mishaps and such, it hasn't made it up till now...which means some of the information has changed but whatever, just pretend I posted it last Wednesday, ok?

Because I am constantly (alright, constantly is certainly a bit of an overstatement, but often enough) getting questions about my daily life here, I wrote up this little snapshots of some facts about my life right now. Enjoy!

Tea today so far: 1

Tea yesterday: at least 5

Most recent junk food purchased: M&M peanuts, Fanta, Dannon yogurt bar that can only be counted as junk food because I only eat it due to the fact that it tastes like cheesecake

Current books: The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows; Franklin and Winston: An Intimate Portrait of an Epic Friendship by Jon Meacham (I didn’t even mean to do it, but I wanted to read a novel on the side while I read this book about FDR and Churchill during WWII and I picked a book my mom brought for me which is all about the aftermath of WWII…good coincidence!)

Recently finished books: Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky (never finished it in Mr.C’s AP English class because I took the test and said “screw that” to more work before graduation, it took me months this time, but I was determined not to give up again and have to restart a third time); The Innocent Man by John Grisham (I read it like crazy on my marşrutka ride home from Baku, only stopping when we hit the ridiculous road construction patches because I didn’t want to get sick)

Most recent movie watched: Braveheart (another volunteer hadn’t seen it – ? – so we had to watch it during Biləsuvar camp)

Most recent TV show watched: Glee (this show makes me so happy)

Most recent thing I cooked: Peach sorbet thanks to Mathias’s recipe and instruction

Activities I’m currently teaching: Conversation Club for University Boys with Tamilə müəllim, World History Discussion Group, English Writing, Mini Camp for Middle School Age Students (starts today!)

Last time I was in Baku: August 14 and ready to go back, if only for the Twix ice cream I found during this visit and should not be allowed to buy any more because I’ve already eaten too much of it

Last time I saw Beth, my sitemate: August 7 (and before that it was July 14^th…how am I surviving??)

Latest decorations added to my room: Maps of Azerbaijan and the US which like to fall back off my wall so I’ve had the pleasure of hanging them many times, more pictures from my mom for my picture wall

Last time I had an Azerbaijani language lesson: August 16

Last time I had a lesson before that: first week of June (oops)

Last time I talked to my family in the states: August 12 (only for like 5 minutes before it got cut off, I was super disappointed, it was the first call from Naima! And I hadn’t heard her voice literally since I came to Azerbaijan)

Most recent song obsession: Tik Tok by Ke$ha (a little bit embarrassed to admit that…)

Songs I reminisced listening to this week: Stumbling into The Barenaked Ladies on my ipod, I first listened to “One Week” which reminded me of Little Jimmy trying desperately to learn the words and say them fast enough and then to “Lovers in a Dangerous Time” which took me back to freshman year with Steph Miller in our sweet double blasting that as one of Steph’s song obsessions.  Then I also listened to “Walcott” by Vampire Weekend which has lyrics all about getting out of Cape Cod and all the bad things about it…but my response was more like “Oh my gosh no Cape Cod is wonderful and I want to be there right now more than anything!”

Biggest success of the week: Actually remembering to consistently take my vitamins every day, something I haven’t done in months and something which can be pretty important here where I feel my diet is generally lacking a few (many) things.

Biggest disappointment of the week: One of my fans seemed to stop working last week.  And yes I said “one of” even though I live in one room.  I had to buy a second one during the heat wave while my mom was visiting (she was about to get violent if I didn’t go make the purchase), but I have been leaving one in my family’s room for them to use…and so I was I jerk and went and took it when mine stopped.  I’m still hopeful mine will make a complete recovery and I can go back to sharing like a nice person.

Interesting little stories of late:

Sitting in a car on the way to town with my host mom and an acquaintance, I noticed that the woman was looking at me strangely and kind of cocking her head to one side.  I tried to ignore her, assuming she was just being curious and trying to look into my purse (and at this point of this sort of typical Azerbaijani behavior, I just sit still for it most of the time).  Suddenly she looked at me and told me she had been counting the freckles on my left arm.  In case you were wondering, there are 47.

In a sleepy daze one morning, I heard a strange scratching sound from outside my window.  Looking out I could see some sort of animal in a small tree just over the property line in our neighbors’ yard.  I was trying to make out what animal it was and at first wrote it off to my eyes not working properly because of sleep, but no.  It really was a rat.  A big rat eating what I now learned is a chestnut tree.  Probably 10 feet from my bedroom.  Not a big fan of rats.  And especially because I heard a story last week about another volunteer getting bit by one in her room while she slept! Ew!

I watched a guy get arrested at a road tea house on my way back from Baku.  I have no idea what this guy did, but it was very interesting to watch the two cops try to get him into the backseat of their car.  He was literally doing splits against the door frame so they couldn’t get him in.  And he lost a shoe.  A third cop would kind of walk up occasionally and watch and not help, which was maybe the best part.  And the other cops were yelling “You’re a cop! Help!” but he just walked away.  This incident made me realize the value of having a partition for the back of your cop car because as I watched them drive away, I saw that one cop was having to sit with the guy and keep him in a headlock until they reached their destination.  I bet that got fun at some point.

Another Week, Another Camp

I feel like summer should be wrapping up, but I still have about a month left until we start school!  This is not complaining at all, I certainly have plenty of things I want to do with my teachers, students, classroom, etc before September 15th!

I just spent a week down in Bilәsuvar helping with a summer camp that my friends Jon and James were having.  It was a really great week.  Their kids were so sweet and excited and we got to do fun things like make picture frames, drop eggs from the second-floor of the school, and play the ninja game (if you haven't played the ninja game yet, try it, you won't regret it! This is a game that involves a bunch of kids standing in a circle taking turns doing ninja moves to try and hit another person's hand, no one gets hurt, every one gets to be a ninja...awesome).  And in addition to all this fun at camp, there were some great volunteers down there as staff and so we would go play softball (really "left-field ball"...the other volunteers can attest to how thrilled I was to be playing...which is not very much at all) and make amazing food (fruit sorbet, donuts, and general overall wonderfulness).  Only downside is that Bilәsuvar is not exactly close to Tovuz which meant I had to take a really long and ridiculously hot bus ride, the highlights of which include the little girl next to me vomiting (she stood up and did it on her father not on me, and I think she and I both are thankful for that because I was in no mood to be barfed on...not that you are ever really in the mood for that...) and the bus breaking down so I got to stand on the side of the road for like an hour and a half before giving up on the bus and getting a ride from a passing car.  Sounds like fun right? Wanna visit me now?

I'm in Baku about to head back to site.  I just went to the dentist yesterday and got my teeth cleaned.  I was talking to staff yesterday before going and one guy asked me if before Peace Corps I would have ever dreamed of being so excited to be getting my teeth cleaned? Especially because I was paying for it out of my own pocket (Peace Corps only pays for us to get our teeth cleaned once a year...and that's a year after actually swearing in, so it would have been a year and a half without seeing a dentist and given the amount of sweets we have here with our çay - tea, I didn't feel so great about that).  I thought he made a really good point because never before would going to the dentist be the highlight of my month, but I'm super happy with my clean teeth haha.

Apologies, I've been super lame about posting

So yeah, as the title says...sorry.  As I wrote in my last post, my mom came and that meant no time for posting for a while and then the task of explaining everything we did seemed too large, so I just didn't do it!  But now I'll just tell you that you can go to Facebook and find all the photo evidence of my mom's trip and maybe someday I'll write up some of the craziest moments!

You may be thinking, well Jess we all know your mom left like weeks ago, no excuse for not posting since then.  True story, however after she left I was busy for another week because within like 12 hours of getting home from Tbilisi, I left again to go to Camp GLOW (Girls Leading Our World) the summer camp that volunteers and Azerbaijani counterparts put on for girls from all the regions of Azerbaijan.  It was fantastically fun.  It was so great to see these girls work so hard in sessions (I planned a day about leadership and courage that apparently went really well, but I wasn't there to see that one b/c I was a bit late due to getting back from my trip) and then let loose at our nightly dance parties/talent show/etc.  And I got to hang out with some of the most amazing other volunteers in country, which was so refreshing and fun.

I need to be running along (I know, I know, I only just got started) but I wanted to throw a big shout out to my sister Naima who returns today (!!!!) having just finished her Peace Corps service in Benin.  How ridiculous/unbelievable/crazy/exciting is that?  Call me Naima, now you have to b/c you're in the US where Mom will pay the bill and I just told you to in front of my entire blog audience (and you know that has to be huge right??? I mean, Mom prints it for Grandma and Aunt Lillian to read and everything so I'm even in print!!). Congratulations!

Greetings from Georgia!

So I'm sitting on the balcony of my hotel in Georgia, looking out over Tbilisi while I wait for my mom to arrive in a few hours, and I thought, what a perfect time to use this free wi-fi to write a blog post!

My current view while writing this :)

I came to Tbilisi early this afternoon.  It was very strange leaving Azerbaijan.  Believe it or not, I've been there for 9 months now (maybe you can believe that, but I can't) and it was kind of unnerving to leave.  I think it was really just the feeling of not having our Safety and Security Officer/ninja bad-ass Ceyhun a phone call away should anything go wrong.  And after being so scared of Azerbaijan's borders, given all the fighting that goes on over some of them, it was strange to be intentionally walking right up to one.  And police and officials in Azerbaijan can give you trouble just out of boredom, so I didn't really know what to expect.  But I am happy to report that in less than 2 hours I was able to leave my friend Connie's house in Qazax (our last region), cross into Georgia, and get to the marshrutkas.  This was when it really hit me that I was not in Azerbaijan anymore.  I couldn't read anything!  If you haven't seen Georgian, it's like elvish from Lord of the Rings.  Seriously.  And then all the other signs were in Russian which means Cyrillic which means my head was spinning.  Luckily, a minute before I had memorized what the Georgian looked like for Tbilisi off a road sign before I crossed the border, so I was able to find the right marşrutka.  Of course, stepping onto the marşrutka, I basically returned to Azerbaijan because everyone there was speaking Azerbaijani!  Just like home.  And I have to give a little shout out to perhaps the nicest marşrutka driver, Əli.  I told him I wanted to go to a certain metro stop in Tbilisi, and asked if he could tell me when it was nearby.  And what does he do?  He takes the sign out of the window telling people where he is going so he can go off route and bring me directly there, even up a ridiculously steep cobbled street.  And he even gave me his phone number so if my mom and I want an early morning ride back to the border, he will come back to the same metro station and pick us up on his way.  Really sweet.

And now, like I said, I'm just waiting for my mom.  Inşallah she will arrive in about 4 hours so that in the morning I can proudly bring her home to Azerbaijan where my host family will be preparing a welcome party for her.  Yes, the whole village does know she is coming and yes, they are all SUPER excited (and nervous things won't go perfectly).  My host mom dragged me to the bazaar this morning and made me taste all the different fruit before she would buy them and kept asking me what I want.  Unfortunately, I am not an Azeri xanım and expert market shopper, so I don't think I was much of a help.  But I think we will have a wonderful party tomorrow night even if I couldn't pick the perfect fruit!

Travel, Travel, Travel

Since my last post, I've literally been at site for 2 days...if you don't know, that's like unbelievably long!  I haven't been away this much since I moved to Tovuz.  You'd think I'd be having separation anxiety, but I'm doing just fine right now haha.

First I went to Mingəçevir on Sunday morning with the Tovuz softball team for our Peace Corps softball tournament.  We had kids from 3 regions playing and then an volunteer game when the kids were done.  It was a really good afternoon, even if it was really hot.

Then the next morning I hopped an early morning bus down to Neftçala where I and 2 other volunteers helped the 2 Neftçala volunteers with their summer camp for 3 days.  I got to stay with my friend Clarissa who has a room in her apartment that we called "America" because it had a wonderful air conditioner that we would occasionally turn on and just watch the satellite TV which actually had some English channels (read crazy music videos).  And we ate delicious, vegetable-filled, non-oily food!  Basically, it was heaven.

Then I stopped off in Şirvan for like a day and a half.  I just got to hang out and even go to this ridiculous çayxana (tea house) that has air conditioning and big screen TVs and wireless internet (I know, I don't believe it exists either...but it does!  We have nothing like that in Tovuz, not that I could really go anyway because women don't go to çayxanas).  We watched the second USA World Cup game there.

The conference ended yesterday (Friday) and after it was over I had an appointment with my doctor, Dr. Fuad.  Remember how I mentioned a few posts ago that I had a disgusting cough?  Right.  Still have it.  I've had it for a month.  This was the first time I saw the doctor, although I have been on some medicine for a few weeks.  My new prescription?  Dr. Fuad is calling my Program Manager and telling her I'm not allowed to do any work for a week, no going to school, no activities, no anything.  Those of you who know what a complete work-aholic I am know that this might actually drive me crazy instead of making me better, but let's hope I have enough entertaining shows and movies on my computer to make this bed-rest bearable!

Alright, I want to go look at some of the shops by the metro for cheap stuff before I catch the night train home in a few hours.  Maybe the next time I write a post I can tell you how many people I weird out on the train when I cough all night...I've even been weirding out Beth when we were roommates at the hotel.  Hott.

Azerbaijani Weddings

Having attended 3 in a week, I feel it is a good time for me to write a little bit about the Azerbaijani "toy" (wedding).

The first thing that you should know is that, here in Azerbaijan, we like the fun of our weddings to last as long as possible, so we have two weddings for every couple that gets married, the bride's wedding and the groom's.  I find them to be more alike than different, so I'll start with a general description of all the things that are the same and then get into the differences.  The wedding can either be at your house (you set up a huge tent) or at a wedding palace/restaurant (see the photo).  Either way, the family throwing the wedding still generally cooks the food (there is only one wedding palace - the most expensive - in Tovuz where they will do all the food for you...I haven't been to this one yet), which means they have all their friends and neighbors over to help them prepare.  As 2 of the 3 weddings I went to this week were for my cousin (remember, 2 weddings per couple!), I got to go help prepare for my family's wedding, the boy's wedding.  I was mostly just helping prepare food for the people preparing food (yes, you feed the workers that are working on the food...of course) although I really felt like the people I was making food for were really doing a lot more sitting and talking and playing nard - a game like backgammon - than preparing food.  But I  did watch a massive meat preparation process.  By the end of the night, 9 sheep had been butchered (I know because a meat rack was set up and they were just hanging up there after slaughter while we worked).

Toys generally have the same food (the photo is of the starter food...always crepes with ground meat - refried after they are filled to make them extra healthy, chicken, assorted salads - which usually means any type of salad with mayo, but this toy actually had some more vegetable, non-mayo salads...as a person who hates mayo, I was pretty psyched), but that does not make all toys the same.  I can always tell you afterward how good a toy was by how many kabobs I got to eat.  At a smaller toy, they bring one round of kabobs and maybe only one kind, but at others they bring out different kinds and many rounds.  Those toys are delicious, the others just leave you wanting more kabobs.  Most people don't stay until they cut the cake, because you have to last about 4 1/2 hours in for that.

Besides the food, toys are mostly just someone or groups of people coming up to the microphone, saying their "congratulations!" and "let you be happy"s and then that group dances.  So really you spend a lot of time just sitting at a toy unless it is your family, in which case you generally go and dance with each group of guests that dances.  I danced a lot this week as I was kind of family at the 2 weddings (not immediate family, but cousins are expected to dance a lot, let me tell you), and the uncle who was the father of the groom is also my school's director so all the teachers were there to do teacher dances with me.

And that's really all there is to say about the wedding party itself.  You really mostly just sit and eat.  And the music is too loud to even hear the person next to you, so you really just sit (let me tell you, at one toy I was seated right next to the speakers and a night at a toy is really like a less fun night at a rock concert, I left with my ears ringing).

Oh and how could I forget to say that you must go up to the dais where the bride and groom are sitting and have the photographer take your picture with them and then buy the picture for like a manat.  Then you can show all the visitors to your house pictures of all the toys you have been to.  Very important. 

Now for the differences between the two.

For the girl's toy, the groom's family comes to her house with a lot of presents.  They dance (because there is a little band running around with the family) and bring the presents into her house and take photos/video (because every toy has a multi-man camera crew) and then take her off to the wedding palace (or if it's at her house I guess they just stay there...I haven't been to a home girl's toy).  For this wedding, the bride can wear whatever color dress she wants.

For the boy's toy, his family again comes to the girl's house, but this time they take back the presents, dance again, take more photos and videos.  She must be wearing a white dress for this toy.  After her brother has wrapped a red ribbon around her waist and promised her things like to buy her a car or things for any kids she has (he never actually follows through with these promises I hear), the groom's family takes her back to his house.  There, they kill a sheep for her and wipe some of the blood on both the bride and groom's foreheads (side note: I've seen animals killed before, but I felt really badly for the sheep this weekend.  I saw him tied up waiting to be killed and he was shaking and peed himself.).  Then a red cloth is laid down over the blood and the couple walks over it to the house.  The bride must break a plate by stepping on it before entering the house.  And then she is taken into what will be their bedroom which her family has come and prepared sometime in the week-ish before.  The couple will live with the groom's parents for at least a little while after the wedding and the youngest son usually stays with his parents forever.  A few more pictures and dancing and then you go off to the wedding palace.

Coming to the groom's house.  Please notice how poofy the dress is.  This is a requirement of the dresses for both the bride and groom's toys.  It is also mandatory to have lots of fake jewels and sequins of course.

I'm going to be honest here and say I really don't understand the need for two weddings.  They really are basically the same thing, and especially in a place like a village where, since all your friends and neighbors and relatives come to your wedding and they probably know the bride and the groom, that means the same people are at both!  And for my cousin, both weddings were even in the same wedding palace!  As they are only 2 days apart, they aren't even separate in my memory of it!  It felt like deja vu all night the second time around!  The only thing I can think of is that the bride's toy is like a dry run.  This time the groom doesn't completely steal her away, he just drives her around town, sits with her a while at the wedding palace, and brings her back.  But the next time he comes, he brings her to his house, scars her for life by killing a sheep in front of her and wiping the blood on her face, and then who'd want to go home after that?  So he gets to keep her. 

Oh, I also forgot to say that at both toys, there are 2 attendants who stay with the couple.  One from the groom's family who carries a big mirror and the other from the girl's family who carries a lamp.  I don't really know the significance, but I've been trying to learn more.  I'll keep you posted as I learn more.

After the wedding day, the wedding lives on forever because you get a video of the toy from the camera crew and you can then make un-suspecting guests who come to your house watch the video for months to come.  This video follows everything from the stuff I talked about at the houses to repeatedly scanning person by person across all the tables as people eat and to getting close-ups of people dancing (remember how I said in another post about dancing the cameramen love to follow a dancing American?  I've had people run across the room to get the cameraman when I've started dancing haha).  These videos thrill Azerbaijanis.  I find them more uncomfortable, but I watch anyway.

Alright, I guess that wraps up my little (big) lesson about Azerbaijani weddings.  Any questions class?

My Life’s Little Successes and Failures of the Week

1.  I got a haircut for the second time in this country and I don’t hate it, even if it is a bit more layered than I would have liked – SUCCESS

2. I spoke at graduation in Azerbaijani without getting laughed off the stage and apparently danced well afterwards (yes, part of the ceremony is every teacher that speaks taking a few minutes to dance with the students) – SUCCESS

3.  I later learned that the microphone was so quiet, barely anyone could hear me talking at graduation - FAILURE

Son Zəng - Graduation

4. I made it to 7 different parties on Graduation Day and another the next day – exhausting SUCCESS

5. My computer class for teachers was supposed to start this week, but my counterpart told all the other teachers the wrong time and I waited at the school for an hour and a half doing nothing – FAILURE

6. I got a group of girls to play football (read: soccer) for like an hour when they had never played before and it’s not really socially acceptable for them to just come out and play, but with me it seems to be olar (ok) – SUCCESS

7. The ball I bought for volleyball split a seam within the first 3 hours of playing with it.  I guess that’s what you get for 2 manat - FAILURE

8. All of my summer activities seem to be pretty popular, but the most popular so far was the very first activity I had.  It is an activity for us to all go out for a walk, designed because people don’t really walk here and thus don’t see the really pretty views outside of town except by a car.  I had 32 students walking with me.  Knowing that I get stared at a lot when I’m by myself and walking for fun is socially strange in Azerbaijan, imagine what happened when I was leading a group of 32 students down the road.  But I managed to walk with them for about an hour and a half without losing anyone or having anyone get hit by one of the crazy drivers - SUCCESS

9. I got a letter from my dad which I immediately noticed was very late in coming (mailed April 27^th), but I initially just wrote it off as the quirks of getting mail here.  Then later that night, when the envelope was sitting on my desk, I noticed that it was stamped as having arrived in ZAMBIA on the 6^th of May.  I guess I can see them getting Zambia from Azerbaijan...but regardless, I think it is pretty cool that my mail got to me even though it first went to Zambia – eventual SUCCESS

10. I bought a dress I actually like in Ganja, something I didn’t think I could find in an Azerbaijani store – SUCCESS

11.  I found out that the grant I wrote to get money for our nationwide girls’ summer camp got approved.  And it wasn’t even just a grant from Peace Corps! And it drove me really crazy writing it, so I’m pretty happy it was worth the time – SUCCESS

12. I am already tired of mosquito bites and this is just the beginning.  It promises to be a long summer, especially if they continue to succeed in biting me on areas of my body that are always covered with clothing...how do they do that? – FAILURE

13.  I cooked a dinner that my family actually liked!  It is just a pasta with a tomato sauce that I made with a lot of vegetables...and my mother actually ate it in its entirety, one sister only picked out the eggplant, another sister picked out all the vegetables and left them on her plate, and the third sister strategically scooped only the tomato sauce out of the dish (after scowling when she learned she couldn’t just use tomato paste because I had finished the jar while cooking...oops). But, they requested that I cook it again (I’ve actually cooked it twice now) and they were raving about it around the neighbourhood, so I’ve already had to write it out in Azerbaijani for one neighbour– SUCCESS 

14. My dream has finally come true.  For those of you who I haven't dared admit this to yet, since arriving at site in December, I've been living the Azerbaijani life of showering only once a week.  If that.  But there has always been the promise of this magical time called "summer" when we can shower everyday!  Turns out that just means rinsing off with a little soap and not washing our hair, but I will take it!  I got 2 (count 'em TWO) half showers between real showers this week.  Feeling clean... - SUCCESS

15. I've developed this ridiculous chest cough and was seriously weirding out the Azerbaijanis when I was shopping in Ganja because in Azerbaijan you aren't really supposed to show you are sick in public, so things like coughing are a little olmaz (not ok).  I was looking a bit like a pis qız (bad girl) - FAILURE

A Few Little Glimpses Into My Life

Ok I'm too lazy to write a coherent post, so here are just a few little bits to update you on what's going on:

1. Yesterday was the last day of school for the year (woo hoo!) and today is Republic Day.  On Monday we will have "son zəng" which means "last bell" and is when the 11th form students graduate (they only have 11 grades here).

2.  A few days ago I was guesting (which just means going to someone's house to be their guest) at this house where the father keeps bees and is obsessed with them.  He wanted to show me the bees, so I got all suited up in the bee suit and went out to see them.  One of the stupid little jerks stung me through my sock right on the tip of my big toe.  I was really pissed.  And then since then, I somehow got like 3 other bug bites on the same toe.  It really sucks.  I think this country hates my left foot because when some other bug stung/bit me a few months ago and my whole foot swelled up, that was also my left foot.

3. I have watched a Rocky movie a night for the last three nights and plan to continue one a day until I finish all of them (can you tell that I'm avoiding planning for my summer activities?).  I'd never watched any of them before, so at least they are new for me and I'm not wasting my time watching things I've already seen (that's a lie, I've also watched a few episodes of Sex and the City and we know I've seen all of those before).  Anyway, because my dad loves to quote Rocky constantly and now I actually know what he is talking about, I have to throw out an international "Yo, Adrian!" to him.

4. I got to videochat with Dan Minot tonight, a very special treat.  I should be getting to the internet earlier in the day now that school is out, so maybe I'll get to talk to more of you!  Miss you!

Potentially My Best Day Yet...And Then I Got Sick

This weekend, my friend Connie who lives in a nearby region asked if she could come down to Tovuz and go for a walk/hike with me.  I’d told her many times how Beth and I walk out towards the river and it’s absolutely stunning, so she had been vowing to come down for a while.  We decided that the three of us would pack some food and try to make it all the way to the river on Saturday, something so far we had only done in a car.  We set off at about noon through the now dried but previously ridiculously muddy roads.  They were difficult to walk on as the road had been so destroyed by cars and sheep when it was muddy, but once we got out of town and more into the rolling hills, there were no problems.  Besides a few cars that went by bearing people to their “country homes” by the river and the stray shepherd, we were totally and wonderfully alone.  The weather was fantastically sunny but not too hot (yes Dad, I wore my sunscreen, and yes I still got a sunburn, but not too bad...).  We seemed to hit a snag when we were finally making our descent towards the river about 2 hours later, because we found that our road really only led to some homesteads instead of to a place to picnic on the banks (the other times when we had gone by cars we took more real roads, but this way was more fun for a walk).  At first we had dogs starting to come at us barking menacingly from the closest house and we began to think crap, we have to go back..and probably fast.  But then we noticed a nice man on horseback in the yard calling off the dogs (literally) and motioning for us to come.  It was a very nice little house where an extended family from my village had come out for the day to make “yuxa” (think a gigantic tortilla-ish bread...like 2 or 3 feet in diameter, I have put in a picture from watching my aunts make it in the village).  It was so strange to have walked for two hours and then to have people just be like “oh, it’s Jess!” and have them introduce me to one of my student’s fathers and ask me how my co-teacher is doing (I impressed them by saying it was her son’s birthday and they were all like oh my gosh, she knows better than we do!  As they had forgotten and they are even related).  They helped us climb through their paddock, after giving us çay and trying to feed us, but settling for giving us a ton of cheese and yuxa to carry with us to the river.  We made our way down to the banks, having to jump over a little stream that I inevitably stepped in while jumping across (who’s surprised?).  We picnicked by the river and Beth nearly gave me a heart attack pushing away clumps of dirt where the bank is eroding and could potentially drop off at any time (in fact we were even sitting on a sort of bench like area where a lot of land had fallen away so as to create a lower level leading closer to the water).  On our way back, a man from the next homestead who was visiting his neighbor at the house where we had had çay, helped us up to his house to protect us from dogs.  He even gave Connie his horse and walked her along on with it (that horse was booking it, let me tell you, Beth and I were trotting behind panting).  When we got to his house, we again had çay and were offered another meal and a ride home, which we declined and set out for our walk back, making it home at about 6:30.  It was just such a nice afternoon of Azerbaijani kindness.  Here we were, the crazy Americans just appearing out of the hills, and trust me, everyone in this area thinks we are absolutely insane for walking that whole way on foot, but they didn’t even lecture us on how we were doing things we shouldn’t be doing and we were going to die or be eaten by dogs (yes, I do usually have these conversations when people from the village see me walking).  They were so sincere and sweet and happy to see us and gave us some good joking conversation too.

You’d think my day would be complete when I got home, but no.  I had been planning to cook ratatouille all week for myself and my family, and the timing couldn’t have been better as it ended up that both Beth and Connie were there to enjoy the “American” (read really just non-Azerbaijani) food.  We wolfed it down, laughing as we saw my sisters’ disgusted faces (they weren’t big fans…).  And then the day was rounded out with a little guesting adventure to my counterpart’s house to say happy birthday to her son…and to try to be fed a whole other meal.  We were able to get away with pretty much just the cake, but not by any fault of my teacher’s to food-push her hardest!

It’s days like this that I like the best.  I get to remember that where I live is beautiful and not always muddy and disgusting.  I get to enjoy Azerbaijani hospitality when I actually need it and not when I’m having to wrench my arm away from a well-meaning xanɩm (woman) who is dragging me to eat dolma at her house and making me late for class.  And I get to find a good balance between fun with my American friends and sharing them with my family/village so they can enjoy their company too.

 Connie and Beth

Beth and me at our happiest!

Connie and Me

Connie getting a ride to protect her from dogs...taken while Beth and I ran to keep up

Notice the thistle that is literally is tall as that man!

So that was Saturday.  On Sunday I started to feel a little bit sick and by Monday I felt like complete crap.  Now it is Wednesday and I feel much better (thankfully we had Monday off from school because it is our beloved former president - and current president's father - Heydar Baba's birthday...which meant I got to sleep a lot), but in the time I was sick I got a lot of reminders of the interesting ideas Azerbaijanis have about illness...

Reasons I was Told I Got Sick:
1. I took a shower on Sunday
2. I walked all the way to the river
3. My new jacket for spring suits me too well and everyone is looking at me with jealousy
4. I wore sandals outside without socks
5. I drank cold water

Ways to Get Better:
1. Drink tea with one/all of the following fruit jams - blackberry, raspberry, cherry, and other fruits I can't translate
2. Don't stop drinking tea until you are sweating out the illness
3. Wear a safety pin under your clothes to protect you from other people's jealous/evil thoughts 

Rain, Rain Go Away

We have had a very depressing few weeks of rain here in Azerbaijan.  It has been so wet and muddy that I've had to start walking a different way to school because the field I usually cross I now refer to as a sea (you can see it in the picture for proof).  I'm lucky though because many parts of Azerbaijan have had a lot of flooding and landslides.  Even here in Tovuz one village had a landslide that killed a family, but it wasn't where I am, no worries.  We've just had inconvenient mud, which is especially inconvenient when being muddy is apparently a sign of being a "bad girl" (and here I just thought it was a sign that I had walked to school!).  I just say I'll clean my shoes when they won't get covered again the second I step out of my house's entryway.  The rain seems to be finally going away a bit though, so keep your fingers crossed!

Along with the rain, spring has brought many very adorable baby animals to the village.  At my house we have like 10 little baby chicks who have been living in a box in the kitchen with their mother because the rain has made it too cold outside.  They smell a bit when they are let out of the box to eat, but I think it's forgivable because their just cheeping balls of fluff and don't mean to make our dinner table smell like a chicken coop.  I am not as forgiving of the geese though.  I already didn't like geese before, but with their babies they are really spiteful creatures!  Give them the biggest berth possible when you are passing them on the road and they will still come at you hissing and menacingly elongating their neck as they charge.  I'm just glad we don't have any at my house because I've heard stories of other volunteers having to viciously fight their way to be allowed into the bathroom because of a territorial goose.  Spiteful, I'm telling you.