Ciyar Axşamı (Innards Night) aka The Day All the Cows and Sheep Joined Their Chicken Friends

The last day before the wedding was time to finish preparing all the food for the wedding … which meant killing 3 cows and several sheep, cutting up and cooking the chickens from the day before, and over at my aunt’s house (which I didn’t see) preparing several different kinds of salads and these sort of meat crepes. We also received some massive deliveries: all the drinks for the wedding, a huge refrigerated truck to store the meat, a GIGANTIC block of butter, etc.  While I could give more details about the food prep, I think you get the idea: tons of food, lots of butchering, lots of people working.

I don’t know if you can tell how big this thing of chicken is, but it took two people to carry it and they were still really struggling – so it was pretty big!  I’ll spare you the photos of the killings from that day…

Just some of the drinks that were dropped off that day.  All the boxes are vodka for the men.

The other delivery that we got that day was a bunch of tables, benches, and dishes because the night before the wedding there is a pre-wedding party at your house called Ciyar Axşamı (there isn’t a direct translation that I know for ciyar but ağ ciyar is lungs and qara ciyar is liver so I translate it as general innards) where basically the idea is to eat all the innards of the animals that you killed for the meat at the wedding.  At about 7 o’clock, the groom’s family and our close friend’s/relatives (at least those who weren’t already here working) arrived at our house.  They brought a sheep with them as a gift with a pretty red bow tied around its neck.  It was brought back to the butchering area in the garden and one of my favorite moments of the night was that I was on our steps, about to go outside or something, when all the sudden I see this sheep streaking out of our yard and into the road with several young men sprinting after it.  It somehow escaped from them in the garden and managed to make it through the whole party to freedom…until it was caught in the street again. 

I couldn’t capture the whole party because the men’s tables were in the garden, but you can get a sense of how big this party was.

Once everyone was seated, we served them up some kabobs of various organs (there were no seats open for us, the immediate family, but I wasn’t really disappointed because that meant I didn’t have to explain why I wasn’t interested in eating heart kabobs – although I hear that’s the best of the organs because it’s a muscle so it’s like meat) and then the dancing started.  We also had hired a musician come (he was a sort of DJ and keyboard player, so an all-in-one band) so he was all set up with huge speakers to blast out our eardrums, as Azeris love to do.  My village, Qədrili, is known for being the village that dances and let me tell you, we proved it that night!  We threw a pretty good dance party, if I do say so myself!  My host mom said that we needed to open up the first dance so Nuranə, Gülnar, and I started it all off and then made sure that we danced the whole time (the next day people were all asking me where I learned to dance like that, which I thought was a fairly silly question since obviously I learned here in Azerbaijan as they know that we don’t dance like they do). 

The dance floor

There is also a new tradition that has come to the village from Baku which is to do henna on the bride the night before the wedding (when I was living near Baku for training my host mother there went to a henna night before a wedding so I knew that they did it).  The groom’s family brought the henna in one of their xonças (basically a platter/basket all wrapped up in pretty plastic, etc) and so they brought it out midway through the party.  First they put some on Raminə’s feet, then Raminə played some games with it with her girlfriends (I think it was sort of to see who would be married next or something), then they wrote her and Etibar’s (her fiancé) initials inside her palms and did a pretty design on her hands.  Afterwards it was sort of a free for all where all the girls were getting henna done and they insisted on doing some on my hand so I also got a really nice design done. 

My henna just after it was done, waiting for it to dry

The party lasted until about 11:30 at which point our neighbor, Hüsəyn müəllim, helped us to kick out all the guests so that we could clean up (a big project in and of itself) and get some rest before the big day!

The Day All the Chickens went to Farm Animal Heaven

Today my uncle came to the house with the 60 odd chickens that my mom bought from some place in Əlimərdanlı (Beth’s village – shout out to Beth!).   Soon all the xanıms (women) of the village were coming to our house/chicken factory.  There was a whole system – first this man would take a chicken, string it up on a specially set up clothes line (he was going to use the regular clothes line but that idea was vetoed by my mom because it was going to get the blood all where we walk), he’d chop off their heads (sorry, maybe this post should have had a violence warning at the top!) and let them bleed out on the line.  Then one woman would come and get the chicken after it stopped moving (those things seriously freak out after their heads are chopped off, it’s kind of nasty) and dunk them in boiling water for a minute.  Then she’d bring them over to the army of women who would begin the process of removing all the feathers.  Once all the feathers were removed and the last little remaining feathers burned off, there was another station devoted to removing all the organs and a final station over by the sink to wash them out.  Before I knew it, all the chickens went from flapping around the yard to being nicely wrapped up in a bundle to keep out the flies! 

The last of the chickens… I took some gorier shots but I’ll spare you

The gutting station, so you can get a sense of the quantity of chickens we’re talking about!

A well-deserved rest for tea after all the chickens were put to rest (they are taking up the other half of the table where the women are sitting).  If you look into the background, you’ll see where the men sat “tasting” the vodka while the women were preparing the chickens.

Believe it or not, I was not really involved in this process… I stayed inside (except for when I was fulfilling my duties as resident photographer) where I kept the children occupied with toys brought from the US (we’ve had them coloring from a Lisa Frank coloring book for days but today I busted out the play-doh and assorted cookie cutter sorts of toys, big hit!).  Since that really didn’t take very much attention except to praise their cutting skills, I have also be boning up on my snake skills on my old school Nokia phone (for those of you who don’t remember, snake is a super awesome and addictive game) and kicking my old records’ butts!

Before all this chicken business began, I went into Tovuz city this morning with Raminə to the salon.  When a girl gets married, she goes to the salon and  gets her whole face threaded for the first time (before that point, if she plucks/waxes/threads her eyebrows, she is considered a slut – resulting in a lot of unfortunate unibrow situations).  Raminə was really nervous that it would hurt (and when we got home everyone kept asking me if she cried), but besides a lot of wincing and a red face, she did fine. I also got my eyebrows threaded while we were there.  Our time at the salon was another interesting look into Azeri pricing for me.  I’m constantly amazed by what is super expensive here and what is dirt cheap.  Today, for example, I learned that an eyebrow wax is 3 manat (approximately $3.75) while in America at my salon a few weeks ago they were going to charge me $18 (I told them I’d do it myself).  And after the salon, we went to the bazar where I bought some shoes (albeit a cheap pair) for 6 manat (approximately $7.50).  But then we start looking at some shirts for my mom and they were 50 manat!! (That’s about $62.50)  Yes they were super qəşəng (to an Azeri audience, to me they were quite heinous) and yes the sellers were willing to bargain down to a cheap 40-45 manat ($50-56.25) but still!  They are shirts at a bazar!

Barxana (Written on Tuesday August 20th)

Sunday was Barxana Day, meaning the day that we brought all of Ramina’s cehiz (dowry) to what will be her new house and set up her room.  There is a lot of ceremony and tradition to this process and, having never been this close to someone who is getting married, this is the first time that I got to experience all of it!

Sunday morning started with some last minute preparations.  I was involved in the task of decorating the gate.  When someone in your house is getting married, you decorate the front gate with a huge bow, etc and it stays up basically until it falls off on its own it seems (I’ve seen some pretty depressing looking gate decorations that have seen a few too many storms and a lot of village dust and I kind of wonder why they are still up there).  One side of our gate we did in a very typical Azerbaijani style, but the second half, since it has a smaller door that we use all the time, Gülnar and I decided to do a smaller decoration on that door that I am told is quite unique.

At a little bit past twelve, Raminə’s fiancé’s brother arrived with a truck (it is the groom’s family’s responsibility to provide the truck).  We had that thing loaded up and were hitting the road in less than half an hour – and that includes the first 10 minutes of standing around waiting for my mom to get back from the store so that she could tell us what to put down on the bed of the truck to protect all the mattresses and bedding!  I should also mention that the furniture for the dowry was sent directly to the new house so it was already there.  Once everything was loaded, we set off across town to the house.  There was a whole group of us who went – family friends, married women from both sides of the family, neighbors, Gülnar, and me.  The bride-to-be doesn’t go (traditionally she doesn’t even get to go see her fiancé’s house until she goes there on her wedding day, a lot of girls go over before now, but the old women judge them and my sister hasn’t gone there at all) and apparently neither does her mom.

We also had to send one kid to ride on the truck, so we sent Fərid, our aunt’s son who is going into 3^rd grade and can be super obnoxious (although on Barxana Day he and I became good friends).  Before the kid will get down from the truck, the future mother-in-law must give him some money.  Raminə’s future mother-in-law came with only 10 manat (which I have been told is quite low) and Fərid refused to get down for less than 20 manat (which is about $25).  He got it.

Fərid getting his 20 manat

We had the truck unloaded as fast as it was loaded (these women are machines!) and then set about unpacking and arranging everything – which was the more difficult part!  We had everything so well packed that of course we couldn’t find the first things that we needed.  But really I am using the term “we” loosely here as I generally spent Barxana Day standing around taking photos and playing with Fərid (which I considered being quite helpful because I kept him out of trouble).  Whenever I tried to help I felt more in the way because these women definitely had set ideas of where everything could go and it would take time/energy to explain to me exactly what they wanted.  I did help put some stuff on top of her wardrobe (on the orders of an aunt)...but then another woman came and took it all down again :(

Raminə’s future room

After everything was done, it is the groom’s family’s responsibility to serve us lunch, and apparently what they serve is a fairly big deal because I have been asked to account for the menu at various gatherings subsequently (in case you care, they served us 3 sisters dolma – which means ground meat in eggplant, tomatoes, and green peppers, chicken in a sort of butter sauce thing, and plov – rice).  We sat inside to eat and drink tea while his family was outside.  Then, before we left, they gave us gifts (it felt kind of like party favors) of slippers and tank tops.

All of this was finished within 3-4 hours.  Phew!  But that wasn’t the end of our day!  We came home, and, after reporting back in detail about the room and showing the pictures, began to help with a huge bread-making operation which was underway at our house.  They were using like 50kg of flour to make yuxa (flat bread, kind of like a tortilla but really big).  It was litereally like a factory in our yard and they worked all day.  These women are amazing.  Our job wasn’t really to help, more to bring tea to keep the production underway and the workers refreshed!

The Myth (?) of the Big Bad Jess (Written on Friday August 16)

I have noticed a rising trend since I’ve been here.  It all started when I went to our aunt’s house in Baku.  I wasn’t really paying attention and then I realized that our aunt’s daughter-in-law was threatening her little girl (who is maybe 3 years old) to be good or I would give her a shot because I’m a doctor.  As strange as it may seem to an American audience (I don’t know how Azerbaijani-ized I’ve been by this point), to me this seemed perfectly normal.  In fact, I’m pretty sure I’ve heard this threat before from Azeri mothers, so I pretty much ignored it.  But now, the more that our relatives have been bringing their kids to our house during all this wedding prep, the more I’ve heard threats made about things that I will do to small children who are bad.  For example, today I realized that they have been telling kids “Ces səni öldürəcək! – Jess is going to kill you!” if they touch something (also a common threat, but usually I hear “I’m going to kill you” instead of someone else is).  Or tonight my sister wanted to put something in a safe place until Thursday so she chose to put it in my suitcase so that she could tell the kids that it is mine and they had better not dare touch it.  I guess this would explain why when I try to speak to kids here they look at me like I have five heads.  So apparently I’m the Big Bad Wolf of Azerbaijan, or rather the Big Bad Jess.  But the confusing part for me is that I also have brought tons of presents for the kids and they have been playing with them and they are told to thank me for the presents – doesn’t that go against the whole Jess as the villain narrative??  I guess if it gets them to behave (I have been going crazy with how bratty kids can be!) then I’m down with being the bad guy – does that sort of make me the Big Bad Jess?  And do I really care?

My Second Home

Warning: I’m gonna brag a little bit in this post.

When you’re a Peace Corps volunteer, you are often told that your work is going to be very hard and you need to be satisfied with small successes.  I was very lucky in my service to have fantastic, hard-working counterparts (co-teachers) and students and I was able to see some really amazing results (when my program manager visited my classes she even made my 11th form/grade stay after the bell to tell them that she had never, in all her years as a teacher and traveling the country for Peace Corps, seen a class that could do what they were doing – which at the time was reading and discussing Charlie and the Chocolate Factory in English).  That would have been enough in and of itself, but I was blessed in my personal life outside school as well.  My host family was better than I ever could have hoped and I had great friends in my counterparts and students.  Since I’ve returned to Azerbaijan, I’ve been constantly reminded of how awesome my service was on that front.  On the first night I was back in the village, my host mom looked at me and, with tears in her eyes, told me that I had completely changed their lives.  Since then I’ve heard her tell many people the story of how when I came she had so many problems and worries, that she would get angry with her daughters and didn’t know what to do about her money problems, but that once I came, all that stopped.  I don’t think that they realize, and sometimes I don’t even realize myself, how much they changed me as well.  Yesterday when I was talking with Tamilə müəllim she told me that when I came to the village, they thought of me as an American who came here to work, but by the time I left, they now think of me as an Azerbaijani who has gone somewhere else for work but will always come back.  She and I were joking how Azerbaijan (well really Qədirli village) is my second home, but it’s really the truth.  I’ve lived a number of different places in recent years – from St. Louis for college, to Liberia for Peace Corps Response, to Minneapolis now for my PhD – but coming back to Azerbaijan just felt right.  I love this quirky little country :) and it really holds a special place in my heart.

Ces Gəldi! Ces Gəldi! (Written on Friday August 16th)

Driving into the village after a long day riding the marshrutka (12 passenger van), we passed a group of kids who I could hear through the open window start saying to one another “Ces gəldi! Ces gəldi!” (Jess came! Jess came!).  I felt kind of like a celebrity!  Since then, that’s largely been the reaction whenever I go anywhere.  Apparently even though my family has been telling people that I would come back for the wedding, no one believed them so when people see me they finally believe that I’m here.

Since I’ve been at my house, things have been a bit crazy with wedding preparations.  Mama refused to let them prepare Raminə’s barxana (the mattresses, blankets, and pillows for her dowry) until I arrived (apparently the aunts and neighbors have been begging her to start but she wouldn’t) so my first full day here was consumed with bedding-making.  Except that my job was really to be photographer, food/tea preparer, and children entertainer and I didn’t have any part in the real barxana preparations (although neither did any of the other unmarried girls, so I think this was more of an age/station sort of thing not a foreigner/guest thing).

Beating the wool to put in a mattress

Stuffing one of the mattresses with wool

The whole group of women (or who was left by the end of the day) enjoying some dinner while they blankets hung on the line (the mattresses and pillows had been carried inside).

Yesterday (my second full day) we went to Gəncə to get dresses for both weddings (in case I haven’t mentioned it before, remember that there are 2 weddings for every marriage, a girl’s wedding and a boy’s) for Mama and one for the boy’s wedding for Gülnar.  It took us a while and I was totally tired of being at the bazar, but we succeeded!  I also took the opportunity to buy myself a few things: a xanım (older woman) scarf to match one I have in my apartment and use to cover a table, a pair of cheap earrings (Azerbaijani bazars are great for cheap earrings!), etc.

Creepy Russian looking manikins at the bazar

Today I’m about to go for a run (my first since I’ve been here!  I feel so lazy!) and then I’m going to go over to Tamilə müəllim’s house.  She has been in Baku since I’ve been here (unfortunately when I was in Baku I was told she had come back to the village so I didn’t try to see her there) and got back yesterday.  I saw her for a few minutes before I had to go to a pre-party party for one of my relative’s sons who is getting circumcized (today will be the real circumcision party at one of the wedding palace – they are really wealthy so this promises to be quite the event!).  For those of you who maybe don’t remember or know, Tamilə müəllim was my all-star English teacher counterpart and best friend when I lived here in Azerbaijan.  She is an amazing woman and I’m so excited to spend time with her again!

Sweeping through Baku to get to the Main Event - Tovuz Here We Come!!

It has been a whirlwind couple of days here in Baku, but I'm happy to say that I was able to get most everything I wanted to done quickly so that in the morning, my host sister Nurana (who has been in Baku visiting family) and I can go to the bus station and head for home - our village in Tovuz.  From what I've heard, the roads have improved since I left so whereas I remember the drive taking 7-10 hours, it should only take 6.  Cross your fingers for us!

Before I head out to the "rayon" (region), I wanted to take a minute to at least write a little bit about some of the highlights from my time in Baku:

On Sunday I went to meet Nurana and visit some of the family in Baku that she has been staying with.  It was a really great day of immersion into Azerbaijani for sure!  I think I've passed the test so far, which is a relief.  I also got to see some of the newest members of the family, both through marriage and birth.  And Nurana got to try on her bridesmaid dress which I brought (more information about that as the wedding approaches!) and it fit AND she liked it, so I consider that a huge success!

We went to Suraxanı where oil literally comes out of the ground and sort of mixes with the ground water.

To get to the house, we walk through a field where there are nodding donkeys for the oil.

For Sunday night, my friend Eric and I went up to take a spin at the rotating restaurant of the TV tower, something we almost did at the end of my service before deciding that it was too expensive.  We decided that it was totally worth it now because of the new features of the city skyline that you get to look down upon while you eat your overpriced fruit parfaits and drink your wine :)

There was a way in which I was going to be in most of my pictures taken through the glass so I just had to sort of accept that, but I kind of liked this one with the world's second largest flagpole (yeah, apparently Azerbaijan got beat) in my reflection.

Yum.

Flame towers from above

On Monday morning I made a surprise return visit to the Peace Corps office, having only told one staff member that I was coming (and he was on vacation and doesn't seem to have told anybody, so I doubt that counts).  It was really surreal to be back and as usual the office proved to be some sort of time vacuum that ate my morning, but it was really great to reconnect with some of the staff that was so instrumental in making my time here what it was.  And their excitement to see me back (they even gave me a present - copies of the language manual and cultural manual that I helped to create before I left but never saw) really made me feel good!

Monday afternoon was spent at my first house in Azerbaijan outside Baku in Ceyranbatan.  I lived there for the 3 months that I was in training (but I was really proud to even be able to find the place today because I realized I only know where to tell the bus to stop by an empty semi-finished building and a sign with a deer - but what if they finished the building or took down the sign??  Thankfully, neither has happened).  My host family there is super sweet.  Apparently when Ayna, the middle daughter, saw my facebook message saying I was going to be visiting in a week she started screaming and completely scared her mother that something was wrong!  We had a good laugh together when they told me about it.  Another high point of the visit was the great success of my present for Cavad - the youngest child and only boy.  He and I were best buds when I lived there (he was one of my best language teachers as we would play "Bu nədir?" - What is this? every day at lunch) but I was afraid that as he has gotten older (he is going into second grade!) that I would have gotten a present for him that wasn't right.  Instead, my present was a real hit!  It was a bag of little army men (I was hesitant to buy them and was going to opt for the dinosaurs before my ever wise friend Wesley pointed out that soldiers would be way more popular with a young Azeri boy). Cavad immediately turned the living room into a battlefield, setting up a light green colored army on one carpet and a dark green one on the carpet opposite to battle.  He then proceeded to move between the two, knocking men down.  Possibly the cutest thing was when his father tried to join him and save the men Cavad was randomly killing off (saying that they'd gone to the hospital for treatment - and finally accepting their deaths and saying "Allah rəhmət ələsin" - Rest in Peace essentially) and watching them play together, something I didn't see much before.  I also really loved that as I was literally walking out the door at the end of the afternoon, Cavad whispered to his mom to ask who the boy was that I had been kissing in my facebook picture (on the cheek mind you, and the answer is my friend - yes we really are just friends - Wesley).  I explained to them who he was, but just a warning Wes, last time Cavad thought someone might be my boyfriend it was my friend Mike during training because we would run together and Cavad totally almost came running from the kitchen to throw a potato at him while we sat on the couch.  The crisis was narrowly averted by my mother and sisters grabbing him and taking away his weapon of choice.  So Wes, I recommend watching your back for flying potatoes, Cavad has his eye on you! :)

This is insane - where am I?? This is so weird - really, where am I?? This place is fantastic, but seriously, where am I??

I just went out for a few hours of walking around through the city and on the Bulvar (the park along the shore of the Caspian) and literally I sounded like a broken record with my reactions to everything because all I could say was: This is insane.  This is so weird.  This place is fantastic.  Seriously, where am I?? Over and over again.  It was all I could say!  Baku was already getting kind of over-the-top before I left, but in the time that I was gone they hosted Eurovision (a song contest for groups representing different European countries) and, in preparation, built up A TON of new stuff.  One of the projects that they completed just in time for the shows was what we call The Flame Towers.  Construction on these flame-shaped buildings had begun long before I left, but even at the time of my departure, they were far from finished.  Now the towers are not only done being built (although from what I have heard they are not yet occupied), but at night, they are lit up (!!) and I got to see them for the first time...

We were sitting at a restaurant on the Bulvar eating dinner when my friend Eric looks over and sees that they have been turned on for the evening.  Knowing that I've been anxious for this very moment, he catches my attention and, indicating with a nod of his head, gets me to look up and see them in their flaming glory:

Me: Oh my god!  Seriously, those things are insane!  I mean really - where am I ?!?!
Eric: Oh don't worry, the towers are going to answer that for you themselves in a minute when a little man starts running around with a flag...

And cue lighting change:

And then in case that was a bit too subtle and I still didn't know where I was, cue second lighting change:

But really though, these towers look SUPER cool, I was pleasantly surprised!

A Short Stop in Istanbul

Well, I’m sitting in Ataturk Airport in Istanbul, more than a full day into travelling, waiting to board a plane for the last leg of my trip to FINALLY arrive in Azerbaijan (by the time I post this, I will have arrived, inşallah).  I was able to get out into Istanbul for a little while during my almost 6 hour layover and let me tell you, it was weird in the most fantastic sort of way.  Having been to Istanbul three times during my Peace Corps service, I didn’t need to try and run around to see all the main tourist sites, but instead settled for just sort of strolling by to appreciate how gorgeous everything is and then getting some delicious Turkish food.  It was exhilarating to be surrounded by Turkish (which is remarkably similar to Azerbaijani) because, since leaving Azerbaijan, I haven’t been in a situation where everyone around me is speaking a different language and I can actually understand (and it gets even more exciting when people are speaking as though I won’t understand and I can surprise them by responding).  I guess it was basically a good little test run for what it’s going to be like getting back to Azerbaijan – and now I’m seriously ready for the real thing!  Bring on Azerbaijan!

Crappy picture of me in front of the Blue Mosque! Just enough to prove I was there!

Sidenote: While I have been writing this, there have been so many members of the airport staff flying around on Segways and various other electric walking-replacing things, it’s weird.  They don’t even have to push people in wheelchairs; the wheelchairs are electric with a place to stand at the back for the staff person!  I can’t decide if it’s really great in its efficiency or just really weird and a bit overkill.

Back to Where it All Began

It's been a little over a year and a half since I left Azerbaijan, and by extension since I have put up a post here, but as I'm at the airport heading back to The Land of Fire, I figured it was about time to crank this thing into gear again!  

As many of you already know, before I left Azerbaijan, I promised my host family (as the girls have not failed to remind me, "Ces, söz verdin!!" - Jess, you gave your word!) that I would return when my oldest host sister, Raminə, got married.  Around February I got a Facebook message telling me that she was engaged!  At first I didn't believe them, thinking that it was a joke to guilt me into Skyping with them (I'll admit it, I had been out of touch for a few weeks).  Of course when I called them and jokingly accused them of lying to rope me into calling, they laughed (a lot) and told me no, this is really happening!  Thankfully they were able to plan the wedding so it would happen before my fall semester started at school, and the rest is history!

I'm leaving today and I'll be gone for just over three weeks - enough time to help with the last weeks of wedding preparations (and squeeze in visiting time with old friends and students of course). I am so ridiculously excited (and also in a state of disbelief) that I'm actually going back. It promises to be incredibly overwhelming - Which buses do I take to get around Baku because I'm sure not paying for taxis! And speaking of taxis, I hear you can only get official metered taxis now, no more unregistered Lada taxis, which I think means it will be more expensive!  And how much does a bus even cost because I can't remember!  Plus it's probably changed anyway! - Just a little glimpse into the internal freak out I've been having about going back to a place that used to feel so much like home and yet now I'm afraid I'm going to feel like a stranger. I just keep telling myself that once I get back to my village I won't have to worry about any of that stuff!  I'll be back in my old room (although I think I'll be sharing it with my host sisters who have taken up residency  since I left) in my old house and everything will be great. I can't wait! :)

So the plan is to resume my old blogging ways and post here so anyone who wants to read about what is happening on my trip can!  We'll see how regular my internet access is and all that, but I'm optimistic!  So thanks for reading and I hope I have some good stuff to write about! (Azerbaijan never seems to disappoint I that regard though, so I'm optimistic about that too!)