The “gonaglig” (or guesting)

A lot of my friends seem to be curious about the food here so I thought it is time to share the art of “guesting" with all of you. I feel that I have finally gotten down the Azeri eating habits and now you can see why it is so hard to stay slim in this country. As I have mentioned before “the show off your American” is pretty big in the regions of Azerbaijan. All of my friends and I are constantly on the move guesting at either a relative’s or a colleague’s house and the routine for all seems the same. This is the menu: for an appetizer, you are served tea with cake and chocolates which you cannot refuse in fear of being disrespectful, following are the salads, which include a tomato/cucumber one, and at least 2 mayonnaise based ones, for the main course come the dolma, that’s meat stuffed vegetables for those of you that haven’t experienced them. You have to have at least two servings of each course in order to satisfy grandma who looks in your plate every two seconds to assess your progress. The dolma are cooked in about a pound of sunflower oil and if you ignore the fact you may get a heart attack at any minute they are quite delicious. After that comes the 2nd maine course, the plov which is a rice dish with fruits and chicken and is quite delicious the first few times you have it. During the main part of the course your eating speed must be super slow because if god forbid your plate starts getting empty grandma will fill you right back up...After you are done with all that most Americans tend to want to explode, but right when that feeling sets in the tea and cake come out again! Here being skinny is looked down upon and everyone, including my family wants to make you look like a sausage.

Other than that, work is OK. I have come to the conclusion that being a teacher is just like being a middle school student but a little worse because you don’t have the socializing aspect of it to look forward to. It is also difficult because I have not one but three counterparts. I cannot get sufficient time with either and am afraid that what I am doing will not sink in. To top it off the textbooks are written poorly with a ton of grammar and spelling mistakes and the lessons don’t flow in any logical order…As you can probably see, I am getting quite frustrated At this point I am starting to put more focus on secondary projects which eventually should become the more fulfilling part of my Peace Corps experience. This is it for now! Expect another installment of my exciting new life in about 3.5 weeks!