Almost done!

My service is slowly coming to an end and there are only 2 weeks left till I must go to Baku and close out my Azeri life. Who would have thought that through all of the anticipation to finally finish I would actually become nostalgic? It happened and I am realizing how many small things have mattered a lot to me, and how leaving them won’t be a piece of cake. At the top of the list for that is Kiwi (my dog) who with the help of my friend Meredith, I will try to bring to America next summer. I have become so attached to her, and I miss her even when I travel within Azerbaijan. Too bad she can’t drink beers with me in the summer heat…Some other things that have mattered to me and I will miss are:

• My two favorite students Fidan and Shabnam.
• My house, since who knows when I can afford to live on my own again.
• Famile, my counterpart, who has always stood behind my decisions and has helped me through my problems.
• My Peace Corps friends.
• Making my own work schedule and not working a 9-5 job.
• Not worrying about money (too much) and having hassle free health care.

There are probably more aspects of my life that I will realize I’ll miss as my time here diminishes. Needless to say I am also looking forward to plenty when I come home, such as: a social life, supermarkets, sit down toilets, sushi, and washing machines among others.

Two things that I am most definitely happy to be leaving behind are Azeri men and being a teacher. I take my hat off to all of my current colleagues because teaching is not as effortless as it may and in fact is pretty hard! Maybe it’s a bit different teaching here, but still, I can’t picture ever being able to handle the job with the little amount of patience I possess.

So you probably wonder what I have been doing for the past 2 months? The answer is: not much! Once school ended and the heat cranked up to 90-100 degrees everyday, it is not only I who wanted to hide out with a fan in my face. All summer I have had one conversation club which would meet bi-weekly for 2 hours and that’s about it. I left Barda a few times to go help out friends with their clubs and camps, and finally took a trip to go see the mountains with my friends from Baku. Other than that I have been sitting at home in front of the Internet, cuddling a frozen water bottle and waiting for the sun to go down so I can function. Don’t ever take your air conditioning for granted people!!!

So everyone has been asking about my return. As previously mentioned I arrive on September 21st at Dulles, at 8:53 pm. Its taking me a little longer to get home because I'm taking a week to go to Berlin and re-civilize myself. When I come back home base will be my mom’s house in Alexandria for about one month, and around October 19th I’m heading out to Breckenridge, CO to live for the winter. I will email ways to reach me as soon as I get a cell phone and then the reunions shall begin. I can’t wait!!!

Pictures: 1) At Ilisu in Gax 2) Fidan and I 3) Museum in Sheki 4) In Sheki with Bulgarians 5) The Kiwi

US bound

My official return to America is:

September 21st!

Stop 1: DC
Stop 2: Breckenridge
Stop 3: San Francisco
(Inshallah, as the Azeris would say)

Toes

It always surprises me how time flies when you have things to do. June began with my long anticipated vacation to Riga which was exactly what I needed in order to remind myself what I have been missing out on. My friend and I stayed in a hostel in Old Town Riga where we met a ton of cool people, partied, ate amazing food, and did a number of touristy activities which I didn’t dread as much as I had imagined. Each day was more fun than the last, and once we came back to Azerbaijan we both went through a 2 week long nostalgia for Latvia. Immediately after our vacation we headed to our Close of Service Conference (COS), where our group reunited one last time before heading our separate ways on September
13th. We had sessions ranging from health to career advice, and even though helpful, what I got out of it was a good dose of stress, since I am still confused about my future. Why can’t my perfect job just hit me in the face so I won’t have to get wrinkles over it? If anyone has any future opportunities for me that involve skiing, traveling and not sitting behind a desk now is the time to speak up!! After COS, I came back to Barda for the environmental camp my site mate, Mare, and I had planned. We did environmental activities, every morning with a group of kids and we ended up enjoying it so much that we are going to gather with them two times a week, every week, until I’m done.

So logistically this is what my life had consisted of. Now I want to share a story about my foot…In late May after running daily on a crappy sprinter’s track I injured my left foot. The pain was gradual and I ignored it for about a week until one day I took my shoe off and I could barely step on it. The Peace Corps doctor sent me to the local hospital to get an X-Ray since I could get that over with right away and possibly skip the trip to Baku. I went to the scary hospital and did the deed, following which I had to talk to the orthopedist and get the diagnosis for my condition. After examining my foot, which was already de-swelled, and looking at the X-ray upside down, he told me that I have a serious condition called aseptic necrosis, which a lot of young women get due to the fact they wear high heels a lot. He told me I’ll be fine after serious physiotherapy and about 10 prescriptions. Our PC doctor freaked out and immediately summoned me to Baku for a second opinion. Meanwhile I researched this condition that I apparently had just to find out that it usually occurs in older people at the hip bone or the knee, rarely at the ankle and possibly never in the foot…Hmmm. Additionally I haven’t worn high heels in over 2 years which was the doctor’s main argument for me having this softening of the bone he diagnosed. So I went to Baku and Irina, my doctor straight out laughed at the diagnosis after looking at my seemingly perfect X-Ray. At the end it turned out I had just pulled a ligament and as long as I took it easy for a while it would heal. Should I believe that? I don’t know... What freaks me out is that this Barda doctor gives these sorts of diagnosis on a regular basis, sending people to surgery, and prescribing them unnecessary drugs. Once again this incident made me feel so damn lucky that I wasn’t born here.

And here is a snippet of important information:
I have decided to travel for a week after I’m done so my official return has been postponed till September 21st. The plane tickets are bought so its all set. Mark your calendars!

2 Years of Being a School Teacher - check

Today was graduation and school is officially over. I’m never ever EVER teaching again and couldn’t be happier about it. I know this means I am one step closer to coming home, but 103 days still sounds like an eternity away. At least I won’t be too bored while counting down till September 12th. I am barely going to be at site in June due to my Riga vacation and the Close of Service Conference, and then in July I’m planning and participating in a number of summer camps which will keep me busy and whining for at least a few more weeks. In addition I have decided to take the Foreign Service Exam, which also fits in that time period of crazy.

Other than that the Peace Corps has been quite the love mixer lately. We are on our way to marry off our second PCV (Peace Corps Volunteer) couple in June and are wondering who is next. The first two got hitched back in January and moved in together right after. They are both in my group and are preparing to go home, meet each other’s families, and plan the American wedding with all the perks they didn’t get here. The second couple is a mix between my group and the new group, and is tying the knot in the next week or so. The wife to be, Mariko is extending her service one year and switching her site so she can be with her man. None of this of course can happen in Azerbaijan, so both couples have had to go to Georgia in order to legalize their union. They come back with the papers and PC handles all the rest. Love love love. BLAH! Speaking of this, just this week I realized that I have forgotten what to do with myself around normal, interesting and attractive men. My local interactions with the opposite sex are either accompanied with anger and annoyance (at local Azeris), or the sisterly nudge nudge (with PC guys). How did I figure this out? It happened three days ago, when a Spanish cyclist contacted me via Couch Surfers, asking if he could stay with me since he was to pass by on his way to Iran. He is taking on the world with his bike and at the age of 40 has been on the road for 4 years and has gone through South America and Africa already. He left his job as a lawyer in Spain, and while on the road entertains the poorest of the poor as a clown, for which he actually has training. If you speak Spanish and would like to check out his videos you can go to his website at www.biciclown.com. Needless to say he was just as amazing in person as he is on paper, and yours truly wanted to hide under the table not knowing what to do with herself around him. Quite sad, I hope my flirting skills come back to me once I return to civilization because this is totally UNACCEPTABLE!

And now back to my Peace Corps life. I have been quite busy in the past two months planning an Earth Day event and an end of the school year assembly with my 5th formers. For Earth Day I planned an awareness campaign for my classes, which ended up with a school clean-up on the weekend. Around 25 students showed up, and we had a grand time picking up syringes, beer bottles, and cigarette butts. At the end I gave all of them hand sanitizer and candy for their hard work. The end of the school year event was a bit more complicated since I had to teach 26 students a number of poems and songs. It sounds easy, but I tell you getting those kids into gear and controlling 26 little torpedoes is a tough job. It took 3 months to have them learn 4 songs, a poem, and create a letter from cardboard. Any less, and the program wouldn’t have been a success. The theme was the alphabet so each student had to make their own letter, say a poem about it and learn 4 songs with the accompanying dances. On May 16th we had an assembly inviting parents and teachers and it was an utter success. I was very proud of the little ones and almost cried when they presented me with gifts and speeches about what a great teacher I am. Now I know that there is something I will miss once I go from here.

I have also been working with my Jehovah’s Witness counterpart, who along with her group have been harassed and persecutes since they started their activities here. She has written a letter to mail out to different NGO’s and International organizations and I have been helping her revise it and make it more professional. The letter entails all of the discriminatory acts against Jehovah’s Witnesses by town people, the police and the Ex Com and is quite lengthy. Her English is not that good so it hasn’t been an easy task to arrange and re-write it. I have uploaded the letter in case you want to read or give it to anyone who may help. You can download it HERE.

And finally, I have been an essential part of the Barda Bandits, and had to say goodbye to a friend who recently quit due to the fact he got a job in Iraq. 3 more blog entries till the end!!!

On Local Men

Here is what my site mate Sarah wrote on the topic of local men. This is what we deal with on a daily basis, and why i chose to spend a chunk of my own money to get internet at home. Enjoy:

Observation On The Male Species

by Sarah Choy

Whether it be standing on street corners practicing their staring skills, following me from one end of town to the other grunting, trying to run me over with their speeding Ladas, throwing me random crude comments while I pass on the opposite side of the street, demanding for what I’m selling whilst grabbing at my pack, or sitting at the popular man made habitat/internet cafe for hours on end looking at porn for free because they are the buddy of the guy that works there, I have developed a strong dislike towards the male species in this country—maybe even borderline hate.
Side Note: Yes, I’ve had my share of negative experiences with the dominate populous here, but I’ve also met a few good men. For example, I have enormous amounts of respect for everyone at PCHQ and a good 2 in my surrounding environment.
The following are my observational notes…
Entry 612 [sometime last week in the year 2008]: The other day I ventured into the popular man made habitat with an intention of emailing my family after avoiding the outside world farther than the distance from my house to my work. At the internet café in Barda there are three “boys” that work there at varying hours in the day, if they aren’t at the çay xanas giggling and gawking. Usually I chose to pay a visit to the net in the morning hours when the environment is calmer and less dense with the male species. I would normally call or message Sean Paul, the morning worker and the most predictable of the three, to make sure he’s there because I hate standing on the street at the door to the net while people start drifting closer and closer to me as I wait. It was late afternoon by the time I decided to go the net. The guy working at that hour looks like he’s 12, but observation proves him to be older. All three computers were occupied, and one of them by the guy working there. I waited about an hour along the walls reading a book and occasionally glancing up to check on any movement from the boys. Finally the internet guy got up from his dwellings and calls me towards the computer signalling he was finished. I pack my book away and cautiously made my way over. I sit down and his hand is still on the mouse looking at me. I look onto the screen and there is a video of a girl on her knees giving a blow job to a headless body. I roll my eyes and open my bag to dig out my USB. I think to myself if he was done why did he not close the window? One of the many why questions I wonder about the species. I see his face curl into a seedy smirk and it hits me that he wanted to see my reaction to the video. After what seemed like an eternity as he waited for a reaction from me, he finally closed the window, put in the password for me to access the internet and went on his way. But this was only the beginning. Shortly afterwards he sits with another customer/friend/non-paying boy and they start giggling trying to get my attention. From being in the Peace Corps I’ve been working on my ignoring and jading skills. Being American that wasn’t really that difficult because I have the ability to focus on the tasks at hand. Then he strikes up a cigarette and blows a few puffs into my face as he gets up walking towards me. My peripheral vision indicated him throwing another smirk my way. I thought it best to not acknowledging anything around me and experiment what the species may do next and hoping he will loose interest in me and leave me alone. I probably seemed like an empty shell, or as a person living in my own bubble to him. And as I observed him I saw a freak in a glass box and noted his many attempts at annoying the foreigner who ventured into his environment. Eventually he walked outside and had gathered a handful of friends to join him in the café. Nearly 15 minutes passed with what some may define as heckling, I bid my family adieu and left the café after slamming 60 qəpik on the computer table as if I had enjoyed the display of immaturity I received. This experience is similar to many that I’ve encountered over nearly two years living in this strange environment. Thus my expectations of the male species no longer surprise me and I often let it fester in the natural habitat. This is maybe the decided reason why I dislike the dominate populous and choose now to avoid them at all costs. If there are some decent males out there in the community, they have yet to provide evidence of themselves to me.

On a positive note, even though what Sarah wrote is routine, i have met a number of wonderful men who never cease to surprise me:

1. My old host dad, Arif, who tells me stories of his life in Russia, would take on any disrespectful Azeri, and jumps at the opportunity to help me when in need.
2. Internet guy Shanpal, the only guy working at the cafe who would kick out anyone that is disrespectul to us and immediately give up his computer so we can get on the internet.
3. Taxi driver, Yadegar, who always feeds me at the rest stop between Barda and Baku,and finds me a nice driver if he happens to be busy.
4. Any men working for AIM, a great NGO which does a ton for the community projects, such as tree plantings, trash pick ups, and other environmental campaigns.
5. My landlord, who knows that i need to be left alone, yet when i have a problem with the house, he fixes it for free!
6. The 2 deputy directors at school, who make sure that no kid ever disrespects me.
7. The store owner, who always undercharges me by 20 qepic.
8. The neighborhood 15 year old, who always walks me places and shows me where to get the cheapest amenities.
   
9. And of course all the men working at the Peace Corps office!
   

Spring is Here

Right now I am sitting in my house while a bunch of children are running crazy around my yard and screaming like the little savages they are. The reason for that is that my landlord’s father died, and they are going through the 7 days of mourning with the whole extended family, which is here from Baku and a number of other regions. I just had to go scold the kids for trying to kick Kiwi, who is terrified and hiding out with with me in the house. Funerals here are very different than what we know to be true. I am not quite sure what happens to the body, but I believe its put in the ground almost immediately after the death, then a huge tent is built on the street where the men mourn. The women mourn too, by whaling, chanting and crying inside the house for 7 days straight. The belief is that if you are not loud enough, and you don’t show how much you miss the person, the soul will know and not go to heaven. Outside the tent and the whaling room, however, it’s like a party, kids a running around, people are chatting and smiling, and the mood is very un-funeral like.

Other than funerals and crazy kids, I've been quite contempt mostly due to the wonderful weather we've been having. Unlike last year when in May the seasons went straight from winter to summer, this year spring DID come. The trees are blooming, bugs are out, and everything is turning green. Not only did it come, but it also kind of infringed on winter, the weather has been in the 60’s and 70’s for all of March and the forecast for this week reaches the 80s every day. Last year at this time I was still running my heater and wearing winter apparel. Spring itself is quite an interesting phenomenon because even though I am already in t-shirts and sandals, the Azeris are still in boots and winter coats. I believe that there is an official date that the winter garments must come off, and until then they MUST wear them no matter how hot it is. Spring is also the season for city beautification, when buildings, streets, and parks, get fixed up and made over. And by that I mean the two streets that the president might see if he were to come to the city. I live right next to the Ex Com and Municipality buildings and everything is getting redone: the park across the street, the chess club, and even the old movie theater which will probably be turned into another man-only teahouse. Additionally all older buildings in the town center are being dressed in these gray Robocop style tiles in order to appear more modern. Its important to mention that while millions of dollars are pouring into this aesthetic city beautification, no school is being shown the same respect, specially mine which is on the verge of collapsing. These renovations are done in case the president were to come or even just drive through the city. Anywhere he goes, a magic paintbrush fixes things along the way and I am convinced that he doesn’t really realize the rundown state of his country and people. Spring is also the time for the biggest holiday in Azerbaijan, Novruz. It is a Muslim holiday which celebrates the start of the Muslim New Year, as well as the beginning of spring. Azeris cook a ton of food and basically force-feed you till you drop for a week straight. I tried so hard to avoid guesting during this time, but alas I failed and am now a fatty. The good thing about Novruz is that school is out for almost 2 weeks, letting me have solitude and giving me time to see my friends.

Other than school work, some other occurrences in my life have involved: PC Prom, which gives us a reason to go to Baku, dress up, and drink; Women's Day Celebration in Goranboy; Developing a program and art contest to teach students about Earth Day through the PC Environmental Committee, writing a PC Environmental blog, and planning an environmental camp with my site mates.

Peace Corps Prom

See? I do stuff….5 months to go!

7 months

Here I am, at the 21st month of my Peace Corps Experience, still not sure how I'll make it to the end. It is currently cold and wet outside and its not helping me kick my ‘internet’ addiction. That’s right…Internet! I decided that in order to survive one more miserable Azeri winter, I’d have to take drastic actions which resulted in me buying a phone line so I can surf at home. Buying the phone line itself was a mess which is quite blog worthy. In the period of 7 days which it took for me to get a working phone, I ended up going to the post office around 8 times. That’s twice a day on certain occasions, running up and down like a chicken without a head around the 5 floors of the building, arguing and complaining. First of all the subscription guy tried to overcharge me immensely, so I went straight to the Post's director and complained which brought the price down to almost what it should have been. Then the mechanic came to run the cable through and attempted to charge me 60 manat (roughly 70$), for his lunch and tea. In Azerbaijan it is customary to pay people for their food and drink while on the job. I was outraged because in any restaurant a meal plus drinks is never more than 4-5 manat per person. Eventually he brought the price down to 40 and my landlord helped me by paying half. Ultimately all was done and set, except that the post office wouldn’t give me my actual phone number or turn on the damn thing. It took another 3 days of me running around the place complaining to whoever would listen that the phone eventually started working. I found a gray hair that week and I blame this fiasco for it…So anyway, I got internet at the exact moment I ran out of books to read, movies to watch, and yarn to crochet, so now I sit and surf 4-5 hours a day. That’s what a lack of a social life will do; I guess I am lucky I don’t have a TV.

As far as my life here is concerned, most of you got my email about my Jehovah’s Witness counterpart who got harassed by the police and almost lost her job at school just for the fact she is of a different religion. The rumor is that the mullah at the mosque complained about her going door-to-door and preaching, and with the addition of a new Barda police chief things got ugly. We still don’t know what will happen to her, since the police follow her around and her phone is tapped. She has filed a report with the Political Officer at the US embassy, and is talking to some lawyer here in Barda. Apparently a few men of the congregation got thrown into jail for various reasons, so she is talking to the lawyer on their behalf too. Either way it is an unpleasant story, and I want to thank all of you who forwarded my email to friends and colleagues.

A lot of you have been asking me about my dog so here is a little Kiwi update. She is the happiest most energetic little dog in Azerbaijan. She still lives outside and has a little doghouse which the landlord built for her from an old crate. The thing is insulated and keeps her warm at night. She gets fed meat and bones everyday and when she is a good pup she even gets a doggy treat. I feel safer with her around because at night she barks at things that move and have come to the conclusion that when I go she will be what I miss most.

2008!

I haven’t written in a while mostly because nothing has been happening and it seems that I have run out of things to complain about. Who would have thought! I am currently enjoying the last day of my winter vacation, which flew by way too fast. It was an eventful one and it started with me running a session at AZ5’s in-service training. Those of you who know me well, know that public speaking is not one of my strengths and in fact I hate it more than greasy men staring at me! I had to talk about environmental issues in Azerbaijan, what’s been done in the past, and give general tips on how to implement environmental projects. I was there as a representative of the Environmental Committee, and the least scared member of talking in public. What a great bunch we are! Even though over prepared, I was dreading speaking to the group. About fifteen people signed up for the session and as soon as my time to speak came my voice started trembling, my hands started to shake and I wanted to run away and cry. There were moments where my voice would literally shut off, and I would have to take a deep breath and continue with my mumbling. Needless to say my face was tingling meaning that I was bright red for everyone to see how terrified I was and the one thing that made me feel better was the fact that I had forewarned everyone about my inability to public speak. Eventually the session turned into a discussion on why Azeris choose to disregard their communities’ cleanliness, and I even had to cut it short in order to cover everything I wanted to. That’s the last time I ever speak in public, EVER!

Immediately following that disaster, I left the country for Bulgaria where I was to spend three days. As I had imagined the time was barely enough to say hello to family and friends before I had to return to Azer land. My time was spent running around here and there, attempting to do some shopping, spend time with loved ones, and devour everything in site. I ate something delicious about every 2 hours which resulted in me barely being able to button my jeans. I couldn’t help it; there are just so many tasty things there! I am mostly bummed about the fact that I didn’t get to go skiing. The weather was cold and snowy and I can only imagine how perfect the powder in the mountains was. Looks like I’m going to skip this season, and hope that my career as a ski bum takes off next year.

So I left snowy Bulgaria and came back to Azerbaijan, where the weather turned into what I had just come back from. As soon as I got back to Barda it started snowing and the temperature dropped significantly. For the first time my stove was unable to heat my house and I was cold in my -20 degree sleeping bag. Yesterday I woke up to frozen pipes in my kitchen, and a burst pipe in my hamam (bathroom). Thankfully now that I share the hamam the pipe will be taken care of, but there is really nothing I can do about my kitchen and have to work with the one running faucet in the bathroom. Fortunately I had showered the day before, which makes me way luckier than my site mates who were all looking forward to a hot shower that day (they had pipe troubles as well). My situation is still not that bad since there are volunteers who are in higher regions and have been snowed in and without water for days. This is it for now. Hooray for 2008; the year in which Ina gets liberated!

AZ 4 - Our Shrinking Group

From 48 volunteers in June 2006 to 33 in October 2007

Halloween Extravaganza

The cold came back and I am starting to believe the rumor that your 2nd winter is worst because you know exactly what to expect. Its only November and I am already running my 100 year old gas pech (heater). Thankfully the thing is powerful and heats up the room enough for me to be comfortable in. We’ll see how I feel about that, come March, the most miserable month in Peace Corps.

School is going all right, relatively speaking. I don’t go as much as last year, but I know what I am doing and my teaching has significantly improved. Plus, I just organized a huge event which turned out to be really fun for kids and teachers. The event was called the “Halloween Extravaganza” and I set up a carnival type celebration with different booths and activities. To help, I invited twenty volunteers to run the activities and help me lead groups of students around. The stations included: Bobbing for Apples, Mask Making, Fortune Telling, Candy Trivia, Learn-A-New Game, and a Haunted House. I originally estimated for about 60-80 students to show up and was a little overwhelmed when the final count was around 130. The five group leaders (including myself) ended up being a bit overpowered. Since I am not a huge child fan (especially screaming ones) by the time we were done I literally wanted to pull my hair out. 5th to 9th graders are out of control everywhere but in Azerbaijan they don’t even know how to form a line! Students would get upset if they weren’t the first ones picked for an activity, not understanding that everybody will get a turn. At one point some of the IDP children started fighting and that’s when I almost lost it and was about to let the rage loose. Either way the event ended up being an utter success, and the Haunted House, which we made, blew everyone away. We bought black fabric to black out the windows and create compartments within the room. Then we had students walk in by two’s and go touch some “intestines” and “eye balls,” to get them grossed out. Following they ran through a compartment where a skeleton holding a severed head would chase them out, and finally they would walk through the haunted domain where a ghost jumped out at them spraying them with silly string. The room was complete with a creepy soundtrack cycling through the themes of The Exorcist, Halloween, and Psycho. Some kids were really afraid and some 5th grade girls refused to go in. Here is where I get to throw a special shout out to my college best friends who all sent decorations, candy, and costumes for this event. It couldn’t have happened without you!! After the event we all gathered in the dark, and had drinks to congratulate ourselves. It was dark because when its windy the town shuts the power off, needless to say there was a windstorm that night and electricity came around noon the next day.

Socially, my Peace Corps life has been quite eventful this past month. We had our Mid Service Conference, two softball tournaments, a Halloween Party, a pig roast, and next week I am off to Baku for a Thanksgiving feast. Additionally I have never been as ill in my life as I have in October. I had 4 different conditions which ends up equaling to a new one every week. Ah the joys of PC life. On a brighter note, come December I have only 9 months left. SINGLE DIGITS BABY!

Jason, Sarah and I (site mates!) the Lenkaran Halloween Party.

Ina Teacher

The school year started, the kids are back at school, and Ina Teacher is yet again going to attempt getting through to them. I am teaching 5th and 6th grade again with the hope to set up a strong base for when I leave and they go back to soviet system memorizations and dictations. Teaching is definitely not my calling and I am looking forward to ending this year and never doing it again! GAH!! I am being useful though. Really! I am currently in the process of planning a Halloween event which will take place on November 3. We are setting up a number of activity stations, will have a play, ghost story readings, trick or treating, and a costume contest. I never realized how much planning goes into a 3-hour event, especially when resources are scarce. Wish me luck!

When it comes to my personal life I recently received a legitimate marriage proposal. I was at the post office, where I go often to receive my mail, packages, and to send faxes. I was there on my biweekly visit when a man from the fax window called me over. So I went, thinking they may let me use the fax for free, and he proceeded to invite me into the booth with him and a bunch of old women. When I got in there he pointed to one of them, presumably his mother, who is my fax lady and started explaining to me how she has another young, muscular son who is ready to get married. I immediately regretted going back there and went into my usual spiel that I don’t want to get married, too young, going back to America and so on. He was like “That’s ok! You don’t have to get married, just get engaged! We’ll get you a ring and then both of you can go to America!!” His mom was just sitting and occasionally responding to my digressions with “But why???” I just figured that at my age I must look quite desperate and that no, actually means yes to them! At that point I did a U-Turn and straight ran out of there. All I have to say is that sending faxes will never be the same! They will never learn…

I had another adventure (not a good one unfortunately) the past few days with Kiwi, my puppy. Towards the end of last week she started getting sick, she wouldn’t eat or drink and at first I assumed she just ate something bad. However she proceeded to get worse and worse, and finally put her in box and took her to Genja (which is the 2nd biggest city and a little over and hour away). There through the volunteers we ended up finding a veterinarian in a scary dog training facility who told me she had a 50% chance to make it, and put her on an iv for 4 days. I just found out today that she is going to make it and I can go pick her up in 2 days. Apparently she picked up some sort of stomach infection which severely dehydrated her and had I brought her in any later she wouldn’t have made it. I am so happy that I get my puppy.

So this is it for now. This month I head into Baku for my Mid-Service Conference and am officially starting to count down the days till the end. Keep writing those emails!

End of Summer Report

My long awaited vacation to New Zealand is over and I am now back to my little town in Azerbaijan. It was quite a shock to come back from winter to a scorching summer. Surprisingly the other way around didn’t seem to bother me as much. My trip went great and I got to do everything that I had my mind set to do: skiing, glacier hiking, bungy jumping, drinking beer, etc. It was a great time and I secretly hoped I would break something on the last day so I get to stay a little longer. Nonetheless the three weeks flew by and now I am a week into being back, still trying to get over how great civilization is.



I have been keeping myself busy the past two weeks in attempt to get over the civilization blues. Coming back did bring me one surprise in the fact that when I walked through my door I found a puppy in my yard. It was tiny, skinny, and balding due to malnutrition. Turns out my landlord picked it up from the street and would feed it with a few pieces of bread every morning which the poor thing wouldn’t eat. Of course Azeris hate dogs, so they never paid enough attention to notice that it was actually the chickens who took care of the few dried up pieces of bread. So now it is me who takes care of it, and am proud to report that little Kiwi (in commemoration of NZ) is growing new fur and in size. I wish I could say something to my landlord about the food situation, but I wouldn’t put it past them to throw her out on the street when they find out she is not eating. Doesn’t make sense I know, but in reality that’s all it would take. So now she keeps me company and hopefully soon enough will learn how to take care of the hoodlums bothering me on the streets. Here is a picture:



I also got the chance to go to training last week and meet the new group, all 52 of them. It looked like so many people, especially in comparison to us who have only 33 left (we were 47 when we started). They seemed like a nice bunch of kids, yet so inexperienced…”said grandma Ina, with all those skills under her belt.” It will be interesting how long it will take them to discover the reality of the situation. That sounds mean, and truth is if I can do it then anyone can. Either way it was nice to meet them and see who my new friends will be, especially since I had to delete half my phone numbers with the departure of the previous group. So this is it. I don’t have much energy to write more or make this witty and exciting due to the fact it is 95 degrees and I can’t think straight due to extreme sweating.
        (seems to be the theme this summer…)


PS. I tried to put up a lot more pictures but with each attempt the electricity went out...So this is all you get!