Merry Christmas!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!!!

This year marks the first time both Carolyn and I were outside of the States for Thanksgiving. It gave us a great opportunity to see how another culture celebrates this wonderful holiday. From what we could tell Azeris treated the day like…drum roll please…the same way they treat every other day! Turns out Thanksgiving is pretty much just a Western holiday (who knew?!?), so our good friends on the Peace Corps staff and in the embassy were nice enough to put together a nice little party for us. In honor of this wonderful event I decided to write a little poem (in true Robert H. Williams style.)


Twas’ the week before thanksgiving and plans were being made
For a feast so grand that the memory would not soon fade

Volunteers were cooking and packing their food
And journeying to the capital in a festive mood

When, at last, the party had arrived
Our embassy friend flung his door open wide

All our friends came together in one great big room,
The odors of the villages cleansed and perfumed

First we told stories and caught up on old times
Then came the food and talking stopped on a dime

There was turkey and stuffing and green beans, OH MY!
We had soda and juice and even pumpkin pie!

Everyone ate ‘til they were ready to explode
And staggered back upstairs for the talent show

There was singing and dancing and stories galore
And one strange act that left everyone calling for more!

After the songs were sung and the story finally finished
The time came to go, with the spirit far from diminished

So we all made our way home, our bellies full
And everyone had good reason to be thankful.



This party took place the week before thanksgiving actually occurred, so we were left to prepare our own celebration on the day of. We all gathered at our friend Mike’s house and had our site mates Nate and Cindy over. Mike’s girlfriend Kate joined us from Ganja and our good Azeri friend Zamira joined us for her first ever Thanksgiving. We were lucky enough to find a frozen turkey at a local store (we believe it was imported from South America!) and we managed not to burn it! With some help from packages from the states we had mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing, cranberry sauce, sweet potatoes, pumpkin pie, apple pie, cheesecake and green bean casserole.

Being here really has made us aware of what we should be thankful for in life. We are of course thankful for our good friends and family. We are thankful for the thoughts and prayers they send to us (not to mention packages and letters!). We are thankful for great site mates and great PC staff members. We are thankful for all the amazing friends we have made our family here in Azerbaijan. We are thankful for the little things back in the states like having a bathroom inside the house and familiar food. We are thankful for music and laughing and playing games.

Most of all I think we are finding that we are most thankful we have each other.

Pictures: 1. Jesse and Carolyn at the house where we stayed in Baku, all dressed up and clean looking. How bout that?!? 2. Some of the amazing food volunteers brought to the Embassy dinner. The Ambassador's chef made the turkey and gravy and all the volunteers brought sides and desserts. We took cookies. 3. Clockwise starting with Carolyn: Carolyn, Joyce, Kelsey, Dave, Amber, Katie, Tor and Shams (one of the greatest Azeris in the world) at Thanksgiving, before the talent show. 4. Avril Lavine and Kelly Clarkson a.k.a. the Lankaran boys Ash and Tom. They did a great VH1 Storytellers performance... I'm sure it can be found on uTube. 5. Our Thanksgiving miracle: frozen turkey in Azerbaijan!!! Looks good, huh? 6. Nate, Mike, Kate, Jesse, Carolyn, Zamira and Cindy. The best site mates (plus some) in Azerbaijan! 7. The greatest Thanksgiving tradition of them all: nap-time. 8. Happy Thanksgiving from Azerbaijan!!

P.S. People have been asking about our Holiday plans so I will share. (this is Carolyn now, btw). For Christmas we will travel to Baku for our In-Service Training. We will be with all the other AZ5s at the same hotel and I'm sure we will go have a great Christmas dinner together. The 26th and 27th is the Training. We will get to be with friends for Jesse's birthday on the 27th as well! We will take the night train on the 28th to Ganja where we fly to London on the 29th. We will be in London for New Years and about 4 days, then on to Istanbul for 2 and a half days. We get back in Mingechevir on the 5th, and back to work. This is a much needed holiday and we are very excited to see more of this crazy world!