Winter-timeee and The Livin’ Is Easy…

Well, not exactly so easy, but interesting at least. We came back from our trip to find our city covered in snow, which from what we hear is very unusual. Since then temperatures have been in the 20-25 degree range at night and just above freezing during the day. This has created a bunch of ice everywhere. Not only is that a problem for transportation in general, but for our water supply and general comfort.

We have been fairly lucky in that our water only completely stopped for one day so far. Our water lines completely froze and we more or less had to survive on the water we had stored up prior to that. In the neighboring city of Ganja, they have had whole swaths of the city out of water for weeks now. In this case you must go to a central point where the water is still running and fill buckets to take home. Yeesh!

Another problem with our water is fish. Yes, fish are actually swimming up the pipes and clogging our faucets. Our host father has had to pull fish bits out twice now and I’m sure he’s not yet done for the season. Now, that might be gross enough for you, but there’s more. These fish are weird snake-like fish, resembling mini-eels. They sell them in the bazaar and every time I see them they throw my upchuck reflex into a frenzy! I’ll try to snap a picture next time I can.

As for our general comfort, I suppose we don’t have much room to complain. Compared to other volunteers, we live in relative luxury. We have a gas heater in our room and even though we get the dregs of the gas line it still manages to keep the temperature between 50 and 55. We can have daily showers if we want to tough out the walk to and from the shower, whereas some volunteers get bucket baths once or twice a week. In fact, we have a friend who lives south of us and she has a ¼ inch of ice on her windows and even on her walls and has stopped getting baths altogether. She has to make the two-hour journey up here every couple weeks to take a shower at a friend’s house.

However, it’s not all bad. Carolyn took advantage of the snow yesterday and helped our host brother make a snowman and we’ve had several days off work due to snow. It’s kind of funny, Carolyn and I have been spending so much time together that we are starting to get worried of what will happen when we have to go home and get real jobs and not be able to spend 20+ hours out of the day together!

Photos: 1. Walking down our street in Mingechevir. 2. Snowball fight with our host brother, which I dominated at due to my exceptional snowball making skills. 3. Icicles on the neighbor's house. 4. It just wouldn't be winter without the giant neon palm tree! 5. Just chillin wit da homies!