Baku & Ming

Baku

Last Saturday we went to Baku (in Azerbaijani it is spelled Baki but the I doesn’t have a dot, making the sound like the y in symbol) for the day with my language group and my LCF (Language and Cultural Facilitator). We got to town at about 9 and went straight to McDonalds. That’s right, Big Mac for breakfast! Nothing better! McDonalds is in a square called Fountain Square and it’s where a lot of ex-pats go. There are a lot of Western things around, like fancy clothes stores that are impossible on a Peace Corps budget.

After breakfast we went up to Martyr’s Lane. This is pretty much a huge memorial to everything that’s happened in the last 25 years of Azerbaijan’s history. In 1990, the Russians came into Baku and massacred about 250 people – mostly men who were going to what they thought would be a peaceful meeting with the Russians. They were surprised by the Russian tanks; a few were able to escape. Ayten, my LCF, grew up in Baku and her father had gone to the meeting but was able to make it home that night. There are also very many graves for people who died in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict with Armenia, when Armenia occupied a very large area of Azerbaijan’s territory in the 1990s. Martyr’s Lane is on top of a hill looking out over the Caspian and Baku’s skyline.

We then went to the Peace Corps office, which is very nice and very air conditioned. After getting the tour, we headed back to Fountain Square for nachos with some current volunteers at Tequila Junction. The nachos were good and the restaurant was full of British ex-pats in the oil industry. It was fun to hear English again!

We then went into Old City, which was built before the 7^th century, maybe even 500 B.C., depending on what source is used. We went into a carpet shop in a cave made using egg yolks as spackle. The shop owner told us all about what to look for when buying a carpet and told us some of the history and common symbols used in Azerbaijani carpets. It was a very interesting experience, but I think the man was a bit disappointed when we turned out not to be rich American tourists. We then saw the Maiden’s Tower and Shirvan Shahs’s Palace. They are both old. Older than America.

I really liked Baku. It was a lot cleaner than Sumgayit. Down in the area by Fountain Square, it has the feel of a European city. There are beautiful buildings and lots of ex-pats. It was great to not have people constantly staring at us, since there are so many European people. We live in a constant fish bowl everywhere else in Azerbaijan, so it’s great to know that there is a place we can go and just blend in… at least for the most part.

Mingachevir

This week we got to visit our permanent site in Mingachevir (pronounced ming etch a veer). It is a great town. It’s very beautiful and green. And CLEAN! We stayed with our host family. They are amazing! Tahir, the father is a retired sports teacher and the mother, Bebe is an art teacher at my school. They have an 11 year old son named Farid, who is very quiet and sweet, so far. Their house is very nice, a lot nicer than where we are now. Our room is nice and airy, with 3 windows that open into their garden full of pomegranate, apple, plum, kiwi and filbert trees.

My school is about five minutes from our house. I walk through the Bazaar to get to school; we’re about a block from the Bazaar. Jesse’s walk is about 25 minutes, but it’s a pleasant walk, he says. There are three other volunteers in our town, two of whom are from our group, AZ5. Nate lives right around the corner from us and Cindy lives in an apartment down closer to the river. Mike, from AZ4 is awesome. We’re so lucky to have an AZ4 site mate to show us the ropes, and Mike is one of our favorites. He and his girlfriend (an American named Kate who is not in PC, but lives in Ganga) had us all over to his apartment for quesadillas and chocolate chip cookies. Good times!

All in all, we are very excited to move to Mingachevir next month. We love the other PCVs going there, the town is great and our living arrangement is pretty darn good.

Photographs: 1. Greta, Bonnie, Barbie, Jen and me. This was when they announced sites for all the volunteers. Our shirts are from a Turkish soap opera. All the kids have these shirts. We also decided to have Crazy Hair Day. Our language group is the best and most fun! 2. McDonalds in Baku. Good stuff. 3. Me and Jesse at Martyrs Lane, Baku in the background. 4. The carpet shop in the cave. 5. Baku around Fountain Square. 6. Sunset on the river in Mingachevir.

Mexicalian In The AZ

As of today, we have less than 25 months left here in Azerbaijan. We swear in on September 12th and begin our service on the 13th. Then we have 24 months in Mingachevir. It’s still hot. It’s been over 100 degrees most days in August, but we are adjusting.
In my last post I wrote that we took our mid-training language tests. I achieved Novice-High, which is what TEFL volunteers need to achieve, so that’s great! I don’t feel like I really have enough language to be dumped at site, but most of the people I’ll work with will have English skills. Jesse got Intermediate-Low which is the next step up from Novice-High. CED volunteers need higher skills so he still has one step to go until he reaches Intermediate-Mid. He’s very good at speaking Azeri and his basic communication skills are amazing. He’s good at miming and talking until he knows he’s understood.






Last Sunday all the Sumgayit Station trainees invited our friends over to Jen’s house where we created a Mexican wonderland! Jesse and I made salsa, Barbie made tortilla chips out of lavash, and we had fantastic bean and chicken burritos. Good stuff. It’s always a lot of fun to get a bunch of us together for something that feels "American." We all live around Sumgayit in smaller communities and we are able to see each other in Sumgayit most days if we want to, but since we’re all doing different things (TEFL, CED, and Youth Development), our schedules don’t always match up. We do get all Sundays off, so that’s a good time to have fun.




This last Sunday we had an Italian feast, again at Jen’s. Jesse and I made a penne casserole, Jen made pesto spaghetti, Bonnie made bowties with vodka sauce, Barbie made garlic bread and Jane brought lettuce from Baku for a salad. Jesse and Tom made SG (super garlic) Chicken – an original Azerbaijan recipe. It’s so nice to relax with Americans every now and then! We’ve also come up with an amazing tradition of having the men do the dishes. I’m pretty sure that this was the first time in the history of Sumgayit Station that men (or even a singular man) have done the dishes while a group of women lounged on a porch. We’re changing things here in Azerbaijan! Maybe if some Azerbaijani men see our men doing the dishes, they will decide to lift a finger in their own kitchens… well… at least we’re planting a seed.




Before the Italian food, we went into Sumgayit with our family. We went with our Nana, host father, his sister, her kids and our niece Maleyka. We had chay (tea) at a café, walked on the beach (I even got my feet wet for the first time… I still can’t believe that I live right next to the Caspian Sea… whoever would have thought I would live here?!?!), got a professional photo taken with the Sea in the background, the kids rode in toy cars and we ate ice cream. We got to the city in a marstruka that a friend of the family’s drives. We even drove it on the beach!! There are always cars and marstrukas on the beach, which still feels a bit weird to this Oregonian.




Keep the emails and comments coming!! It’s so nice to get to the internet café and have things to read from all of our friends and family back home! It really does help us get through this crazy time and it’s so nice to know that we’re still in your thoughts! Real mail is great too!!!









































Photos: 1. Barbie’s chips with our salsa… looks like Emerald Valley Salsa, doesn’t it? 2. Jesse doing the dishes in a typical Sum Station sink. 3. Jesse prepping dishes, Donnie washing, Nick drying, Nate supervising. 4. The proud men with clean dishes. 5. Americans in Azerbaijan… our street. 6. Jesse and Nubar, our niece. She ADORES Jesse. 6. Jesse and Nubar hunting for seashells (the Azeri word for seashell translates to Fish Ear) 7. Jesse, Rovshan and the marstruka at the Sea. 8. Vy, Tom, Jen and her host sister, Bonnie (in the red), me, Jeff and Kelsey at the Italian feast. 9. A cow eating the trash. This is where we take our trash to be burned every few days or weeks. 10. Jesse walking up to our gate. It’s the cement block/ rusty fence to the right of Jesse across the street. 11. Our courtyard. The window that Jesse’s head is blocking is our window. Notice the chickens. 12. Our kitchen. 13. Jesse being silly with the kids. Nubar, Elman and Elshan. Nubar’s bundled up because the temperature dropped to about 90 this evening. 14. Me and Maleyka watching Jesse and the silly kids.
We will add more pictures of our house later!

We are going to.....

Mingechavir!!!

That's right, we found out yesterday that on September 13th, Jesse and I will be moving across the country to Mingechavir! I will be teaching in School #13, where there is said to be an internet room... :) Jesse will be working for Finance for Development, doing micro finance type stuff. We are very excited! There are some other neat people in Mingechavir and some of our good friends close by in Ganga! That's about all we have to report... just same old language classes and sector meetings...

Lovely Sumgayit Station ---->


With our friends Sally
and Jane in Sumgayit
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Qali Alti

Today is 90 degrees and cloudy. It’s great to be so cool for a while!!! It’s a great respite from the heat! I never thought I’d say that about 90 degrees… Such is life in the “Land of Fire,” which is what the word Azerbaijan means.

Carolyn here. Hey y’all. We’ve had a busy couple of weeks. We’ve been doing our daily 4 hour language classes, Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) and Community Economic Development (CED) trainings a few times a week, playing with our friends and just exploring Sumgait. We take marstrukas into Sumgait most days for various reasons. We have to go in to catch different marstrukas to our sector (TEFL and CED) trainings in other outlaying communities. We go in for the internet café… we’ve found a great one finally!! It’s centrally located and get this…. Kind of air conditioned!! Sumgait has an Almali Market which has *some* western comforts. We’ve found Pringles, pasta, Russian spaghetti sauce, toilet paper, Dannon yogurt, Ecuadorian bananas, nuts and Snickers “peanut butter.” It’s also air conditioned.

There are also some restaurants around town that we’ve found and enjoy. There’s a Turk Doneri place that’s great. A doner is a sandwich with carved meat, cucumber, tomato, parsley, mayo and “ketchup.” It’s good stuff. Down by the “Dove,” a huge statue right by the Caspian, there are a bunch of outdoor restaurants that serve kebab, dondurma (ice cream), kola (cola), and piva (beer). A couple days ago Jesse and his language group found a restaurant where they serve complete meals. I honestly don’t think I’d had a balanced meal since Guba until we went to the restaurant with my language group yesterday. I had a boneless, skinless chicken breast, potatoes and a carrot and pea salad. I thought I was in Heaven. It was kind of expensive, but there were other things on the menu for 1 manat, which is about what you pay for a doner or something less healthy. If you can’t tell, I’m very excited about this!

Last Saturday we had a Cultural Event. We drove 3 hours in nice busses to Qali Alti Castle. When we got there, we all hiked up the mountain. Jesse made it all the way to the top and enjoyed looking around the castle and amazing views of Azerbaijan. I took a wrong turn with some other girls and got a bit stymied. I ended up turning around and helping one of the other volunteers back down. It was still very pleasant to spend some time in a cool, green forest. After the hike we all had lunch in the forest. It was fun to spend some time with all the trainees together.

Last night we went to our site mate, Bonnie’s house where we made pizza and studied. We were all given a cookbook put together by previous Azerbaijan PCVs and there was a pizza dough recipe in it, along with lots of other recipes we are excited to try when we get our own place! The pizza turned out really well. We used what we think was Gouda cheese, and it was surprisingly close to real American pizza. The best part was that Bonnie has a ton of basil in her yard, so we used copious amounts on the pizza!!

Today we had our mid-training language tests. We had to sit down with the woman who runs the language training and answer questions and talk in Azerbaijani. I think they went pretty well. Jesse’s language is coming along very well, mine is a little slower to come, but that’s what I expected. Jesse is good with languages, which is good because as a CED volunteer, his language needs to be at a higher level than mine since I’ll be working with English teachers and speaking in English much more often.

This week I start teaching summer school here in Sumgait Station. I will teach two 45 minute English lessons a day to between 7 and 15 kids with my friend and site mate Jen. I’ve never taught English before, so this could be very interesting. We also don’t know how old the kids will be, nor do we know their skill level. Wish me luck!

We get to find out our permanent site this Friday, so that’s what we’re looking forward to this week! We’ve been interviewed and assessed by PC staff, so hopefully they’re working hard to get us in the perfect site! We will let you all know as soon as we can, so you can Google map or Google Earth it and check out what it looks like!

Pictures are as follows: 1. Me in front of the Dove in Sumgait with the Caspian in the background. 2. The view from the top. 3. Jesse and Donnie (Oregon native, Southern Oregon graduate, just like my sister, Jen!) at the top with the castle in the background. 4. A Flower at the top. 5. Our Nana making lavash. This was a pretty cool process to watch. She expertly rolled the dough to be paper thin then put it on the fire where her daughter turned it a couple times until it was cooked. It’s basically just a huge tortilla, but it’s an amazing and welcome alternative to the chorek (bread).

Just a Quick Note

I just wanted to let everyone know that my Granny died on friday. If you didn't know, she was sick and this was very expected and gradual. She died in her sleep and I know she's in a great place with my grandfather. I am doing very well, Jesse is taking good care of me and I have some great friends who are wonders to talk to. I just wanted to let everyone know that I'm doing just fine, in case this news travels through the grapevine and people become concerned. Granny was an awesome lady and I'll carry some of her last words to me with me forever, "We had a lot of fun, didn't we?" That's just about a perfect thing to end on, if you ask me!

We'll update soon with more pictures... love to all!

-Carolyn

Barda!

Salam! Let’s see… since our last update I (Carolyn) was officially initiated into Peace Corps. That’s right, I hurled my brains out and had other *ahem* issues for about 9 hours! Welcome to Peace Corps, Carolyn!!! I think I ate something bad and my stomach got mad at me. The PC doctor sent me some Pep to and Gatorade, so I’m back to normal.

This past weekend we got to go visit some current volunteers at their site. We travelled 6 hours by marstruka to Barda. A marstruka is basically a VW bus sized van thing that they stuff full of people and drive a billion miles per hour. We drove over a mini mountain and into the huge lowland of central Azerbaijan. The countryside was beautiful and vast and reminded me quite a bit like northern California. Rolling hills of brown grass with trees and bushes that are very similar to things back in Oregon/California… or maybe Eastern Washington near the gorge.

We got to Barda and were greeted by some current volunteers. They were great and so much fun! The first night we went to Ina’s house to have chicken tacos. Yay, American type food! Ina lives in a great house on her own with lots of privacy and a great yard. We hung out there with the volunteers and other trainees who travelled with us - people had some beers and it was a great bastion of Americanism!

The weekend was filled with softball, chicken cacciatore, beer, movies, Americans and good times! We got to see that there is a light at the end of the tunnel that is training. We were told over and over again, “Make it through training and your world will change.” We are so busy these days and totally overwhelmed. We’re trying to learn the language, figure out our jobs while dealing with the immense culture shock! It will be great to get to our sites with enough language to survive on our own!

Right now we’re in week 4 and we will find out our permanent site in week 6. We are really looking forward to knowing where we’re going. We’re hoping that we will be in the mountains in the north, so any prayers or positive thoughts of that nature would be greatly appreciated!

As always, we hope that this finds you all well and happy! Take care and sag ol!

Pictures for this week are as follows: 1 Jesse hitting a HOME RUN at the softball game in Barda. That’s right, a home run. That’s my husband, folks. 2 Us in front of the Nushaba tower in Barda. It was built in 1322. It was said to have three tunnels running from it – one to Baku, one to south Azerbaijan and one to Istanbul. Pretty cool stuff.

All Moved In!

Hello everyone! We are co-authoring this post to ensure accuracy and professionalism. Things are great here in Azerbaijan. We arrived and were immediately wisked away to Guba, where we stayed in an Olympic training center. The days were jam packed with information that we need to survive in (and not get kicked out of) the Peace Corps. The accommodations were nice, we each had our own bathroom with a shower and hot water and western toilet. We also had air conditioning, wahoo! There was a pool at the center, however you are required to buy a swimming cap prior to entering, which was a bit steep for our new Peace Corps budget (5 Manat). The food was really good, nothing too scary :) Breakfasts consisted of bread, hard-boiled eggs, bread, honey, pendir (cheese), bread and chay (tea). The bread/honey combination was fantastic. Lunches and dinners were similar, starting with tomatoes, cucumbers, bread and a few other various salads and moved on to bread and soup followed by the meat, bread, pasta and/or potato dishes. In case you haven’t guessed it yet, the only thing Azeris like more than tea is bread. It is served with every meal and is thought to be a sacred element in the culture. There are even rules for handling bread: never throw bread away, either eaten by people or animals, if it falls on the floor you are required to kiss it before putting it back and never place your bread upside down.

After a few days at Guba (Northern Azerbaijan), we moved out to our host-families in communities around Sumgayit (near Baku on the Caspian). Much to our amazement, Carolyn and I were placed together in the same host family! Carolyn studies in the same town where we live and I have a short 30 minute walk everyday to my group in a neighboring village. Our host family has been very friendly and large (along with being very patient!). From what we can tell there are 15 people who live in our compound, there are always people coming and going so it’s a little hard to keep track. There are 5 houses that are connected yet separate, so there is no shortage of someone to talk to at any given time. In our house we have Nana, grandmother, her son Sahib, his wife Asmar and their son Rovshan. In the next house is Nabat, daughter of Nana and her 16 year old daughter Maleyka. Behind us is Sahib’s brother Mais and his wife Sedaget and their sons Elshan and Elman. To our left is Mustafa and Nami, brothers who are seemingly unrelated to the family. Also in our house is Nubar, who is Sahib’s other sister’s daughter – the rest of her family lives up north.

Most of our time at home is spent with Nana (while eating or sweltering in the garden) and Maleyka, who patiently works with us on our language. The heat is incredible here, however there is almost a constant breeze which makes it quite pleasant most of the time. From what I can tell my little REI thermometer that I’ve brought is either broken or it hasn’t dropped below 85 the whole time we’ve lived here. My morning walks are usually between 90-95 and my afternoon walk today topped 100.

Our overall living conditions are pretty darn nice. We have our own huge room to ourselves with a window and a fan to keep us cool. We have running water, which is constantly on in a sink in the garden. We have hot showers in the morning (although we prefer to take cooler ones due to the heat). Our toilet is interesting. It is a squat-style toilet about two feet long and eight inches wide with a constant stream of water flowing through it (due to the sink draining to it). We have electricity when we need it and are able to charge our electronics with a borrowed voltage regulator. The food has been really good. Lots of cucumbers and tomatoes and bread, yum!!!!

On the 7th we threw a Fourth of July party (a little late, I know) with both of our training groups. We each brought a few people from our host families and had a nice little shin-dig, complete with hot dogs, potato salad and all! I had to give a little demonstration (see picture) on how to assemble the hot dogs, but I think they were a success. We played Frisbee, duck-duck-goose, the Hokey-Pokey and the Azeri version of Red Rover. Lots of fun (and sugar) was had by all!

We hope everyone is doing well, we hear it’s hot in Oregon, but just remember these two little letters when it gets too hot: A C. Sag ol!

Pictures from top to bottom: 1. Everything we brought for the next two years in our hotel room in Philly. 2. Everyone packing up to move into host families at Guba. 3. Jesse and Carolyn on the Caspian Sea at Sumgayit. 4. Carolyn's language group on the Caspian. 5. The whole gang at our '4th' of July party (Jesse taking picture). 6. Jesse demonstrating how to assemble hot dog. 7. Carolyn and Nubar.

We're here!

Hello everyone. we have made it. We are currently staying with a host family together, yay! I (Jesse) will be training in a neighboring city while we live together with a host family. It is really really hot here, but we are near the sea so it provides a nice breeze most of the time. The language is amazing and compltetely different from anything I have ever experienced before. We are doing well, the food is great. we will put up pictures later (the line is a bit slow now). Hope everyone is well back home!

We've arrived!

...at least for now! We are in the Istanbul airport, awaiting our flight to Azerbaijan. Google, in all it's greatness has translated everything into Turkish, so if there is something weird here, sorry! Our flight went well, 10 hours is a long time on a plane, but it was a smooth flight and it seems like they were feeding us every 2 hours or so, so everyone was happy. it's really humid here, as it was in New York as well. It's a little bit crazy going everywhere with 53 other people, but we are managing fine. Checking in in New York was full of long lines and sweaty people. We've currently been traveling for 18 hours straight. The Istanbul airport is neat! they have burger king, starbucks, oregon chai (!!!!), and Hermes, Cartier and Burberry. Very interesting dichotomy! We're all still in good spirits, excited to get there! Heres a picture for the time being.

Everyone all together at the hotel:

Off We Go!

Well we're almost off! We leave tomorrow morning for Azerbaijan! Our staging was informative, the general outline was as follows:

• Day 1: 2-7 PM Registration, Welcome/introductions, safety and support, anxieties and aspirations, nuts and bolts (money!). And paperwork!
• Day 2 (today): 8:30-6 PM, Managing risk, PC Policies, Cultural adaptation, bridge to pre-service training (in-country) and departure details.
• Day 3: Depart!

So we depart tomorrow and it goes something like this:

• 9:30 AM: Depart hotel, drive to New York JFK airport
• 4:30 PM: Fly out of NY on Delta to Istanbul.
• 9:40 AM, Weds: Arrive in Istanbul, Turkey.
• 1:15 PM: Fly out of Istanbul to Baku, Azerbaijan
• ~5 PM: Arrive in Baku, catch bus to Guba, 3 hours away.

Guba will be our first training site and then we move on to other sites. That schedule goes like this:

• June 28: Guba, Olympic Center
• June 29: Guba
• June 30: Guba, First night with host family
• July 1: Sumgayit City
• July 2: Sumgayit City, begin Pre-service training. We will be living with the same family for the next nine weeks.

Soooo....They tell us we will not be able to reach a phone (much less the internet) for the next few days, so don't worry, we will be back as soon as possible! Hope all is well!