Life these days…

My new house. Also, some pictures of my school. Nuş olsun!

The prestigious Xaldan mekteb.

Day old sheep

Escaping the heat

My new barn, neighbor’s cows included. Burnt Orange one is Bevo.

Side yard

Front yard

Front of the house

My Yaxin dostlarum (best friends) Ibrahim and Vusal helping me with the water tank.

Xirdalan Bazaar.

Balakən

PCVs come to Xaldan!

Vince, Andrew, and Josh have visited Xaldan since my last blog. It was great showing them around. Also, things are green here now…

Walking around Xaldan & Pen Pal Letters from America

One particularly foggy morning in Xaldan as well as the arrival of the Pen Pal letters from America!

 

Cheers,

 

WCP

Super Bowl, Khash, and more snow.

This past week was, in a word, glorious. On Friday I got done with classes and headed down to Ucar. My friend Josh had turned 23 and about a dozen of us met in Ucar to celebrate. It was a great time. I hadn’t seen most of them since training and it was really nice to catch up. Everyone seemed to be in good spirits and were enjoying their sites. On Sunday morning about half of us made the trip up to Ganja (the second largest city in Azerbaijan). It was my first time to walk around the city and take it in. I was really impressed, clean streets, nice architecture, and an abundance of street vendor food. About 25 volunteers were in Ganja for the Super Bowl. For those of you not familiar with the time distance between Azerbaijan and the US, the game started at 3:30 a.m. Monday morning. The Ramada Hotel in Ganja set up a projector and streamed the game via a Turkish satellite channel. This unfortunately meant that we weren’t able to see the commercials. In the end, no one really cared (…beggars cant be choosers). The game ended at about 7:30 a.m. and we were all pretty much spent. That is when the idea of a Khash breakfast began to formulate. Khash, a popular dish around the Caucuses, has the unofficial title of being the national hangover meal of Azerbaijan. A local told us that the best Khash in town was at the bus stop, which gave us the brilliant idea to go straight there then get on our respected buses afterwards. Five of us, moving slowly and with our heads down, walked into the café near the bus stop at about 8 a.m. We sat down, ordered the Khash and waited. About 5 minutes later I smelled the broth of cow hooves, head, and stomach lining that had the same effect of a smelling salt. Before me sat a bowl of said broth, flesh, cartilage, and fat; one of the most challenging ‘eats’ of my life. With every Khash meal comes a shot or two of vodka…. Khash breakfast, the real winner of Super Bowl 46.  In all honestly, the dish isn’t as bad as I had imagined. The broth tastes much better than it smells and if you can get past certain ‘textures’ its not half bad. Khash breakfast is all about the experience. Striking up conversations with the men at nearby tables, and ultimately, showing them that, hey, I have some hair on my chest too.

I woke up Wednesday morning to find about a foot of snow on the ground. School was cancelled, snowball fights ensued. School was cancelled Thursday, more snowball fights ensued. Being snowed in allowed me to get some paper work for the Peace Corps done, make some posters for classes next week, and write this blog (…as we speak?) Its been a nice break from such a hectic weekend. Looking forward to the next week and cant wait to see what it has in store.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khash_%28dish%29

Cheers,

WCP

First Snow… First Pizza

Dovğa…

I’ve now been at site for 6 weeks now and things are really picking up. My classes are going well and my counterparts have been great. My former 5^th grade teacher Mrs. Wiley and I are working together to start a pen pal program between my students in Xaldan and those at Oak Hill Elementary. My mom has been a great facilitator for all of this and my students are really looking forward to hearing about American life from students their age. I will begin with my Conversation Clubs the 1^st of February. I will have two courses that will meet twice a week. One will be for my advanced speakers and the other for my younger students. These clubs will not only focus on conversational skills but on critical thinking and cultural understanding.

 

Outside of work I have had the opportunity to travel a couple places since my last blog. This past weekend I was in Tovus visiting fellow PCVs. It was a great time. We cooked Mac n Cheese one night and stir-fry the next… it was much needed. Two weeks ago I went down to see my friends in Ucar to celebrate a birthday, it was a great time. The start of 2012 was a bit rough for me, I had some stomach problems that lingered for about two weeks into the year. Early on I thought it was simply just a case of ‘Baku Belly’. A term some previous volunteers have coined. Essentially ‘Baku Belly’ is caused by a drastic change in diet and cuisine that occurs while you’re away from site and visiting the city. On top of that, the water to the village was cut off (damed up river) by the Government for two weeks while it was being treated. This made the process of fetching, filtering, and boiling water even more difficult than were accustomed to. There is a small creek about a kilometer behind our house that still had water and we used that for the time being. Regardless, I am feeling better now, the water has come back, and I am coming off a great weekend in Tovus.

 

Xaldan saw its first snow this past weekend and I have heard they are expecting more this week. The snow is a nice change of pace, but it really makes things muddy around here. There really hasn’t been anything too eventful since we last spoke.. but ill be sure to blog about my conversation clubs and anything eventful in the next few weeks or so. Tonight we will be having Dovga, my favourite dish in Azerbaijan… and im beyond excited about it. It’s all about the little things… But seriously my host mom’s Dovga is maybe the best thing i’ve ever had… ever. I didn’t know true happiness until 3 weeks ago when I had it for the first time. Dovga, you sexy, sexy dish. That’s all… i’m out.

 

http://azerifood.com/en/2/21.html

 

 

Cheers,

 

WCP

The highest of highs

I have been in Xaldan for nearly 3 weeks now, and today has really concreted my love for the people and culture of Azerbaijan, especially my village. I woke up today to help my host mom, Dunya, with the morning milking of the cows. We were done around 7 oclock and then we had a great breakfast: 2 hardboiled eggs with fresh bread, yogurt, jam, and a nice cup of Nestle instant coffee (which I purchased in the booming metropolis that is Yevlax). After breakfast I had about 2 hours to kill before my first class at 10:10 (3^rd period). I had a great workout, listened to some music, and made final touches of my class activities and lesson plans. Once arriving to school after a leisurely stroll through the grazing fields of sheep, buffalos, and cows I was greeting by holiday music playing on the loud speakers. I taught my 6^th grade class which went exceptionally well (they are my all-stars). The class was divided into groups and they competed against each other in a variety of different activities focused on grammar and vocabulary. The winners got some English bookmarks that I had received from my parents in a care package about a month ago. At the end of class my students and counterpart gave me a Christmas gift, a nice pen. Following class the whole school then went to the auditorium where a New Years pageant was held. After about 45 minutes of poems, songs and dancing the room got silent and I noticed all the eyes shift to me (something I’m used to, but, I could tell something was about to happen). The microphone was passed to me and, once again, I found myself in the position of make a speech to the school. I muttered “Yeni Iliniz Mubarek!” (Happy New Years!), then continued to wish them good health and happiness in 2012. They all clapped and then Shaftababa (Santa Claus) grabbed my hand and brought me to the stage. The music started. I began to dance, by myself, in front of the school… Thankfully the English teachers soon joined in and after no time almost all of my students had made their way to the stage and we danced to a few songs. It was awesome! After the pageant one of my teachers presented me with yet another gift… this one was quite big. I was filled with joy; my students had all chipped in and bought me yet another gift. I then walked two of my counterparts home and we both expressed how excited we were to begin the New Year teaching together and how much we will learn from each other during my service. After leaving them I walked about 5 minutes before Xiyam, my neighbor, pulled up next to me in a chariot being pulled by a horse. I jumped on and he gave me the reigns… it was glorious. Riding on that chariot with Xiyam, looking at the snow tipped mountains, laughing and joking with each other, was unbelievable. I arrived home and opened the gift… a very nice framed map of Azerbaijan… the icing on the cake. It is very true what PC Volunteers say, “service is a rollercoaster ride: the highest of highs and the lowest of lows.” I got the say though, ill be riding this high for quite sometime. And as I sit in my living room watching Home Alone dubbed in Azeri, smelling Dunya’s cooking, and anticipating my trip of Baku for New Years… I don’t see myself coming down for a long time.

 

I havent gotten around to posting pictures yet.. but i will soon. I hope most of yall have seen the video tour of my house in Xaldan, if not it is posted below. Also, my friend Julie in Yevlax (semi-sitemate) made a Christmas song about Azerbaijan that has gone viral, ha! It is also attached below. I wish you all a Happy New Year.

 

Cheers,

 

WCP

 

 

Thanksgiving

Xaldan

Xaldan… where I will call home starting December 9th. Xaldan is a small village outside of the cities Mingechevir and Yevlakh. Geographically its centrally located next to the biggest lake in Azerbaijan. It is also very easy to travel from Xaldan which will be nice when visiting other volunteers. I will be the first and only Peace Corps volunteer in Xaldan which is about 3,000 people I believe. It will be nice to live in a rural, isolated community while also being able to get to a city when needed.

Winter has arrived here in AZ. Along with the cold has come a series of power outages that has left me spending a lot of nights bundled up next to a gas heater by flashlight or candlelight. The cold weather and occasional snow was nice at first but has slowly lost its appeal. The walking that I enjoyed so much about Azerbaijani life in the beginning has turned into quite the chore.

I have really enjoyed eating seasonal foods here but i fear that those days are numbered. Cabbage, potatoes, bread and lentils dominated the winter months here. Fruits and vegetables will be available… but certainly not on a Peace Corps budget. Anyways, I think it will be gratifying to know i spent two years literally living off the land. Several Peace Corps volunteers last year made a book with 100 cabage recipes (some good.. some not so good). On the topic of food, Thanksgiving is just around the corner and my friends and I have made extravagant plans. We will be buying a live turkey next week and tending to it ourselves. Several volunteers will be participating in our Thanksgiving feast so I cant wait to see how creative they get when recreating American dishes. Thanks to my parents, who sent me an American football among other things, we might even be able to honor another Thanksgiving tradition!

With the lack of showers in my life, especially with the arrival of winter, I really enjoyed hearing this joke from our Country Director:

To an optimist: the glass is half full. To a pessimist: the glass is half empty. Do you know what a Peace Corps Volunteer says when he sees that same glass of water? “Hey! I could take a shower with that!”

Ive been having some trouble uploading photos, but i am taking plenty and will get them to you soon.

 

Cheers,

 

WCP