October 15, 2007
This last weekend was great. I got to meet many new people, practice my language a bunch, and eat tons of food. I went down to one of my friend’s villages, which is about 20 min south of my town because they are a bit more religious and his family was having a huge celebration for the end of Ramadan.
Ramadan is the Muslim holy month when they do not eat during daylight hours. As with every aspect of life here I wanted to learn and understand more about the people I’m serving so I asked anyone I could what the significance of Ramadan is and why they fast during this month. What I learned however was not why they fast but just another example of the leftover Soviet mentality. There are many things people do here not because they make sense but because they’ve been told to or learned it that way. Many people here are much different than most people in the US in the sense that they don’t question authority. They just do what they are told and go on about life, and Ramadan seems to be an example of that. Each person I asked why they fast had a different answer and all of them revolved around because it is our custom, or because this is what Muslim people do, nothing about the significance of why the fast happens, when it happens, or for how long. I don’t write this in an attempt disrespect the people here only as an observation of things I’ve seen and experienced.
With the lack of understanding of why the holiday happens aside, we had a wonderful time and got a four-day weekend out of it. I got to my friends house around 12:30 and he had already had lunch 3 times at 3 different houses. My arrival created a reason to have another lunch and that theme carried on for the rest of the day. Throughout the day we went to six different houses and had six meals that were all the same in both content and size. It didn’t matter how many times you said, “no, no I just ate and I cant eat anymore” you were still served massive amounts of food. What else we learned was that if you didn’t serve yourself or you didn’t serve yourself the “proper amount” whoever was sitting next to you would take your plate and fill it with twice as much as anyone else was eating.
All of the meals were the same. We would get to the house go in sit down and have tea with really great sweet cakes, sweet biscuits, or any other type of sweet pastry. Then the meal would follow. This consisted of Plov, which is rice baked with massive amounts of butter then nuts, dried fruit and more butter are poured over it. This is also the national meal of Azerbaijan. Then we had either cabbage or grape leaf dolma. This is one of my favorites. It is a rice and meat mixture that is wrapped and cooked in either grape leaves or cabbage. Then a sour yogurt is poured over the top of it. Then there were the whole chickens or a once whole chickens depending on where in the line of guests you fell. Then there was the lamb stew stuff that was lamb cooked with potatoes and some sauce that I poured over the plov in an attempt to counter the massive amounts of butter. And finally there was the staple Azeri salad of cucumber and tomatoes. That’s literally all the salad is, cut cucumbers and cut tomatoes and it’s at every lunch and dinner here, but they are the best tomatoes I’ve ever eaten since everyone has a kitchen garden here and these are picked ripe off the vine right as the meal begins. After the main meal is over we would sit and eat either bad watermelon, which is now out of season or great pomegranate, which has just come into season. Then the table would be cleared and more tea and sweets would be brought out. After the tea was done we would say our goodbyes, wash, receive our eggs and move to the next house on the list and start the entire thing over again.
As we would walk we would see everyone else from town walking to their next meal and we would play the egg game. The eggs we were given as we left were hardboiled and dyed a tint of red by placing onionskins in the water as they were boiled. As you walked to the next house you would challenge other people for their eggs. One person would hold their egg in their closed hand with one tip facing up while the other person would hit their egg on top of it. The person’s egg that cracked lost and the other person would get their egg. The objective was to get as many eggs as you could. We on the other hand couldn’t understand the need for any more food and didn’t want to walk around with our hands and pockets full of eggs so for some mysterious reason we always hit the egg in a way to make ours break. I think the kids really thought we sucked and sometimes would try to have mercy on us and let us keep our broken egg, but we insisted that they won the egg fair and square and that they needed to take the egg.
I had the opportunity of watching the end Ramadan while I was in Egypt. Five years later I’m in another Muslim country but this time I had a much better experience as I felt that I was able to participate rather than just watch from the outside.
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
Photos
Yeah so i'm still trying to figure out this blog stuff and the pictures on the last post didn't really end up in the text like i wanted. The Pics are of my underware hanging infront of my apartment, a cow in the streets of Sheki, me and my cheese burger, and my buddy katie pitching in our softball game.
Softball In The AZ
October 10, 2007
This week has been really great. On Friday I went down to Barda in the central part of the country for a softball tournament with the Sheki team. There are four regions that have softball teams with Americans and Azeri’s.
Friday night was great fun we went to one volunteer’s house and had a wonderful spaghetti casserole with garlic bread and got to meet up with a bunch of different volunteers. The next morning we woke up and went to a field, that actually had grass, and played a double header. My team lost the first in a total melt down in the 9th inning we were up I think 12 – 3 in the top of the ninth and ended up losing to something like 17 – 15. Then the second game I think we won by 22 – 2. It was so much fun to be out in the sun playing softball. Later that day we all gathered at a different volunteers house where we ate some great lentil stew, mashed potatoes and homemade biscuits!
The next morning we woke up and headed to the field again and played two more games with the Azeri’s. Unfortunately not all the Azeris showed up so we couldn’t do a real tournament. But we divided up who we had and they all had a really good time! There we a few that actually really good. After the game we had to leave right away to catch our marshrutka back to Sheki.
As we were pulling into the Sheki Autovagzal the last marshrutka to Zaqatala was pulling out. So we went up to the 5 star western hotel and ate a real cheeseburger! Then those of us from the north shared the cost of a cab back home. As we were in the cab satisfied from our cheeseburgers and completely exhausted from the weekend we realized how much each of us wanted to get back to our homes. It was nice to have that feeling of this being my home and the desire after being away to want to come back to what I’ve learned is familiar and comfortable.
This weekend I’m heading down to one of the villages to stay with another volunteer and his host family to experience the end of Ramadan. They are a very strict Muslim family and it should be a great cultural experience! Ramadan is the holy month from mid September to mid October where Muslim people fast during the daylight hours. Then at the end they throw a huge weekend long feast! It should be great fun and I look forward to sharing it with you.
Wednesday, October 3, 2007
Getting Into My Groove
October 3, 2007
Today was one of the best days I’ve had here! The last two weeks have been pretty difficult meeting all these new people and trying to explain to them what it is that I’m here to do. It’s actually kind of comical if I take a step back and look at it. I mean even Peace Corps doesn’t know what it is that we (Youth Development) are doing here. We are the first group of youth development (YD) volunteers so we are tasked with the job of figuring out what YD volunteers will do in Azerbaijan. In our training we studied different methods to assess the youth and our communities in an attempt to figure out what it is that the people and youth of Azerbaijan want and need us to do. However these assessments take time and require us to have a relationship with the youth so PC has us teaching English conversation clubs as a way to create these relationships and to give us something to do while we figure this out.
There are a few problems to this. First, it’s never been defined what an English conversation club actually is. Second, every person in Azerbaijan wants to learn English. Where this has created problems for me is that my counterparts at the organization I work didn’t really know what a club was so they promised everyone that I (their American) would teach them English. Well a club isn’t a place to teach people who don’t have a base it’s a place to practice the skills you already have so you can apply the language practically and it works best in a group of about 8 – 10. So long story short my counterparts promised me to all sorts of people and then when I explained what it was that I was doing all sorts of people got mad.
Then the last problem with this is that because PC didn’t know what it was that we will be doing all they told (or all the counterparts had heard) was the we would be doing these clubs so they want to help us fill all our time with these, which will take all our time so that it will be more difficult to create real sustainable youth programs.
Well, so that was why my last two weeks have been difficult. The reason today was so great was that it seems like things are finally starting to iron themselves out and I had two really great club meetings today. One was with a very beginner club that was just down right fun. We played a few games that everyone enjoyed and I just felt good to finally be connecting in some way to the youth here. The second was a club that I will look forward to going to each time. It is what a club is really supposed to be with 9 girls that speak really well but are losing it when they don’t have an opportunity to speak. The reason I’m so excited is that while I’m here I want to focus my work on creating more opportunities for girls and these girls will be perfect to get into their minds to figure out what it is that Azerbaijan girls want.
Then to cap the day off I got a package from my mom with all sorts of fun stuff that just made my day, including a new battery for my computer which makes writing blog entries much easier as the power goes on and off.
If any of you have questions about life over here or ideas of blog entries you would like me to write about please email them to me.
Today was one of the best days I’ve had here! The last two weeks have been pretty difficult meeting all these new people and trying to explain to them what it is that I’m here to do. It’s actually kind of comical if I take a step back and look at it. I mean even Peace Corps doesn’t know what it is that we (Youth Development) are doing here. We are the first group of youth development (YD) volunteers so we are tasked with the job of figuring out what YD volunteers will do in Azerbaijan. In our training we studied different methods to assess the youth and our communities in an attempt to figure out what it is that the people and youth of Azerbaijan want and need us to do. However these assessments take time and require us to have a relationship with the youth so PC has us teaching English conversation clubs as a way to create these relationships and to give us something to do while we figure this out.
There are a few problems to this. First, it’s never been defined what an English conversation club actually is. Second, every person in Azerbaijan wants to learn English. Where this has created problems for me is that my counterparts at the organization I work didn’t really know what a club was so they promised everyone that I (their American) would teach them English. Well a club isn’t a place to teach people who don’t have a base it’s a place to practice the skills you already have so you can apply the language practically and it works best in a group of about 8 – 10. So long story short my counterparts promised me to all sorts of people and then when I explained what it was that I was doing all sorts of people got mad.
Then the last problem with this is that because PC didn’t know what it was that we will be doing all they told (or all the counterparts had heard) was the we would be doing these clubs so they want to help us fill all our time with these, which will take all our time so that it will be more difficult to create real sustainable youth programs.
Well, so that was why my last two weeks have been difficult. The reason today was so great was that it seems like things are finally starting to iron themselves out and I had two really great club meetings today. One was with a very beginner club that was just down right fun. We played a few games that everyone enjoyed and I just felt good to finally be connecting in some way to the youth here. The second was a club that I will look forward to going to each time. It is what a club is really supposed to be with 9 girls that speak really well but are losing it when they don’t have an opportunity to speak. The reason I’m so excited is that while I’m here I want to focus my work on creating more opportunities for girls and these girls will be perfect to get into their minds to figure out what it is that Azerbaijan girls want.
Then to cap the day off I got a package from my mom with all sorts of fun stuff that just made my day, including a new battery for my computer which makes writing blog entries much easier as the power goes on and off.
If any of you have questions about life over here or ideas of blog entries you would like me to write about please email them to me.
September 11th
September 11, 2007
Two years from today I will have completed my service here! We had our last training meeting today and we will swear in tomorrow. Right before lunch staff had all of us gather around in a circle to remember what happened on September 11th. We had all of us trainees and many of the staff both Azeri and American. There were about 65 to 70 of us and we were given a chance to talk about what September 11th means to us.
I talked about how those events helped me make the decision to join Peace Corps. After the terrorist attacks most Americans reaction was to fight back harder and stronger to teach “them” (whoever “they” are) a lesson. I had a different reaction. I thought what would make someone hate Americans so much that they would kill that many innocent people. I thought if they only knew me, or all the people in those buildings, there is no way they would hate me that much, and instead of going out and killing more people and making whoever we were killing (and their families and children) innocent or guilty hate us that much more. But instead why don’t we go out into the world and let people get to know what real Americans are like and dispel any thoughts they may have about us from watching TV and reading newspapers. Then, learn from them what things America does either directly or indirectly which makes people hate us and come home and try to change those things.
As I said in my first post Peace Corps has 3 goals and two of them are completely related to this.
The 2nd goal is: To help promote a better understanding of Americans on the part of the peoples served.
The 3rd goal is: To help promote a better understanding of other peoples on the part of all Americans.
I really feel much more patriotic serving here in the Peace Corps than I ever have before. I am proud of my country and appreciate the things we take for granted every day, such as freedom of speech, freedom of the press, or a free election. Even countries that claim they are free people don’t always have these rights.
These are just a few rambling thoughts I had today on the anniversary of September 11th. You may or may not agree with these thoughts but that’s what I love more than anything the fact that I have the right to express my thoughts. And if you do agree do something about it because you CAN! Go out and protest if you think something is wrong or vote or write a letter to your congressman or senator (tell them you support Peace Corps and what we are trying to do) or join Peace Corps. Whatever you do just don’t sit around and let things happen act like a real American and stand up for what you believe in.
Two years from today I will have completed my service here! We had our last training meeting today and we will swear in tomorrow. Right before lunch staff had all of us gather around in a circle to remember what happened on September 11th. We had all of us trainees and many of the staff both Azeri and American. There were about 65 to 70 of us and we were given a chance to talk about what September 11th means to us.
I talked about how those events helped me make the decision to join Peace Corps. After the terrorist attacks most Americans reaction was to fight back harder and stronger to teach “them” (whoever “they” are) a lesson. I had a different reaction. I thought what would make someone hate Americans so much that they would kill that many innocent people. I thought if they only knew me, or all the people in those buildings, there is no way they would hate me that much, and instead of going out and killing more people and making whoever we were killing (and their families and children) innocent or guilty hate us that much more. But instead why don’t we go out into the world and let people get to know what real Americans are like and dispel any thoughts they may have about us from watching TV and reading newspapers. Then, learn from them what things America does either directly or indirectly which makes people hate us and come home and try to change those things.
As I said in my first post Peace Corps has 3 goals and two of them are completely related to this.
The 2nd goal is: To help promote a better understanding of Americans on the part of the peoples served.
The 3rd goal is: To help promote a better understanding of other peoples on the part of all Americans.
I really feel much more patriotic serving here in the Peace Corps than I ever have before. I am proud of my country and appreciate the things we take for granted every day, such as freedom of speech, freedom of the press, or a free election. Even countries that claim they are free people don’t always have these rights.
These are just a few rambling thoughts I had today on the anniversary of September 11th. You may or may not agree with these thoughts but that’s what I love more than anything the fact that I have the right to express my thoughts. And if you do agree do something about it because you CAN! Go out and protest if you think something is wrong or vote or write a letter to your congressman or senator (tell them you support Peace Corps and what we are trying to do) or join Peace Corps. Whatever you do just don’t sit around and let things happen act like a real American and stand up for what you believe in.
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