July 20, 2007
Today was a great day! We had our language club right after our language lessons and we had a ton of kids show up. We decided that next week we are going to split again so we each have our own group and can give more one on one attention. Growing this group is working exactly like I had wanted Cub Scout packs to form when I was working for the Boy Scouts. We are also running it like a Cub pack. We are going to meet in our own ability groups and then meet together in a larger group to do bigger activities hopefully working on language in our smaller groups that will lead into or help the larger activity. It’s great to see all the enthusiasm these kids have when they show up.
After language I went home and started the prep work for chicken fajitas! I invited my site mates, LCF, and a friend from a site next to ours over for a little taste from home. In the Bazaar I was able to get green peppers, onions, chili peppers, tomatoes, cilantro, lemons, cayenne pepper crushed red peppers, and some bread called lavash that’s like a flour torttia.
When I got home I got all the chopping done and then before everyone arrived I found out that the gas was off for the whole town. That’s when my host mom pulled out a camping stove and I thought ah I think I know how to work one of these. The process went a bit slower but I got all the food out and everyone was thrilled to be eating something with some spice to it.
The food here is great but Azerbaijani’s don’t really like spicy foods so having something with a little fire in it was a real treat. Many of you have been asking what kinds of things should you send in care packages and I haven’t really come up with anything in particular because I think completely random things from home is great but after this dinner I’d have to say if anyone could fit a bottle of hot sauce and taco seasoning into a box that stuff is like gold over here. You can’t buy it in any of the stores here they say there are some expat stores in Baku where you could buy some of the taco seasoning but we still can’t go in there and they said they were like $5.00 for one of those 50 cent packets you can get in any grocery store at home. And normally something like that I wouldn’t think $5.00 is a lot but here on a Peace Corps salary that’s a small fortune. (old sports illustrated’s or ESPN the magazine’s would be a great contribution as well especially as college football season get into full swing. Even just email updates on things that are happening in the world and sports. One girl’s friend sends her things like that and she is trying to keep us informed. I don’t get to the internet very often and when I do it’s too slow to browse the news pages)
The dinner was great in two ways the first being the food was so good but the second was the example I was setting for my host brother. This last week in our Youth Development sessions we had a discussion on gender roles and how things are so completely different over here for women. Women here (being mothers, wives, and sisters) are expected to wait on men hand an foot. In my family over here from the beginning I insisted on clearing my own dishes and they thought that was one of the weirdest things they’d ever seen. Then I took it a step further and insisted that I wash my own dish. Now I am able to do all the dishes after meals, but the first few times my mother would stand in the back of the kitchen and watch to make sure I was doing everything all right and occasionally jump in and tell me I had too much soap or something like that.
So as you can believe a man in the kitchen cooking was hard to swallow. My brother came in a number of times with a concerned look on his face and would ask, “Donny, why are you doing this? You should be sitting on the couch and the women should be in here cooking.” and this wasn’t just playful joking he was absolutely serious. After he asked me this I explained how in America men cook for women all the time and how chores around the house are shared equally and how if a women wants to work she can and sometimes men stay at home with the children. Then he would just shake his head and walk out of the kitchen confused.
After the meal was over I told the girls not to help because I wanted to extend the example. I went in and was doing the dishes and my host brother came in, as I was finishing, with another dish and I told him to go ahead and put it on the counter and I would wash it when he said in English, “no I wash” and I stepped aside and watched as my brother probably for the first time washed a dish.
This one thing defiantly is not going to “change the world” or for that matter even make it to where my brother does the dishes on a regular basis, but it did open one 17 year old boys eyes that in some worlds men and women are more equal than they are in his, and some day hopefully this example will make him a better man. I think that’s what Peace Corps is really all about working at the grass roots level showing people through example that there sometimes are different ways of doing things.
Sunday, July 22, 2007
Monday, July 16, 2007
Photos
these are photos of some of my host family
the first is my host mom the second is my host uncle then my host brother and last is my host niece and nephew
Sheki Visit
July 16, 2007
This weekend was our site visits. We all got go visit a volunteer at their site and see what their normal routine as a PCV is like. As I write this I’m hanging out at my Volunteers office while he gets a few things done. I got lucky and got to go up north to Sheki which is at the foothills of the mountains. Things are much cooler up here and yesterday and today it actually rained! It was nice it felt a bit like home other than the fact I’ve heard you guys have been in the middle of a heat wave.
I came out here with two other volunteers who are staying with someone who lives on their own and then I’m staying with a guy that still lives with a host family. The marshrutka ride was interesting I’ll have to dedicate an entire blog one day describing a marshrutka ride just think of a van smaller than a 15 passenger with about 17 people and their stuff with no AC. It took 5 and a half hours to drive the just under 200 miles with two scheduled stops and one stop because a boy vomited a two rows in front of us. When we got here we were greeted by the two sheki volunteers and were taken to one of their homes where we had a wonderful dinner of taco salad!!
The next day I my host volunteer took a few boys from his youth site and me hiking up above the city which was amazing. We first went to an ancient Albanian church called Kish and then we hiked up to an old abandoned fortress called Gelerson gorison, which was built by the sheki khans in 18th century. We met up for tea with the girls and another American who is doing a 2-month internship with an aid organization. Then we went to awesome hotel, which had Cheese Burgers!! After the burgers we went up to another fortress, which was built by Genghis Khan’s Grandson and had a couple of beers in a really neat outdoor bar.
I’ve really enjoyed coming out here to see how things are on a day to day basis and I think it’s defiantly a motivation to keep working hard on the language. It’s amazing how well they speak only having been here a year.
Tonight we’re going to a concert to hear real life country music. I guess some band is in Azerbaijan touring on a cultural experience tour and we are lucky enough to be in the town they’re stopping in! I can’t even believe my luck a cheeseburger one day and a country concert the next! Yeah buddy someone’s living right!
This weekend was our site visits. We all got go visit a volunteer at their site and see what their normal routine as a PCV is like. As I write this I’m hanging out at my Volunteers office while he gets a few things done. I got lucky and got to go up north to Sheki which is at the foothills of the mountains. Things are much cooler up here and yesterday and today it actually rained! It was nice it felt a bit like home other than the fact I’ve heard you guys have been in the middle of a heat wave.
I came out here with two other volunteers who are staying with someone who lives on their own and then I’m staying with a guy that still lives with a host family. The marshrutka ride was interesting I’ll have to dedicate an entire blog one day describing a marshrutka ride just think of a van smaller than a 15 passenger with about 17 people and their stuff with no AC. It took 5 and a half hours to drive the just under 200 miles with two scheduled stops and one stop because a boy vomited a two rows in front of us. When we got here we were greeted by the two sheki volunteers and were taken to one of their homes where we had a wonderful dinner of taco salad!!
The next day I my host volunteer took a few boys from his youth site and me hiking up above the city which was amazing. We first went to an ancient Albanian church called Kish and then we hiked up to an old abandoned fortress called Gelerson gorison, which was built by the sheki khans in 18th century. We met up for tea with the girls and another American who is doing a 2-month internship with an aid organization. Then we went to awesome hotel, which had Cheese Burgers!! After the burgers we went up to another fortress, which was built by Genghis Khan’s Grandson and had a couple of beers in a really neat outdoor bar.
I’ve really enjoyed coming out here to see how things are on a day to day basis and I think it’s defiantly a motivation to keep working hard on the language. It’s amazing how well they speak only having been here a year.
Tonight we’re going to a concert to hear real life country music. I guess some band is in Azerbaijan touring on a cultural experience tour and we are lucky enough to be in the town they’re stopping in! I can’t even believe my luck a cheeseburger one day and a country concert the next! Yeah buddy someone’s living right!
English Conversation Club
July 12, 2007
Today we had our first English conversation club and it was a huge success. As youth development directors PC wants us to create English conversation clubs within our communities as a way for us to learn how to work within the communities and learn more about the youth of Azerbaijan, while providing an opportunity for the youth to practice their English, which is a seen as a very marketable skill here.
Me and the four other volunteers at my site decided to have our first meeting together and then gradually split off into our individual groups. As we’ve been preparing for the meeting we had wondered whether anyone would show up or if it would only be guys, since most of our families said girls wouldn’t show up because they have too many other things to do (which means preparing food and cleaning up after the men), but we were all surprised and excited when an hour before the meeting was supposed to begin people started to show up. In all we had 16 people show up and even more exciting over half were girls! This is our seed and each additional week each of them will bring more and more friends and pretty soon we should have a big group of youth to practice English with. We’re going to try to do it in an environment where they are learning while having fun.
Things are still going great. I haven’t even had a down day yet. Everyday there is something new I learn and some new food I eat I’m really enjoying my time here.
Today we had our first English conversation club and it was a huge success. As youth development directors PC wants us to create English conversation clubs within our communities as a way for us to learn how to work within the communities and learn more about the youth of Azerbaijan, while providing an opportunity for the youth to practice their English, which is a seen as a very marketable skill here.
Me and the four other volunteers at my site decided to have our first meeting together and then gradually split off into our individual groups. As we’ve been preparing for the meeting we had wondered whether anyone would show up or if it would only be guys, since most of our families said girls wouldn’t show up because they have too many other things to do (which means preparing food and cleaning up after the men), but we were all surprised and excited when an hour before the meeting was supposed to begin people started to show up. In all we had 16 people show up and even more exciting over half were girls! This is our seed and each additional week each of them will bring more and more friends and pretty soon we should have a big group of youth to practice English with. We’re going to try to do it in an environment where they are learning while having fun.
Things are still going great. I haven’t even had a down day yet. Everyday there is something new I learn and some new food I eat I’m really enjoying my time here.
First Day Off
July 8, 2007
I just got done reading my post from yesterday and realized how many spelling and grammatical errors I had writing it after a long day. Just remember I warned you in the first post that this is in no way a way for me to demonstrate my vast literary abilities especially as I mainly write this at night while falling asleep.
Today I had my first day off and it was great. I took the bus into Sumguyait by myself and just wandered around and explored. The bazaar is amazing. I really liked going through the food area. There are so many different kinds of fresh fruits and vegetables and then there is this meat area that has all different kinds of animal meat being cut up with axes and random animal parts hanging on hooks. I really wanted a picture but as I was by myself and was drawing all sorts of attention to myself just by being there I thought I would wait until there was a larger group of us where it would be impossible to try to blend in and more accepted for us to take pictures.
After walking through the bazaar for 3 or 4 hours I went out and had a Donner, which is a very popular sidewalk food. There are these stands on just about every corner that have this skewer of stacked meat and fat that spins next to a heating source. They shave the meat off on a little fry surface where they sauté it with tomato’s and cucumber’s and then stuff it in a piece of bread with a white sauce and some red sauce. It costs about 30 qepik (or just over 30 cents) and will be enough to fill you up for a meal. I think I’ll probably eat these as a staple when I have to eat out just because they are so good and inexpensive.
Then I went to the internet café and tried unsuccessfully to post some pictures on my blog. Blog spot is in Azeri here and I can’t find the options button to figure out how to make it in English because it’s in Azeri. I can post blogs on it just because I can sometimes remember where the buttons are that guide me through that process. So as for pictures I will try to post some as soon as I can but it may take a little while.
After I got done I took the bus back home studied had another amazing meal and studied some more. I don’t think I ever studied this hard or much while I was in school. Living in a place where the majority of the communication is done playing charades really motivates you to learn the language!
I just got done reading my post from yesterday and realized how many spelling and grammatical errors I had writing it after a long day. Just remember I warned you in the first post that this is in no way a way for me to demonstrate my vast literary abilities especially as I mainly write this at night while falling asleep.
Today I had my first day off and it was great. I took the bus into Sumguyait by myself and just wandered around and explored. The bazaar is amazing. I really liked going through the food area. There are so many different kinds of fresh fruits and vegetables and then there is this meat area that has all different kinds of animal meat being cut up with axes and random animal parts hanging on hooks. I really wanted a picture but as I was by myself and was drawing all sorts of attention to myself just by being there I thought I would wait until there was a larger group of us where it would be impossible to try to blend in and more accepted for us to take pictures.
After walking through the bazaar for 3 or 4 hours I went out and had a Donner, which is a very popular sidewalk food. There are these stands on just about every corner that have this skewer of stacked meat and fat that spins next to a heating source. They shave the meat off on a little fry surface where they sauté it with tomato’s and cucumber’s and then stuff it in a piece of bread with a white sauce and some red sauce. It costs about 30 qepik (or just over 30 cents) and will be enough to fill you up for a meal. I think I’ll probably eat these as a staple when I have to eat out just because they are so good and inexpensive.
Then I went to the internet café and tried unsuccessfully to post some pictures on my blog. Blog spot is in Azeri here and I can’t find the options button to figure out how to make it in English because it’s in Azeri. I can post blogs on it just because I can sometimes remember where the buttons are that guide me through that process. So as for pictures I will try to post some as soon as I can but it may take a little while.
After I got done I took the bus back home studied had another amazing meal and studied some more. I don’t think I ever studied this hard or much while I was in school. Living in a place where the majority of the communication is done playing charades really motivates you to learn the language!
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