The Class of 2012

(My fellow PCV Josh in the nearby town of Xachmaz has already made this comparison recently, but I'd like to take it a bit deeper.)

Right now, the weather has warmed up, the kids in Quba are having a tough time sitting still in class, and Hillary and I are working on our summer plans.  We're in a transition, teetering right on the edge between a very tough winter and a summer full of activities and travel - lots of discussions about what will happen, thinking about how we'll finish up our big projects, and the best ways to gracefully leave our community and head back home to America.  We know we've got a lot of work in front of us, but we can see the end up ahead.

I thought a lot about the significance of this point in our service, and it reminded me a lot of how I felt right before I started my senior year of college.  In fact, the traditional four years of university are a pretty good metaphor for what we go through in our Peace Corps service:

We left Durham on a high note, reeling from a great send-off from friends and family; we had done a tremendous amount of work to get through the official Peace Corps selection process, and when the time came to finally start our adventure, everyone back home sent us off with love and support.  We felt great about who we were -- so let's call this point high school graduation.

An amazing night with our wonderful friends

 

But things moved quickly… We met the rest of our group at the orientation training in Philadelphia, made new friends, and immediately flew to Azerbaijan.  We settled into our temporary communities for pre-service training, where we spent the next ten weeks fumbling through language classes, falling into and off of buses, and woefully attempting to speak Azeri.  We were hungry, sad, confused, and disappointed.  Clearly, we were working through our freshman year.

My language class for pre-service training

We passed our final language exams, finished our student teaching, and were sworn in as official Peace Corps Volunteers at the end of training.  We packed our bags and drove out to our permanent community of Quba.  After a housing mishap (we were originally dropped off at the wrong house), we made it to our host family home where we spent the next 4 months.  December through April are the toughest months in our region of the country, and we spent most of our time working to stay warm, understand our jobs, and settle into our new community.  We kind of knew what we were doing, we had some autonomy, but there were a lot of mistakes and learning moments.  Sophomore year, absolutely.

Hillary's office

The park at the Quba town square

The "40 Stairs" at our local Nizami Park

In April, we found a small duplex and moved into our first independent housing.  The difference it made was enormous - we come and go as we please, we cook all our own food, and our time is our own.  Even better was the fact that once the weather warmed up, all our neighbors came out of their houses to say hello… we met the kids first, which led to great conversations with their parents.  We had an amazing summer full of fun classes at Hillary's office, travel to other regions for summer camps, delicious meals made with local fruits and veggies, and late nights playing guitar for the kids.  Hillary and I started to better understand our roles within the community, what we could do, and how we could do it.  She's done an incredible job with her English classroom, and my Azeri counterparts at my school finally seem to understand what my job is and how we can work together as a team.  (I'm just now approaching the point where I can make jokes with my counterparts, and they understand and joke back.)  We've done a lot, but we're aware that the end of our service is coming sooner rather than later.  It's the same feeling I got at the end of junior year.

Some of our girls at the Yevlax summer camp last year

Rocking out with our neighbor kids

Joey Z's Famous Chicken Fangers

Hillary Z's Famous Pizza

And so here we are, poring over our calendar to determine which weeks we'll have our English lessons, when we'll do our Quba summer camp, when we'll travel to Tbilisi Georgia, and what we'd like to accomplish before our time really is up.  We're extremely excited about what's in store for us -- art projects, softball games with local kids, visits from Hillary's mom and sister, work with other PCVs on different camps, and everything in between.  We've done a lot already, but we've got this feeling that the best is yet to come.

We're ready for our senior year.

Our crazy neighbor boys

Leyla rocks out!

Our kids having a blast with a homemade English word matching game

Photo Contest

Recently our director announced a seasonal photo contest for the winning photos to be displayed in the PC office. It all sounded fun and even easy until I read the 'it must be related to your work'. I can capture scenery, cool angles on snowy stuff all day long, but capturing what I 'do' was a lot harder, since I'm in the midst of it all. Because of this initiative, I now have pictures of my students I wouldn't have otherwise taken and I'm thrilled. Although they are not super artsy and I'm not banking on a win, I did want to share with you the pride I have in the work I do and am apart of. I love the young people I work with and I think I've been able to capture quite a bit of JOY, even in Winter!

Enjoy!

PS - the end of the week, the weather is proving to be Spring! We have the door open airing the house out right now! Hopefully earlier this week, was the last of the snow...

FLEX students

Our afternoon hand drawn sunblocker - stained glass window

PCV Joey and Mike play snowballs with the neighbor kids

Joey getting a double work-out pushing sleds

Sweet Leyla!

The shortest lifespan of a snowman. Click. Now a pile of snow.

Looking through English speaking books after our book donation arrived!

Friday Art Club - drawing dragons.

The year of the Dragon

Friday Art Club - mixed ages, and it seems to work!

Hazrat putting the final touches on his groups clean trash robot

The little kids were very proud of their clean trash robot!

Our version of a sink for the month of February

Hauling water with the neighbor ladies was the only good thing about hauling water in a heavy snowstorm

We love to talk about WATER

Yes, it seems like this time of year has brought us closer with our appreciation of water. It is our constant topic of conversation and everyday seems to bring us something new to appreciate.

Last Friday, March 2nd we finally got running water after 43 days! Hooray!

It was a long and humbling process to say the least.

Currently, we are in the middle of a fresh snow storm, freezing temperatures and even though 'let the sink drip over night' precautions were made, we are without water again. At this point I relinquish control and know that I took 3 showers last week! Also, this will not be a long and hard freeze like last time, the 7 day forecast says so!

Spring is on it's way folks. We continue to have thaws that clear a muddy path, bright sunny days and even though new snow frequently greets us, among the white, there are some brave pieces of green starting to poke out from the earth. SPRING is COMING!

This is how we haul water: by hand and by sled! And our makeshift sink.

The curiosity of FROZEN water

Apparently, we/Eastern Europe are having the coldest winter in 50 years, just two weeks ago it was at a 20 year low but now we've graduated to 50 years. In the last 30 days, we've had 1 day of running water and that was about 25 days ago. Everything is frozen. We can't thaw water if there is no water to pump and we also can't pump if the water below is frozen solid. Everyday we seem to adapt to a new approach to manage through this beautifully white, insanely cold month. Even the Caspian sea shoreline has started to freeze, which hasn't happened in 20 years.

How we've adapted:

Water - Initially I was going out to fill up our 5 liter bottle at our neighbors spigot with all of the neighbor ladies in the morning but that has now frozen over. It was nice to see the ladies since I hadn't seen many of them since the summer. We also found that at night the men would haul water and Joey got to hang out with all the men as they lined up for water. Since the underground pipes have now completely frozen over, that's what makes it impossible to get new water in our home. We have had some really nice days this week, which has created a lot of slush, but not enough warmth to get the underground pipes thawed out. Now Joey walks about a block and a half to fill our bucket and bottle near our host families home. He really likes the exercise but doesn't care for some of the bad neighbor boys throwing snowballs at him during the process. At most, he only has to do about 3 trips each time. Also our host brother Emin and the sweet neighbor boys like to help him and sometimes even offerup their sled to help ease the water hauling. Luckily we still have this option or we'd have to start paying for water from either the store or from the water truck. (our next back-up plan that we hopefully won't need)

And yes, we are diligent about boiling and filtering our water!

Metal bucket - Joey bought a 10 liter metal bucket so now we haul water easier, and we can heat water directly on the pech. I do laundry in the living room since it's the warmest area and then our chairs turn into clotheslines. It's not a bad system! I have not-mastered my 2 bucket bathes. In temperatures where your bathroom turns to an ice rink as the water hits the floor, it's a highly humbling experience and slippery! We also have a bucket serving as our sink in the kitchen. Even the output pipe froze so we are pouring our sink water down the toilet which also serves as a flushing source and keeps the toilet from completely freezing. See how adaptable and creative we are!

Although this information might sound pretty unpleasant, we know this is short lived. The season will shift and we will thaw. We know this is our last winter living in Azerbaijan. However, are are here now. We are no different from our neighbors as we haul our water, our heat turning low or off at 11pm, but we know this isn't our forever. For these men and women, it's been a lifetime of this type of weather and will be a future challenge as winter brings on frozen pipes and frozen water again. I do wonder about the infrastructure, especially out in the regions and wonder how long it will take for these systems to shift? The answers will come.

The Curiosity of Water

Since living in our own home for nearly an entire year now, I've learned a lot about water and water management.  It seems odd to be in my 30s and feel like I'm just beginning to grasp how important water is to daily life.  It's certainly something I took for granted in my pre-Peace Corps life!  So here's a little glimpse into how water impacts our life, and the ways we manage.

Pumping Water

In order for Joey and I to have water in our home, we must connect an electric water pump every few days.  Directly above our front gate, we have a giant metal box that holds all our water.  For our end of the street, water is available to pump around 10:30am and again around 9pm, give or take a couple of hours.  Lessons learned:

• You must have electricity to pump water.  This past autumn and into winter we had a lot of power outages, which made collecting water a bit of an issue.  Crisis management: walk a few blocks to the local market and buy a giant 5-liter bottle of water when needed.

• You can "hear" when the water is available to pump.  This has been an area of great "ear training" for me.  Our next door neighbors don't have a water tank, and they can only collect water during the two times of day.  I'm now able to hear the sounds of water coming to their home, signaling to me that it's time to pump for our own use.  I hadn't previously paid much attention to these random noises, but now my ears perk up even with the smallest drip!

• Before I was so attuned to the neighborhood noises, we could simply turn on our landlords' yard spigot, which is connected to the water supply.  Once it starts gurgling, it's time to pump.

• With the morning water, I pass by a big, broken water pipe on my way to work.  When the water is bubbling loudly, flowing out into the canal and onto the street, I can tell this is also a time to pump.

• We cannot pump water when the giant metal container above our gate is frozen solid.  Sadly, this is our current situation.  BUT, we can get the ice to slowly melt by turning on our water heater, and then filling up old Coke bottles for cooking, washing dishes, and drinking water (to be boiled and filtered, of course).  It might also result in bucket baths if the weather doesn't heat up a little, or if the sun continues to be hidden behind the clouds!

Our front gate and water tank

Laundry
Many people in Azerbaijan have a laundry agitator (some might actually have a washing machine), but for a lot of folks, laundry must be done by hand.  We are in the "by hand" category.  Summer is pretty easy when it comes to anything related to water.  The pipes warm up with the sun, and there is very little to do in order to prepare for a shower or to do laundry.  Winter, however, is a much bigger challenge.  Our bathroom (toilet, water heater, and shower in one big room) is about 5 feet away from our front door, and isn't technically a heated space.  Taking this all into account, we've come up with a pretty solid routine:

• First, you must turn on the gas for the heater at least 3 hours before you're ready to wash.  (Even longer on colder days.)

• Because it's outside, you wear lots of layers - but be prepared to get wet, especially your socks.

• Three rounds to laundry:  Round 1).  Fill first bucket with soap, water, and laundry, agitate, ring out, throw laundry into second bucket, and pour dirty soapy water down the toilet (which is just a couple inches away from your face).  Round 2). Fill up second bucket with water and laundry, agitate, ring out, then throw laundry back into clean first bucket, and pour less soapy dirty water down the toilet.  Round 3).  Fill first bucket back up with water, follow all steps again, and then place the laundry on the clothesline outside.  WHEW!

Clothesline: In the summer the laundry dried really quickly on the line, but in the winter they have a tendency to freeze or even accumulate snow (it's a covered space, but snow tends to wander).  We try bring everything inside before it's frozen solid - we've even placed an old wooden chair next to the gas heater inside our house, which acts as a makeshift clothes dryer.  It's proven quite effective, and even adds a little moisture to the dry heat!

Since it's not easy (or enjoyable in the least) to wash clothes by hand, we've found a few ways to manage.  Luckily, it seems this might be the same way that native Azeris cope too.

• You wear the same outfit all week long.  If you only have one set of clothes, you have less to wash.  (We've adopted this strategy through keen observation.)

• You only wash the clothes that you really need.  For example, only the smelliest, dirtiest clothes get a rinse.  Otherwise, you can probably get another week or two out of 'em!

• Since doing laundry uses 3 buckets of water, especially in the winter, we want to conserve as much as possible, since we're never really sure when our tank might thaw out and be ready to pump again.

• Finally, hand washing is a back-breaking endeavor that makes your hands sore and raw.  Fee free to try it out and let me know what you think!

Blue buckets for laundry/dishes and potential bucket baths.  
Gas water heater in the right corner.

Washing Dishes

Up until this last really cold spell, we've had plenty of water in our house to wash dishes.  But, there's no hot water unless you've had the outside bathroom water heater on for several hours.  Currently, our strategy is to take our dishes out to the bathroom and wash 'em out there.  Last week, it took nearly 3 hours total to wash all the dirty dishes because we could only rinse so much before the "thawed out" water ran out.  Luckily, we have all those Coke bottles filled with back-up water.

Our kitchen sink

Showering

In the summer, we could shower or rinse nearly every day if we chose, and there really wasn't even the need to turn on the water heater.  Now, we shower about every 3-4 days (which is a huge improvement from a year ago, when it was every 7-9 days).  With the cold and the winter/frozen water situation, I have a much greater appreciation for water in general.  I've realized how convenient it is when everything works properly and barely have to think about a thing at all.  Now, everything associated with water involves multiple steps, which can make life really tough.  I've also come to understand some of the large discrepancies between homes, even on our own street.  Our former host family (on the same street as us, just a block down) had running water all the time, and could keep the faucet on full blast so nothing would freeze; we have a tank but can only fill it twice a day; and others have yard spigots to fill up water containers; and some families must wait for a water truck to come fill up the tanks in their homes.  (I'm sure I'm missing a few, but you get the point.)  There aren't always consistent ways to receive this life-sustaining source of water, so you're forced to always have a back-up plan (and a back-up to your back-up plan).  Now we just need to get through February (which is the coldest month of the year here in Quba), and then I can start to consider what water/conservation differences Joey and I might be able to make once we finish our service and return to America at the end of the year.  My challenge to you all is this: appreciate your water!  Are there any changes you'd like to make in your own water usage?

Back in 2011

In efforts to jump full swing into 2012, I thought I might need to back track a little bit and tell you how we wrapped up 2011. I'd even say we ended with a bang... or at least sparklers!

As many of you know, Azerbaijan is a Muslim country and does not celebrate Christmas. As I have learned from the people who surround me, during the Soviet era religion was altogether banned, however more secular holidays were allowed. With that, there are many similarities to a traditional American Christmas and how Azeris ring in the New Year. The last week of the year there are decorated trees, little lights, and a joyous energy of the anticipation of Santa Claus (or as he's known here, Shaxta Baba) bringing the children a gift or two. One of the more surprising areas of Azeri celebration is that young boys typically throw firecrackers, either into a large crowd or just in the general direction of anybody walking by. (This is NOT a tradition I plan on adding upon our return home.) BUT, there a handful of very popular Christmas songs here that are inexplicably sung in English. All in all, the secular American Christmas feels a lot like how the locals celebrate New Year's Eve here in Azerbaijan!

Since Christmas and New Year's was fast approaching, I decided to share a little bit about our American culture and create a party for all of my students. In preparation, we made decorations such as a paper chain, paper snowflakes, ornaments for our silver tree, and reindeer out of feet and hand cut-outs (in addition to our holiday tree stained-glass project from last month). I use the term "holiday tree" because it was not only a Christmas tree, but also a New Year tree... a little bit of cultural acceptance and integration!

For the party, my adult counterparts got really excited about this event too. They strung up lights from their own homes, helped prepare a balloon pilar, set up music and speakers, and helped prepare tea. It was quite nice to see how all generations got so excited for this party. I even had one student bring a full size cake, extra decorations and masks.

The event itself was pretty amazing, since over 45 students arrived right on time, got dressed up, brought treats to share with our tea, socialized and had FUN! It was quite an amazing feeling to be the only one in that room who knew every person there, and then encouraged this community to get to know each other more! (Of course, the groups stuck together. Yes, they are still teenagers.)

What I learned: If I let go of how I want things to go, everything works so much better! Because I was able to relinquish a lot of control of the outcome, this event became something so special to everyone involved. In general, there are a lot "parties" that are intended to be for adults or televised (which in turn can get a little stiff), but since this was only for them, these kids could be kids!

Highlights from Christmas:

• A student brought in his family's silver tree to help liven up our room
• "Hillary, can you please come to my home for O Holy Night?" An invitation from one of my students to join her family for Christmas dinner. And boy did we feast!
• "Happy x-mas to you and happy birthday to Jesus. Let the Jesus makes your life amazing, divine. Let him gives to you only good things." Another text from one of my students.
• "May the spirit of love gently fill ur heart and home in the loveliest of seasons may u find reasons 4 happiness. I wish u a Merry Christmas." A text from my Azeri teacher.
• A group of students saying this was the best party they had ever been to

Without all the hubub of Christmas advertising, I think that the Azeris in my life get it. They get the meaning of Christmas like the way I get the meaning of Ramadan. I don't know every religious component there is to know about that Muslim holiday, but I understand the intention, the openness and interest in helping a foreigner feel welcome. The Azeris in my life have made an effort to make me feel welcome in my community to celebrate my own holiday with them. My wish for the world is to have the inclusion, love and openness that my community has for me / Joey and I / foreigners / other religions / America / all the people in the world. We make a difference here. We make a difference in our own hearts and in the hearts of those we let in.

Belated Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Confused Roosters

Lately, I've noticed in the middle of the night how the roosters just start crowing. There are a few things that I'm considering for this rooster confusion.

1) It could be that our neighbors just got a rooster or he just grew up enough to get his really loud pipes.

2) We recently had a full moon

3) Everyone just goes a little crazy, including roosters, in the Winter

4) And of course, a combination of all 3 and even things I've not yet considered.

So the other night when the neighbor rooster started its crowing around 2am, and it was loud enough to wake me up, I began thinking about the above ideas and how I might just be a confused rooster too. I still feel new, and will likely continue to feel new until the moment I leave Azerbaijan. I'm not sure how moons effect me but it was a tough week to be me last week. There wasn't anything particularly bad going on but simply feeling like my attitude was going down the 'American style toilet', thanks to hours of working on reports and them disappearing, a mouse or mice in the house and a surprise unplanned travel day. Also, this rooster gave me the ability to realize how cold it gets in the middle of the night, yet knowing we get to deal with the cold until May.

So, as you can tell, this rooster call did not put me in the best frame of mind. And for those of you that have woken me up in the middle of the night, you know, I'm not the nicest version of myself. What's a girl to do?

YOGA!

On Sunday I was invited to another PCVs home for a yoga lesson since she has a strong passion and a great ability to teach. Even jumping into the 1/2 full minivan (marshrutka) to get to the bus to ride for 45 minutes and then walk for 15 minutes, I was still feeling a little off and I was really hoping yoga would re-something me. I noticed 2 women wave the driver down and practically run toward the van (women rarely run here, especially in their heals and long fur coats). I recognized one of the woman as she entered the van, said our hellos and sat quietly for the short trip. When she got off at the bazaar, she put her hand on my knee and sweetly said to me, "I paid for your ride, Hillary" and got off with her friend. I was nearly in tears as I sat by myself in the first row thinking that even though I had been having a few low days, I am still a part of this community, people know me and respect me and I want to be the best version of myself for this community.

So even as confused as the roosters are, and as confused as I will periodically get, I just need to remember that simple kindness in this world, this country, this town and in my classroom can support and love me through it all!

Also, I now know that yoga is awesome and it's a great physical feeling ESPECIALLY in these long winter months. If anything, my tremendous soreness will be a reminder to not fall back into grouchy mode for a while!