Things are beginning to be fun again in Azerbaijan. For me, nothing is fun in the winter because I don’t like cold weather. You can’t be inside and pretend it isn’t cold, like you can in America. There is one heater in most homes and when you are not near, it is cold. Stores are mostly unheated, although my workplace has central heating, which is rare.
For a week, my office is closed for Novruz. This is the spring holiday and it is great. Compared to this, the one-day holidays in America just don’t make it. For almost two weeks, families get together, massive amounts of tasty food and cooked and eaten, people dance, party, and build bonfires. It is all about spring coming, new beginnings, forgiving people who have wronged you, and welcoming everyone.
I have spent the first three days visiting my first family in my training village. Azerbaijani hospitality being what it is, I was welcome everywhere, ate a meal at every home, got caught up on everyone’s lives, and enjoyed being with everyone. I didn’t speak English for all three days. My family accepts my broken Azerbaijani for what it is, just grateful that I can speak at all. When I arrived to their home in September 2008, I could say hello, goodbye and thank you.
Now I am at the Peace Corps office in the capital city of Baku waiting for my night train, which leaves at 11:05 p.m. It will get me home by 7:30 a.m. tomorrow. The compartment sleeps four and the other three will be strangers, as they were when I boarded the train to come here.
The trip usually goes like this: I get on and find three people, usually a family group, putting away their bags. They realize I am not Azerbaijani, look very surprised, say hello in Russian. I tell them in Azerbaijani that I don’t speak Russian and we have a conversation. It is usually about me first—they want to know what I am doing here, how old I am, why I came, how much money I have, why I abandoned my children before I married them off, how much my pension will be. Once I answer enough questions and parry off some others, I find out about them—they are usually traveling together to a family event and want to talk about that. Then the porter brings our fresh bedding in bags and we make our beds. Some of us change into jammies (not me) and everyone goes to sleep.
In the morning, we are awakened by a porter banging on the door for us to get up and in the next half hour we get our things together and talk again. They invariably invite me to their homes for tea, a meal or to stay as long as I want at any future date. They give me their phone number and we hug and say goodbye.
This week, without a job or regular activities to go to, I will visit people I already know in my town to celebrate the holiday, visit other volunteers, catch up on some work for when I get back, wash clothes and clean. And I will think about next month, when I can wash clothes without ending up with frozen fingers, be inside without a heavy sweater and not hunker down next to the furnace all the time.
Sunday, March 21, 2010
Thursday, March 11, 2010
Mud on my Coat
One of the strange feelings about living in another culture is that I get to experience American news and culture from afar just like everyone else in the world. And now I understand how strange ideas and negative feelings about Americans can develop.
A couple of weeks ago when I went into my regular fruit store, the owner began yelling about airplanes and America and pointing at the TV. He was trying to find out if I knew about the guy who flew the plane into the IRS office. The store was full of people. I said I had heard (everyone at work told me) and he wanted to know why an American would do something like this. I said that I didn’t know and that there are many crazy people in the world. The customers’ opinions were that no one in their country would ever do something like this.
They may have a point. There is very little crime or violence here. I am sure crime happens in my town of about 350,000—I just don’t know anyone who has been a victim. (Someone at work asked me, if this man had lived, would he have been sent to Guantanamo to be with the other people who wanted to destroy the American government!)
When I read about the financial crisis that happened shortly after I left for Azerbaijan and then read a month later people were stampeding each other to death at Wal-mart on Black Friday, I first wondered what is wrong with people. Then I realized that in America, there are crazy people, but my friends and family are mostly normal and so is most of America. Naturally, though, people who don’t know Americans can think this behavior is normal in America. For those who remember the Bobbitt story, just image what foreigners thought of American women when they heard about Lorena Bobbitt!
Of course, it’s not just Americans who can be thought of poorly. The same week, I was walking home down a muddy, potholed street and it was getting dark. I slipped and fell. Two women behind me saw me fall and one woman remarked in Azerbaijani that the “Russian woman” must be drunk.
I popped up, irate, mud all over my coat, and told her that I am not Russian, I was not drunk, that I don’t drink and that I am American and clumsy. She apologized, but said that Russian woman are bad women and drink too much.
Among the American things that Azerbaijanis frown on are the ease of obtaining guns, the perceived sexual permissiveness, the fact that parents stop living with their children and supporting them in early adulthood, high divorce rates, the death penalty and the wars we start in other countries. But you have to know an Azerbaijani really well to find out any of their opinions on world events and issues.
One of my Peace Corps friends is staying an extra year, so she got to go home for a month. One of the “reverse culture shock” things she noticed while she was home is that Americans like people to know what they think about different issues and want to press their views on others in loud voices. She said she didn’t like this anymore and preferred to have people keep their opinions to themselves.
On the other hand, there is no word for “nosy” in Azerbaijani because nosiness is not considered a bad thing. So while Azerbaijanis don’t care to say what they think about issues, strangers still want to know how old you are, how much your house cost, do you think your ex-wife was fooling around on you while you were married, why you have no children, or if you do, could there be a chance your son will marry their daughter, how it feels to be fat or 25 and unmarried, how many of your teeth are real and why you have mud on your coat.
A couple of weeks ago when I went into my regular fruit store, the owner began yelling about airplanes and America and pointing at the TV. He was trying to find out if I knew about the guy who flew the plane into the IRS office. The store was full of people. I said I had heard (everyone at work told me) and he wanted to know why an American would do something like this. I said that I didn’t know and that there are many crazy people in the world. The customers’ opinions were that no one in their country would ever do something like this.
They may have a point. There is very little crime or violence here. I am sure crime happens in my town of about 350,000—I just don’t know anyone who has been a victim. (Someone at work asked me, if this man had lived, would he have been sent to Guantanamo to be with the other people who wanted to destroy the American government!)
When I read about the financial crisis that happened shortly after I left for Azerbaijan and then read a month later people were stampeding each other to death at Wal-mart on Black Friday, I first wondered what is wrong with people. Then I realized that in America, there are crazy people, but my friends and family are mostly normal and so is most of America. Naturally, though, people who don’t know Americans can think this behavior is normal in America. For those who remember the Bobbitt story, just image what foreigners thought of American women when they heard about Lorena Bobbitt!
Of course, it’s not just Americans who can be thought of poorly. The same week, I was walking home down a muddy, potholed street and it was getting dark. I slipped and fell. Two women behind me saw me fall and one woman remarked in Azerbaijani that the “Russian woman” must be drunk.
I popped up, irate, mud all over my coat, and told her that I am not Russian, I was not drunk, that I don’t drink and that I am American and clumsy. She apologized, but said that Russian woman are bad women and drink too much.
Among the American things that Azerbaijanis frown on are the ease of obtaining guns, the perceived sexual permissiveness, the fact that parents stop living with their children and supporting them in early adulthood, high divorce rates, the death penalty and the wars we start in other countries. But you have to know an Azerbaijani really well to find out any of their opinions on world events and issues.
One of my Peace Corps friends is staying an extra year, so she got to go home for a month. One of the “reverse culture shock” things she noticed while she was home is that Americans like people to know what they think about different issues and want to press their views on others in loud voices. She said she didn’t like this anymore and preferred to have people keep their opinions to themselves.
On the other hand, there is no word for “nosy” in Azerbaijani because nosiness is not considered a bad thing. So while Azerbaijanis don’t care to say what they think about issues, strangers still want to know how old you are, how much your house cost, do you think your ex-wife was fooling around on you while you were married, why you have no children, or if you do, could there be a chance your son will marry their daughter, how it feels to be fat or 25 and unmarried, how many of your teeth are real and why you have mud on your coat.
Friday, February 26, 2010
Wind Whistling Through the Kitchen
I won’t have to file taxes this year as taxable income will be under $300. My living allowance, which I pay to my host family isn’t taxable.
Sales taxes in Azerbaijan aren’t added on to the price of an item, they are included. Whatever an item is priced, that is what you pay and the storekeeper pays sales taxes out of the price of the item.
I live on what the Peace Corps gives me except for (of course) exceptions. They are the occasional vacation trip, US expenses, such as gifts, and unavoidables such as dog food. The dog food I have bought lately is for the dog I wrote about in my Starfish post a month or so ago. This little dog that lives outside my door had five puppies. My family and a couple of neighbors feed her scraps, like old bread, but I figure she needs the nutrition to feed the pups. I still hope to find a good home for the mom and now with the pups . . . . . ? My sister is coming in April. I really hope she will return to America with a dog.
Tangerine season is coming to an end. A kilo--2.3 pounds is 1 manat—about $1.20. Sort of sheepish to admit, there are days I have eaten a whole kilo.
The winter weather has not been cold for very long—usually milder than St. Louis and no snow once. But inside, you know it is winter. The gas heater that the family has does not keep the house anywhere near comfortable everywhere. It is okay within 15 feet if you are dressed warmly. Until the first part of December, there was no heater, so I am grateful for what I have.
Sad to say this winter I have watched more DVD’s than I watched in the US. I can recommend the first three seasons of Mad Men, the 1960’s era show. It is as absorbing as The Sopranos. I also liked Julie/Julia with Meryl Streep. Not sure if this and Season 3 of Mad Men is available in the US. All of the DVD’s sold here are pirated, so they come out quickly, but without bonus material. Earlier I said that I use my own money for exceptions. Each DVD is about $3, so a season of Mad Men is about $15. I can’t afford that on my living allowance, so I buy them with my own money.
Kids rarely drink milk and many families have very little yogurt and cheese. No one seems worried about kids’ bones. Anecdotal evidence tells me that this may be okay because I don’t see any more bent-over old women here than in the US.
It is surprising how many times clothing can be worn in the winter without washing it. I wear jeans 10 or 15 times. Wool cardigans can be worn on and off for two months. I have a wool coat and no dry cleaner. So I use a stiff brush on it and the coat is actually quite clean. I’ve started thinking how much water is wasted and chemicals are used to clean things that aren’t really dirty. And if you avoid white clothes in the fall and winter, the number of outer clothes you wash after each wearing or two is minimal.
Tte other night when I was in the kitchen cooking potatoes, I could see my breath. One burner was on, so the kitchen was getting some warmth. I am not sure why our water pipes haven’t frozen this winter. I started to feel sorry for myself until I thought of a fellow volunteer who is older than me. Her family’s kitchen is outside. Yes, in the yard is the gas stove,counter and sink. Inside is the refrigerator.
Her family washes dishes, cooks and prepares food while the wind is whistling through the yard and she does too when she wants to cook for herself. But this setup is pretty appealing in the summer.
The laundry is another matter. I have found that even when the clothes are frozen stiff on the outside clothesline, they still lose some water somehow. But on non-sunny above-freezing days in the winter, the clothes get to a clammy level and stay there. So then they must be brought inside and draped on furniture to complete the drying process.
While I was in the kitchen seeing my breath and cooking potatoes in the near-dark, my family—grandma, mom and two girls—were gathered around the gas heater looking at the People Magazine my sister sent. It was the annual Sexiest Man Alive issue. FYI the SMA for 2009 was Johnny Depp. They can’t read English but of course, it is totally not necessary for this issue.
There are over 100 fabulous-looking men in this magazine. When I returned shivering with my cooked potatoes, they were arguing over who is better-looking, but complained that there were no Azerbaijani men in the issue.
After hearing some of their arguments and giving my own opinion, I went upstairs and brought some of my clothes down from the line. They were frozen into strange shapes. I hung them on different pieces of furniture in my room, ate my potatoes and read a book.
Sales taxes in Azerbaijan aren’t added on to the price of an item, they are included. Whatever an item is priced, that is what you pay and the storekeeper pays sales taxes out of the price of the item.
I live on what the Peace Corps gives me except for (of course) exceptions. They are the occasional vacation trip, US expenses, such as gifts, and unavoidables such as dog food. The dog food I have bought lately is for the dog I wrote about in my Starfish post a month or so ago. This little dog that lives outside my door had five puppies. My family and a couple of neighbors feed her scraps, like old bread, but I figure she needs the nutrition to feed the pups. I still hope to find a good home for the mom and now with the pups . . . . . ? My sister is coming in April. I really hope she will return to America with a dog.
Tangerine season is coming to an end. A kilo--2.3 pounds is 1 manat—about $1.20. Sort of sheepish to admit, there are days I have eaten a whole kilo.
The winter weather has not been cold for very long—usually milder than St. Louis and no snow once. But inside, you know it is winter. The gas heater that the family has does not keep the house anywhere near comfortable everywhere. It is okay within 15 feet if you are dressed warmly. Until the first part of December, there was no heater, so I am grateful for what I have.
Sad to say this winter I have watched more DVD’s than I watched in the US. I can recommend the first three seasons of Mad Men, the 1960’s era show. It is as absorbing as The Sopranos. I also liked Julie/Julia with Meryl Streep. Not sure if this and Season 3 of Mad Men is available in the US. All of the DVD’s sold here are pirated, so they come out quickly, but without bonus material. Earlier I said that I use my own money for exceptions. Each DVD is about $3, so a season of Mad Men is about $15. I can’t afford that on my living allowance, so I buy them with my own money.
Kids rarely drink milk and many families have very little yogurt and cheese. No one seems worried about kids’ bones. Anecdotal evidence tells me that this may be okay because I don’t see any more bent-over old women here than in the US.
It is surprising how many times clothing can be worn in the winter without washing it. I wear jeans 10 or 15 times. Wool cardigans can be worn on and off for two months. I have a wool coat and no dry cleaner. So I use a stiff brush on it and the coat is actually quite clean. I’ve started thinking how much water is wasted and chemicals are used to clean things that aren’t really dirty. And if you avoid white clothes in the fall and winter, the number of outer clothes you wash after each wearing or two is minimal.
Tte other night when I was in the kitchen cooking potatoes, I could see my breath. One burner was on, so the kitchen was getting some warmth. I am not sure why our water pipes haven’t frozen this winter. I started to feel sorry for myself until I thought of a fellow volunteer who is older than me. Her family’s kitchen is outside. Yes, in the yard is the gas stove,counter and sink. Inside is the refrigerator.
Her family washes dishes, cooks and prepares food while the wind is whistling through the yard and she does too when she wants to cook for herself. But this setup is pretty appealing in the summer.
The laundry is another matter. I have found that even when the clothes are frozen stiff on the outside clothesline, they still lose some water somehow. But on non-sunny above-freezing days in the winter, the clothes get to a clammy level and stay there. So then they must be brought inside and draped on furniture to complete the drying process.
While I was in the kitchen seeing my breath and cooking potatoes in the near-dark, my family—grandma, mom and two girls—were gathered around the gas heater looking at the People Magazine my sister sent. It was the annual Sexiest Man Alive issue. FYI the SMA for 2009 was Johnny Depp. They can’t read English but of course, it is totally not necessary for this issue.
There are over 100 fabulous-looking men in this magazine. When I returned shivering with my cooked potatoes, they were arguing over who is better-looking, but complained that there were no Azerbaijani men in the issue.
After hearing some of their arguments and giving my own opinion, I went upstairs and brought some of my clothes down from the line. They were frozen into strange shapes. I hung them on different pieces of furniture in my room, ate my potatoes and read a book.
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
New Country--Wisconsin
Before I came here, I didn’t think much about the prestige of living in a country everyone has heard of and actually knows something about. Many Azerbaijanis know that people around the world may not know exactly where the country is, but are usually surprised to find out that many people have never heard of it.
One of the advantages of living in the Soviet Union to the Azerbaijanis is that they were part of a 15-country world power. Azerbaijan was proud to can fruit, grow vegetables and tea and produce china, silk, flowers and rugs for themselves and the other 14 countries. They in turn, got the benefit of receiving goods produced in other parts of the Soviet Union.
One way I can describe what has happened since the fall of the Soviet Union is to compare Wisconsin (which is a little bigger than Azerbaijan) in America to Azerbaijan in the Soviet Union:
As the Federal government collapsed, the states of the United States had become separate countries overnight. Wisconsin’s dairy exports stopped because no country has money to buy dairy products, borders are now closed and different governments are springing up, some of which may last and some of which won’t. The railroad and truck traffic that was so easy before is a major problem now, with different rules and laws. There is no payment system or even financial system in place. No one really trusts the other countries to pay their bills, plus it is more patriotic and cheaper to stick to your own country’s products.
Wisconsin’s tourist business collapsed immediately because most people could not travel outside of their own countries anymore due to lack of money and the difficulties of getting passports. National chains also collapsed because they would not be able to figure out how to operate in 50 countries with different currencies, laws and shipping difficulties.
Harley-Davidson, Kohler plumbing fixtures and the sausage factories stopped production because people in Wisconsin don’t buy that many motorcycles, bathroom fixtures and sausage. All of these business problems put most of the country of Wisconsin’s citizens out of work.
Medical supplies and drugs from outside Wisconsin and wheat from Illinois became unavailable. Some of the dairy farms were converted to wheat to make up the difference. But the dairy farmers are not knowledgeable about wheat and the rocky soil is not good for growing it.
Fresh fruits and vegetables in the winter are non-existent because of the cold climate and importing is impossible due to the balance of trade issues and the difficulty of transporting perishable products on deteriorating roads and railroad tracks, so much agricultural production in each country rots in the fields because the interstate highway system deteriorated and collapsed since there was no Federal government to maintain it.
There is no dental school in the country, so dentists are becoming scarce. Maybe someone started a dental school, but there is no accreditation process or competition; a small country like Wisconsin doesn’t need two dental schools, especially if no one can afford to go to the dentist anymore.
No one was in charge for awhile, so capable, talented people sneaked out of the country and went to places where they could find work. The less-educated people who have fewer options stayed behind.
Wisconsin’s Indians are trying to secede and start their own country, while the country of Wisconsin fights it and a civil or terrorist war is brewing. Folks in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan are trying to figure out if they want to merge with Wisconsin, since they are closer anyway, and this is starting tensions with Michigan.
And people in countries all over the world are saying they have never heard of the country of Wisconsin.
One of the advantages of living in the Soviet Union to the Azerbaijanis is that they were part of a 15-country world power. Azerbaijan was proud to can fruit, grow vegetables and tea and produce china, silk, flowers and rugs for themselves and the other 14 countries. They in turn, got the benefit of receiving goods produced in other parts of the Soviet Union.
One way I can describe what has happened since the fall of the Soviet Union is to compare Wisconsin (which is a little bigger than Azerbaijan) in America to Azerbaijan in the Soviet Union:
As the Federal government collapsed, the states of the United States had become separate countries overnight. Wisconsin’s dairy exports stopped because no country has money to buy dairy products, borders are now closed and different governments are springing up, some of which may last and some of which won’t. The railroad and truck traffic that was so easy before is a major problem now, with different rules and laws. There is no payment system or even financial system in place. No one really trusts the other countries to pay their bills, plus it is more patriotic and cheaper to stick to your own country’s products.
Wisconsin’s tourist business collapsed immediately because most people could not travel outside of their own countries anymore due to lack of money and the difficulties of getting passports. National chains also collapsed because they would not be able to figure out how to operate in 50 countries with different currencies, laws and shipping difficulties.
Harley-Davidson, Kohler plumbing fixtures and the sausage factories stopped production because people in Wisconsin don’t buy that many motorcycles, bathroom fixtures and sausage. All of these business problems put most of the country of Wisconsin’s citizens out of work.
Medical supplies and drugs from outside Wisconsin and wheat from Illinois became unavailable. Some of the dairy farms were converted to wheat to make up the difference. But the dairy farmers are not knowledgeable about wheat and the rocky soil is not good for growing it.
Fresh fruits and vegetables in the winter are non-existent because of the cold climate and importing is impossible due to the balance of trade issues and the difficulty of transporting perishable products on deteriorating roads and railroad tracks, so much agricultural production in each country rots in the fields because the interstate highway system deteriorated and collapsed since there was no Federal government to maintain it.
There is no dental school in the country, so dentists are becoming scarce. Maybe someone started a dental school, but there is no accreditation process or competition; a small country like Wisconsin doesn’t need two dental schools, especially if no one can afford to go to the dentist anymore.
No one was in charge for awhile, so capable, talented people sneaked out of the country and went to places where they could find work. The less-educated people who have fewer options stayed behind.
Wisconsin’s Indians are trying to secede and start their own country, while the country of Wisconsin fights it and a civil or terrorist war is brewing. Folks in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan are trying to figure out if they want to merge with Wisconsin, since they are closer anyway, and this is starting tensions with Michigan.
And people in countries all over the world are saying they have never heard of the country of Wisconsin.
Monday, February 1, 2010
Turn Off Your Fridge
I write a lot about what I am doing and what has happened to me. This time I will write will more about what other volunteers are doing.
Some volunteers in different cities are running a baseball league. No one plays baseball in Azerbaijan except kids who have been taught by Peace Corps Volunteers since they started coming to Azerbaijan in 2003. Everyone is welcome and some of the kids who have been coming for a few years are becoming skilled. Girls come in some cities. Besides practicing in their own town, the kids travel to different towns to play two or three times a year. This is great because most kids haven’t traveled outside of their town.
Some English teacher volunteers are planning summer camps in their villages, towns and cities for their students, most of whom have nothing to do when school is out.
There are also two leadership camps, one for 13-15 year old girls and one for boys the same age. Volunteers attending the camp can choose 3 kids to attend with them. This is very exciting for the kids, because this is often the first time they have been away from home. They work on planning, teamwork and goal setting, play a lot of games and do a community service project when they get back.
We have a quarterly newspaper that the volunteers write and use to share tips and entertain each other. This quarter, Bill wrote about how to make a construct a holder for compost out of little more than chicken wire and also how to make pickles. My family doesn’t compost, so I wrote about what my host mother does with leftover food:
“For those who don't compost--my host mom helps homeless dogs all year. She has a small bucket in the fridge and puts food waste in it, such as pieces of old bread, old soup, vegetable pieces, stale baked goods and milk. She mixes in a little fat or oil. When she sees a stray dog outside that she knows, she puts a something from the bucket outside the house and they always eat it.”
In the winter, many people turn their fridges off. The temperature in the refrigerator is often the same in the winter whether the fridge is plugged in or not. So people save money by unplugging it.
My volunteer friends Denney and Linda are married and retired. Denney is 60 and jogs around his town. Azerbaijanis don’t jog; most people are unaware of the practice. Also, it can be difficult because the pavement is rarely level. Denney says “I am lucky to have lots of pavement and parks, one of which is about 3km long. I always wear long, athletic pants, never shorts. When I first arrived and talked about running, my co-worker was very encouraging, but said shorts were forbidden!
“The dogs are not a huge problem, they only strongly confronted me once. Before we came, there was a wild dog elimination program, (comment from me: they are shot) so there were few on the streets. I see a couple of dozen every outing. In one area, I always carry a good-sized rock for my protection, but have never had to throw it. Once, a pedestrian helped me with an excellent throw that scared away a pack of three.
I have the usual physical and emotional health benefits of exercise, but the social benefits surprised me a bit. Almost everywhere I go in my town, someone smiles, makes jogging motions with their arms, and says “Salam! (Hello!) One day, a rather large man followed me into a store and asked how old I was. I replied 60, he hugged me, and he is now our butcher.”
Azerbaijanis love Lady GaGa. The volunteers who came when I did don’t know much about her because she wasn’t famous when we left. But people ask me about her all the time. She is on TV and magazine covers. The other thing we didn’t have when my group arrived here was Twitter. From the sound of it, I won’t like it.
My group—50 percent of the volunteers in the country-- has our annual meeting next week. The exciting part is three nights in a hotel with hot showers and better heat. I will take daily showers, which seem excessive to me now in the winter.
I wash my hair every 3-4 days and it looks okay. Actually, I got a haircut today—just about an inch cut off. It looks different now, a bob, about an inch above my shoulders. This is considered short hair. Most Azerbaijanis think short hair on women isn’t appropriate. I got some strange looks from people I know when I returned from the haircut. They just don’t understand why I don’t want long hair.
I think many Azerbaijanis feel that American women are not attractive because they are too masculine. We tend to like short or medium length hair, tailored clothes, comfortable shoes, and have an aversion to lots of make-up. Sometimes we even dress for sports. Most women here over 21 are married or looking to be. Some see the mostly single PC women and think we decided to come here (or were “sent” here by our families) because we can’t find a man.
The Peace Corps gives us all kinds of tests when we are here a year—mostly medical but also a language proficiency test. So I have good news and bad news. The good news is I improved to an “advanced low” ranking on the language test.
The bad news is that I have intestinal worms. Actually, I HAD them because I have already taken anti-worm medicine. They are the kind that are the size of earthworms. They are very common in Azerbaijan and most people don’t know they have them. Like most people, I had no symptoms. I think I have changed a lot since I got here, because the news didn’t really bother me. According to volunteer gossip, over 50 percent of the group that left in September had worms.
More gross stuff—one of my fellow volunteers in this town peed on a rat last weekend. He was using his squat toilet, which is basically a hole in the group surrounded by a porcelain frame. A rat came out of the hole, was hit by the pee and ran back in. I can tolerate intestinal worms, but a rat coming out of the toilet is where I draw the line. I am not using his toilet.
Some volunteers in different cities are running a baseball league. No one plays baseball in Azerbaijan except kids who have been taught by Peace Corps Volunteers since they started coming to Azerbaijan in 2003. Everyone is welcome and some of the kids who have been coming for a few years are becoming skilled. Girls come in some cities. Besides practicing in their own town, the kids travel to different towns to play two or three times a year. This is great because most kids haven’t traveled outside of their town.
Some English teacher volunteers are planning summer camps in their villages, towns and cities for their students, most of whom have nothing to do when school is out.
There are also two leadership camps, one for 13-15 year old girls and one for boys the same age. Volunteers attending the camp can choose 3 kids to attend with them. This is very exciting for the kids, because this is often the first time they have been away from home. They work on planning, teamwork and goal setting, play a lot of games and do a community service project when they get back.
We have a quarterly newspaper that the volunteers write and use to share tips and entertain each other. This quarter, Bill wrote about how to make a construct a holder for compost out of little more than chicken wire and also how to make pickles. My family doesn’t compost, so I wrote about what my host mother does with leftover food:
“For those who don't compost--my host mom helps homeless dogs all year. She has a small bucket in the fridge and puts food waste in it, such as pieces of old bread, old soup, vegetable pieces, stale baked goods and milk. She mixes in a little fat or oil. When she sees a stray dog outside that she knows, she puts a something from the bucket outside the house and they always eat it.”
In the winter, many people turn their fridges off. The temperature in the refrigerator is often the same in the winter whether the fridge is plugged in or not. So people save money by unplugging it.
My volunteer friends Denney and Linda are married and retired. Denney is 60 and jogs around his town. Azerbaijanis don’t jog; most people are unaware of the practice. Also, it can be difficult because the pavement is rarely level. Denney says “I am lucky to have lots of pavement and parks, one of which is about 3km long. I always wear long, athletic pants, never shorts. When I first arrived and talked about running, my co-worker was very encouraging, but said shorts were forbidden!
“The dogs are not a huge problem, they only strongly confronted me once. Before we came, there was a wild dog elimination program, (comment from me: they are shot) so there were few on the streets. I see a couple of dozen every outing. In one area, I always carry a good-sized rock for my protection, but have never had to throw it. Once, a pedestrian helped me with an excellent throw that scared away a pack of three.
I have the usual physical and emotional health benefits of exercise, but the social benefits surprised me a bit. Almost everywhere I go in my town, someone smiles, makes jogging motions with their arms, and says “Salam! (Hello!) One day, a rather large man followed me into a store and asked how old I was. I replied 60, he hugged me, and he is now our butcher.”
Azerbaijanis love Lady GaGa. The volunteers who came when I did don’t know much about her because she wasn’t famous when we left. But people ask me about her all the time. She is on TV and magazine covers. The other thing we didn’t have when my group arrived here was Twitter. From the sound of it, I won’t like it.
My group—50 percent of the volunteers in the country-- has our annual meeting next week. The exciting part is three nights in a hotel with hot showers and better heat. I will take daily showers, which seem excessive to me now in the winter.
I wash my hair every 3-4 days and it looks okay. Actually, I got a haircut today—just about an inch cut off. It looks different now, a bob, about an inch above my shoulders. This is considered short hair. Most Azerbaijanis think short hair on women isn’t appropriate. I got some strange looks from people I know when I returned from the haircut. They just don’t understand why I don’t want long hair.
I think many Azerbaijanis feel that American women are not attractive because they are too masculine. We tend to like short or medium length hair, tailored clothes, comfortable shoes, and have an aversion to lots of make-up. Sometimes we even dress for sports. Most women here over 21 are married or looking to be. Some see the mostly single PC women and think we decided to come here (or were “sent” here by our families) because we can’t find a man.
The Peace Corps gives us all kinds of tests when we are here a year—mostly medical but also a language proficiency test. So I have good news and bad news. The good news is I improved to an “advanced low” ranking on the language test.
The bad news is that I have intestinal worms. Actually, I HAD them because I have already taken anti-worm medicine. They are the kind that are the size of earthworms. They are very common in Azerbaijan and most people don’t know they have them. Like most people, I had no symptoms. I think I have changed a lot since I got here, because the news didn’t really bother me. According to volunteer gossip, over 50 percent of the group that left in September had worms.
More gross stuff—one of my fellow volunteers in this town peed on a rat last weekend. He was using his squat toilet, which is basically a hole in the group surrounded by a porcelain frame. A rat came out of the hole, was hit by the pee and ran back in. I can tolerate intestinal worms, but a rat coming out of the toilet is where I draw the line. I am not using his toilet.
Sunday, January 17, 2010
It Doesn't Work
One of the first things a visitor would notice in Azerbaijan is that a lot of things don’t work. Toilets don’t flush, stove burners don’t light, light fixtures and electrical outlets don’t work, apartment stairwells are always dark, windows are broken. Some electrical outlets feature bare wires and you are supposed to wrap the bare wires from an appliance around to get it to work. Sorry, I don’t wrap.
In the center of town, patio blocks are laid for sidewalks and soon they start to pop out of place. There is a continual need to replace the blocks. Apparently pouring concrete sidewalks, as they did in Soviet days is not possibly anymore. Cars may have working headlights or not, kids may go all winter with no heat in their schools because the heaters or electrical outlets don’t work or don’t exist.
In my house, currently the hot water heater doesn’t work, the kitchen sink runs constantly and the kitchen has one tiny bulb for light with no ceiling fixture. We have a washing machine, but it isn’t hooked up and only two burners on the stove work. The bathroom is tiled, floor, walls and ceiling, but the wall tile is buckling and much of the floor tile has come up. The shower has a tiny trickle of water and the toilet doesn’t flush.
Everything is tolerable to my family except the hot water heater. My host mother has taken an 8-hour train ride to Baku to get money from her sister to fix the hot water heater. Until then I take bucket baths with water heated up on top of the stove.
Azerbaijanis tend to take a relaxed attitude toward things not working. My teacher tells me that there is a new apartment building in Baku in which there was supposed to be a boiler in the basement (central heating is rare here), but they forgot to put it in while it would still fit, so now the building will not have central heat.
This is not a fix-it culture. Most Azerbaijani men don’t seem to have toolboxes, know how to use tools or feel it is their responsibility to fix any of this stuff. There are people who can be hired to do it, but they aren’t plumbers, electricians, or painters, just guys who are supposedly handy. Of course, there are some tradesmen in the country, but ordinary people can’t afford to hire them.
But if there is a continuum in which one end is “everyone knows it doesn’t work” and at the other end is “it works”, Azerbaijanis and many other countries do a lot better than America at some things. One is integrating the poor into the mainstream.
I notice that Azerbaijanis don’t try to keep people poorer than they are from living near them. Neighborhoods are mixed up, with very poor people living next to middle-class people. This is a huge benefit to the poor because they have access to the benefits that everyone else has.
I was in Toronto a couple of times in the ‘90’s. The first time, on the way to my hotel, I asked the taxi driverwhere where the bad neighborhoods were. He said that I must be American because we usually don’t understand basic things that other countries do to save money and make things work.
He went on to explain that in Canadian cities, poor people aren’t allowed to live together and create a place where resources are scarce and the atmosphere is dangerous and unhealthy. He said that the poor are scattered thinly in successful areas when the poor children are small. They are surrounded by working people, good schools, low crime, libraries, and few opportunities for getting into trouble. This is a powerful way of helping poor children to succeed and does not breed institutional poverty. His opinion was that in the US we would prefer to punish the parents of these children by not helping them get the basic things they need to raise their children to be successful. He felt that by doing this, we punish ourselves in the long run, because we are the ones who pay the social costs generation after generation.
Of course, in America this doesn’t just happen with poor people. Those who have $5 million homes don’t want to live near people with $2.5 million homes and want gates to keep them out. This happens in Baku, our capital city, to a certain extent, mostly with people from other countries who work here and want to live with people like themselves. And in America, it is common for communities to want to zone affordable rental apartments out of their middle and upper class neighborhoods.
One of the criticisms of the countries of the former Soviet Union is that there is corruption, with people paying money to get an advantage--a good place in a university or a job. However, I don’t see the difference between this type of corruption and ours that forces poor children to live in places that have none of the resources that better-off people have, giving us a permanent advantage over them.
In the center of town, patio blocks are laid for sidewalks and soon they start to pop out of place. There is a continual need to replace the blocks. Apparently pouring concrete sidewalks, as they did in Soviet days is not possibly anymore. Cars may have working headlights or not, kids may go all winter with no heat in their schools because the heaters or electrical outlets don’t work or don’t exist.
In my house, currently the hot water heater doesn’t work, the kitchen sink runs constantly and the kitchen has one tiny bulb for light with no ceiling fixture. We have a washing machine, but it isn’t hooked up and only two burners on the stove work. The bathroom is tiled, floor, walls and ceiling, but the wall tile is buckling and much of the floor tile has come up. The shower has a tiny trickle of water and the toilet doesn’t flush.
Everything is tolerable to my family except the hot water heater. My host mother has taken an 8-hour train ride to Baku to get money from her sister to fix the hot water heater. Until then I take bucket baths with water heated up on top of the stove.
Azerbaijanis tend to take a relaxed attitude toward things not working. My teacher tells me that there is a new apartment building in Baku in which there was supposed to be a boiler in the basement (central heating is rare here), but they forgot to put it in while it would still fit, so now the building will not have central heat.
This is not a fix-it culture. Most Azerbaijani men don’t seem to have toolboxes, know how to use tools or feel it is their responsibility to fix any of this stuff. There are people who can be hired to do it, but they aren’t plumbers, electricians, or painters, just guys who are supposedly handy. Of course, there are some tradesmen in the country, but ordinary people can’t afford to hire them.
But if there is a continuum in which one end is “everyone knows it doesn’t work” and at the other end is “it works”, Azerbaijanis and many other countries do a lot better than America at some things. One is integrating the poor into the mainstream.
I notice that Azerbaijanis don’t try to keep people poorer than they are from living near them. Neighborhoods are mixed up, with very poor people living next to middle-class people. This is a huge benefit to the poor because they have access to the benefits that everyone else has.
I was in Toronto a couple of times in the ‘90’s. The first time, on the way to my hotel, I asked the taxi driverwhere where the bad neighborhoods were. He said that I must be American because we usually don’t understand basic things that other countries do to save money and make things work.
He went on to explain that in Canadian cities, poor people aren’t allowed to live together and create a place where resources are scarce and the atmosphere is dangerous and unhealthy. He said that the poor are scattered thinly in successful areas when the poor children are small. They are surrounded by working people, good schools, low crime, libraries, and few opportunities for getting into trouble. This is a powerful way of helping poor children to succeed and does not breed institutional poverty. His opinion was that in the US we would prefer to punish the parents of these children by not helping them get the basic things they need to raise their children to be successful. He felt that by doing this, we punish ourselves in the long run, because we are the ones who pay the social costs generation after generation.
Of course, in America this doesn’t just happen with poor people. Those who have $5 million homes don’t want to live near people with $2.5 million homes and want gates to keep them out. This happens in Baku, our capital city, to a certain extent, mostly with people from other countries who work here and want to live with people like themselves. And in America, it is common for communities to want to zone affordable rental apartments out of their middle and upper class neighborhoods.
One of the criticisms of the countries of the former Soviet Union is that there is corruption, with people paying money to get an advantage--a good place in a university or a job. However, I don’t see the difference between this type of corruption and ours that forces poor children to live in places that have none of the resources that better-off people have, giving us a permanent advantage over them.
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
The Downside
I have talked about some of the unpleasant things that most of us encounter in the Peace Corps—cold homes, the problems of living with poor families, difficulties with language, missing our families—but these are all things that we expected and accept as part of the experience. Some other unpleasant experiences we didn’t expect or didn’t think about much before we came—but they are unpleasanat just the same..
One is that life goes on at home and sometimes it is difficult to miss out. One volunteer discovered in training that two of her children would become parents--her first two grandchilden—eight months after she arrived here. She quit and went home two months before they were born. Some have parents or siblings with health problems. One older volunteer lost two of his siblings in a three-week period. He and his wife went home for a couple of weeks.
Parents of twenty-somethings especially worry and wonder how their children are doing. Sometimes they don’t hear much. Those who have grandchildren try to stay close and miss the grandkids a lot while they are here. Some volunteers have significant others at home that they hope will still be there when they get back.
Then there are problems in the country. While most of us have friends in the Peace Corps, our best and closest friends are at home in the US. A quarter or so of our volunteers live by themselves and are teachers in small villages. As much as they may like their Azerbaijani co-workers and acquaintances, it is difficult to have no one from their culture around on a day-to-day basis. And depending on language skills, no meaningful communication may be going on with most people in the village.
Many volunteers find that once they are with their organizations, there isn’t much work to do or the organization seems to not know what to do with the volunteer. We don’t have to spend all of our time with our assigned organization and can find our own work, but most of us are disappointed when our organizations don’t seem to want to work with us. A few don’t feel that their organization is effective or that the staff are competent. This bothers them because they feel there may be too many obstacles to make an impact with that organization.
Others feel that even when they choose their projects they aren’t having much impact. Sometimes they are disappointed with the culture—for example, having someone request to meet with you and then having them not show up or call. Sometimes it is difficult to work on other projects due to lack of community interest.
Host families can be difficult to live with—if they don’t or can’t pay the utility bills you have no gas, electricity or water for awhile; some families fight a lot; and many times they don’t understand the concept of privacy. Living in one’s own rented home is sometimes no fun either—leases don’t exist and being kicked out with a couple of days notice is common. Some have vermin problems, lighting the furnace and hot water heater can be very dangerous (you only turn on the water heater when you need hot water) and if you run out of water, you can’t be sure when the local water system will send more to the water tank. One volunteer can’t use her fridge because she gets an electric shock when she touches it. The landlord is not interested in getting it fixed.
Then in the winter, it is dark by 6:00. If you live alone, you don’t see anyone in the evenings and it can be lonely. Some volunteers have internet at their homes and others need to travel 45 minutes to an hour to stay in touch with their families at home.
I think these conditions hit the younger volunteers especially hard. They tend to travel more to visit other volunteers and to spend an occasional weekend in Baku where there are ex-pats to meet and bars to visit. We have over a thousand books in the Peace Corps lounge in Baku. Volunteers have read them and donated them for others to use. We also exchange movies and downloaded music. There is a video store in Baku that sells pirated videos—for example I have “Dexter Season 4” and “Mad Men Season 3” (highly recommended) which are not out in the US yet. We can’t buy non-pirated DVD’s in Azerbaijan.
Sometimes we get sick and it is depressing to be sick here on our own. I have been pretty healthy here, but a couple of weeks ago I got a 103 fever and had the chills really bad. Luckily for me, I was traveling and stayed with a married couple from Kansas City. Their apartment was warm, they took good care of me and served me wonderful meals. In a couple of days, I felt much better. Our Peace Corps doctors are great and take wonderful care of us, but of course they can’t be in our communities.
For me, the things that bother me most are missing my family and friends in America and impatience with myself when I do American things while I am here. I really want to experience Azerbaijan and when I get caught up in Mad Men I wonder why I am wasting my time with it here when I can watch it back in the US. Also, I get annoyed when I go several days without a shower and when I get low on clean clothes. Communicating with my family and friends by email gets old and calling is expensive. I would really like to have a real visit. My daughter visited in September and my sister is coming in April.
I want to have more meaningful conversation than my basic day-to-day language skills allow and want to accomplish something lasting and sustainable here. I find that changing attitudes and introducing possibilities is as close as I am coming to doing anything lasting. For example, a lot of Azerbaijanis have a twisted view of America because they watch American movies. Sometimes the only things that I can do with someone is have them realize that American women don’t all act like prostitutes, most Americans are not rich and that life in America is very competitive and challenging. I never thought that providing that information would be a major accomplishment for me in Azerbaijan.
One is that life goes on at home and sometimes it is difficult to miss out. One volunteer discovered in training that two of her children would become parents--her first two grandchilden—eight months after she arrived here. She quit and went home two months before they were born. Some have parents or siblings with health problems. One older volunteer lost two of his siblings in a three-week period. He and his wife went home for a couple of weeks.
Parents of twenty-somethings especially worry and wonder how their children are doing. Sometimes they don’t hear much. Those who have grandchildren try to stay close and miss the grandkids a lot while they are here. Some volunteers have significant others at home that they hope will still be there when they get back.
Then there are problems in the country. While most of us have friends in the Peace Corps, our best and closest friends are at home in the US. A quarter or so of our volunteers live by themselves and are teachers in small villages. As much as they may like their Azerbaijani co-workers and acquaintances, it is difficult to have no one from their culture around on a day-to-day basis. And depending on language skills, no meaningful communication may be going on with most people in the village.
Many volunteers find that once they are with their organizations, there isn’t much work to do or the organization seems to not know what to do with the volunteer. We don’t have to spend all of our time with our assigned organization and can find our own work, but most of us are disappointed when our organizations don’t seem to want to work with us. A few don’t feel that their organization is effective or that the staff are competent. This bothers them because they feel there may be too many obstacles to make an impact with that organization.
Others feel that even when they choose their projects they aren’t having much impact. Sometimes they are disappointed with the culture—for example, having someone request to meet with you and then having them not show up or call. Sometimes it is difficult to work on other projects due to lack of community interest.
Host families can be difficult to live with—if they don’t or can’t pay the utility bills you have no gas, electricity or water for awhile; some families fight a lot; and many times they don’t understand the concept of privacy. Living in one’s own rented home is sometimes no fun either—leases don’t exist and being kicked out with a couple of days notice is common. Some have vermin problems, lighting the furnace and hot water heater can be very dangerous (you only turn on the water heater when you need hot water) and if you run out of water, you can’t be sure when the local water system will send more to the water tank. One volunteer can’t use her fridge because she gets an electric shock when she touches it. The landlord is not interested in getting it fixed.
Then in the winter, it is dark by 6:00. If you live alone, you don’t see anyone in the evenings and it can be lonely. Some volunteers have internet at their homes and others need to travel 45 minutes to an hour to stay in touch with their families at home.
I think these conditions hit the younger volunteers especially hard. They tend to travel more to visit other volunteers and to spend an occasional weekend in Baku where there are ex-pats to meet and bars to visit. We have over a thousand books in the Peace Corps lounge in Baku. Volunteers have read them and donated them for others to use. We also exchange movies and downloaded music. There is a video store in Baku that sells pirated videos—for example I have “Dexter Season 4” and “Mad Men Season 3” (highly recommended) which are not out in the US yet. We can’t buy non-pirated DVD’s in Azerbaijan.
Sometimes we get sick and it is depressing to be sick here on our own. I have been pretty healthy here, but a couple of weeks ago I got a 103 fever and had the chills really bad. Luckily for me, I was traveling and stayed with a married couple from Kansas City. Their apartment was warm, they took good care of me and served me wonderful meals. In a couple of days, I felt much better. Our Peace Corps doctors are great and take wonderful care of us, but of course they can’t be in our communities.
For me, the things that bother me most are missing my family and friends in America and impatience with myself when I do American things while I am here. I really want to experience Azerbaijan and when I get caught up in Mad Men I wonder why I am wasting my time with it here when I can watch it back in the US. Also, I get annoyed when I go several days without a shower and when I get low on clean clothes. Communicating with my family and friends by email gets old and calling is expensive. I would really like to have a real visit. My daughter visited in September and my sister is coming in April.
I want to have more meaningful conversation than my basic day-to-day language skills allow and want to accomplish something lasting and sustainable here. I find that changing attitudes and introducing possibilities is as close as I am coming to doing anything lasting. For example, a lot of Azerbaijanis have a twisted view of America because they watch American movies. Sometimes the only things that I can do with someone is have them realize that American women don’t all act like prostitutes, most Americans are not rich and that life in America is very competitive and challenging. I never thought that providing that information would be a major accomplishment for me in Azerbaijan.
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