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.
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
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.
Monday, December 28, 2009
Heat, Bathrooms and Losing Weight
Update--In my last post, I say how cold my home is. Since then, my family had a gas furnace installed in the living room. So this room is warm and some of the heat flows to my room.
Before I came to Azerbaijan, my biggest worry was about the toilets. I had heard that squat toilets are common. Also, I had heard that Azerbaijanis do not use toilet paper. Both of these things are true. Also, now they are non-issues for me and many times I think the no-toilet-paper thing is better.
The squat toilet is basically a porcelain fixture at ground level. It either flushes or you pour a bucket of water down it. Squatting is no big deal. Since everything is flat on the floor, it is easier to clean the toilet. Some people just turn a hose on it every day.
Toilet paper is replaced by water. The newer toilets have a spray attachment next to the toilet and you just squirt to clean yourself. The older toilets have a strangely shaped jug of water with a spout that you use the same way.
The Azerbaijanis feel it has two advantages—the first, it is cleaner—rather than wiping things, you are really cleaning them. The other is that you don’t have to buy or dispose of toilet paper.
When I think of how many millions of rolls of toilet paper Americans use every day, it converted my thinking pretty quickly. I wonder where all of this paper goes.
I know a family with a baby. Whenever the baby has a diaper change, they immerse the baby’s butt in water. They feel that wiping him off just is not clean enough.
We just welcomed four new Peace Corps Volunteers to our town. They have been in training for three months. They and some of their 59 fellow new volunteers have had time to experience the “Azerbaijan diet” and many have found the pounds rolling off. Just by eating like an Azerbaijani, people who have carried extra pounds for years appear to effortlessly be losing them.
These are the ways Azerbaijanis eat and don’t eat:
1. Lots of tea, maybe a cookie or something sweet with it.
2. Pop and juice as a special treat, not stocked regularly.
3. A light breakfast—bread, tea, maybe cheese or fruit.
4. Small portions and no snacks
5. Processed food eaten rarely.
6. No eating after dinner.
7. Dessert is often fruit.
8. Trans fats don’t appear to exist here
9. Lots of dairy fat in cooking
10. Cheese and yogurt instead of milk
11. Eating fruits and vegetables in season.
The other reason that weight falls off easily is that many volunteers do a lot more walking. Many have to walk to work and to get food and shop for anything. To visit friends involves walking also. So it is common that trainees pack a lot of clothes and can’t wear some of them within a few months. Often the weight stabilizes after 6 months or so A few people gain weight, usually the ones who are less active here than at home.
Before I came to Azerbaijan, my biggest worry was about the toilets. I had heard that squat toilets are common. Also, I had heard that Azerbaijanis do not use toilet paper. Both of these things are true. Also, now they are non-issues for me and many times I think the no-toilet-paper thing is better.
The squat toilet is basically a porcelain fixture at ground level. It either flushes or you pour a bucket of water down it. Squatting is no big deal. Since everything is flat on the floor, it is easier to clean the toilet. Some people just turn a hose on it every day.
Toilet paper is replaced by water. The newer toilets have a spray attachment next to the toilet and you just squirt to clean yourself. The older toilets have a strangely shaped jug of water with a spout that you use the same way.
The Azerbaijanis feel it has two advantages—the first, it is cleaner—rather than wiping things, you are really cleaning them. The other is that you don’t have to buy or dispose of toilet paper.
When I think of how many millions of rolls of toilet paper Americans use every day, it converted my thinking pretty quickly. I wonder where all of this paper goes.
I know a family with a baby. Whenever the baby has a diaper change, they immerse the baby’s butt in water. They feel that wiping him off just is not clean enough.
We just welcomed four new Peace Corps Volunteers to our town. They have been in training for three months. They and some of their 59 fellow new volunteers have had time to experience the “Azerbaijan diet” and many have found the pounds rolling off. Just by eating like an Azerbaijani, people who have carried extra pounds for years appear to effortlessly be losing them.
These are the ways Azerbaijanis eat and don’t eat:
1. Lots of tea, maybe a cookie or something sweet with it.
2. Pop and juice as a special treat, not stocked regularly.
3. A light breakfast—bread, tea, maybe cheese or fruit.
4. Small portions and no snacks
5. Processed food eaten rarely.
6. No eating after dinner.
7. Dessert is often fruit.
8. Trans fats don’t appear to exist here
9. Lots of dairy fat in cooking
10. Cheese and yogurt instead of milk
11. Eating fruits and vegetables in season.
The other reason that weight falls off easily is that many volunteers do a lot more walking. Many have to walk to work and to get food and shop for anything. To visit friends involves walking also. So it is common that trainees pack a lot of clothes and can’t wear some of them within a few months. Often the weight stabilizes after 6 months or so A few people gain weight, usually the ones who are less active here than at home.
Sunday, December 20, 2009
Winter
This is not a good time of year in Azerbaijan. It is cold and my family is poor. It gets dark at 6:00, so evening activities done in the nice weather are exchanged for staying at home in my cold house.
This is the first time I have lived in a house. I lived in apartments before and they were warm even if the family did not have a furnace. I think it was partly because the other families around them had furnaces and also because in a small apartment, the gas stove can spread the heat to the next room.
My family can’t afford to turn on the heat. We have a huge home by Azerbaijani standards and by American standards a large home. It is two-story with a large courtyard. The thing that one immediately notices is that the house is not finished. There is scaffolding and ladders around, wires sticking out of the walls and construction debris scattered around. The grandma says that the family ran out of money to finish the house.
My family consists of the mom, two daughters, 13 and 14 years old, and their father, who lives and works in Russia. This is because there are relatively few good jobs in Azerbaijan. Because foreigners can’t usually get good jobs there, most men don’t send much, if anything, home and usually can’t afford to come home either. I have heard a statistic that 1 of every 8 employed Azerbaijani men works in in a foreign country.
This is an area in which Azerbaijanis complain about capitalism. During Soviet times everyone had a job and families were not separated against their will. Also most people in Azerbaijan had similar living standards, with money for food, utilities and medical care with some discretionary funds.
But now, instead of working at jobs that pay enough to support a family, some men will not work at all for years. Most unemployed men, though, have a job that they designed themselves, like selling fruit from the trunk of a car, selling lottery tickets on the street , or setting up a shack in a parking lot and fixing shoes---anything to get out of the house and earn a little money.
My host mother needs a full-time job but can’t find one. She sells cosmetics from a catalog, bakes and cooks things to sell and has me as a boarder. She says her cosmetics and cooking bring in about 50 manat a month, about $60. The Peace Corps pays her 110 manat a month, about $132, with extra in the winter for heat (which we don’t have). Out of this she buys and cooks my food and supplies electricity, gas and water for me. She says food for a family of 5 would normally be 200 manat a month, but she does not have that much income, so they eat cheaper. The major way they do that is by having one item for each meal--such as a plate of macaroni, soup or potatoes. I am not sure how she pays the other expenses—maybe from my heat money?.
I have noticed that when Azerbaijanis talk about their salaries (not a private topic here) they make so little that one can’t figure out how they survive. One of the problems that people complain about is the underground economy. Also, I think that different generations of families living together and pooling their money, as well as the relative ease of growing food in much of the country, makes it easier survive.
Most homes have a gas pipe sticking out of the wall and they install a small metal contraption to it in the winter. This becomes the furnace. It is like a radiator, but is hotter. It is kept on when the family is home and is turned off when they go to bed. People close off parts of a larger home and sleep in one room to be in the warmth.
My house has central heating, a rarity in Azerbaijan. It was on last winter, when I didn’t live here, but the family is poorer now and can’t afford to turn it on this year. The kitchen is warm, though, because they have a gas stove burner going all day.
I was somewhat irate for awhile because I want some heat, but I notice that my family huddles in the kitchen and eats their one item for dinner, unlike other families that have several. So I eat my soup and plot how to keep my room from freezing so I don’t have to spend all of my time at home in the kitchen.
The talk in the kitchen revolves around issues of being poor. The girls are told every day that there is no money and the phone calls revolve around trying to figure out how to pay bills and get contributions from family members who have more money than they do.
My plan for not freezing in my room is that my PC friend gave me an old space heater. I found out, though, that this is not a good way to become warm. The heater blows hot air, but if I put my cold hand right up to the grill, the side facing the grill becomes warm, but the other side remains cold. Usually I give up and wrap up in a blanket.
The shower is another problem. The shower room is freezing cold and the hot water stream is a dribble. So if I am wetting my hair, for example, it takes a minute to get enough water on my hair to work with the shampoo. My body is freezing during this time.
I could move to another home and have heat and a warm shower. Every family has their drawbacks, though, so I think I will stick out the winter with this family. Come spring, I think it will be livable here.
This is the first time I have lived in a house. I lived in apartments before and they were warm even if the family did not have a furnace. I think it was partly because the other families around them had furnaces and also because in a small apartment, the gas stove can spread the heat to the next room.
My family can’t afford to turn on the heat. We have a huge home by Azerbaijani standards and by American standards a large home. It is two-story with a large courtyard. The thing that one immediately notices is that the house is not finished. There is scaffolding and ladders around, wires sticking out of the walls and construction debris scattered around. The grandma says that the family ran out of money to finish the house.
My family consists of the mom, two daughters, 13 and 14 years old, and their father, who lives and works in Russia. This is because there are relatively few good jobs in Azerbaijan. Because foreigners can’t usually get good jobs there, most men don’t send much, if anything, home and usually can’t afford to come home either. I have heard a statistic that 1 of every 8 employed Azerbaijani men works in in a foreign country.
This is an area in which Azerbaijanis complain about capitalism. During Soviet times everyone had a job and families were not separated against their will. Also most people in Azerbaijan had similar living standards, with money for food, utilities and medical care with some discretionary funds.
But now, instead of working at jobs that pay enough to support a family, some men will not work at all for years. Most unemployed men, though, have a job that they designed themselves, like selling fruit from the trunk of a car, selling lottery tickets on the street , or setting up a shack in a parking lot and fixing shoes---anything to get out of the house and earn a little money.
My host mother needs a full-time job but can’t find one. She sells cosmetics from a catalog, bakes and cooks things to sell and has me as a boarder. She says her cosmetics and cooking bring in about 50 manat a month, about $60. The Peace Corps pays her 110 manat a month, about $132, with extra in the winter for heat (which we don’t have). Out of this she buys and cooks my food and supplies electricity, gas and water for me. She says food for a family of 5 would normally be 200 manat a month, but she does not have that much income, so they eat cheaper. The major way they do that is by having one item for each meal--such as a plate of macaroni, soup or potatoes. I am not sure how she pays the other expenses—maybe from my heat money?.
I have noticed that when Azerbaijanis talk about their salaries (not a private topic here) they make so little that one can’t figure out how they survive. One of the problems that people complain about is the underground economy. Also, I think that different generations of families living together and pooling their money, as well as the relative ease of growing food in much of the country, makes it easier survive.
Most homes have a gas pipe sticking out of the wall and they install a small metal contraption to it in the winter. This becomes the furnace. It is like a radiator, but is hotter. It is kept on when the family is home and is turned off when they go to bed. People close off parts of a larger home and sleep in one room to be in the warmth.
My house has central heating, a rarity in Azerbaijan. It was on last winter, when I didn’t live here, but the family is poorer now and can’t afford to turn it on this year. The kitchen is warm, though, because they have a gas stove burner going all day.
I was somewhat irate for awhile because I want some heat, but I notice that my family huddles in the kitchen and eats their one item for dinner, unlike other families that have several. So I eat my soup and plot how to keep my room from freezing so I don’t have to spend all of my time at home in the kitchen.
The talk in the kitchen revolves around issues of being poor. The girls are told every day that there is no money and the phone calls revolve around trying to figure out how to pay bills and get contributions from family members who have more money than they do.
My plan for not freezing in my room is that my PC friend gave me an old space heater. I found out, though, that this is not a good way to become warm. The heater blows hot air, but if I put my cold hand right up to the grill, the side facing the grill becomes warm, but the other side remains cold. Usually I give up and wrap up in a blanket.
The shower is another problem. The shower room is freezing cold and the hot water stream is a dribble. So if I am wetting my hair, for example, it takes a minute to get enough water on my hair to work with the shampoo. My body is freezing during this time.
I could move to another home and have heat and a warm shower. Every family has their drawbacks, though, so I think I will stick out the winter with this family. Come spring, I think it will be livable here.
Thursday, December 10, 2009
Recipes from Azerbaijan
---------------------------------------------
I am always talking about how great the food is in Azerbaijan. Besides the fresh ingredients and bountiful fruits and vegetables available during most of the year, in Azerbaijan almost everything is made from scratch daily.
Many families also make their own bread. It is mostly white bread in round loaves. I always had the impression that making bread required lots of hand-kneading or time spent with a mixer. Azerbaijanis make bread without a lot of kneading and it looks and tastes just fine.
Gutab
Take some lavash bread (round and flat—flatter than pita bread), sprinkle with a few tablespoons of grated or crumbled sheep or goat cheese and a few tablespoons of some fresh, chopped herbs. Put a little oil in a pan, fold the lavash in half with the contents inside. Fry for a minute or two until hot.
Roll up to eat or cut in pieces to eat it.
We have freshly cut bunches of herbs available every day. A good-sized bouquet of herbs is about 25 cents.
Garlic/Yogurt Sauce
Mix a couple of cups of plain yogurt with a few cloves of minced garlic. Let it sit for a day or so in a glass jar in the fridge. It makes a great topping for vegetables, pasta or to add to the top of soup or stew.
Beet Salad
I know, you don’t like beets, you don’t know what to do with them, etc. But many volunteers here like beets now. This salad is great and easy to make.
Serves 6
One pound of beets, cleaned and peeled
½ cup of small pieces of walnuts
8 cloves of garlic, minced
some mayonnaise or sour cream
Cook the beets in boiling water until you can get a fork through them, but not easily. Cool them off. Either shred the beets on a medium or fine part of a hand grater or put them in a food processor on the “grate” setting. Mix the walnuts, garlic and beets together and stir until everything is well mixed.
Add enough mayonnaise or sour cream and mix again until everything is stuck together somewhat. The amount of mayonnaise/sour cream is an individual decision. Taste and add salt and pepper if you want. Cool in the fridge until cold. Added excitement--your urine will be red for a couple of days. Maybe save this for Valentine's Day?
I am always talking about how great the food is in Azerbaijan. Besides the fresh ingredients and bountiful fruits and vegetables available during most of the year, in Azerbaijan almost everything is made from scratch daily.
Many families also make their own bread. It is mostly white bread in round loaves. I always had the impression that making bread required lots of hand-kneading or time spent with a mixer. Azerbaijanis make bread without a lot of kneading and it looks and tastes just fine.
Gutab
Take some lavash bread (round and flat—flatter than pita bread), sprinkle with a few tablespoons of grated or crumbled sheep or goat cheese and a few tablespoons of some fresh, chopped herbs. Put a little oil in a pan, fold the lavash in half with the contents inside. Fry for a minute or two until hot.
Roll up to eat or cut in pieces to eat it.
We have freshly cut bunches of herbs available every day. A good-sized bouquet of herbs is about 25 cents.
Garlic/Yogurt Sauce
Mix a couple of cups of plain yogurt with a few cloves of minced garlic. Let it sit for a day or so in a glass jar in the fridge. It makes a great topping for vegetables, pasta or to add to the top of soup or stew.
Beet Salad
I know, you don’t like beets, you don’t know what to do with them, etc. But many volunteers here like beets now. This salad is great and easy to make.
Serves 6
One pound of beets, cleaned and peeled
½ cup of small pieces of walnuts
8 cloves of garlic, minced
some mayonnaise or sour cream
Cook the beets in boiling water until you can get a fork through them, but not easily. Cool them off. Either shred the beets on a medium or fine part of a hand grater or put them in a food processor on the “grate” setting. Mix the walnuts, garlic and beets together and stir until everything is well mixed.
Add enough mayonnaise or sour cream and mix again until everything is stuck together somewhat. The amount of mayonnaise/sour cream is an individual decision. Taste and add salt and pepper if you want. Cool in the fridge until cold. Added excitement--your urine will be red for a couple of days. Maybe save this for Valentine's Day?
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