Azeri Barbeque!

Yesterday a group of us from the Leader’s School (That’s the school where I’m working- more on that later) went on a day trip to the mountains. After about a week of over 90 degree weather I was happy to finally get out of Ganja and into the mountains where it is much cooler. What a crazy trip it was. The school rented a mini bus, which comfortably would have fit about 15 people but we crammed 23 people (some of them small children) and an entire kitchen supply store plus a grocery store into this little green van. The picture doesn’t give it justice because I took it before we picked up 5 more people. In the blistering heat we drove south toward the lower Caucasus Mountains. ( No there were no seat belts in the van. Yes there were very small children under the age of three, yes this is very dangerous and No don’t try it at home!!
Figure 1 On the Bus
Ganja is located in the central plains and the greater and lesser Caucasus mountain ranges are north and south of the city. Hejikänd is a small village about 30 miles south of here and only a very short distance from the Armenian occupied zone. It is very difficult to get any further south, deeper into the mountains because of military checkpoints and the danger of landmines. The ride down is beautiful because the flat, treeless plains quickly become lush rugged foot hills and mountains.
Along the way we stopped to buy about 20 loaves of Çörı, which is this delicious bread baked on the walls of little brick oven domes with fire in the middle. An egg mixture is basted on the outside to make the bread crusty. (See picture) We stopped again to fill up with water- which I will never drink again! Just because its safe for the Azeris does not make it safe for me!!
Figure 2 Baking Bread
Our final destination was a very sloped field, in a beautiful hilly valley. We were not the only group in our area as this is a popular Sunday activity for many families. I thought that we had brought everything imaginable (including carpets) but another group had brought an electric generator and a keyboard so they could play music and dance. Because this is a popular weekend trip there were also small bands with clarinet type instruments and drummers and guitarist who walked around and played music. There were also young kids on horses riding around offering rides- for a small fee of course.

Then an amazing thing happened the men actually did the majority of the meal preparation. I guess when it has to do with spearing pieces of meat and building fire men all over the world suddenly love cooking. Figure 3 Arzu and Igor at the grill

While the food was grilling several of us women wandered around and picked rose petals for making rose jam, which is absolutely delicious and quite a delicacy because rose petals are not easy to pick- thorns are not friendly and it takes a lot of roses to get much jam.

Then after dinner one of the men brought out his hookah, so we all sat around and smoked this coffee flavored stuff. Don’t worry, Mom, it wasn’t marijuana or cigarettes
Then I went on a little walk with one of the teacher’s at the school who is a journalist and teaches the journalism class. We had to go through a military checkpoint because we were right on the border with the Armenian occupied part of Azerbaijan. I’ll tell a little more about the conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia in a later posting. It is such a tragedy and many people know nothing about it.

It was a great day if not a little overwhelming at times. But that is how must of my days are here. I love it.