Where is the Tugai Forest????????

Last Monday was a holiday here so I decided to actually take the day off from work, which is a rarity because without my work I really don’t have much to do here. Carol who is a friend of mine and a Peace Corps Volunteer here in Ganja was going on a reconnaissance mission for a project proposal she is writing for the organization she works for.
The project site is in a region of Azerbaijan to the very Northwest, right on the Georgian border. Before Soviet times a vast forest spread all over northwestern Azerbaijan but it has since been almost entirely destroyed and only a small patch remains. This small area is also threatened because the villagers living near the forest cut down the trees for heating fuel and their livestock grazes in the underbrush as there is no good grass anywhere else. Any new growth is quickly eaten by the undulates. But the question I always ask is: Why does a country that is so rich in petroleum that it is exporting it to Western countries still have villages that don’t have heating fuel??????????? Answering that question will open a whole can of worms that is probably the root of many of the problems here and the government doesn’t want people to go there.
The forest is supposed to be protected but as with most laws here, they are very hard to enforce. Either there is no person to enforce it or the enforcer takes bribes to look the other way while people break the law. It is really quite discouraging, the corruption in this country.
Anyway back to the story. So Carol and I along with her ‘counterpart’ the Azeri who she is teamed up with for her two year stint in Ganja, and the driver, take us all up to the northern reaches of Azerbaijan, on the best road I have been on in this country. It was awesome!! No mammoth sized potholes or miles of construction. This was also the first time I have ventured further west in Azerbaijan and I was anxious to see what fun and interesting things lay in store. Sadly probably the most notable thing was the myriad of furniture stores along the way. I haven’t quite figured out the Azeri obsession with furniture especially when it is all the same. There are about 4 different kinds of chairs in the whole country.
About an hour and a half later we reached the town of Agstafa where we first had to find the guy who knew where the forest was. So we sat around in the car until a man in a business suit drove up. Then we all went into the new hotel that has been built in Agstafa. This is another curiosity to me and to other Azeris that I have talked to. A new hotel is being built in almost every regional capital in Azerbaijan but it has yet to be determined who will actually stay at these hotels. Its not like Azerbaijan is any kind of tourist destination and I daresay probably never will be. As far as beautiful places- Azerbaijan really doesn’t have very many anymore.
But I digress as usual. Carol and the driver and I hung out in the basement of the hotel drinking tea and listening to Turkish music videos at 200 decibels (because, duh, they sound better that way!) while the other guys tried to locate the other man who could really tell us where the forest was. After about two more hours of sitting and waiting we finally got the go ahead. We hit the road but first we stopped at what I think was the forestry department. We entered an unheated cement block and sat in the damp while the men sat around discussing what I hoped would be the location of this elusive forest. After another 45 minutes or so we got back in our cars and started driving north. I kept looking eagerly out the window in hopes of seeing what I hoped would be uninterrupted swaths of large trees. The roads became narrower and curvier. We passed a border checkpoint and I thought we had crossed into Georgia but we hadn’t. I’m not really sure what the checkpoint was all about. Then we drove past some signs with large bomb-like objects on them and pictures of tractors and people planting with a big red X through it. No digging in the dirt because of mines!!! And to my shock/surprise I looked out the window and there was a large field with those little red flags JUST LIKE IN MINE SWEEPER all over the field. And what was even more frightening is that there were also two soccer goals and children playing and grazing sheep all over the area!! And yes the signs were written in Azeri so there should have been no misunderstanding. I couldn’t believe it.
The other cool thing we saw was a spicket of water that was on fire. It was so neat. I guess its not that unusual here because of all the petroleum. And UNFORTUNATELY I did not have my camera with me because this excursion was a last minute undertaking.

The roads became progressively worse and the towns sparser and even more downtrodden. Carol and I craned our necks to try to find anything that looked like a forest but we saw nothing and anytime a few trees in one place increased our hopes we veered away from them. After driving through another abject village we finally stopped at a large stand of trees but the curious thing was that they were miraculously all in perfectly strait rows and they were all the same type of tree! But the men insisted that this was the Tugai forest. Carol and I exchanged exasperated looks which basically said- “Do they think we are complete idiots!” Carol then convinced them that this was not the Tugai forest but a poor excuse for a reforestation project. The reluctantly agreed and we herded ourselves back into our vehicles and kept driving. Another hour down the road we finally came to a tiny village with more chickens and turkeys than people with a few trees scattered about. We got out and ran to explore the wild woods. The few trees that were left were ENORMOUS. I’ve never seen such huge hardwood trees before. They were all covered in moss and vines which definitely was reminiscent of the Ents in Lord of the Rings. The sad part was that there were so few left and absolutely no new growth. The evidence was all around as to who the guilty parties were. Although we were told that only deer roamed the forest the large hoof prints and large piles of scat told a different story. We also saw several small boys with donkeys pulling small carts of wood down the road. It was clear to us that although the forest was supposed to be protected there was little to nothing stopping the villagers from exploiting this resource. But who can blame them when they are so poor and the government doesn’t provide gas for heat!! When you are living for each day why should you care about the environment? This was the dilemma that Carol was facing in her project proposal. How can you teach people about conservation when the forest is their only means of survival? The only thing that was keeping the large trees standing was the fact that they were too large to be chopped down with an ax. It is only a matter of time before someone brings back a chainsaw from Baku and what few trees remain will be lost as well.
I could imagine what the forest must have used to look like before the Soviet Union. WOW then I can believe that Azerbaijan was once Paradise on Earth (The Garden of Eden is supposedly located here) But the Soviet System had no regard for nature and Aesthetics and so many potentially beautiful places here have been obliterated.

Carol and I had a brief sojourn through the trees, which looked more like the English Garden in Munich than a real forest, until Carol’s counterpart worriedly called after us telling us to come back quickly because the wolves might eat us!! He was totally serious. Carol and I just about died laughing because there was no way that wolves were living in this patch of 20 trees. We made some howling noises and then reluctantly walked back to the group of men and got back in our cars and headed back for Agstafa. We were hoping that there would be some quick connecter road so we wouldn’t have to go back the same way but alas it was back through the minefield we went. We ate a quick supper at a roadside restaurant and then made our way back to Ganja. Where the high light of the return trip was driving through the town of Tovus where there is a 20 foot tall peacock that they light up at night. Amazing really. The juxtapositions are astounding. No heat, no forest but we have giant light up peacocks!! Yeah!!! It sadly reminded me of the blow up lawn ornaments in the U.S. – No place is perfect.

I just wanted to briefly write about an interesting cultural phenomenon that occurs here in Azerbaijan which never fails to baffle and amaze me. (This is of course only one of many that keep me scrathing my head.) The issue is ATM machines in Azerbaijan. Its not actually the machines themselves that are interesting, they look and operate pretty much the same as in the U.S. and Europe, but what is curious to me is peoples' behavior around them.
There is absolutely no concept of privacy. On several occasions while attempting to take out money another person has come up behind me and stood so close that I could feel their breath on my neck. One man even commented on the language I was using to conduct the transaction “Oh she’s not using Russian!” When I turn around and glare at people and tell them to back off, they look at me as if I am the transgressor.
Usually if someone comes up behind me in line I will just leave and find another ATM- there is a plethora in this city even though people don’t have a lot of money.
What else is interesting to me is that many people seem to have frequent problems with the machines and are not at all abashed to ask the next person standing in line to help them out even freely giving out their pin number to a complete stranger. At some banks, where people are withdrawing their salaries, and large crowds of people gather around the ATM there is actually a security type person who actually helps people use the machines. He stands there and people give him all the information.
I was getting money one time and one of my students who happened to be walking by asked me if I wanted help with the machine. I probably insulted him with the look I gave him. I know he was just doing what is customary in Azerbaijan. Azeris help each other with ATMs all the time, and how much money people earn and have in their bank accounts is not considered private information (see other blog on cultural moments 2).
However that is another one of quite a long list of cultural norms that I don’t think I’ll be adopting. I’ve resigned myself to accepting that I will never fit in here and that’s okay.

Reflections on Ramadan

Note to reader: This posting is a little late- Ramadan was from the September 24th through October 23rd.
For the past month many religious people here in Ganja have been celebrating the holy month of Ramadan. If I didn’t have my own health problems and if my host family were more religious, I would have liked to have participated more fully in this ritual. Since I have to keep a steady diet and my host parents are OVERLY concerned about my eating habits, it would have been virtually impossible. I’m sure most of you know that Ramadan is a month-long period of fasting. Believers wake up before sunrise and eat and pray and then do not eat for the whole day and then when the sun has gone down they break their fast.
I was really looking forward to Ramadan because it is considered the most holy of holidays in the Muslim tradition and I was excited to experience it here in a predominantly Muslim country. However I have to admit that I was a little disappointed.
It may have to do with the fact that I myself was not fasting and I do not live with a religious family. Azerbaijan, as Muslim countries go, is quite secular, this has to do in part to the fact that for 70 years under the Soviet regime, all religion was suppressed and people were not allowed to openly practice their faith. Now in the 15 years since Azerbaijan has gained its independence there has been a resurgence of religious activity especially in the regions outside of Baku. Another interesting fact is that 20 million ethnic Azeris live in Northern Iran (what people here call Southern Azerbaijan). There are more Azeris in Iran than in Azerbaijan, which has a population of around 8 million. Like Iranian Muslims, Azerbaijani Muslims mostly follow the Shi’a faith. And according to some people I have talked to here, there is an ever increasing Iranian influence on Azerbaijan. All this basically says is that there are some people here who follow the Muslim faith very closely and some who have nothing to do with religion whatsoever.
I was expecting there to be a month where life here was very different but in fact everything pretty much operated just like the other 11 months of the year. If you walked into Ganja you would not know that it was Ramadan. I was hoping for something a little more obvious. Some people I know were very excited to be fasting and clearly enjoyed this time of year. But as a whole nothing seemed to change much. But I think that may be the nature of Ramadan, it’s a more reflective and personal time so it isn’t clear in public what people are doing. And people don’t walk around with signs on their foreheads saying “kiss me, I’m fasting” So I don’t know what I was expecting, really.
I think it has something to do with the fact that here the holiday hasn't been overtaken by the capitalists trying to make a billion dollars on greeting cards and blow-up lawn ornaments. I'm not used to subtle holidays. I would be interested to know what Ramadan is like in other Muslim countries.
At the conclusion of Ramadan there were two days of celebration; meaning two days off from work. Families will get together and have a large meal or two or three. I was invited to a colleagues house for the day. We had a typical Azeri meal with different salads and of course the Azeri "national" dish Plov. Which is just rice with a chicken broth sauce. The way people talk about it here you would think it was filet mingon but. it really is just rice. I don't have the heart to say that - yes we have 'plov' in the United States and yes it did taste much better than here. Its the same every house I go to because plov is only eaten on special occaisons- like when guests come over.
After we ate at my friends house then we went to her uncle's house where the EXACT same dishes were prepared again. For whatever reason I was not at my best and had a very difficult time with this family. I was just not in the mood to be the freak show. Everything I did they laughed at or commented on and the entire meal I spent trying listen what they were whispering about me and trying to answer questions about me myself. As I've said before. I hate being talked about as if I'm not in the room and as if I don't understand Azeri. Then after I had been talking most of the time in Azeri one of the women commented on how bad my Azeri was and asked me how I could live here. I practically blew up at them. Which is VERY VERY VERY BAD. Women do not get angry here. Its okay for men but not for women. So it turned into a bad evening and we left soon after that. Another bad example! But I have to admit it has motivated me to learn Azeri even more. However I don't think I will be invited back to their house again.

Ilham comes to Ganja

Yesterday Ganja was graced with a visit from the president of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliev. I explained some about him before but in case you haven’t read that entry I’ll explain a little about him. His father is the immortal Heydar Aliev, the former president before he took ill and died in 2003. His son, Ilham miraculously was elected to succeed his father. Regardless of how legitimately he came into power he is still the president and there had been a flurry of activity around the city for about a week in order to prepare for his arrival. It was quite incredible. The men in this country were actually working!!! I wish I had had my camera to capture this rare moment on film. Suddenly a fresh coat of paint covered the lines on the roads, the curbs and the park benches. Patches of sidewalk were finally repaired. Apparently this happens in every city before the president comes. For months no improvements or beautification projects are undertaken but as soon as word gets out that the president is coming towns suddenly look like a post card.
I also learned that there would be no school and university classes were canceled so that students could be taken by bus to stand and greet Ilham at the airport. Not only were they forced to go to the airport but they also were requested to purchase their own Azeri flag. This was probably no big deal since most people here already own several flags. The city was also providing free transport to the airport for anyone else who wanted to go. As the buses were leaving at 7:00 AM I decided to pass on that one.
However I wanted to get a feel for this occasion. Around 9:30 when I walked outside there were already people making their way towards the main boulevard, where the motorcade was scheduled to enter the center of town. Large groups of school children and teachers were waiting patiently on the curb with Azerbaijan flags, plastic flowers and giant posters of Ilham and his father and the police were trying their best to control the traffic.
After a while larger groups of school kids flooded into the streets. Apparently these were the kids who had been bussed to the airport and now they were quickly being bussed back into town in order to greet the president again. The directors, teachers and even some police officers were trying to maintain order and orchestrate proper ‘curbside standing and flag waving’ What was interesting is that they were lined up only on one side of the street. I thought this was a bit odd. But I find lots of things odd in this country. Then a while later after everyone had been standing around for a good hour or so, one man came along and gave us all a clapping lesson. What amazed me really though is how people just patiently waited. I know most everywhere else I’ve been after maybe half an hour of nothing, people would just say f-this and leave. But here everyone just stood and waited, and waited and waited.
It was also pertinent that the streets remain immaculate. Several street sweeping ladies clad in yellow cloaks were positioned all along the road so that when the wind blew and even one leaf fell on the road or some guy threw his cigarette butt onto the pavement they would hobble out with their mini-brooms and immediately sweep it up.
Finally after another 15 to 20 minutes Ilham’s motorcade sped by at about 100 miles an hour. I don’t think the kids even had enough time to put their hands together even once he drove by so fast. Immediately after he drove by everyone sprinted to the other side of the street and got reorganized. And then 15 minutes later the motorcade took another pass at 120 MPH. There was another half handed clap. And then that was it- or at least all that I cared to see. Ilham did lay flowers at the foot of the statue of his father (Did I mention that there is a stature of Heydar in EVERY city in Azerbaijan and almost every night on T.V. there is a news clip of Ilham placing flowers at the foot of one of these statues) and he went to the grand opening of the new swimming pool in town which I’ve heard that women are actually allowed to go to.
That was yesterday’s excitement now it is back to life as usual and things will remain pretty much as is, with little to no progress until the next time the president comes.