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Weird Animal Stories

2008-04-27T12:48:00.004+05:00

This is a post dedicated to some of the interesting and perhaps unusual animal sightings I've had here in the past couple of months. Warning- not all the animals are of the cute, fuzzy and living kind. I guess I'll go in chronological order by sighting for lack of a better way to organize this slightly random post.
The first story comes from the inside of a marshrutka as you can see from the picture. I was coming back from Mingechavir as I very often do and I hitched a ride with a very nice couple from Balaken, a region in far northwestern Azerbaijan on the Georgian, Russian border. They were going to visit their son who was in the military in Shemkir, a city about an hour west of Ganja. Since they were passing through the city the gave me a lift. We chatted quite a bit and they were of course curious about me, a young woman standing by the side of the road trying to get to Ganja. Not long into our journey but what did I spy ahead of us but an old Russian car carrying an unusual load. Yes folks there were live sheep strapped to the roof rack. I had seen this before but had failed to get a picture but I was ready this time. I've also seen ducks tied to the tops of cars as well. The couple were laughing too, so I guess it is a little bit unusual. When I asked they said it was not 'normal.'
A few weeks later I was in Mingechavir (again) and Mike and I were strolling through the bazaar trying to scrounge up some grub for dinner, when we heard lots and lots of little cheeping noises. We looked around and then down and there was a box filled with baby chickens for sale- 60 cents a pop! Not bad considering eggs are 10 cents a piece. If you keep it healthy its a pretty good return on your investment, especially if you just feed it food scraps and um other things, but I'll get to that story later on. We almost got one for Mike's sitemate Nate. But we thought since he didn't have a yard it might not be a good idea. They're pretty cute!
And now for the story of Fankie. I think his full name is Francis but I'm not positive. Fankie is a hedgehog that Maria saved from the Ganja bazaar. I've seen them in cages on the street and wondered what they were use for. I found out its soup. I'm not really sure how Azeris prepare it, whether they just dump the whole hedgehog in the pot and let it stew like with khash? (Note: Khash is a delicacy of boiled cow or sheep head and legs. These parts are severed, the hair is blowtorched off and they are sold all over town. I walk by several Head and Feet shops on my wayto work. There is even a door to door head and feet salesman. You just dump the head and feet in a pot add some herbs and then enjoy the yummy goodness that falls out and into your bowl. Needless to say I've never tried khash, nor do I intend to. My host family tried to feed me entrails soup once but the smell of it killed my appetite. I can't imagine what khash would be like.)
Back to Frankie. Maria is a Peace Corps Volunteer in Qazaq, far Western Azerbaijan on the Armenian and Georgian border. She bought Frankie for 5 manat. I'm not sure why other than they're pretty cute, low maintenance, and when you live in Qazaq who wouldn't want someone or something to keep you company. Frankie made a trip to Ganja a couple of weeks ago and curious, Mike and I went over to visit him at Tor's apartment. (Tor is a PC volunteer in Ganja) This is a picture of Tor with Frankie. Although hedgehogs are nocturnal, we did get him out and waddling around before dark. He especially liked to crawl into the dark spaces.... hmmm.
My final story is from a couple of days ago, and its dedicated to Carol. I remember several conversations with Carol, when she was still here in Ganja, about her affinity for finding dead animals either whole or in part all around they city and country. I may not have seen as many as she has but I've definitely seen my share, too, mostly chicken feet or heads right outside my doorstep. But the other night I was walking back home from work and in a patch of trash riddled dirt were three or four severed rooster heads. But the funny thing was- well not funny- more like disturbing was the group of live chickens scratching around the same area. I ran upstairs got my camera but sadly when I returned, the live chickens had gone but the roosters were still there. So I got a picture of that. Yeah its pretty nasty. sorry. But dead animals in all their forms really is part of life here. I'm just really, really glad I'm a vegetarian. Oh and the other animals of note in the picture are the ants. Its ant season again. My apartment is infested but not as bad as Mike's. Try as I might can't keep it clean enough to get rid of them. I guess its just part of summer.

The Head of the Kur

2008-04-27T00:11:00.005+05:00

As if we hadn't had enough excitement with all the Novruz partying, the following weekend was the first international rowing competition in Mingechavir. The President's Cup, as it was called (and surprisingly 'president' was not referring to Ilham Aliyev, but rather the president of the Azerbaijani National Rowing Federation, Elchin Zeynalov), was 4 days of rowing excitement with teams from, Russia, Georgia and Iran. The first two days were the sculling and the final two were the canoeing and kayaking events. On the morning of the first day we tried to haul ourselves out of bed for the opening ceremonies. As with most events here information regarding the details was difficult to come by. The only news we had to go on was word of mouth from Azeri friends and the unusual number of large blond men in town. So we did not jump out of bed in case it was all for nothing. We mosied across town to the banks of the Kur river. It didn't look like people were walking in droves to anything in particular. From the opposite side we could see buoys and a small crowd gathering so we continued on our way with brighter prospects of actually viewing an interesting sporting event here. Sadly when we arrived we discovered we had missed the opening ceremony. (Darn we missed another plethora of speeches) but the events were underway. sort of. It was hard to tell. There was a lot of hubbub around, people in speed boats racing to and frow but there was no schedule and certainly no announcer so we really had no idea what was going on. There was a kind of program that had some information about the future of Azeri rowing, the new sports complex and some general information on the competition but no details like times and specific events. So we talked with an Azeri student Mike helps out who was covering the event for his university paper, and he tried to get more information for us There was lots of media around along with several police officers and government officials. So we hob nobbed with them. This event also marked the official opening of the new Riverside Hotel which charges exorbitant prices for nice enough rooms but sadly there's no other infrastructure in Mingechavir to draw tourists. Why would anyone come here to vacation? There is absolutely nothing to do! But I digress. The hotel restaurant sported Euro-style furniture that should have stayed in Europe and it was so new they still didn't have menus. But the staff was very friendly and helpful. Back to the races we saw that a group of rowers was making its way to the finish line. We weren't even really sure which team was which as very few of the boats were marked and only the Iranians actually had uniforms. We hung around for a few more races, which were mostly won by the Russians or the Iranians. They were just so much bigger than the Azeris and the Georgians. There were also some women doing some warm-ups and I hoped to see one of the women's events. Sadly it was not to be. At around mid-day we were starving and over-heated so we went to lunch at the cafe on the other side. After some sustenance we decided to check out the new sports complex. Although far from finished, when it is completed it will be pretty amazing. But again the question I have to ask is why? But the answer I believe lies in the fact that Azerbaijan is vying for the 2016 Olympics. All I have to say is they have a LONG, LONG way to go!

The next day I had to go back to Ganja. I thought I had to go to work but then it turns out I didn't so I came back to Mingechavir to take in the rest of the rowing fun. In the meantime the Russian team had gone home. I guess they didn't have any canoers or kayakers. These events were a bit more heated, or wet for some. We saw some angry disqualifications quite a few people fall out which can't be very fun. The racing boats are pretty tippy. On the last day we tried really hard to get up early but again- no luck- and today there were huge crowds. And then we realized they were all college students who the government forced to come to the event. The students weren't really paying attention and

most were trying to sneak off. We had been blessed with small crowds the days before which was much more comfortable- no staring or stupid 'What is your name" questions. But today was a whole nother ball game. We escaped to another viewing area beyond the hotel pool and had some nice conversation with some Iranian team members. There biggest shock was coming to Azerbaijan and finding out that no one spoke English so they were happy to talk to us and clarify some things about the competition.

Well, it wasn't the head of the Charles but it was a pretty nice way to spend a couple of days outside! They even got the cotton candy out for it. Who knows the world may be watching the rowing's best of the best in Mingechavir in 2016!

Novruz 2008 in Mingechavir Part 2

2008-04-20T11:26:00.004+05:00

The following day was fairly uneventful. Mike had meetings and I was revising my thesis proposal. In the evening we were invited to Elvin' s aunt's house for another Novruz dinner. Elvin is a student at the Teachers Institute and he works with the Ming PCVs quite a lot. He is very excited about anything American and was very excited to have us all come to his house for dinner. Dinner was more of the same, Dolma, Plov, Baklava. We had an egg challenge. Afterwards we all took a stroll outside since all of the apartment blocks were having bonfires that night. We stopped at some embers and jumped over them, wishing our last years' troubles away. There were some fireworks, too. We wandered in on Carolyn's counterpart's party and we danced around with them for a while and watched small children play with sparklers. It was really fun until the kids started throwing fireworks at us. Then we made for home.

Novruz 2008 in Mingechavir Part 1

2008-04-19T22:41:00.011+05:00

The Novruz festivities ended with several large gatherings in Mingechavir. Early on Thursday the 20th of March, the vernal equinox and the official Novruz day, Mike and I hopped out of bed in Ganja and sped up to Mingechavir for the big party there. We arrived just on time. Like last year the main street had been blocked off and all of the schools had set up Novruz displays around the square in front of the police station and municipality building. We found Mike's awesome sitemates Jesse and Carolyn at Carolyn's school's display. She is a TEFL volunteer at school number 13. We said our hellos and then made our way around to look at all the other beautiful displays. We were treated like royalty, and every school gave us Baklava, nuts, fruits, cookies, kete and anything else they could hand out to us. Since I know quite a few teachers in Ming and Mike just knows everyone- and everyone knows him. We had photo ops galore. Some of the displays were really very beautiful. The children were all in bright colored clothes. There were lots of flower and bright green samina plants. Many of the girls were making traditional food and there was a log butter maker. I liked the lamb shaped cookies ( or bread) can't remember. I also got to play the traditional hard boiled egg game with some school director. Each person takes an egg and then they tap the eggs together and the one whose eggdoesn't break gets to keep both egges. and they go on and challenge the next person with their winning egg. It was kind of fun- low output entertainment. When we were done touring around we went back to Carolyn's school and awaited the coming of the mayor. Carolyn's school director asked us to say good things about the school to the Director, in Azerbaijani. We practiced a little and when he stopped by to assess the display we gave our best performance. I think we did OK.
At the end of the morning we were stuffed with food and still did not have enough hands to carry the left over. We got a couple of plastic bags and then on our way back to Mike's place we gave most of it away to some street children, who even after we gave them a bunch of food still asked for money. We got back to Mike's place and dumped our remaining platter of food on the table. The mother of

one of Mike's co-workers had seen us in town and bestowed upon us an entire platter of cookies, sweets and nuts. We were overwhelmed with food. As we were going guesting in the evening we busied ourselves with making sweets of our own to give to our host- one of the teachers I work with. In the midsts of the baking hubub the neighborhood children were knocking on our door with empty caps hoping we'd fill them with sweets. This is very similar to trick-or-treating. We thought GREAT we can load some of this stuff off on the kids. So Mike filled their hats but then a few minutes later we got another knock and sitting outside our door was a new piece of Baklava in return for the sweets we had given. We were not making much headway on our pile of food.
With make-shift chocolate chip cookies in hand (we make them without brown sugar and with m&ms to keep the cost down) we headed to Sevil's apartment, where again we were stuffed full of food. We met her mother and two children

and I drank wine- which Sevil pounded like a vodka shot , much to our amusement. With left-over plov, dried fruit and more candy and baklava we waddled back to Mike's place and then went to Caroloyn and Jesse's place for a little more socializing. Their host family has built a chay xana/restaurant and they open it up for them to have friends over. So we sat for a while drinking tea with their host father. He's a really nice guy, and he loves to sit and talk with us and make toasts. We called it a night fairly early and went back to sleep off all the food to prepare for the next day of feasting.

Ganja Chamber Orchestra Concert

2008-04-19T18:39:00.004+05:00

In the midst of all the Novruz celebrations there was also a concert put on by the Ganja Chamber Orchestra. This musical group puts on concerts 4 or 5 times a year but every time they perform I'm either out of town or I find out too late. There is no published schedule that I know of and I have to rely on word of mouth for any information. The group performs in an old Albanian church that has been renovated with the help from some Norwegian organizations in town. My Norwegian friends are the ones who let me know about the concerts, which always seem to be last minute. This time Mike and I were finally in town for a show.

We weren't sure what to expect and we've learned not to get our hopes up with anything here. But we were pleasantly surprised to be proven wrong this time around. The concert was wonderful. We were so happy to listen to beautiful live music in such nice surroundings. They opened up with a piece by Mozart and went on to perform several other short pieces by Russian and Azeri composers as well as others. There were featured soloists and the hit of the evening was this amazing Tar player. He lit up the stage. What was so unique about the concert was that although I would categorize the music as 'Western classical' every piece, even the Mozart had a subtle Eastern rhythm which added an extra flair.

There was also a group of Norwegian tourists in town for the Easter holiday so the small hall was filled with Norwegians, and we didn't feel like we were in Azerbaijan- we lived here but we were outsiders and here were these tourists who looked kind of like us but spoke a different language, too. It was kind of surreal. Hopefully we'll get to another concert before our time's up.

Naile's Wedding

2008-04-18T22:19:00.008+05:00

Naile's wedding was by far the best wedding I've been to in Azerbaijan. Much of that had to do with the fact that I wasn't stuck at at a table by myself with people I didn't know and who didn't speak any English. Being able to converse with friends makes events much more enjoyable. Mike came, too so that was definitely helpful. And this was the first wedding that I was good friends with the bride and Naile was my closest friend in Ganja. Although the wedding was very nice I am very sad to see her go.

Even though this was the best wedding I've been too it still did not differ significantly from all the other weddings I've been to or heard about. The food was the same- salads, kebabs, and plov, the music was the same-very loud and the dancing was the same. There was also the usual entourage of video and still cameras. There were three video cameras in all which blocked most of the action at the head table and frustrated Mike in his pursuit of the ever elusive "perfect shot." The wedding wouldn't need to be videotaped and broadcast live on T.V. if the cameramen weren't blocking the view all the time. So essentially you never see what's going on directly. You have to watch the wedding on one of the many t.v. sets mounted on the walls all around the room.

Naile had arranged for a table just for friends and co-workers from SOROS. So we all sat together, danced together, listened to speeches and took lots of pictures together. At weddings in Azerbaijan all the important people in the different aspects of the bride or grooms life are supposed to give a speech. The fathers give a speech, the mothers, the siblings, the uncles, the grandparents, colleagues, friends. Hasan, the director of SOROS was elected to represent the colleagues and friends. He tried to drag me and another American up there but we refused. We also knew that Hasan could handle speech giving on his own. He's notorious for getting up in any large crowd and pontificating about anything and everything. Tonight was no exception. True to form Hasan gave a lengthy address about Lenkaran and SOROS and America. As I had wagered he delivered the longest monologue of the evening. After the reps from a particular faction gives the speech then those people belonging that group must dance to the song celebrating that relationship. So after Hasan's speech we all got up and danced to the work colleagues song. I even got Mike off his chair!

The unexpected moment of the evening was the Plov presentation. Instead of a traditional Azeri dance it was a Spanish number and to my shock everyone around me loved it! It just re enforces my belief that most Azeris don't really like the traditional music at weddings but no one is daring enough to break from custom and try something new. Maybe in another 100 years or so it will be different. I'm not holding my breath!

The challenge for me was seeing Naile not as herself. It was really strange seeing her all dressed up. As Azeri girls go she dressed pretty casually without a lot of the bling and pizazz that most girls have. Simple beauty. She was also without her usual smile and laughter. What I most treasure in Naile is her sense of humor and we spent many days laughing and joking. Weddings are a non-smiling event. I'm still not 100 percent sure why its improper to smile and laugh- especially for the bride. Females laughing in public is generally considered inappropriate and weddings are considered a solemn occasion so its probably a combination of those things. What was funny was that half the time you could tell Naile was trying very hard NOT to laugh and smile.

But of course the highlight of the evening was the grand finale- the bouquet toss. Unlike in the U.S. the toss is for anyone who is single so the men are jockeying for position along with the ladies. Naile's cousin who is well over 6 feet tall placed himself right up front blocking everyone behind him and he would box out anyone who tried to get in front. But his bullying failed and the flowers tipped off his fingers and into my hands! The first one I've ever caught. I don't think Mike was very happy about it, though. He may bail out before that time comes.

Although the wedding was nice, as with most all weddings I've been to here, I'm never overcome with happiness for the couple, especially the woman. Although being unmarried here has its disadvantages, I've seen few happy marriages

and especially happily married women. I hope

Naile will be happy, I hope more that her new husband treats her with love and respect and I hope his family(they will be living with his parents) will be good to her, too.

Hasan's soliloquy

Aren't we cute!

Here's a picture of me with Seva, Naile's sister. She just came back from studying at Columbia in the U.S. The other two guys are Tural and Farid, friends of Naile and two of my students and softball players. They are both really great guys.

The amazing Spanish plov (pronounced plofe)

Novruz 2008 in Ganja

2008-04-04T09:03:00.009+05:00

This year Mike and I had the chance to celebrate Novruz both in Ganja and in Mingechevir. We were lucky we saw anything at all since none of the Azeris we knew had any idea when events were happening in either town. This year the "official" Novruz holiday was on Thursday, March 20th, the vernal equinox. However the Tuesday before was the final Tuesday in the Novruz weekly parties celebrating the 4 elements: earth, wind, fire and water. So essentially the entire week was one big spring "new year" celebration. True to form and of course looking ahead to his upcoming election in the fall, Ilham gave the country 9 days off. So officially from Thursday the 20th-28th were free. However since the 18th and 19th were big party days too, they were essentially days off as well. I realy like Novruz because of its significance to the people. It is one of the few tastes of the ancient culture even before Islam came to this region. Most all of the other holidays here, with the exception of Ramadan and Qurban are political in nature. Under Soviet rule I was told that Azeris were not allowed to celebrate Novruz, so its come back since with quite a lot of fervor. This year Ganja went all out especially with the city decorations and even a 12 meter piece (Hunk?) of Baklava. The Baklava here is not like the kind made in Greece and Turkey. Its similar but I find it sweeter and gooier.

Mike came to town on Tuesday to help me out with my Library opening on Wednesday. I had found out that day from Naile that Wednesday was also going to be the big day for Novruz events in Ganja. No one realy knew for sure when everything was going to happen, for once it wasn't just Mike and I who were out of the loop, so Naile called up the city government to confirm. So on Tuesday night also a big party night Mike and I strolled through the city to get a glimpse of all the festivity preparations. Here are some pictures that Mike took. There was a big tent set up with the famous Baklava and the cops guarding it let us take a peak inside but no pictures until the next morning! So we figured we'd have to arrive early to get there before the throngs of people started eating all the Baklava. According to Naile and her government connections the festivities were to begin at 11:00. We decided to try to be there an hour early to try to get some good pictures of all the activity. When we arrived just after 10 the roads downtown had already been closed and the central square in front of the exectutive power building (the big ugly one in all the pictures) was already very full. The Baklava was unmasked for all to see, quite impressive. A guy on a cherry picker was taking arial views of it and there were still a lot of police milling around quasi guarding it. The makings of a giant bonfire were on center stage, and as we watched men kept dousing the wood with lighter fluid. I think the logs were pretty well saturated by the time they got around to lighting it.

All around the square there were different 'booths' with different organizations and handicrafts. There were also boxers, wrestlers and Taekwondo fighters. Several musical ensembles were arranged in different areas around the square including a marching band type group. A couple of dance schools performed various traditional dances. Then around 11 o'clock a group of 4 men on horseback came riding in and circling the soon-to-be bonfire. I didn't think it was a particularly good idea to have a bunch of horses walking around an inferno, But they didn't seem to see anything wrong with it as you will note from the first picture.

The fire was lit a few minutes later and it was intense. Because of all the gas the logs practicaly incinerated in about 10 minutes. The blaze was incredibly hot- and it was a breezy day so staying to close to the blaze was not a safe idea but the masses came in close, ashes, soot, flames and all. I didn't think being in the midst of a pack of people around a giant blaze was very smart so I moved away to a safe distance. Mike, always more concerned about getting the perfect picture over personal safety, stayed in for some photo-ops.

After the fire we went over to see what was going on with the Baklava. By now the mayor and his contingency had arrived and they were serving it up. The police had organized themselves in a human wall, linked arm and arm around the table to barracade the masses from swarming the Baklava. This had little effect and the people shoved through breaking the police ranks and rushed the Baklava. Some even jumped up on the table and several were shoving huge chunks into grocery bags they had brought. A couple of old women got carted off by the police. It was mass chaos and incredible to watch. We were shocked and amused. I mean- its just Baklava! You can make it at home. We didn't think it was worth pushing and shoving to get in for a piece since we don't really like it that much anyway so we made a quick exit and went to the restaurant for some breakfast/lunch to mull over what we had just witnessed.

Wedding Dresses Galore!

2008-04-03T11:55:00.005+05:00

Naile, the very sweet and funny girl I work with, is getting married this weekend. I'm actually excited about the wedding because this is the first bride that I actually know really well and I her wedding wasn't arranged- she actually loves the guy!But he's from Lenkaran, which is a city about as far away from Ganja as you can get- in the South near the Iranian border. After the wedding on Saturday she is moving down there to live with him in a couple of rooms in his parent's house! However, this is pretty normal for the culture. It definitely saves money!

So a couple of weeks ago we went dress shopping around Ganja with Naile's sister Sevinj. The interesting tidbit is that here the bride rents her wedding dress-which makes so much more sense! The rental price is still pretty steep-around 100 bucks for an afternoon/evening. The key is to try and get a dress that hasn't been rented before. If I haven't mentioned it before, the dresses here are amazing- and I mean that in both a good way and a bad way. If you want a gynormous Cinderella-style poofy, blingy gown, this is the place to be! They are really, with few exceptions, incredibly elaborate-the more sparkles the better! They really are eye catching in the store windows- this is also a country I would wager with the most wedding dress shops per capita. This may be due to the fact there are so many weddings. Most couples have at least two big ones- one for the boy's family and the other for the girl's family. Many also have a pretty big party for the engagement. Each one requires a different dress. In the girls wedding the bride can wear any color and usually does not wear white. White is reserved for the boy's wedding which is the final and 'real' wedding (i.e.- the marriage is consummated that night-with a witness to ensure the virginity of the bride!! and a family party given by the boy's family where the wedding sheets are displayed!!!!) Anyway, I digress....Naile decided to wear white for her girl's wedding because most of her relatives will not be able to all the way to Lenkaran to see the boy's wedding. But anyway, after gazing at all of these dresses for so long I was excited at the prospect of actually going into a shop and maybe, just maybe being able to try one on. This is no easy feat because the shop assistants only let girls try on dresses if they are actually having a wedding. But Naile and I weren't above lying! haha!

But as it turns out one of her neighbors worked in a shop and she let both Sevinj and I try dresses on. So I picked a particularly bright one- I liked the color- not necessarily the style. Sadly it didn't really fit. I'm just not built like the tiny Azeri girls here. I think my back is twice the width of most girls here. So needless to say its not a very flattering cut(note to self, arm liposuction and tummy tuck are in order!)Haha! Anyway it was still a fun day and after roaming all around, Naile, the bride, never actually tried one one. Here are some pictures I took until one of the shop ladies yelled at me, maybe the flash will ruin them? Or they are top secret designs that could be copied- like everything already is here???? Anyway, Will have a posting about the wedding up soon!

The Hibernation is over!

2008-04-02T21:51:00.012+05:00

Since it has finally warmed up around here ( a couple days last week were in the 80s!!!! Doesn’t bode well for the summer temps :( ) Mike and I have crawled out from under the thermal sleeping bag and made attempts at accomplishing a few more things before we pack it all up and head back home. Starting in late February I began working with the Az-ETA Mingechavir branch giving a few presentations/workshops and general support for their work. To my surprise and happiness the turnout at the weekly meetings has been great, about 20-30 every week. I’m so impressed that so many teachers, who are generally over-worked and severely underpaid, take the time to come to a one hour meeting every week for their professional development. This branch just got a room at the local Teacher’s Institution, where we have are meetings and there are books and other resources.
On March first I was invited to lovely Yevlax for a training there. It was another successful event. I brought teachers from Ganja and Mingechavir and there were already 25 or more teachers from Yevlax there. Some of the Yevlax teachers are trying desperately to start their own Az-ETA branch but are being met with some strong opposition from their local education department and city government. Hopefully they will persevere!
March 8th was International Women's Day. It was a national socialist holiday in the Soviet Union that Azerbaijan has decided to keep. Its kind of like Mother's Day except its an official holiday so there is no work and you don't have to be a mother to enjoy it. Originally it was intended to celebrate the achievments of women in the Soviet Union and during the Revolution. Now in Azerbaijan men are supposed to give the women flowers and gifts and supposedly the husbands give the women a break from the housework for a day. That is NOT to say that the men do it instead, they just let the women leave the dirty dishes for the next day. Oh well. I received many congratulations from teachers, students and friends. Mike even gave me some flowers. They were beautiful mostly because he actually found some real ones instead of the usual plastic!

On the 7th Aiching, a volunteer in Goranboy, invited a bunch of volunteers and me to a big Women's Day celebration at one of the two schools in town. There were many speeches about women and mothers and Azerbaijan. Many children recited poems and there was singing and dancing as well. The kids were cute, especially the little ones who forgot their lines and the teacher her helped a trio of girls with some songs by singing along with her head turned to the back of the stage. I also got in on the festivities and read some information about some famous women- Amelia Earhardt, Marie Curie and Margaret Thatcher. It was cute and I always like to see Aiching and cheer her up since she has to live in a pretty sad place.

Then the following weekend Mike and I were invited to Qebele, in the northern foothills, for an Az-ETA youth conference. I was also chaperoning/assisting one of the groups from Ganja. So we rented a bus and loaded up with kids at 7 AM in Ganja, then drove to Mingechavir picked up Mike and some Mingechavir students and their teacher and then headed up to Qebele. I was anticipating only about 40 or 50 students but it was in fact a huge event with students from all over Azerbaijan- probably around 300 in all. Then we sat through 4 hours of student presenations about Novruz- the big spring festival. Everyone got a little restless, including us. We managed to entertain ourselves with the food. We first were served tea and then later cups of yellow liquid were handed out. We weren't sure what they were and I was about to try a sip but the smell stopped me. Then when the platters of rice emerged later on I realized that they were cups of oil to put on the rice! Woops! Ah yes- two years here and I still have much, much to learn. Although exhausting being around so many teenagers, the day was really nice. We were both really happy to see our friend Vafa who was the teacher who organized it.

For the past two months or so I have been working on organizing all the books that I've been left in charge of. I've also purchased some more to add to the collection. Naile, my friend who works at the organization where my office is, helped me process all the new books and organize the old ones. What I thought would be a two day task ended up taking much longer. More because of my anal retentive behavior than anything else. So we decided as a celebration of our hard work, to have a little opening ceremony-red ribbon and all. Since it was right around Novruz we combined it with a Novruz party. We browsed the books, jumped over a candle, swallowed fire, told fortunes, and ate cookies that Mike and I had made the night before. It was a small but appropriate opening. The picture shows what my office looks like, in case you were wondering.

This is only a taste of the fun that's been happening over the past few weeks. Will hopefully get to those posts soon. Since its after Novruz the country is in a flurry of activity, which will last probably until July, when it gets too hot to move anymore so I'm taking advantage of all the motivation and the decent temperatures. Started a TOEFL class today and will be working with the Ganja Az-ETA branch on Saturdays and of course I'm still working on my thesis. Its been a bit more of a challenge since my computer up and died on me- not even 3 years old!!! I actually have a proposal that I like-we'll see if my advisor likes it as well! More to come soon! Inshallah!

Winter in Azerbaijan 2008

2008-02-17T23:13:00.009+04:00

Coming back to Azerbaijan after three weeks in the U.S. was a bit of a shock. We had left Azerbaijan in December after a relatively mild fall and start to a mild winter. However we returned to a country covered in snow and temperatures well below freezing. Luckily the holiday in Wisconsin had been chilly so we were prepared for the temperature change on the outside but in a country with practically no central heating it was the cold on the inside that was the hardest to get used to.
After a mild fiasco trying to leave Minneaopolis airport including cancled flights, cancled credit cards and impossibly long layovers, I arrived in Baku in the wee hours of the morning on Januaray 9th. I had heard from Mike that there was snow in Baku but I really didn't think too much about the implications of that until we were nearing the runway for landing. All I saw out my window was drifing white snow. The runway was bairly discernable and in a puffy white cloud we landed on what I hoped underneath was some form of pavement or asphalt. I had to laugh because it was so typical of this place. Thankfully we did not skid off the snow-covered runway and made our way toward the terminal. Several large airplanes were scattered haphazardly along the runway as if abandoned. We taxied our way through the snow (it was probably about 8 inches- which really doesn't sound like much or any reason for concern except for when you are in a city that is not used to ANY snow and has no means for getting rid of it!)

We parked the plane among the other abandoned ones and caught a shuttle bus a few hundred yards to the terminal entrance. After waiting for close to an hour to get through customs and almost another hour for my luggage I made for the exit expecting to see Mike there to meet me. I still did not understand the full ramifications of all this snow until I tried finding a taxi to take me into the city. At 4 AM there is no public transport so taxi is the only way to go. Because of this, in normal weather conditions they charge exhorbitant fees and now because of all the snow they were milking it for all it was worth. What normally cost around 20 dollars was now 50-the excuse being that the roads were so bad. I finally bargained one driver down to 30 and we started out toward town. Then iIunderstood what all the fuss was about. The roads were not been plowed, and the snow had all turned to ice. Driving in Azerbaijan in nice weather is a harrowing experience, now with the snow I was even more tense than usual in the back seat of the cab. Thankfully he was a relatively careful driver and at his was one of the few vehicles in Azerbaijan to actually have working seat belts! There also were very few other drivers on the road. However A drive that normally took 20 minutes took about an hour and a half.
Finally at my hotel I got a room and crashed. The next day I found Mike and we exchanged travel adventures and amazement at the state of the city. Only the most major roads had been cleared, the rest all had a good 6 inches of ice on them, worn very smooth by all the traffic. At almost every stop light cars were spinning and skidding to get going. if stuck any men hanging aroundwould team up and push the car into the road. People were chipping away at the ice with shovels and douseing sidwalks with table salt. I also noticed that outdoor water spickets were open and running, which made me pause and think "why the heck would they pour more water out that would just make more ice?" My anwer came a few days later when Mike and I were safely back in Mingechavir. With all our luggage we had planned on taking a taxi back but we realized that taking any of the roads would be very, very dangerous so we took the train.

Back in Mingechavir there was considerably less snow-but enough to actually almost make it look pretty- but the temperatures were colder. I solved the water mystery when we were talking to Mike's site mates. Most of them had no water or if they did their host families left it running so it wouldn't freeze. Thankfully Mike had water- very, very cold water. I became concerned about my own apartment. I feared broken pipes and a flooded apartment. A few days later I returned to Ganja and as I had feared, there was no water-but my apartment was still dry. I later learned that the whole building had no water and the pipes from the city water into the building had broken. Since cold temperatures in most parts of Azebaijan are a rarity none of the water pipes are insulated making them highly prone to freezing and subsequently breakage There was no telling when it would be fixed so I decided to head back to Mingechavir where there was a flush toilet, shower, and someone warm to snuggle next to. So we spent the next couple of weeks huddled in blankets reading student applications for study abroad programs in the U.S. and made excuses to bake and cook so we could turn on the oven and gas burners to warm up. Mike does have a small electric heater but sadly even with the lights out barely glows orange. The only other sources of heat are the gas stove-in the kitchen and the gas water heater in the bathroom- neither of which provides meaurable heat to the rest of the apartment.
Outside kids were enjoying the weather with snowballs and dirty snowmen. It was nice- almost normal.
Then on the 20th of January we both went back to Ganja for a football fest. Although I had no water, I still had electricity and internet. Mike had signed up for NFL radio casts of the games so we went back to my place to listen to the Packer's and the Patriot's games online. With the time difference the games were actually early Monday morning.
We started listening to the Patriot's but then about halfway through the 1st quarter the power went out. This is not unusual for Azerbaijan but we had been so used to stable electricity that we were caught off guard. So now we had a dilema. Mike's computer only had enough battery power for one of the games. Which one would we listen to? I magnanimously gave up the Pats game because I figured they would win anyway. So we got some sleep and then woke up at 4:30 to listen to the Packers play the Giants. An amazing game! Except that in the middle of the 4th quarter Mike's computer battery died and we had to 'watch' the game on his cell phone, which just gives updates every few minutes. Because I had no power I also had no heat so we were huddled under the blankets watching a little cell-phone screen. It was pretty funny.

We headed back to Mingechavir the next day,but not before finding out that my power outage was NOT a city wide phenomenon. While I was in the U.S. the Azeri government had installed new electric meters which require a card to purchase and upload elictrical units. As I was gone I had no card and had used up what few kilowatts of power the electricity department had allowed me. So now I had to get a card and figure out where to go to load it up with power potential. The system seemed overly high tech for such a low-tech place.
Knowing what I had to do to fix the problem but lacking the time to do so we went back to hibernate in Mingechavir. Although the snow was melting a bit during the day it was still bitterly cold at night. And we were both suffering from mild depression since coming back from a wonderful vaction in the States. We had little ambition to do much of anything except eat and sleep.

Finally about February we did wake up permanently (we did get out to Baku to catch the Superbowl at a bar that stayed open all night for a bunch of crazy Americans- the game started at 3:30 AM Monday Azeri time)

For Valentine's Day and a late Birthday present we took a trip to Sheki to stay at the new Sheki Saray Hotel. Its supposedly run by Marriot so the standards are pretty high and the food is excellent. The weather that Saturday was crystal clear and warm. Probably the first really warm day since we'd been back. Once in Sheki we went up to an Albanian Church in a small village outside of Sheki called Kish. We had been there in the fall but failed to get nice pictures so we decided to make the short journey again. Kish is a nice little village and its most noted for its doors. In many of the old houses the main door is actually two doors- a small door within a larger door. There are two knockers as well- one small and one large. In the past male callers would use the larger knocker and females would use the smaller one so that the women inside would know if they had to cover up.

As the weather was so fine we decided to walk back into Sheki- only about an hours walk. Making our way down from the church we almost litteraly ran into a group of boys on home-made sleds (well they almost ran into us!) Normally I don't have much nice to say about any representatives of the male gender in this country but these kids were pretty funny;especially their sleds. Some even had put lights and liscense plates on them. On our way back into town we also came across a group of puppies all sleeping in a pile in the sun. At first I though it was just one big lumpy dog until they all started moving. They were pretty cute. But had to try not to think about the horrible future in front of them.
As I write this, winter is finally coming to a close here in Azerbaijan. The past couple of days have been in the 60's and 70's. The boys are playing soccer in the stadium below my apartment and many of the cities are getting spruced up. This may be more on account of an imminent visit by the president than the time of year. But Novrus is just around the corner (see posting on Novrus) so we have the merciless hacking of tree branches and raging tire bonfires to look forward to! Never a dull moment in Azerbaijan.

Almaty, Kazakhstan

2007-11-18T12:22:00.000+04:00

Again, here is another post that is extremely over-due. Kind of like my library books when I was a kid. I like to think that maybe my narratives are better if I have more time to process the experience...Well enough with the excuses and on with the story! Last spring I was hired to teach about the life in the U.S. to young Azerbaijani high school students selected to study in the U.S. for a year. As part of the deal I got to go to Almaty, Kazakhstan for a week-long training of trainers workshop. There, other teachers and teachers' assistants from Central Asia all got together to learn about what we had to teach. Although I had recently come back from a short trip to the States, I was itching to travel again- especially to another Post-Soviet country. I am trying to decipher the roots of some of the cultural idiosyncrasies here in Azerbaijan- is it Soviet, Muslim, Persian or just unique to Azerbaijan. It being anything from drinking cold water causing imminent death, driving practices, bribery, gender roles or care (or lack thereof) for the environment. And of course since the Borat movie came out I was also curious as to how exaggerated Kazakhstan was portrayed.There were four of us total representing Azerbaijan- two teachers, myself and a Peace Corps Volunteer- Brendan, and two Azeris who were alumni of the exchange program(FLEX) and also our teaching assistants, Govher and Mamed.

The four of us boarded a plane headed for Tashkent, Uzbekistan. This was also quite exciting to have to change plains in Uzbekistan since the Uzbek government is highly selective of who it lets in. Since we were only in transit it wasn't a big deal. But still cool to say we'd been to Uzbekistan- if only for an hour. The only notable thing on the actual flight was that there was NOTHING notable down below. It was a sunny day so we could see the ground and it was amazing at how barren and desolate Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan are. I think we crossed what's left of the Aral sea but there was nothing but steppe, desert and more of the same.
In Uzbekistan we had a nice transfer, what was interesting was that from what I could see the ONLY airline that flew into or out of Uzbekistan was Uzbek air. hmmm. We did have a slight altercation with the Uzbek police when Govher was trying to take pictures of the airplane. The guard/officer made her delete all her pictures.
Because of the nature of the trip (business) I didn't have a ton of time to catch all the sights. But we did get out for a day and an evening.

The training was located at a Sanatorium (Health spa/retreat) outside of Almaty, the former capital of Kazakhstan, located in the South only a few miles from the border of Kyrgyzstan. The building was an immense Soviet Style structure. This was where all the higher ups in the Soviet government came for vacation. It was pretty nice, complete with golf course, driving range and an indoor pool with water slides! I had to splurge and buy a bathing suit to take advantage of the luxury.

Before the training started we had one day to go and explore the city. Our first stop once we figured out which bus to take into the city, was the central Bazaar, the largest in Central Asia. As expected it was a large area of mass chaos, not dissimilar to Bazaars in Azerbaijan only larger and less concern about us being foreigners, which was a breath of fresh air. After haggling for trinkets for souvenirs we headed on our way. We stopped for lunch at a nice Italian restaurant on one of the main boulevards. The afternoon was spent trying to do a self- guided walking tour from Brendan’s lonely planet book. Unfortunately the whole group wasn’t as keen on walking so much so we only managed to see a few of the sights. The first was the large turquoise Russian Orthodox Church. We walked on to see other monuments and city anomalies including a replica of the Eifel Tower. What struck Brendan and I the most was the large grocery stores and one in particular that carried imitation Dunkin Donuts- Domino Donuts. There are no donuts in Azerbaijan and we were in heaven. After getting soaked through in a flash rain storm we decided to head back to the Sanitorium. One of the other interesting things was the Taxi system. In Kazakhstan anyone can be a taxi, there are almost no marked Taxis, ,in contrast to Azerbaijan where every second car has a yellow sign on top. We flagged down some random business man driving out our way. He told us he often picked up people and was willing to take us around again if we needed a ride. The other interesting thing was that his and many of the other cars I noticed, had steering wheels on the right side.

On another evening after the training I along with two other Americans- one a PCV in Kazakhstan- and spoke Kazakh and knew the city- went out again to see what see what we could see. We walked around some parks and some more monuments. One of the more interesting was a memorial to the people who had been sent to the forced labor camps in the area. We also saw another beautiful Orthodox Church, sadly it wasn’t lit up and the ambient light was too little to capture it on film. We walked on to see a newly constructed behemoth mosque (Note the tiny people standing in the doorway- that's me and another Kate-PCV Kazakhstan). It may be one of the largest in central Asia, I’m not positive so don’t quote me on that. It was huge! So as you can probably decipher, Kazakhstan has both a strong Christian and Muslim community. I think that since the end of the Soveit Era the scales tip more towards the Muslem side. Again, I'm not positive, I still need to do my homework.

We caught a late bus back to the Sanatorium and the bus driver was so impressed that one of us spoke Kazakh that he wanted us to go to his house for dinner.

Another highlight of the training was talking to the other Americans in the ‘stans’ and learning about the similiarities and differences between all the countries in the area. It sounded like things were pretty similar most everywhere. Turkmenistan seemed to be slightly more dictatorial and Kazakhstan slightly less. Kyrgyzstan seemed to be relatively progressive as well. I will also note that nothing I saw in Kazakhstan was remotely like ‘Borat’ The people didn’t look like that- they look Asian- , not like Borat, whatever it is he looks like- but its definitely not Kazakh! I also have to take into consideration that I was in the largest city and a resort town so things were probably better there than anywhere else. From what the Kazakhstan volunteers described of their experience outside of the city, it sounded pretty rough. One shower in the neighborhood and you only get to go once a week.

The training was great and we were all sad to leave. Although I can’t say that I’m dying to go back but it would be nice to gather even more insight into this Soviet puzzle.

Lenin Sightings!

2007-11-18T12:10:00.000+04:00

Now this post is a VERY long time in coming. Sorry for the wait. I hope I don’t disappoint!

I guess it was last March? (It’s been so long I can’t even remember when it was) Mike and I were invited to a wedding, which we didn’t really want to attend as both of us have had our fill of deafening music, repetitive dancing and multiple courses of the same food. But since it was his counterparts brother we felt obliged to go.

After getting all fancied up we hailed a taxi to take us across town to be sure to arrive on time. When we got there, we were quite embarrassed/dismayed/overjoyed to find out that the wedding was already in full swing. We thought we were actually about 10 minutes early. We then realized that daylight savings had started and we were in fact an hour late. (doh another time change mishap by Mike and Kate! See Turkey blog day 2) And of course we had no idea because things like that are somehow part of the collective unconscious here. We are definitely not in that same loop. As it is very, very inappropriate to enter the wedding palace late (ie- after the bride and groom) we decided to just leave, and spend the afternoon doing something a little more to our liking-such as going places.

As it was a beautiful day we decided to take a little road trip to Yevlax. Yevlax is not a traditional outing destination. People usually just pass through as it is at the intersection of the major north/south and east/west roads of the country, but nobody stays.

Why then, you may be asking, would Mike and I want to go to Yevlax to visit. Well it turns out that there is in fact something worth looking at in Yevlax- especially if you are a Soviet relic nut. Although neither Mike nor I are all that into Soviet paraphernalia we like a good excuse to go pretty much anywhere- even Yevlax. Hidden away in a field/junk yard/garbage pit is one of the few remaining statues of Lenin. During Soviet days, every city had a Lenin statue but after the collapse, Lenin had to go. However, he has been, mysteriously replaced by another more current but also deceased, political figure. I’ve heard but cannot confirm that some of the Lenin statues were never completely taken down, but only his head was removed and Heydar Aliyev’s was mounted on the body. I’ll let you be the judge, they do look quite similar. We had read about it in our Mark Elliot guidebook, and having nothing better to do that day, we decided to go and check it out.

We arrived in bustling Yevlax after about a 40 minute Marshrutka ride. The statue is located on a side road a few kilometers heading out of town so we decided to just walk since the weather was so nice. Following the excellent directions in our guidebook we found the side road, turned, and started scanning the area for any stray Soviet leaders. Our search seemed to be in vain. We did find many Yevlaxians curious about us. Luckily we had a photo in our book and some rudimentary Azeri vocabulary so we asked a group of guys at a car repair place, “Lenin hardadir?” Which translates to, “Where is Lenin?” We were also pointing at the picture in the ME guide book for added clarity. And low and behold it worked! They knew right what we were after. It turns out we had walked past it- I guess it had blended in with the other junk. The guys even offered us a ride back to where it was.

In a few quick minutes, we were in the presence of greatness. Lenin indeed existed. The cool thing about this particular statue is that it has been broken/cut/sawed in half. So, you can cozy up to Lenin’s face for some great photo ops. We had a good time taking pictures, having snacks and enjoying each other’s company and the beautiful weather. (Note great views of distant Sheki Mountains)

Göy Göl

2007-09-10T21:15:00.000+05:00

Sorry that this is so long in coming! In July I FINALLY got to see one of the most revered sites in Azerbaijan. The legendary “Göy Göl.” Talk to any Azeri for any length of time and eventually he or she will mention Goy Gul and inquire as to whether you’ve visited it or not. After hearing about it for more than a year the anticipation was building up to a frenzy but I had no opportunity to travel there. Reaching the nearby towns requires your own vehicle and political or ‘financial’ clout with the local military posts in order to pass through. It is also not recommended for foreigners to go because of its proximity to the Armenian occupied territory and the possibility of landmines and/or sniper fire. However, before you freak out, Mom, - between Göy Göl and the border are some VERY tall mountains which I doubt any Armenians are clamoring over to plant landmines or shoot at the few people around the densely forested Lake.
Anyway- back to how I got to go there…So a student and friend of mine, Xaliq, (pronounced Khalig- who is now studying at Troy University in Alabama for a year)
has a professor at his university here in Azerbaijan who is doing research on Göy Göl. As a going away party/present for Xaliq he wanted to take us to Göy Göl for a little excursion. Göy Göl is also one of Xaliq’s greatest passions and he has written many reports and given numerous presentations about it, all without ever having actually been there. So this was a very special day for both of us!
We left Ganja around 11:00 and proceeded to make our way toward Hajikend- the town closest to Göy Göl and where we would first have a Barbeque. Its interesting to me how every single trip to Hajikend I’ve been on has been almost exactly the same. First we had to stop to get some supplies- I’m not sure what, exactly. Then a few kilometers later he needed charcoal then further down the road at a different store we purchased lighter fluid. A while after that we stopped at the roadside slaughter house for the meat then at the village for fresh baked bread (see ‘Azeri Barbeque’) and then we stopped at a spring for ‘fresh, clean’ water. Never mind the trash and sheep excrement upstream from it! Finally, once we reached Hajikend a good hour and a half to two hours later (its only about 20 miles away!) we then had to search for the perfect grilling location. This was a little difficult since we’d arrived a bit late in the day and most of the prime spots were taken. After driving back and forth for another 15-20 minutes we found a suitable place to eat.
We proceeded to unpack all of our barbeque equipment. (Keep in mind that there were only 3 of us!) We had a table, 4 chairs, grill, wood burning water boiler- tea maker, a complete set of dishes, plus all the food. This time there were no carpets or sound systems but our grilling neighbors provided some atmospheric music from their car stereo. Then began the food preparation, which again did not vary one iota from the previous barbeques I’d taken part in! First we built the fire and began to grill eggplants, peppers and tomatoes on large skewers (called Shish in Azeri! which is where the term shish kabob comes from! Amazing.) In the meantime Xaliq’s professor, Mr. Elshad, prepared the different kebabs, while Xaliq and I tried but failed miserably in keeping the fire going in the wood burning hot water heater so we could all drink tea.
The vegetables, once grilled to a nice mushy pulp, were mashed together with some onions and spices to create a salad. This is the exact same salad that I have eaten at EVERY Azeri barbeque. Don’t get me wrong the salad is great but its no longer a surprise! Then we tossed lamb kebabs on the grill but not before dousing them in salt. A while later we munched on those- and then worked again at trying to produce some boiling water.
We finally managed to boil the water and drink our tea. By now the day was almost over and Xaliq and I were getting worried as to our chances of making it to the lake.
He talked to Mr. Elshad and he didn’t seem real positive about the prospect. After packing all of our things back into the car we drove to the military check point. Normally it costs 100 manat (120 dollars) to bribe the soldiers to let you in. We didn’t want to pay this so we tried another approach. Apparently there was a man who was a guide and could take us to the lake through the woods on foot.
We drove to a small village and found this guy who commissioned his son to do the trek with us. Mr. Elshad, who had seen the lake numerous times, opted out. Led by a young boy we hiked up over a steep ridge. Both Xaliq and I were quite thankful that we were so late because althhough it was still warm out, it was not unbearably hot and the hike was pretty strenuous-especially for those of us who have done no real physical activity for over a year! Once over the ridge we passed through some fields with sour plums, horses and a sign telling us to be quiet, where we finally saw our first glimpse of the lake. It really was spectacular and well worth the difficult climb. We then clamored down the other side to the shore. Beautifully reflected on the surface was Mt Kapaz and the neighboring hills. As it was evening the light cast magnificent shadows on the mountains. It was really beautiful-the most beautiful place I’ve been to in Azerbaijan.. It is the most peaceful, clean place I’ve seen in this country. There was little to no trash, no other people, no cell phones, no car horns and the lake was clean and clear and there were trees! Lots and lots of trees. But more importantly it was special because of the meaning it held for Xaliq. It has been his dream since childhood to visit Göy Göl and I was there to share the moment when that dream came true. Although there are places in the world that are more beautiful than Göy Göl, much of its beauty comes from the personal significance it holds for people from Azerbaijan. Similar to how I feel about Acadia National Park in Maine. It is the natural beauty entwined with all the childhood memories I have of hikes and bikes and skis, through the park, that place it on the top of my ‘most beautiful places’ list.
After taking many pictures and enjoying the serenity, we made our way back to the village, where we met Mr. Elshad and headed back to Ganja. On the way we caught a magnificent moonrise over Mt. Kapaz and at around 10 arrived home. Göy Göl was well worth the wait!

Day 8 Back to Azerbaijan

2007-06-22T09:39:00.000+05:00

Day 8 June 4, 2007

Tbilisi-Qazax-Ganja

Our train rolled into Tbilisi around 8:00. It had been a very long night and we were still tired, hungry and in need of a restroom. We decided to head to the Old City and find an Irish pub that we thought also served breakfast. After taking many wrong turns and wandering around the city we found it-but it was closed. We opted to go back to the main commercial street and go to the old stand-by with convenient operating hours, predictable menu choices and clean bathrooms, McDonalds. However my bladder was screaming, and luckily on our way we found an open café serving breakfast so we stopped in there for the first course of the day and the toilet facilities.
We continued on to McDonalds for more of the same- and an even nicer restroom where after eating again we could actually ‘freshen up’ which meant brushing our teeth!
We had a bit of time to kill and neither of us wanted our vacation to end. We walked back down the main drag and went into an English Bookstore where we wiled away a couple of hours browsing the over-priced literary selections. We left empty-handed not wanting to pay the prices or weigh down our packs anymore. We finally decided we should start our trek back into Azerbaijan. Wiser this time around, we simply reversed our entrance procedure. We found a mini-bus going to Rustavi- where, despite a slight wrong turn, we ended up at the Red Bridge mini-bus stop in the city center. We claimed the front two seats and in half an hour we were on our way to the border. The border crossing was uneventful. Back in Azerbaijan we found a mini-bus going to Qazax and in no time we were on another mini-bus from Qazax to Ganja. We had claimed the front seat in this mini-bus as well, which was a quite risque because women are unofficially not allowed to sit in the front seat in Azerbaijan. We didn't care and we spent the majority of the ride fighting with the passengers in the back who wanted us to close our window because they were afraid the wind it caused would kill them all. It was over 80 degrees outside, we were NOT shutting the window! Welcome back to Azerbaijan!And to make our welcome home even better, about halfway into the ride the mini-bus broke down and we had to wait for a half an hour or so for a new one to come and take us the rest of the way.

At about 6:30 we finally arrived in Ganja. On our way to my apartment we ran across two of my students. Much as I like them it had been nice to be anonymous for a week. The break from the constant ‘fame’ we have here had been really, really nice and to be plunged back into it was a bit of a shock. We wanted to savor our adventure for just a little longer. Back at my apartment we downloaded the travel pictures and went off to our friend Carol’s for dinner and a recount of our adventures. Our vacation was really over.

Day 7 Eggs and Ferris Wheels

2007-06-12T22:38:00.000+05:00

Day 7 June 3, 2007

Yusefeli-Hopa-Sarpi-Batumi

We crawled out of our tree house around 7:30 and went on the hunt for some breakfast. We didn’t have to go too far as the campground provided this meal as well. We ordered more eggs along with some bread and cheese items. The eggs came back a little less than hard-boiled. Not my favorite way to eat an egg but it was better than nothing-or so I thought. Mike was also not a big fan of soft boiled eggs but he slurped his down as well. Then we settled up with the owner and went into town to catch our bus.
We bumped down and up windy roads on our way to Hopa. I enjoyed the scenery while Mike took a little nap. It was pretty hot in the bus despite the attempts at air conditioning but Mike was sweating and looking paler than normal. He clearly wasn’t up to his chipper self. I hoped it was just travel fatigue but after a bit it was clear he was getting worse. Glad I had saved many of our plastic bags I was ready for the inevitable. Once Mike’s stomach had been purged of the egg, he began to feel much better. And the rest of the journey to Hopa was pretty uneventful. We climbed into a densely forested mountain range that runs all along the Black Sea Coast of Turkey. It was apparent that the mountains received quite a lot of rain and indeed it began to precipitate as we gained elevation.
At around 1:00 the bus dropped us off in Hopa. It was a pretty large city so we figured it would be pretty easy to get to the border. We started to walk along the main street in what we hoped was the direction to Georgia. Since we had no more maps or guidebooks we were just guessing. Luckily we guessed correctly and pretty soon a mini-bus stopped and asked us if we were on our way to the border. As we were, we hopped in and continued on.
In sharp contrast to Posof, there were tons of people and all sorts of vehicles trying to cross at Sarpi (or Sarp- depending on if you are speaking Turkish or Georgian-and I can’t remember which one is which!). It seemed that getting to Georgia would be no problem. After being checked and stamped in Turkey, we moved on to Georgia where we were checked and stamped again. We had purchased some Turkish wine for a friend and hoped that it wouldn’t be a problem brining it in. At the baggage searching station we hauled our backpacks onto the table- a little nervous about perhaps having to pay duty on the alcohol. We weren’t really sure about the rules, not being experts in contraband. But we had no need to worry as the bag search was pretty lame. I unzipped my back pack and she didn’t even really look inside. So the wine smuggling was no problem. We gathered up our stuff and made our way to the parking lot where there were several mini-buses waiting too take us to Batumi, a large city part of a semi-autonomous region of Georgia, on the Black Sea. We crammed into the next bus waiting to leave and we were pretty happy with how well our luck was going. Mike was sitting in a seat in front of me and about 10 minutes into the bus-ride he turned around and asks me if I have his camera. A giant wave of panic washed over me!! SHIT!! I didn’t have it and I couldn’t remember if I was supposed to have it. We had been so careful for the whole trip making sure we always had the camera but we had slacked off! This is of course nor ordinary photo taking device! Mike’s camera is probably his most important possession. And this is his second one since coming to Azerbaijan. The first one broke in a freak dropping accident and he had been cameraless for months until he bought this new- 10.4 mega pixel who knows what other bells and whistles it has-off of E-bay- at a not so cheap price- those megapixels cost a bundle! Photography is his hobby and he had taken some incredible pictures from our trip. So the situation was bad, really bad. We discussed our predicament, and no, I wasn’t supposed to have it, but he didn’t have it either. It was not in the bus hiding between seets. Once we were sure that it was not in our possession we knew we had to go back and try to find it. Mike was pretty sure that he had it at the border crossing but may have left it on the bag search table.
We got off at the first stop, walked across the road and waited for a bus going back the other way. We were pretty desperate so we started flagging down anyone we saw going by. Luckily in a few minutes a mini-van with Turkish plates stopped and the guy gave us a lift back to the border. I waited in agony while Mike talked his way back into the border area.
Words cannot express the relief I felt when I saw him five minutes later, walking towards me with a big smile and his camera. I don’t know if I could have picked up the pieces of Mike if he had lost his precious camera!!!
Batumi ho take 2! Back in a crowded mini-bus we were on our way again. The first thing we did once we got into the city was go to the train station and get tickets for that evening’s overnight to Tbilisi. The train didn’t leave until 10 PM (and this time we remembered to set our clocks ahead- so we wouldn'te miss our train!)
We went back into town to get something to eat and walk along the Sea. We gorged ourselves on pizza and khajapuri (A Georgian cheese and bread specialty) and then strolled along the boardwalk. We saw a ferris wheel in the distance and decided to head for that and have a ride to take in the views from above. Along the way we came across a large children’s presentation of sorts. There were pictures children had created hung around this Greek-style performance area and it was clear that they were preparing for some sort of theatrical performance. We hung around for a bit waiting for the show to start. When it became clear they were still a ways away from the opening act we continued on to the Ferris wheel. A pretty long line waited us but it seemed to be moving fairly quickly. We also were delighted to see that it appeared to be for free! There was not a ticket booth in sight! The giant wheel was clearly a new addition to the boardwalk area. It was one of the really slow ones that never stops so you have to time it right and jump in as the other people are jumping out. We sprung in and had a cute little car/bench to ourselves. We were about an hour early for the sunset but we still had amazing views of the Black Sea and Batumi.
After our ride we walked back along the beach (which was pretty rocky) I dipped my feet in the water, there were several people swimming-and we had our swimsuits with us but it wasn’t hot enough to be that inviting. Then we sat and watched the sun sink into the clouds and then the Black Sea.
Once the sun was gone we went back to the stage, where the performance was in full swing. Each of the kids walked out and spoke a little speech into the microphone. I think they were all supposed to be dressed up as various famous people. One guy even brought his German Sheppard and tried to do a little dance routine with him. Another guy was dressed as Elvis and spoke in English. It was very cute. We both agreed that although we had seen many interesting sights during our travels, Batumi was the coolest city we had visited. It was getting late so we decided to make our way to the train station. When we arrived we were very pleased to see a much newer version of the Soviet style trains that we are used to in Azerbaijan.
It was still big and clunky but the compartments were all new and outfitted with T.V.s- which also had a CCTV station so we could see if someone was coming to our room. We also had fun poking our heads out of our little room, trying to see ourselves on camera. Simple minds simple pleasures!
At the second stop we were joined in our compartment by two middle-aged Georgian women- both of whom snored pretty loudly. So we didn’t get much sleep on that night either.

Day 6 Erzurum and Raging Rivers

2007-06-12T18:50:00.000+05:00

Day 6 June 2, 2007

Erzurum-Yusefeli

This was the first day were we didn’t have to get up at the crack of dawn to catch a bus somewhere so we slept in until about 8:00. We then tried to successfully operate the shower which managed to get every surface in the bathroom soaked while the person who needed cleaning stayed dry. Amazing really. We also switched on the T.V. to see if we could decipher any of the Turkish news. We were astounded to find out (we think, at least-our Turkish not being so stellar!) that the night before 4 people had died in a terrorist bombing in Bingoel!!! Glad we got out of there in one piece!!
We checked out of the hotel and found out when the buses to Yusieeli were leaving that afternoon. We had some time so we walked around town a bit looking for breakfast- especially egg dishes of sorts. After being directed to 4 or 5 different cafes-none of which had eggs but many had soups (soup seemed to be the breakfast dish of choice in Erzurum) we finally found a fast-food type place that had pizza and burgers and breakfast. So Mike got a pizza and I had a breakfast menu- and then we found out that the DID serve eggs so Mike got his eggs as well.
After stuffing our faces- it had been a while since our last real meal- we set about walking around Erzurum. We went up to yet another fortress; this one had a clock tower. We admired the views and came down as a thunderstorm was rolling in. Then we walked around the Jewelry market and then decided to look for the ticket office for the bus.
We arrived around 12:30 and were happy to find out that a bus was leaving at 1:00. We got our ticket and made it to the station on time.
Curious as to the route we would be taking I dug around for the map we had purchased the day before and low and behold I had lost this one, too. Probably I left it in our hotel room. Traveling blind yet again- we headed to Yusefeli. Luckily we already knew where we wanted to stay.
The ride to Yusefeli was the prettiest ride we took in Turkey. We rode along roaring rivers and amazing rock formations and through narrow mountain passes, getting more and more excited about the prospects of whitewater rafting which was to be the next day’s adventure! We arrived in Yusefeli around 5:00. We first needed to find out when buses were leaving for Hopa the next day. Unfortunately the only direct bus was at 9:00 AM. This could put a damper on our rafting plans! We figured before we made a decision we would find our place to stay and inquire about rafting. Also in town we found three guys from Israel hoping to do some trekking in the mountains. One of them spoke pretty good English and none of them spoke Turkish so we banded together to find our lodging for the night.
We had read that one of the rafting headquarters also had a camping/pension with tree houses. A bit out of town and directly on the banks of the raging river we found Green Piece (yes that is how it is spelled!!) campground. We talked to the proprietor- a really friendly gentleman-who spoke great English- well the best we’d heard the whole trip. Unfortunately we found out that the water was TOO high for rafting. He was willing to take professionals but not amateurs. We were a bit disappointed but our hearts were not set on it. We had figured it would be a long shot. And now we could make the 9:00 bus the next morning and get to Georgia the next day in time to catch the night train to Tbilisi.
Once the rafting issue was settled we pondered our lodging options; a room or a tree house? We took the tree house even though the owner said it could be chilly. It was just too much of a novelty to pass up!
We settled our things in our little home amongst the leaves and walked back into town. We looked for postcards and then checked our email and decided to go back to the campground for dinner as the other options in town didn’t look so appealing. We took a walk past the campground on the road that went along the river. It became very clear why we weren’t going to raft the next day. The water had washed out parts of the road and the rapids were relentless. We saw large trees being churned up in the rocks. Not a fun place to be if you happened to fall out of your raft!. Back at the campground we had a nice dinner and settled into our tree house. Unfortunately we choose the one next to the street light so it was bright as day for most of the night. And the whole structure was a little wobbly so anyone tossing and turning in their sleep simulated small earthquakes. Needless to say I did not get much sleep. But it was still really cool.

Turkey Trip Day 5 Akhdamar Island

2007-06-12T18:36:00.001+05:00

Day 5 June 1, 2007

Van –Tatvan -Bingoel -Erzurum

We woke up around 6:30 got repacked and went down to the lobby to meet the Belgians. A little after 7:30 they came down and we headed for the minibus to a town not far from the ferry dock. The driver said he would take us the rest of the way to the boat for no extra charge!
On the way we were chatting about our travel plans and I wanted to look at the map in our travel guide. I searched through my bag and realized that I did not have it with me. I had left it either in the hotel or at the restaurant the night before. So now we were without maps and information for the rest of our trip. Luckily we were over halfway done and I still had all the Georgian alphabet and phrases for when we were back in Georgia. I was pretty mad at myself for leaving it, but we would get by somehow without it.
In a little over an hour we reached the ferry port just as a boat was leaving. We jumped on with a large Turkish family going on a picnic and were charged a more than reasonable fair. At least the price was much less than we had anticipated spending. Akhdamar Island is famous for an ancient Armenian Church perched on the rocky island about 3Km out in Lake Van. There were great views of the surrounding mountains and landscape. We hiked up some of the rocks to get some better photos of the church. The Turkish family invited us to have tea with them we refused, knowing how long a ‘tea break’ lasts. This was going to be a long travel day so we didn’t want to get ‘stuck’ on the island.
After an hour or so we got back on a ferry returning to the mainland. This one was packed with a Turkish tour group from Izmir- which is on the western coast of Turkey. It was a group of mostly female teachers dressed very European in sharp contrast to the women in Eastern Turkey. Before heading back to port the captain took a swing around the whole island which afforded us even better views of the mountains and church. Back on the docks we began the process of flagging down a bus to Tatvan, the next town with a bus station, and from there on to Erzurum. We hailed one bus going to what I first thought was Erzurum. We talked to the ticket/porter and he named an outrageous price. I asked how many kilometers it was and he said 1800, which I thought was way, too many- and then I realized that the bus was going to Izmir not Erzurum. Talking with the teachers on the boat I had gotten the names confused and realizing we didn’t want to go all the way to Izmir we let the bus continue on its way. Then of course I stupidly realized that, we still could have gotten on because it was probably going through Tatvan. I already had two travel strikes against me today and it was only 11.00!!! Thankfully Mike didn’t hold it against me!
Luckily about 10 minutes later ANOTHER bus heading to Izmir drove by and they agreed to take us to Tatvan for 10 Lira a person. We rode in style for the next hour and a half!! The buses in Turkey are WONDERFUL!!- comfortable, clean, free water, air conditioning, quiet!!! Paradise on wheels.
We rolled into Tatvan, a small little community on Lave Van, around 12.30. At the ticket office we asked for transportation to Erzurum and were dismayed to find out that there were no more buses heading there that day. We then asked where the next closest city was and if there was a bus going there. The men named a town, which didn’t sound familiar- and since I’d lost our maps we had no way of knowing if this was a good decision. We thanked them and then headed off to look for a map of Turkey. At a bookshop we found what we were looking for- and realized that the town they named was not really where we wanted to go. It was too small and unlikely that there would be transportation to Erzurum from there- and if we got stuck there, the overnight options would be sparser. We found another city that looked promising and back at the ticket office asked if there were buses to Bingoel. Thankfully there was one at 2 so we bought a ticket and then went to eat ice cream. The irony of course was that we had already been offered two opportunities to go to Erzurum and now that we finally wanted to go there- we couldn’t! At 2:00 or so we headed to the bus station outside of town and then boarded another luxury liner heading to Istanbul. We finally got on the road around 3:00. And bumping through constructions sites and over mountain passes and after stopping in every town on the way-5 hours later, we finally reached Bingoel- or more accurately the fork in the road before Bingoel where it turns off to Erzurum. Mike and I disembarked here and decided to poke around trying to find a way to continue to Erzurum. I ran over to a ticket office across the street and found out that there was a bus leaving for Erzurum at 10:00 that evening. It was only 7:00 so we figured we would see if we could find something else in the meantime but if not we would use that option. After sitting on the curb for 45 minutes finally a guy in a small commercial vehicle of sorts offered to take us to Erzurum. We gleefully hopped in and were on our way.
The ride continued to be very windy and bumpy. We did get to watch some cool lightening storms. Our driver also informed us that only a few months ago, this road was where the ‘terrorists’ (most likely PKK factions) shot at the cars going by. We both wondered if the flashes in the sky were really lightening! After a slight delay at yet another military checkpoint we arrived in Erzurum around 10:00. The Belgian couple had given us the name of a decent hotel and our driver knew where it was- Erzurum is the largest city in Eastern Turkey. Settled in our hotel room we went straight to bed.

Day 4 Castles and Cats

2007-06-12T17:29:00.000+05:00

Day 4 May 31, 2007

Igdir-Dogubayzit-Van

Another easy rise and shine at 5:00! We packed everything up and headed out the door, inadvertently waking the desk clerk. Igdir was already bustling about at this early hour so we had plenty of help getting to the right mini-bus. Once we had our seats secured, although we refused the first offering, the mini-bus driver bought us some tea- a very hospitable gesture even though Mike and I have drunk enough tea to last us a lifetime!
The drive to Dogubayzit was very beautiful, with even more impressive views of snow capped Mt. Ararat. We arrived in town an hour and a half later. We contemplated our next move. The major sight in Dogubayazit is the Ishak Pasha Sarayi- a large ruin of an ancient palace about 6 KM outside of town in the foothills. Since it didn’t open until 8:30 we thought we’d get a little morning exercise and walk.
Meandering through town trying to find the road, we were both impressed with the very large military presence in the community. Schools and apartment buildings on many of the streets had armed military guards. We strolled past a base with a large fleet of tanks and other military vehicles. Also in sharp contrast to the other cities, was that here the vast majority of the women wore head scarves. I felt quite out of place with my hair exposed so I put on my hat. A short distance out of town we saw the palace in the distance and were a bit dismayed at how far we would have to walk with all of our stuff. We decided to stop and ponder the possibilities over a little ‘breakfast’ consisting of day-old bread with honey and Coke.
We chose to keep walking but hail the next mini-bus that was going in that direction. Not long after we were back on the road, we flagged down a small bus. When we opened the doors we were greeted by an energetic group of teenagers on a class trip to the palace. We had found the party van! They were absolutely thrilled to give us a ride and they drilled us with questions. At the palace we said our thanks and good-byes but some of the kids joined us on our tour and even gave us small gifts. They were so cute. What was so interesting to both Mike and I was how different they were from teens in Azerbaijan. Most of the group had boyfriends and girlfriends and there was no embarrassment or secrecy. They held hands and acted like young couples would in the United States. We were a bit amazed.
The palace was beautiful. The location reminded me of an Eastern version of Neuschwanstein-of course with COMPLETELY different architectural styles. On a clearer day I’m sure the views of Mt. Ararat would have been beautiful but our luck with the weather wasn’t so good and it started to rain right as we arrived. We wandered through the different rooms followed by our little fan club, taking many pictures along the way.
After purchasing a few postcards we decided to take a walk up to a small restaurant on a bluff overlooking the palace for some prime photo ops. The kids walked with us up the hill but refused to join us for some cokes in the restaurant. We said our final good-byes and they joined up with the rest of their group which was climbing the cliffs behind a mosque and fortress. We thought briefly about joining them for the climb but we had full backpacks and were not up for the exertion.
Our next challenge was finding a way back into town. We decided to walk back to the small parking lot next to the palace and try to catch a ride with the next group going back to Dogubayazit. We sat on the curb looking pathetic, made friends with a puppy and about a half an hour later or so a small group in a mini–bus was pulling out of the parking lot. We flagged them down and they agreed to take us back to town. It was a group of surveyors who were heading to Erzurum. They tried to convince us to go with them all the way –since we were planning on heading there eventually. However we wanted to stick with our itinerary so we just had them drop us off downtown near other mini-buses.
We found the mini-bus that was going to Van our end destination for the day. We had about an hour before it left at 12 so we wandered around the town, found some homemade ice cream and then got back to the bus stop ready for departure.
On the bus we met a young guy from France who had been traveling for 6 months. He had just come from Iran and said it was the friendliest, mot hospitable country he had been too. He had been biking from Singapore and was making his way through Asia and the Middle East.
We reached Van in a couple of hours- driving with in sight of the Iranian border for much or the way, and stopping at a couple of military checkpoints. What was interesting is that only the men in the van were patted down and had their luggage searched. Women apparently are not a threat or considered capable of acts of violence.
We found our hotel with no problem and after we had settled in and were heading out to do some sight-seeing we met a guy who worked as a kind of tour guide. He was taking a Belgian couple to see the famous Van cats and later on to Van castle for sunset views. He offered to take us too- the price being what we wanted to pay for his services. A few minutes before Mike had mentioned wanting to see some of the cats on the street. I had read that they were so rare and valuable that I didn’t think we would see them just walking around town. And according to this tour guide the cats had all been collected and taken to the University for research because they were getting sick and dying for no apparent reason. These cats are unique in that they have a genetic mutation and they are all white and with one blue eye and one yellow eye. Now some were being born with two blue eyes and it seems like these ‘mutants’ are the ones getting sick. So now scientists are trying to figure out what is killing the cats. So they are all in the ‘Keddi Evi’ or Cat House on the Van University campus. At 4.00 we all drove out there to see these interesting creatures. There were hundreds of beautiful white cats living in a big house- they had two gardens with play areas and inside quarters as well. We spent a good hour playing with them through the bars and trying to get good pictures. They were really cute but sad at the same time. Their eyes were pretty amazing, too.
After the kitty photo shoot our guide drove us to the base of Van castle and gave us some directions on how to get up to the top. He dropped us off at some shrine of sorts and there was a ‘back’ way to the castle so we wouldn’t have to pay the entrance fee. I think the tour guide thought he was doing us a favor but I just felt like an ugly tourist walking through this holy place and disturbing the women who were there. A couple of small boys led the 4 of us up the hill and we finally reached the castle but our small guides continued to ‘help’ us on our tour. Finally Mike gave one of them a lira and they left us to explore on our own.
Van castle is a huge ruin overlooking the former old Van city which was part of Armenia at one point. All that is left of the city is a couple of towers and lots of holes where the houses had been. The whole thing was destroyed during World War II. At the top of the fortress there were great views of Lake Van which is a huge body of water- one of the largest at such a high altitude. The lake is so alkaline that you can wash clothes in it without detergent and its kind of slimy. We were too early for the sunset but we had a little snack and then headed back to town. But we arranged with the Belgian couple to meet early to go together to Akhdamar Island the next day to help reduce the costs. We had read that the ferry prices were dependent upon the number of passengers so we figured we were better off to go together.
When we reached the road we started looking for some means of transportation back into Van. We caught a ride with a group of boys on some kind of joy ride and were very thankful when they finally dropped us off close to town where we got a bus downtown. By this time we were pretty hungry so we walked around trying to find a place to eat. Van was a pretty big city so we thought our options would be pretty good. It was Mike’s turn to pick a restaurant because he was the more particular of the two of us. We stumbled upon a Koefte restaurant- these are a kind of Turkish meat balls- and they also had hamburgers and French fries. The prices seemed pretty good so we decided to give it a go. Unfortunately a hamburger was defined a bit differently in this restaurant, but the fries were good. Also eating there was a group of Southern Azerbaijanis. Southern Azerbaijan is in the northern part of Iran- there are about 30 million ethnic Azeris living there. We talked briefly about the history and declined the invitation to join them for their meal, too. We had finished and were pretty exhausted so we walked back to the hotel and fell into bed.

Turkey Trip Day 3 Ani and Kars

2007-06-12T16:41:00.000+05:00

Day 3 May 30, 2007
Aradahan-Kars-Igdir

We had NO problem waking up the next morning! We were up at 5:00. Not only did the prayer calls keep us up but, because of our easterly position in the time zone, the sun rose much earlier. We were easily on time for our 7:00 mini-bus to Kars.
On the way we noticed an interesting 'landmark' on the hillside, that we would see numorous times throughout the rest of our journey. On the side of a hill was the crescent moon and star symbol found on the Turkish flag as well as some kind of quote or anouncement of the military post that was in the region. As we were in what is considered by some as 'Kurdistan' I can only imagine that these Turkish symbols were 'gentle' reminders of what official country we all were in. Very interesting....
We got into town around 8:30 and set about trying to find the tourist office and a way to get to Ani. Ani is the ancient and now ruined Armenian capital and the major ‘tourist’ attraction for anyone going to Kars. We were also on the hunt for Lira- Turkish currency. Unlike Azerbaijan or Georgia there were no shady money exchange shops on every street corner. We actually had to find a real bank! We quickly figured out that the banks didn’t open until 9. So we found the tourist office first and discovered that our only option to get to Ani was to hire a taxi ourselves as they didn’t organize any tours. By that time the banks were open so we loaded up on Lira and food and found a taxi to take us the 40 km to Ani.

We arrived around 10:30 and with the help of our driver, bargained for student prices. We spent the next two and a half hours wandering around the amazing ruins of Ani. It was built between 900 and 1100 AD and was a major stop on the Silk Road as the gateway to the Anatolia peninsula from the far East. The population at its height was a booming 100,000. However with the advent of the shipping trade the overland trade routes were discontinued and the cities that had sprung up along them died out. Now all that is left is a handful of ruins,mostly old churches, scattered about a wide open field within throwing distance of the Armenian border. What struck me the most was how massive these buildings had been and now nature is slowly reclaiming them. Ozymandias by Shelly springs to my mind. The exact opposite impressed Mike, he was more amazed at the craftsmanship and precision of the buildings for the time period and how buildings built today are not nearly as well-constructed.
Some of the structures were off limits, one of which was the citadel perched on a hill with a tempting elevated view of the city. Despite a warning sign in Turkish we decided to clamber up to the fortress. To be fair the warning wasn’t real clear as to exactly where we weren’t supposed to go. And we figured if they really wanted to keep us out they should have put up a fence! However we learned later that there was a good reason for visitors to stay away. Because of the conflict with Armenia there was a risk of landmines in the restricted areas!! Woops!!!

Around 1:00 we headed back to Kars and just as it started to pour our driver dropped us off at the Heydar Aliyev Park in Kars. After noticing this park on a map of the city we HAD to go and visit and take at least one picture. For those of you who have not read some of my previous posts, Heydar Aliyev is the now deceased former president and “savior” of Azerbaijan. He held the country together and restored order after the collapse of the Soviet Union. His son Ilham is now the president, and every regional capital has a Heydar Aliyev museum and park and the whole country is littered with his giant billboards and quotes. Even in Turkey we could not escape his shadow.
After waiting out the storm we walked back into town- purchased some famous Kars honey and then walked up to Kars castle. The top offered great views of the city. I must note here that Kars looks nothing like how I pictured it in Orhan Pamuk’s novel ‘Snow,’ which is a fascinating book. The city was not nearly as barren and cold as depicted but it helped that we were there in late May and not the dead of winter.

After hiking down from the fortress we decided to start to walk to the bus station, where our 5:00 bus was leaving for Igdir. We were between storms and we had time and not a ton of money to spend on a taxi so we decided to walk as far as we could and get a cab from there. About 2/3 of the way to the station we hailed a cab- afraid we would be cutting it close with the bus. We drove maybe a kilometer to the bus station and the meter read 10 Lira!!!! We were in shock. Aside from the heroin smuggler this was our next worst transportation decision. And since it was a metered cab we couldn’t bargain with the fair.

We harped on our misfortune for a bit but then moved on- literally. We got on a really modern bus to Igdir and munched on fresh bread and honey for most of the ride. We also had impressive views of Mt. Ararat as we got closer into town. Igdir was a small city, nothing really outstanding. Lots of people on bicycles. It looked very European. The driver of the bus, who was Kurdish and openly expressed his love for the United States and support for what the U.S. is doing in Kurdish populated northern Iraq,helped to find us a hotel since he highly disapproved of the one from our tourbook. After settling in we gathered travel provisions for the next day and then went to bed. The mini-bus for Dogubayazit, our next destination was leaving at 6:00 the next morning.

Turkey Day 2 Vardzia and border crossings

2007-06-12T14:34:00.000+05:00

Day 2 May 29, 2007

Akhaltsikhe, Georgia to Ardahan, Turkey

Having gotten almost no sleep because of the relentless barking of the packs of street dogs, getting up at 7:00 was a piece of cake. We swigged the remains of the previous day's Coke for our morning energy boost and went to the street to meet Levon. At 8:00 there was no sign of him. At 8:15- still no driver. It seemed like our travel luck was finally fading. Finally at 8:20 we walked over to the other taxis at the corner to begin the negotiations again. This is VERY difficult in a language that has NO common alphabet or even sounds like ANY other language on the planet. And sadly neither Mike nor I speak any Russian. But as luck would have it, again- one of the drivers spoke a spattering if German. So we negotiated a deal and headed out of town. We were a little baffled as to why Levon hadn’t shown up. He stood to earn a pretty easy 85 Lari (that’s the Georgian currency- its about $60) We were discussing this in our new cab when I looked at the clock on the dash which read 7:20. I thought, as with most clocks in cars, it probably wasn’t right, but it kind of bothered me especially since Mike had asked me yesterday if we changed time zones. I had kind of laughed and said something to the effect of ‘no, silly- we didn’t change the time when we came to Georgia in the winter!!” So I asked the driver for the time- and it was indeed 7:20. And then we realized the Georgia must not observe daylight savings!!! Now we were in a bit of a sticky situation. Do we keep going and stand Levon up? Do we try to explain the complicated situation to our new driver with our limited communication ability, and leave him without this ‘big job”?? We decided to try to explain everything and go back. We both would have felt really bad all day knowing that we had gone without Levon. So I tactfully tried to explain that we had to turn around because we got the wrong time and that a friend was going to take us at 8:00. After a few minutes the man understood and wasn’t upset at all. He even offered to still take us if Levon didn’t show up.

So at 10 to 8 back in front of the hotel- Levon pulled up in his white Lada and we started our journey to Vardzia for the second time that day. The ride was very beautiful, but extremely bumpy. The road just deteriorated as we got closer to our destination. On the way we stopped to look at a castle on a cliff one of many ruins on and in the bluffs overlooking a river on our route. After two and a half hours we finally reached Vardzia. And it was well worth the ride. It is an immense monastery built into an entire cliff face. Since it was only 10.00 we were the first and only tourists at the sight. We meandered through the chambers, kicking ourselves for not bringing a flashlight- DUH! Oh well... we did the best we could with Mike’s cell phone.

We took one wrong turn and had a brief encounter with some of the residents of the monastery. They weren’t as keen on talking with us so we apologized and continued on our way. There was no guidebook or signs, which I found visually quite appealing but it also hampered our
learning about the site. There was a tour in Russian at two o’clock but that wouldn’t have helped us either. We were left to just imagine what all the rooms were used for. Back it the car, we returned to Akhaltsikhe and then sojourned on to Turkey.

The road to Posof-turkey was also less then ideal. We bounced through an extremely run-down mining village and then past an Armenian memorial that Levon wanted us to photograph because he was Armenian. At around 1:00 we reached the border, said our good-byes to Levon and walked through the gate into the great void between Georgia and Turkey.
All went smoothly until we arrived at the Turkish side. The computers were down. It was going to take about an hour. We also had to get our tourist visas, which was no problem and to our delight, when we looked at the clock on the wall we realized we had gained another hour- the time changed back again in Turkey. So we didn’t really loose an hour at the border. Unfortunately we also learned that there were no more mini-buses from Posof the little Turkish border town, to Kars, our planned final destination for the day. We would have to wait until morning.
Slightly frustrated, especially after having such travel success the day before. We had even talked the previous evening of trying to get ‘ahead’ so we could have more time on the Black Sea. Our hubris was observed by the god of public transportation. It looked like we were stuck for a while at the border and then for even longer in Posof. We asked if there was anything going to a town nearby- Nothing.

Finally our passports were ready and we could leave. And the wheel of fortune swung in the other direction! The only other person crossing into Turkey was a semi-driver who had heard about our problems. He was heading to Ardahan, a pretty big town on the way to Kars and offered us a ride in the cab. We were so excited with our luck!! We might get ahead after all!! And we got to ride in a tractor trailer!!!

It was a good thing he was there because we soon realized, after leaving the border area, that Posof was a NOT within walking distance from the border- it was probably 10km, up hill! When we arrived near Posof we were stopped at the first of MANY military checkpoints we would encounter on our journey. All over the roads in Eastern Turkey-especially Southeastern Turkey- there is a HUGE military presence and periodic road blocks and passport checks. We pulled over, the driver handed over his papers and we handed over our passports. We waited a few minutes and then we were asked to get out of the rig. We were greeted with 4 or 5 men with machine guns relaxed but in ready position. We tried to speak in what I hoped was a Turkified Azeri (the languages are very similar). After some minutes they had us get our bags out of the truck- it looked like we were going to be waiting for a while. We had no idea what was going on.

Then after an hour or so the captain of the whole unit came over to talk with us. Thankfully he spoke good German so I could explain who we were and what we were doing there and he was able to give us a small clue as to what was going on. Apparently there was nothing wrong with us, but there was something wrong with the driver. He assured us that if another transportation opportunity came along we could go on our way. He was very polite and friendly but our passports were still in their possession. So we waited, and we waited, drank tea, and soda ate the last of our food, and waited some more. We made small talk with the other soldiers and we observed all the bustle around the truck. Officials came to inspect. Photos were made. More military with more machine guns showed up and finally the police came and arrested the driver! At around 4:30, after we’d been there for over 3 hours Mike was fed up. He decided that if we didn’t get our passports back by 5 we would call the US embassy in Turkey. I was definitely more for the “lets not agitate the guys with machine guns –approach” but I was sick of sitting around for no apparent reason, as well. The soldiers hanging around with us detected our agitation and not long after we were summonsed to the captains patio where we were given more tea and cookies and a more detailed account of what was going on. The captain was very apologetic and kept repeating that there was no problem with us but with the driver. It turns out they had found heroin in the trailer of the truck!! We had suspected that, especially after we saw the police come and haul the guy off, but we didn’t understand why we weren’t given back our passports.

It must have just been an ‘oversight’ because they again said that there were no more buses out of Posof but we were more than welcome to stay at the military base. This was another exciting twist. We figured it was a good option if nothing else came along. But then another officer offered to flag down every car going by and see if they were heading to Ardahan or Kars. After about a half an hour we got a ride with a group of geologists traveling to Erzurum, the largest city in the region and on our way. We hopped in glad to finally be out of that horrible town!!! In retrospect we were really lucky. We could have been arrested right along with the driver just by association. 1st travel tip of the day: don’t accept rides from strange truckers.

An hour and a half later we arrived in the small city of Ardahan. The geologists dropped us off right downtown and wouldn’t accept any money. We found a hotel for a reasonable price across the street from a newly renovated mosque. Starving we found a decent restaurant and then now thoroughly exhausted went straight to bed. Right about 10:00 as we were about to fall asleep we were jolted back into consciousness by the prayer call blasting right in our open window!! We burst out laughing!!! Travel tip number two: when in a Muslim country choose hotels wisely- preferably ones NOT directly across the street from mosques!
We listened to the praises of Allah two more times that night and we were up before dawn to start the next days adventure. All we could do was laugh at ourselves.

Turkey Trip 1

2007-06-11T22:33:00.000+05:00

Day 1 May 28,2007

Mingechavir/Ganja, Azerbaijan to Akhaltsike, Georgia

Last week, Mike and I embarked upon a much needed vacation through Eastern Turkey. Our first plan was to go to Istanbul for a week but once we learned how much flights cost we decided to travel overland to the lesser traveled eastern parts of Turkey, passing through Georgia to see some of the historical sights there as well. Our goal was to see as much as possible in 8 days without spending more than $1,000 between the two of us. Needless to say – we had quite an adventure!!!!

On Monday May 28th the journey began- for some a bit earlier than others!! Mike had to first catch a 7:10 AM bus to Ganja from Mingechavir. I rolled out of bed at about that time! Ha ha! I ambled down to the main road into Ganja around 8:30 where I was going to flag down Mike’s bus and hop on and continue with him to Qazax-the last ‘city’ close to the Georgian Border in Northwestern Azerbaijan. We were hoping to find more convenient and less expensive transport (ie. NO TAXIS) into Tbilisi. This had proven to be a problem on our last trip to Georgia. Luckily when we reached Qazax about 2 hours later, there was a mini-bus filled with people ready to head to the border. We squeezed in- made friends with the locals- and bumped and jostled our way to Georgia. About halfway into the ride I heard some mysterious peeping noises coming from what I thought was inside the minibus. I looked out the window for evidence of small winged creatures and saw a family of geese walking down the road but the noise continued after we had passed them. Sure enough at the next mini-bus stop a large older woman got off followed by 20 baby geese which she proceeded to load off the bus by wing and foot.

We navigated the border with no problem and then looked forward to our next challenge- Finding transportation into Tbilisi. The taxi drivers spotted us from a far and immediately swarmed to greet us once we crossed the bridge into Georgia. They were asking incredible prices so we refused. Luckily there was also a minibus charging a much lower fare but it wasn’t going to Tbilisi rather, Rustavi, a smaller city about 12 kilometers outside of Tbilisi. We figured that there would be another minibus into Tbilisi from there and at worse- if there wasn’t, the taxi fare would be much cheaper from there. In Rustavi, the driver dropped us off right where a Tbilisi bound minibus was loading up. We hopped on and continued on to the Georgian capital. Much to our delight- we ended up at the central minibus station, and after asking some drivers, were easily able to find our minibus to Akhaltsike, where we were planning to spend the night.

At about 2:45 the bus left for Akhaltsikhe, a 3 hour journey past Mtskheta- the spiritual capital of Georgia, Gori -the birthplace of Stalin, and Borjomi- famous for its mineral water, skiing and national park.
At about 6:00 we blew into Akhaltsike – a pretty run-down but promising town. The most noteworthy aspect of the town was the weather! It was very blustery pretty upon arrival and getting worse!! With a little help from the locals we found our hotel then we got ready to start our first sight-seeing tour to Sapara- an ancient mountainside monastery.

We could hear thunder grumbling around but nothing too serious. While we were settling in- we were startled by the sound of glass breaking outside and then the power went out. We debated as to whether we should still venture out or not. We opted to go quickly and hope to be back before it started to pour. On the streets there were already several downed trees but undeterred we headed for a taxi and arranged a ride to the monastery tucked away in the hills not far outside of town. Luckily our driver spoke some German so I was able to communicate simple things with him. As you will find out later- German as opposed to English came in much handier in Turkey as well.

After 30 minutes of scrambling up roads intended only for 4 wheel drive vehicles (we were in a husty trusty Lada) we arrived at a beautiful old monastery and fortress in the hills. We asked the driver (Levon) to wait about 30 minutes- (we would have stayed longer but the bad weather was closing in fast) We walked around and clamored up old fortress ruins- looking for the perfect photo shots. We walked down to the largest church, hearing chanting coming from within. I didn’t realize the monastery was still active and was a little nervous about disturbing the monks. We stealthily walked in and upon realizing that we didn’t speak Russian,one of the monks called another over who spoke English and he gave us a brief tour of the complex. There are 10 of them living there and they are almost subsistent- but they do carry cell phones! During Soviet times the monastery was used as a camp for the soviet youth group “the young pioneers” and the little guys had defaced a lot of the ancient frescos. The monks are slowly restoring everything but it all takes money and time. Unfortunately because of the weather we had to cut the visit short. During the taxi ride back we arranged to have Levon take us to Vardzia- the next days adventure. We decided to meet at 8 AM outside the hotel.

Back in town we admired the carnage from the windstorm- fallen trees all over the streets and still no power in most of the downtown area. We hunted down a place to eat- and dined by candlelight! Fitting as we were also celebrating 6 months of coupledom.
Back at the hotel, exhausted we fell into bed.

Softball comes to Azerbaijan!

2007-05-14T21:17:00.000+05:00

This past weekend was the premier of the Azerbaijan interregional softball league in the regional capital of Barda- known for its white fetaesqe cheese. This softball leage is the brainchild of Larry Badger- PCV here in Ganja. In the States he is part of a traveling softball league out on the West Coast and in order to prepare for the coming season once he returns to the U.S. he wanted to start up a team or two in Azerbaijan. With equipment donated from his team in the U.S. and other sources, Azerbaijan now has 4 regional softball teams- Ganja, Barda, Mingechavir and Sheki. I've been helping Larry out with coaching the Ganja team. In addition to the Peace Corps Volunteers and others-(meaning me)there are several players from Azerbaijan on each team. The Ganja team has been practicing since early April, with a consistant group of 6 Azeris plus 4 Americans. It has been a ton of fun trying to explain the fundamentals of catching, throwing and hitting and then on top of that all the rules to softball. I never knew how complicated it is!! I don't remember ever NOT knowing how to play. As with any undertaking here there is always a bit of uncertainty as to whether the whole thing will get pulled off. Will the teams show up? Will the government shut it down? Will it rain? But to the amazement of many, on Saturday, 4 teams showed up, 4 very fun and highly competitive games were played. It was a great, great day. There was even one Azeri woman who played for the Barda team. I have been trying to get some of the girls I know to play for Ganja but it is a challenge. Women and athletics don't really mix here. But I'm working on it. The next tournament will be in Ganja on the 9th and 10th of June. We are hoping to ask the Ambassador to come for a GREAT photo-op. We'll see if she can make it.

Enjoy the pictures from the weekend- and note the geese and cows in the background! No event in Azerbaijan is complete without the requisite livestock in attendance! Oh and Mike has better pictures which I will hopefully post later on.

Novrus in Mingachevir

2007-04-01T20:24:00.000+05:00

I know this post is a bit late in coming. Sorry. Work and lack of internet have kept me from being as diligent with my blog as I would like. Now that I finally have a phone line in my apartment it is much easier to keep up.

After returning from my all-too brief visit to the U.S. Azerbaijan was in the middle of its Novrus celebration, which lasts for most of the month of March. As everything in the country was shut down for the week I headed to Mingechavir to spend the holiday with Mike. Because of Peace Corps regulations he cannot leave his town without a work-related reason and permission from his program administrator. But enough about Peace Corps travel policies and on to Novrus!
This is an ancient New Years celebration, dating back before Islam came to the region. The holiday starts on March 20th but every Tuesday prior is also a holiday celebrating the four elements- earth, water, air and fire. The final Tuesday is the main holiday and the streets are filled with bonfires. What few trees there are left in the country are hacked at for fuel for the clebration- anything else that will burn- regardless of its toxicity is also added to the flames- note tires being added to the pile!!!
On the final Tuesday there was a large festival in the city center. Each school had a Novrus display, there were tightrope walkers, sportsmen and young children in traditional dress dancing around to folk music. There were also several speaches by the local government and some pop singers also came into town to perform. Also note large billboard of dead former president Heydar Aliyev. As I've said before he is the most influencial dead guy I have ever known. In the evening Mike and I gathered outside with the neigbors to stand around and admire the bonfire-ignoring the poisonous rubber smoke from the burning tires. It was - as they say in Azeri- chox gesheng. (Very beautiful) Once the flames had stopped lapping the tree tops, the children and some of the adults took turns jumping across it. The idea behind it is when you jump over the flames you shout out your troubles of the past year and are thus symbolically leaving these burdens behind you and starting a -fresh. Children also leave their caps in front of doors and knock on them with the anticipation that they will receive some kind of sweets. There is also a play that is reenacted every year- where an old bald man- symbolizing winter searches the town for the most beautiful young girl to marry- she is, of course, the symbol of spring. There are also traditional rice dishes which are eaten for Novrus and guests bring plates of sweets to friends and neighbors.

At our block party once the fire went down and the children had stopped jumping over the flames and lighting fireworks under my feet, we headed into the community outbuilding for a small dance party. The apartment dwellers had chipped in for a musician and for several hours we skipped about to traditional music. We got to meet many of Mike's young neighbors who were very curious about these strange Americans. Probably the funniest thing was when two different women on two separate occaisions asked me if Mike was my son. Anyway. Because the nature of our relationship is pretty close to incomprehensible to Azeris outside of Baku we just tell people that we are married. As I have said before-there are no male-female relationships unless a wedding is being planned.
This Novrus was special in that the president decreed that the holiday last for an entire week- so the following Monday was also a day-off. The week was a good way to get readjusted to being back in Azerbaijan.

Car door bridges and Caucasian Sheep Dogs!

2007-04-01T16:55:00.000+05:00

During a week of unusually warm weather. Mike, Carol and I decided to meander along the Ganja river- which sadly is these days, severly lacking in water but not garbage in its bed. Here are some interesting shots that Mike took on the way. We passed some really interesting and innovative construction. I love the way people make bridges and fences/gates around here. It is kind of artistic. We walked towards the mountains past a tree nursery sponspored by ADRA- which is an NGO run by the 7th day adventists. We walked through unploughed fields and grazing sheep and goats, careful not to disturb the enourmous Caucasion sheep dogs!! We had hopes of climbing up a small but steep mound to capture the views of the surrounding country side but it was getting late. At one point we stopped for a break and watched several old men dig out rocks from the riverbed. We were slightly confused as to what these guys were doing and then we heard the rumbling and grumbling of a big engined vehicle and what should appear but a giant dump
truck driving straight up the river bed. Then the guys began heaving the large rocks into the back of the truck. Dont really know what they were for! On our way back we thought we'd try a different route that took us past some farms. As we approached the house we heard some dogs barking but thought little of it. Suddenly two immense sheep dogs (they are the size of St. Bernards but NOT as cute!!!) were charging at us with teeth barred. Carol screamed at us to throw rocks as she booked it across a small stream dividing the property. She had already narrowly escaped three dog attacks during her stay in Azerbaijan. I picked up two baseball sized ones but couldn't bring myself to chuck them at the dogs. I looked back and saw that Mike had lost his footing and the dogs were still advancing. I threw the rock- it went wide- (there is a reason i played first base- the position with the least amount of throwing necessary!) Mike somehow made it up and we lept across the stream just as the dogs reached us. Hearts pounding we kept running to distance us as much as possible from the dogs. We looked back and they hadn't crossed the stream but we didn't want to take any chances. We then decided to take the safer route home- the one we had come.

Apartment Life in Ganja

2007-04-01T16:28:00.000+05:00

It became clear to me that having a boyfriend and living with an Azeri host family were not going to mix very much longer. So once I returned from Georgia I began hunting for an apartment. I have never really done this in the United States so I was quite concerned about the difficulties of the task. Its not that there are not a myriad of apartments available, its working the system so as not to get over-charged for being a foreigner and finding a bearable Landlord/lady that is not over intrusive and accepting of a woman living alone. It is VERY unusual for anyone in this very family oriented socitey to live by themselves and its even more rare for a woman. Those who do are usually prostitutes. So it was going to be a challenging task to find a landlord/lady that would accept me and a place that I would find livable. A student of mine volunteered to help me out and he set out going to some real estate agents around the city. We worked out a story that I was his distant cousin from America doing research in Ganja about my annecesteral roots. The idea was that if I was connected with a family here in Azerbaijan than I was probably not a prostitute and that they wouldn't charge me as much as if I were here on my own. My friend would go to different realitors around town and ask if they had any thing to the specifications I had given him. If there was a place that fit my description he would call me up and we would meet at the realitors with the landlord/lady and go look at the apartment. I learned quickly that the number of times the landlord/lady said how beautiful the place was, was inversely related to its acutally beauty and suitablity. I also learned quickly to pick out the problem landladies. Many of the apartments that they want to rent have been in the family for a while and only because someone has moved out for a while are the letting it. And it has happened on more than one occaision that family members have moved back and then moved in with the American tennant. This is perfectly normal here. As well as your landlord coming every few weeks to 'check on the place.' I definitley wanted as little intrusion and interaction with my landlord as possible but it was going to be a difficult task. I also ran into problems with guests. On more than one occaision some people flat out said that I could have no male guests. As the value of the apartment is determined by who has lived there. If people think that a prostitute has lived there then the apartment is harder to rent out again. The other difficulty was the outrageous decor and less then adequate bathroom/toilet facilities. Finally by chance I found a really cute place. The Landlord had just moved back from Russia, bought this place and renovated it to be rented. The fact that the guy had been in Russia as a good sign because he was more open to the idea of a 'western' woman living alone and having guests but not the paying kind! He also had no deep personal ties to the place so he wasn't going to be popping in to make sure I kept the place clean. And the best part is that it was newly redecorated so it all smelled new and fresh and clean and there was a flush toilet! ( I had been living for 7 months with a bucket flush and no toilet paper) So here are a few pictures of my place. I also have a 'great' view of a park across the street. Everyday there are kids playing soccer or guys doing some sort of 'sports' activity. Its usually walking around the track- not too fast because you might get sweaty and then get a cold and die, or they do pull-ups on the pull-up bar. I also go running with a friend in the mornings. People are not too adverse to it- I've even seen a woman walk around the track every morning. The guys only get irked when I pass them.
I aquired my apartment without furniture so then I spent a week or so trying to drum up some inexpensive home furnishings. It wasn't too hard but transporting them there made me nervous!!!!

The task that occupies most of my time here is laundry. I do not have a washing machine and my clothes get incredibly dirty. I live in the dust capital of the world- I'm not sure if thats an accurate fact but it is very, very, very dusty here. So I've devised a stomping system of washing,which kills two birds with one stone. washing my clothes and venting my frustrations constructively.
I really like my apartment it comes with its own alarm system. Not only people live in my city dwelling but there are also numerous chickens and roosters who live in a pen by the entry way. Although I live on the third floor the rooster's joyful crow wakes me up right at first light everyday. Sheep are also a common sight in my neighborhood. I looked out my window the other day to see a big heard comming down the road. The sheep in Azerbaijan are unique in that they have this flab of fat on their butts before their tails. so I call them the fatty-assed sheep. These particulary sheep seemed pretty healthy as they sported the largest fatty-asses I had ever seen here. NOTE- I live in a city of over 250,000 inhabitants!!!! Needless to say life is never boring. It just takes a little patience and creativity when you don't have the luxuries of the US. The best thing though is just having my freedom! I really liked my host family but I can now cook my own meals and keep my own schedule without feeling guilty and obligated to anyone else. I know it isn't really acculturating but I think I would go crazy if I didn't have my own little haven.

My Birthday Party

2007-01-24T22:25:00.000+04:00

I know it’s a little late but I wanted to include a few pictures from my birthday party (which was on December 6th for those of you who forgot!) that my students threw for me. It was complete with Azer-cake, Azer-video recording, Azer-dancing and Azer-gifts. It was a lot of fun and I didn’t feel so bad about turning 28.
The day started out with some minor computer problems and then dealing with the unfriendly post office people. Then I took it all as a sign to stop working and take the day off from work even though I had a lot to do to prepare for a big event that I was organizing at the Ganja Central Library.
I had told people that I was going to have a party at one of the NGO’s in town where I conduct a discussion group. So I went there to get things ready and try to get my computer fixed. The computer guy was at lunch so I waited around until some of my students came by and shooed me out. I went with one of my students to by some drinks and a cake. When I came back preparations were already well underway. I ran home to change my clothes and get my camera when I cam back a few minutes later the place was fully-decorated and packed with many of my students and friends. I entered to the electronic bee-bop sounds of “Happy Birthday to You” Azeri style, with three video cameras zoomed in on me. They even made a sign in balloons for me and another cake had appeared alongside the one I had bought at a bakery in town! Many of the kids had even gotten me presents. I was really touched at their thoughtfulness- even if the gifts weren’t exactly my style. (note big bangly necklace and earrings and flower vase in the photos). We turned up the music ate cake and danced the afternoon away. The funniest part was trying to teach the guys how to swing dance. They didn’t quite get it. Still very much stuck in only Azeri style of dancing, which is interesting for the first 2 or 3 songs but not ALL the TIME! The party had to end at 6 because it was getting dark and people had to go home. So here are some funny pictures for you to enjoy.

New Years in Georgia

2007-01-17T12:52:00.000+04:00

I know this is a long time coming but I'm finally getting around to writing a little bit about our New Year's adventure in Georgia. Mike and I left Ganja on the 30th of December. We were still uncertain as to how we would reach Georgia but we had been assured by several Peace Corps volunteers that getting to Georgia was no problem.
At the Ganja bus station we arrived just in time to hop on a minibus going to the last town in Azerbaijan before the border. We crammed into the back of the van with about 12 other Azeris and sat back and enjoyed one of the three movies that are shown in all long distance transportation vessels. It was a sketch comedy show that was taped in Baku I have no idea how many years ago. The show was amusing the first two times but after seeing it 10 times it is ceases to draw many laughs from me. But our fellow passengers found it to be hysterical. I imagine they hadn't been traveling around Azerbaijan as much as we had. We reached our destination, Qazax, in about two hours. Then we had to worry about getting to the border. After some finger pointing, waving and waiting at the curb one of the drivers arranged taxi transport to the border. We had read about come 'difficulties' with the Azerbaijani border patrol as far as letting us into Georgia without a bribe but we just hopped out of the taxi and walked up to the run-down border patrol buildings much to the amusement of the many soldiers who seemed to have little else to do but gawk at the strange foreigners and their large back packs. After our passport numbers were written down in a tattered notebook we were allowed to proceed and headed to the Georgian side and entered a nice modern building with an electronic passport scanner, turnstyle and even a bathroom!
We were assured by other Peace Corps Volunteers that once you crossed the border there would be plenty of busses and taxis to take you to Tbilisi, which is about 40 Km away. Once we left the border check there was nothing in sight so we started walking. It wasn’t too long before a taxi came by and the negotiations began. Luckily he was Azeri so we at least could understand some of what he was saying. After much haggling over price he finally agreed to take us. We arrived with little problem at the “Hotel Nika” which is a nice little place run by a woman who offers very cheap but comfortable rooms to Peace Corps Volunteers.
The first culture shock came when we were asking for our room. A woman who was working there asked us if we were boyfriend and girlfriend and we looked at each other and thinking ‘crap’ they’re not going to let us stay in the same room together”- as is the situation in Azerbaijan if you are not married! (see Christmas blog) Unable to lie quickly enough we said yes- and she broke into a smile and then showed us to our room. It was great- in Georgia nobody cares if you’re married or not!!!
We dropped our stuff in our room and then headed into the city. Not knowing the subway system we decided to explore on foot- which turned out to be a bit of a longer adventure than we anticipated. Eventually we came to the downtown area where the streets were brightly decorated for the Holidays. We wandered down the main street in awe of the architecture and festiveness. There was a completely different feel to the city and people. It was like a huge weight had been lifted off our shoulders. People did not stare at us or ask us questions. There was a huge variety in the clothes that young people wore. We even saw street musicians in an underpass who only did Dire Straits covers! We definitely felt like we were in Europe. The coolest thing we saw the first night was a musical fountain- even better than the one in Ganja (See post on Ganja) What was neat was that it was so cold that the water was forming ice all around the spickets and there was a group of three guys sliding to the music on the ice. The other more garish thing we saw was the three-storey Mc Donald’s.
We returned to the hotel and got ready for our trip to Gudauri, the only ski resort in the country. I was a little nervous because we were going to have to tackle the subway and the minibus system all at once. This would not be too bad if either of us spoke Georgian or even knew the alphabet. I had tried to learn the letters and had made little index cards with the alphabet on them. Georgia has its own unique language and alphabet different from any other languages in the world. The writing is in my opinion very beautiful- many soft rounded letters. On the maps we had the names of the stations- some in Georgian and some in Latin letters. So it actually wasn’t too difficult. The bus station, where we were to find our transport to Gudauri was a mad house!!! But it is amazing how easy it is to find the right bus. We just told people where we wanted to go and they pointed us in the right direction. We found our minibus in no time and even met a guy also traveling to Gudauri who had lived in the U.S. for a while so he helped us out and told us a lot about Georgia.
The ride up to Gudauri was interesting. Amazing how nice the roads were! Georgia is working very hard at developing its tourism industry and has started by improving its infrastructure. Although the GDP of Georgia is significantly lower than in Azerbaijan the roads are much better, the cities are cleaner and there seems to be less abject poverty. The villages we passed however did look quite similar to Azerbaijan.
The other major differences, which is indicative of the different predominant religion, that in Georgia instead of herds of sheep everywhere, there were herds of PIGS!! They were so cute and some were very, very hairy.
We traveled narrow winding roads into the foothills of the Greater Caucuses mountains, and after about 2 hours we finally reached our destination. Gudauri ski ‘resort’ was definitely a work in progress. It was clear from all the construction going on that their were big plans for the place. There were several buildings that had clearly been built in the 70’s and our little ‘Sno House’ bungalow was one of them. It was only about 1:00 so he rushed about getting settled in with the hopes of getting a few hours of skiing in.
Finding rentals was a bit more challenging than expected so by the time we got all suited up it was already 3:00 and their were no ½ day tickets. So we decided to head back in and be sure to be out all the earlier the next day.
Our lodging was a little space pod like house where the proprietor spoke no English but Russian and Spanish so communication was interesting. Luckily both Mike and I know some emergency Spanish but it turned out that the cook was Azeri so we could talk with her. The irony of the situation though was that we were so excited to come to Georgia to I hate to say it but ‘get away ‘ from Azeri cooking. Both Mike and I had been living with host families for 6 months and we were aching for something a little more compatible with out palates. And we come to Georgia and we can’t escape the food!!!
At dinner we met another couple he was from Holland and she was American but of Turkish heritage who were working in the NGO world in Tbilisi and they invited Mike and I to join them in their New Years celebration activities.
We had a very fun and interesting evening, with a few fire works and a new disco. It was definitely a memorable evening!

The next morning we got up early to be the first on the slopes. When we got up to the second lift we found it hadn’t opened yet, even though it was 10:00 I guess people weren’t too excited about skiing after the night’s jovialities. We finally made it to the summit where we were out of the cloud cover and had an amazing undercast. And also great views of what we were about to ski down. Essentially the top part of the mountain had only one groomed trail down the back side and the front face was basically a free for all. You get down anyway you can. There was disturbingly little snow in spots so I was a little nervous on my first run of the season. And being a corduroy skier, the unforgiving wind-packed powder and ungroomed conditions proved a bit daunting. But we made it down, only after taking the photo up at the top!

We made it down with little grace but all of our limbs. We were just so excited to be outside in the snow that we didn’t care about the conditions. We tried the groomed travel several times and then Mike, having skied mostly in Colorado tried to show me how to powder ski, which basically turned into face plant lessons but we had fun anyway.

The next day involved much of the same. The area is known for its heli-skiing and we saw snowboarders trekking to another peak nearby and watched their descent. It was amazing!!! We also got a big kick out of the unique menu item at the slope-side restaurant. I really hope it was a typo!
In two days we had MORE than exhausted the skiing opportunities there. But provided that global warming doesn’t take away all the snow, this place has great potential to be a wonderful little ski town.

Back in Tbilisi we tackled the sights of the capital city. There are hundreds of beautiful old Churches and also an enormous new one- recently finished and is the largest in the Caucuses. We hiked up to the fortress above the city and over to the huge metal woman overlooking the city. In the evening we hiked up to the big cathedral which was beautifully lit that evening.
The next day wee stumbled upon a Max Ernst exhibit and then ate dinner at one of the famous restaurants overlooking the river. Unfortunately I ended up with a fever and did not enjoy the food or the atmosphere as much as I wanted to. Later we found an art gallery in the basement of the Marriot hotel which exhibited several modern Georgian artists. As they were close to closing we got a personal tour by the two employees there.
FABULOUS!! I had forgotten how much I enjoyed looking at ‘real’ art. Unfortunately there is very little in Azerbaijan. There are a few small galleries in Baku but there does not seem to be a thriving art community at all.

The next day found us facing our greatest challenge of the whole excursion- getting back to Azerbaijan. We first went to the southern bus station where our guidebook indicated that there would be busses to Azerbaijan. This turned out NOT to be the case. Then we went back to the central station to try our luck there. Again- nothing. We asked several people each one pointing us in the opposite direction. We found a bus with Azeri license plates and Azer-looking people but the bus was not returning to Azerbaijan. Finally after two hours wandering around we bit the bullet and negotiated a taxi to the border where we were ‘positive’ that we could find a way back to Ganja.
We just found it so amusing how difficult it was to get back to Azerbaijan! As if someone was trying to tell us something!

20 dollars poorer we arrived at the border and went through the whole process in reverse and quickly found a mini-bus going to Baku that grossly over-charged us for a ride to Ganja. Cozily packed in with 15 other Azeris we bumped back to Ganja and sadly to our challenging and frustrating work in Azerbaijan.

My Christmas in Azerbaijan

2007-01-16T23:17:00.000+04:00

Personal Note to my readers! As many of you already know, since Thanksgiving I have a new partner in crime in my adventures in Azerbaijan. I’ve mentioned Mike in round about ways in some of my previous entries but I thought it was time to make the official announcement so that clarifies the ‘we’ in my blog entries. Having him to travel around with was the best Christmas present!

I had a great Christmas this year! I’m actually surprised because that doesn’t usually happen when I’m abroad. I started the holiday by taking a 7 and a half hour bus ride to Baku on Friday December 22nd. I think it gets longer every time. They are doing construction on the road (its about time!!) but their pavement eater is way ahead of the pavement replacer so half of the drive is on a dirt/ or in this case mud as it was pouring rain- which of course did not add to our traction! But we arrived safely in Baku just in time for the rain to turn to snow!!! It was absolutely beautiful but horrific at the same time. I thought Azeri drivers were bad on dry roads- its so much worse on snow. They have NO IDEA how to drive in snow. I got to the bus station- and made my way to the metro- anyway- I don’t want to go into too much detail and bore you all to death- so I got my room at the Absheron with a bunch of Peace Corps Volunteers- they were having training the past week so I had a cheap place to stay.

In the evening we went to another Caravansarai (see blog about Sheki) this one was even more rustic and spectacular and had a great dinner- well great for Azeri food. I have to admit that I have become less then enthusiastic about Azerbaijani cuisine. It’s basic ingredient is oil. And it is really quite repetitive. Not a lot of variety in the different dishes. But I digress as usual this is supposed to be about Christmas and not about food. The Caravanserai was very atmospheric- we had our own little private cavern with big gas stove. We were probably the only customers in the place but they had an Azeri band- playing tastefully (for once and not at 10,000 decibels) outside in the central courtyard. I have also become less than enthusiastic about Azerbaijan traditional music. Because I hear it in every corner here it is really starting to grate on my nerves.
So we spent a couple of days in Baku- living the ex-pat life on a less than ex-pat budget, but having a good time pretending we had tons of money.

We spent Christmas Eve on the night train to Mingachavir- a small city on the largest reservoir in Azerbaijan, where Mike is working and has to stay. The train ride was amusing as usual. I love taking the train-especially the night train. They provide you with cute little sheets and blankets with trains printed on them and the conductors wake you up hours before the train reaches the station. Then they will rip the sheets out from under you if you are still in your bed when they want to collect the bedding. Its pretty funny, unless of course you are the one in the sheets.

Anyway this trip was amusing because we were getting off in Mingachavir, which doesn’t really have a station. The old woman conductor woke us up around 6:00 and then we scurried around our little cubicle organizing our things and went to the door. The woman kept opening the train door and sticking her head out to see where we were. Finally the train slowed down- but there were no station lights to be found and the woman practically threw us off the train with our baggage after us. There was no platform so the landing was a little hard. It also happened to be the foggiest night I had experienced here so we had no means of orientation. Because the station is not directly in the city its actually about 15 km outside we had to make sure we got a taxi for the ride into town because it’s a long walk in the pitch dark. So Mike ran in what we hoped to be the right direction to get a taxi before it was filled up. Thanks to his nimbleness we secured our transport and started our journey into Mingachavir and passing several travelers who were not so successful in their taxi hailing skills. We embarked upon one of the scariest car rides ever. As I mentioned before, it was foggy, very foggy and drivers- as with snow- do not take weather conditions into account and still drive at breakneck speed down winding roads with practically 0 visibility. I just shut my eyes and hoped that I still had a few of my nine lives left.
After about twenty minutes we finally entered the city and went to find a hotel room but all were closed at so early an hour. So we went back into the city center and picked up another taxi to go to Mike’s host family to wait out the morning until we could find a better place to say. “why not stay the whole time with Mike’s host family” you may be thinking. Which is a good question. His family is not overly keen on Mike being there much less on him having guests- especially female guests. So we could only sneak in and hope she didn’t throw us back out onto the street.

Because we couldn’t stay with Mike’s host family we had to go and find a hotel. Ordinarily in a city of over 50,000 people hotels should not be hard to come by. In Azerbaijan it is a different story. About mid-day we hailed a cab to take us to the one semi-decent hotel in town. Peace Corps staff stays there when they do site visits, so it couldn’t be, too bad! Despite the dubious outer gate and hotel exterior the place didn’t seem incredibly awful. One of the guys there showed us to our accommodations. It was this big cement ‘cabin’ complete with two rooms, bathroom, plunge pool and sauna! Of course the plunge pool was empty (see picture) and the sauna was out of commission. It was very strange to say the least. All seemed to be going well- we were working out a deal with the hotel manager when he asked us if we were married. Being the silly honest people that we are we said no. Then he proceeded to tell us that we could not stay in the same cabin together, we would have to rent two rooms. We argued with him for quite some time about this when he finally agreed to let us stay together but we had to pay a higher price. I guess it was an immorality fee. Then he wanted to show us all the luxuries of the room- especially the cable TV. which made the price of the room worth it. He flips on the TV.and we get a glimpse of some extremely explicit pornography. I really thought my eyeballs were going to burn off. He doesn’t seem overly concerned – doesn’t even apologize to us. But after he left we had quite a laugh about the irony of the situation.
After settling we decided to enjoy the beautiful and WARM day- it was probably around 50 and took a long walk around town and then headed out to the reservoir. We definitely took the scenic and more pungent route, over muddy paths and through cow patties. The views, however, were well worth the dirty tromp. We had a lovely although not overly nutritious Christmas lunch and enjoyed the scenery, this is one of the few beautiful places here in Azerbaijan. (see pictures). After walking back on a more well-traveled road we had a real dinner at a local Turkish restaurant. The other highlight of the Christmas holiday was a very random party that Mike and other Peace Corps Volunteers in Mingachavir were invited to. Lots of singing and Azeri dancing as well as belly dancing and a visit from Schaxta Baba and the Gar Giz (Santa and his granddaughter the snow girl) It was really surreal- especially the hip-hop version of jingle bells. This was another unforgettable Christmas.

Christmas in Azerbaijan

2006-12-29T00:20:00.000+04:00

I was definitely NOT looking forward to spending the holidays here in Azerbaijan, this is not just because Azerbaijan is a Muslim country and does not celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ but also because I have spent two other holiday seasons away from home and although I was in Germany where Christmas is celebrated- and quite tastefully- if you ask me, both were pretty depressing. I looked for vacation escapes but unfortunately my budget did not allow for it.

However, after some contemplation I thought that maybe being here wouldn’t be so bad. The season would pass quietly by without notice because: a. the climate wouldn’t feel like Christmas, being so much closer to the equator b. there would be no giant blow up lawn ornaments c. there would be no overplayed cheesy Christmas carols.
Unfortunately all of these assumptions were false.

Suddenly the weather here turned significantly colder and we actually got some snow last week. But the greatest surprise to me was that Christmas is celebrated here- in a way. Its not considered Christmas- but its part of the New Years celebration. There are ‘New Years Trees’ with bells, lights and awful metallic garland. Santa Clause doesn’t have elves but rather he has a little female helper, “The Snow Girl”. All of the shops paint their windows and the sounds of jingle bells fills the air- well it fills the air next to lit Christmas trees as many of the light strands also play music (if you can call it that)- and Jingle Bells is the most popular song. There are even Gingerbread houses and the best thing yet...yes, even in Azerbaijan,there are giant blow up lawn ornaments.
So have no worries my friends and family! Even though it is called by a different name the spirit of Christmas is alive and well in Azerbaijan!

The details of how I spent my holiday are soon to follow. But first this little taste of the holiday festivities as celebrated in Azerbaijan!!

Happy Holidays!

This explains a lot!

2006-12-29T00:13:00.000+04:00

There is not much you can say about a country that cleans with barf!

Ganja Taxi Adventure

2006-12-29T00:05:00.000+04:00

Note to Readers! this was actually written about a month ago! sorry for the delay. Its been a month! Reports on my Birthday Party and Christmas are soon to come.

I just got back from a really fun time driving around ganja trying to find a friend of mine to get some keys for another friend of mine.
Normally I avoid taxis here like the plague because I don’t trust the drivers. This is mostly because of warnings from other people including Azeris and not because I have had any particularly bad experiences with taxi divers. Taking a taxi also involves more Azeri language use which I have yet to master even a little. (this is one of the disadvantages to having a job that depends on my English skills)
I had to go to an NGO that is also a vocational school to meet Larry- who is another Peace Corps Volunteer (PCV) here who teaches a film class. He is a documentary director and has won several (6, I believe) Emmys for his work. Unfortunately he doesn’t talk about it much so I don’t know the titles. He is also the caretaker of the key to another PCV’s Ganja home (her name is Carol) who is currently in the United States for the Holidays. Yes this is confusing and probably not very interesting but I feel I should clarify a bit.)
This evening another friend of mine who is ALSO a PCV (his name is Mike and he lives/works in Mingachavir a town about an hour and a half northeast of here)wrote to say that he would need a place to stay in Ganja for the weekend and was hoping to stay at Carol’s. I contacted Larry about the key around 9:00 this evening (Thursday) and he said that he was leaving to do some filming for Sheki (see previous blog) the next morning and would be gone until Monday but I could come by the school to pick it up. This sprang me into action realizing that I had to act tonight in order to secure lodging for my friend.
So first I had to go to the little corner store and break a 20 in order to have exact change for the cab. It is always risky not having exact fair because then the Drivers can just say they don’t have change in order to get more money. At the store I asked where this vocational school was located. They all recognized the name but weren’t exactly sure of its whereabouts and mumbled something about it being near the nurse’s college. This was enough to at least talk to a cab driver about. So having small bills to pay a cab I went to the taxi stand and found one lone taxi. I asked the driver if he knew where the school was. He talked like he knew sort of what I was talking about but I could tell he had no idea. He knew where the nurses college was- that was at least a start. But I wasn’t convinced of that so I started to go find another taxi when he got out and ran across the street to the other drivers headed in the other direction and asked all of them. Some minutes later he came back still not sure of where we were going but I thought I would give it a try. An older woman got in too, and he asked her about it and she seemed like she might know where this place was. We headed off in the general direction I thought we should go, when after a few minutes we stopped and asked some more drivers on the side of the road and they all pointed in different directions. The taxi driver nodded and then just kept on. We wove through the dark and narrow pot hole strewn streets of Ganja. I had a sinking feeling we were not headed in the right direction. I tried to text Larry but to my dismay saw that the battery in my phone was almost dead but I managed to squeak in a short SOS message. After a few more twists and turns the taxi driver stopped at a building and said ‘burdadir’ its here. And I looked at the very dark house-like building and said ‘no- this is not it. We paused for a few minutes, then struck out again on another route. After a while we stopped again and this time the old lady got out. Now I was alone with the driver with no idea where I was or where I was going for that matter. The warning beep on my phone reminded me that I only had a few more ounces of juice left before I was truly alone. Then my phone made another noise – a message- from Larry with directions- I was hoping. And directions there were. I quickly memorized them and took down Larry’s number.

I told the driver with my very limited vocabulary – that we had to go by a cemetery near the teacher’s college- since I didn’t know the word for cemetery I was saying things like “we have to go left at the dead people with rocks”. The driver amazingly enough understood. But when we got to the school- no Larry- he was at his apartment. By this time my phone had died. However thankfully the Taxi driver threw me his phone and I called up Larry and got directions to his apartment which luckily was not far from the school. Finally in a few minutes we arrived, made the key exchange and headed back for my home. The driver and I had a good laugh about it- and I gave him a hefty tip-for the craziness of the trip and the use of his phone.

Mission accomplished and I have since overcome my fear of taxis.

Lost in Ganja!

2006-12-03T19:24:00.000+04:00

I don’t even have to leave my city in order to have travel mishaps. Not that this one was too grievous but it did cause mild frustration, fear and confusion.
On Monday I was invited to a friend’s house for her birthday. She gave me what I thought were pretty clear directions. I knew which Mashrutka to take and what landmark to get off at. After my classes I went to the bus stop and waited and waited in quite cold temperatures- which I have to remind myself really aren’t that cold- it hasn’t even gotten below freezing yet! But it was so hot that anything below 50 feels like the next ice age is descending upon us. The first Mashrutka that slowed down near the stop was so packed with people that I couldn’t even see in the windows. 15 minutes later I flagged down the next one and began the journey. I had been to my friend’s house before but the first time we walked and the second time we took different number Mashrutka. I sat near the window looking for my landmark- a school but I saw nothing that seemed to resemble such a building.
After about 15 minutes into the drive we entered a residential area around some apartment complexes and the mashrutka stopped and everyone got out. It was the end of the line and I hadn’t seen the school and I had no idea where I was now. I got out and glanced around me as my fellow passengers quickly dispersed into the night. Suddenly I was all alone and the darkness was closing in… okay that’s a little melodramatic but I was a little uneasy because it was dark and women are not supposed to be out after dark and those that are, are considered ‘bad women’ and easy prey.
After a few minutes I took an inventory of my assets and remembered that I had a cell phone. So I called my friend- but the line was busy. All the while I was thinking how was this really going to help because I honestly had no way to tell her were I was. There are hundreds of places that looked just like where I was all over Ganja.
After several attempts I gave up and started walking in the direction that the Mashrutka had disappeared in to. Too my delight I found a much larger road with some stores. However I was a big wimp and didn’t go into the stores to ask directions. First of all I didn’t really know where I was going and I hate asking for directions here because it becomes such a freak show event. So I crossed the street and waited for another mini bus to take me back into town. While I was waiting my friend called me back finally and as I suspected I couldn’t tell her definitively where I was. It is also hard to have any sort of meaningful exchange of information on the cell phones here because the connection is so bad. I basically use my phone just to text message because speaking causes too much confusion.
After everyone hanging around had had a good long stare at the lost little foreigner a bus rescued me and I headed back into town. I felt bad for ditching on my friend but I just wasn’t in the mood for parties anymore. She offered to come and pick me up in a taxi but I just thought the party was not meant to be. I was cold and tired and hungry and pissed at myself for getting lost to begin with. Usually I’m not so bad with directions.

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

2006-11-23T12:30:00.000+04:00

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.

2006-11-16T14:09:00.000+04:00

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

2006-11-08T11:16:00.000+04:00

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

2006-11-02T10:08:00.000+04:00

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.

More cultural mishaps in Azerbaijan

2006-10-08T14:27:00.000+05:00

The past two days have been great examples of what NOT to do in Azerbaijan.
Yesterday I was having lunch at a, you guessed it, Turkish restaurant in Ganja with a friend of mine, her boyfriend (and they are NOT engaged!) and a mutual friend of theirs. It was all very pleasant and nice until the mutual friend started asking my friend about me in Azeri as if I wasn’t sitting at the table and couldn’t understand. This happens to me quite a lot, especially in taxis. Strangers see and hear that I am a foreigner and then start inquiring about me and my job to the people I am with as if I am not there and don’t understand Azeri. I find this extremely irritating, rude and in part dangerous because then I can’t control what information about myself is being spread about the country. It is normally harmless. People are naturally curious here because there are so few foreigners. The most frequent questions are 1. How old are you? 2. Are you married? 3. Why not? Etc. I’ve gotten used to those questions even though they get a bit bothersome, especially when the old women start pointing to their 43 year old sons and asking me to be their daughter-in-law (see blog on Azeri weddings). However for many people foreigners and especially English speakers are seen as a ticket out of here in some way either through a job, visa, English lessons and the like. Completely random people come to my office and beg me to help them get Visa’s to the United States, mother’s come with their wallets out telling me I have to teach their children English. “You must teach me English, how will you help me!’ are phrases that I have heard more than once as if people feel entitled to my knowledge or that I came here to be everyone’s private tutor. So its when questions start popping up about my job, where I live, and where do I get my money, that I start to get angry. Sometimes these questions really are just out of curiosity but I’ve learned to trust NO ONE here. I say I have friends but I don’t really. Everyone that I call my friend I’m 99 percent sure is only friends with me because they want something from me, not because they like me as a person.
Anyway, back to my story. So this guy begins asking my friend in Azeri about how I get my money to live on. I understand all of this and interrupt them and first of all ask them to please ask me directly if there are any questions that pertain to me. So he then asked me directly about where I get my money and I replied “its none of your business!” in not so friendly terms. This took everyone a bit by surprise and maybe I was a little harsh but I was already peeved at being talked about as if I wasn’t at the table and then to be asked about my money really ticked me off.
What ensued was a lengthy discussion about cultural differences, and I got a very long talking to about how my behavior was inappropriate and that I needed to observe the cultural norms here. This guy was just curious and it was wrong of me to respond so forcefully. It is normal for Azeris to ask each other these types of questions, earnings and money sources are public knowledge.
So then I got to thinking- am I trying to force my way of thinking and world view on them through my reactions? How do I stop from reacting that way? What is the proper way to respond?
The last thing I want to do is tell anyone here about the means by which I am staying here. It really is nobody’s business and for my own safety I really can’t tell anyone. I tried to explain all this and my friend understood but the guys didn’t. So I’m stuck. How much do I try to conform to cultural norms here without sacrificing my safety and peace of mind??

This all happened yesterday, which occupied my mind for quite a bit of the day and then today’s incident happened which although shorter, may have more negative lasting effects. At the school where my office is located there is a night watchman. He is about 60 years old or so. Its hard to tell age here because people look a lot older than they really are. On occasions where I have been working late he has come by office to chat. He brought me potato chips once and water another time. He seems harmless enough I think he just gets bored. I don’t work late enough for it really to cross my mind too much. Tonight he came into my office with a green onion stalk and offers it to me. Then he goes on about how he is cooking something with eggs and to come watch ( I think that is what he said at least, I have to admit that my Azeri has not progressed at the speed I would like- the problems with having a job that depends on English) . I tell him that I am leaving in 30 minutes. I keep working and forget about it. As I am leaving sometime later he waves me into the school’s kitchen. I just want to go home and I am tired but I don’t want to be rude so I go in and he has this whole little meal prepared and he asks me to sit and eat. I don’t want to because its just not customary for men and women to be alone together at night here. But again from my U.S. perspective it would be impolite not to oblige for a few minutes. And come on he’s 60 and he’s only ever been nice to me. So I eat- and it was pretty good. I was mostly impressed that I had actually witnessed an Azeri man actually cooking something. He offered me some beer that he had, I accepted- not wanting to seem an ungrateful guest. And we had a nice little meal together. Then I left for home a few minutes later but warning bells were ringing all around me. I relayed the whole thing to a ‘friend’ of mine (like I said I have no friends here) and he gave me another long lecture about all the cultural rules I had just broken.

As I’ve mentioned before. Most people here aren’t nice for the sake of being nice. They are nice because they want something from you. This is hard for me to get used to. People ask me sometimes- why are you helping people and not getting paid??? Doing something for someone without some sort of reward or favor in return is almost unheard of. So the night watchman has been slowly doing little nice things for me with the future expectation of some sort of payment in return… The fact that I drank beer does not help my situation because women who drink beer here are not looked highly upon. What’s even worse is that I drank during Ramadan! This all sends the wrong signals to him about my character and my intentions. So I’ve got a bit of a situation on my hands but I will talk to the school director and someone will talk to him. I will also no longer be working late anymore. I’m just pissed off at myself for not seeing though it, even though I kind of suspected. I’ve just been brought up to avoid conflict but here in order for people/esp. men to get the message I have to be much more forceful. I am very wary of younger men but I think old men shouldn’t be bothersome but again I’m wrong. I’ve talked to my host family and they will go and talk to him and tell him not to bother me. I’ve also bought a lock for the inside of my office.

Ganja Part II

2006-10-02T10:09:00.000+05:00

In reflecting upon my first entry about Ganja I realized that I had painted a very inaccurate picture of the town I live in. While I described many of the beautiful sites and monuments that Ganja has, I neglected to add the things that Ganja does NOT have which is actually more telling of the city's character.

In this city of over 300,000 there is not one McDonalds. This is the first time in my life that I have not lived within 10 miles of the Golden Arches. When I first realized this a few months ago I was overjoyed. I had finally escaped the clutches of Ronald and his gang of hamburglers. But after experiencing public restrooms in Azerbaijan and more importantly lack of public restrooms I realized the advantages to having a McDonalds in every town with a population greater than 5,000. It is the one place in this country that has clean, western toilets, with toilet paper and soap to wash your hands. I'm almost ashamed to admit it but whenever I go to Baku on the bus the first thing I do when I arrive is go to McDonalds to use the bathroom.

There are also no other chain restaurants- no Applebee’s, Pizza Hut etc. In fact for a town this size there are very few restaurants at all, which is of course indicative of the culture. People do not eat out because its expensive and can’t afford to. What is interesting is that almost all of the restaurants are Turkish. There are some that offer traditional Azeri cuisine but there are no food choices outside of these two realms. I think this is directly related to the fact that there is very little cultural/ethnic diversity here. Not a lot of foreign faces walking around. I think they can be counted without taking my shoes off. So this is a factor in the limited variety of eateries. I would LOVE a vegetable fajita and a strawberry margarita right about now!

Along the same lines Ganja has no WalMart or Home Depot or Kohls or Target or Best Buy etc. There are no chain stores anywhere!!! The only ‘chains’ I have seen thus far are the Azercell cell phone stores and the Azpetrol gas stations. All products are sold from private vendors. However- like a chain there is very limited selection and variety at the individual shops. At the Bazaar, where I do my clothes shopping there are many small booths/shops/vendors but they all have about the same thing. Its very hard to find unique clothes here as usually at least 10 other people have the same outfit but nobody cares which is nice. Although there is a lot of emphasis placed on outward appearances, even more so than in Germany, clothing fashion is not a great concern. But again fashion is relative and depends on your perspective. What is fashionable to one person is not to the other and I have to admit that I fall under the NOT category. I’ve had my mother ship over all my winter clothes so that I don’t have to buy new clothes that I won’t like at the Bazaar. I feel like a snob, and I should embrace the culture more but I have my limits. My tastes are just a bit simpler than most here.

There are also no operational movie theatres. During the soviet era there were quite a few cinemas but they have since been abandoned or turned into shooting ranges. When I ask why, most people have told me that it is because men and women should not be alone together in the dark. Well, duh, that’s what movie theatres are for, isn’t it? No, just kidding. The policing of people’s personalize lives is really overbearing at times. However there are many places where one can rent and buy movies, so you can watch all you want just not in public.

You might also assume that if there are no movie theatres than there must be any dance clubs or bars. However there are actually a few such social gathering places but only for men. Women do frequent these places but its to earn their living because either their husbands have died or left them and they have no education or any other means of supporting themselves and any children they may have.

So there is quite a limit on the available social activities for me here so I work a lot, but that is rewarding, too.

Ganca

2006-09-17T14:45:00.000+05:00

Its probably about time that I told you all a little bit about where I live- the bustling metropolis of Ganja. Its actually quite appropriate that I talk about it this week because Ganja is celebrating its 2500th anniversary. The actual age of the city is disputed, some say its as old as 2700 years. Whatever the exact age, in any case Ganja is old, very old.
Ganja is the second largest city after Baku and has an estimated population of about 300,000 people. Its hard to tell how many people actually live here because I don’t think there is a real organized census that takes place and people come and go quite a bit. There are refugees from the Armenia occupied territories of Azerbaijan and many people are leaving Ganja to work in Baku and Moscow.
There is a small but bustling downtown area with many shops, a few Turkish restaurants and a central square. The rest of the city is just houses sprawling over a fairly large area. I am lucky enough to live in the center of the city. Although its loud, most everything is within walking distance so I don’t have to risk my life on the minibuses.
As with every town in Azerbaijan there is a Heyder Aliev memorial museum. Who is Heyder Aliev you may ask? He is the former president of Azerbaijan, who died in 2003. Oddly enough his son Ilham is the president today…coincidence? Perhaps. Heyder Aliev is probably the most influential dead person I have ever known. The streets are lined with his posters and quotes from his speeches. His picture hangs in classrooms and almost every public building in the country. There are T.V. documentaries about his life almost every week. His statue is everywhere too. It makes me wonder, is he really dead? People here seemed to like him, but its hard to get straight answers about politics as there are some restrictions on freedom of speech especially when it concerns politics.
On my first day in Ganja I got my picture taken in front of the Heyder museum. The two attractive young men beside me are my supervisor, Shahla’s two children Jeffar and Azad.
Not far from the museum they have recently renovated a large fountain. It is the first singing and dancing fountain that I have ever seen. (Which I was quoted as saying on Azeri national T.V. when the interviewed me at the fountain’s opening ceremony)
The fountain has different lights and it plays various genres of music. And the flow of water to different spouts is set to the music. Its quite amazing really. The irony though is that Ganja now has a beautiful fountain that probably cost a lot of money, but there parts of the city that don’t have reliable water and the water situation in the villages nearby is even worse.
Beyond the fountain is the downtown mosque. One of my favorite things about living here is listening to the prayer calls. I was only slightly disappointed to learn that the calls are really tape recordings. But I have heard that sometimes the tapes get switched and less appropriate music gets blasted all over the city.
Behind the mosque is the Old Bath house which is now the home of the cities porcelain collection. I was lucky enough to get a private tour. There are some beautiful pieces- but I have to admit that plates and vases don’t excite me overly much.
One of the coolest buildings in Ganja is the bottle house. Ibragim Jaffarov used 48,000 glass bottles to decorate his house. There is a also a large portrait of his brother, who never returned from WWII on the back side of the house.
Lastly here is one of the few churches in Ganja. There is a small Russian Orthodox population in the city but most people are Muslim.
Well that’s a little bit about Ganja. Please if you have any questions ask- or write a comment. I really like comments and questions, then I know that I am actually writing to an audience and not just typing into empty cyberspace…I would also love any suggestions about topics you would like to know more about in Azerbaijan.

Sheki, the cultural heart of Azerbaijan

2006-09-05T11:44:00.000+05:00

To make up for my last posting having no pictures and all text, ( I assume nobody liked it since I didn't get any comments on it) this entry will be more pictures and less of my blabbering on about my woes here in Azerbaijan. I've been meaning to write about Sheki since I went about a month ago but I didn't get around to it. So anyway here it is, a little information about and photos from Sheki, my favorite place in Azerbaijan so far. You may want to ask, "Kate, why is it your favorite place in Azerbaijan?" and now I will tell you. I like Sheki because it is in the mountains and considerably cooler than Ganja. Mountains mean hiking, and this time up than down and not down than up. It is a tourist city so the people are a bit more open to foreigners walking around- example: it is not wierd for women to order alcohol in restaurants. I like the history and culture here. Sheki is famous for the Khans palace, which although small, is very beautiful and special in that it is one of the only palaces that has not been looted and destroyed by various invading forces.
While in Sehki I stayed at the Caravanserai which was an ancient stopping over place (like a motel) for large caravans traveling across the country. If I breath really deeply I think I can still smell the camels ! :) The rooms are really cool, in both senses of the word. They are dark and made of stone which keeps the heat out and the cold in. Upon entering there is a sitting room with couches and chairs and then you walk through anothe door way into the bed room. Although it definitely was not luxurious the atmosphere completely compensated for it.

The rooms all face into a central courtyard and garden with large fountain with benches. It really is beautiful with the afternoon sunlight.

The first two days in Sheki I went hiking, and although it was not the Alps or even the White Mountains it was very beautiful. There are plans to develop the area as a ski resort town. That is why this road/path was built to the top of the mountain. Who knows if these plans will be realized. As with everything here- if it is the will of God then it will happen if it isn't ,than it won't.

On day three I toured the Khan's palace. There were many other tourists there even though the weather had turned bad. The outside facade is all mosaic and the inside has beautiful painted walls with scenes of various historical signifcance. The colors are all natural dyes and the story goes that the palace was built without any nails. What I found most intersting was that photos were not allowed unless you paid an extra fee. So basically its okay to ruin the artwork with flash photography, you just have to pay for it. There was definitely a seeming lack of respect for these national treasures. Which is strange to me considering how nationalistic many Azerbaijanis are here.

Sheki is a cute little romantic getaway type of town. With great sunsets!

Computer Troubles and Trips to Baku

2006-08-28T15:50:00.000+05:00

First I wanted to apologize for such a long break between entries. As some of you already know I had a small computer melt down. It’s the first time I actually yelled at people here, which is surprising considering my frustration levels sometimes. So my computer is fixed – I hope- It was quite an ordeal. No shops in Ganja could help me and the internet here is so bad that I couldn’t get online to talk to Dell people for any length of time before the connection was cut off. So I took a crazy quick trip to Baku. A friend and I took an overnight bus (which I DON’T recommend!) on Saturday. There are actually many buses going to Ganja- one every 15 minutes or so- I think even more at night. But you don’t just buy a ticket at the ticket office. There is little regulation and each company does its own thing to try to get as many passengers as possible. So we had to negotiate bus tickets around 11 O’Clock at night with tons of other people shouting and taxis and buses coming and going. Thank God my friend was there or I would still be standing there in semi-shock wondering what the hell I was supposed to do.
So the bus ride was pretty uneventful but it takes FOREVER. Its not that the distance is so long its that the road is so bad the buses can’t drive very fast. The roads are so bad because really heavy trucks carrying cement blocks across the country ruin the road. They are not supposed to be on the road but all they have to do is pay a bribe to the highway patrol and they can do what they want. Its also under construction in parts. Needless to say it is a very bumpy and slow ride. And there is also the fear of the driver falling asleep, which does happen on occasion. But to combat that on this trip there was a T.V. blasting Azeri and Turkish music videos ALL NIGHT LONG. Which made it difficult for the rest of us to sleep- but I would rather be tired than dead. And the absolute best part of the trip is that the bus was AIRCONDITIONED!
I really do feel like a spoiled little princess here. I never thought I would say it but I love air conditioning. When its over 100 degrees everyday with NO breeze it’s a miracle of GOD. So I actually quite enjoyed the 7 hours of coolness. There was almost a full moon so I could watch the barren landscape jog by. There really is nothing in the middle of this country. No trees, no towns, no mountains. Nothing. Its eerily beautiful but lonely and desperate at the same time. Around 7:00 we rolled into Baku- just in time to see the brilliant sunrise over the Caspian Sea. It was breathtaking.
In Baku we spent the day circling the same streets trying desperately to find the computer shop that services Dell computers. Unfortunately unlike the rest of Azerbaijan, Baku has taken up western traditions and many stores are closed on Sunday. In other regions Sunday is the shopping day. Sunday in Azeri is called Bazaar as it’s the day that everyone goes to the bazaar to buy their food. Anyway. Everything was closed. So we gave up for the day. Then on Monday we tried to connect online with a Dell support person. And I don’t know how- but some guy named Gavin- whose name probably wasn’t really Gavin was able to fix my computer – from his cubicle in Bengalore, India, I imagine. Amazing, really. So now my computer is fixed- for the time being, and it didn’t cost me anything. Except the trip to Baku which was worth it. I needed the break from the oppressive life here in Ganja. Seeing Baku again after 2 months, I realized that relatively speaking and compared to the rest of the country, Baku really is very westernized. I can walk freely about the city without being stared or approached and talked to by strangers. Its very nice. And I probably did the worst things of all in Baku. I went to McDonalds (the only one in the country) to use the bathroom because it’s the cleanest one in town. There is toilet paper and soap; luxuries in the rest of the country.

A Day in My life here in Azerbaijan.

2006-08-03T10:53:00.000+05:00

I’ve written a lot about places I’ve been but I haven’t really given a good account as to what my daily life is like here in Ganja. I would say today is a pretty good example.
I wake up around 8:00 on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays because these are the days I go to Taekwondo and so I don’t have to get up at 7:00 to go running. The reason why I have to get up so early to go running- and can’t really go later in the day is so that not so many people see me. I have yet to see a woman here wearing sneakers and sports clothes much less actually running outside. So I get up really early and go to the park (see photo)- and the people who are up stare at me. Then I run around the park and there are usually 8 or 10 old men there too. They do a lot of stretching but I haven’t seen much running yet.
Anyway… today I got up later, ate fresh baked bread for breakfast, went to my office around 9:30 and then went to teach my class at the Teacher’s Institute.
To get to class I have to walk to the mini-bus or Mashrutka (See picture)as they are called here. These are vans that have been reconstructed (ie. Some seats taken out) that travel a particular route around the city. The nice thing about them is that you can flag them down if you see them coming and you can ask to get off wherever you want along the route. There are a few designated stops but you can make your own. They cost a flat rate of 10 Gapik, which is about 10 cents. The not so nice thing about them is that they are poorly ventilated unless you happen to get on one with windows that open. I also think the goal of the drivers is to cram as many people as possible into them. So people are standing up or should I say stooped over (because you can’t stand up straight in them) with all their food from the Bazar, and children and God knows what else. There are of course also no seat belts, which is a bit of a concern as the streets here are regions of complete anarchy.

Today I hopped on Mashrutka number 14 and went to my class. I was feeling a little weird in my stomach. This is also normal for me. I’ve been in a state of weird digestive issues since I arrived 2 months ago. Today was a good day because it was one of the few times I did NOT hit my head upon disembarking the mini-bus.
Class went well. It usually does. The teacher’s here make me smile and we have fun talking about women’s things since there are no men in the class.

After class I walk back to my house and quickly grab my things for my Taekwondo class. My host mother usually tries to get me to eat. I think that is her main concern. I tell her I will eat later and as usual she looks disappointed. Then I walk back to the mini-bus stop and take another Mashrutka to the Olympic complex (See picture). This is a bit of a misnomer. There has yet to be an Olympics here in Ganja but the rings are on the building. The city is in the process of building a pool, too. Which would be nice- hopefully they will let women swim there. The other pool in town is for men only.

I LOVE my taekwondo class. Its one of the few places where I can relax and finally just be myself. And I get to take out all my frustrations on the punching bags and other students. My teacher is the Azerbaijan women’s national champion. She’s great. I hope to finally test and get a belt soon.

After class I grab another Mashrutka back into ‘downtown’ if you can call it that. Then I walk past all the men hanging around the street corners, drinking tea and oogling women, and ignore their stares and attempts at English communication. Every time I walk down the street its like walking into a hornets nest. You’d think they’d have gotten used to me by now. But I’ve got the ‘don’t even think about messing with me’ look down cold.

Back at my house my host mother had gone to sleep and I didn’t want to wake her up so I missed lunch and went back to the office (which is across the street-see pictures). That is where the frustrating part of my day started.

I’m trying desperately to print my financial aid award letter but my printer is out of ink. An ink cartridge costs a lot of money. But I don’t have any money- that’s why I need the financial aid award letter. There is another printer in the school so I save the letter onto my pen drive and try to bring it up on the other computer. No luck. This computer is pre-pen drive. Then I think I’ll just hook up my lap-top to the other printer. The computer teacher searches for the printer software for my computer. No luck- he can’t find it. Then I think I can just email it to that computer, but the internet is down today. Finally I think okay I’ll burn a copy of it onto a CD! I do this and but then realize that the CD drive of the other computer doesn’t work. The computer teacher finally pries it open and I try out my CD but it the file didn’t burn. I try to burn it again in a different format. No luck. Then I try another computer, which looks like its hooked up to a printer but that one doesn’t work either.
At this point I’m EXTREMELY FRUSTRATED!!! And very unprofessionally say some not so nice things about this country and office equipment. Then I had to take a break and teach my German class, which usually is a lot of fun. I definitely wasn’t in the mood. But as usual when I teach, my other problems were forgotten and we had a good class. I do enjoy teaching – which is also the other place where I can totally be myself.

After class I decide to break down and just buy a new cartridge for my printer using emergency money. I figure this was pretty close to an emergency. I walk to the ATM with ‘the look’ get some cash and walk to the one computer store in town only to find that its closed for the day! I just started laughing. It is pretty typical of how things are around here. The other thing is. Once I print and sign the letter I’m supposed to fax it back to SIT- well – you guessed it. This is the week the fax machine breaks down. I guess someone doesn’t really want me to have any money!
I get back to my office turn on the radio and my favorite song is on and I think…This is great…everything will work out the way its supposed to. I give up for the day, and go home and eat homemade paroshkis (they’re Russian fried dough filled with different things- meat, potato, lentils whatever you want.)
And I watch my favorite show on T.V. Its this awful Brazilian soap opera about a guy named Paco. The acting is terrible and even better dubbed over in Azeri.

Things are definitely not all bad here I’ve got a fun job, a roof over my head, food for the rest of the month and great music to listen to, (Not to mention instant coffee-yum ! and a very caring host family (the kids are really funny and cute). Life could be a lot worse.

Cultural Moments on Fatima's Birthday

2006-07-31T19:17:00.000+05:00

This past Sunday the Shi'a Muslim community celebrated the birthday of Fatima- The Prophet Muhammed’s daughter. This day is also considered National Women's Day in Iran and I would wager from the celebration here in Ganja also for most of Azerbaijan's religious community. (Azerbaijan is also predominantly Shi'a Muslim) Fatima is considered to be the greatest women who ever lived. She is the leader of women in paradise and,the model for female piety.
After Muhammad died there was a significant conflict surrounding who should succeed him as leader of the Muslim community. His young wife's father Abu Bakr or his daughter's husband (also Muhammad's cousin) Ali. There was a conflict and Abu Bakr took the throne, which according to the Shi'a faith, went against the wishes of Muhammad. Fatima and Ali would not swear allegiance to Abu Bakr. An angry group, led by a co-conspirator of Abu Bakr, threatened to burn down Fatima and Ali's home. The mob broke down the door and Fatima was injured in the struggle and lost her unborn baby. She died not long after and was secretly burned and burried at night so that only people loyal to Ali would attend.

Disclaimer: This is definitely only one very brief version of the story. This entire issues is what divides the Muslim community into Shia's and Sunnis. And as most of you know they are still fighting with each other in many parts of the world. Its complicated so do your own research!

To commerate her birthday there was a week-long exhibit at the Ganja Historical Museum. A volunteer at the Leaders School, Elvin, helped organize the exhibit. Shahla, her children, her friend Turana, and I all decided to go and see the exhibit.
It consisted of different framed posters many with very intricate designs and beautiful Arabic script. One poster depicted the burning of Fatima’s door. And another of Fatima’s son placing flowers on her grave. There were also various decorative plates with Arabic script. I have to admit that the exhibit wasn’t quite what I expected but was interesting none the less.

Afterwards Elvin- who showed us around the exhibit and explained the posters to me in English- invited us to a concert and celebration. Then came my first cultural faux pas of the evening ( or at least the first one that I am aware of.- I’m sure I’m a walking faux pas here without meaning to be.) Elvin introduced me to his friend and I went to shake his hand – as Americans do when they meet people for the first time- but his friend did not return the handshake and gave me a strange look. Then I remembered, because I had read it somewhere- that men and women do not shake hands here. (Especially more religious people) I felt very stupid and ashamed- more because I knew the custom but forgot and managed to insult this man and make Americans look dumb.

But wait… it gets better! We arrived at the concert- which was outdoors in a park. The tables were full of women in beautiful colorful clothes- most but not all had their heads covered. Shahla told me that this was the upper religious class. We sat and listened to poetry and music revering Fatima. Then roses were passed out to all the women along with some cards with various quotes and pictures about Fatima. It was quite a beautiful event until cultural faux pas number 2 came up.
I had gotten dressed up to got to the exhibit but the concert was an added surprise and I was not prepared to attend that as well. I thought my clothes were modest enough-
my dress is below the knees when I’m standing up but has a tendency to creep when I’m sitting down. During the concert I was quite conscious of my dress- I was using Shahla’s big handbag to cover up a bit but after a while a young girl came over and whispered something to me which I didn’t quite understand but Shahla said that some people were concerned about how I was sitting. So we decided to leave and not insult anyone anymore. We told Elvin and he felt bad but I felt worse because I should know these things!! So I managed not only to insult one but a large number of the prominent members of the Muslim community here in Ganja. Terrible! What bothered me the most was that the excuse people use for me is that “She’s an American.” Well, how does that make American women look in their eyes? Disrespectful, ignorant and promiscuous?
I apologize for being a poor representative. I will try to do better in the future.
The other problem is that, this is the longest dress/skirt I have here. For everyday activities it really is no problem to have a skirt a little bit above the knees. But at religious events its not very good. Should you go to church in a mini-skirt and a tube top???

Dashkäsän

2006-07-07T10:35:00.000+05:00

A couple of weeks ago I went to this old mining town with some of my English Teacher friends. One of whom grew up here. It was a beautiful day and I wanted mainly to share some of the pictures and the interesting points from the day.
Hiking in Azerbaijan is not like hiking in the U.S. or Europe. Appropriate clothing and footwear according to Western Standards is not required- in fact I would have felt very strange decked out in full hiking garb. Although I definitely could have used the hiking boots and anything other than jeans! Being able to afford 250 dollar leather boots is a privilege and you can hike reasonably well in regular shoes- if you don't mind slipping and sliding all over the place. It is also not necessary to wear pants- one of my friends can't because her brother won't allow it. I would even wager that a skirt would be easier to move and cooler than a pair of pants.
We also had some local boys act as our "guides." I think it was not so much that we would get lost but more that a group of women should not be out hiking alone. We hiked down to the valley instead of up since Daskäshän is located on a hilltop. We walked to an old mining cave. Which was the coolest part of the hike (in both senses of the word!). The local cows had also discovered its amiable tempartures and had used it as a 'rest area' (if you know what I mean! : )

The town used to be famous for its marble (the name Dashkäsän means cut stone). So There were brilliant purple marble stones all along the way and in the streams. The picture doesn't quite do the colors justice.

We finished our descent at a stream that had seen cleaner days but was still pretty to look at if you didn't get too close!
Finally it was time to turn around and go back. I had thought our 'guides' would find us a different way back instead of straight up the treaterous slopes we had just come down. Silly me! It was straight up back the way we came.

My first reverse hike! But reverse according to whom? I actually liked walking back up, my knees didn't hurt as much. It seemed quite strange and maybe even 'backward' at first but I could definitely see the advantages to hiking this way. You even get to see the view twice! Its a bit like life here in general...hmmm another point to ponder. Besides who needs toilet paper anyway? (more on that later :) )

Weddings in Azerbaijan

2006-07-07T10:06:00.000+05:00

There is one topic that occupies most everyone’s mind this time of year and that is weddings. It is now wedding season in Azerbaijan which means that everyone knows at least one person, usually more, who is getting married. I thought American weddings were a big production! The whole marriage process from courtship to after the final ceremony is a huge undertaking here and a significant part of the culture which involves the ENTIRE family.
A man decides he wants to marry a particular woman and he then goes to his family and informs them of his intent. They then form a delegation and go to the prospective wife’s home to discuss the matter with her family. The negotiations may take a while and usually involve at least 4 visits by the man’s family. When they are served sweetened tea it signifies agreement on the part of the woman’s family. Then there are large engagement parties thrown by both families and finally the wedding which may be one or two years after the engagement but maybe sooner or later depending on when is best for the families.
Shahla’s husband’s cousin got married last weekend and we were all invited to the affair. This entailed a new haircut (see previous posting) a new dress, new shoes, new purse, jewelry- the works. Weddings take place in large banquet halls in restaurants or hotels not dissimilar from the United States. The groom’s father is a prominent politician in Azerbaijan and quite wealthy so the wedding was in a huge room with over 500 guests.
The focus of the evening was food. The tables were stacked with a myriad of different salads and bread and beverages- but no alcohol for the women!! Each table had its private serving boy who kept a steady supply of tasty fruit juices in our glasses. The guests arrived first and then later the couple came in together and sat up on a stage overlooking the guests. There were about 3 different T.V. station style video cameras with cameramen recording the whole event. There were televisions in the room so we could catch all the details if our backs were to the front of the room. There was also a very odd laser light dancing around the walls, either advertising or making different and often distracting designs.
The live band played great traditional Azeri dance music so dancing was a must. Azeri traditional dancing is not difficult, no complicated steps (if you’re a woman) just a little foot shuffle and some arm waving to the beat of the music and you’re a pro- pretty easy compared to swing or salsa. The couple even had hired three professional dancers to perform. It was incredible! (See Picture)
The evening pretty much revolved around eating a bit, dancing a bit, eating a bit, and dancing a bit. The couple did not circulate among the guests but the parents did. The couple spent much of the time sitting (and not smiling) on the stage and being photographed with different groups of guests. There was also very little if any at all religious aspect to the wedding. They signed a paper and that was about it from what I could understand. That may be this particular wedding so I don’t want to generalize about all Azeri weddings
It was a very interesting evening and I had a lot of fun dancing and getting to know more of Shahla’s HUGE family. They are all incredibly funny and kind. The next day we were invited to her Aunt’s house and her Mother-in-law’s sister (Aunt-in-law?) asked me if I wanted to be her daughter-in-law. I said I was too old for most men of marrying age. But then she pointed to her gray-haired son and said – how about 44?
As with the make-up- I sadly had to refuse.
Then three days later, Shahla’s Mother-in-law had to go to another party. This was a party of the women from both sides of the family who go and confirm the virginity of the bride by examining the bed sheets from the wedding night.
It is incredible to me how much the family is involved in the lives of the couple. And in general how large a role families play in everyone’s lives. It causes me to ponder…

Haircut Horrors!

2006-06-30T10:21:00.000+05:00

Another important lesson was learned today. Beauty is relative. My idea of beauty is not the same as other peoples. I decided last week to get my hair cut for one because I am going to a wedding on Saturday and because of the heat. Shahla made an appointment for me with her hair dresser and she assured me that he was great. It is always better to go to a male hairdresser because they will really try to make you more beautiful while female hairdressers don’t want to make other women too beautiful.
I was a little nervous because some of the haircuts and dye jobs here are a bit tacky for my tastes. The hairdresser’s wife was also in the salon helping out and when I saw her I knew I was doomed. I went ahead with it anyway, Shahla tried to convey to him what I wanted, he assured me that he understood. He kept saying “I will make you even more beautiful!” Everytime he said it I got more anxious. When he whipped out the platinum blond die it was all over. He put more blond in my hair than there is natural brown. I look like a zebra. And he didn’t even try to get the roots of my hair so it already looks about a month old. But I have to say that now I actually almost blend in here with my tacky hair cut. What I find really funny is how everyone here thinks its so beautiful. I don’t know how I will fix it.
But aside from the horrors of the hair cut the salon itself was rudimentary at best. A swivel off kilter desk chair instead of the pump chairs. He didn’t wet it first but just sprayed it with a bottle. No running warm water to rinse, just a big holding tank above the sink with a heating coil in it. He didn’t even use gloves to do the dying.
Never again!!! He offered to do my make-up for a week. Sadly I refused.

Azeri Barbeque!

2006-06-28T20:01:00.000+05:00

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.

Adventures in Moscow and Baku (May 26th-June 2nd)

2006-06-15T19:55:00.000+05:00

I arrived in Baku in the early afternoon on May 28th after almost 48 hours of traveling. Twenty of those hours were spent wandering aimlessly around the Moscow airport and sleeping like a bum on benches or when none were available, which was often the case, on the tile floor. It really was the closest I’d like to ever come to being homeless. My flight from Moscow to Baku was one I hope
(Dom Soviet)
never to have to make again. The flight was overbooked but all the passengers where crammed on anyway. Young children, of which there were PLENTY, were forced to sit on parents laps. The flight crew also seemed unconcerned about enough safety belts for the passengers. It was not a reassuring atmosphere. To top it off the turbulence was bad and the landing was very rocky. Needless to say I was very thankful to make it on the ground.
Lesson Number 1: a cheaper ticket is NOT a better deal. I will gladly pay an extra 300 dollars and fly a slightly more safety conscious airline and not lie alone huddled in the corner of a dark airport.
The taxi ride from the airport to Baku was one I will never forget. The Absheron peninsula, the little nose of Azerbaijan that peeks out into the Caspian Sea (or Lake, depending on who you ask and who wants the rights to the natural resources in it.) is one of the most environmentally degraded places on Earth. Decades of reckless oil excavation and chemical production has left the area a barren wasteland like something out of Mad Max. Unfortunately I do not have a picture but will try to get some when I go to Baku again.
Baku with a population of over 2 million people is the largest city in the Caucasus region and was the 3rd largest city in the Soviet Union. It has been a major oil exporting region since the turn of the last century and in the late 1910’s supplied the world with half of its oil. Oil is still of great importance in Baku and for all of Azerbaijan, in May an oil pipeline from the Caspian See to the Mediterranean Sea was completed. There are high hopes that revenues from the oil will improve living conditions in Azerbaijan. Only time will tell. I have my doubts.
Baku is an intriguing city. It is considered to be very European but I found it to be a far cry from Munich and other German cities. Perhaps the schöne deutsche Ordnung was missing! :) . Traffic signs and signals either don’t exist, don’t work or aren’t observed by drivers. The person with the loudest horn has the right of way. Pedestrians beware! Cars will not stop if you are in a cross- walk- in fact they are more likely to speed up beep their horn and then screech to a halt inches before hitting you. Seat belts are also seldom used if they are even installed in the cars at all. If you are riding in a taxi or walking on the street you are truly taking your life into your own hands.
There is no blending in here! Even on the first night I got stares from pretty much everyone on the street- especially the men. One thing is that I’m taller than most everyone, men and women. For the first time I can actually see over people in a crowd. Here I’m considered fair-skinned and light haired so I stick out everywhere. It also doesn’t help that I look totally lost and bewildered most of the time. It is a very odd feeling that I don’t know if I will ever really get used to.
One of the coolest things in Baku is the subway, which is, despite what is written about it in guidebooks, a perfectly safe, clean and efficient way of navigating the city. But there are few maps of the stops so you have to know where you are going. The stations are filled with absolutely beautiful mosaics. What I liked the most is that a little song played over the intercom before each stop. And every stop had its own little tune so you if you couldn’t understand the announcer then all you had to do was remember what song went with what stop. In one of the stations there is actually an escalator longer and steeper than the one in Marienplatz in Munich!
Baku is a boisterous and beautiful city. Most noteworthy is the Qız Qalası or the Maidens Tower. (See picture from first posting) There are several myths surrounding the name of the tower. The one I like the most is the one about a city ruler who fell in love with his daughter and wanted to marry her. She was torn between revulsion and daughterly duty so as a stalling tactic she had a tower built so she could see all of her father/husbands lands. Every time the tower was declared to be finished she had another storey built. Finally when it was completed she climbed to the top had a quick view of the lands and threw herself off into the Caspian See. What is interesting about this is that the tower is now a good distance from the water’s edge.
The Qız Qalsın is located in the beautiful walled old city. Within the city is the Shirvanasha’s palace. See pictures. I have to admit that I don’t really know what most of things in the palace are because I didn’t get a tour in English. I was just proud of myself for getting a student discounted ticket- and asking for it in Azeri. One of the grounds keepers tried to give me tour but it was clear that our language barrier was too great for much meaningful information exchange. I did understand when he asked for my phone number and then I politely left.
Along the water’s edge is a promenade where most of Baku strolls in the evenings. There are numerous vendors, a small amusement park, a zoo, photo op sites (including one with the Teletubbies!) and a myriad of tea houses. Which are mostly frequented by the male population. It is okay for women to go there if they are with a man but for woman to go alone is quite strange. There are also very few women out at after dark. One of the subway rides back to the hotel was very bizarre because there were only two or three women in the entire car filled with people. And of course all the men are staring at me because I’m a foreigner, it was uncanny. I don’t feel threatened at all, just unnerved.
The view from the promenade along the Caspian See is quite striking. The horizon is dotted with oil rigs and the city spreads out along the coast. The strong breezes coming off the water definitely have a petroleum tinge to them. Swimming is not recommended!!! There were several fishermen on the piers. I can’t imagine what they were hoping to catch.
Probably the most famous building in Baku is the Dom Soviet, which was the seat of the government during the Soviet Era. Now it is host to various companies and organizations. (picture)
While in Baku Eddie (that’s the guy who hired me and I will be replacing when he returns to the United States at the end of June) and I met with lots of different people from various NGO’s working in

(Oil Industry)
Azerbaijan. There is a wealth of things going on in the country. I’m still sorting through them all and looking at potential collaborators during my time here. Probably the highlight of my week in Baku was the AzETA (Azerbaijan English Teacher’s association) Concert. For International Children’s Day the organization put on a concert and some of Azerbaijan’s most popular musicians performed. It was fabulous and I got my first real taste of the very deep music and dance culture here.
On Friday morning we got a driver to Ganja and took the less direct but more scenic route through the mountains. I was about a six hour drive in very oppressive heat- and who was the idiot who wore black pants?!! But it was incredible to see the varied landscape. Outside of Baku is desert;not a tree to be seen. Then really as if out of nowhere appear the mountains and it becomes a bit greener. Where we stopped for lunch there were fabulous views of the greater Caucasus Mountains to the north. Driving down into the central plains towards Ganja you could begin to see the lesser Caucasus Mountains to the South. Amazing that so much ecological diversity is present in a country smaller than Maine! We arrived in Ganja, my new home, around 6:00 in the evening. More on Ganja to come.
Well that pretty much sums up week one. I’m playing catch up and will try to have week two up soon. Any questions or comments please post or send me an email!

Welcome

2006-06-10T11:21:00.000+05:00

Hello! Gruess Gott! Salaam Aleykoum! Bonjour!

To all my family and friends, Welcome to my first attempt at blogging! I hope to be able to use this format to tell you about and show you some of my adventures here in Azerbaijan and other parts yet unknown.
Thanks for taking the journey with me. I wouldn't be here without the support of all of you!