Traveling for the First Time

The Novruz holiday provided us with about a week of relative free time. One of the AZ5 PCV, Cindy, organized a Mature Women Volunteers Retreat in Sheki. This may amaze many of you as it does me, but Linda qualified for the Mature (I called it "Older" and was corrected). So, on March 19 we traveled to Barda and spent the night with our close friends the Colcord’s, Bill and Dorothy. The next day, the women left for Sheki, and Bill and I departed for Zaqatala.
There were 11 "Mature" female volunteers gathered in Sheki. This is the first time we had been together since the Swearing-In Ceremony in December. We enjoyed sharing about our host families, towns and work. I was able to get some good ideas from other PCVs about possible things to do or try at my site. We had meals together and did some sight-seeing. Sheki is a 2500 to 2600 year old town located on the old silk road from China to Europe. You can look around and see the southern Greater Caucasian Mountains with snow on the higher peaks.
In the pictures you will see the mountain man on the donkey. He had dark, leathery skin and shepherd clothes. He comes down from the highlands on his donkey.
From the Karavan Saray Hotel courtyard, one can see the mountains and snow on the higher peaks. This hotel was built in the 1700’s to accommodate the travelers on the silk road. The arched entrance in the wall was the camel entrance.
The view from the Panorama Guest House shows the tile roofs of the houses below and the mountains in the distance. Tourists come to Sheki to hike in the mountains and enjoy the cooler weather in the hot summers. Sheki has a silk factory, Khan’s Palace, Juma Mosque and wonderful local food. One dish is piti – a lamb stew cooked in small individual clay pots. There is a Sheki pakhlava pastry that is very sweet and made from rice flour and nuts. The Khan’s Palace was built in the 1700’s without using any nails. It has beautiful stained glass windows, frescoes and lacy wooden latticework.
While the women talked and learned about Sheki, Denney went with Bill, Todd, and Joel for the inaugural meeting of OFF. OFF is the fellowship of older men. We hiked one day in Zaqatala up to the ruins of an old church, centuries old, and in the mountains to the north was Russia’s Dagestan. To celebrate Novruz the city of Zaqatala was filled with representatives from all the surrounding villages. The villages provided displays and entertainment. I heard lots of native music and saw dancing, a tight rope walker, strong men feats, and many exhibits of making wool into yarn.
The men ate all their meals in a Turkish Café across from the hotel (rate $20 per night per room - $10 a piece). The room had 2 beds, a hot shower if you were patient enough to wait for the hot water, and a 13" TV. Our room had a little balcony, and the four of us along with a younger PCV spent one afternoon and evening on the balcony talking and watching the world go by. We discussed everything from politics to religion with the Peace Corps thrown in.
I will have pictures of Zaqatala in the future, and we will share others of Sheki and Shirvan at Novruz. The spring is coming and there is a great anticipation of warmer weather and green plants.
The Novruz holiday came at a very good time for Linda and me. We have been very busy and the emotional strain of a different culture along with the physical demands of every day life had fatigued us physically and emotionally.
Again, it is the support of people who love us and care about us that enable us to try to serve the people of Azerbaijan and the US Peace Corps.
I was most proud of our managing the transportation. We took a bus to Barda, but they left us at Yevlax and we got a taxi ($4) to Barda. Our language skills lack a great deal, but are improving. From Barda, Bill Colcord and I traveled to Zaqatala while the women left for Sheki.
Bill and Dorothy Colcord are from Boston. They are our best friends in the PC. Bill is a retired businessman, having retired one week before leaving for Azerbaijan. Dorothy is a retired speech pathologist. They have 2 sons about the age of our sons, and we have a lot in common. Bill and Dorothy are dedicated people giving of themselves to the people of Barda.
Dorothy teaches in a school which houses IDP families (Internally Displaced People). Azerbaijan has about 1 million IDP due to the Karabagh conflict with Armenia 1992 – 1994. Dorothy teaches in the best classroom, a small hut with very old desks, an even older blackboard, but with one very dedicated teacher.
Dorothy took us on a tour of her school and in the gym they had converted it into 5 small classrooms, with birds nesting in the windows with no glass above. Families live in the rest of the gym and in rooms of the school building. One cannot adequately describe the conditions.
Just about 1 mile from Dorothy’s school is a new school with fresh paint and an air of quality named after Hedar Aliev’s mother. Students must pass a qualifying exam to attend and the coursework is more demanding.
Bill works with the ministry of agriculture. He is involved with improving farming methods. Bill’s background is with the beef industry so he has a lot to offer. Bill is about 6’2" and very outgoing. He greets everyone he meets with a Boston accented "Salaam".
Bill and Dorothy have a great living arrangement, the lower floor of a multi-family dwelling. The have 2 large rooms, a nice kitchen, and a garden area. They share the hamam (bathroom) and toilet with the family. Dorothy likes to decorate and cook. So, live is going well for them under the challenges of their work.
One word to Kay Maxwell, the infrastructure is like farm to market roads in Texas, but not always that good. There may be stretches of construction which are not as good as a rural gravel road. There are not many roads, and connections to cities are limited.