Happy New Year 2010 Is Finally Here

PICTURES: The day after Christmas we traveled to Salyan to celebrate Christmas, left to right are 3 AZ7s, Clarissa, Melissa, Beth, and 3 AZ6s, Jordyn, Leslie, and Linda. Next, we begin New Year’s Eve with supper around 6:00 p.m. Toasting with tea and Diet Dr. Pepper while the table is set with deviled eggs, a ham from the U.S. courtesy of Richard and Gloria Bray, sweet potatoes from the U.S. and for dessert Yummy Bars. We walked around Shirvan and there is Linda and Denney, no wait, I think that might be a young Azerbaijani man having a great New Year’s Eve. People gathered to have family photos made (explanation below), and finally Linda in front of the Heydar Aliev monument “To you Shirvanites Happy Holiday”.

Back to Christmas, last week were pictures of the celebration in Shirvan at Jesse’s, our site mate. Frank commented that some of the Volunteers look very young, and they are. The young Volunteers are very brave and we admire their vitality. However, there is a definite and natural division between many of the younger Volunteers and us. At Jesse’s it was an atmosphere of a Frat Party – disorganized, come what may, lots of alcohol, and 13 people sleeping on the floor. We felt very uncomfortable and attempted to relieve our discomfort through chosen conversations with a few of the attendees. They had met earlier in the day and had gone to the Bazaar together, put names on stockings, and then later called us that they were at Jesse’s. We are definitely left out and separated, but also more at ease with that situation. We left early around 10:00 p.m. with the excuse and reality that we are old. The chosen conversations were good, but we were certainly not “a part” of the group.
On Saturday the 26th we traveled to Leslie’s and had an enjoyable meal with more traditional Christmas dishes. We enjoyed good conversation and I got to help Leslie with some of her computer issues. We spent the night while Clarissa and Jordyn returned to their homes in Neftjala. There was plenty of space, and we were all comfortable and private. Linda and I returned home on Sunday morning feeling very good about our time in Salyan.
Then Sunday afternoon at 4:00 p.m. I went to a Christmas party at the home of an Azerbaijani Christian family. It was 3 hours of music, devotion, food, and then games. There were 20 people there and even though I struggled to understand even a portion of what was said, it was a wonderful time.

December 31 to January 4 are non-work days in celebration of 2 holidays. December 31 is World Azerbaijan Unification Day. It is a day when Azerbaijan people all over the world remember their homeland and culture. In Azerbaijan it is New Year’s Eve! The day is filled with people going to the Bazaar and buying fruit, nuts, meat, and preparing big meals for their families. The meals include capital salad, kabob, plov, dolmas, cakes, and tea.
FOOD DEFINITIONS: Plov – rice with lots of butter, chicken or beef or mutton cooked with onions caramelized in oil and sometimes with egg, dates, raisins, and can have variations of dried fruit and black-eyed peas. Dolma – the central ingredients are mutton, rice, onion, cilantros, and dill, mixed together and folded with leaves of either grape or cabbage. The grape leaf dolma is more traditional during the holidays and the cabbage leaf dolma is more of a common meal dolma. There is also what is called 3 sister dolma which is the meat, onion, rice, cilantros, dill mixture stuffed into tomato, eggplant, and bell pepper. Capital salad is made with diced cooked potato, onion, peas, carrot, cilantros or some green seasoning and mayonnaise or yogurt.

During the day there are firecrackers going off all over the city, and it is a bit amazing that more people do not get injured.

Then about 8:00 p.m. it settled down, and Linda and I conjectured that everyone was eating their evening meal. My Counterpart came to our home with her 2 children and brought us plov, capital salad, and pickles. Our neighbor then brought us grape leaf dolmas. Linda and I had already eaten the meal described above, but deeply appreciated what became my late night snack and lunch on January 1.

Linda and I went for a walk around Shirvan’s parks at 10:00 p.m. There are 3 major and 1 minor New Year’s trees in Shirvan. People come to these trees and can have family photos made for just a few manat. Families and friends continue to have their pictures made at the trees for about another week. At the trees there are characters with whom the photos are made. There is Shaxta Baba (Grandfather Frost – Santa Claus), Snow Girl, and usually either a large Mickey Mouse-like or Donald Duck-like. A great picture would have been when we walked by and Mickey was taking a smoke break. At the 10:00 – 11:00 p.m. hour there were always dozens of families waiting in line.

We returned home at 11:15 and awaited the midnight hour when we opened our window on the balcon (porch), and watched the neighbors shooting firecrackers, roman candles, and a few other assorted explosive devices.

All that is missing is football!

We wish for all of you the very best in 2010.
To all our friends and family in the Midwest you still have our sympathy and thoughts during the snowstorm and extremely cold temperatures. Update on Andrew is that he is doing very well. He has had some of the stitches removed and plans to go back to school on Monday.