This week we are going to get together with the other older Volunteers in a village of Ililsu near the city of Qax. So, I am posting a little earlier in the week.
Last week during the Ramazan holiday, we visited Todd and Sarah France who are AZ7’s and serve in Kurdamir. Kurdamir is north and east of us, and about a 90-minute bus ride. Todd is 30 and played in the European NFL as a kicker. Sarah taught art for 3 years in the Las Vegas school system. They are an outstanding couple with many talents. It is always a joy to spend time with them (far right in the photo).
Kurdamir is a region with over 50 villages, and the main city has a population of 15,000. We did not see any of the soviet style apartment buildings as we have in Shirvan. The France’s have rented a home that has 3 rooms and a kitchen. It was one of the nicest refrigerators I have seen in any Peace Corps housing. They also have a washing machine (a tub with an agitator which must be hand filled and drained). We were very envious of their luxury, except for the toilet, which is basically a hole in the ground. They have a cistern and overhead water tank, which they fill by buying water from a truck. The water was clean and they have a nice system. Their water heater did not work, but during the summer the sun heats the tank sufficiently for a nice shower in the evenings.
The France’s were very kind to us and gave up their bed. Their bed is very comfortable. They have an Azerbaijan mattress on the floor and foam rubber on top of it. The mattresses in Azerbaijan are cloth stuffed with wool. During each summer the wool is removed, washed, fluffed, re-stuffed, and re-sewn. The fluffing is performed by allowing the wet wool to air dry, then a woman takes a stick and beats the stick into the wool, lifts the stick bringing a few strands of wool to the air, and dropping back onto the pile. When I am running in the summer, I often hear the whack, whack, whack of those refurbishing their mattresses.
Now, the floor is very comfortable with a mattress, and many homes with many people usually stack the mattresses during the day, and then lay on the floor at night. The beds are 2 basic types. One type is a metal frame with a small headboard, then inside the frame is a metal mesh and the mattress is placed on top of the mesh. This is very soft and a little springy. Our beds in Saray during our training were of this type. We sagged into the middle. We had 2 beds pushed together, but were different heights.
The second type of bed is a board inside of the metal frame – like sleeping on the floor, but higher. Our bed board has the thinnest layer of foam rubber I have ever encountered. We have added other layers of foam rubber and it is more comfortable.
The problem for us is that the wool mattress does not stay fluffed very long. Soon there are deep indentations of each person. We often grip the mattress on opposite sides and shake vigorously to even it out a little.
All that is to say this: The Peace Corps sets aside $225 (now $275) for each month of training and service. Then at the end of service, we are given this money as a Readjustment Allowance. A good portion of ours is going for the highest quality of bed we can purchase, and never ever take it for granted!
The bus rides to and from Kurdamir were quite eventful, but usual. The bus to Kurdamir was a large 50-passenger bus probably built in the 1960’s. It was well worn, and soon after we began there was a loud, very loud thumping noise at the rear of the bus. Linda had observed that the driver and helper had been working on one of the underneath baggage areas when we boarded. Evidently, the repair did not hold, and the door was flapping. The sound was like someone slamming a metal door as hard as they could every 5 seconds. We stopped a couple of times, and finally the noise subsided. When we first heard the flapping we thought we had a flat tire because of the vibration, but that was just normal shimmy of unbalanced tires.
Our return home was on the bus that runs from Shamakha to Shirvan each day. I have included the photo of our Salyan bus again. The Shamakha bus is not quite as physically sound as that bus. I stood the whole 2 hours plus because we were very crowded, and women always get first priority for seating. I stood next to Linda behind the driver. When we stopped, an assistant would uncover the engine compartment, which was to the right of the driver. He would add water to the radiator while the engine was running. He added 10 liters during the 2-hour trip. It was over 2 hours because of all the stops we made letting off and picking up passengers for the villages between Kurdamir and Shirvan. However, the worst part of the trip was the fumes. The weather has moderated, and our return day was cool, or I’d be dead.
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