We Take a Little Vacation

This posting is one of several on our trip to Georgia (the one without the Atlanta Braves). It was our first trip outside of Azerbaijan, and of course, were were nervous about the travel and border crossings, but anxious for the adventure and a little time away from our home here.

There are scenic pictures of Tbilisi and Mtskheta from high above. The rather tall woman is a monument name "Mother of Georgia" and she resides high above Tbilisi at the old fortress. There is also a picture of a mosque and a synagogue that are relatively close to each other. The Georgian people are proud of their history of tolerance for many cultures even though 80 per cent of the population is Orthodox.

The Peace Corps give Volunteers 2 days Annual Leave for every month of service. No Annual Leave is given for Pre-Service Training, so we have accumulated 14 days. We used 7 of those for our trip. Any time a Volunteer is away from site more than 1 weekend a month it is to be used as Annual Leave. However, the Azerbaijan Peace Corps is quite liberal with its in-country travel, and many volunteers travel somewhere within country almost every week without using their Annual Leave.

Georgia is the country most available to us in Azerbaijan. We can travel there by bus, taxi, or train. Of the four border countries, Iran and Armenia are off limits to us, and it is very difficult to get visas to Russia.

We began on a Monday morning with a 4 hour bus ride to Yevlax - easy so far, then a 30 minute ride on a bus from yevlax to Barda. The only problem was a 1.5 hour wait in Yevlax for the minibus to fill up before it would leave. We were passengers 3 and 4 of 20. We all wanted to celebrate when number 20 got on board and we could leave. It was only about 90 degrees and sunny, but we did not completely melt. We finally got to our friends, Bill and Dorothy Colcord's around 2:30.

After lunch and a nap, we walked a bit and had dinner with Bill, Dorothy, and John Schwartzbauer. John has been a Volunteer in Azerbaijan for 4 years. John is widowed and has 4 daughters in the United States. He wanted to stay longer in Azerbaijan, but the Peace Corps is not allowing him to renew. The Peace Corps is acting in the best interest of John.

On Tuesday we helped Dorothy with a project she has with potential FLEX (exchange students to the United States) participants. Last year over 2,000 students applied to pend one school year in the United States for the 10th or 11th grade. Of those 41 were selected to go.

Tuesday night we had a lovely dinner with an Azerbaijan couple. Tofiga, the wife, is the counterpart to one of the brightest and best of American Peace Corps Volunteers, Jeremy Hebert. Then bright and early on Wednesday morning, Dorothy's counterpart had arranged a car to take us to the Red Bridge (Qirimzi Koerpu) where we walked across (about a kilometer) to Georgia. We showed our passports 6 times -- 3 to Azerbaijan soldiers and police, and 3 to Georgian soldiers and police. No problems , everyone was very cordial and never any attempt to take a bribe.

One great moment was when an Azerbaijan soldier was looking over one of our passports very carefully, when Linda noticed, he was just looking at the background pictures of famous sights in the United States. She went over and talked with the soldier, explaining each one. The Statue of Liberty was the only sight with which he was familiar.

We were on our way to Tbilisi, and our rooms at the Nika Guesthouse in a taxi with a negotiated price of $25 for the 40 kilometer ride. The Nika Guesthouse was recommended by the Georgian Peace Corps. Linda and I had a room on the second floor, no air conditioning, but a fan that worked, pretty clean, hot water from the second day on, access to a refrigerator, and all for $15 per person per night! It was standard PC travel if you can't stay with other Volunteers.

The city of Tbilisi is like any capital city. The population is about 1.1 million, and many products and foods not available in the smaller cities, towns, and villages are available there. It has a bustling nightlife, cinema, theatre, parks, and traffic. We will share more pictures and comments on Georgia in future posts.

We walked Tbilisi that Wednesday evening looking for an Italian restaurant. Never found it, but ate at a "Mexican Food" restaurant named Santa Fe. We ordered Mexican and got a Georgian version, very mild, no sauces, a couple of chips, but we were really hungry, so it was okay.

The people of Georgia are very friendly and were quite helpful as we walked with maps in hand. When we took the underground train (Metro) on Thursday two young girls helped us navigate our way to our stop. The younger Georgians are very likely to speak English, and the middle aged adults up, not so much. It was a good, but tiring experience walking that evening.

The difficulty for us was the Georgian language has a unique alphabet. We had no clue as to the names on street signs, Metro signs, or any sign that had only Georgian. The unusual response was that when we could not be understood in English, we tried to speak Azerbaijani, and when we could not understand the Georgian, we would answer in Azerbaijani.

On Thursday, our first item of business was a visit to the Peace Corps offices in Tbilisi. The Georgian PC evacuated and closed service for all of its Trainees and Volunteers in August of 2008 when the Russian army responded to the Ossetia region. The PC staff remained intact and returned to Georgia. The Georgian PC is now working with 25 Trainees who will renew Peace Corps service to Georgia. They will serve only in Eastern Georgia for now due to the continued political situation.

We were given a tour of their offices by the Safety and Security Director. She explained how the evacuation took place and shared about the future plans for the Georgian Peace Corps. Most of the staff was with the Trainees at a Pre-Service Training event that included inoculations. Whenever any PCV travels within a PC country, the staff is responsible for their safety, and every Volunteer is to check in.

As it worked out, it was very fortunate that checking in was high on our agenda. On Friday afternoon while concluding our sight seeing, Dorothy fell and it was painful for her to stand on her left leg. We managed to get her back to the Nika, and Bill called the Peace Corps Medical Duty Officer. The doctor arranged transportation and an x-ray. The x-ray indicated a broken tibia, and it was later set and a cast applied.

Saturday Dorothy rested under the careful attention of Bill while we took a tour. On Sunday the Georgian Peace Corps arranged transportation for Bill and Dorothy to the border where they crossed and were met by Azerbaijan Peace Corps transportation that returned them to their home.

We will tell about the interesting sights and events in the postings to come. We hope this bit of information has whetted your appetite for more knowledge about Georgia and of course the Peace Corps.

Where the Heck Is Quba?

We will not be posting next week because we will be taking a week's Annual Leave to visit Georgia (the one without Atlanta).

We completed our celebration of the Fourth of July in Quba. Frank asked, "Where the Heck Is Quba?" Quba is a city of just over 15,000 north of Baku and just a little west. We traveled along the Caspian and then turned west into the mountains. Quba is known for its apples, cooler temperatures, scenic beauty, and Jewish community of Qirmizi Qasaba. On Friday, July 3, we left on the first bus out of Shirvan for Baku. The bus begins loading at 6:00 a.m. and when it is full, it leaves. On that day it left at 6:45. We arrived at our bus station in Baku at 8:00 and caught a city bus for the New Bus Station in the northern part of Baku. We met our friends, Bill and Dorothy Colcord, at 9:15 and went straight for the 9:30 bus to Quba. It promptly left at 10:05, and we were on our way.

When we arrived in Quba, Dorothy's counterpart had arranged for a taxi driver to meet us and take us to our resort like hotel just 5 KM from Quba. We checked in, enjoyed lunch, then back to Quba where we met fellow PCV Chris Polen. Chris gave us a walking tour of Quba.

We returned to our hotel after a wonderful supper in Quba. In the street were a group of men who were staying at the hotel, and they were also muscians and had begun to play. Bill and Denney danced in the street with a cook (male) at the hotel, and made many new friends.

The next morning our taxi came and we left for Xinaluq (www.xinaluq.com). The scenery was beautiful and we took many phots while on our way. While stopping outside a village to take photos, the driver noticed steam coming from under the hood, and there was a water hose leak.

After 30 minutes, a little tape, and a vodka bottle full of clean water brought to us by a small lad who had a roadside business of selling local plants, we were on our way back to Quba. We never made it to Xinaluq. The driver went to repair his car, and we headed for the Qirimzi Qasaba (Red Village).

According to Chris, this is the largest Jewish "ghetto" in all of the former Soviet Union. Basically part of Quba City but separated by the Quidalchay River. Money from the diaspora had made this one of the most developed looking small towns in Azerbaijan.

The picture from above the Red Village shows the river which divides Quba and the village, to the top is Quba, to the bottom is the Red Village.

Here we saw our first synagogue in Azerbaijan, and the Star of David adorning several homes. One building which caught my attention was a Wedding Palace. It was the standard Wedding Palace with "Sadliq Saray" printed in large letters on one side. Then on another side was the name in Russian with the Star of David above.

We walked through the village and made our way to an archeological site across the river in Quba. The site was uncovered two years ago and is a mass grave from 1918. The Azerbaijan people said it was the Armenians who performed genocide and cruelly murdered men, women, and children. It ws humbling to see, but also is discouraging with the beliefs of the Azerbaijan people in regards to Armenians.

Our second day was spent sight seeing in the communities of Nabran, Xachmaz, and Qusar. Nabran is a resort area on the Caspian, just a few kilometers from Russia. The beach was a gray mixture of sand and rock. From the pictures you can see everyone (and everything) enjoys the beach. We put our feet into the Caspian and asked the rates of the posh resort there, $400 a night -- needless to say, they'll not see us there again. The driver said it was too cold for a lot of people to be on the beach - it was only about 90!

Xachmaz and Qusar were wonderfully clean communities with parks, statues, and friendly people. While driving we saw cultivated farmland and green areas very different from our arid part of Azerbaijan.

One of the better aspects of our trip was the taxi driver. His name is Balabey Qonaqov. Dorothy's counterpart had made all the arrangements for us and were were to pay him 25 AZN a day plus gasoline. The bus driver called Balabey as we approached Quba and he met us at the bus station. We were impressed and paid nothing for the first trip to the hotel because Dorothy's counterpart had already paid for it. The day the car broke down, we asked how much? He replied 30 AZN. We began to worry and think maybe we were being taken advantage of. The next morning we were not going to go with him until we discussed the price of everything. We agreed on a very fair price for an all day excursion. During the drive, in the afternoon, he stopped at his home and we had tea with his family. Balabey and his lovely wife have 2 sons, one teenage, and one 11. We spent an hour speaking in Azerbaijan with them and shared aout the Peace Corps. To make a long story short, we not only had a driver, we have a good friend. We took pictures and mailed them to his family because we will always remember the emotion he shared with us as we departed.

We have some unusual pictures for future blogs and will no doubt share more about Quba and the area.

Monday we returned to Shirvan and there is a saying here, "East is east and west is west, but home is always best." We enjoyed the cooler temperatures, great company, and good food.

Happy Fourth of July - We have a wonderful country!

Happy Fourth of July to everyone!
Working at the Central Library I get to meet many outstanding Azerbaijani people. One of the young men who has made an everlasting impression upon me is Rovshan. Rovshan is a graduate of the private Turkish school in Shirvan (further explanation below). After the Turkish preparatory school he graduated from Qafqaz University in Baku majoring in International Relations. Upon graduation he fulfilled his compulsory military service of 1 year (2 years without any education beyond secondary school, 18 months for technical education, and 1 year if a university graduate). Rovshan hopes to some day be a diplomat. He is a very sensitive individual who has a respect for all cultures, and a political awareness. He invited Linda and I to his home and the picture is of Rovshan’s mother (a geological engineer working for the government), Linda, myself, Rovshan, Rovshan’s cousin and sister. His father was working that evening in Baku and his father is also a geological engineer working for the government. Rovshan’s parents met at the university while preparing for their careers.
After Rovshan finished his military service he has applied for several jobs and is considering offers from Baku and Amsterdam. I am hoping that the Peace Corps will respond to his application for a position on the staff. It would be a great experience for him and help him in his goal of diplomatic service.
I met Rovshan when he came to the Central Library because he had heard about the Peace Corps Volunteer there. He felt that his English skills had slipped during his year in the military, and he wanted to improve. During one session of the Conversation Club he brought his sketches that he did while in the military. A particularly intriguing drawing is of two bullets standing side by side, one wrapped with barbed wire, the other with the shell open on the casing and a flower is growing out of the casing. He served the military, but knows that cooperation and understanding bring peace.

The Turkish School is for boys only. The teachers are from Turkey and are better paid, and the school has the best facilities around. For students who do not live in Shirvan, there are dormitories. There are computers and high speed internet access. The faculty speaks English fluently, and the last five years all the classes are taught in English. The tuition is about 2,000 AZN per year. Many parents sacrifice a great deal to send their sons there.
Another young man, Ulvie, comes to the Central Library. He is a current student at the Turkish School. Recently he went on a 10 day excursion to the southeastern portion of Azerbaijan with his school. The students were required to read 3 hours a day, take examinations and write about their reading. Athletic competition was also part of the program. Quite a contrast to the public education.

The other pictures are of the new fountains in front of the Heydar Aliyev monument. Heydar Aliyev is the George Washington of Azerbaijan. During Soviet years he rose to the number 2 spot in the Politburo. He retired and after the break up of the Soviet Union there was chaos in Azerbaijan, and the loss of the Norgono Karabagh region to the Armenians. The country turned to Heydar Aliyev and he restored order.
Every city and town has a Heydar Aliyev museum. The museum in Shirvan is being moved to a new building, and the present President, Ilham Aliyev, Heydar’s son, will come to Shirvan to dedicate the new museum. So, there are also new fountains, and everything is getting spruced up.

For the Fourth of July Linda and I will be traveling with Bill and Dorothy Colcord to Quba. We will share about Quba in a future blog.

Azerbaijan Identification Card

Linda and I reached a bit of a milestone this week. We have been in Azerbaijan for 9 months, and in Shirvan for 6 months. We obtained our Azerbaijan identification cards. With my picture it is amazing they let me stay in the country! The local officials have been very gracious to Linda and me. We use these identification cards like a drivers license in the U.S., to prove identification at the post office, bank, and purchasing plane or train tickets. The Azerbaijan citizens’ identification card is green.

I have included a picture of one of the local ATMs when it was mildly busy. We have seen as many as 40 – 50 people crowded around the ATM machines when the government salaries and pensions are available. I have had men and women hand me their cards and give me their access codes for me to help them obtain cash from the machines. For an American it is a bit unnerving to have people looking over my shoulder. There are no lines, just gathering and people edge their way up front. The more aggressive get to use the machine quicker. I go at times when there is no one else around. I have the option of getting the instructions in English, and it is very easy to use. In fact, a little easier than the US because I ask for any amount, not just in increments of 10’s or 20’s. I often make a withdrawal of 49 AZN to avoid any big bills. So, it is better to ask for my monthly allowance with four 49 withdrawals rather than one 200.

The reason big bills are a problem is making change with the merchants. Here are 3 pictures of local merchants that we like to patronize. The butcher gets less of our money only because we have only purchased 2 kilos of beef in the last 2 months. The vegetable man is always friendly and tries to tell us the amount due in English. He is more accurate in Azerbaijani, and we have the numbers down. We use several of the little general stores like the one shown above. Check out many of the staple items, and yes that is a hot sauce in the background. We have not tried any of it yet. Looks like a watered down Tobasco to me.

We continue to meet many interesting and talented people. My counterpart, Alma, is in the midst of an employment crisis. The IATP (Internet Access and Training Program) and IREX (Information and Research Exchange), both USAID (United States Agency for International Development) financed, were in the Central Library. On May 31 IATP pulled its employment of Alma and its program. The computers were given to the Library and Alma arranged for internet access to continue. It looked for awhile that IREX was going to make our program an IREX Media Center. I saw Alma working hard on paperwork. However, no contract has ever come through for Alma.

Alma is an intelligent woman whom everyone likes. The Children’s Hospital is in a neighboring building and she is often helping them with any computer issues they may have. People throughout the community know her and respect her. Three of the Peace Corps Volunteers here have found housing through Alma’s contacts. She always gives of herself for her family, friends, and job. She is a very special person in this male dominated culture.

One day I took my XO Laptop from the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) organization to demonstrate its capabilities. When one child began typing his name and playing the games, she immediately could see the potential. We both wrote to OLPC and contacted them by email asking how we could begin the process. OLPC is a small organization and do not work with individuals, but only government and organizations. However, I did receive a commitment that they could work with an organization for as few as 5,000 computers at $200 per computer. It may sound high, but it was quite a generous offer.

During one of our Conversation Clubs the question was asked what would you do if you had a million AZN. While everyone was wanting to buy cars, houses, expensive clothes and furniture, Alma said I would buy 5,000 computers for the children of Shirvan.

Put all your positive energy into Alma’s job situation. She is a person who is very much needed in Shirvan.

Flowers and Plants in Azerbaijan, and an old man still jogs

Azerbaijanis love flowers. If you stop to admire flowers, the owner will insist on cutting some flowers for you. When we go visiting, often I will come home with flowers that the host has given me. Flowers are given to new mothers, on International Women’s Day, graduation, birthdays, visits, house warming, competitions, sporting events and are placed at memorials and on graves. In the spring, flowers start appearing everywhere. In front of most schools are garden areas where flowers are planted and cared for by students and the maintenance staff. Most houses and many apartment buildings have flowers planted at the entrances. The parks in Shirvan are full of roses, lilies, petunias, daisies and cannas.
The Holly Hocks in the picture are planted in front of our apartment building entrance. Many colors of Holly Hocks (white, shades of pink, red, shades of purple) are planted all over town. The roses I am sitting in front of are planted in a median on a wide street but there are also roses in the parks, at houses and public buildings. There is every color of rose imaginable – from purplish blue to orange. One gas station has a beautiful garden of roses. Multi-color pansies are planted in the 8-point-star planters in the parks. These pansies bloom most of the year. There are also petunias in several colors (solid or striped) all over town. Our area of the country can get very dry but great care is taken to water these flowers.
We have been enjoying strawberries during the last of May and into June. They will not last much longer so while they are available people really eat them and make jams for later. At first they were expensive, but everyone told us to wait until they were about one manet a kilo and then buy. Now cherries are in the market. There are white, red and dark red varieties. The white are the sweetest. We have bought cherries and made a wonderful cherry sauce to put on ice cream or cake. Now the pomegranate trees are blooming. I had never seen a pomegranate tree. The bloom is a small, very bright red flower and the fruit forms at the base of the flower (see picture). The tree is small and bush like. They can grow wild in pastures, fields or around houses. Pomegranates are peeled and eaten or made into a juice. Many houses have grape arbors in the front courtyard. Tables and chairs are put under these arbors and family and friends will sit out in the evening under the arbor. These grape vines must be severely pruned each year or they can get out of control. At this time the arbors are full of leaves and the beginning of grape clusters. Many vegetables are now coming to market – green onions, eggplant, runner beans (green beans), tomatoes, cucumbers, and new potatoes. I have several people who have told me how to cook different vegetables. It seems that Azs have just so many ways they cook a vegetable, fruit, meat, bread and that is it. They teach their daughters how to cook these before they are married. Recipes are not written down but passed along by demonstration and verbally. There are no measuring cups of spoons used in AZ. Girls practice and watch mother/grandmother to know how much of an ingredient to use. All cooking is done from scratch. There are very few prepared foods in the markets or bazaar. (If you find prepared food, it is expensive.) Food preparation takes much time and effort. During the winter months vegetables are brought in fresh from Iran (to the south) but the prices are higher and many families can not afford to buy vegetables out of season.

Now from Denney: Summer is here, but the weather is not too bad yet. Everyone says it will get close to 110 sometime in July or August. We have had a week or so in the 90’s, but now 80’s for awhile. Everything is a little more laid back. We plan to do some traveling in July.
Linda wrote about plants, I will talk about an old man jogging. I get lots of looks, stares, handshakes, “salam” (hello), “ala” (excellent), thumbs up, and eye avoidance. I try to run 5 days each week. I go between 35 and 45 minutes during the work week and an hour to an hour and a half on Saturday and/or Sunday. I run in the morning and my best responders are the taxi drivers who now all know me by sight.
I was buying some summer shoes in the bazaar and three store owners mentioned my running. Linda, Bill, Dorothy, and I got a tour of the boxing and wrestling building because the coach knew about my jogging. It has opened many conversations. It is the fact that I’m old that gets acceptance.
One highlight of my jogging was a particular morning there were 4 men drinking tea in a park by the Central Hospital, and one shouted “America Yaxshi” (America is good), and I yelled backed “Azerbaijan Yaxshi!” Thumbs up all around was next in order.
I run in long baggy nylon pants and tee shirts – very hot this time of the year. Shorts are not worn by men under any conditions. People would gossip and say I am out in my underwear.

Azerbaijanis love flowers. If you stop to admire flowers, the owner will insist on cutting some flowers for you. When we go visiting, often I will come home with flowers that the host has given me. Flowers are given to new mothers, on International Women’s Day, graduation, birthdays, visits, house warming, competitions, sporting events and are placed at memorials and on graves. In the spring, flowers start appearing everywhere. In front of most schools are garden areas where flowers are planted and cared for by students and the maintenance staff. Most houses and many apartment buildings have flowers planted at the entrances. The parks in Shirvan are full of roses, lilies, petunias, daisies and cannas.
The Holly Hocks in the picture are planted in front of our apartment building entrance. Many colors of Holly Hocks (white, shades of pink, red, shades of purple) are planted all over town. The roses I am sitting in front of are planted in a median on a wide street but there are also roses in the parks, at houses and public buildings. There is every color of rose imaginable – from purplish blue to orange. One gas station has a beautiful garden of roses. Multi-color pansies are planted in the 8-point-star planters in the parks. These pansies bloom most of the year. There are also petunias in several colors (solid or striped) all over town. Our area of the country can get very dry but great care is taken to water these flowers.
We have been enjoying strawberries during the last of May and into June. They will not last much longer so while they are available people really eat them and make jams for later. At first they were expensive, but everyone told us to wait until they were about one manet a kilo and then buy. Now cherries are in the market. There are white, red and dark red varieties. The white are the sweetest. We have bought cherries and made a wonderful cherry sauce to put on ice cream or cake. Now the pomegranate trees are blooming. I had never seen a pomegranate tree. The bloom is a small, very bright red flower and the fruit forms at the base of the flower (see picture). The tree is small and bush like. They can grow wild in pastures, fields or around houses. Pomegranates are peeled and eaten or made into a juice. Many houses have grape arbors in the front courtyard. Tables and chairs are put under these arbors and family and friends will sit out in the evening under the arbor. These grape vines must be severely pruned each year or they can get out of control. At this time the arbors are full of leaves and the beginning of grape clusters. Many vegetables are now coming to market – green onions, eggplant, runner beans (green beans), tomatoes, cucumbers, and new potatoes. I have several people who have told me how to cook different vegetables. It seems that Azs have just so many ways they cook a vegetable, fruit, meat, bread and that is it. They teach their daughters how to cook these before they are married. Recipes are not written down but passed along by demonstration and verbally. There are no measuring cups of spoons used in AZ. Girls practice and watch mother/grandmother to know how much of an ingredient to use. All cooking is done from scratch. There are very few prepared foods in the markets or bazaar. (If you find prepared food, it is expensive.) Food preparation takes much time and effort. During the winter months vegetables are brought in fresh from Iran (to the south) but the prices are higher and many families can not afford to buy vegetables out of season.

Now from Denney: Summer is here, but the weather is not too bad yet. Everyone says it will get close to 110 sometime in July or August. We have had a week or so in the 90’s, but now 80’s for awhile. Everything is a little more laid back. We plan to do some traveling in July.
Linda wrote about plants, I will talk about an old man jogging. I get lots of looks, stares, handshakes, “salam” (hello), “ala” (excellent), thumbs up, and eye avoidance. I try to run 5 days each week. I go between 35 and 45 minutes during the work week and an hour to an hour and a half on Saturday and/or Sunday. I run in the morning and my best responders are the taxi drivers who now all know me by sight.
I was buying some summer shoes in the bazaar and three store owners mentioned my running. Linda, Bill, Dorothy, and I got a tour of the boxing and wrestling building because the coach knew about my jogging. It has opened many conversations. It is the fact that I’m old that gets acceptance.
One highlight of my jogging was a particular morning there were 4 men drinking tea in a park by the Central Hospital, and one shouted “America Yaxshi” (America is good), and I yelled backed “Azerbaijan Yaxshi!” Thumbs up all around was next in order.
I run in long baggy nylon pants and tee shirts – very hot this time of the year. Shorts are not worn by men under any conditions. People would gossip and say I am out in my underwear.

Water Treatment

I selected assorted pictures that I thought were interesting. One of my favorite pictures is of the grandmother dancing at the wedding. The variety of dress and ages are demonstrated in the women dancing at a wedding. The little boy and the cow needs no explanation, but just to say I took this picture while getting fresh air at a wedding. The children at Linda’s Last Bell ceremony are dressed in the very best, and can you tell what the children in yellow and blue are doing? Answer – the Chicken Dance! I guess the Chicken Dance is popular throughout the world.

The rest of this blog has to do with our daily schedules. During the school year Linda taught 4 days each week with Monday as an off day. During Linda’s off day she did lesson preparations, cleaned, and all the household chores. On Wednesday’s and Friday’s Linda had Conversation Clubs and worked through lunch.
Now it is the summer and school will resume in September. Linda still has 2 conversation clubs. She combined her 8th and 9th graders into 1 club and then began another club for 5th and 6th graders. She has begun a Conversation Club for adults on Thursday evenings. Participants are adults wanting to improve their speaking skills. There is an engineer, a power plant worker, library staff, retired English teacher, an unemployed college graduate, a businessman who works with TIENS (a Chinese health products company which operates like Amway with distributors), and she hopes more in the future. It will be an interesting group. If it is beneficial she may continue something like it in the fall.
Denney goes to the library Monday – Friday from 09:30 – 12:30 and 2:30 – 5:30. Denney does Conversation Clubs, meets people, and helps where he can with the computers.
When we are in Baku with the Peace Corps business it requires 4-5 hours travel each way. The Peace Corps allows us a travel day to Baku, then our Peace Corps business, and a travel day back to Shirvan. It is when we are in Baku that Linda gets her haircut. We can go to Baku for personal business, but usually make it in one day, starting out early, returning that evening. The travel is by van to Baku, and then a Baku city line bus to the areas of the city. We have also begun to use the Metro (subway). The Metro is very cheap – 5 cents a ride, fast, crowded, and requires paying close attention to the stops.
We recently had our first overnight guests, our dear friends and co-volunteers, Bill and Dorothy Colcord. They serve in Barda. They are also retired and from Boston, MA. Bill and Dorothy have very good water in Barda, and he suggested I write about how we handle the water situation here.
On water days, Denney’s first hour after awaking is spent refilling a 30-gallon plastic trashcan. The trashcan is the holding unit and the silt settles. The water is then drawn off the top and placed into buckets for flushing and personal washing. The sink has a small half-bucket like metal container with a spicket for washing hands on non-water days. On water days, we use the faucet in the tub. There are 2 plastic buckets with lids in the kitchen. Denney pours the water slowly into a 5-gallon bucket with spicket that sits on a non-working burner of the stove with the spicket over the sink for water on non-water days. The water in the 2 plastic buckets is then poured slowly into the big bucket and only the settled water is used. The plastic buckets are rinsed so that a layer of silt is removed, and then refilled for settling.
Then Denney tackles the drinking water. Two pots are filled and boiled before the water is transferred to our water filters, then refilled and boiled and added as needed to the water filters. Each water filter unit holds about 2 gallons of water. We use only boiled and filtered water for cooking, drinking, and brushing our teeth. Hopefully at the end of a water day, the filters are full, and we have 4 liters of plastic bottles filled and in the fridge, along with a reserve 12 liter plastic bottle in the kitchen for emergencies. All that water is boiled and filtered.
On water-days Linda takes at least a half-day doing the laundry. First, hot water is needed to dissolve the powder detergent, and clothes are soaked. Later settled water is used to rinse. All wash and rinse water is used for flushing the toilet after the clothes are connected to the solar clothes dryer outside our balcony window. Linda must use a plastic washtub placed in the bathtub and leans over kneeling on the tile floor. Our thanks to Frank Saunders who sent Linda kneepads, which have made the laundry not nearly as painful for Linda.
When washing dishes on water-days, hot water comes from our heater, dishes are rinsed in tap water, but on non-water days, water is heated and rinsed in settled water from the big bucket. All used dishwashing water goes to flushing because the detergents give a better fragrance.
Flushing is accomplished by pouring a gallon or so of water into the bowl and it works most of the time.
I left out all the time for food preparation and hours for shopping.
We feel like we work few hours as compared to the United States, but it takes many more hours to accomplish the daily tasks. Also, we are Volunteers and retired in the U.S. An issue we face is fatigue. As we analyzed it, don’t tell anyone, but we are 60 years old, and every time we go out the door, we are on – that is aware of people watching us. Always responding to every “hello” from a child or adult. Always aware of our behavior, thinking about every thing we do outside our apartment is an emotional drain that is difficult to explain.
Finally, the weekend, and Linda scrubs and dusts the entire apartment even more thoroughly than during the week. Often she gets on her knees and washes the floors with bleach water as well as scrubbing the bathroom down with bleach water. It is a constant battle against the dust. We walk the parks, greet people, visit and talk, sometimes watch a DVD on the computer, and listen to music.
That’s our schedule in a nutshell.

The Last Bell - End of School

First the pictures: The first picture is the entering of the first form students with one of the first form teachers. 2nd picture is the 11th form students entering. 3rd picture is the Azerbaijani flag presentation. 4th picture is the singing of the national anthem and the speakers. 5th picture is the students and teachers dancing.
Last Bell – The Last Bell ceremony is similar to graduation. The 11th form and 9th form classes are honored. There are speeches, younger children perform dances, groups sing, and there are times when the class members get to dance. Parents, relatives and friends attend. It is usually held outdoors because there is no indoor space big enough for all the people. I was one of several speakers. With so many people and little children, it can get to be noisy. Near the end of the ceremony doves are released and fly around and away. There was a balloon drop that went wrong (the balloons got loose too soon and all the little children were running and grabbing balloons). A first form student is paired with an 11th form student. They walk together hand in hand out the school gates at the end of the ceremony. One first form student sits on the shoulders of an 11th form student and rings the school bell as they leave. This is to symbolize the passing of the legacy.
In AZ students must stay in school through the 9th form. After 9th form they can quit school or go on for the 10th & 11th forms. At school #9 we have 5 sections of 9th form but only 2 sections of 10th form. About 60% of students quit school after 9th form. Some of these students who no longer attend the local public school may go into the military school, police school or other programs. Unfortunately, most of the girls that leave school after 9th form will stay at home and help out there until they are married within the next 2-4 years. The finishing 11th form students usually go on to college or university. In AZ, college is a 2-year school similar to a community college in America. There is a college here in Shirvan. University is a 4-year school and there are 5 of those in the country.
In the afternoon after the ceremony, Denney, my English teaching counterpart, a Chemistry teacher (class sponsor) and me went to Afag’s (9th form girl) home for a party. We ate outdoors under a large grape arbor with a nice breeze and shade. There were about 20 students from 9B that attended (most of the class was there). The mother, grandmother and aunt had prepared a wonderful dinner. This class has many boys and they ate a lot! After dining, the dancing began. The students had brought CDs and enjoyed dancing. There was a second floor balcony, and the aunt, mother, grandparents watched the activity with enjoyment. Denney and I danced AZ dance and American Swing - the students it that was wonderful! We took pictures and visited with the aunt who is an English teacher at the university in Baku. She was eager to meet us and talk with us.
Later the next week, at English conversation club, Afag had tears in her eyes when she talked about her class and who would not be at school next year. She knew of only one boy and two girls who would return to School #9 and one boy is going to Baku to military school. All the others will be looking for jobs or staying home. Most of these students are 15 years old.
It was interesting to see the Last Bell ceremony, to see all the excitement of the people who attended and to be invited to the after-ceremony party. However, I feel distress that more students do not finish all 11 forms of school, most students do not seem to have plans after leaving the 9th form and that there are so few opportunities for these exiting 15-year olds, especially the girls.

The summer begins a real laid back time. There are no summer sessions at the college and the students return to their villages. Summer employment is not the norm. Students help around the house, go live with relatives in villages and help in the gardens and small farms, or just sleep late and watch television.

I have demonstrated the XO Laptop (One Laptop Per Child) and my counterpart is very excited about the possibilities. It would be quite a project. It is difficult to demonstrate all the capabilities since I don’t have access to wireless internet, and I don’t have a second XO to show the meshing capabilities.

Another project which seems to interest people is operating a Karaoke and music where families and young people could come. Free time is the major issue here. The young boys walk the streets and parks at night. The young girls stay home. Any constructive use of free time is a project.
The weather is getting warmer, and we have purchased 2 small fans. Thanks to everyone for your love and support! However, I am disappointed that no one commented on the toilet seat with the sharks or are they dolphins?