Youth Say What?!

For The Week Starting on February 14th (Post-Valentine's Weekend)

Compared to the other stories, this week was less eventful (from what I remember) but the weekend was still up there with the others. So fast forward to when the ladies from all over the 'baijan arrive in Barda. Morgan sends me an email letting me know that she is no longer in possession of her phone.  I believe some water giant jumped up and took it out of her hands, but she's claiming that she dropped it.  My story is still much better and in my mind that is exactly what happened.  Anyways, I digress.  Alise and Jane make it to Barda around the same time.  Jane from Zaqatala and Alise from Agstafa.  Well before I could send off an email to Morgan explaining how to get to my house she had already left her site.  So I let the ladies know that Morgan should be in town soon but I had no idea how to find her.  I figured one of three things would happen: she would find the Ox office, find an internet club to get my directions, and last that she'd just wait at the bus station.  Jane, Alise and I were getting ready to go hang out at the bus station when I received a call from my counterpart. "DONNA! Where are you? You're friend here!" Then I heard Morgan's voice in the background.  This clever girl made her way to my organization.  We then went to my org to pick up Ms. Morgan.  After we pick her up she explains that she asked for the Ox offices and they pointed her to AIM (my organization).  When she entered my work she asked if this was Ox and if Donna was here.  Of course my counterpart quickly corrected her and let her know that "Donna does not work for Ox."  HAHA! No ma'am, I do not.

We wandered over to Ed and Nancy's house (fellow sitemates) to visit and catch up with them.  It was great to see everyone together since some of us hadn't really interacted much since training.  We were able to talk and also make some quick plans for that following night.  We hung out with the ladies at rex and called it a night.  Again, it's always interesting to hear them talk about their lives and service in the rex.  I admire their work and hope to one day make the same impact.

The next morning we went over to Ox for the Youth Camp.  The camp was mind-blowing. The ideas that were shared and spread will hopefully resonant with those youth for years to come.  The youth camp was 2 days and it connected youth from neighboring villages.  They had lectures covering empowerment, community involvement, networking, and further opportunities in life.  The event went smoothly and there were several great discussions covering all these topics.  Jane even stepped up to the plate and expressed her opinion IN AZERBAIJANI!  Word, Jane.  I have nothing but respect for you!  I never set out to work with youth but when you are around so many thriving minds, you can't help but become inspired and wonder "what can I do next?"  Fabulous experience.

Will You Be My Sweetheart?...and you...and you...

The Week Starting: Monday February 7th (Post Superbowl Travel)

The day I came back from Ganja was pretty much shot because I had probably 10 hours of sleep that whole weekend.  BUT the next day we got to meet with the local police here.  This is a routine event with people that are not from Azerbaijan.  It was pleasantly and everyone was really friendly.  My story for this event doesn't even have to do with the Police.  While I was waiting on some of my sitemates to meet up with me I complimented a lady on her lovely boots and she replied in English.  I immediately started thinking "AH! I must KNOW her!" For the people that know me well, know that I have a problem with being too sociable so I held back my squeal and asked her where she works and other general information. When we were walking away to meet the police I hurried up and gave her my number. I was so ecstatic. We've since talked and she's only available on the weekends so I've been trying to figure out how to best get some women together on Saturdays to just talk and be ourselves.

Later in the day I stopped by rex to have some dinner and just bother them, for which I do believe I'm becoming an expert at. HAHA!  I got to meet some guys from S and at the moment I can't remember what organization they worked for.  I was excited to just hang out and I turned off my business mind.  You know what's funny, when I typed that statement I could hear the sarcasm in all my friend's voices saying "yeah like you ever have your business mind turned on."  For which I will reply by sticking out my tongue.  Yup, that's it. Ok back to the dinner.  I met an Azeri that works in Baku there and he gave me a 20 minute Azerbaijani lesson and told me that when he lived in Barda that he use to work with the PCV's here and tutor them.  In that short lesson I learned so much and felt this wonderful confidence.  If only he was still working here.  It was a great night and I still think what the organizations are doing in this area is mind-blowing.  I love to hear them talk about their adventures working in the field, which are sometimes so completely different then mine (the little ol' pcv)  and then sometimes so similar.

Now let's jump to the GOOD part!  I had my first conversation club at Ox on Friday and I had this BRILLIANT idea that I could catch a bus to Sheki following the meeting.  We all know that my brilliant ideas usually run astray.  This one wasn't any different.  I went into the bus station and realized that the bus to Sheki was only in the morning.  SOO after staring at the ticker for like 10 minutes a man that works there came up to me to ask me where I wanted to go.  When I told him my destination he so nicely informed me that I had missed it but that tomorrow morning I could catch it OR I could jump on the next bus to Yevlax then catch a Sheki bus there.  Me being me was like, "OK Let's DO THIS!" I get to Yevlax and man informs me that there is no bus to Sheki but to wait on the side of the road for one.  He stood there waiting with me, so I was thinking that he also wanted to go to Sheki, what are the odds?!  Well at that time another PCV called me about something other than travel but we ended up talking about my predicament.  The day light hours were winding down and it was looking bleak so I made a decision to head back to Barda.  I got off the phone and told the man there that I was going back to Barda and that I couldn't travel at night.  He then walked with me towards the bus to Barda and I stopped walking like "umm... can I help you?"  He explained to me that it was better if I just take a Taxi back and he flagged one down for me and told them that I would only pay 1 manat.  Now I never asked for his help but he stood there that whole time taking care of me.  For all those people that talk about how bad some men are, remember this guy.  A true gentlemen.  As we drove off back to my home I saw him light a cigarette and walk in the opposite direction from where we were originally standing.  To that man, thank you.
The next morning I promptly headed to the right bus and left on the bus by myself.  The driver offered me the front seat, by telling me it's warmer up there.. yeah.. no thank you.  HAHA!  I'll be cold in the back. When I arrived in Sheki I met up with a couple PCV ladies and one PCV dude to go hiking up one of their beautiful snow-covered mountains.  I'm not use to this type of environment so I was downright giddy and couldn't control my happiness.  These ladies and Gene were my first round of Valentines.  :) We took a hike up for a bit, took some pictures and headed down for a little lunch.  The hike was magistic.  If I could have kept going I would have loved it..and froze to death. OH OH OH! ON my way down from the hike Lilli and I went running down.  Oh yeah, this big girl went RUNNING down the mountain.  It was awesome!  Ok back to lunch.  During lunch we had our girl focused talks and Gene sat by patiently listening to us and just hanging out.. THEN he said some magical words about a woman having a white rose for Valentine's Day and he busted out with these "white roses" he had constructed.  He put lotion and a couple pieces of candy in white tissue paper and tied it with a red ribbon.  He gave us all one.  I have to say that was probably the most amazing V-day gift ever.

After the hike and lunch, Jane and I caught a bus to Zaqatala to continue the Valentine's day weekend in her neck of the woods.  We hung out with 2 other PCV's and then on Sunday we took another bus to her village.  We visited with her host family and went to her conversation club.  She had gathered supplies in Zaqatala for her club to make Valentines.  Now just saying, you know the outcome.  It was just as precious as you can imagine.  A couple of the kids made Valentines for Jane and me.  This made me do the "awwwww how precious" constantly.  So now add that to my count of Valentines. Ha ha! Still keeping a tally?  After that we went to her place and played a wicked game of UNO with her host family.  They switched to their language of Avar to ask each other questions and try to trip up the ethical system of UNO.  So instead of be good, Jane and I rose to the level and spoke to each other in broken Spanish. Yeah, we aren't above this activity.  It was a great time.  Jane whipped up a brownie mix her family from the States had sent her.  Num num num..

The next morning I caught a bus back to Zaqatala and then one to Barda.  Once I got to my house my sitemate called me up and invited me over for some Spaghetti and Valentine's Day fun! She gave me the cutest Valentines and made some decent Spaghetti.  I absolutely love this girl!  We watched the V-day episode of Glee and it gave the weekend of love a great ending.

Fondue, Cosmos, and...Superbowl?

Nothing in this experience/adventure am I ever prepared for and this includes watching the Superbowl, yes people, THE Superbowl.  As most of you may know I barely watched it when I was in the States but here, it's essential. It's that thing that makes me feel connected to home.

Let's begin the week on Monday, January 31st.

I went into my organization feeling slightly agitated and when I was told that I need to translate some material faster a light bulb in my head went off.. I need to take some time off to relax and get to know my community.  So I ended up going home and doing just that.  The rest of the week I worked on my plans to start women's groups, conversation clubs, and just routines that will save my sanity.  The week was packed with more activities then I could have imagined for a "week off".  I continued my workouts with the p90 system (not to be confused with the p90x system) and just felt generally better about myself.

On Saturday I spent some quality time with my amazing sitemate Megan.  She really is a blessing to have here with me.  The adventures we get into always make us giggle and it feels better when someone is there to express the opinion that "yeah.. that was crazy".  That night I headed over to rex for some fondue and friendship.  They had some amazing fondue, wine, cosmos, hummus, and some kind of garlic yogurt mixture.  All very delicious and FAR from what I would ever imagine I'd eat while in the PC.  I learned that when the fondue pot starts to empty out the French (or so he told us) like to crack an egg into the remaining cheese.  My following comment to this action was "mmm I love the taste of salmonella."  Yeah.. You know I went there.  When the cheese and egg were all cooked together it actually turned out to taste like a cheesy egg (who would have THOUGHT?!).

Sunday Sunday Sunday!  We made our trek up to Ganja to meet with other PCV's to explore the city and get ready for the big game (which for us was at 3am Monday morning).  The Ramada in Ganja was kind enough to let us use a conference room with a projector for the game.  We gathered around the bar and conference room for some pre-game chatter and games.  You already know the outcome of the game. It's sad to say not everyone was able to stay up the whole time and there were some sad Steelers fans following the game.

On the way back to Yevlax and Barda, my two traveling buddies fell asleep on the bus.  It was adorable.  And so concludes the Superbowl and Cosmos story.