A young girl's dream no longer hollow
It takes the shape of a place out west
But what it holds for her, she hasn't yet guessed
She needs wide open spaces
Room to make her big mistakes
She needs new faces
She knows the high stakes
She traveled this road as a child
Wide eyed and grinning, she never tired
But now she won't be coming back with the rest
If these are life's lessons, she'll take this test"
FYI: I know this is VERY lazy of me, but I'm going to paste in the email I sent the PC and some of my friends and family from the states. I'd hate to repeat everything when I feel like this email says it all.
The e-Mail: The worm house had its official opening in November and it went fabulously. I attached some pictures from the event to show what all happened and how it looked. Not sure if you guys were interested BUT I found it to be exciting and I wanted to share in the excitement.
On the table were different informational booklets about various agriculture technologies such as biohumus and organic agriculture. I'm not sure if you are aware but my organization has a monthly journal that publishes new information for the farmers and they distribute it throughout several regions in Azerbaijan. The signs say "I love an Eco-Earth", "I love an Eco-Azerbaijan", "I love an Eco-Barda", "I love an Eco-Tartar", "I love an Eco-Village", "I love an Eco-Farmer" (actually I'm confused about this one), and "I love an Eco-Crop". Well you know to substitute the <3 with love.. I guess translation for that is not necessary.
Also the drawings behind the table were done by local school children about Organic Agriculture. One of the signs that caught my eye was the "Stop CO2" with fallen trees.
This is the official sign next to the entrance to the worm house. The worm house is in the Tartar region Buruc village.
The 4 standings signs are about some of the current projects going through AIM.
These two people are my counterparts. They were the reason this project was imagined and completed. They worked tirelessly on the project on top of their normal duties in the organization. Hijran is the woman and she was the main advocate for the women's group to receive the greenhouse in Barda. Fizuli is the man, his story has been something books are made of. He's a hard working farmer that AIM worked with and soon adopted into the organization. He is always trying to improve his life, family, and village's livelihood. He has been doing worm composting for the past year on a much smaller scale and this building borders his family property. He is excited about teaching people about organic agriculture and finding alternatives to chemical additives.
A funny side story was when Alise (one of my Barda site mates) and I were presenting our new project to AIM and after Fizuli heard about the solar food dryer he rushed off and came back with dried eggplant and herbs that he had in the office. He was so excited about drying vegetables and greens that he pushed to start a similar project but no one was willing or had the time to take that step.
I know I repeat this until my face is blue but this organization has allowed me to flourish and love my experience here. I sometimes worry that I'll present something so far-fetched that they'll never accept it, but once I present the background and possible benefits they fully support me and for the most part enhance the project to something I could never have done alone. They have allowed this project to become what I refer to as the perfect PC project: it's something that several people are invested in, they are running the show, and they developed the ideas while the grant just enhanced the idea and gave it a means to prosper.
This young man goes to a school that a previous volunteer worked at but had to leave for family problems and even with this, he is constantly asking me when the PCV will return. His mother is a main farmer associated with several of our projects. They have been so kind to me during meetings and conferences. He has a curious mind and loves to hear the latest news and farming techniques. I love when I switch to Azerbaijani and he'll work so hard to make the conversation go back to English. This isn't normal and I appreciate his push to make me more patient with his English. I always want to take the quickest route in a conversation and switch into Azerbaijani. To me, these types of people are the ones that become fluent in English by the time they graduate college, even though he is coming from a village in a very difficult region.
This is a partial view of the crowd that gathered for the opening. After all of our speeches, the crowd was allowed to discuss the opening and AIM's involvement. This particular farmer has been active in several of the projects. What was highly amusing was that when my counterpart, Fizuli, gave a 10-15 minute breakdown of worm composting the crowd lit up with questions. After a couple minutes, we had to stop everyone and explain that more trainings would be soon. It was great to see the interest and understanding build. In my mind, organic agriculture is difficult because sometimes it can be a big risk and take years to see results but these people want a healthy lifestyle for themselves and their families and don't want to poison their world with chemicals.
They let me cut one side of the red ribbon! I prefer to work in the background and in the shadows but sometimes I let my organization put me out front just to make them happy and this act really did make them happy with me. They don't understand why I don't want more glory or want to talk more, but it's how I feel sustainability can truly be accomplished, standing in the background as a catalyst rather than a show pony.
The farmers were amazed at the soil's quality. I wondered if any of them had seen such rich soil and touched what a highly nutritious soil should feel like. The smell in the building was so overwhelmingly wonderful.
This information bulletin board is in the inside of the building and has all the information about biohumus, worm composting, and organic agriculture.
As I was walking around taking these pictures a woman stopped me and said "some farmers in the village are talking about how they need to bring their trash and tea leaves to this building to help feed the worms." Tears swelled in my eyes and it happened, they came to the conclusion I was hoping would develop: Recycling Waste of the Whole Village. The beauty of projects here is that we can start something and sneak in little morsels under the cover of something bigger. When I heard worm composting building, I immediately jumped to a village that recycles! I'm so glad that recycling developed naturally and wasn't told to them. I didn't want to out right say that a worm house of this proportion would need the whole village to contribute and bring their trash because then the sustainability of that would be unclear but the village saw the house and instantly felt a connection with it and want to see it succeed. To me, this is the point when I felt the project is already a success. I live for the days when they point their finger at me and give me a lecture about how recycling is good for this world. I just smile and listen at the sounds of something that can last for generations. These points can't be forced down people's throats, they must come within.
Thank you for everything from The Barda Ag Girls in the Land of Fire! We recently visited the site where the fires burn through rain, snow, and wind. Like this site and this project I have developed a thorough admiration for this country. I could never have imagined the experience 2 years ago when I was completing the application process. My heart will never be the same after these 2 years and I hope to continue being awed by people and their countries for the rest of my life.
Thank you all again for allowing me to be here and experience this amazing opportunity. This next year is going to be hard to top the last but I have the bug now and I don't want to stop encouraging future projects of this nature.
Sincerely,
Donna Marie Lundy
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