Eating My Way Through Awkward

My beautiful country house

I may have survived the Holidays in Azerbaijan, but I am not sure my waistline did. To say I ate a lot of food would be an understatement. I ate mass quantities of food over the past week and half, and most of it was not voluntary. For three days in a row, we “guested” (socialized/ate/were the guests) from at least 12 to 7 p.m. eating no less than four meals per day. Mind you, meals here are served over a span of a couple hours with multiple rounds, and the most going to the honorary guest. It was a lot. But as a wise volunteer once told me, “Eat your way through awkward,” and I did just that.
Being in this country is a lot of fun. It is full of extremely hospitable people, full of laughs and love, and definitely good eats. But let’s face it, sitting in a room full of people you do not know, at a table with no excess room due to so much food and so many people, in a language you can minimally communicate, and having everyone watch every move you make because you are weird and foreign and the guest equals a whole lot of awkward. Sometimes it’s best just to lower your head and eat. However, it’s not a foolproof plan. I tried to avoid eating bone marrow after I muscled down some internal organs of the sheep we killed for New Year’s, but my host brother noticed, called attention to it, and everyone chimed in about my lack of eating. So with my obnoxious blush reflex in full force, I lowered my head and ate. And it did not get rid of the awkward nor the taste in my mouth. I think a study in what humans would do to not be rude would be fascinating.
Living in the village has been pretty good so far. I have a really great family, a huge country house, and am only a five minute walk from school. This week I start actually teaching in the classroom. I decided to teach grades fourth through ninth, as the younger students are too hard to handle, and the older students do not show up to class. There is a bus that goes in and out of my village twice a day, but my family says I should not ride on it alone, and so I have been taking a shared taxi to get to the city center and back home. I am pretty certain the bus is just fine and safe, but the fact that I am traveling to the city center for any reason kind of weirds them out anyway, so I do not feel like pushing too many issues at one time. I am in good hands, though. I did not feel very well one night and my host mother came and gave me tea with jam in it “medicine,” wrapped a really tight scarf around my waist and forehead, and then put a jar of hot water on my stomach with another scarf wrapped around that. She then tucked me into bed and let me sleep until ten the next morning. Needless to say, I felt awesome the next day. I know a lot of volunteers scoff at Azeri theories on getting sick, and methods to cure it, but so far, they have worked really well. I think my host mother is on to something.

The walk up to our country house. We share a gate and road with a neighbor whose house looks similiar to ours, but is only half finished.

Our orchard. We have pomegranate trees, a palm tree, grape trees, lemon trees, many quince trees, apple trees, rose bushes, daffedils, tuplips, and more things I don't know the names of.


Across our orchard is our animal barn. We have two horses, two cows, multiple sheep (one was killed for New Year's kabobs, but one had two babies... circle of life), chickens, geese, a couple dogs to protect the animals, four cats, and I still haven't determined whether the water buffalo is ours or the neighbors.


The room the family hangs out in at night. It also serves as the children's bedroom, so it is always really hot. The "petch" in the corner is a wood stove. I thought it was strange sitting on the floor all of the time at first, but now I prefer it.


Our unattached bathroom. I wear slippers to the side of the house, put on a pair of "shop shops" and walk to the bathroom, and then put on a pair of bathroom slippers while in the bathroom. Reverse that process to get back to my room. I think by the end of my service, I will be faster at changing my shoes than Mr. Rogers


Our kitchen. It is a pretty big kitchen for Azerbaijan. It is also relatively new, so in a year or so they want to add cupboards. But it is high class with a electric water heater to do dishes! My sister-in-law is using the oven to make cake.


My bedroom. It used to be the formal dining room, but I am slowly taking over. This week I added a map of North Dakota, a map of Azerbaijan, and twenty pictures. Note the flat screen TV that appeared one Sunday. Hello English News.


Overlooking our two horses. Also, on a clear day, you can see the mountains in the background. It is a gorgeous view.