20 Questions

As my nine months have progressed, I have been asked a lot of questions about life in AZ, life as a PCV, life in general. As I am not always the best about following up on my blog with a lot of the questions, my sister helped me out and inquired around about questions people had (questions she had) regarding the Baijan. It got a bit lengthy in the reply, but I hope it gives a little insight. If you have other questions, do not hesitate to comment, or shoot me an email.


1. Do people in Azerbaijan have an opinion about Osama Bin Laden? If so, did they have a reaction to his death? Submitted by Jodi Meyer, Real Housewife of Iowa and mother to two deathly cute young boys.
Most people in Azerbaijan express the same regrets about Osama Bin Laden as the rest of the world; he makes Muslims look bad, September 11th was a tragedy, etc. While in Baku, I was congratulated twice by people over his death. As Peace Corps Volunteers, we are not allowed to comment politically on anything, so my answer usually was that it is not good at any time for anyone to die and it is not something to be congratulated on. People over all are pretty happy about it, though. Most Azerbaijanis view the US as a world power with unlimited resources (aren’t we though?) and have a hard time understanding why we don’t get involved with virtually everything.

2. What is the justice system like in the Baijan? What would be the most common crime people are arrested for? Submitted by your boring sister.
I really have no idea what the justice system is like. I can take a few stabs in the dark at it, but I honestly have no idea. And again, most common crime, I am not sure. I do know that in regards to crimes against travellers, Azerbaijan has an extremely low crime rate. It is a huge sin in the Muslim culture to take what is not yours, and people are pretty stern about it. My sitemate lost her Ipod on a mashrutka to a neighboring region one weekend, and her host mom called the bus station and retrieved it from the driver the next day. One of the bigger things I worry about on a weekly basis is drunk driving, and trying to get home with a sober driver. Usually, only one or two people in an extended family know how to drive, let alone have a car. And almost always, every man at the table is drinking shot after shot of vodka. Even with a sober driver, it is a frightening experience getting home at night on an Azerbaijani region road.

3. What is the culture like with respect to domestic violence or sexual assaults? Boring sister, part 2.
Domestic violence is definitely considered a family matter. I have a good friend who compared the attitude towards domestic violence to the saying “It takes cracking a few eggs to make a good omelet.” This would unfortunately probably be true of a lot new marriages in Azerbaijan. This is definitely not all, though. We had a lot of trainings and sessions about domestic violence in training, and many previous group volunteers said there is a good chance we will witness it either directly or indirectly at some point in our service. I have already. And no matter how much you prepare yourself for it, it still is shocking, hurtful, sad, and scary.
I would have to say that I don’t actually know a whole heck of a lot regarding sexual assaults among Azerbaijani nationals. The culture is one that everybody knows everyone else’s business, and if something were to happen, usually the perpetrator is shamed by the victim’s family and friends before the police are involved. I knew I thought this was really strange when I first heard about it, but I’ve seen it in place and it works. Shaming is huge here. I would say if something were to happen to me in public, I probably wouldn’t know the words to yell meanly about it, but I could shame the person enough that other people would get involved.
Sexual assaults from a PCV standpoint are absolutely a concern. Most people assume foreigners are loose, easy, and want it. It doesn’t help that most of the time, we are the first foreigners (besides Russian, and as stereotypical as it may sound, almost all prostitutes here you can find are Russian) that Azerbaijani’s outside of Baku have ever met. And all of their impressions of us are based off of television, movies, and music videos (which are not censored like we are used to, and that is also alarming). There are some things to do to protect ourselves: Never ride in the front of a taxi, never ride in a car alone unless you are absolutely sure it will be okay, don’t wear short skirts or dresses (at the knee), don’t make eye contact (once on accident is fine, never twice) especially when men are calling at you, don’t walk alone at night, and avoid alcohol. All of those things merely help, though, there is no guarantee of prevention from a sexual assault occurring.

4. If you could do it over again and repack, what is one thing you would bring again, one thing you would bring more of, and anything that you would leave behind? Submitted by OCD in Grand Forks, ND.
If I could pack again…. What famous words for a Peace Corps Volunteer, and a question I have contemplated often. I wish I would have packed half as a teacher, and half as a Peace Corps Volunteer as opposed to the half PCV and half grungy college student. Although, when one suitcase is devoted to clothes, and the other devoted to all other crap it takes to live out of your home for two years, there never really would be enough space for all of the clothes I wish I could bring. I definitely wish I had not packed as much bathroom supplies as I did. Before we came, there was a checklist which said to bring at least three months of toiletries along. What a waste. I brought shampoo, conditioner (my hair is greasy enough without that), contact solution, face wash, lotion, toothpaste, etc etc. All of it was weighty, enough to last me over a year, and a complete waste. While I am still in the Peace Corps, I am in a more developed country comparatively, and all of this stuff was available to me within the first week of arriving. As far as one thing I would bring again, no question, it would be a tie between my electronics. I have a friend who doesn’t have a computer and he seems to get along alright, but I use my Ipod at least once a day to drown out noise while I sleep, and is essential on long mashrutka rides when they are blasting traditional Azerbaijani music at full blast. I also have read every single book on my Nook and have luckily gotten a lot of books from another friend that is able to file share his eBooks (should I admit illegal file sharing on a blog?). As far as clothes go, I wouldn’t trade in my long underwear for the world in the winter.

5. When are you going to author your first book? Title suggestion is “From Pamida to the Peace Corps”, submitted by clever farmer father, Mark Johnson.
No set publication date, yet. However, one more long winter without central heating, and things might get rolling along. However, all good books have to have a colon. Perhaps, “From Pamida to the Peace Corps: A journey of self-loathing and righteousness.”
6. What sport is the most popular in Azerbaijan? Are the athletes celebrities like they are in the U.S.? How much do they make? Submitted by Joel Larson, attorney extraordinaire.
The most watched sport in Azerbaijan for sure is soccer, but Az doesn’t do that well at it, so most students are either a fan of teams from the English Premier League or from the Spanish League. The most famous sport from Azerbaijan is either judo or boxing or some form of that. I may be wrong on this exact information, but one of their participants won a gold medal in a recent Olympics, and it is a big deal around here as that is pretty rare. By far the biggest celebrities in Azerbaijan, though, are winners of the Eurovision contest (woot woot!). Number One in 2011, Baku host of 2012 Eurovison! Every person under the age of thirty and most people over the age of thirty can sing the main few words, and know the names of the singers. It was a big deal when I came because AZ had taken third last year, but when they won at the beginning of June here, people were celebrating in the streets.

7. What is the Azerbaijani beer of choice? Submitted by- take your first guess.
Unfortunately, there would be no Azerbaijani beer of choice. Most men around \here drink vodka in straight shots, and coming from a culture where it is frowned upon to binge drink unless you are in a college setting, it is hard to watch all men at a table take shot after shot after shot in a matter of three hours. There is some pretty terrible beer that is cheap, preferred by the ever penny-pinching PCV called Afsana, and comes in a two liter bottle. Most bottles served at weddings are Russian or Georgian with writing I can’t read. But almost all is really light. Unfortunately. I know of one bar in the expat part of Baku that sells draught of Guinness. Good beer and good cheese are two often missed commodities.

Questions 8-20 were developed by your very intelligent, non-granny panty purchasing older sister.

8. If you had to name one thing that you learned growing up that has been helpful to you as a Peace Corps volunteer in Azerbaijan, what would it be?
Naming one thing is difficult, but probably saying what I want or need and not being pushed around by it. We didn’t really grow up in a household that was going to coddle you if you weren’t going to be forthright about your needs, and that has helped a lot here. The hospitality of Azerbaijan is almost exactly opposite of America. If you are a guest, people assume you will not say what you want, and shove food, drinks, and sweets at you until you want to scream “Are you people not listening to ME?!” I have learned to put my foot down about serving myself, refusing food, not feeling obligated to eat or drink things I don’t want to, and speaking up when I do want something. I don’t think I have a hard time at all saying what I need in English, but it is definitely more difficult in a second language, and I am glad I had a backbone for it here.

9. Did you follow the Anthony Weiner scandal at all? I’ve heard Azerbaijan has lots of political corruption. Are there any weiner scandals like in the US? Literally or figuratively, take your pick.
I have never even heard of Anthony Weiner, which gives you a good idea of how out of touch I have become with news being here. There is a lot of blatant and covert political corruption and heavy control of news media. Unfortunately, again, I can’t comment too much on it. But maybe I’ll save all that I write and publish more after my two years are up. It could be part two of “From Pamida to the Peace Corps.”

10. What is your favorite thing to do during your down time?
This hasn’t changed much from America, reading and crossword puzzles. I have started to run, which is a nice way to pass an hour around here. I have become an amazing babysitter for the two kids I live with which passes a lot of time (but I wouldn’t say I necessarily enjoy that). With an actual few days of free time, I love travelling around country. I will never again live in a place with such amazing transportation to all areas. There are cities equivalent to that in the United States, but no state has a full out transportation schedule the way Azerbaijan does. And it is so cheap, too! It still amazes me that I can get from one area of the country to another area in six hours, for five manat, and only one transfer. It may be the hottest, smelliest, noisiest, close to breaking down bus you have ever been on. But it is always worth it in the end.

11. What is your favorite food and drink there?
My favorite drink is this thick, sweet juice called Jale. It comes in a lot of different flavors, but my favorite is the cherry. I like to mix it with half sparkling water and it throws virtually all Azerbaijanis at my table for a loop. They’ve never seen someone do something so innovative. For national meals, I really like the “Three Sister’s Dolma” which is eggplant, tomato, and green peppers with their insides cut out, and minced meat and onions stuffed inside and cooked. It is buttery, salty, and delicious. Plov is growing on me. It is at every holiday, birthday party, and wedding, but so far I haven’t got sick of it. It is really buttery rice with meat, raisins, nuts, and a crisp, outer bread shell. My favorite sweet is paklava. I have to include that as sweets are part of almost every meal here (I’ve had more than my fair share of cake for breakfast). In every other place I know, it is called baklava, but here we say paklava, so that is my Azerbaijani sweet of choice.

12. What food and drink do you miss most?
I long for Diet Pepsi. Not Pepsi Light. Not Coke Light. Not Pepsi Max. Not Coke Zero. I long for a cold, bubbly, makes you burp after the first drink, sweating on the outside, can of wonderful Diet Pepsi. Dream big, right? I also miss the general concept of food on the go. Not necessarily fast food, but sandwiches, or bags of pretzels, or granola, etc. I can make a lot of little quick snacks to take on road trips such as Ziploc bags of cut up vegetables, or buy sunflower seeds. But there is no peanut butter or honey, the bread is not what we are used to and I have found to be cumbersome on a bumpy bus, and there is definitely no deli meat.

13. From what you’ve told me, typically women in AZ don’t exercise. You’ve also said that “guesting” appears to be a large part of the social life in AZ. Do women there care about their figures or attempt to stay healthy or watch their weight? Is there any social pressure regarding appearances?
There is definitely a pressure about weight, but it goes exactly as follows: Be as skinny as possible to find a man, and be good and fat once you are married. There is a word for exercising, and people have heard of others doing it on television and such, but virtually no one does it here. I have started to run in the village, and usually my family hears about it by the time I get back or within two hours of my run, and all of the people ask questions about it. Do I do it to be skinny? Don’t I like being fat? Do I do it to be healthy? Am I eating more so I don’t fall over? Aren’t I scared of the cows and sheep on the road? Do I know how to get home? Do I run over one kilometer?

For sure there are a lot of different social pressures on appearance here. Again, skinny and fat depending on marital status. Also, people like flashy, rhinestone, shiny clothes, tight clothes. The teachers at school comment often on my non-rhinestone, non-high heeled shoes I wear to school every day. Also, when women wear make-up, it is a little more of the costume nature we are not used to. This will probably be the only time in my life where it is acceptable for me to wear age inappropriate nail polish and eye shadow. In the regions (aka, not in Baku), girls only pluck their eyebrows after getting married, and I get a lot of comments on that. Also, the bottom line social pressure is: If your shoes are dirty in any way, you are committing social suicide.

14. What are the attitudes towards gay people or people of different races in Azerbaijan, not necessarily with respect to PCV, but local Azerbaijanis?
a. In respect to sexual diversity, and racial diversity in Azerbaijan, it feels like this country is approximately America in the 1940’s. Most people, including highly educated Azerbaijanis, believe that there just simply are not homosexuals in Azerbaijan. Almost all people unfortunately believe if you are GLBT, you are a criminal, pervert, and mentally insane. This is a big topic for PCV’s as there is diversity in our group, and there are only three Americans on a staff of up to over thirty people during pre-service training. The language teachers are often young, new to the work force Azerbaijanis who receive some training on the diversity and differences of Americans, but I think it really comes to a shock to them when some realize that it is not just an abstract idea but they have come to interact every day with these diverse people. Sometimes it ends up in some really good, positive development conversations, and sometimes it is just a flippen disaster on both ends.
b. Racial diversity is interesting in AZ as there is very little. They have a few ethnic groups that live in the country, and you will hear people make comments about lack of intelligence, or things like that about them, but I do not live near any of those regions and I am not sure how widespread of big/little of an issue it is. For PCV’s with racially diverse backgrounds, they take a lot more staring and questions than the average volunteer (which has to be so numerous and frustrating). I’m not exactly sure where it started, but there are people of Asian descent who travel around and sell things out of boxes and bags here. A lot of Asian Americans get hassled on the street about what is in their book bag, if they are selling the camera they are taking pictures with, what is in the package they just picked up from the post office, etc. Another major problem is that the “N” word is taught in Azerbaijani schools as the proper word for a black person. Virtually any volunteer with darker skin, whether they are of African, Latino, native, etc descent has to constantly have conversations about how that word is not appropriate for our culture. I have had it three times at site here with just daily conversation. And no matter what your background is, there is the ever present question about whether you look like a “true” American or not. I usually talk about why that is a reason I love America is because we all look American and there is no one way to look and all of those good, sentimental feelings I have about our heartland, but most people just shake their head and disagree and repeat that they don’t look American. I so far have been told I look Latvian, Avar (an ethnic group in Azerbaijan with only a spoken language), and Dagestani. My sister looks EXACTLY like a movie star, with a heavy agreement on Angelina Jolie.


15. What parts of Azerbaijan have you been to and do you have a favorite?
a. The volunteers often talk about Azerbaijan in the shape of a hand, with Baku being the thumb area. If you can picture it like that, I have been to the “first” finger - NE (once you are out of the Baku desert, it is pretty, coastal, view of the mountains), half way up the second finger (gorgeous, mountainous, cooler, forests, waterfalls, and I hear it only gets prettier the farther north you go), various parts of the palm (Goychay is considered the palm. We are at the foothills of the mountains, can see the real mountains on a pretty day, and the rest is North Dakota flat and grasslands. However, a little bit more south is still the palm and not grassy, and frankly, pretty darn ugly and hot.), and one area in the south west. I would still like to see the dirty south, and hopefully this summer I will make it up to the third finger.

16. In that respect, do you wish you would have been placed somewhere else?
a. In terms of in-country travel, sights, nature, etc, I have been placed in a wonderful country. Out of the eleven different climatic zones, Azerbaijan has nine of them in a country the size of the state of Maine. We have a pretty liberal in-country travel policy, and the public transportation system is phenomenal for a developing country.

17. What is the most rewarding and the most challenging aspect of teaching?
a. This question has stumped me a little. I enjoy teaching, and I am glad I am in this sector of Peace Corps, but I am not sure what would be the most rewarding thing. It maybe wouldn’t be so much in terms of teaching, but I feel really accomplished as a positive female/adult figure in my student’s lives. Teachers don’t interact with students here the way they do in America. They aren’t friendly, absolutely do not smile, engage, or make connections with the children. It was a really hard adjustment, and because I do participate in those, I struggle every day with being considered an actual teacher in the school system. I have faced the reality that the majority of my students will not be speaking any more English by the time I leave here than when I came. But I do know that every single one of us as a teacher in this school system has impacted the lives of at least one student in a positive manner in their classroom, and that keeps me motivated to go to school every day.
b. The single most challenging part of teaching? The Azerbaijani school system hands down. It is a pretty broad topic, but I feel like it slaps me in the face every second we do something. The teachers are afraid of the Ministry, of the directors, of losing their hours, or having to give bribes. The school books (which are uniform across the country, every kid in every school gets the same book for each lesson – 8th grade English has the 8th grade English book whether you are in Baku or Goychay) are horrible, difficult, out of date, and text heavy. The students and teachers have the Soviet Union education mentality of an answer better not be wrong, so children are afraid to make mistakes, speak up, or say whether they understand something. The conditions of the schools are terrible, but I feel as if kids don’t really care about those things, because they have never known any different. The floors are falling apart, it’s cold, dusty, the chairs are broken. But it is easy to get past the outward appearance. It is the engrained ideas that you will be beat if you speak out of line (real tree switches? Doesn’t look pleasant), that every student copying the smartest child’s test in class to give to the Ministry is more important than the learning of information, and that being the first and the fastest person in class to shout out an answer before everyone else is the quickest way to receive a good grade are challenges that I am constantly at a battle with every day.

18. Has your experience in the Peace Corps so far influenced you or motivated you to pursue a certain career or educational choice when you are done with your service?
a. Not particularly. I think being here makes me realize some of the traits and qualities about myself that make up a lot of decisions about career or educational paths. For example, this has definitely not brought out some intense yearning to be a teacher. However, I do realize I enjoy working with kids. Or rather, I do not dislike working with children. I know that I really enjoy training my peers, but I am still a terrible public speaker. I miss the university and learning atmosphere a lot, but do not envy a lot of the volunteers taking their LSATs and GREs.

19. If you could incorporate one item of modern/Western convenience or technology to the Azerbaijani people, what would it be?
a. If washing machines were affordable, they would be life changing for a lot of these families. They are available now, and I know a lot of volunteers whose families have bought one with the extra money they are getting for rent, but they cost approximately 800 manat, which is the equivalent a little less than a year’s salary for the average person.
b. No one has every spotted a dryer outside of American Embassy worker’s houses in Baku. And that would be a revolutionary item.
c. It may not be technology, but I have spent more than a few minutes thinking about how Crocs would take off here like a wild fire. Everybody wears Shop-Shops, and they don’t last long and aren’t too comfortable. Crocs, man. It’s the ticket.

20. What do you think the benefits are today of being a Peace Corps volunteer versus being one 20 years ago? Are there any disadvantages that you can think of?
a. I think modern technology has definitely improved a lot of lives of volunteers. We are all outfitted with cellphones when we arrive, and a lot of volunteers are able to text their families back home. If I am having a bad day, I can call someone and talk about it within minutes. I think it reduces a lot of those feelings of being surrounded by a ton of people and still feeling overwhelmingly alone. I also think the availability of printers, copy machines, and computers has greatly helped the amount of information being transferred to host country nationals, and hopefully, made Peace Corps more sustainable in the long run.
b. In the same way technology has helped, I think it can be a big disadvantage for a lot of people as well. There are volunteers with Wi-Fi in their apartments who know the updated schedule of every single television show they ever watched back home and keep up on them better here than they did in the States. I think some of the electronics separate volunteers from making the same kind of connections with their family and communities that volunteers twenty years ago were forced to have. Plus, most volunteers complain that talking too much to America in one week is anxiety ridden for them.

21. What do you miss most from America? Question submitted by Emily Johnson
Free, Public, Clean toilets.