The Joy of Summer

I have discovered the beauty of early summer in Azerbaijan. It comes in the form of lush, green fields, gorgeous flowers, and fruit trees as far as the eye can see. Well, at least in Goychay anyway. Lucky for me, that is where I live. I’ve visited a few other regions with beautiful mountains which are hard to beat, and places that are so hot, no one goes out past noon and before seven at night. But some days in the village, I feel like I have landed the perfect spot in Azerbaijan. My family’s orchard consists of the following fruit trees: apricots, pears, plums, cherry plums, cherries, strawberries, pomegranates, quinces, persimmons, apricots, two fruits I have not been able to find the translation for, grape vines, strawberries, and pumpkins (I would venture to guess this list is not exhaustive). We have been eating fresh cucumbers, tomatoes, basil, cilantro, dill, onions, green beans, and garlic from our garden and have milk, eggs, yogurt, sour cream, and butter from the animals every day. And while typical Azerbaijani food consists of amazing amounts of butter, salt, and fat, the diet as of late has been pretty hard to complain about. I am still buying spinach, carrots, lentils, rice, and oatmeal at the bazaar. Compared to what my city folk friends are dealing with, though, I am living it up in the village. They were out of water for two weeks there. I drink without boiling or filtering. They buy 3.2% milk for over two manat! I drink a sweet, amazingly high fat content milk straight from the cow (a slight exaggeration as we do boil the milk first, I am not leaning my head under its udder). And I know I have become well-adjusted to my village life when I can tell the difference between cow’s milk yogurt and buffalo cow’s yogurt.

Tomorrow I will be going to the city to upload this blog post and take care of some forms for Peace Corps (government organizations….). It has been awhile since I have left our community, and I am itching to get out a little bit. But I also know that I have come to the conclusion that there are few better things in life than the joy of picking fresh fruit straight off the tree and eating it. Also, there are few worse things in life than your body disagreeing with unwashed fruit (maybe unwashed meat? I haven’t explored that yet).