A Peace Journey: After a long hiatus.. I'm back.

Pomegranate Festival

Winners of the costume contest

Pin the Nose on the Pumpkin. A huge hit at the Halloween party.

It has been a long time since I have updated this blog. I think a variety of reasons contributed to my absence. It would be nice to say I was so terribly busy I just did not have time, but I think that would be stretching it. Mostly, looking back on last fall/ early winter, I realize I was pretty homesick.
We come to Peace Corps not knowing anyone from our group of sixty and they end up becoming family within forty eight hours. It is sort of a strange phenomenon but a close cohort of any kind is a scientific study in and of itself. I was really thankful when I was placed at my permanent site for two years with two of the men who were in my language training cluster. We were already extremely close and I knew I was lucky to have their support for the remainder of my service. But even better than that, we were placed in Goychay with two girls from the AZ7 (I am an AZ8) group who were wonderful. I grew really close to both Rikki and Megan and we had a blast getting to know each. But as the saying goes, time flies when you are having fun. Megan ended up leaving in September and Rikki in November. And frankly, it was a really hard adjustment. Saying goodbye to people here is not as simple as it is in America. It has to be done many times, and not just a hug, but a long lasting multiple course dinner round with tea before and twice after. After about four different ‘good-bye’ dinners with Rikki and her Azerbaijani friends, I had to stop being her plus one, it was just too sad.
My homesickness was compounded by seeing my family in Rome for Christmas and it was hard knowing I was so close to seeing them, but not quite there yet. I was stressed out enough that the Peace Corps doctor had to be tough on me. The conversation went something like this:

Emily: (Calling the doc in Baku) Hi Doctor. I think I may have parasites again. Will you send me a stool sample?

PCDr.: (Sigh) Yes, Emily, I will send you a stool sample, but I think we need to have a talk. This will be the third one you have taken in the past two months, and both have come up negative for parasites. It truly seems that you are just stressed out.

Emily: Oh. I think you’re right.

She was.
Stress is not always the issue. It is how one handles it. But that is not always my strong suit. My escape and coping mechanisms for stress could be another blog post on its own. Instead, I am going to give you a crash course on what I did while I was not attending to my blog.

October: October was my most productive school month of this year. My counterpart was pretty gung ho about new ideas (Venn Diagrams!) and we did not have a single holiday to break up the weeks. The new trainees come from America and live in Sumgayit for three months soaking up knowledge before being sent to the regions. In the middle they also go and visit volunteers for a week and see what site is really like, what we do at school, how we live, and eat non-Azeri food. I had two girls come out and visit the village.

We talk the kids “The Wheels on the Bus” song and went to both of my counterparts’ houses for a lot of food. My counterpart and I threw a Halloween party for fifth through tenth form students. We had a costume contest (I was a bag of tea), food, music, card making station, and a Pin the Nose on the Pumpkin game. After that, I made my way up to the north finger of Azerbaijan to Shabran and had an American Halloween with some of the volunteers.
Our Training group was reunited! Tagiyev 19.

November: I started November by traveling to Baku and spending a week helping with the new trainees’ English teaching practicum. I observed the classes they were teaching and provided feedback and helped our program manager with her reports for the trainees. I then came back to the best part of living in Goychay: Pomegranate Festival.

It happens every year in our region and is spectacular. There are booths from every village, town, restaurant, etc. showing off their best pomegranates, there is a Pomegranate Princess who drives up in a nice car, the ambassadors from America, Russia, and Japan came, and there is a concert at night.

November also brought “Gurban Bayrami” or the Sacrificial holiday. We sacrifice a sheep and then give a third of it to our neighbors, a third of it to the poor, and keep a third for ourselves. This was happening at the same time it was persimmon harvest. We spent about two weeks from morning until night hand picking the persimmons from the trees and lining them up nicely so the people who sell them to Russia can come and see the selection. November also brought the leaving of the AZ7’s which I celebrated in Baku and Thanksgiving which was held at the Charge d’affaires’ house (Butterball Turkeys!).

December: My Birthday! The kids at school sang me “Happy Birthday,” the teachers made a cake, and my sitemates, Alec and Matt, came out to the house for supper with the family. I got peppery perfume, underwear, and towels from the Azeris, and incense, coffee, and cards from the Americans. Then I waited for Rome. My parents had spent a long time preparing for Italy, and everything went smoothly. I met my mom, dad, sister, brother, and brother’s girlfriend in Rome for ten days for Christmas. It was glorious. It almost feels like a dream now.

January: I readjusted to Azerbaijan by spending New Year’s in Baku. I went to school for a few weeks, and then took another week long break at our Mid-Service conference in Baku. All of the volunteers from my group met together for the first time since the previous December to talk about the best practices from the year before and the sustainability of the next year of service. We also picked dates for when we will leave (November 29th!), had guest speakers from the Clean World (Temiz Dunya) organization which fights human trafficking and champions for women’s rights, and watched our fellow volunteers compete for Azerbaijan’s spot on Eurovision (they did not make it). I also quit having my English conversation clubs and started a health club in Azerbaijani for my sixth and seventh graders.

Now I am back in February. I have made some New Year’s resolutions which include me getting back into the swing of updating my blog. I am looking forward to a yacht trip off the coast of Turkey in June and am using that to start cooking for myself more at home. We’ve recently been hit with one of the coldest winters Azerbaijan has seen, but so far the brown monster (Peace Corps issued sleeping bag – It is large, brown, and so very warm) has kept me frost free.

My brother up in the tree picking away