Lahic - Lahij - Azerbaijan

A few friends and I made a trip to one of the must see sites of Azerbaijan, Lahic. It is an ancient village, up in the mountains of Ismayilli, famous for its copper artisans and cobble stone streets. We stayed with our friend, Nate, in the city of Ismayilli, and made a day trip up to the village. It was an interesting hour and a half trip up in the drizzling rain of steep mountains, narrow, crumbling roads, and Indiana Jones rope bridges (Don't worry, we chose not to cross it). It was completely worth it. This was the best tourist site I have seen so far. We stayed about four hours looking at the beautiful streets, shops, and people. Here is a Lahicite tapping away on his copper. He tried to get his little boy to get out of the way for a better picture, but really, the child is what makes it so cute.

A little break for lunch. Tasty Kabob, tomatoes, and cucumbers with Nate Storey, Allison Breed, and Alec Lisko.

Another nice copper shop. I kept having the "If only I had Lots and Lots of money" thoughts. These would be truly great (and heavy) keepsakes. While walking around here, Nate and I stopped, and spoke for a few minutes for a documentary a woman was making about tourist areas in Azerbaijan. Beads of sweat were gearing up when I asked her if we had to speak in Azerbaijani. Thankfully for all of us, she translated everything.

Allison and I outside of the Mosque

The CUTEST old lady ever. She wouldn't let Allison take the picture without her knitting needles in hand. We stopped by her shop about three times, and I finally bought beautiful blue and red hand knitted ankle socks in traditional style.

Every time we passed by the little old lady's shop, a man kept saying 50 cents for a picture. I understood after awhile he was telling us, we could pay fifty cents to try these beauties on (and then take our own pictues in them - no camera provided). Who wouldn't?

We stopped by the school to check out the murals on the walls. Instead, we were first directed to this. A typical Azerbaijani school decoration. A large soldier to remind everyone of the atrocities inflicted upon them during the Qarabagh war, and the continuing struggle for land and freedom. At this point in our tour, though, the director was alerted to our presence, came over, brought us into his office, and gave us tea and sweets. He was extremely hospitable and unconditionally grateful for the Peace Corps Volunteer they had two years before. It is encounters like those that are humbling about our service here.

Walking around the village

I love these cars

A major MAJOR thanks to my friend and photographer, Allison Breed. The first half and wonderful quality pictures I put up here were her creations.

Baseball, Bad Haircuts, and Birthdays

My cousin, Abdulla, the kids, and I at Abdulla's 17th birthday party. He's the youngest in his eleventh form class, meaning even though he'll graduate this year, he still has one more year before his mandatory two year service in the military.

Awhile back, Peace Corps volunteers decided to get some pick up baseball games going with their kids. They had some supplies donated from America, got a few rag tag kids together and had some fun. Now this has turned into a ten team league, supported by grants, with regional tournaments once a month through the season, and a big bash in Baku with special guests from the embassy. Here, Goychay hosted Yevlakh and Ismayilli for an afternoon match-up. Yevlakh boasts four girls, with two getting permission to travel to a different region. Here is volunteer Julie Nelson and her two brave girls.

Dan and I cheering from the stands

Goychay was short a player, so we talked our friend Konul into stepping up. She agreed, threw on a t-shirt, and after about ten minutes I had showed her (most) of the ropes. She said it took a full game before she understood, but she made it to first every time, and even if she didn't catch every ball, she made sure to at least stop it from getting to far.

Here are more of the Yevlakh Yahoos. Julie's university donated their awesome red shirts making them a pretty official first year team.

Here is Mehran from the Goychay Wild Cats (Veshi Peshik) making Ismayilli work for their win.

And as always, we end with some good sportsmanship.

This softball league has been really great. The majority of the region children don't participate on sports teams. They all play backyard soccer, but there is no sense of being on a team in the way we think about. Encouraging others, working for the greater good, keeping your head up even when you're losing, and not throwing temper tantrums are basics for our children at a young age, btu it is simply not the case here. The kids also get a chance to travel to other regions without their family (almost unheard of), meet friends from other parts of Azerbaijan, and learn a new sport. My sitemate, Matt Thornton, started up his team out in his village, but now some of the kids we know from the city come out to play as well. Even having the tournament at the stadium in Goychay was great exposure for the Goychay Mayor's office, police, and Education Ministry to see us with the children and prove we aren't teaching them secret military-op training.