What’s that song, “I’m still standing, yeah, yeah, yeah…”?
It’s really hard to believe it’s been almost a whole year
since I 1st stepped foot in Azerbaijan. Some days it has felt as
though time is standing still, and yet then I turn around and find a whole new
season has reached the edges of my town. New volunteers will arrive in less
than a month, making us no longer the “freshman class”. The impending arrival
of the newbies has got me reflecting over the events of the past year, the
good, the bad, and the dirty.
I arrived in Azerbaijan on 24 September 2012. Upon arrival
at the Baku International airport, myself and 2 other volunteers stood at the
luggage carousel, dazed and confused as to why our bags were not slowly
rotating out the magical tarmac shoot. I had only the pair of underwear I was
wearing, but this was Peace Corps right? I mean a little hand-washing was
pretty much going to kick start my street cred.
After attempting to fill out missing luggage papers, we were
finally greeted on the other side of the arrivals gate by PCVs, our fellow
PCT’s and PC staff. We were herded onto a bus and taken to our hotel cabins
where we would begin 3 days of orientation. When we arrived at the hotel, a
baggage handler kindly “helped” me with my suitcases, as I watched my month old
MacBook Pro kiss the sidewalk, thus smashing the screen.
This was my FIRST 3 hours in Azerbaijan….
I signed up for a tough time right? I mean, most people do
not have that kind of luck in the 1st few hours, but then again,
anyone who has ever traveled with me knows that was a lucky day.
After orientation we were divided into “Clusters” based on
our sector assignments (Business, Youth, or TEFL). We moved to our training
sites to begin our 2.5 months of intense sector, language and culture training.
I was scared to death of living with a host family, especially one I couldn’t
communicate with. (I lucked out in the end; both my host sisters spoke enough
English to communicate, making the whole thing far less scary).
Those 1st
few months were full of gestures and animated conversations, as my host parents
and I tried to get across our ideas. Some hand signals are universal really. Those nights certainly made for a lot of laughing. I found
this family that seemed so strange at 1st, really became a family to
me and I have been back to visit them several times since. Even bringing my
parents to meet them when they visited!
Come December, we moved to our permanent sites. I was off to the North, to the town of Quba. Land
of Apples and Mountains. I moved in with a new host family, this time with zero
English but with more Azerbaijani on my part. Many more nights of gestures and
dictionaries ensued. This house had far more people, 7 of us and only 2 bedrooms.
The winter set in
and as a New Englander, I was humble. I learned a new meaning of the word cold. It’s hard to
imagine it now, with the summer heat bearing down on us, but last winter was
the worst recorded in Eastern European history in the past 50 years. Of course
it was right? When I actually live here…more street cred??? I learned what it
meant to not shower for 2 weeks at a time, and then have to carry buckets of
snow in from the chicken yard to melt for said “shower”.
While it seemed that winter was never going to end, and the
March snowstorms persisted…Spring did eventually peek in. This brought about a
new transition in my Peace Corps life. Independent Living. Like a breath of
fresh air, I moved into my own house (with shared shower, toilet, backyard and
sometimes kitchen of course…I mean this is Azerbaijan after all). Quality of
life improved in leaps and bounds as I finally had a space to call my own and I
relished in it. Spring also brought about outdoor activities and produce that
wasn’t cabbage. A variety in colour and food?! Amazing.
June kick started an awesome summer of summer camps and
activity clubs and visiting friends. My parents came out to visit me and I took
off to Thailand and Cambodia for my annual vacation time.
Somewhere along the line, I began to learn the ropes. The 1
year mark of “what on earth have I accomplished in a year” has started to set
in, but that’s typical. My language improved and while my grammar may have
gotten bit lazy, I am typically understood by most and praised for my knowledge
or at least my effort.
None of my clothes fit as the “Peace Corps Diet” of running emergency laps between my home and the squat toilet in the backyard keeps me in great
shape. (No really, a PCV’s dessert of choice is often wisely an antacid or
antidiarrheal tablet. It’s not always pretty, but often makes for a funny
story.)
I’ve learned that a fellow PCV, a well stocked external
harddrive, and a couple of shots of Russian vodka are often a more effective
method to keeping warm in the winter than your gas stove. Also that you will form a special bond with your long underwear. You become attached and often compare with other PCVs the way I "Once Upon a Time" talked about my stilettos.
I’ve learned that it doesn’t matter how long it’s been since
your last shower, because there is ALWAYS someone who can “outdo” that. And
let’s face it; come winter, you wear your “I haven’t showered since” badge with
pride.
I’ve learned there’s no way to stay cooler in the summer
than to sit in front of my fan with a tub of watermelon in my lap and a friend
to laugh with. Also hunting flies in my house provides not only free entertainment, but also a weird sense of accomplishment. Armed with my hot pink fly swatter, or sometimes even an impromptu flipflop, I have become a FlyNinja.
I've become very resourceful with my trash. Wine bottle candle holders? Wine Bottle rolling pins? (No theme with the wine bottles ha) Glass Jar flower holders? Sour Cream container tupperware? Don't mind if I do.
I learned a lot about myself, and I’m working on figuring
out the person I want to become. With the incoming trainees, it will definitely
be a time of reflection and questioning of my service so far. I’m looking
forward to the challenge. Our AZ9 group started with 44. We are now 41, but we’re
going strong and I’m proud of us. Who would have thought a year would have gone
by already and yet here we are…still standing.
