These pix took about 30mn to upload. Hope they can be seen.


First is my host-bro/counterpart and I monkeying about.











This is the Pink Lake in Masazir(between Sumgayit and Baku). Its a salt lake that is less than a meter deep at its deepest but stretches a few kilometers across. The only thing that can survive in it is a microbe wich causes the pink hue. Folk collect the salt from the lake by shoveling it into trucks and donkey carts.











Here is a random pic of me taken on Dec 5th, the day of the LPI and Repeal Day in America.








Finally a pic outside the McD's in Baku on our first trip. Charlie and John are rather uncertain if they really do "R heart McDonalds" but the fries were enjoyed by all.

SITE VISIT - Quba without Qastro

Luckily I live next to the highway that runs straight to Quba and 5mn from my
house is the marshrut stop. From this stop a direct marshrut to Qube runs
whenever it gets full. I left my house at 10:30am and the marshrut left
within 30mn. Perfect timing. Theres alot of construction on that highway now
so it took about 3hrs. When the construction is done it will be a fairly nice
2 lane highway and the trip should take less than 2hrs.
Imagine a minivan running as fast as its 4cyl engine can take it down a 2lane
slab of concrete with no shoulders, passing every car, semi, and dumptruck it can.
Playing chicken with the oncoming traffic wich is doing the same thing.
Both sides swerving back into their own lanes at the last second.
Periodically we passed the wreck of an accident and we saw 2 large lorrys
that had fallen of the side of the slab and tipped over onto their sides
because theres is a 1 foot drop down into a shoulder of loose sand.
The countryside reminds me alot of South Dakota near the Badlands; dry, dusty,
with some rocky cliffs and hills - though not quite mountains. Much like the
area surrounding Beijing though greener. Not many trees but lots of shrubbery.

Within 30mns of Quba the scenery changed alot. The highway was lined with birch
trees and farmers booths. Some selling veggies but most selling the local
specialty, apples. Every variety and color of apple imaginable available.
It looks just like northern Wisconsin if you replace our forests with their
mountains. Good country.

Soon we arrived in the center of Quba. A pretty place, much cleaner than
Tagiyev or Sumgayit, with a comfortable small town feel. I got off the
marshrut called my counterpart and waited for him to arrive. Just as I was
about to find the nearest convenience store a very curious police officer
came over and inquired about my welfare and interests. I thanked him for
his interest and told him all was well, that I would be working with the
government in this town and that my friend would be coming for me soon. My
Azerbaijani still isnt very good...indeed, I would be hard pressed to argue
with a 4 year old...my explanation seemed to concern the officer and he,
most graciously, insisted I come to the station with him to meet his commander.
Much as I would have loved the opportunity to network with the local
constabulary I thought it important to meet my counterpart as planned so I
called my friend the PC Security Director again to help translate. As they
chatted with each other my counterpart and the Direktor of the Ministry of
Economic Development - Quba/Xachmas arrived. They all chatted for a few
minutes and it was decided I really must take a rain-check on the officer's
nice offer.

Turns out the direktor is a cool old guy who had lived/studied in China for
3 months so he speaks a bit of Chinese that he likes to share. He is fluent
in Azerbaijani and Russian and also speaks "Lezki", the language of a local
ethnic group. Not to mention some Arabic and Farsi, some of the local version
of Hebrew because he lives in the Jewish quarter of Quba, and his English
is atleast equal to my Azerbaijani.

I'll be homestaying with a family that had a volunteer stay with them before.
Indeed the previous volunteer stayed with them for his full 2year tour so I
suppose they must be fairly good folk. Theyve a big 2 story house with plenty
big cast-iron gas fireplaces(pech) that keep the place warm. A big screen tv
with sattalite. I can watch FOX News - Turkey wich is a bit strange....still
waiting to see a voiceover version of Bill O'Reilly. Ive only found two
stations with English language news; AlJazeera and "Supreme Master"....
AlJazeera first - forget what youve heard this is a fairly quality news station.
Far less slanted and more hard news than FOX. No "missing pretty white girl" stories
like CNN. Interesting, unlike MSNBC. And everyone has a smarmy British accent like
BBC.
"Supreme Master" is a religious station. Not Christian or Muslim but......Vegan.
Yes, Vegan isnt a religion but Veganism, love of animals and nature,
and absolute reverence of "The Supreme Master ???????" seem to be their only tenents.
The Supreme Master seems to be a Formosan(Sri Lankan?) woman, who grew up with a
mix of Buddhist and Hinduism, moved to Florida sometime around 1990, and has created
a religeon with branches across the world. They seem to be especially big in Germany.
Anyhow, her TV station runs 24hrs a day running plays of her books, or shows about
global warming and the health/eco benifits of Veganism(Did U know that it takes
330gallons of water to make a single meal of beef, 2XXgall for a chicken meal, but
only 98gall to make a vegan meal of rice, tofu and veggies?....then they show
glaciers and ice caps melting....seems a mixed message to me.), and they play the
happy news from around the world. They dont show anything sad or talk about problems,
they just talk about success stories, political prisoners being freed, happy international
agreements. The coolest thing about all of this is that its 90% English but more
importantly they have subtitles for a minimum of 10 languages translating
everything at all times. From top to bottom its usually Mandarin & Cantonese
Chinese, Korean, English, Vietnamese, Azerbaijani/Turkish, German, French,
Portugese, Spanish, Malaysian, Arabic, Farsi, and others from time to time.
Its fascinating to be able to read that many languages all saying the same
bullshit all at once.

Forgive the tangent, moving on. They have a small garden area with one persimon(?)
tree and 2 chickens. Probly some space for a few veggies in the summer.
All in all its quite nice. My only complaint is that they have an outhouse
squatty-potty. Its not the squatty that really bugs me its that from my room
I have to walk down the hall, down the stairs, threw the family room(were folk often
sleep in the winter cause its the warmest room in the house), and go outside
to the potty every single time I wanna pee. When you drink as much tea as I do
this can be a bit exasperating. Especially since there is a toilet and sink that
have been installed in a corner next to my room but the tank hasnt been installed
on the toilet and the water is turned off to the sink because its so cold in that
part of the hallway that the pipes would freeze. Oh, and they havent been walled
off yet so evry time I gotta make a potty run I see that toilet laughing at me with
its gapping toilet seat grin in the corner of the hall.

The family are all good folk. The father, R, is a music teacher and owns his own instrument
shop. He has a workshop in the shed where he spends much of his time repairing used
instruments; accordions mostly. He speaks a few words of English & German, not to mention
being fluent in Russian and Lezgi. The mother, X, is a housewife. She does all the
cooking, cleaning, etc. She is master of all things inside the house. The sister, G,
is a high school student whose favorite subject is math and understands a bit of English.
She hopes to go to the Economics University in Baku. The host brother is also my counterpart.
He is in his latter mid 20s. Works at the Ministry of Economic Development and is partner
in a marketing firm. Works constantly on economic research projects that have him
running around town and the region almost all day. And there is another brother who seems
to be married and I dont seem him very often.

During the site visit I went to my office a few times. Was introduced to all the folk
there. I was also introduced to all the staff of the Transpaerncy-Azerbaijan office
accross the hall from the Ministry. The direktor there is a cousin of my host brother
and they all get along quite well. The AZ5 volunteer in town does a number of
conversation classes at the offices there and theyve invited me to do work there.
Best part is theyve got hi-speed(256kbs) internet with 2 computers free for public
use and which I can hook my laptop up to. Thinkin I might talk to them about
hooking up an old wi-fi box and creating northern Azerbaijan's first hotspot.
It wont help most folk because most dont have laptops with wi-fi but it'll help
both our offices alot. Ive also met the direktor of the marketing firm my
host-bro works with and hope to do some work with them. They also have nice
offices and internet I can use. Was introduced to some people who work at a local
micro-finance institution. Who knows where those connections will take me.
Was also introduced to a few local lawyers, some students, and most importantly
(to my stomach) the owner of the best doner resteraunt in town; best doner in
Azerbaijan according to the notoriously inaccurate Lonely Planet(dont get the LP for
AZ, get the book by Mark Elliot.

-TO BE CONTINUED-

"DETAINED FOR QUESTIONING"

-I will try to present only the facts, keeping all opinions to myself.-

We arranged for 4 of us to meet on the beach in Sumgayit with the plan to hike
from there, along the beach as much as possible, to my home in Tagiyev where
could have dinner. We met as planned, purchased some items to make a picnic
lunch and set out down the beach.
At one place we found the "Titanic" a ship from the Soviet times that has been
grounded on the beach and has become a rusted-out hulk, half-sunk in the
ocean, apparently popular with fisherman and tourists.
Further down the beach we found some "streams" and impassable swampland so we
walked into the city, found the main road between the two cities and followed it.
Its about 25mn by marshrut....approximately 7km. Roughly halfway there is
the regional power station and a few large factories. One of these factories
is near the beach and has a line a few rusty cooling towers that look like
those in the Simpsons and beyond that a tall tower that has flame shooting out
the top like a methane vent on an oil field or refinery which can be seen for
miles around.
As tourists do(oops, that's opinion isn't it?), we took pictures of all the interesting things we had never seen
before. After one of our number took a picture of the afore mentioned towers
with his large camera we discovered that a police officer was calling out to
us from behind. We spoke with him for a bit and learned that taking pictures
of the factory was forbid en. We thanked him for his concern and for teaching
us of this prohibition and prepared to continue our hike. Another officer came
in a car, then another, then a few plainclothes men. Our language abilities being
insufficient for the situation we called the PC Security Director. The
Security Director spoke with the police over the phone and our cameras were
taken from our possession. There was some confusion about what we were to do.
Another phone call was made and the Security Director said we were to accompany the police officer in his car
to the local station to fill out an incident report, that there was no problem and
it would all be taken care of quickly. The 4 of us piled into the backseat of
an old Russian Lada that was big enough for 2 and we rode down what would have been the rest of our hiking path,
threw my town to the police station on the other side.
At the police station we met a number of police officers who asked a number of
questions. Our language abilities were tested...the officers ability to speak
English was tested. We had had the same polite conversation with a large number
of officers. We had the same conversation with a number of officers all asking
roughly the same questions. One officer after the other, 5-8 officers in all, with
other listening and occasionally throwing in their own question. Every officer had to
ask for himself the same questions and take notes in his own notebook.
After a few more phone calls it was determined that our Security
Director and Staff Director would have to come to the station from Baku to
facilitate the events.
Tea was not available in the police station so we partook of our picnic lunch
and drinks in the offices of the police station. Though tempted we did not
drink the bottle of wine we had purchased to accompany our lunch.
3hours after meeting the first officer and 2.25hrs after arriving at the station
our representatives arrived to facilitate and translate. Incident reports
were finished and after our representatives fully translated its contents and
assured of its acceptability we each signed individual reports, the pictures
were deleted from the large camera and the we were free to go. Though requested
we were not allowed to keep copies of our incident reports.

When I arrived home I explained the events of the day to my host family. Not
knowing much of the vocabulary I had to do allot of miming. There was much
laughing.


One week later I began to receive text messages from various sources; the
national news service had reported in print and on tv that 4 Americans had
been detained for taking pictures of "strategic sites" and suspicious activities.
While the name of the organization with which we are affiliated was not mentioned our
names were published and said on tv(mostly incorrectly).

To clear up some questions folk have asked -
We were NOT arrested.
No handcuffs were involved.
We never even got to see the cells. We sat in offices the entire time.
From the first cop encounter to walking out of the station it all took 5-6hrs.

LINKS & ARTICLE:
US citizens photographed government facility in Azerbaijan arrested

[ 21 Nov 2008 18:35 ]
Baku.
Hafiz Heydarov-APA. US citizens photographed the government facility were arrested in Azerbaijan.

Law-enforcement bodies told APA Corey Stevens, 27, Brandon Rene Houser, 26, Amanda Kay Bruno, 23 and Chris Paul, 28 were detained while taking pictures of Synthesis-Rubber Factory of state-run Azerkimya Company in Sumgayit.
The US citizens were sent to the Ministry of National Security after the preliminary testimony.

Sumgayit City Police Office confirmed the fact and told APA that the US citizens were detained for photographing the Synthesis-Rubber Factory several days ago and sent to the Ministry of National Security.




This is a link to the article:

http://en.apa.az/news.php?id=92415

For the perspective of another of us miscreants go to - Corey's Blog


Yup.

Site Announcement -or- "You live here, is good."

Before training I tried to do as much research about Azerbaijan as I could...
not much info about the country is out there(in English anyhow). After seeing
how the summer high temps could regularly reach 40+ I knew I wanted to be in
the northern mountains where it was cooler. But thinking on the job was
more difficult. CED here works in 5 major areas; NGOs, MicroFinance, Banks,
Agriculture & Government. Ag & banks didnt interest me. MicroFinance seemed
very interesting particularly as the originator of the concept just got the
Nobel last year. NGOs are a potluck, some have interesting missions & are
effective some don't/aren't. Government is the newest area for CED and has
only had a few volunteers thusfar. Most havent fully finished their service
for a variety of reasons. Though this doesnt necessarily speek to the the
position as the same is true of most areas of Peace Corps. Family
emergencies, health issues, better offers, etc. come up all the time. But
what the government job does lack is a clear definition. Volunteers who
get into this area generally have great independence in finding projects
and work to do. After reading the blog "Ash in Lankeran" I knew this was
what I want to do. The freedom and need to use one's entreprenuerial spirit
was extremly appealing....doesnt hurt that it also fits into my interest to
work in internetional law, business or diplomacy as the next path in life.

So, the same day as giving the presentation and taking the LPI I had a
meeting with the CED director about where I might be placed. Like the
placement process in applying for PC the applicant/trainee doesnt have much
say in the matter. Issues include the needs and job description of the
host organization (the organization which the Volunteer ostensibly works
for/with) and the availability of host families(some families wont take
men/women, no old folk or no youngins, no vegetarians, whatever), the
Volunteers health condition and availability of care, etc.
All these needs take precedence over the desires of the prospective
Volunteer. This being said they say they will try to accomodate ones
desires as much as possible and a number of us have the same or similar
qualifications.
Had the meeting. Told him exactly what I wanted, why I wanted it, and why
I thought I was qualified for the job and to my surprise the answer was
basically "OK".
Two weeks later all the CED and YD trainees(about 30 of us, no one's
been ASed or ETed yet, a PC Azerbaijan record!) all met in Sumgayit and
after a day of seminars, presentations, speeches and other official
tension builders they unfurled a big map and started announcing cities and
calling names. We walked up, got an informational envelope, and stuck
a pin in the map.

From December 11th I'll be going to the northern mountian city of Quba
working with the Quba/Xachmas Regional Branch of the Ministry of Economic
Development. Ya'll can Wiki search it as well as I can tell ya but Quba is
in the north is a medium large city or AZ about the same size and population
as River Falls, the city where I went to Uni.
Nestled at the feet of the Caucuses Mountains just south of the border with
Russia(Dagestan and Chechnya) and east of Georgia, its a temperate
zone like Wisconsin wich is warm in the summer and gets lots of snow in the
winter. It has Azerbaijan's largest(only) major Jewish community, the Region
is home to the town of the Xinalug people who have their own language and who
live in mountainside houses where on persons front garden is the next guys
roof. It has some parks, a nice shopping center, a 2.5-4hr ride from Baku,
skiing and hiking make it fairly popular with tourists.
My job description includes -

Misplaced the papers, get back to ya on this.

Language Proficiency Interveiw (LPI) - The First

Most of us had the mid-training language test on Fri 24 Oct. but due to
an accident or ilness or something my clusters test was postponed until
the following Monday. The extra time did NOT help. As it was Monday
was also the day I and another trainee had to give a 1hr presentation to
the CED group on "Business Plans". The presentation went well. No probs
there but 10mn after it was finished, just as I was getting interested in
the following presentation I was called in for my LPI.
It is a lot like the level checks I used to do working for the language
school, Nova, back in Japan. Naturally its alot easier to be the testor
than the testee.... The tester was nice enough and tried to put everyone at
ease but it was obvious she was unhappy with the disorganized schedule and
the fact she had to wait on our presentation schedules. We spent 10mn
chatting about languages, teaching methodology & the differences between
English, Azerbaijani, Russian & Japanese. Then the test started.
"What fruit do you like?", "What is your house like?", "What is in your room?"
etc. In the unnatural environment where it doesnt matter what you say
but wether you say alot and show your familiar with all the different
grammatical forms its a bit difficult to think of answers. All of the above
questions have one word to two sentence answers in real-life but for the
test your encouraged to expand ad-nauseum.
I leave it to ya'll to look up what the scores mean but I only got an
Intermediate-Mid. I had been hoping for Intermediate-High. By the end of
training CED & YD trainees are supposed to have Int-Hi. TEFL only need Int-Med.

Blog 2 - Training, cont

So where did we leave off....ObLaden's desk, I think. This reminds me
I must tell ya'll about the 2 encounters Ive had with the police thusfar.
Spending 5 hours being 'detained for questioning' isnt how I had planned
to spend that afternoon.....
But all that comes later. Now I'm at site! Where I'll be spending the next
2 years living and working, inshallah(god willing). They have
(mostly) reliable, hi-speed (256K) internet here so I should be able to
update a bit more often when I move here from December, inshallah.

First a recap of whats happened so far.
After a week with my host family Ive fallen into a daily schedule
that generally looks like this -

8:30 - Wake-up, get ready, eat breakfast, make sure I did my homework
9:00 - Make the gruelling 4mn walk to school for Azerbaijani language lessons
9-13:00 - Marathon language class. Usually two 20mn breaks. This started
as a class with only the 5 members of our "cluster" but after a few weeks
we merged w/ another cluster then divided back into two classes based on
ability and interests. All in all Im happy with the results of this.
13-14:45 - Go back home for lunch, study,
14:45 - Begin 7mn walk to CED training session but because all the kids
and many of the men stop me for greetings and hand shaking it takes more
than double that.
15:00 CED training session. We have various projects to do, seminars,
guest speakers such as current Volunteers, local experts from universities,
NGOs, various organizations, etc.
17/17:30 - Go home.
17:30-??? - Get home and change out of my 'professional' clothes into a
t-shirt and sweat-pants(shorts seem to be verboten but its been to chilly
wear them anyhow), study, eat dinner with the family, sometimes a neighbor
or extended family comes over to join us for dinner or just chatting
in the evening. If one of the host-fathers brothers comes over he usually
brings a small bottle of vodka over and we(the men) drink it over dinner.
I sit and listen to the chatting trying to understand the occasional word.
Sometimes a question is thrown my way. Mostly we all sit in the living room
around the tv. I study or play games on my computer. A special thanx
goes out to those who gave me all of the ROMs for the old Nintendo games.
Dragon Warrior 4 has been a huge time waster. Without the distraction my
Azerbaijani would be so much better or I would have ETed by now....not sure
which.
I usually go to my room around 21:30-22:30 depending on if I want to watch
a particular Turkish soap-opera with the family. Its called "Melekler Adisi"
(Island of Angels). Its on 6 days a week, new episode every day. I think
its on reruns. Good quality production, very dramatic melo-drama but not
as over the top as some.
Then I generally watch a movie, read a book, or finish whatever homework
I didnt do before.
0-1:00 - Sleepy time

We have language classes 5 days a week. CED session most days. Sundays are
(usually) free.

In Quba

Ive arrived with almost all my stuff. Big ole box of stuff still being held for me by the h-family in Tagiyev. Ensures I'll be back to visit soon.
My room is pretty big. Almost as big as my last apartment in Japan but Ive gotta walk downstairs, threw the house and outside to use the toilet. Annoying when you drink as much chai as I do. Ive got a big gas furnace in my room that keeps things plenty warm. Ive got a teapot ontop of the heater boiling away all the time to make tea or coffee or cup-ramen whenever I want.
Discovered that my Japanese Wii wich is designed for 100V AC doesnt like it if you plug it into 220V AC for more than 5mn. Fortunatly I unplugged it before the transformer started to smoke too much..... Its all OK but Ill need to find a step-down converter or a Euro transformer before I try to play with that again.
It snowed the day before I arrived and there are still patches of it left in the shade. Snowing again now and by the looks of it we could have a few inches(7-15cm) by morning.
The new host family is good. There where some communication problems with the h-mom at first but now I realize she just sarcastic and always says "No, no" or "Its bad, no good" with a wee smirk when she actually means the opposite. Good food, warm house, no problems. More on all that later.
Start going into the office to work tomarrow. Told theyll be giving me a computer for my desk. Its been sitting on a shelf because the viruses overran it a year or so ago. So getting that baby fired up will be my first task. Also be a test of my Russian as all the software here is in Russian.....should probly learn the Cyrillic alphabet tonite.
Will post more when I can get my laptop hooked up to the network.
Till then "salam".

SWEARING IN

We all swore in yesterday and Im going to site tomorrow.

Now that Im a volunteer I will be able to update this blog semi-regularly. Until now I had the combined problems of irregular internet access and a Trainee Blog Policy that my conscience would not allow me to submit to. The Volunteer Blog Policy however is reasonable.

Sometime next week there should be a flood of posts including reports about training, local culture, host-family, my new site, and that time I was "arrested"(wasnt really arrested but thats what everyone is calling it).

Until then.

STAGING & TRAINING

Picture of JFK spotted at a bar behind the hotel where we had Staging.

The following is a quick write up on whats been going on the last couple weeks. I didnt have time to write as it happened so this was all written up spur of the moment when I had a free hour the other day. Also there is considerable disagreement about what the blog policy is. Some staff saying everything must be pre-approved(e.g. censored) or password locked while other staff and volunteers saying to use discretion. Until this is settled and I have more time and better access to the net this is the last of my writings here ----

PS In a couple hours I leave for "site visit", a visit to the site(home/working community) of a PC Volunteer who has been here for a bit over a year. Im going to the opposite side of the country to a place thats usually spelled 'Ganja'.

cut & paste from before, excuse the bad spelling, grammer, sloppiness, etc

TRAVELING - Chinga tu madre Gino-san

Not wanting to get the 6:20 flight out of MSP to Philadelphia for the training that started at 14:00 I sweet talked the PC travel agency into flying me in a day early and putting me up in a room at our training hotel.

Turned out it wasn’t so difficult to sweet talk her as it was the cheaper option anyhow. The evening before flying out was occupied with eating the first American-style, greasy, cheesy pizza I had had in some years. Damn good stuff. Then a marathon packing session. Space wasn’t a problem, I had room

to spare. Unfortunately I was going about 30lbs over the weight limit in one bag and only 10lbs under in the other. I had to drop a few hundred

DVDs, my spare laptop, and a bunch of clothes. Finally got both bags within 1lbs of the 100lbs total limit plus my carry-on(which was stuffed) and a

"personal item" containing my new laptop and a couple of hard drives.

Despite all the DVDs I had to drop I’ve still got a few hundred movies/tv shows on DVDs and on the hard drives; including a load of Japanese movies(gotta keep in practice), almost all of the MST3K flicks(ye who inherited what I left behind best be taking good care of them), zombie and other cheezy-horror movies to be hell, and other assorted movies I either really like or haven’t watched yet. Clothes wise I’m still horribly over packed but I hate clothes shopping (I cant be trusted to buy good clothes) so I hope what I brought will cover me for the interim.

For host-family presents I’ve brought American flag sandal/baseball cap sets, allot of candy for the kiddies(and for me to, black jelly beans and tootsie rolls tend to be rare outside N. America), and a few led keychain flashlights for those midnite runs to the outhouse.

There was an accident on the interstate backing traffic up for almost an hour but we made it to the airport with just the right amount of time to get through

check-in, security and everything. They said my backpack that I’ve used on about 20 flights was oversized but nobody said anything about being over weight.

Got through without any trouble though.

Arrived in Philly, got my bags and went out to wait for the airport bus to the Sheraton. Should have called the hotel ahead of time rather than assuming

that Sheraton would have a bus. The Sheraton bus that did come told me that I needed the other Sheraton bus. The other Sheraton bus that came told me I had to

wait for the Lady Liberty bus. No worries, I thought. I had just discovered my mp3 player had a poker game on it and was learning the ropes of Texas Hold'em.

After an hour of waiting a self described "greyhair"(experienced) driver noticed me and set me straight. Turns out you have to request this particular bus at

the desk in the baggage claim area....5minutes later I was on the road to my hotel. Seems the bus driver had been warned about the flood of PC people coming

because as soon as he saw my bags he asked in a thick Philly accent "Hey, youse shippin out wis de Peace Coa?".

Checked in, got directions to the Liberty Bill and started walking. Philly is a pretty nice city. Fairly clean, people are nice enough, the weather was good

that day. There are lots of lunch trucks selling everything from cheese steaks and burgers, to kielbasa and wieners, to soul food, fried chicken dinners and

jerk chicken(never got around to trying the jerk chicken sadly). Another observation is that they’re big on murals in Philly. Murals everywhere. Murals of

the founding fathers, of brotherly love, of coffee house founders, of all sorts of stuff. I was also very surprised by the number of Japanese restaurants.

During my walk I saw a cop and decided to ask her for directions to the Liberty Bell. Her response, "What’s the address?". Not a question I was expecting and my response was "The Liberty Bell, you know, the bell with the crack in it. Somewhere around Liberty Square I guess.". "Yeah I know the one.

Liberty Square is over that way I think." she said pointing off in the direction I had been going anyhow.

Well, I saw the Liberty Bell from outside the building as it was after 6pm by then. French tourists all over the place. You can only see the back

of the bell from outside so I didn’t get to see the crack. Oh well, its not the Taj Mahal or the Statue of Liberty where its actually more impressive in person.

It really is just a big bell.

From there headed out to #2 on every Philly tourist's list; Pat and Gino's cheese steak sandwich shops. Gino's is all neon lights, chrome, "Support the Troops"

signs, "Freedom Fries", and a sign demanding all customers to speak in English only. Ironically the slang they use for ordering sandwiches there doesn’t really sound like

English to me. Further irony in that this place is in the middle of a Hispanic neighborhood between some Mexican restaurants, just a couple blocks from the

Italian neighborhood and kitty-corner from a German area. So I had a sammich there. Cheese whiz with onions. Then threw a bunch of hot peppers on top of that.

Just across the corner is Pat's. Which looks older, more homey, and definitely more inviting. Ordered the same thing there but with the addition of mushrooms

and some hot sauce to go with the hot peppers and a side of fries that come in a cup and are drowned in melted Cheese-Whiz. I had more Cheeze-Whiz in those 30mn then I’ve had in the whole of my life before then.

All in all I gotta say those places are both horribly over-rated. I've made far better at home. The meat was bland, Cheese-Whiz isn’t cheese, and the peppers

really weren't hot. But, after gorging, as I was slowly rolling myself back to the hotel, I discovered the mix was all a bit much even for my iron guts. I found a yuppie

bar where people sit in tables that are built inside '50s style convertible cars to eat organic food and over-priced drinks. They have very nice toilets there.

Well.....they HAD a very nice toilet there.

PHILLY STAGEING - Meet the Hippies

When I got back to the hotel room I discovered that PC is a bit cheap(no big surprise) and that they had bunked me with another PC guy. Despite snoring like a

chainsaw he's a good guy and as times gone on we've come to be friends. Glad I packed the earplugs. The next day at noon registration began. Handing in all

paperwork we'd done before, signing more forms, putting on a name tag, meeting in a big conference hall, and then the next hour or so was occupied with a

getting-to-know-you activity where there were 60 statements like "Find someone who considers themselves handy with mechanical things" or "Find someone who is

a vegetarian and plans to stay that way", then get signatures. Turns out there are 61 of us shipping out for AZ6. That is to say the 6th group of PC folk

to go to Azerbaijan. About half of us are TEFL(English teachers) 25% CED(Community Economic Development, business folk) and the final 25% are YD(Youth Development).

Welcome to the world of acronyms. I will us them often and without apology in this blog. I'll try to define them only once so ya'll will have to read everything to keep up. Of the folk I'd say between 33-50% are straight out of university or not far out. A fair percentage of us are in the mid-range of 28-45. About 8-10 are over 45, including two married couples and one lady who did the PC years ago in S. America and is about 76 now. She's a tough old bird and

one of the nicest folk you’ve ever met and I don't foresee her having any troubles. Oh, and 4 married couples total. One of the married guys spent a year

studying in Japan so we chat in Japanese sometimes. Finally, the group is kindof blindingly white. With only 3-4 exceptions its all a big loaf of Wonder Bread. But only one other red-head in the group.

The rest of the afternoon and the following day where filled with seminars, speechifying, group activities, Q&A sessions, etc in the conference hall. Water, juice, coffee and, most popularly, cookies were provided. In the evenings folk went around to the restaurants and bars in the area. Lots of socializing and lots of last-whatever’s-for-two-years going on. Good times. Everybody seems to have made a point of trying to meet and socialize with everybody. No noticeable cliques

formed.

Monday at noon we packed all our bags and all crowded into two buses and began the 2hr trip to JFK airport. We went across part of New Jersey, through Brooklyn

and Queens. Saw a guy sitting in a lawn chair on the side of the road with his pants open and some folk saw his nuts were hanging out. Saw not one but two

shops that claimed to sell boars head. After unpacking the buses they gathered us all in a corner, handed out our fancy new government passports, e-tickets

and set us loose to make our way through security. We got more books and paperwork at staging so I made sure I was first just incase they started

cracking down on overweight bags. After that we all settled in for a 6hr wait for the plane to take off. There had been a meeting at the UN about the financial crisis that afternoon so there were allot of big guys with wires in their ears wandering around.

FLIGHTS - What would Goethe do? Get water from the Babywinkleraum.

Lufthansa is a good airline. Free German beer and wine, decent food, and a choice of brandy or cognac before sleepy time. We had a few hour layover at the Frankfurt airport. A few of us went for coffee and beer at the Goethe Cafe. We drank some nice heffe-weiss while a huge statue of Goeth stared down at us balefully.

In a state of jet-lag, sleep deprivation, and mild caffeine-beer buzz this somehow seemed an appropriate beginning to our AZ adventure. After Goethe

we went in search of a water-fountain. Wandered the whole wing of the airport before finding some drinkvater next to the babywinkleraum. Babywinkleraum

is a word that seemed hilarious at the time....maybe not so much now.

ARRIVAL - They came in the night.

Finally arrived in AZ at 21:30. The airport was far nicer than the one in Delhi. The visa check line went quickly. The baggage belt was very squeaky.

Funny in a country that has so much oil. They just waved us straight threw customs, no problems there. As we walked out into the arrivals terminal our PC

welcome committee of current volunteers cheered and clapped. In the waiting area there was a restaurant with No Smoking signs posted all over and ash-trays full

of cigarette butts and sunflower seed shells below them. We were herded onto buses, given bag lunches, and began the 30mn trip to a resort hotel called

Aqua Park on the shore of the Caspian Sea where we would have another few days of training seminars, medical checks and immunizations.

In years past PCTs(PC Trainees - you don’t become a volunteer until after 3months of training and swearing-in) had this training at the Olympic Training Center

in the south. But this is the first year we have come in September and arrived at late at nite so they wanted somewhere close. The Aqua Park was very nice.

Hot water, shower, western toilets, clean towels most days, a pool with not one, not two, but 3 water slides! European pool tables(10ft+ with tiny pockets),

foosball, ping-pong, beach access, and wi-fi internet that worked during the day when we were too busy to use it or in the very wee hours.

AZ STAGEING - Kill the buggers.

CASPIAN SEA - ?METHANE? FACTORY IN THE DISTANCE

Staging at the Aqua Park consisted of sitting around a hugely long conference table and listening to presentations & taking part in seminars. Some where good, some were useful, some were painful. It started at noon on the first day. They sure like keeping us busy. From the second day we split into groups and

had language training in the mornings. It’s an interesting language. Very similar to Turkish. The word order is backwards from English just like Japanese.

For example, in English "I eat an apple." But in Azerbaijani "I apple eat(ing)." = "M?n alma yemir?m" The verb always comes at the end and there is no

difference(at the elementary level) between the present & present-progressive tenses. Anyhow as the days went by and folk weren’t careful about throwing away

their coffee cups and covering the sugar, creamer and cookies, flies began to gather.

I killed more than my share but it provided only momentary relief.

The best part of the Aqua Park was the food. Every meal was provided and served buffet style. Bread, fresh cucumbers and tomatoes, cilantro, basil, dill and

leaf parsley, cheese, sour cream, tea, juices, tea, fresh fruits including the delicious Corinthian cherry(which Id never had before) at every meal. At breakfast there was usually boiled eggs, wieners, little omelet-like things, a few types of porridge, an egg-spinach dish that I tried making in the US before coming, corn flakes, and a few other dishes. Lunch and dinner included kebab, stuffed tomatoes peppers and eggplants, fried potatoes, chicken grilled with spices and veggies, sometimes rice with white raisins cooked in it, and all sorts of other stuff. I don’t think I had anything that I didn’t like the whole time there.....except for the time I took what I thought was a big slice of cheese and when I put it in my mouth it turned out to be salty butter. There was a kind of cheese that looks like feta only a bit drier and smells like Uncle Jim's barnyard; that took some getting used to but it can be good in small amounts mixed with other things.

It was a good time to get to know all the other PCTs, to meet the PC staff, and to meet the host-country national staff who will be training us in the language,

culture, provided medical and security services, and coordinating the programs we will work on as Volunteers. Good folk, all of them.

HOST FAMILIES - Yaxshi

MY HOST FAMILY - FERIDE RAMIZ & MULEHAT

Finally we got on buses depending on what neighborhood we would stay in. Were given our medical kits(inc Tamiflu incase of Bird Flu), water filter, and AZ-Eng

Eng-AZ dictionaries and set out for the host families whom we will be staying with until the end of Training in December. We are staying in and around Sumgait.

A place that could have been a beautiful resort town on the Caspian but instead the Soviets built refineries and chemical factories here. It was one of the most polluted place on Earth for 20+years, with cancer and child mortality at astronomical rates but Independence brought the collapse of those industries. Its gotten much cleaner since then. Many crumbling factories and pipelines remain but the streets are cleaner than those I saw in India and rural China and

the water is clean enough to drink without filtration. Indeed it tastes better than city water in Philly or anything I ever drank in California.

There are some PCTs and PCVs who drink it without boiling but I’ve had my bout of dysentery after Vietnam and Im not interested in trying that again. In the

suburbs most of the roads are unpaved and lack drainage so. It had been raining that morning so as we were being dropped off we had to deal with mud roads and

puddles like small ponds. Most of the housing around here is brown concrete Soviet built apartment complexes and family compounds surrounded by

walls built from brown concrete, limestone, and rusted scrap metal. The outsides seemed depressing at first but years of Soviet oppression taught people

to let the outside look drab and uninviting while the insides are generally very nice and inviting. MY BED

Our bus driver couldn’t find my place so they called my host family and the host mom, Mulehat, walked over to guide us. She was very shy at first and wouldn’t talk but she came with a boy who spoke a little English it wasn’t until later in the evening that I realized he was a cousin, not part of my host family.

I was shown to the house which is quite nice. The usual brown walls around the blot and plate iron gate but inside it a nice flower garden with some trees and roses, a chicken coop, brick patio area. The house is old but nicer than the farm-house I

DESK IN MY ROOM

rented during university. It has hot water, indoor shower/tub(though the shower head is broke so we take bucket showers) and a western toilet. The toilet is a bit awkward from my American/Japanese perspective. TP cant be flushed. It has to be thrown away in a can next to the toilet. I’ve learned to use allot less paper this way :) And no, it doesn’t smell near as much as you might think.

Mulehat made me chai(brown tea) and once she could start doing the motherly stuff she became much less shy. I was shown my room which is bigger than I ever had

in Japan. I have a bed, a desk, a chair, a fan, the families supply of extra pillows and blankets, and a five gallon glass container full of what I thought was water but have since found out is the family's home-made mulberry vodka. What I wouldn’t give for a long straw! Let me tell you that stuff burns all the way down ;)

Later in the evening Ramiz, my host father, came home. He's a fat, bald, jolly old man with a set of gold teeth. He reminds me of Uncle Willard. When he

arrived we sat down for dinner and Mulehat brought us out food and tea. She's just like great-grandma that way and reminds me of the old days and family dinners at her house. She brings out the food for the men folk, cooking constantly, wont sit down and eat until the men are finished or they demand she sit down and join them. We had baked chicken that had been stewed in some broth then scrambled egg mixed in. The have something very similar in Japan called Oyako. It was damn good. Lots of grease to be sopped up with fresh bread and a cucumber, tomato, basil, onion, pepper salad made out of stuff from their garden. During dinner he broke out a bottle of AZ vodka and we toasted each other with a few shots.

After took me to his garden which was just down the road. Again behind the walls with

CENTER OF MY ROOM - THE AZERI FAMILY CHINA HUTCH

a plate iron gate that’s padlocked shut. The garden is huge with all

the veggies I mentioned and eggplant, squash, apple trees, quince, pomegranate, pears and lots of other stuff. Along with the chickens they also raise geese

that are let loose to wander around the neighborhood during the day.

Ramiz is a private taxi driver/chauffer. His car is a brand new Opal which is far nicer than anything I’ve ever owned. He was very proud to tell me it cost $13,000

USD, more than his house! He spends a few hours every day cleaning and maintaining it. But he never works past 17:00 because he wants to be with his family

and work in his garden.

As the day progressed there had been lots of folk in and out of the house. Some where family, some neighbors. Only the boy spoke any English and before dinner

he disappeared. It wasn’t until late in the evening that the only folk in my host family were Ramiz, Mulehat, and their 12yo daughter Feride. The most important word I learned that first day was "Yaxshi" which means "good".

DAILY LIFE - It happens every day

We work 6 days a week. We meet in groups of 5-6 at a nearby school for 4 hours of language training every morning. A couple hours of to walk home for lunch then the long walk to another school where all of the CED PCTs meet for another 2-4 hours of job training in the afternoon. There is a lady in her 60s in my

language group who has to walk 30mn to school every morning! By the time training is done she should be slim and in the best shape of her life.

Some folk are able to take a marshrutka(public transportation minibus) to one or the other schools or home again. Its a standard fare of .20Manat

TYPICAL MEAL AT HOME - BREAD, SALAD, & MUTTON DUMPLINGS(gyoza) COVERED IN GARLIC-CHEESE-YOGURT SAUCE & CARMELIZED ONIONS

(1Manat=$.80USD so about 25cents) regardless of how far you go. I get home in the evening. Study for a bit. Mulehat makes me chai. Ramiz gets home and

we eat. Then we sit in the family room and watch Turkish dramas while the daughter and I sit on the couch and go over flash cards on my computer. I usually

go to bed at 10, watch a movie or read a book on my computer and sleep at around 24:00. Get up at 7:30 or 8, eat breakfast, and start classes again at 9.

We generally get Sundays off, but not always.

RAMADAN - Called Ramazan in AZ

My family isn’t very religious it seems. Ramiz got in the car and went to visit his parents out in the Rayons(the Regions, the countryside, inaka). I stayed

home with Mulehat and Ferdide. Lots of neighbors and extended family stopped in for visits as is common here. Beauty and the Beast was on tv. Dubbed into

Azerbaijani. It was strange to hear a man talk the song "Be Our Guest"...he was ephusive but he just talked it, no singing. The only special food was

Xalva, a paste made from flour, butter, and ground walnuts. Very good stuff. When Ramiz came home his brother??? came over and we had dinner and a few shots

SOVIET APT'S IN MY TOWN

of vodka. The only religiosity I’ve noticed in this family is that Mulehat doesn’t eat pork. Other than that it just isnt an issue. Other PCTs

families run the gamut of very religious to similarly not. I haven’t heard of anyone being with a Christian or Jewish family. Could be wrong but I don’t

think there are any Buddhists here.

THE CHESS ACADEMY IN SUMGAIT.

SHOPPING - I found Usama ben Laden!

The second day with our host families we gathered with our language teachers (LCF = Language & Cultural Facilitator) and took the marshrutka to the center of

Sumgayit to go shopping for cell phones and power stabilizers. PC gives us a 70AZN(AZN is the symbol for the national currency, the Manat) for the purchase of

a cell phone here. Sadly they couldn’t unlock the phone a brought from Japan to use here. The prepaid phone I brought from the States could be unlocked

but its really a crappy phone. Given the possibility I may be in an area with no/unreliable internet access later in my service and the difficulty of getting

it even here, I decided to spring for the cheapest phone that had a camera and could access the net. So one way or the other I can read my email.

Most of us also got power stabilizers. If one watches the lights here you can see them get brighter or dimmer from time to time. This is more than just the

wee surges you might get back in the States(and much less so in Japan). This is the voltage (possibly amperage or cycles...its been a long time since I studied

this stuff) actually increasing or decreasing. PC staff says the whole thing is a myth and that they haven’t had any trouble with their computers ever getting fried thus PC wont pay for it. Besides, they say, computers and other electronics aren’t NECESSARY for our service.....just highly recommended.

I watch the lights go dimm then extra bright and quietly disagree that the danger is a myth. No, your battery or transformer PROBABLY won’t fry, but its life is being decreased at greater rate. Also this staff lives in the big cities not in the Rayons(Regions) were we will be living. What I know for a fact is that my host family doesnt have lots of disposable income but they have 2 stabilizers. One for the TV and VCR and another on for the frige and electric oven. I figure it was worth the 25AZN to protect my sensitive electronic equipment.

Rant over.

FAMOUS GRAFFITI IN SUMGAYIT

While shopping we stopped at a supermarket. Most food is bought from bazaars and neighborhood minimarkets but in the big city they have a little supermarket

like you might find in the States where everything is wrapped in plastic and atleast gives the comfort of an illusion of modern hygiene. I hung out with some other folk outside the market holding other peoples bags and stabilizers when we noticed a desk sitting on the sidewalk off to the side. Near as I can tell it belonged to a shoe shiner who was off taking a break. On the desk was written "USAMA BEN LADEN" in giant letters. So I guess we know where he ran off to and what he's doing now.

In conclusion; all is well, I'm happy with my host family and town, Azerbaijan is a pretty good place, most everyone Ive met has been friendly and interesting, thus far so illness nor injury, and the Earth still spins in the proper direction. My only complaint is lack of election and economic news.

住所

１月までホストファミリーと一緒に住むつもりだから何か郵便で送ったらこの住所に送ってください。

Chris Polen, PCT
AZ 1000
Main PO Box 77
Peace Corps
Baku, Azerbaijan

何か届いたら税金が入ちゃうから高価そうなものを送らないでね。手紙でも写真でも日本料理でも読みやすい漫画を送ったら、すごい嬉しいよ。

Mailing address

Until December I'll be staying with a host family while job & language training in one of the larger cities(still don't know which). If ya'll ever want to send me something it should be sent to the main offices in Baku at -

Chris Polen, PCT
AZ 1000
Main PO Box 77
Peace Corps
Baku, Azerbaijan

HELPFUL HINTS

1. Customs Taxes - Are sometimes assessed on incoming packages so anything sent should be taken out of its package, marked as used on any forms, and the value marked as low. Any customs taxes that are assesed have to be paid by me at the post office before I can get the package.
2. Theft - Rare but it happens. If you send something that can be dismantled or separated, do so. i.e. Separate a pair of shoes into two different boxes and send them on consecutive days.
3. Missing letters/packages - Try to consecutively number anything you send so we can tell if something doesn't arrive.
4. Ideas - It's been suggested by other Volunteers that nicer items be packed in something that an inspector might choose to not open. A tampon box, for example. Or to label a box as containing educational or religious materials and perhaps writing a passage from the Bible or Koran on the outside of the box.
5. Prices/Restrictions -

• Postcard = $.95
• Priority Mail International Flat-Rate Envelope = $11.96
• Priority Mail International Flat-Rate Box = $38.95
• Priority Mail International Large Flat-Rate Box = $49.95

None of the above is really a big worry. The huge majority of Volunteers never have any problem at all. AZ is reportedly very reliable in comparison to some of the African and South American countries but better safe than I not get my box of Girl Scout Cookies, boxers & Lost Season 4 DVD.

Ya'll will learn my new address just as soon as I do.

最初

これは俺の初めって日本語ブローグだ。　５年間日本の関西に住んでいたのにまだ日本語下手だから練習のために書く。できれば、月一回日本語ブローグを書いてみる。よろしくおねがいします！

８月まで伊勢市のまわりにある学校に英語を教えた。そんの時は楽しかった、いっぱい習って、友達いっぱいなって、美しいな彼女になって、生徒はほとんどいい子し仕事もよかったが５年後、状況の変化が必要になちゃった。

だから、契約が終わってきたら帰国した。９月２２日から４０人ぐらいのボランティアと一緒アメリカの青年海外協力隊（Peace Corps =　平和部隊）に入って、アゼルバイジャンへ働きに行くつもり。 あそこに地域社会経済発展顧問(Community Economic Development Advisor)って言う仕事する。始めって３ヶ月ホストファミリーと住んでいってアゼルバイジャン語や仕事のことを勉強する。　それから、アゼルバイジャンにある違う町へ引っ越して２年間働く。

１９日からペンシルバニア州へ行って他のボランティアと会って準備する。すぐでしょう（汗）荷物はほとんど準備できたけど何か忘れてちょっと心配してる。

早くできるでも次のブローグ書いてみるよ。　それまでよかったら僕の日本語を直してください。


クリス

Staging

Staging is where all the volunteers who will go to AZ this year meet for 2-3 days of training in Philadelphia. We are the 6th group of PC volunteers to go there, hence we are known as AZ6. I think there will be between 30-60 volunteers in this group. 45 I think is close but I could be completely wrong.

Staging Schedule:
20 09 2008
13:00 Registration
15-19:00 Welcome/Training
Welcome & Intro
PC Approach to Development
Personal Definitions of Success
Safety & Support
Anxieties & Aspirations
Nuts & Bolts

21 09 2008
8:30 - 12
Coping w/ Unwanted Attention
Managing Risk
Policies in Practice
LUNCH
13:30-18
Change 5 Things
Crossing Cultures
Staging Capstone
Bridge to PreService Training
Logistics of Departure
Evaluation & Closing

22 09 2008
12:00 Bus from Philly to JFK airport
21:35 Flight to Frankfurt

The flight is supposed to be about 8hrs. A couple hour layover before a 4.5hr flight to Baku.

What happens after that I dunno but in years past they all got on buses and went to spend a couple days in the Olympic Training Stadium.


As the only flight that could get me from MSP to Philly in time took off at 6:00 and Friday flights are expensive I get to fly into Philly a day early and stay in the Sheraton(where staging is) for free. Never been to Philly. It'll be nice to see the Liberty Bell, eat a cheese-steak sandwich, and do/see whatever is good in Philly. Any suggestions?

Azerbaijan

Look here to read the Wikipedia page.

Here is the flag:

Here is a map: (click here for a great copyrighted map)



















As you can see, Azerbaijan is just north of Iran, just south of Russia, the Caspian Sea on the east is where all the Beluga Caviar comes from and also borders Georgia where we have seen the recent war with Russia over two provinces. It should be noted here that Azerbaijan is a stable country that hasnt experienced any armed conflict since the early '90s when, soon after the dissolution of the USSR, Azerbaijan(AZ) and Armenia experienced a conflict over the south-western regions. See the Wikipedia pages for more info.




Quick Facts:
Official Name Republic of Azerbaijan

Population 8,239,000

Capital City Baku (1,24 million)


Languages Azeri, Russian, others


Official Currency Manat

Religions Muslim 93%, Athiest/Agnostic, Christian, Jew, Zoroastrian, others

Land Area 89,600 sq km (33,436 sq miles)
Note: this includes the Naxcivan Republic, southwest of Armenia.

- Random Fun Facts -

- AZ is about the same size as Maine.
- Has 9 of the world's 11 climactic zones.
- More ethnic/lingustic Azeris live in Iran than in Azerbaijan.
- Prior to the 1900's produced more than half the worlds oil and still produces allot.
- Due to Soviet neglect and exploitation the penninsula upon which the capital, Baku, can be found is considered by many to be 'the most polluted place on earth'.
- Temperatures can range from 40C to -40C depending on the season.