Arriving in Azerbaijan

SALAM from the ‘baijan friends! While I've been in Azerbaijan for about two and half weeks now, access to the internet has been random and intermittent. So, I'll start by posting a brief picture recap from the beginning. After less than 24 hours of staging in Philadelphia and a rather disorienting 20 hour trip from New York to Baku, my group off 44 PCTs (Peace Corps trainees) arrived in Azerbaijan! The trip went smoothly, and I really enjoyed meeting everyone from my group in person. 

Getting off the plane at the Baku airport.

Our Az8 welcoming committee!

Gathering all of us+our stuff in the airport.

We had 4 days of orientation at a hotel in Mardakan, a beach town on the northeastern part of Azerbaijan’s beak. The hotel environment was an interesting mix of European, Russian and Middle Eastern influences. Because it's the off-season for beach-goers, the hotel was just open for our group. Minus the horse tied to the fence in the sand, it was almost eerie how deserted the beach was. But also enticing. Throughout orientation, we had a chance to start to get to know each other, begin language training, talk with a few current PCVs from the Az8 group about their experiences, and attend the routine health and security meetings. I also got two good morning beach runs in with a few other people from my group! Certainly a highlight. At the end of orientation, we were divided by sector (TEFL=teaching English as a foreign language, CED=community and economic development, or YD=youth development) and sent to our training sites. As a TEFL, I ended up being assigned to Masazir with 10 other TEFL trainees. The other TEFLs were placed in Xirdalan (our hub town for training), the CEDs in Ceyranbatan, and the YDs in Saray. 

Our hotel, "The Bavarius"

The road running along the beach

The Caspian Sea, looking left towards Sumqayit.

The Capsian Sea, looking right towards the tip of the peninsula (aka: the beak)

Said horse.

Hauntingly beautiful?

I thought about keeping some sand in a plastic bag or something, but then I thought.. too soon. And I know I'll need that plastic bag.

PC friends preparing to depart orientation for our respective PST sites! Kelsey (CED) in Ceyranbatan, Fiona (fellow TEFL) in Xirdalan and Carissa (CED) in Ceyranbatan.

The dot is in fact not missing over the i. Prounounced like (uno)mas-uh-zur. 

I arrived in Masazir and quickly settled in with my host family. Right from the beginning, they were so kind and welcoming to having me be part of the family for the next 11 weeks. I call my host-mom, ana, and my host-dad, ata, which are the Azeri words for mom and dad. 'Annie' is kind of hard for them to pronounce, so the whole family often calls me baci (pronounced like bahjih if you say it fast) which is the Azeri word for sister. My host-brother, Zorab, is 24 and my host-sister, Nunu, is 22. It's quite convenient that Nunu has studied at the Slavic Language University in Baku and knows some basic English. She has been so helpful in aiding family conversation. Although still often verbless and always much more general than specific, our communication would be extremely limited without her. She's also interested in learning more English, so I think we have a good exchange. My host-mom is an Azerbaijani language and literature teacher at a nearby school. She is also a very good cook, and most of the food we eat comes from our garden. Nunu went out of her way to articulate that the garden is uzvi (organic). I am not surprised because all in all, my household seems to be almost entirely self-sufficient. We buy things like bread, beef and chicken, and we sell eggs, a variety of produce and fresh spices. We produce very little trash and Nunu and ana have shown me creative ways to recycle common items. Also, as as side note, I feel like I need to add that I will never again take for granted drinking from the faucet, hot water in general, and functional toilets.

Because of our busy training schedule, I haven't had much time to explore Masazir and the surrounding area yet. The best sight seeing I've done is during the early morning runs as the sun is rising. There's one main road that runs through town, and the neighborhoods seem to have developed around bodies of water. Most houses seem to have been built by the residents themselves--additional space or rooms are added when needed. My host-dad works in some kind of wood construction, kind of like an architect I think. He built the doors, floors and ceilings in our house. One interesting part of the streetscapes in Masazir and all of Azerbaijan that I've seen so far are the gates/ iron fences surrounding each house. Some are cold and Soviet looking while others seem to reflect religious and/or cultural attitude of the home they surround.  Recently, I've learned that as a whole, Masazir is composed of families that have moved from other parts of Azerbaijan to settle closer to the capital. Many people commute to work and/or send their kids to school in Baku. Thus, Masazir, is an interesting little mecca of many cultural influences..sounds strangely similar to Azerbaijan as a whole.

On the main road looking towards the source of our table salt in Masazir, the purple salt lake.

Just a little further down the hill, a gas station on the edge of town.

The edge of town

Initially, my friend Andrew and I thought someone tied their horse up outside of this building. After watching several men try to shoo him away from the door, we realized he was just trying to enjoy the shade 

The school where I do technical TEFL and language training

Cows being herded down my street

My house

My cozy room!

My favorite part of my cozy room, my window

View to the left

View to the right (overlooks our garden)

Our kitchen

It's pomegranate season!

'Nar' = the Azeri word for pomegranate

Our hens in their coop

Looking up towards the garden/house from the lake

Our gate and outside area

As slowly as it takes to adjust to a culture so different from my own, I am really enjoying all that I've seen and been apart of in Azerbaijan so far. I'm constantly reminded of 'Ancora Imparo' as the bracelet has yet to leave my wrist since arrival, Emmers! It is so indicative of my experience because I am constantly learning new things. The process is addicting.