2012 marks the first full calendar year I will spend abroad.
Looking back on 2011 seems to distort my perception of time. Was it really only
3 months of that year that I spent in Azerbaijan? Was writing my senior thesis,
graduating from college, and driving the 4,000+ mile road trip with my mom all
that was packed into the other 9 months? And did that Hawaii trip really happen
all the way back in 2010? These events seem to be compartmentalized into
bubbles, all floating in a space continuum, connected by a steady stream of
places, relationships, schedules, expectations and commitments. Arriving in
Azerbaijan flipped all of this on its head. Suddenly, normal lost its meaning. The 3 months I’ve spent in
Azerbaijan seem much, much longer because I’ve been re-establishing that
everyday “normal” in a time when the familiar one seems so far away. Thus, I
think next year, looking back on 2012, after having spent an entire calendar
year in Azerbaijan, will be an interesting indication of perspective.
I brought in this new year with a group of my fellow PCVs,
who all came together from our respective regions to gather in Baku. New Years
(yeni il) is a big holiday in Azerbaijan, and Baku hosts the country’s biggest
celebration. [I won’t get into it, but I suggest a wiki or google search of
Şaxta Baba, and you may gain a better understanding of yeni il in Azerbaijan.
It’s basically Az’s big winter holiday with borrowed Russian cultural
traditions]. After three days in the capital and a visit to my first host
family in Masazir, a group of TEFLs, who all got to enjoy winter break—5 days
off from school, went up to Quba, a sleepy yet picturesque mountain town in the
first finger of Azerbaijan, to visit our CED friend Corina. There, we got a
tour of the carpet factory where she works and saw authentic Azerbaijani carpet
weaving in action. We also walked around town and self-toured a Jewish
settlement called the Red Town (Qirmizi Qeseba), created by exiled Jews after WWII. Today, the
Red Town is part of Quba but separated from the rest of the town by the river.
The following day, we took a day trip up to Qusar, a town even higher in the
mountains to visit another CED PCV who has lived there for 3 years. Sidenote:
Qusar is 95% populated by the Lezgis, a minority group in Azerbaijan. They
speak Lezgi, a language 100% different from Azeri. Lucky for the PCV who lives
there, they understand Azerbaijani but communicate primarily in Lezgi. It was
awesome to see not only this diversity in Azerbaijan, but also how well the PCV
there had integrated and been successful in his work.
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| My yeni il gift from my counterpart! |
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| Park Bulvar, Baku |
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| Maiden Tower in Içeri Şəhər, Baku |
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| Quba |
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| A park in Quba |
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| A mosque in Quba |
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| Corina's office at the carpet factory. |
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| A carpet in the works. |
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| The carpet factory's backyard, naturally. |
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| Quba with foggy mountains. |
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| Shout-out! |
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| The chess school in Quba. |
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| Bridge to the Red Town. |
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| Red Town. |
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| The Greater Caucasus. |
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| On the bus, leaving Quba. |
Now, I’m back at site and real work begins on Monday. I’m
working with three English teachers at my school, and I’ll be teaching 1st,
3rd, 4th, 6th, 7th, 9th, and 10th grade classes. That sounds like
crazy talk, I know, but the purpose is to try to equip the teachers with new,
interactive teaching methods. My interactions with the students is really
secondary to the relationship I’ll have working with the teachers. After
school, since I am the village’s token native-English speaker, I’ll hold
conversation clubs with both teachers and students to give the interested
people more practice and help with the basics. These are pretty fun because
they attract people who really want to be there and are willing to put in a
little extra effort to learn. Unlike teaching in the classroom, I have total
autonomy over the topics and grammar points, so I can target both what I know
needs work and what people seem interested in. I’m hoping that in these months
ahead, a few more doors regarding sports and recreation especially for girls
open up in my village.
I have good feelings about 2012. It will certainly not be
the most comfortable, familiar or predictable year I’ll see in my lifetime.
However, I anticipate a great amount of learning and (inshallah!) growth in all
facets of my life. I wish the same to you!
