Arrived Azerbaijan

After a day of orientation in Washington DC, I arrived in Baku on Saturday, April 6.  Our group of 27 stayed in Baku for two and a half days for further orientation.  In addition to training, we got to see a local dance group perform and teach us how to dance.  I also got my first set of shots.  Many more to go.

On Tuesday we traveled to our training community for10-11weeks of language, cultural and job training. Our group of 27 are split into three groups; CED (community development), YD (youth development) and TEFL (English teachers).  I'm a CED and there are a total of seven in my group.  All but one of us are over 40. Our backgrounds are business, agriculture and education.

I live with a family of four. The father is a businessman, the mother a teacher and excellent cook, a brother (15) who is studying for university exams and a daughter who is in university.  My family also has a cat.

My week consists of five days of professional, language and culture classes.  Four hours in the morning and four hours in the afternoon.  We also have one day of HUB classes where all AZ11's (what our group of 27 is called) attend and get trained.  Currently all the CED's are going to class together.  After ten days, we will be broken into two groups for our language classes, based on our learning styles and how fast we learn. 

Everyone I've met so far has been marvelous.  As a widow, I'm afforded a lot of respect.

More to follow -Salam Patti