Thanksgiving

Last year I worked on Thanksgiving Day. This year I decided to take the day off and prepare a meal for my host family. The day was wonderful. My host sister and mother work at the same school. Nunu, my sister, is a first year teacher of Azerbaijan language and literature. Yesterday, she taught an open lesson that was observed by the other teachers and a curriculum specialist from the local school district. Of course, her class was marvelous. Normally, Nunu teaches in the morning and my mother teaches in the afternoon, but because of this open lesson they were both gone most of the day.

So, I had the house pretty much to myself all day. I slept in a little later than usual, then got up, prepared my coffee and began my cooking. I had decided to make sweet rolls with grated orange filling, apple crisp and a roasted turkey. I started with the cinnamon rolls and then moved on to the apple crisp. In between, I was able to take a shower and get a load of laundry done. The shower was a little odd, because the hot water heater kept turning on and off due to the water pressure changing. (In order for the gas to fire on the instant hot water heater, the water pressure has to be strong enough) I just used cold water for the laundry so no problem there.

Around three o'clock, someone started banging on the door. My room is in the back of the house so I tried to ignore it. I wasn't sure if the knocking was at the gate or the door, but who ever was out there wasn't looking for me. Finally, I got up and went to the door. It was one of the students Nunu tutors at home. I managed to tell him that she wasn't home and sent him on his way. At 3:30 to more students showed up. I sent them off and then got a call to have them come in and wait. Pretty much the only disruption to my day. My Azeri is not terribly good and I really didn't know where Nunu was, so it was a little comical. However, I am usually able to get my point across and understand based on circumstances.

Nunu and my mother showed up pretty much as the rolls were coming out of the oven. They were a little too soft for my mother, so I put them back in for a bit. I asked when I should have dinner ready and was told 7:30. I was also scolded because I bought onions and potatoes for dinner and of course, there are large bags of each in the cellar. I was told that "they took offense" A minor rebuke. Dinner was done at 7:30 but Nunu was still tutoring so we waited until she was done. In the end, dinner was a success. Can't really go wrong with chicken and potatoes, but you never know.

In spirit of the holiday, we said what we were thankful for. A lovely day.

30 days

As of today, I have 30 days left in Azerbaijan. This little adventure has been interesting, challenging, fun, awkward, long, short, enlightening, infuriating and I'm glad I went on it. Even though I am leaving early, due to the closing of the program, I feel that I have gotten a lot out of the experience. I am also ready to start the next stage of my life, though I have to admit I'm not sure what I am doing next.

Last week I completed my SPA grant. This is a small grant program available to Peace Corps volunteers to fund projects in the organizations and communities. My organization, a health care clinic and I created a Vision Healthcare Activity book. My office mate lead the project that resulted in 1,000 activity books being printed. We are now distributing them to patients of our clinic and mobile eye clinic. My co-workers didn't quite get what we were trying to accomplish, but now that the book is printed we are getting rave reviews. One of my co-workers gave the book to her nine year old grandson and they spent an entire evening working on the activities.

Last weekend, I visited one of my Peace Corps friend's at her site for the last time. She has the second best host family in Azerbaijan. My host family of course is the best. I have stayed at their house several times and every time have felt welcomed.

Next week, the remaining Peace Corps volunteers will gather for a Thanksgiving celebration. When I arrived there were over 100 volunteers in country. Now there are 26. After December there will be four.

On Thanksgiving day my plan is to prepare dinner for my family. I plan on preparing a roasted chicken instead of a turkey. I find it to daunting to prepare a turkey in the little red over. I am debating whether to make an apple pie or apple crisp. Nathan loves my apple crisp and I may make that in honor of him.

Soon I hope to see many of you. Inshallah

Home for the Holidays

It has been awhile since I have posted.

In June, the Ministry of Industry and Commerce decided to cancel the agreement with Peace Corps for the CED (Community and Economic Development) of which I was a volunteer. After almost four months, this was clarified to mean that we needed to leave the country by the end of the year. So, I will be ending my service six months early and will be heading to Michigan to spend the holidays with my mother, my sister and her family. Then I plan to head to Seattle.

In the meantime, I have made a couple of changes to ease/begin my transition back to the States.

First, I cut my hair. Just about a year ago, I had about three inches cut off my hair. At the time I thought that that would be my only haircut. At the end of September, I visited a friend and her family in Belgrade. I went to her stylist and got a shorter doo. The direction was to go for a more modern hair style, which I believe was accomplished.

Before

After - same lovely pajama top 

Second, I have moved back in with my host family. Story is a little to long to tell, but I asked if I could come back for the last month and a half and I was welcomed with opened arms. So, yesterday I walked my stuff back across the street and down three houses. There are many benefits, not the least spending more time with my family. An added bonus is that I now have reliable internet that is on 24/7.



However, my beautiful view of the lake is shrinking. The government has decided to fill the lake in and so it is shrinking on a daily basis. The current plan is that it will become a park with a culture center. I will not be here long enough to see. The ducks don't like the change.


Last year

Today