A Few More Photos From Chrismatukkah

Most of the pictures taken during Chrismatukkah were from the low-res photo booth, but the camera did get busted out towards the end to snap some candids.  Here are some group shots from the party.  Check out more pics from Chrismatukkah, and the first round of English Party edits, in the 'Around Khachmaz' Flickr Album, HERE.

Group Picture

Reindeer Antlers!

Waiting to go on stage at the English Party

Check out the World Premier of the Story of Hanukkah...in Azeri HERE

Hip-Hop From the Land of Fire: AiD ft. Jamal Ali - Biz İnsan Deyilik

Its a few days after Christmas, a time in most volunteers' lives where we wish a little harder to be home.  School goes on break soon, but its not tomorrow.  And today, I just completed my third party in as many weeks (this time-a children's concert, pics soon).  I'm tired, but mainly I'm lazy, and everything just read is rationalization on why I have a right to be lazy and not go grocery shopping, do laundry, change sheets, or whatever else I should be doing.  Luckily its Tuesday so I can take false (okay, maybe not totally false) satisfaction in a new Hip-Hop From the Land of Fire post.

We've heard from H.O.S.T. Alliance rapper AiD before, but that was a demo; this is a fully produced track off his album Biz İnsan Deyilik.  Like last week, this melody line is pretty simple, but whereas last week's was restrained and reflective, this one is upbeat and confident.  Its got a nice sing-along sway to it, until AiD breaks out in the 2nd verse, showing off some serious speed.

AiD ft. Jamal Ali - Biz İnsan Deyilik (which means: 'we're not human)

 AiD - Biz İnsan Deyilik ft. Jamal Ali by joshehr

Previous Hip-Hop From the Land of Fire: Okaber - Pianocu

Merry Christmas!

Over the past week I've been receiving numerous Christmas emails wishing me and others success and warm fuzzies this holiday season and in the upcoming year.  Wonderful sentiments and warmly reciprocated but I've found that these don't really provide me with any sort of template to send to all of my friends and family whom I've been communicating with on a weekly basis.

This is my last Christmas in Azerbaijan, but in some ways it feels like my first.  Last year, Christmas was more a frat party than holiday, a house party filled with new volunteers drunk on the freedom granted by a house with no Azerbaijani influence; waking up to piece together unremembered conversations and broken household items.  I remember in Sheki asking a couple people if they wanted to skip the mass group going to lunch so we could clean the kitchen-its not often I pass up fast food chicken for kitchen cleaning, but that night messed with priorities.

This Christmas, in contrast, was a true family Christmas.  12 other people joined Glendene and I in Khachmaz for relaxed holiday.  We threw a classy soiree and found ourselves going a little adjective crazy with the menu:

Hors D'oeuvres:
Potato Pancakes with homemade applesauce and creme fraiche
Mulled Wine

Main Course:
Rosemary Roasted Chicken in Root Vegetables
Oven Baked Pumpkin Macaroni and Cheese
Winter Carrot Beet Salad with Honey Mustard Vinaigrette

Desert:
Pumpkin Pie
Savory Apple Pie

And we spread a table that truly looked like a traditional Christmas feast, from the lit candles to the origami stocking place cards.  We were joined by our fellow North Finger Volunteers with a few others traveling from different regions to join us.  Rather than having the biggest party this year, we ended up having a Christmas surrounded by those friends that have become our family thus far into service.

As I grow up and my life unfolds, I become more and more grateful for the occurrence of these type of holidays.  I always want to be with my family in Colleyville on our major holidays, but part of adulthood means making decisions that prevent this hope from materializing.  Whether through work, marriage, or international travel our lives take paths that don't exactly mirror our family's.  I've been lucky enough to find out that this doesn't mean the holiday simply doesn't happen, it just happens with a different, more expanded definition of family.

I know these Christmas wishes are coming a little late, but New Year's is right around the corner (...*ahem* and my birthday).  I hope that you found yourselves amongst those you love this past week, whether or not they happened to be your family.

A Hanukkah Play...in Azeri

Well, I guess the title really says all you need to know.  One of my site mates is Jewish and she pointed out that, of the two holidays represented at our holiday party, Azeris are mostly familiar with only one of them-Christmas.  So, she proposed that we perform a play about the second one, Hanukkah.

Now, I know what you're thinking.  'Josh, I'm sure there are hundreds of Hanukkah plays in Azeri, how on earth did you narrow it down to one?'.  Well it may surprise you to learn that this is actually not true, and we ended up writing, what we believe is the first Hanukkah Play in Azerbaijani.  Most of the credit really should go to Sabina (the narrator) who did the translating.  The rest of us really just thought of visual gags to make the play entertaining.

Though there are jokes in the play, its important to note that almost all the laughter is due to our atrocious pronunciation.  Which admittedly, was the biggest joke to begin with.  Check out the 5 minute video below.


A Story of Hanukkah...in Azeri from josh on Vimeo.

Hip-Hop From The Land of Fire: Okaber - Pianocu

Its the second longest night of the year.  Though the weather has been unseasonably nice lately, the general feeling of exhaustion of holiday stress is as strong as ever this winter.  Throwing a massive party in Azerbaijan usually means a full week following of various commitments to cay and dinners.  Its generous and kind, but you can't help thinking in the back of your worn mind that there are a few other things happening during this end of December.

Right now, I really like the simplicity in 'Pianocu' melody line, just a simple repeating 5 note refrain under a voice that sounds like he is ready to for a similar escape from stress and commitment.  Whatever the lyrics may be, it sounds like Okaber was just looking for a moment alone this year, and I can completely relate.

Okaber - Pianocu (which means: Pianist)

 Okaber - Pianocu by joshehr

Previous Hip-Hop From the Land of Fire: A-Team - Arzularimi Qirma

What Exactly Is A 'Chrismatukkah' Party?

5 months ago the Khacmaz PCVs threw a 4th of July party as a gift to our community of friends, work relations, family members, and counterparts.  It was pretty freakin' big and adding together the community the three of us had amassed and the 20 or so Americans there we were able to show Azerbaijan a classic 4th of July barbecue.  It was a huge success and we enjoyed a tinge of pride when we would hear staff members or other PCVs talk about how awesome they heard our event was.

Yesterday, we upped our game and threw an even larger Chrismatukkah (Christmas + Hanukkah) party for our community of friends, work relations, family members, and counterparts.  Only now, we have been in country for 5 more months, which meant this community was 5 months largers.  And by that, I mean we had a guest list of over 90 people that we 'had' to invite.  Staring down this list a few weeks ago it was easy to feel intimidated about what we were planning.  It seemed that every idea we threw out would create three more ideas to also include.  It was easy to see that this party was not only going to be big, it was also going to be a lot of work.

What type of work? Well, for starters we can probably boast of having performed the only play describing the origin of Hanukkah in Azerbaijani.  Thats right, we wrote and acted out the Hanukkah story in Azerbaijani.  And, whether it was the visual gags or our atrocious pronunciation, the audience loved it.  Or making holiday props such as Santa's beard, Rudolph's antlers, or a holiday wreath for the photo booth we set up.  Count at end of party topped 200 photos which had been taken using this photo booth.  We made dreidels and wrote out rules for people to win some candy and set up a crafts table for people to make holiday cards and ornaments.  We sang carols and taught Jewish folk dances.  Moreso than the 4th of July party, this party was about activities.

Which doesn't mean to say we didn't have any food.  Throughout the week Glendene got down and dirty making 300 potato latkes.  And Lannea and I baked, frosted, and decorated about 300 Christmas cookies.  Americans brought homemade applesauce, potato gratin, macaroni and cheese, cakes and brownies, eggnog and cider.  It wasn't necessarily the healthiest holiday fare, but eating healthy isn't what the holidays are about.

The party was a massive amount of preparation but it was incredibly worth it.  Over 60 people, including our program and training managers from Baku, came to help us celebrate the holidays.  They learned Christmas carols and the story of Hanukkah and ate a lot of cookies.  We even had two former PCVs from Sengeal who just finished their service and are now traveling through Central Asia join us.  These parties that Glendene, Lannea, and I throw are a massive amount of work and guarantee a stressful week preceding but they have paid off to a huge degree and are amongst the best gifts we have ever given anyone in our community.

'Are You Gonna Finish That?'

A couple posts ago I write about the difference between the last year, which often felt like it was trudging, and this upcoming year which seems as if it will fly by.  One of the reasons I talked about was that it already seemed as if my last year was already scheduled.  A lot of you have asked 'Well, what is on your plate this upcoming year?' which is a pretty good question.  Obviously we can expect some changes and not all projects are included, but here is an outline.

December:

Chrismautakah Party

Christmas Sleepover

Birthday/New Years in Baku

January:

Mid Service Conference

February:

'Interactive Training Methods (ITM) in the Regions Project' begins, first training session

March:

Second ITM Regions training session

Europe with Mom and Dad

Softball season begins

April:

Third ITM Regions training session

May:

Softball tournament

June:

Istanbul and SW Turkey...on a yacht...with 15 other amazing people

July:

4th of July Celebration Madness

Khachmaz Summer Camp

August:

Other Summer Camps

Close of Service Conference

Fourth ITM Regions training session

Tbilisi

September:

Fifth ITM Regions training session

Softball tournament

AZ10 PST begins

October:

ITM Regions Training of Trainers session

Softball tournament

Final Softball exhibition game

November/December

Leave Azerbaijan...?

Hip-Hop From the Land of Fire: A-Team - Arzularimi Qirma

A-Team's newest track just dropped last week.  The beats are simple and melody swept along by a flute and softly plucked guitar.  The result is soothing and familiar, something you've heard before but can't quite place where (actually, I do believe I've heard it before, and can't quite place where-help me out in the comments).  Its a refreshing break from the more aggressive rap cuts frequently produced here.  This is one of my favorite recent tracks.

There's also some pretty cool stuff going on with the track name.  'Arzularımı' technically translates as 'regards' conjuring up ideas of a Dear John letter.  But contained within this word is also 'I want' with 'arzularım' and 'wishes' with 'arzular'.  There's nostalgia and wistfulness at play here.  The word 'Qırma,' means 'a small shot' or 'bird shot,' but its also the command form of 'to break, to fracture' or more extreme 'to exterminate, to do great harm'.  The choice of these words indicates great pain and loss.  Depending on where we translate place the verb, we could translate this as 'Shotgun goodbyes,' 'Break down my wishes,' or 'Kill my desires'.

Props to rap100 on the find.

A-Track - Arzularımı Qırma

 A-Team - Arzularimi Qirma by joshehr 

Previous Hip-Hop From the Land of Fire: Albay Ǝfǝndi - Sǝs Sal

Less Than A Year To Go, The Halfway Point

It finally happened. A significant milestone occurred in my Peace Corps service on December 8th.  On that day the AZ9s swore in as volunteers and thus began my 'last' phase in the Peace Corps.  Thus, today is my last December 11th and Friday was the last time I would have to teach the 7th form traveling lesson.  I'm in the middle of my last December, and soon the North Finger Crew will be holding our last Christmautakah Holiday Celebration.  If Peace Corps service has been a seemingly endless hill rising in front of me, I have just crested and am now on the downward slope.

Swearing In ceremony is a dramatic halfway marker for current volunteers, I mean there is literally a ceremony.  Even if you aren't consciously looking back and seeing what you've accomplished, you can't help but put yourself in the shoes of the newly sworn in volunteer.  Only one brief (or endless, depending when you ask) year ago, we were in the exact same place.  I remember all too well not feeling comfortable with the language, the soul-sucking prospect of living with a host family for another 4 months, and the anxiety, exhaustion and fear felt while in the taxi ride up to site.  I empathize with each of these new volunteers.  They're doing something incredible and site will eventually be amazing, but I'm thrilled to be beyond it.

Compared to now, being a new volunteer sucks.  You're constantly in fight or flight mode and your brain is actively analyzing every little thing it encounters.  I remember trying to figure out how long I should let it slide that the shop keeper just took my 10 manat and walked out the store.  Now I understand that he first told me 'I need to get change'.  I'm happy to be in Peace Corps, but I am even happier to have finished that first year.

This midway point is a unique perspective in time.  All of us have accomplished a lot since arriving in Azerbaijan, both for our organizations and ourselves.  And that was just a single year.  Now, we still have one year left but we have the connections.  We have the language ability and we have the momentum.  If this first year was devoted towards clearing our the obstacles to create paths, this next year will be all about using those paths as much as possible.  Talking to the right people first and being so much more effective in our time and our energy.

Looking forward to this point last year seemed like it was going to take forever, like looking down a deep deep well into complete darkness.  Looking forward to our COS, a year from now, has the opposite experience, it seems like it will rush by and is already completely scheduled.  Recently a volunteer and I were drafting a potential schedule for a grant we were working on and we found that if we kept a strict, but reasonable, schedule we would wrap up the project in October. Thats only a month before people will start COSing!  And it feels like that for most things I'm doing.

Last year was a filled with accomplishments that allowed me to say 'I can do this'.  This year I'll be working on those accomplishments in which I'll say 'I did this'.  Last year built confidence, this year will build resumes.  Last year was about 'service,' this year will be about 'my service'.  And I'm pretty excited for it.

2011 Music Year in Review

2011 has been a very different year, musically speaking, for me.  2010 was filled with guaranteed successes for me.  Kanye's epic album, LCD's final and arguably best LP, and Robyn's frantic schedule of amazing dance hits were all surefire hits.  2010 was a booty shaking year and, no matter when the album was released, it seemed made for summer.

This year, my favorite albums were quieter and more subdued.  If 2010 was the party, then 2011 has been the after party.  The crowd, the strobes, and the dancing had passed and what we were left with was the hangover, the regret, and the threat of overdose.  If asked to name one album to represent 2011, it would be The Weeknd's 'House of Balloons'.  It perfectly represents the expanded 'R&B' sound that kept showing up in my iTunes this year, something that was a bit more experimental and a bit more dangerous than normal.

Below, you'll find my unranked 2011 Year End Roundup Mix.  I forced myself to get in under the 80 minute mark for CD burning purposes (sorry Radiohead).  I think its a pretty good compendium of some of the best sounds of 2011 and I'm enjoying listening to it myself.

Download it HERE (or at soundcloud)

 2K11 in Review by joshehr


1. Beyonce - Countdown
2. Patrick Stump - Spotlight (New Regrets)
3. Holy Ghost! - Wait and See
4. The Rapture - Sail Away
5. Cut Copy - Need You Now
6. Drake - Take Care ft. Rhianna
7. Adele - Someone Like You
8. tUnE-yArDs - Powa
9. The Lonely Island - I Just Had Sex ft. Akon
10. John Denver (Pretty Lights Remix) - Country Roads
11. Bon Iver - Beth / Rest
12. James Blake - Wilhelms Scream
13. HEALTH - Goth Star (Pictureplane Cover)
14. Jay-Z and Kanye West - Why I Love You ft. Mr. Hudson
15. A$AP Rocky - Palace
16. Terius Nash - Wedding Crasher
17. Fleet Foxes - Helplessness Blues
18. The Weeknd - Wicked Games
19. Big K.R.I.T. - Rise and Shine

Favorite Albums of the 2011 (in no particular order):

The Weeknd - House of Balloons
Drake - Take Care
James Blake - James Blake
Beyonce - 4
Adele - 21


Additionally, I finally got around to downloading Nicki Minaj's 'Pink Friday' (released in 2010) and its definitely a fave of the year.

P.S. to make room for this track on soundcloud, I had to remove the 2K11 Summer Mix. But you can still download it HERE

P.P.S. Check out my 2010 in Review HERE

One Year Left

Today the AZ9s were sworn in, which also means that I officially have only 1 year left.  Last December 8th in Azerbaijan!

What Does Azerbaijani Sound Like?

Somehow in the past year I've learned the Azerbaijani language.  I'm certainly not grammatically perfect, but I can basically express almost every thought I might have and can understand people about 80% of the time.  Honestly, I have no clue how this happened, but it gives me hope for my upcoming goal of learning Turkish.

Many people have asked me what spoken Azerbaijani sounds like.  I post a lot of rap tracks on this blog but as of yet there hasn't really been a post that highlights what Azerbaijani spoken language is like. So, below is a track of myself and a few friends (1 American, 2 Azeris) having a conversation in Azerbaijani. To give you an anchor point, its about music.

 Snippet of an Azerbaijani Conversation by joshehr

Hip-Hop from the Land of Fire: Albay Ǝfǝndi - Sǝs Sal

RAPressia Clan member Albay Ǝfǝndi just posted his first solo track.  It definitely is a 'throw your hands up' track and a solid listen.  Check it out below.  via AzRap.Az

Albay Ǝfǝndi - Sǝs Sal (means: Make Noise)

 Albay Ǝfǝndi - Sǝs Sal by joshehr

Previous Hip-Hop From the Land of Fire: Elshad Xose - Genclik

Really, I Should Just Be Looking Forward to June

Yesterday something shocking happened.  Returning from Ganja yesterday, after 8 hours of traveling, I actually had a moment where I looked forward to February.  Because in February I could foresee life being a little calmer.

This is obviously a myth.  February is just far enough out that I can't actually see what will specifically be going on, but I can guarantee by the time it gets here there will be numerous things on my plate to keep me busy and bounce me around Khachmaz city, region, and the country.  If Peace Corps is preparing me for anything (and it damn well better be) its probably a job that requires travel.  Almost every other week I'm packing my bag and boarding a bus for some training or meeting or event.

This is fun in the sense that I get to see a lot of the country and visit with people I may not have otherwise, but it can be draining, especially over the long term.  You don't eat as well when traveling; routines you carefully protect at home are immediately disrupted; and frequently when crashing at a friends place there are others crashing there as well, such as the four other guys who happened to be in Ganja when I was.

The nice thing with Volunteers is that we're really low maintenance and we're really easy to share our house's with.  Much of our jobs boil down to simply being inclusive and we all know fun group games to play while being completely understanding and accepting of those times each of us might need a little escapism.  Easily we can prepare meals that have multiple courses and take hours or be happy eating just bread and cheese, using napkins instead of plates.  Bed, couch, or floor, we can sleep wherever, we hardly expect western luxuries such as showers and flush toilets (though thrilled and enthusiastic when we're offered), and we're very used to weird house-specific rules to ensure things like gas, electricity, or water keep running.

So prepare yourself, in a year, for when I start making my rounds to all of you back in America.  You may find yourself playing host to one seriously easily pleased Returned Peace Corps Volunteer who may forget that we are now in a country where toilet paper is flushed down the toilet.

Photos from My Trip to Tbilisi

I've been going through the pictures from Tbilisi and haves selected and edited an album.  Below are some previews, but check out my Flickr to see more.

Cat lady in the streets.  I gave her a lari and asked if i could take her picture

Night shot of Tbilisi

Tbilisi badass crew-Jane, Sanyo, and some stud muffin

Incidentally, if anyone would like to know more about the shadowy personalities I spent my time in Tbilisi with check out Sanyo's (great) cooking blog here and Jane's PC blog here

Hip-Hop From the Land of Fire: Elshad Xose - Genclik

You would be right if you compared Elshad Xose's upbeat feel-good track Genclik to Will Smith.  The beat and hook sound just like a track that we would hear from the Fresh Prince himself.  This is definitely a party track made for summer, even supplying a mockable English bridge ('c'mon join us cause you're young')  Check it out below.

Elshad Xose - Genclik (which means 'Youth')

 Elshad Xose - Genclik by joshehr

Previous Hip-Hop From the Land of Fire: Klan-A-Plan - AzRap.Az (OST)

Happy Thanksgiving

I didn't really celebrate Thanksgiving this year.  When living in a foreign country there is a continual push and pull upon what you choose to keep and what you take a year off from.  If you decide to celebrate, the work is on you.  You aren't able to join up with someone else's holiday because that someone else doesn't have the same holiday.  During training last year we organized a big thanksgiving where we took over a family's kitchen, made a ton of food, and watching Aladdin.  This year I decided that Thanksgiving wasn't really a holiday I wanted to recreate and took a break from the holiday that begins a month long marathon of American stress and shopping.  With that said, there are certainly things I feel quite thankful for and I figured now would be a good time to share.

I'm thankful for my family and friends back home, and for the fact that I can so easily use Skype and email to connect with them.  I'm in the Peace Corps, yet I can still casually sign on and see my family on Thanksgiving morning.  I get to see the new puppies in people's lives and virtually tour new apartments.  I'm thankful that I do not have to worry about the state of a relationship after two years on hold but can continue building upon it.  And I'm thankful that my family and friends continue to do amazing and interesting and braggable things that I talk about with my friends in Azerbaijan every day.

I'm thankful for the friends I've made here in Azerbaijan.  I'm thankful for the fact that they are so incredibly concerned for my well-being and will frequently show up to lunch or school with a bag of fruit for me.  I'm thankful that I know people who want me to succeed and are willing to personally invest themselves to help ensure my projects success.  I'm thankful for those American friends I've made here that I already look forward to visiting in their home turf once we go back home.

I'm thankful I'm American.  This is a new one for me, I've always been glad but never explicitly thankful.  But I am this year.  I've consciously observed many things I never even thought to take for granted, yet are present only because of my being raised in America.  Thinking critically, speaking my mind freely and honestly, viewing life as a set of opportunities rather than a set of liitations.  These are not the mental thoughts of the average Azeri, but they are for the average American.  I'm thankful for the fact that I come from a country that is aspirational for most other people in the world and have the luxury to go back there upon finishing service.

I'm thankful for Khachmaz.  From the traveling I do in my teacher training I've visited a substantial number of cities around Azerbaijan, more than most volunteers, and I like Khachmaz more than every one of them.  I love that people smile in Khachmaz, that there are restaurants both men and women will go to, that free wifi is becoming a more and more commonly advertised.  I love that there is public art all over and that the city continues to spend money on beautifying itself.  I love that I can buy bacon here and that shop owners smile and say hello to me when I through their doors.

I'm thankful for my Khachmaz site mates, Glendene and Lannea, and my numerous North Finger site mates.  I didn't rate having site mates as being terribly important during my site interview, but Glendene and Lannea have been the best site mates I could ask for.  More like family than friends (though we are friends), these ladies are truly in the trenches with me understanding all the backstory to every anecdote and that they are as passionate as I am in their own projects.  The North Finger is the closest to Baku but the most isolated from everyone else, but we hardly care.  We know we're the best finger ever, throw the best parties, cook the best food, and have the least amount of drama.

There are many other things I'm thankful for  and, in an homage to album liner notes, here they are: twitter, sherlock holmes, 30 rock, the ipad, azerbaijani hip-hop, traveling, the weeknd, david bowie's 'station to station', goldfish crackers, running and drinkable water, wifi internet, Mom and Dad teaching 7 year old me the envelope system for budgeting, coffee, peroshgis, yoga, the Baku Hyatt, Jenni and Sierra, olive oil, risottos, my landlady, that I have 15 awesome people in my life who unhesitatingly said yes to an incredibly boat vacation in Turkey next year, prescription sunglasses, tutku cookies, kate carraway's columns, care packages, and Azerbajan's great cross-country bus system.

Landlady Update: Part 4.1

As sure as winter coming after fall, the Landlady will come back to my apartment.  This time was a bit unusual as it was on a Saturday and I was rushing off to a meeting at school that went about an hour too long.  But I was glad she came as I was able to quickly tell her two things about the room she had recently locked: 1) even if I have friends over, we never go in that room, like she originally said and 2) I have stuff in that room that I need.  I then said I could get it next time because I had to go now.

Well, as is becoming the case whenever I open my mouth about anything with my Landlady, I arrive home to find she's taken matters into her own hands.  The question is to discover what matters, as they don't always correlate to what I've said.  Coming back home I found my hallway hutch, which contains all my school supplies, toiletries, med kit, and most importantly my wireless router, had been evacuated from the hall.

Now I might not know my Landlady's motives, but I certainly know her style (abrupt), and using my keen deductive reasoning I concluded she had something to do with this.  Turns out she decided it was time that that hutch was moved into my room, which required one more couch move(!!) and a rewiring of the phone and power cable to ensure the internet still worked which, miraculously, it did.  I don't know if this was simply hutch-moving season in Azerbaijan or if this was unfinished business from the last great move but I choose to file it under the latter.  And to do nothing about it.

Hip-Hop in the Land of Fire: Klan-A-Plan - AzRap.Az (OST)

Finding Azerbaijani hip-hop in the rayons can be difficult sometimes.  There are far more Turkish pop fans than Azeri hip-hop heads and my language really isn't fluent enough for me to casually discover new music in the same way I can in America (listening to the radio, reading websites, etc).  Hell, I haven't even been able to find any websites with this type of information.

Or at least I couldn't, until a recent trip to Baku.  Catching dinner at a shwarma restaurant I noticed a poster outside branded 'Rapvision,' advertising what looked likea free concert the upcoming weekend (which I couldn't make-curses).  But on the bottom of the poster were various sponsors including a bunch of different websites.  So, just as I was beginning to run out of varied material, a half a dozen websites materialize out of nowhere.

So to celebrate this recent discovery I give to you Klan-A-Plan's posse cut in homage to AzRap.Az.  Sort of weird source of inspiration, but we all have to get it from somewhere right?

Klan-A-Plan - AzRap.Az (OST)

 Klan-A-Plan - AzRap.Az (OST) by joshehr

What Its Like To Say Goodbye

A couple days ago I said goodbye to one of my closest friends here in Azerbaijan.  As I mentioned in a previous post, I don't get too hung up on goodbyes with close friends because those are the people I am sure I will get to see again.  However, it is always sad to watch a person you love leave while you must stay.

What strikes me here is due to the structure of Peace Corps service.  You have two years here, one year as the new volunteer, one year as the old volunteer.  And though it seems to crawl at a catatonic pace, one day you look up and realize the months have flown by.  It feels like a milestone saying goodbye to this friend because I met her when she was in the exact same place I am in now.  She was in the process of saying goodbyes to her friends while entering into the seemingly endless middle of her service.

I didn't know her as a new volunteer, only as an old, combat-hardened, volunteer with a year of experience under her belt.  The ups and lows we discussed her experiencing are those same ups and lows I'm experiencing right now as a volunteer who has finally discovered what his main projects are while having a bit of cultural understanding to help him navigate and frustrate them.

In a way I wasn't expecting, my service is dramatically thrown into perspective.  In the same brief amount of time it took me to form this life-long friendship, I'll be saying goodbye to, inshallah, another life-long friendship, who will be watching me leave, feeling sad and excited and even a little jealous that I'm now about to do one of the best parts of Peace Corps service-finish it and return home.

My Fall Break: A Trans-Caucus Tour

(more photos coming soon)

I've seen a lot of Azerbaijan.  I've done my share of visiting friends around the country, but this has especially been the case with my work as a teacher trainer.  That aspect of my service has taken me to many many parts I might not have visited otherwise.  However, beyond Azerbaijan I haven't done too much.  Sure I traveled back to America in the summer, but I've been there before and wouldn't call it 'traveling' as much as 'returning home'.

This past week though I went up to Tbilisi in Georgia and got to satisfy my wanderlust for international travel.  Me and a couple friends traveled by bus, which has a few difference from traveling by air.  First of all, the bus stopped at the Azerbaijani boarder and all of us had to get out and walk on foot over the actual boarder.  We checked out with the suspicious Azerbaijani boarder guards and were practically waved in by the welcoming Georgian guards.  From there we caught another bus that took us to Tbilisi.

Tbilisi is an enchanting city.  It sits on the Mtkvari river which cuts the valley between two mountains, causing the city to rise in elevation on both sides rapidly.  One meanders the streets on the cobblestone roads, passing wine shop after cafe after restaurant after bakery.  The city planners have found harmony in the integration of the very old and the refreshingly modern.  Silent highways are supported by reinforced old-city aqueducts, a massive fortress looking cathedral looks over an entire section of downtown where the shops and restaurants evoke strolling through the ritzier parts of Vail.  In a place where there is a historically preserved building on every street, whimsical bronze and iron statues are found to be riding bicycles with flowers, peering into a wineshop, or jumping from the roof.  Unlike some cities where I am instantly captivated, with Tbilisi I was slowly cradled into falling in love with it.

Both Jane and Sanyo had already been to Tbilisi and everyone who goes to Tbilisi describe it as a magical land of milk and honey.  Where good whiskey can be purchased in the same place as good coffee; where men and women hold hands and laugh with each other on the street; where people look for waste bins rather than toss it on the ground.  The differences between Tbilisi and Baku were so striking (and preferable) that I was like a slack-jawed child in disbelief pointing to each and every change that had occurred over the 570 kilometers.  One of the most important differences is the cost, Tbilisi is extremely inexpensive and the conversion rate weighs heavily in our favor (the Georgian Lari is worth about .6 USD and .5 AZN).  For a Peace Corps volunteer with a taste for luxury and Western comfort this was a joyful surprise.  Excellent Georgian wine: 12 Lari a bottle, champagne with breakfast: 28 Lari a bottle, multi-course Georgian feasts: 15 Lari a person.  The weekend was spent eating outstanding food and drinking outstanding refreshment.  Its a walking city with easy going traffic and we would roll through the city investigating whatever caught our eye.

But we couldn't stay in Georgia forever (yet) and eventually we all had to go our separate ways to continue with our Peace Corps lives.  Fortunately for me this didn't take me to work.  I spent a night in Ganja working on an exciting project with Kelly, the other current teacher trainer in Azerbaijan (more on this later) and the next day was off to Baku to say goodbye to some great friends who had officially finished their service.  We celebrated in style with lots of dancing and cheersing and splurging on good food but it was bittersweet to see some of my closest friends leave.  With close friends, I'm pretty good with goodbyes, I have no concern that I won't see them again-it just sucks that it won't be in the next month.

Also in Baku some friends and I were lucky enough to be staying in two of the nicest hotels in Baku.  Through a combination of networking and an accumulated free night we stayed one night in the centrally located, Frank Lloyd Wright-inspired Hali Kai and another night in an executive suite in the Hyatt Regency.  This was luck a bit above anything else we've experienced in Azerbaijan and some volunteers might sneer at it hardly being volunteer lifestyle.  But I'll take a room at the Hyatt over a sneer any day, their robes have anti-sneer shields.

Hip-Hop from the Land of Fire: PRoMete - Sus

PRoMete is a producer who works a lot with the H.O.S.T. alliance.  He tends to emphasize softer production on his own tracks, which compliments his light and smooth voice well.  There is an annoying aspect of his production that he generally splits most of his tracks in two, with there being two distinct feels to each half of the track.  Sometimes it works (such as in the track below, Sus), other times your left feeling a worthwhile idea was left incomplete.

PRoMete - Sus (which, as best as I can determine, is an onomatopoeia like our 'shh')

 PRoMete - Sus by joshehr

Landlady Update: Part 4

About a month or so ago I was making small talk with my landlady (because that's pretty much the only type of talk I can make with her) and casually mentioned I was probably going to move my bed away from the windows in the winter.  She didn't think it was a good idea, but I told her that if its too cold, I'm going to move it, so deal.

So, every visit since, she has remarked that I haven't moved the bed.  This isn't just an observation, its an inquisition, an accusation.  'Why haven't you moved the bed;' as if this was something I had promised her long ago and never followed through on: 'I've been waiting on this moved bed for years!'  Finally today, after a substantial bed-moving conversation, I laid it out straight for her.  'I haven't moved the bed yet because it isn't cold yet' I told her.  Then I mentioned 'Maybe I will move it and maybe I won't, I will decide in winter.'  Then to hammer in the point again I mentioned 'I have a friend who will help me move the bed, but I don't want to move it right now'.

At this point I kept talking saying that I absolutely have to go because I am now late for lesson.  I was literally telling her this as I shut the door so she couldn't bring up the darned bed again.

Well, I came home from school that day and find my room completely rearranged.  Not only was the bed moved from the windows, but the couch, the chairs, the buffet, all of my furniture had been moved in the room.  I was stunned and I still don't really have a clue how she did this.  These are heavy pieces of wood furniture, it takes a lot of strain to push and pull and grunt something into position, and she is certainly no spring chick.  There are two options: either she did this all herself, which is ridiculous, or she called in support, which is just as ridiculous since I adamantly told her I would do it myself.

On one level, I do appreciate this, I mean, I really was going to move the bed.  But its been a long time since I've had such a dramatic 'you're a single man, therefore you have no clue how to live in a house' experience.  Thank goodness my landlady is around to make sure I get through another month.

Time To Get Back To Work

Two weeks ago I was out of commission, sleeping and silencing phone calls and generally ignoring the outside world.  Last week I was healthy and was able to return to Azerbaijan life, which means catching up with everyone I hadn't seen the past week.  Azeris are very caring and concerned for their guests' health and well-being; coming back to school I was surrounded by concerned Xanims and students wondering if I was healthy and if there was anything they could do.  So much attention lavished upon your return is a really nice aspect of this culture.

So, the week was busy.  Just like in American life, missing a week of work means having a lot to catch up on, though thankfully no massive email inbox to return to.  Monday I was able to have a meeting with Saida Muellima (which means teacher) and begin writing our Primary School Teacher Training.  Unlike the other trainings I've delivered that have been presented to Azeris but planned and facilitated by Americans, this training is being developed with an Azeri so there is very much a teaching the teacher element in the lesson planning that makes one feel more productive.

I also was able to hammer down the first two dates of this training with the Methodist, once I got about 4 shots of vodka in him.  Planning projects here is like pouring concrete over a house of cards.  Once the concrete is set the house is firm and the project will be pretty stable, but until that concrete is poured the slightest misaligned movement can collapse the entire thing.  From an American perspective, it all feels very tentative because dates aren't set until a couple weeks before.  So there is always this feeling that everything could be canceled at any moment.

There are a few other new projects at various stages of initializing.  My former host brother, Fargani, and I are in the process of developing a very ambitious project scheduling numerous workshops and classes centered around community leadership and involvement.  And my site-mate Glendene and I are having our first Azerbaijani yoga class this weekend, which hopefully should be really fun.

What's cool about my service now is the fact that I'm more than halfway through, which means I get to not only look forward to what will be coming, but also look back on what has been done.  Yesterday we finished our first season of softball with an exhibition game between North Finger Americans playing against the Khachmaz Maximum, a great way to close out our season.  The Traveling Teacher Training Roadshow is finishing its first year (phew!).  Even better, Kelly and I have finally identified a sustainable model that will not require massive amounts of cross country traveling for us and begins to incorporate Azerbaijani involvement in the teaching.

But I also look back and feel accomplished when I experience guesting situations like this past week.  I went over to my counterparts house where I could catch up with her family and meet some new friends, laugh and drink with the men, tease the children, and generally feel pretty at ease instead of on display.  And conducting this night completely in Azerbaijani.  Finally being able to speak this language is a huge feeling of accomplishment regardless of in what situation it may be.

Hip-Hop from the Land of Fire: Timon ft. GoGo DISS - Time to End the Ghetto

Time to End the Ghetto is actually a Russian translation, but I don't know if this blog is ready to handle the Cyrillic Alphabet all up in its business.  Timon is an Azeri rapper currently in France, whereas GoGo DISS is just one of the millions of rappers who has chosen an unfortunate name.  There are a few moments in this song I really dig, such as the 'mama' about 52 seconds in. Give it a listen below.

Timon ft. GoGo DISS - Time to End the Ghetto

 Timon ft. GoGo DISS - Time to End the Ghetto by joshehr

How Old Are You Again?

I've always known I didn't look particularly old, but I've never thought that I looked especially young.  Obviously this can change a bit-I look younger clean shaven than when I'm sporting my beard; in college I looked much younger with shorter hair than longer.  But never in the US did I encounter the type of abject shock over my age that I get here on a weekly basis.

For example, my softball team didn't know how to take it when they learned I was 28.  Most of them just had mouth's agape, but some insisted I misspoke and meant to say 18 instead of 28 or 'iki' (two) instead of 'sekkiz' (eight).  Some even tried to bargain with me on the number asking for me to shave just a couple years off the age.

Or, in my high school some of the 11th formers have gotten a little casual with me, even going so far to slap me on the back.  This is shockingly inappropriate in an Azeri school situation and I was able to deal with it but it wasn't enough for my counterpart who railed against the class a few days later.  They were incredulous over the fact I was a teacher and insisted they meant no disrespect, they just wanted to hang out with the exchange student from America.

Worse still from camp this summer.  Another volunteer and I were speaking with one of the mothers of a camper.  She casually asked if I were the volunteer's son.  After getting over her shock and suppressing a throat grabbing instinct she was able to take a little relish in the mother's speechlessness of being informed that I was actually older than her.

I don't know why this culture especially finds me so young, but some of these instances so outrageously misplace my age that it can't be anything but amusing.

Sometimes Service Means Sleeping In

A couple posts ago I mentioned how I was sick.  It turns out I was really sick and had a stomach virus that kept me in bed for the full week.  I'm not one to get sick often or strongly, so this was a bit of surprise.  In retrospect it was also extremely beneficial to my mental health as it allowed me to reset to square one and put a true pause on all the activities, events, and obligations going on around me.

In the US I would resist putting my life on hold until it was blindingly obvious I needed to take a break; and that break would be true and sincere, me reveling in the fact I was sick and wasn't accountable for anything.  Here though, there are always feelings of guilt that accompany removing yourself.  I'm trying to model behaviors and suddenly I'm the one canceling on them.  I worked so hard to get these people to come to a club or meeting and now I'm the one ditching out.  I work against every negative stereotype you can think of, as it apparently relates to Americans here, and with one uncontrollable illness I vindicate half the community' private assumptions.  Yes these are a little extreme but no one thinks too clearly in fever dreams.

So around Thursday I texted my friend Jenny to get her perspective on my situation.  I was feeling a bit better but not 100% and certainly not to a point of proactively wanting to place myself in a school of Azeri children.  Basically, I needed a bit of PCV to PCV confirmation that a) I am not a bad volunteer and b) hell yeah stay in bed.  Jenny certainly said both of those things (I mean, thats the whole reason I texted her) but she also chided me to remember that this is my service, not theirs.

I had heard this type of reminder from volunteers before.   Each time I related to it from a perspective of accomplishment and activity, I can make this service what I want it to be.  My service doesn't just have to be about teaching kids it can also be about teaching adults.  I can move beyond the school and into the ministry.  These were really helpful thoughts to have; it expanded my view of what Peace Corps service could be like and helped me craft a goal of service based around my desires and thoughts as opposed to Peace Corps Azerbaijan's job description.

But this time the idea of this being my service resonated on a different level, on a self-interested level.  I am here in Azerbaijan to help people and to encourage skills transfer so they can help themselves, but the service I do is mine.  This is something I have undertaken to accomplish and share, not a promise for delivered results or a contract of commitment between me and my community.

Service, in any context, is always so 'other' focused, that to drop this focus for a moment can feel selfish and hypocritical, but service, to distinguish itself from slavery or employment, must contain personal joy and commitment in it.  Otherwise, it would be more akin to self-indentured servitude.  Ideally the results of my service will be owned by my community, but the service itself, well that's mine and, when it comes down to the final moments, it is controlled by me.  And if I see that a change needs to take place in it to make me feel happier, healthier, or more productive, then that is a choice I have the privilege to make.

This doesn't mean I plan on running contrarian to everything in my school, just that it helps me to realize that when it comes to situations of balancing my health and happiness against feelings of obligation and guilt, I have luxury to allow health and happiness to always win.  For some people this means leaving their community and returning to their US life.  My community is lucky enough that, for me, it only meant staying in bed an extra day or two.

Hip-Hop From The Land of Fire: H.O.S.T. - Mǝni Gaytar

Monday my internet stopped working (until today) which gave me no opportunity to hunt up tracks on the artist that I was planning on checking out.  So, in an effort to just get a track up this week, I'm going to post one of my favorite H.O.S.T. tracks, Mǝni Gaytar.  It means 'Give myself back,' but if you take the secondary meaning of the verb you get the hilarious title 'Beat me off'.  Anyways, it doesn't mean that and the track is good.

H.O.S.T. - Mǝni Gaytar ('Give Myself Back')

 Meni Qaytar by joshehr

Finally-Nothing to Do

This month has seen two teacher trainings, two softball tournaments, and one site visit, which basically means that for all of October there hasn't been a single weekend I've had off.  The exhausting week spent teaching is never recovered from on the weekends.  And, even though all of these are things I enjoy, compressing them into the span of one month was unnecessary and destructive.

So, right now I'm sitting in my bed, where I've spent the majority of the past 24 hours, wrapped in warm pajama pants and listening to nice relaxing music.  I'm sick and have canceled everything in my life for the next 2 days and hope  it won't extend much beyond that.  For anyone wondering, having the flu in a foreign country is about as good as having it anywhere else, which is not very.

Admittedly I'm not too surprised by it, in the month of October life has been a very busy and I'm sure that this is my body's way of taking over and declaring an emergency state of rest.  I remember how I would get over particularly long stretches of work at Apple and this month has been longer than any of those.  But the main difference with this is that its easier to convince yourself that you have, in fact, been taking breaks when you've really been working all the time.

Peace Corps really is a 24/7 job and you have to fight to keep yourself from being overtaxed.  Especially with TEFL volunteers it can be easy to stretch yourself; in order to stay motivated in the classroom, I involve myself in other activities I am actually internally motivated to work on. It often happens that the work we must do (teaching in the classrooms) and the work we are passionate about (activities outside of the classrooms) end up taking up all of our time.  And while its good to keep busy, its better to stay healthy.  So I'm excited for November, which I'm looking forward to as a much more relaxed pace.

Me And My Bed Need Some Alone Time

Its been a long time (relatively) since I've actually written something here, one of my longest stretches.  Currently on my lengthy post-it note to-do list there's a line item that says 'write something (anything)'.  Simply overcoming the inertia of not writing is something worth crossing off.

In the past two weeks I've continued on at school.  There's no mistaking the fact that school is work.  Some of my classes are outstanding, some are brutal, but it is just the reason that justifies me being here.  Its the other things, like softball tournaments, teacher trainings, new volunteer site visits, etc that make life exhausting.

Luckily its not exhausting in a bad way-everything happening is good and I'm happy about what I'm doing, but its exhausting nonetheless.  I fall into bed earlier and earlier and snooze later and later.  I keep thinking the next weekend will be easier, but the next weekend is a teacher training in Goychay, or our last Softball Tournament, or Halloween Party.  But the weekend after that…I am so sleeping in.

Hip-Hop from the Land of Fire: AiD ft. Timon - Wussup

This installment of Hip-Hop from the Land of Fire features AiD, of the H.O.S.T. family and Timon, who is an Azeri rapper in France.  This was released a bit earlier this year.

AiD ft. Timon - Wussup (meaning, surprise surprise, What's up)
 AiD ft. Timon - Wussup by joshehr

Hip-Hop from the Land of Fire: Caspian Dreamers - Baku State of Mind

Alright, these aren't Azeri rappers, but they are in Azerbaijan and they are rapping.  This awesome vid was made by two current PCVs giving a rapid fire tour of Azerbaijan's capital, Baku.  Both the lyrics and their manic footage is pretty impressive and it I think you'll enjoy it.

Caspian Dreamers - Baku State of Mind

Why Earthquakes Don't Work

New post up at Teaching for Leaders on the benefits of gradual learning.  Check it out.

Teaching for Leaders - Why Earthquakes Don't Work

Ways to Avoid Strangling A Child

I woke up on Sunday expecting one of the worst days of service.  Not worst in a my plumbing broke and landlady and neighbors beneath are yelling at me sort of way.  Or worst in a cold and dark February morning, making my 45 minute walk to school through a city wide 3" semi-frozen puddle sort of way.  No, this was the sort of worst that involves 10 teenage boys, a cramped, uncomfortable minibus with an unnecessarily loud stereo, and 9 hours of driving in one day to play three hours of baseball.

Waking up at 5am, my adrenaline started to dip right around the time we walked out the door to catch our 6am hired bus.  Normally when people wake up super early to travel there is a hope of passing out once you've settled into your seat.  Normally people aren't sitting for 5 hours on a minibus, which have been meticulously designed to avoid any sort of lower back support.

But the rewards of escape were too much to avoid.  I willed myself to ignore the cross conversation, shouted in each ear by two coaches enough concerned about carsickness to ask me to take the middle, but not enough to nurse themselves in any sort of silent discomfort.  Between the a solid world of consciousness and a liquid world of dreamland bliss, my sleep was an unfilling jello.

Azeris like their music loud, because its not worth listening to unless it causes damage to your ears.  The shouted conversations weren't just over the roar of the road, but over the piercing Turkish techno, Azeri mugam, and traditional folk songs.  Soon, cheers erupted from the children.  We learned this was due to the driver having one of their favorite songs to shout at the top of their lungs.  And we learned that it was a favorite drinking song, celebrating being blackout drunk.  Towards the end of the trip we also learned the chorus as the song was cumulatively played 10% of our travel time.  For the last the couple hours I ignored all questions directed towards me, silently fantasizing about ways to bring about an end to this that would involve flames, and crying, and broken radios.

And we finally got to Kurdimir.  And despite my best effort my mood wasn't able to stay sour standing in the luxury of full posture in the sunshine.  Friends showed the appropriate amount of incredulousness that we actually drove all the way from Khachmaz.  And our kids magically transformed from maniacs to really fun kids, simply by removing the presence of a cramped van.

And they played well.  Our catcher finally had his first out at home plate, and our pitcher's glove hand had a painful badge of honor from two insane line drives he caught.  Consistently our infield would make double plays and our outfield finally started using their cutoff man, allowing us to make more outs and give less bases due to errors.  I never thought I'd see the day where when the Khachmaz Maximum (their chosen name) would field better than hit, but they did.  We won a couple games in the tournament and for the game we did lose, we never had to invoke the mercy rule to end an inning.  I was really proud of them.

And I was a little wiser for the road.  After the first two spins of Hallana Hallana, I laid down the rule: only once an hour.  When I busted out Sonic Racing on the iPad and iPod Touch it bought us an hour of almost pure silence.  By the time we entered into Xachmaz region, we well all in a pretty good mood and shouting along to Hallana Hallana at the top of our lungs.

For good volunteers, these are the days that make service worth it.  For normal volunteers, these are the days that remind us how necessary it is for there to be a law against strangling children.  For me it was both.

Hip-Hop from the Land of Fire: Klana Plan - Yelle Yelle

Next up in my weekly Azeri Rap series is da Clan with the Plan.  No, not Wu-Tang (for that you'll have to look to H.O.S.T.), Klana Plan.

Klana Plana - Yelle Yelle (which translates roughly to an mc telling the audience 'Get Up! Get Up!')

 Klana Plan - Yelle Yelle by joshehr

Two Strategies to Always Come Out Victorious

There are two things I've always found comfort in, and they work in tandem with one another.  One is my confidence in my own capacity, whether its school, work, or, as it is, starting life in a new country.  No matter how difficult the class or job or adjustment I'm experiencing, I know I'm not going to simply fail.  I'll admit, there's a bit of hubris here, but I've never thought I couldn't do at least a C- job on something.  I may have no clue or even know what I'm doing, but I'm pretty sure I can eventually work it out.

The second thing is that the days keep moving, whether I like it or not.  Its a bit fatalist, but when I'm stressed its comforting to know that whatever thing it is I'm so dreading will eventually pass, whether I want it to or not.  And when combined with the above mentality it means that not only will I eventually find myself on the days after the stressor, but I'll also probably also have successfully navigated my way through it.

Self-confidence and knowledge that tomorrow comes, whether you like it or not.  Two really useful perspectives to view difficult times through.

How to become an expert in 4 days

For those who are especially fascinated by my posts, you may have found yourself going through inexplicable withdrawal symptoms last week.  I'll save you the trouble of pondering why: it was because I didn't write.  Sorry, it won't happen again (note: it will happen again).

The reason for this is I was welcoming the new trainees to Azerbaijan.  Peace Corps looked at my experience and realized that I would be a perfect person to hold welcome signs, teach how to work Azerbaijani air-conditioners, and give detailed presentations on the nuances of the squat toilet.  So I, and three other volunteers, headed down to Baku last weekend to help bleary eyed Americans from the airport to their temporary hotel home, before departing for their first home family.

Welcome Week is great and helping with it is highly sought after amongst volunteers.  You're the first to scope out the trainees and get to be the incredibly cool people who have magically survived a first year in this strange and scary new world.  They don't yet know that your language isn't actually that great and they certainly haven't yet heard your primal scream of frustration during your service.  You're just some happy dude who isn't jetlagged and makes good conversation.  Thus, you're the person they want to talk to most.

I remember being in awe of our Welcome Week members.  They were so casual about the fact that they were living in this country that was so foreign and dirty and loud.  It was validation that through all the bs we might be going through, it was feasible that we could one day approach normalcy.  And now, here I am giving the ins and out of alcohol etiquette and community development work as if I have all the answers.  Which to them, of course, I do.  I guess this is the true path to becoming an expert; its not about achieving a certain level of experience, rather its finding a group of people with a certain lack of experience.  In four days I was transformed from typical volunteer to super, knowledgable, volunteer-god.

But now I'm back at site and back to status as a normal moderately knowledgable volunteer.  Once school began things went a little quiet, the sound of students returning to their studies.  There was one big highlight though, we had our first Teacher Training in Khachmaz and it was a huge success.  30 teachers showed up and we used a new lesson plan that seemed to be very well received by teachers.  At the end of the training we asked what techniques they planned on using and teachers named numerous different activities we demoed.  Inshallah this will serve as a model for future trainings we'll be putting together in Khachmaz.

Hip-Hop from the Land of Fire: Nado - Dǝrsiz Mǝhǝbbǝt

Next up in the weekly Azerbaijani rap series is Nado.  This track is pretty breezy and sounds similar tracks you might here when the artist is getting a little sentimental.  Which makes sense given the tracks name.

Nado - Dǝrsiz Mǝhǝbbǝt (which means 'Love without Sorrow')

 Nado - Derdsiz Mehebbet by joshehr

Hip-Hop in the Land of Fire: Elshad Xose - Muxbirler Chashib

Continuing our weekly series of Azerbaijani hip-hop is Elshad Xose. According to wikipedia he's one of the more commercially successful rappers in Azerbaijan. This track is from his 2004 album Plagiat.

Elshad Xose - Muxbirler Chashib (which means 'Confused Journalists')
  Elshad Xose - Muxbirler Chashib by joshehr

Everyone Likes a Nice View

School began on Thursday. For those of us who aren't living in Azerbaijan, let me tell you what that means. It means that I arrived at 8:45am for an assembly I was told would begin at 9pm. As the crowd got larger and larger, I slowly moved closer and closer to the side of the building to stay in the ever-reducing shade. At 10:30 the assembly celebrating 'Knowledge Day' began and ended with two first graders ringing bells to open the school.

After the new school year was inaugurated the adorable first graders were ushered through the doors, followed by a mass of people clogging those doors preventing anyone else from entering. 30 minutes later I successfully found myself inside, only to think: 'I have absolutely no clue why I'm here, or what I'm doing'. Aimlessly I walked the halls; no one was in class, no one was in the teacher's room. And no one seemed to have any clue of the schedule.

In fact the schedule made its first appearence the next day. A massive, graphite-smudged, hand-written anachronism; its existence embodying the very argument for Excel. I jockeyed between burley Xanims to copy down my two counterparts schedules, in hopes of figuring out some compromise that would allow me to work with both of them. At this point Tamilla entered and encouraged me not to worry too much because the whole thing would change in a few days. We probably wouldn't see a stable schedule for at least a few weeks.

Thanks Tamilla, what a relief.

But this is the way of things in this country, and this is the way of one's service in this country. Beginnings are slow, changes (to your plan) frequent, and progress gradual. We are warned not to become discouraged and continue on this gradual slope of presumed improvement. Honestly, its not a bad perspective to bring back to the United States. And as frustrating as this incremental progress is, there are certain moments when you are able to step back and see progress being made, a little overlook on your mountain path to show how far you've come. These moments get me a little more excited than an American should get.

I just had one of these moments yesterday with our region's English Methodist, who is responsible for English Education in Xachmaz. We've been meeting throughout the summer discussing an idea for monthly trainings for English teachers on interactive methods. But at the end of this meeting I could see it happening. We had our first one scheduled-October 1st, we had the plan for the second one as well. We even had found another teacher who wanted to help with these, allowing me to broach the idea to him that this could continue after I had left Azerbaijan.

I left this meeting nearly giddy with excitement. 'It's actually happening,' I thought, 'teacher training and training the trainers is actually going to occur in my service'. This summer I'd often stop and wonder if I was bluffing myself, if I was telling myself I was focusing on teacher training simply because I was lazy and disinterested in classroom teaching. Then a meeting like this happens, a brief little plateau in my gradual climb that allows me to look back and see that I actually am headed in the right direction and have come quite a ways.

The Flight (Search) You've Been Looking For

Thank heavens for the internet; from banking, to music discovery, to news, its made so many aspects of our lives easier.  Perhaps chief amongst these is air travel.  Though still an incredibly obtuse system, sites like Travelocity and Expedia made searching for tickets and planning an itinerary simple, by searching across numerous different airlines.

And then new sites (and features) began to crop up.  Sites like Kayak and Hipmunk increased usability with price sliders and nearby location searching.  I still have no clue how airline pricing works, but at least it was easier to get a cheaper fare.

Now Google has jumped into the game with Flight Search and this looks very enticing indeed.  It uses a familiar layout of google maps with some nifty little features, like allowing you to search based on time from city or price limits.  It has some slick graphics to easily see price changes by date, or to narrow your search through a combination of trip duration and price.  Its pretty snazzy and, once they get international flights built in, I see it becoming a first stop for me

(thanks lifehacker for this tipoff)

Hip-Hop in the Land of Fire: H.O.S.T. - Qarada Qırmızı

A lot of volunteers have bucket lists while in Azerbaijan, things they want to do before they leave country.  They may range from the impossible, such as cooking an Azeri Xanim approved national meal-plov, to the illegal, such as driving a marshrutka (minibus), to the entirely attainable, such as partying till the sun, literally, comes up in Baku.

These lists really start to lengthen as one gets closer to end of service, when you only have a few months to achieve your personal goals.  So far I only have three items: 30 minutes in an Azeri style squat; drinking in a rooftop bar in Baku, overlooking the entire city; and becoming an 'authority' on Azeri hip-hop.

So, I'm going to post a track weekly of solid Azeri hip-hop, which will be quite the treasure hunt as I haven't found anything focused on this niche in the the English language.  I don't have much clue what they're saying, but these tracks sound good.

First up: H.O.S.T. - Qarada Qırmızı (which means 'In Red Blood')

 H.O.S.T. - Qarada Qırmızı by joshehr

Answers to Your Questions-Part 2

A lot of you had questions about teenagers and what life is like for a kid in Azerbaijan.  Instead of answering specific questions, I'll try and give a general description of life for a teenager.  There are a few substantial factors that dictate what their life is like here-whether they're a girl or boy, in a village or a city.  I mostly have an idea of what life is like for a city boy in and my answers paint that picture.

Teenage boys in the city have a lot of freedom, certainly way more freedom than a girl.  Boys are the royalty in the household, girls are just girls.  This isn't to say girls are unloved, but there is an obvious gender bias towards boys.

A typical day for a teenager in Azerbaijan during school is wake up, go to school and come home for lunch.  Most children, especially those who are approaching the end of their school years, will study an almost equal amount of hours with tutors on subjects that they will be tested on for college admittance.  So they might take tutoring in english, history, and azerbaijani, but not in math or physics.  Girls are also expected to help with housework, though this load is lessened in their intense after-school tutoring years.  Boys have very little responsibility in housework.

Most children I speak with in the city plan on going to college.  The college entrance here is very different and very centralized.  You must decide very early on, maybe around 8th grade, what 'faculty' you are studying for.  Faculty is similar to a major but it also refers to their section of exams they will take.  The test you take upon completing school (11th grade) is determined by your chosen faculty.  And that test will focus on certain subjects over others.

Based on your test results (and only your test results) the government (not the student) will determine what school you will go to, what faculty you will attend, and whether or not you will be receiving money towards your education.  So, its a pretty big test and the ambitious students usually spend years of extra tutoring to prepare.

Aside from studying, teenage boys do many different things.  Frequently they'll go to an internet club or be online at home.  Facebook is huge here and if you want to be cool you need to be on it.  1st person shooter games are also really popular here and its more common to see people playing those at internet clubs (also called playstation clubs) than anything else.  Many teenage boys do sports or some form of physical activity, wrestling and judo are very common extracurriculars and of course soccer is ubiquitous.

Azerbaijan has a rich and still vibrant folk tradition and music lessons, such as for their national instrument-the tar, are quite common.  Chess is also a common after school activity
and its been more than once that a little kid has beat my ass pretty hard in chess.

There are very few hangouts, in the sense that Americans think of them, in the regions-no movies, malls, restaurants, coffee shops where youth can get together.  Teahouses (serving tea or beer) are quite common, but it is very much an adult male location, not for youth.  There are many beautiful parks and strolling through them back and forth, again and again, is a very popular pastime.  Its also a way that women can be out in the public and not bring on 'the shame'.

Every boy wants a girlfriend, and with the rise of Facebook (and internet access in general) and the ever-presence of cell phones, this is becoming easier and easier to do.  However, dating is very different from the United States.  Boys and girls may be dating and never actually be with each other, instead acting out all the comedy and drama of a relationship through phone calls, text messages, and Facebook wall updates.  Its common to see boys and girls interacting when school is somehow involved (walking home together, talking outside together) but it always gets us PCVs giggling like school girls when we see a coed group on the weekends.

Wow, this ended up being a lot longer than I was anticipating and at some point I have to put an end to a post that is trying to express 12 months of observations.  I'll return to this idea in the future, but do you have any questions that this post brings up that you would like clarified?

First Summer-Finished

Summer is coming to a close and fall is beginning to show itself.  The oppressive sunshine and humidity is giving way to cooler and cloudier days.  Slowly, but surely, the leaves are beginning to turn.  The seasons change here as they do in America, but are signaled differently.  Microseasons are brought on by harvests rather than holiday sales.  Discussion is turning from the seashore and watermelon to new school uniforms and hazelnuts.

In my own corner of Azerbaijan, this means an end to my wonderfully idle days of summer and a return to the routine of school. Actually, looking back, my summer was anything but 'idle;' different clubs and traveling, weeks of camp, and numerous trainings in Baku have kept me busy this summer (not to mention an awesome respite in Americastan).  But its time to get ready for my first full school year.

Preparing to begin this year of school, I'm reminded how awesome the timeline is for a volunteer in Azerbaijan.  We arrive in nice weather, as fall is beginning.  Our first few months at site was the same as our first winter, two extremely difficult times that got compressed into one, and if thats the case, you might as well be living in a host family's warm house.  By the time an AZ PCV moves out, there are only a couple months left of the school term before the ultimate relief: summer.

Having just one semester of school and then summer is a real blessing.  We get a feel for our school and teachers before beginning the bulk that is a full year.  Last semester I tried to work with 4 different teachers and there wasn't a single class that I met with each time they met.  That ended up being a crazy idea and it would have broken me to suffer that mistake for a full year.  But with a clean break from a school year so early on, I get a chance to recover.

Last semester, the bulk of my extra time was going to beginner conversation clubs and tutoring sessions.  That was helpful, and certainly helped me integrate, but there was little enjoyment received on my part.  More than conversation clubs, I'm excited to develop teachers' ability using interactive teaching methods and more and more of the meetings and activities I've been doing have been working towards this goal.  For youth, I'll definitely keep my Advanced Conversation Club going and probably be coerced into a beginner-ish one at my school, but I'm more excited about the plans for a blogging club going in Xachmaz.

All of these are things that I wouldn't have been able to figure out those first few weeks at site as I jumped head first into the school year, but now, after a semester's worth of Azeri school madness and 9 months of lessons learned from successful and failed clubs I feel a bit more confident in my step.  Don't overextend myself while hunting for the projects I can become as passionate about as I want the members to be.