Winter Thaws and Spring Breaks Through

This week has been above freezing, and the beautiful, if not frigid, world that was blanketed in snow is now regressing rapidly.  First we got to see mini rivers carve their way through the two inch icepack glaciers which covered the ground.  Next came lake-like puddles, enveloping entire streets and intersections. Finally we came to a Khachmaz mired in slush.  Having waterproof boots, its actually sort of cool.  Due to plowing in the States you rarely see an entire city figure out what to do with its melt; even the cars gingerly picked their way across the newly formed lakes and rivers manifesting in the streets.

After such a dramatic cold spell it was nice to be able to walk to school unhooded.  On one sunny morning I caught a birdsong and felt an immediate thrill of relief-spring is coming.  It might not be right away-Azerbaijanis insist weather will get ugly once more-but it is in sight.  February, the world's least favorite month, is coming to an end.

And as winter comes to an end, volunteers' thoughts turn towards Spring, and last week I hosted the Khachmaz crew for a dinner where we could discuss what was about to be on our plate this upcoming year.  Most of us are entering our second year and our principal work has changed from what our initial assumption was.  Its not surprising that there is a slowing of activity during the cold winter, but once spring hits, there is a resurgence in interest and activity-whether in our community or in others.  So, each of us came ready to discuss the activities we were planning and our responses to emails requesting Khachmaz's participation in various others.  A cold slushy evening was the perfect time for a risotto tasting menu and discussion of 2012 in Khachmaz.

The four of us are extremely productive so it was empowering to see what was on our plates.  Glendene is kicking off her yoga classes fully, offering two more classes-one for women and one coed.  Softball is starting soon, this time owned by me and Kelsey, because Lannea is going to focus her energies on starting an open mic night in Khachmaz.  This will fit well with her newly started guitar club.  And of course, we have WriteOn! (formerly Writing Olympics) in March and summer camp-which is expanding to two more cities this year.

It was also interesting to hear about our shifting focuses in our individual projects.  Kelsey has begun her conversation clubs at work.  Glendene and CBT (the tourism company she is chairing) are turning their attention towards applying for real money to more substantially launch this as a business.  Lannea's computer center for girls has become a huge success, and she is now focusing more on youth health awareness.  Between these and our community project, the impromptu calendar Lannea started writing was rapidly filling up more and more.

I recently found out one of my site mates, during her site interview, said she didn't really care if she had site mates our not.  But she would rather have no site mates than site mates who didn't take their work seriously.  I feel good about the fact that none of us are letting her down and we're all going full speed ahead, breaking through the spring thaw.