Lets Get School Over With To Get On With Service

I've written a fair bit about how much I'm ready for school to end.  Not just the blog, but in my journal, over gchat, and (especially) texting.  Basically if there is a form of written communication I engage in, I probably have written about how I'm ready for school to finish up.  I'm over it, the students are over it, and we're basically over with our lessons, so 'when is it over?'

Its easy to conflate this thought with being over Peace Corps as well.  "Only 7 months left!"  I get a precious opportunity to hit the 'restart' button on life and let's get on with it.  I've done this 'pc thing' for a bit, let's wrap it up.

But the nice thing is, I'm not really ready for Peace Corps to wrap up.  I don't feel the same way about my service as I do about school.

There are some really cool things going on right now.  Kelly and my Training of Trainers project is doing really well so far.  We've had two trainings before our pause for the summer.  Already, participants from these workshops have had three independent trainings, with more scheduled, and over 50 english teachers in the regions affected by these independently held workshops.

Softball has gotten way more fun when we basically decided to drop the 'teaching' part.  Instead of meeting only once and running drills and conditioning we now meet a couple times a week and just play games.  More and more kids are showing up and we now can consistently field two teams for our games.

Camp is also plowing on ahead.  This year I'm working with an incredible young woman named Sabina organizing leaders in three different cities to plan, fund, and execute their own camp.  Come late May we'll have a Jr. Counselor training that will involve 30 different emerging youth leaders, preparing them to help with these upcoming summer camps.

And I like that I have time in Peace Corps.  I like that I have time to write.  I like that I can practice yoga everyday.  I like that I have time to do personal projects and not just service projects.  Its nice to have the space to breathe and work and grow.  I'm ready for school to end, but not for service to finish.  Though, at times, seven months seems intolerably far away, the days continue and soon enough it will seem that there is hardly any time left at all.

Peace Corps: Boot Camp for Long Term Travel?

Now that I've entered my senior year of Peace Corps, I've begun to allow myself the escapist pleasure of daydreaming about an upcoming trip to South East Asia in early 2013.  Actually, let me be more specific-I've begun daydreaming about the ultralight backpacking I'll be doing around the region.

I'll admit it, I love packing.  I love thinking about what to take on a trip.  I love the idea of fitting your life into a limited amount of liters.  Even more so, I love the challenge of achieving a perfect balance of minimalism and utility.  10 months out and I've already written a potential ultralight packing list for this trip.  I've been reading posted packing list and blog posts on the philosophy of ultralight backpacking.  Its dorky, I get it. Shut up-its great!

For those of you who don't troll for blog posts on long term packing lists, you should know that they all begin with the exect same introduction: Its super difficult to do and you might think I'm crazy for suggesting to leave so much stuff behind, but trust me-its worth it! or some variation on the theme.

I agree with the fact that the lightness in load is totally worth the potential need to spend an extra couple bucks to pick up an unpacked item, but I can't help smugly smiling to myself muttering "Big deal, welcome to my life".  The difficulties listed aren't very difficult when you've already been living this way for a couple years.

Take the hassle of doing laundry every day, a principle of ultralight travel.  Because you take fewer clothes you must handwash what you're not wearing that day in the sink to dry overnight.  This would be a major adjustment coming from America, but traveling in the summer in Azerbaijan, this is a necessity.  But really, its not just summer, most of my life here is dominated by the exact same outfit for an entire week.

Or the weather.  Yes, South East Asia is very hot and very humid.  I get this.  (fyi: Khachmaz also gets pretty damn humid-though nothing equatorial about it).  But one huge advantage I'll have in this tropical region is the way in which I'm allowed to respond to the weather.  In the the height of summer here, in 100 degree weather, men will still be working in their orchards wearing suit jackets!  Its absurd, but thats the uniform.  This 'community ambassador' looks forward to wearing flip-flops, enjoying a cold beer outside, and wearing shorts.

Concerns over intermittent showering is also understandable.  It does take some time to get used to, the first couple weeks of not showering daily feels pretty gross.  But after a while you get used to it.  And, hostels on any backpackers' circuit can be relied upon to have showers.

So yeah, after 2 years of first-hand experience in resourcefulness and minimalism I think I'm ready for an ultralight jaunt in South East Asia for a few months.  Can't wait to post a list of my own!

Hip-Hop From The Land Of Fire: Hell Resident - 1 Il Paranoya

I'll be honest-I don't really understand what's being said in these tracks I'm posting.  Rap in one's native language is difficult enough understand; someone who scores an intermediate-high in language ability hardly stands a chance.  Sometimes this is a problem, I want to hear what Qaraqan, A-Team, and Uran are saying.  I want them to be as clever as I think they are.

Other times its a benefit.  If there was an American rapper named 'Hell Resident' I would probably pass them by, not wanting to hear (what I assume would be) their horror-video game inspired rhymes.  But when you don't know the language-well, who cares!  1 Il Paranoya is a short track, a fever rant alternating with a high-pitched vocal edit.  Of all the tracks I've been listening to this week, this one has stayed with me.  Give it a spin.

SEO love to RapRock.Az for the lead.

Hell Resident - 1 Il Paranoya (which means: 1 year, paranoid)



Previous Hip-Hop From The Land Of Fire: Qurd

7 Months Left Means That I've Entered My 'Senior Year'

Khachmaz is beautiful this time of year.   After the cruel winter (have I made it clear yet just how bad this winter was), children are riding bikes and playing hide and go seek, teahouses are overflowing to the outside with deck tables and chairs, softball practice season has begun.  A month ago I was lamenting the constant cold, now I'm seeking escape from the oppressive, unhidden sun.

Yes, summer is basically here in Khachmaz.  Except-its not; everyone's in school and will be for the next month.  On average, my classes have about 10 pages left in their textbooks, which Tamilla is assuring me is exactly what we want.  I've pointed out that finishing the book four weeks early means we probably could have spent a little bit more time on our material throughout the year, but she has a plan and certainly is a better teacher of Azerbaijani children than I am.

Here's one reason why: last week was the first week in lord knows how long that I attended every single one of my classes.  I'm not proud of this fact (or rather-I'm extremely proud of this fact-it takes serious stamina to get to each one of those classes) but its the case.  I have pretty good sounding excuses to offer, such as traveling 7 hours to deliver a highly successful training, and others that are just as good, but sound slightly less convincing to non-PCVs, like taking a day off that would have otherwise resulted in me snapping in two after the first boy shout 'i love you' to me.

I've never been one to shirk my responsibilities at work or school.  I was actually pretty shocked to hear of all the volunteers before me who had just sort of come to accept that 'hey, sometimes you just have to not go'.  I swore to myself: That will never happen to me.  Well, let me tell you-its happened.  Its happened, its happening, and it will happen again.  Spontaneous bouts of cultural disenchantment + 1 month till school is over + 7 months till end of service = unapologetic senioritis.

Luckily, one of the best things about Peace Corps is that your success as a volunteer isn't determined by a 7th form English lesson.  Its about your integration within your community, the relationships you build, and the effect you have on their lives and they have on yours.  And this is something that I've never had to make excuses about to avoid.

I Got Nothin'

After going through a couple hours of writer's block: blog-style, I've decided that I'm just going to throw up a couple photos that happen to not be posted.  That's really all anyone wants right?

Quick plug: Give this post, one of my most popular in March, a look-see.  Try it out-at first it may seem a bit stifling but it has increased my productivity substantially since introduction.

This may be the best birthday gift/activity ever thought up.

Cast of 'Neftchela Summer Camp', the newest show on Oxygen.

Potato stamps.  (Guess what it is!)

Hip-Hop From The Land Of Fire: Qurd - Rəqs Edir Hər Kəs

Now this is some Azerbaijani hip-hop.  Within the first 2 seconds, I knew this was a track I had to post.  So far, much of the hip-hop I've heard in Azerbaijan is basically Azeri rapping over the American standard of produced beats, samples, or melodies.  Don't get me wrong-I love that genre, that's why I started this blog.  

This however sounds like it was taken straight from an Azeri toy (wedding).  Imagine this song's melody, increase the decibel level by a factor of a hundred and you'll have a pretty accurate sonic picture of a toy.  It would fit in pretty well, the title means 'Everybody Dance', and I bet if I play this song at softball practice at least 3 of my players will start dancing.  Its an ingrained audio cue since childhood.

SEO love to AzRap.Az

Qurd - Rəqs Edir Hər Kəs (which means: Everybody Dance)

Previous Hip-Hop From The Land Of Fire: Baku Beat

Have You Heard? Its Actually Spring!

Its a bit of a relief to be typing this post in the company of myself right now.  I  knew one of the main reasons I wanted my own apartment was to host friends without having to abide by the rules of propriety while living with an Azerbaijani family (really, this sentence could be written-I don't want to wear pants in summer).  But this week was pretty substantial-from Saturday to Thursday there was at least one person staying over.

But I think we all needed it.  Our entry into April has been a relief, no more winter holing us up in our blankets, in our sleeping bags, next to our heaters.  We are ready to explore the world we once knew.  April has also been a very expensive month for everyone; all of our refrigerators, pipes, and stoves must have forgotten how to properly function in spring.  We've all been humbled a bit by sudden 20, or 40, or 80 dollar costs thrown at us.  We all needed a break from our own (broken) homes and time to visit someplace else, in the company of our own culture.

Thankfully, mother nature has been kind.  This week the flowers and trees decided it really was spring and from Tuesday to Saturday trees went from barren winter bones to full spring blossom.  One of my favorites times in Denver is the first substantial spring rainfall, where trees are literally shaking with excitement because they've been parched so long, and in about 48 hours they transform into spring.  It was awesome to watch the transition happen so quickly here; refreshing and renewing.

If you haven't yet seen, I encourage you to check out some of the photos I posted from Xinaliq (HERE).  Glendene, Emily, and I took a day trip to this highly recommended, very remote mountain village, on Tuesday.  Its quite traditional, and modernity is only slowly and haltingly making itself known them.  The village is practically vertical and a path to the neighbor's house is a steep climb lined with rock walls of old old houses on one side and straw and manure bricks-used to heat the homes-on the other.  We decided to pay a couple extra dollars to have lunch with a host family which was really enjoyable.

In other exciting news: Hip-Hop From The Land of Fire will soon be an online radio show.  Details are still being worked out (such as what time) but I'll begin work on a weekly hour-long segment on Azeri internet radio station grupfm.com next week.  Its a little amazing to me to think that Hip-Hop From The Land of Fire is more than half a year old.

Exciting things are in the works, and I'm glad to still feel motivated about my service as I get closer and closer to the end.

Lets Take A Trip Up The Mountains, Photos From Xinaliq

3 Victims of Altitude Sickness

This past tuesday, Glendene, Emily, and I went on a day trip to Xinaliq, a quaint village 7500 feet above sea level, isolated from the rest of the world in the arid, mountainous region of inner Guba.  The village is on a steep incline, in a way that your neighbor's roof is on the same level of your front door.  Its a highly recommended day trip and villagers are used to seeing visitors come through, though maybe not as used to these visitors speaking with them in Azerbaijani.  But, regardless of the language you speak the village provides majestic 360 degree view of the surrounding Greater Caucasus Mountains.

The ride there and back was amongst the best part, a harrowing journey of switchbacks and dips, at times speeding up a hill backwards because there was no room to make the tight turn.  Luckily we had a powerful van that could easily manage and our hired driver had been making this route for longer than Emily had been alive, so we were able to enjoy the, literally, breathtaking scenes as the road edge plummeted beyond.  Imagine the road up to Rocky Mountain National Park with the drive along Big Sur, and then take out all those silly measures we have in the States to keep us from careening to our death and you have a pretty clear picture of the road up to Xinaliq.  Dad, this was not a drive you would have enjoyed.

Once there we walked around and enjoyed the village.  We visited their museum, took photos, and gave ample discussion material for the kids playing.  We booked this through CBT Azerbaijan, which I highly recommend if you're going to make this trip.  This included our expert driver and lunch with a Xinaliq host family.  Glendene and I have been saying how we want to explore more of what Azerbaijan has to offer this year and this was an outstanding way to begin it.

Check out the photos HERE

Hip-Hop From The Land Of Fire: Baku Beat - Ara Günlər

Last week I posted a track featuring and produced by Baku Beat, which was my first introduction to them.  I've been digging up some more from them and really enjoy the old school sound that they have.  They have a Jurassic 5 sound to them with easy beats and a revolving role call of members contributing their verses.  Ara Günlər has that posse cut feel, a nice and easy jam that bounces along.

Props to RapRock.Az

Baku Beat - Ara Günlər (which means 'Some Days' or 'These Days')



Previous on Hip-Hop From The Land Of Fire: Caspian Clan ft. Baku Beat

How To Get Your Internet Working in Azerbaijan

So, you've all been hearing about my utility woes throughout the past few weeks.  Its as if the utility companies collectively decided to play an April Fools joke on Josh that took weeks of preparation.  I now have internet back at my house (cue angelic chorus) and am slowly accustoming myself to a digital lifestyle again.  This has been a crazy process, but its incredibly demonstrative of the way things get done in Azerbaijan.  I thought it might be an enjoyable read for those of you back home to get a sense of how this country works.

A month ago my internet stopped working.  Usually when this happens it means I need to pay my bill.  That didn't fix it, but because the next day was a national holiday I couldn't do anything about it.

The next day I contacted the person in charge of internet setup in Khachmaz, Rasim.  To put it nicely, Rasim is not a hard worker.  Even amongst other phone department employees its somewhat of a joke that Rasim is never in the office.  Anytime you call him he'll tell you he can help you the next day, since there is no way he can change his tea-drinking schedule today.  He asked if I paid, I said I did.  He asked, which bank; I told him.  He said he will check, I said okay.

The next day I call him back, and he informs me that the bank said I paid.  'Thanks Rasim, I know.'  This happens to be while I'm at the local internet center where my friend Rashad works and he tells me I just need to reset the router, which he can do.  The next day I bring it to the internet center and Rashad resets it.  When I get back home I plug it in, nothing happens.

By this time its a day before I leave for vacation and I permit myself to throw my hands in the air before I peace out from Azerbaijan and enjoy one wonderful week with my family.  Getting back I steel myself for solving this internet problem and find I have about 5 more waiting for me (hooray!).

We are now at a point beyond telephones, and come Monday I head over to the internet office myself to try and get thigns done.  The man at the window says I need to speak with Rasim and calls him to ask where he is (because, of course, he's not in the office).  Rasim says he'll be there at 5.  At 5 I head back to the office, the friendly man asks if Rasim is here.  I say 'he said he'll be here'.  He laughs and says 'Rasim always says he'll be here'.

Once Rasim did come he tells me the router needs to be reset (which I've already done).  Unsurpringly the internet doesn't work when I get home.  My friend Elvin comes over and asks how this problem is coming along.  He then asks if my phone is working and picks it up.  It's staticy.  When we call it from our cell it says the number is unassigned.  Finally! We have identified the problem-its my phone number.

The next day I take my paid March bill to the phone company.  The woman takes my phone number and tells me she'll take care of it.  When I ask her what's the problem she reinstates, ' we will fix it'.  Nothing happens.  The day after I return and say nothing happened and my phone still doesn't work.  They said that someone came to my home but I wasn't home.  I say that I was home all day and they must have gone to a wrong address.  (We both know that what actually happened is that no one came ot myhome).

Generously, a second, nicer woman calls me over.  She asks what my phone number is, I tell her and she dials it, it works.  'Why doesn't it work from my phone?'  'They've recently changed the area code and you need extra numbers to dial it from a mobile.'

So, its good that the phone works (which I never use), but this brings me no closer to fixing the internet.  At this point my frustration level is approaching cartoon levels.  I know there is some incredibly simply solution to make this work.  I know there is some button some person needs to press to get my internet working.  I just need to figure out who.

Its time to get real.  I ask my friend Sabina if she will be my translator/muscle for this.  We call the Baku office directly.  They explain the reason my phone is working but my internet is not is because there are micro-cuts in my telephone line and it needs to be replaced.  Now, micro-cuts sounds like a pretty BS excuse to me but I've got no other options.

We head back to the phone company and tell them what the internet office told us.  The woman calls the person responsible for fixing telephone lines.  The related conversation of this phone call went something like this: 'When will you be over' 'I'll tell them later' 'Just tell them now' 'No, later.  After she hangs up she shrugs her shoulders and says 'You know how this country is'.

Sabina wisely says she'll follow up herself.  The guard tells us he's at a 'meeting'.  Now, we all know he's not at a meeting, he's at an early lunch.  We tell the guard we will be back tomorrow morning to speak with him.  The next day, he's in another 'meeting' (read: he hasn't come to work yet).  We stalk his door until he shows up and plead our case.  He calls for different people and soon, Sabina, myself, Rasim, and two other men are in a taxi heading to our house to replace my phone line.

At my house, Rasim looks at the router, then looks at the splitter.  A splitter is a small box that has a phone jack on one end and two phone jacks on the other; it allows a phone and a modem to be plugged into one line.  Rasim mutters 'If this works Josh, I'm going to kill you'.  He swaps the modem cord for the phone cord and the phone cord for the internet cord on the double jack end.  Within moments the internet comes back on.  I slap my head and groan.  I am so frustrated with the simplicity and ease of this solution.  Why couldn't ANYONE have pointed this out in any of my numerous interactions with them.

This is how problems get solved in Azerbaijan.  In America we have a history of throwing money at the problem, in Azerbaijan, its time.  Convenience and efficiency just aren't valued here in the way they are in America and most problems are solved by simple dogged determination and persistence, which are to be found in people here at astronomical levels.

When I first got to school, I was amazed to hear some of the ridiculous reasons teachers would give for why they weren't in school.  But after living here for 19.5 months I finally understand it.  I too have missed an entire week of class simply trying ot get my internet fixed.

More Pics from Prague

More pics uploaded from Prague. Check them out HERE

Stacked graves at in the Jewish Quarter 

The fairy tale village of Chesky Krumlov seen from the castle

Hip-Hop From The Land Of Fire: Caspian Clan ft. Baku Beat - True or Not True

I'll be honest, ever since RapRock.Az's site redesign I've basically ditched it as my primary source of finding new Azeri rap.  But, as of yet, it hasn't been a big problem with AzRap.Az posting some great leaks and promos.  And I give them props for the new Caspian Clan track published.

I'm trying to get more into Caspian Clan recently based on Uran's strong mixtape and the strong one-offs they've been releasing.  I really like this team up with Baku Beat, who contribute their characteristic upright bass thump, it gives it a nice old school sound.  Check it out below.

Caspian Clan ft. Baku Beat - True or Not True



Previous on Hip-Hop From The Land Of Fire: A-Team

Now I Can Focus on Getting Internet

I just finished a very stressful week.  The smooth landing I experienced returning from America last August was not repeated in my arrival back to Azerbaijan from Europe.  Arriving home I found my water pipes were broken, my gas was off, my phone had been disconnected and my internet had stopped working.  These aren't things that you can simply call to fix, they take multiple trips and different trouble shooting sessions.  As of now, only my gas is working (though the plumber is coming for a third time tonight).

Furthermore, this past week involved a massive amount of preparation for Kelly's and my first Training of Trainers Workshop, preparing strong English Teacher to teach trainings on Interactive Teaching Methods.  Much of the work had been done, but we were a little shocked to find that instead of the 10-15 teachers we assumed each workshop would have, we would have potentially 40 teachers.  We were on pace to go way over budget on our first training that was completely untested.

Between my apartment and the training it was enough to ensure that I didn't get a good night of sleep all week.  And it was a relief to leave Khachmaz for Mingechevir, knowing that I would be able to get away from my home for a couple of days and get the training over with.  Problems continued to be texted at me on the noisy 7 hour bus trip and I started making plan Bs, Cs, and Ds in my head.  Kelly and I greeted each other in Ming with a simple 'I can't wait to get this over with'.

But the training went great.  The teachers were active.  There seemed to be a real enjoyment and excitement about this workshop; rather than learning about specific methods, something most of these teachers are familiar with, they were learning a new set of professional skills that would allow them to help weaker teachers.  When we asked who thought they could hold a training in the next month, 11 teachers raised their hands, with many others asking if it was acceptable to hold a training in the next two months.

I've had enough experience in Azerbaijan to know it's unreasonable for me to expect 11 trainings, but I was thoroughly impressed with the caliber of these teachers and am confident that more than 3 teachers (our stated goal) will hold a training as a result of this workshop.  Yes we are now certainly over budget and we have to make some substantial changes to our training agenda, but the workshop itself was a complete success.

Kelly and I suspected that this could be a project Azerbaijanis would receive really well.  Instead of targeting the mediocre teachers, trying to get them better, we're targeting the exceptional teachers, preparing them to help make their fellow teachers better.  But all of this was just assumption until our first workshop.  I'm really pleased about the initial response and am excited to see what results from this over the next two months.