Khachmaz Has Got Talent!

MyMic'rs from Ganja warming up before the show.  Note the most Azeri backdrop ever.

Ali, the 2.5 foot Lesginka dancer.

I really like Khachmaz.  The people here are nice, its a place that's seen Americans before, and we've got beautiful (relatively speaking) shoreline only a few kilometers away.  Heck, we even have a pretty supportive relationship with our local government, which is to say, they are not explicilty unsupportive.  Yeah, Khachmaz has a lot of good things going for it.

But what I like most about my site are my incredibly sitemates, who continue to do things that amaze and impress me.

Previous causes of pride have resulted from activities such as what Glendene is doing.  She's teaching yoga twice weekly to a growing group of women.  In a country where so many aspects of the female body are shamed and objectified, Glendene is helping some of these women rediscover their own body for the first time since leaving school (and sports) over 20 years ago.

Or Lannea who, with her counterpart has opened a sustainable women's computer center, which not only provides computer lessons and internet capability to girls in a culturally safe environment, but also is creating leadership and employment opportunities for graduated students in teaching new girls.

These are pretty awesome things.  And on Saturday, another awesome thing happened; Khachmaz hosted its first MyMic.

MyMic is a program that was started in Ganja by a Peace Corps Volunteer, and its basically a monthly open mic night.  I attended one this winter and it was great-people sang and played piano.  There were bands and rappers, dancing and poetry reading.  It was an awesome way for kids and adults to showoff their talent and an enjoyable way for the audience to discover what Ganja has to offer.

Recently, Dustin applied for a grant to initatiate MyMic in two new regions and Lannea and Kelsey applied to bring it to Khachmaz.  We were selected and this past saturday 7 talented youth from Ganja came with Dustin to help launch Khachmaz's first MyMic and it was possibly the most enjoyable experience of my service.

The first act set the tone; two kids around 10 blew the crowd away with some great breakdancing.  A girl sang Adele's rolling in the deep.  Two guys from Ganja performed Led Zeppelin's 'Black Dog' and afterward one of them performed an absolutely insane 3-minute guitar solo.  A trio of 6 year olds, clad in Minnie Mouse dresses, did a choreographed dance to 'Barbie Girl'.  The house nearly lost it when two girls from Ganja did their hip-hop dance routine, only to further be blown away by the next act-the smallest, and most adorable, 5 year old, performing Lesginka in traditional garb.  People rapped, read poetry, and sang mugam.  It was awesome.

I'm super excited for this monthly event.  After the show, people were rushing up to find out how they could perform next time.  We already had a crowd of about 100 people in the region's (beautiful) Culture House, I can't wait to see who shows up next time.