One month in Baku

This past month has been full of unexpected occasions, yet expected learning about a new culture that I new little about, the Azerbaijani culture. I have had multiple experiences that I’ve needed/wanted to write down. Unfortunately, time, limited Internet, and the Blog that doesn’t want to work on that Internet have all minimized my writing.

Pictures at dusk on a drizzly Sunday Tail Light Christmas Tree
Notice the interesting traffic patterns (Clue: There aren't any)

Two Mosques visible from my apartment

One of many more stories (to be written):
My third weekend I was told on a Friday afternoon that I was having lunch the next day and that I would be picked up downtown where I would be on a tour with students learning about some of the history of the city. I learned quickly enough that there is no fair warning of anything much here. This example was prime. I had just learned of the tour with the students earlier that day and now I was going to lunch. That information was all I was left with. The next morning, I decided that although I would be walking for 3 ½ hours, I had no idea what the lunch was, so I better dress a little better than my Saturday city tour dress.

While I was on the tour, I learned from the professor from Italy that apparently the two of us would be having lunch with the Ambassador, which one neither of us knew for sure. Although, he had a name he’d been trying to practice so he could greet him. We about determined that he was probably the Azeri Ambassador, but to where, we didn’t know. The tour was fascinating. The tour guide is Azeri and lives in Canada, but was here for a number of months. He introduced himself by saying that he was neither a historian nor a tour guide. If any other historian or tour guide could have that much passion, he would be a hot commodity anywhere. This tall Azeri had dug so deep into the history of every building in about a 4-block radius that I couldn’t have imagined a more thorough knowledge by any other living person. He carried a large accordion file with picture from the last 200 years. The pictures were of buildings that were there prior to Soviet occupation or of the buildings that still stood from past times. For example there is an old famous (in Azeri circles) novel that is a true story that took place in the area, entitled Ali and Nino, and he showed us the schools or what were the schools that Ali and Nino went to. The pictures also included photos of families or people, especially old oil barons. We saw many of the houses or palaces that they lived in from the outside, including many old smaller run down places that included many people during harder times. Thus, Fuad had found the descendents of these people wherever they were spread throughout Europe, Russia, and Azerbaijan or as far-flung as they had ended up due to wars, occupations, or other causes of dispersions. The descendents all provided him with pictures of their ancestors and of the homes, churches that had been torn down, schools, and other buildings. The three hours was seriously amazing. Luckily, I am to have another tour with him within the Old City walls (Ichirishahar) with a different group of students. I have been here a month and have yet to actually tour any of these buildings that are the tourist attractions of Baku.

Old City Tour to come

Luigi and I were picked up back at where we began the tour and stuffed into separate cars that belong to the school; complete with our drivers we have for the school. I drove about a half hour out of the city to Retro, a fancy newer resort that I believe was begun by the Ambassador himself. I rode in the car with an Azerbaijani co-worker who is the director of one of the programs. Most of the conversation on the way ended up being questions and answers about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He told me he is not atheist, but not religious, and that he was curious what others believed. I answered questions and described much of the doctrine when asked. He was quite impressed that I would have given up a year-and-a-half of my life to be a missionary, who wasn’t making any money, but being supported, by my own savings, my family, and other members of the church. He was amazed that someone could have that much passion about a religion to volunteer to tell people about it. It was a great conversation.
At the resort, we were treated to a feast over a couple of hours. I was very confused about the identity of the Ambassador and never really cleared up my confusion until the following week at the office with another colleague. I thought I had met him my first day at the school when I first walked in and that he had been introduced as the Rector, but I had been a bit dazed and confused that first day with my jet lag. In any case, during the feast he was the Ambassador, I was still unsure about who he was an Ambassador for or to, but guessed that he was the Ambassador to the U.S. based on much of the conversation. Many of the other foreign staff members were also in attendance at the feast. Much of the conversation was about political topics, which is expected when I work for the Azerbaijan Diplomatic Academy. However, much of the conversation was about religion. Somehow it usually turns to that here, I’m finding. The group consisted of many religions (LDS, Muslim, Hindi, non-believing Italian Catholic, and others, I believe) and many who were not religious. The meal with at least 7 or 8 courses was fabulous. After each course, my plate was cleared and a new plate and utensils appeared with the constant whisking around of the wait staff. It was fascinating and I felt like I was being treated like a princess. I think that we must have dirtied at least 100 plates and 300 utensils during the course of that meal. In any case, the most interesting part that I wanted to recount came during tea at the end. I had already refused wine and all other like substances that they nearly poured into my glasses several times. Then, tea somehow became more difficult. I refused the first waitress who came along with tea and confused her completely. The Ambassador noticed and asked why I wouldn’t drink tea. He said, “you are in Azerbaijan; you must drink tea.” I just sort-of smiled and didn’t others around me shifted uncomfortably, because some had already discovered that I don’t drink tea on previous occasions. Luckily, the conversation moved on and I thought it had passed. Then, a ninja waiter who noticed I didn’t have one mysteriously placed another cup in front of me. The Ambassador spoke up and said, “there, now you have the choice again, to drink or not.” He waited and watched while I said something about not drinking tea and his wife asked if I’d rather have coffee, which I also refused. Everyone sat watching me to see what I would do as the Ambassador seemed to be expecting me to make the choice and I just left the tea in front of me and looked on. The Vice Rector sitting beside me, knowing my beliefs, relieved me by taking the cup and saying, “here, I’ll drink that.” That settled it, and the conversation carried on. I didn’t know how much I was offending, and hoped I wasn’t, but the Vice Rector saved me as far as I could tell.
The ride home was with the Italian and the other American who also asked me all about the Church. Actually, the American already knew a lot because she is the admissions director and had been a recruiter at a university in Pennsylvania, where she did a bit of recruiting at BYU. Thus, she had done her research on the LDS culture. However, the Italian professor had many misconceptions and had a very negative idea of the Church and was not afraid of expressing it. I again answered many questions and basically provided the history and the entire basis of our beliefs and the doctrine throughout the entirety of the drive home. It was not well received by Luigi, but Janice was generally interested and much more receptive.
I believe I mentioned in my original Baku Blog that it is against the law to proselyte or to preach about religion here. However, I can answer questions when asked. Prior to that day and since, I find that I am asked about the LDS Church and my beliefs two to three times a day, mostly at work. I am glad that I am allowed to openly answer questions and that many are impressed by much of what we believe, especially the importance we place on the family. Families are very important in the Azerbaijani culture. Also, many are surprised constantly by the practices pertaining to the Word of Wisdom and the Sabbath Day. I have several who watch out for me when it comes to both. For example, I have had meetings cancelled on Sunday by the Vice Rector because he knows I go to church and that I don’t work on Sundays, or I have had other colleagues who will tell me not to eat something because it has coffee or something in it. It is nice that they recognize that I actually do not only believe these things, but that I try to live them too and they genuinely want to help me to. It is impressive as most are Muslim, but not practicing or religious.

Rug Shop on Ramazan

From Old to new Baku

Thanks to the Branch President and his wife, I now have pictures!! They lent me their camera, so I've taken just a few to at least have something to show.
I have much to say, and definitely won't get it all typed.
First, if you've been in tune with my frustrations of being able to get onto Blogger this past week, I'll say that there is the possibility that I might switch to another Blog. If so, I'll let you know. I'm guessing that my problems have to do with the Internet service that I have at home, but I don't really understand.

Icharishahar (Old City) Double Gate

I have had a four-day weekend which is almost over, but it has been nice to sort-of catch up with my new life here in some ways and to exercise, etc. Early this afternoon, I decided to take a walk down to the Old City with the camera I had lent to me. I wanted to accomplish two things: exercise and take pictures. When I was in the Old City walls, I got caught as I was taking pictures of the "Flying Carpet" shop. I was glad to talk to the people who work there and I was well taken care of. They quickly got me into the shop and said they'd take my picture, which resulted in an hour and a half of intimate details about rug-making, the many types of weave for lamb's wool, camel, and silk, and which are the best (Azeri, of course), etc. Actually, it was quite interesting and now I have a much greater appreciation for rugs and why they are so important to the people of this region. Now I understand Scott McGrew and the important rug purchases while in Morocco. I just didn't expect to spend so long on my walk. I do hope to buy one before leaving. In the meantime, Ruslan, who spent the hour-and-a-half describing the rugs to me, has offered to give me a tour of the Old City, because he used to give tours there. I think I'll take him up on it, because I know I'll learn a bit more than if I were to do a self-guided tour.

Ruslan dressed me up for a picture in the rug shop

2 1/2 Weeks in Baku, Azerbaijan

I am finally sitting down to write about my new life. Unfortunately, I do not have a camera, so photos will have to follow once friends share some with me and once I acquire a camera.

As many know, I became quite ill in the last couple of days before leaving Monterey. I don't know if I got the stomach flu that I was exposed to while visiting most of my family during that week or if it was me just being overwhelmed by everything happening. In any case, I received a blessing at church that day and quickly recovered to the point that I could function somewhat. With the help of my Brother and Sister-in-law, I was somehow able to get everything in my suitcases and to the San Francisco airport on time.

My 24 hours of flying and traveling were mostly without incident. The one incident that I will recount occurred when I arrived in the airport in Baku. I hadn't slept much until the flight from Istanbul to Baku, so I was a little sleepy when I arrived and started through customs at midnight local time. I went through the customs gate quickly and gathered my luggage. I thought I was set to go, but on my way out the door, I apparently had one more set of customs clearance to go through. I had a security guard stop me and say that he needed to scan two items of my luggage. I don't know how he chose the two that he did, but he selected my large red bag and my carry on suitcase that had all of my books and teaching materials. As they went through his scanner, he asked me about the books and what books I had. I went through extensive questioning as he didn't seem to believe that I was here to teach English. He asked about my religious materials that I also had in the suitcase, and continued to hold onto my "Preach My Gospel" book. When he asked whether I had any other religious material, I pulled out a small Book of Mormon and he said he wasn't worried about that one. His questions basically alluded to an unknown problem to me (at that time) that they had recently with some proselyting. It is illegal here. So of course, with a title like "Preach My Gospel," ... In any, case he continued to ask me about this school, because he said he'd never heard about it. Eventually, he asked for my email address because I didn't know my local address or the address of the school. So I received a series of emails that I felt obligated to respond to about such things as I shouldn't have come so early because schools don't start until this week. But I stopped responding once he told me that he would like to keep emailing me to practice his English.

It took me a week to get over my jet lag and much longer to learn most of the names of the people I was introduced to only about 12 hours after arriving when I was barely coherent enough to stand on my feet.

I began to teach the Tuesday after I arrived on September 1st. I am teaching English Content Writing and Editing to students who are just beginning the first Masters of Arts in Diplomacy and International Relations at the Azerbaijan Diplomatic Academy. This group consist of 2/3 Azerbaijani, 2 Mexicans, 2 Czechs, 1 Pakistani, and 2 Kenyans. I've been involved in the revamping of the English portion of another program that the Academy has, which is the Advanced Foreign Service Program for people who already work in the various ministries. In the meantime, it was announced that we will begin a Bachelor's program next year at the same time our main campus is supposed to be completed. Their current idea is to begin the first year as entirely intensive English. Therefore, we will begin to come up with the curriculum for that first year. I will probably enlist the MIIS Curriculum Design class to help with at least a portion of that curriculum as my former Professor, Peter Shaw, kept indicating that he would love to have the students help with any curriculum that we would need. I knew that I would be doing much more than teaching, and that is proving to be true.

Now for those who would like to know about my life here. I'll begin by explaining that I arrived toward the beginning of the Holy month of Ramazan (Ramadan). For those who don't know, many of the more religious Muslims fast during the day and eat at Sunset. I say "many" because most here are Muslim, but they aren't necessarily the strictest or the most religious. Some fast some days, but not everyday and some don't fast at all. I haven't found one who fasts everyday yet. Of course, there are some things about women, that doesn't allow them to fast everyday of the month. But I won't go into that, as I feel that it is very sad that the adversary makes it out to be a bad thing to be a woman, because at certain times they are not pure and cannot fast. Anyway, my point is that I've celebrated many an Iftar or break-the-fast dinners with the ADA staff. This meal that I've shared with many of them is a feast. I feel like I eat so much that it wouldn't matter if I fasted the next day, because I wouldn't need to eat for 24 hours. Not to demean the tradition, because I don't know if I could fast for 28 days straight and only eat dinner every day. The traditional meal as I perceive it, consists of some type of salad without lettuce, various cheeses, bread, some fresh vegetables, often some pickles or not fresh vegetables, a mayonnaise salad (Russian) that reminds me of a Brazilian salad I always ate, another salad that is more like a creamy dill dip, and several other things to start with. Then, there will be several other courses, which could be sac ((Sodge) meat and vegetables cooked on a pan similar to a wok), kebab (many meats cooked without a stick), or plov (a yellow rice with various things on top like an omelet-like thing, different meats or whatever on top). I have had just a couple of other things, but these tend to be the main things. Then, there is always tea with different types of preserves that they just eat by itself. Sometimes Halvasi (similar to Baklava) will accompany the tea.

Some are awaiting my accounting of the trip I took last weekend with many of the students based on my comments on facebook. If only I had something to write on last weekend, I made many observations on this trip which told me a lot about the culture. We traveled by bus to Sheki (near the Georgian border), which is about 200 miles from Baku. It took us 7 hours to get there and 7 hours to return. One reason for the length of the trek: There is extensive construction unlike anything you have or will see in the U.S. unless perhaps you are 80+ years old. And just as an aside: Driving is insane here. I thought it was scary an insane in Taiwan, but this is much worse. I describe it as improvisation. The few laws I can decipher are red lights and one-way streets and generally driving on the right side of the road, but even these laws don't always apply when not convenient. I decided from day 1: I will never drive here! I would never survive. In any case, the construction that we drove through was through the "land of desolation." Not a green speck in site. We were driving through brown hills for what seemed like hours on dirt roads that were had potholes the size of large troughs every couple of feet. Needless to say our already scary looking bus had to drive somewhere between 5 and 20 miles an hour the entire construction route. And once on the way and twice on the way back the bus quit during this construction on the way up hills. It would take awhile to get it going again each time. It was a bit worrisome that I might be stuck in the land of desolation without a bush to go behind when nature called or worse, for the entire night.

Once we suddenly drove out of the land of desolation into the green and paved yet still pothole ridden roads, I thought I had woken up in a new land. From the 4 million population city of Baku, to the land of desolation and then to the land of promise. It was suddenly beautiful and got to be more beautiful as we drove closer to the North. (Apparently there are 9 of the 11 types of climates in this tiny country of Azerbaijan.) Other reasons the trek was so long: There is a tradition of stopping at "rest stops" for tea. These randomly placed rest stops that are all different are just on the side of the road and they ranged from all sorts of atmospheres outdoor: from a large table or set of tables that seats about 50 people or a bunch of gazebos in the forest where there are also tree swings and other entertaining attractions and then you sit down and have tea as described above. I can't go on without saying that I was glad for my Taiwan preparation of the holes in the ground used in place of toilets. I was so disappointed to see one again, but glad that I had experienced this previously. And of course, just like Taiwan, it is necessary to always have your own tissues or suffer the consequences. Then, you just hope there is some water to wash your hands and maybe some soap, but if not, there is always hand sanitizer in the purse. Again glad for having already experienced all this in Taiwan ... The biggest problem with stopping for tea is that we would stop for at least an hour.

In any case, the trip was the most adventurous. However, Sheki, which is along the "Silk Road" was a really nice town to visit and see the palace of the Sheki Khans, a World War II museum and several other museums and other interesting buildings, including an old Albanian Christian church or temple from the first century in Kish. For more of your own reading pleasure and to see some pictures that I am not providing, see: http://wikitravel.org/en/Sheki

Other observations on this trip:
There are parks and tea houses everywhere that are full of men playing Nard, a game similar to or that looks like Backgammon. Women are actually not allowed to enter these parks or tea houses. Actually, I've noticed that I probably see at least 20 men to one woman everywhere I go. I don't know why, but there are always men everywhere in the streets either walking around, or playing on the card table they've set up anywhere including in the middle of the streets in some places.
Everyone honks constantly and similar to the rest of the driving, there doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to any of it. I can't figure out what honks mean. I mean even with cows and sheep all along the entire trek to Sheki on the side of the road or in the road, the bus driver even honked at them. I don't know what good that does. Needless to say that with the road the way it was and the constant honking, there was no way to sleep on that bus.
There will be children and adults all along the side of the road in many places trying to sell hazelnuts, or other nuts or fruit that they have in bags. They would be placed about every fifteen feet each trying to wave down the bus and all cars traveling past to get them to buy these things. Of course, the bus driver honked at them too.
I'll have to recall some of my many other observations from this trip last weekend, which I was able to do as the students basically spoke Azerbaijani to each other except when occasionally they would decide to ask me random questions or the Italian professor who was sitting in the opposite end of the bus as me. Or occasionally, I would have different students switching out/kicking out the current occupant to come and sit by me to chat for awhile. In any case, most of the weekend, I was just an observer and a bit less social than my normal as I can't speak Azerbaijani or Russian. Azerbaijani classes begin soon? They keep telling me "next week," but it is like "tomorrow" that never comes. So we'll see.

More stories to come about my life here in Azerbaijan ...
About Church, missionary opportunities (of sorts), ADA community, my apartment, lunch with the Azeri Ambassador, etc. Anything else anyone wants to know about, let me know.