Attack of the Hairdryer.

(been in country for 1 whole week! Eep!)

Alright. So Azeris are potentially unnaturally afraid of the cold. Hot tea, hot beverages all the time, sweaters even when it’s warm… and perpetually dry hair.  Lately I’ve been a big fan of air drying my hair and haven’t really thought about it much since I got here.  The other night, I was sitting and eating dinner at Dan’s host family post shower (story behind that below), and his host dad, Abgul, sets up the hairdryer, pulls me over and makes me dry my hair so I won’t get sick.  No biggie… just had to stop eating to dry my hair.  He’s a winner J  A similar story happened at orientation just a few days ago.  There were a bunch of us in the conference room probably being way too loud and just having a great time playing games, etc, and a member of the hotel staff came in looking so worried.  We all thought that we were in trouble for being loud, but post translation from one of the fabulous AZ7s that was there to welcome us, it turns out that he was worried about all of the girls with wet hair in the air conditioned room.  So considerate and wonderful!

Anywho.  Host family report. It’s been an interesting ride for sure these past few days.  Turns out that my host mom’s mom fell off a ladder and broke her leg pretty badly and has been in the hospital.  So my mom and dad have to drive to the city to visit and take care of her.  Needless to say, their focus is on their immediate family and not this strange American who just showed up on their doorstep.  There are 3 other PCTs (peace corps trainees) literally right next door and for the first 2 days I took all my meals at their houses and really only slept at my house.  For expecting some sort of family emotional attachment, this was Really hard for me.  I felt just a bit Azer-bandoned. Tragic.  But here in Azerbaijan, neighbors are family.  Actually, all the families that the PCTs are staying with are related, so literally, we’re all family.  But they take hosting an American very seriously.  Through my LCF (language and culture facilitator) I found out that my Host mom feels TERRIBLE for not being able to be there for me.  I was really upset yesterday (oops… had to let it out sometime haha) and couldn’t explain my combination of exhaustion, anxiety, need for a family here, missing my family and friends, etc etc and it really worried my mom who I’d only seen for about 5 mins total before then.  But my Hmom just wants to take care of me, give a bit of love and welcome me to this culture and her life, but has to take care of her mom.  No one plans on breaking their leg! So me eating and such at my fellow PCTs houses is a-OK and when I felt like I was mooching on their family time, turns out was family time for me too!   So my feelings of isolation and lack of family connection were apparently a bit on the silly side, but there regardless. 

After talking to Khayal (in azeri, it’s spelled Xayal – the X makes a hkh sound) who is our training director and absolutely hilarious and Farana the host family coordinator, all my worries are starting to go away.  My family loves me and wishes they could be at home with me, but need to take care of Nana (grandmother).  I think things will be in this same pattern for a few more days before she is released from the hospital.  I’m not sure though.  But moral of the story is – I have 3 other families right next door that think I’m the bees knees, I am unbelievably supported here and I’m really really happy. 

The language is difficult but I’m starting to make progress.  Tonight I had my first dinner with my host family (YESSSSSS!!!!) and my Hdad pulled out a neighborhood kids English text book and was quizzing me on my Azeri and I would correct his English.  It’s amazing what charades, a lot of laughing and not being afraid to try either language will accomplish.  Every Azeri I have met has been so kind and wonderful.  I was so worried about breaking cultural taboos, being offensive in some unknown way or being mocked for my miserable Azerbaijani…. Nope! Love it. 

I’m living in Khirdalan (Xirdalan), just north of Baku.  It’s a beautiful area!  There are pomegranates (nar) and grapes (uzum) literally growing outside my window that we pick and eat.  Delicious! There is a lot of garbage around the cities, but apparently there just isn’t the infrastructure to really deal with it.  It’s a bit sad to see since we’re so used to having trash cans and not having to be around our garbage.  On saunday, our day off from language classes, some riends and I are going up to Sumgayit (another large city nearby) to get a flavor of the city, hagn out and see what Azerbaijan has to offer.  Should be really fun!

I’m hoping to get mail soon so I can write back!!! I have my stationery all ready to go and I know where the post office is.  Win.  I put some pictures on facebook to start with... I'll work on figuring out how to do it on here haha.  

Stay tuned!! So far it’s Azerbai-Awesome. Sorry for the scattered post… there’s so much to take in it’s hard to focus it!! Lotta love, E