Shooting in Baku

There was a shooting at a university in Baku today. The only thing that I’ve heard that seems credible is that there was a Georgian who was ethnically Azeri that entered the school and started shoot at people as he made his way up a staircase before turning the gun on himself. Here’s the LA Times article on it.

I’ve heard rumors of up to 50 people dead and up to three gunmen, but I’m not sure what to believe at this point.

In America, these stories have become all too common.  I remember right where I was when Columbine happened, not only because of what was happening, but also because it was so big and so new.  It’s too bad that Azerbaijan has joined the list of places where being at school isn’t safe.

If you’re concerned

I heard about the ‘pandemic’ of swine flu in the U.S.  I hope those in charge are taking it seriously, but it seems like the panic mode that network news agencies are inclined to go in to is a little much at this point.

Over here, Azerbaijan is safe and sound because pork and pork products are hard to find in this Muslim country.  This place is pretty secular though, so a lot of people I’ve talked to say that they’d eat pork if it was available, but it’s usually either too expensive or not available.

I’m on a mission to find some of the ever-elusive pork in the regions of Azerbaijan in the next month.  Stay tuned.

Where’s Jeffro?

If you’re got Google Earth, open it up and set it to:

Latitude  40°30′46.50″N

Longitude  47°39′23.70″E

That’s where I live.  I wanted to post a link to it, but I couldn’t figure out how to do it.

UPDATE:  Alright, I got a link, but it’s not for google earth, but rather, google maps.  You can scroll out to get a sense of where in the world it is.  Click here to see my house from space.

Fox News has penetrated Azerbaijan

A lot of Azerbaijanis think that Barack Obama is a Muslim.  People love it though.  Unlike America, where this misrepresentation of Obama is meant to hurt his image, people here really dig the fact that a Muslim is in such a prominent position.  So it really confuses people when I say “Actually, he’s not a Muslim.”  I’ve gone back and forth with people about this before, and they usually will admit that I know what I’m talking about, but it’s come up again thanks to a crappy translation.

It all stems from a few sentences Obama’s recent visit to Turkey and his address to the Turkish parliment:

We will convey our deep appreciation for the Islamic faith, which has done so much over the centuries to shape the world — including in my own country. The United States has been enriched by Muslim Americans. Many other Americans have Muslims in their families or have lived in a Muslim-majority country — I know, because I am one of them.

I don’t know exactly how it was translated in the news, but after the speech in Turkey, a fellow PCV told me that a lot of people were coming up to him and telling him that they saw on the news that Obama is a Muslim.  I wouldn’t put it past the local news to make such a claim, and no one was really talking to me about it, except to tell me that they saw Obama was in Turkey and that he’s a yakshi oglan (good boy).

But when I went to school today, I was talking shop with a teacher of mine and he told me about what he’d seen on the news.  Without getting too deep in the translation, he told me that Obama said “My family is Muslim” rather than “My family has Muslims,” which are pretty similar sentances in English and Azeri.   I explained the difference and after a bit of a back-and-forth, he conceded.  I think he actually won the argument though, because he ended with, “Well, that’s what the news said.”

In the quest to correct misinformation, I seemd to have won the battle but lost the war.

Maybe I should join the Peace Corps

I might have played my get out of jail fee card a bit early by joining the Peace Corps when I did.  When I left America, everything was fine.  Now, all I hear about, from both Azeris and American media online, is that we’re in crisis mode (or in Azeri cree-sees).  The prospect of reentering the American economy jobless and homeless freaks me out and makes me think, “If only there was an interesting way for me to spend a couple years riding out the economic downturn while adding an interesting experience to my resume.”  And apparently I’m not the only one.

From the Atlanta Journal Constitution in Georgia (the state, not the republic):

“We are seeing our numbers go up every month, and I expect an increase in applications and inquiries in 2009,” said David Leavitt, Peace Corps spokesman at the Atlanta regional headquarters. “Nationally, the number [of applicants] is up 16 percent,” he said.

Sounds like volunteerism is on the rise.  I’d like to attribute it to an increased sense of community fostered by Obama, but more likely, people are unemployed and don’t know what to do.  The rise in applicants isn’t just for kids out of college either.  From CNN:

Applications for the Peace Corps from adults over 50 have spiked 44 percent in 2008 compared to 2007, driven largely by the weak economy and a campaign launched in 2007 to lure mature volunteers.

The more people in the Peace Corps, the better I say.  But an expanding PC program needs and expanded budget, because opening up and expanding programs on a preexisting budget AND a dollar that has lost a lot of its value overseas means a lot of cutting and scraping at PC posts around the globe.  We’ve felt it here in PC Azerbaijan, and my group got lucky.  The new PCVs that arrive after I leave are really going to feel it.  A rise in applicants to the PC, for whatever reason, will hopefully bring more funding to the program.

EDIT:  Eli, who I guess is going to be a volunteer in Azerbaijan, posted a link to a website that aims to expand the Peace Corps in the comments.  Thanks.

Lighter Azeri News

Ali at IN MUTATIONE FORTITUDO translated an interview with Elariz Mammadoglu, Azerbaijan’s “king of elite weddings.”

When asked about politics, Mammadoglu added:

Oh my God, I nearly forgot, add this please that France’s President is Sarkozy. I like him very much. You know why? Because he is a womanizer.

The rest is like that.  Silly.  Check it out for the picture alone.  Props to Ali for the translation.

update: Apparently the content of this post changed, but you can find the original contents in the comments section of Ali’s blog.

Worthwhile Reading

Finding blogs about Azerbaijan has been tough.  Aside from Peace Corps blogs, which tend to read more like diaries than anything connected to the rest of the web, there aren’t a lot of people blogging about the Land of Fire in English.  I’ve managed to find a couple of them, though, and I’d like to share some links.

Scary Azeri is an interesting blog written by an Azeri woman who now lives in England.  Reading about some of the culture shock she’s gone through is very familiar to me because it’s almost the exact opposite of what I’ve gone through over the past year.  I first came across her blog because of our mutal connection with an old friend, which she wrote about in this post.

Flying Carpets and Broken Pipelines takes he cake for longest URL, but it’s an interesting read on current affairs with a local perspective.  The blogs author has gone international, claiming to write from “Baku-Istanbul-London, Azerbaijan.”

In Mutatione Fortitudo is another blog that I just found, written by a Bakuvian.

Thoughts on the Road makes the simple claim to be “observations of an American journalist in Azerbaijan, Russia, and the USA.”

54-28 was the number

The Portland Trail Blazers just crushed the Denver Nuggets to close out an amazing NBA season.  The Blazers ended up with 54 wins, which is above pretty much everybody’s expectations.  A lot of people thought the blazers would be in the mix to fight for a playoff spot.  Instead, we swooped in and got home court advantage.  We’ll play the rockets in the first round.

I’ve been following the Blazers religiously this season.  I think I can speak for all sports-loving PC volunteers by saying that it’s hard to be away from home and follow what’s going on back home.  Over the past two NBA seasons I’ve seen one half of one Blazers game.  Luckily, I’ve got dial up internet at my house, so I’ve been able to read game recaps and boxscores pretty easily.  I’ve got to give it up to my most often-checked website, Blazersedge.

With all that, I’ve never had as much fun following a season of NBA basketball that I have had this year.  NBA ratings are consistently low, which is unfortunate because there is some great ball being played right now.  Thanks, Blazers, for the great basketball.

T minus 5

Five months left in the Peace Corps.  Time keeps on tickin’.

The past month has been really odd compared to other months I’ve spent in the Peace Corps, because, like I mentioned, I took some vacation days in Tbilisi and my mom came and visited from America.  At this point, I don’t see myself leaving the country again until I finish up service, and I doubt anyone else is gonna shell out the dough to come and visit me.

Even though it’s crazy to think that I’ve only got 5 months left, what might be a bigger milestone is that I’ve only got about six weeks left of school.  As a TEFL volunteer, my work revolves around my school and once school is finished, there isn’t a lot to do.  I’m trying to set up a few activities for the summer months, but the hours-per-week that I’ll be spending on them is going to be pretty low.

With that in mind I just want to spend some quality time with my people at school, and go out with some good memories.

Azerbaimama

My visited me over the past couple of weeks.  I was naturally both excited and anxious for her visit.  I haven’t spent ten days with my mom for years, so I knew it would be a bit intense.  At the same time, I really wanted her to see me in my element over here, and share with her some of the wonders of Azerbaijan (which includes the good and the bad).

There were a few things that I think she had a hard time with: crossing streets one lane at a time, the garbage and pollution, and bumpy crowdedness of public transportation here.  Aside from that though, I’d say she had a good time.

First, we did some site-seeing in Baku, (which I realized is actually pretty limited – outside the Old City, there wasn’t much to do) and then visited my old host family in Sumgayit.  It was really great to get to show my mom where I first lived, and get her to meet my host mom, who is an incredible woman.

We made our way back to the regions and stopped in Ismayli so we could do a quick day trip to Lahij, a really neat little mountain town that hosts Tim, fellow PCV, who has to endure a hell of a bus ride to get to his picturesque community.  The bus ride there is an hour and a half cliffhanger that offers some pretty amazing views.  I couldn’t imagine going there in the winter.

After Lahij and Ismayli, we came back to Ujar, my home sweet home.  My students seemed eager to meet my mom, and the teachers at school were really welcoming.  One of the assistant principals, upon finding out that the lady following me around was my mom, went up to her and gave her a big hug, and then told her that she hopes I have a lot of children.

After classes, we went over to friends’ houses for dinner, where I think my mom was really blown away.  Before I really get in to that though, I need to explain about Azerbaijani hospitality.

Azerbaijanis are very proud of their reputation as hospitable people.  I don’t know how much the rest of the world knows it, but they feel they are famous for it.  I go back and forth on how much I agree with this notion.  In my circumstance, I feel like if I know someone, chances are they are going to go out of their way to help me.  Even sometimes with folks I don’t know, I’ve found that some people can be very kind.  One time I was walking down the street looking for a house, and this guy walked up and down the street with me until I found it.  While not completely necessary, you wouldn’t find this kind of thing in America.

The places in Azerbaijani culture where hospitality doesn’t exist is where I tend to dwell.  Taxi drivers (who are jerks everywhere) feel like they can pull a fast one on me because I’m a foreigner.  Any concept of waiting one’s turn is shattered by a sudden me-first attitude that I still haven’t really gotten used to.

While I think my mom got a dose of both realities, I feel like she walked away with a strong sense that hospitality in Azerbaijan makes America look like a country full of selfish jerks.  We would go over to dinner that featured spreads that would rival the size of a Thanksgiving dinner in America.  They would sweat in the kitchen for the simple occasion of having us over for dinner.  On our final night of guesting, which we decided to go to at the last minute, on our way out my friend Rasmiyya gave my mom som towels (which as I write, doesn’t sound like a lot, but it was a really sweet thing to do).

Finally, we made our way back to Baku, picked up a few carpets as souveniers, and that was the end of my mom’s Azerbaijan experience.  It was fun, and the ten days with her wasn’t nearly as stressful as I thought it was going to be.

It also made me feel proud of what I’ve done here.  She got to see me in my groove over here, which only a handful of people will be able to witness.  Like she said, you can’t explain Azerbaijan.  You’ve got to experience it to understand.

We were taking pictures with her camera, mostly.  Here are a couple more pics I took with my camera, though.