Giving Thanks in the Peace Corps

Sorry it's been a while since the last post! It's been an eventful past few weeks. Here's the real quick run down:

1) My site location will be a city called Mingechiver!
- 97,000 people.

- I'll be working in the Azerbaijani Government's Ministry of Youth & Sports.

- There will be a total of 8 Peace Corps Volunteers living in the City! So many!

- It's kind of a hub town for transportation between the other cities in the country, so I think I'll have a good chance to travel and see people during the next 2 years.

2) I randomly saw the Azeri President driving by in a convoy one afternoon as I was walking by the highway near my town. Very random. I was just buying a candy bar, and all of a sudden there's this long line of fast moving vehicles.

3) Visited the capital, Baku. It was fun and relaxing but the best part was that I actually saw them building the "Death Star Hotel" that I saw a picture of before. It's actually called the "Full Moon Hotel" or something like that, but I don't care. It's going to be this Dubai type hotel that looks all crazy and fancy, but right now it's just starting to take it's circular form; kind of reminds me of Return of the Jedi....I'm a big dork; trusty me, I know.

4) I've been having a great time with my fellow Trainees and have been so happy to be surrounded every day by the other wonderful Youth Development folks. They're a lot of fun, and it's been great having each other to lean on. It will be sad when we split in 2 weeks after we swear in as Volunteers.

5) We lost another trainee. More bad allergic reactions to the pollution around this part of the country. They were suggesting steroids for her, but after being put on all kinds of other medications, she just had to say enough is enough. AZ7 now consists of 64 trainees.

I hope everyone's Thanksgiving went well. Heard that the Green Bay Packers won, so I'm satisfied. This was my first Thanksgiving not with the family so it was a little strange. Luckily, us YDs got together to kind of form our own little family here. Our big meal will take place on Sunday, but on Thursday we spent the afternoon and evening together playing games, watching movies and drinking/eating whatever came our way. I am truly thankful to be surrounded by so many people that I enjoy.

During the Thanksgiving season I figured I should reflect on the things that I'm thankful for that have contributed to my experience so far. Here's a short list:

- Skype/Technology: It has been a real blessing to have the opportunity to stay in contact with family, friends and loved ones. It's been great tool for keeping in touch with folks, staying updated on events at home, and actually seeing some one's face while talking to them. Such a blessing.

- My Fellow Trainees: Everyone knows everyone else's name and from what I can see, pretty much everyone gets along. However, the only people you see each and every day are the other people who belong to your Technical Group. In Azerbaijan, we have 3 of these; CED (community economic development), TEFL (teaching English as a foreign language), and YD (youth development). I know I've said it a lot already, but it really has been a wonderful to be surround by such great people. It feels a lot like relationships I found while working for Sierra Service Project. Not exactly the same, but familiar enough to make a close comparison. And although we will part ways soon, many YD's are heading to the western region of the country and Mingechiver is kind of the gateway to the west, so we'll all be relatively close.

- A strong support network back home: This is in regards to my parents calling pretty often; about once a week. Even though they always say how boring they are, they always manage to make me laugh and I love getting updates. My sisters, who are both extremely busy and working hard with they're current life paths, but have managed to show me support and love. Hannah, who has woken up between the hours of 2am and 5am to hop on Skype so that we could get a chance to not only talk but see each other too. And she's so good at being in a good mood, despite the time. And of course the emails, the messages, the inside jokes, the prayers and love that I've received from so many of you. Each interaction I have with someone back home, whether it's a letter, or a one sentence comment sent through the Internet gives me more strength than you even know. Truly, thank you.

I love you all. I hope to get back into the swing of things and start posting more regularly and having more concise entries. Catch you soon!

Pictures: #1, Hanging out on a Sunday with fellow Trainees. #2, Me and my cluster (language class) in Baku (Left to Right: Me, Amy, Jackie, Lala our teacher, Jessica, and Rufat one of our YD directors above. We're missing Kate in this picture though).