Post #18: Month of March. + SSP Shout Out!

To anyone who is still reading this I really do apologize for not posting with any regularity. Again, April will probably change that since I will be moving into my own apartment! That will be an exciting day and I’ll be anxious to share it with you. The latest I’ll be moved out will be April 10 which will be the end of the mandatory 4 months that must be spent in a host family.

Let me give you the high-lights for the month of March:
1) VAC Meeting: VAC (Volunteer Action Committee) is a committee of elected individuals who represent the volunteer community to PC Staff on all sorts of issues (medical, our stipends/allowance, living arrangements, & anything that volunteers have concerns about). Every Peace Corps Country has this committee. These meetings happen four times a year and our first one of 2010 was March 6th.

At the end of training in early December ‘09, the 62 trainees that made up AZ7 (the 7th PC group of volunteers to serve in Azerbaijan) elected me and 3 other individuals to be their representatives.
On March 6th the 4 of us and the 4 VAC members of AZ6 met with PC Staff to discuss issues that our fellow volunteers had expressed concerns about. Early on in the day we did elections within the 8 person VAC committee; VAC President is always held by a member of the senior group (AZ6) while Vice President and Secretary go to the freshmen group (AZ7). I was elected VP, but only after a tie vote of 2 to 2 sent us into a tie-breaker of pulling names out of a hat. That's democracy for you. Politics is dirty...

When I first heard about the committee I wasn’t really sure if it was actually a vehicle to help improve the lives of volunteers or if it was similar to a “lame duck student council” that just sort of did nothing while looking like it was something (to anyone who served on a student council I’m sure you did a great job and weren’t a lame duck).
But honestly when the Staff meeting was officially over I couldn’t help but feel extremely accomplished. There were several issues that we brought up during the meeting that the PCV community was overwhelmingly skeptical about the Staff actually changing their positions on. For example; in many countries, PCV’s are not allowed to live with each other. Another issue was in regards to people receiving their monthly stipend; we receive our money from a bank accounts that the PC set up for us. However the bank we use does not have a presence in a number of communities where we serve and the volunteers there have to pay a fee. To give you some perspective, that fee equates maybe 10 rides on a marshutka/mini-bus, or maybe 16-18 eggs. These were issues that had been brought up in past meetings but were met with resistance each time. However, by the time the meeting ended both of these issues & others were addressed and the policies have been changed! Volunteers of the same gender who live in the same community can now live with each other. Also, the individuals who live in regions without our bank will be receiving and additional supplemented allowance to counteract the fees they face.
The meeting also gave me a very close look at the Senior Peace Corps Staff in Azerbaijan and to make a long story short, I’m very happy with what I saw. Our Country Director has been in this position I think for nearly 1 year and is an individual who really does a great job as a leader and is very thoughtful and receptive to legitimate and genuine concerns.
The next meeting is in June.

2) Fun PCV Gatherings: There were 3 of them this month; The Mustache Party/Fried Food Fest on March 7th which I mentioned in the last post, St. Patrick’s Day which we hosted here in Mingecevir, and then a trip down South with my close group of friends from training last weekend to a city called Lankaran. All gatherings were fun, therapeutic and are now good memories.

3) The Novruz Holiday: Novruz means knew day and is the ancient celebration of Spring in this region of the world. Try to imagine Halloween, Easter, Thanksgiving and New Years all rolled into one, and include a lot of people jumping over bon-fires. Also, I found out that a lot of guys shoot of guns for fun during this celebration and actually had one pointed at me and a group of guys I was standing with by a complete stranger (not a stranger to the other guys; they were all friends, and even though the action was done in jest, I definitely felt a bit of anxiety when I realized a gun that just went off was pointed right at me by an individual I had never met).

I really am sorry about not writing more frequently. I have been very blessed by a lot of your support in emails and by people commenting about things I write on here. It really has been fun for me, and I really enjoy hearing from you. I’m not trying to neglect this blog, and will hopefully be more on top of things in the coming weeks.

Shout Out For SSP!: For those that don't know, Sierra Service Project a non-profit organization that works in marginalized communities such as American Indian Reservations, South Central LA and in Honduras. It is an organization that is geared towards youth development and community service. It played a huge role in my personal development and in short, it has given me a lot of focus one my life goals as a Christian and as a human being. During March, SSP hired all the staff members that will be leading the different sites for the summer of 2010. Congratulations to everyone who will be involved with SSP in some way this year. It breaks my heart that this will be my first summer since 1999 that I will not be part the SSP experience, but I am excited for each and every one of you!

Check out http://www.sierraserviceproject.org if you want to donate or see what this great organization is up to! I know for a fact that I would not be serving here in the Peace Corps if it were not for the experiences, ideals and sense of self worth that I gained by being part of SSP.

------Comments From Last Time------

Nate: Now-a-days I'm just rock'n the sweet mustache. I'm pretty proud of it, but I'm sure your looking unbelievably manly right now. I've always envied your facial hair, but I think you already knew that dude.

Barry: My main man! How are you? I can't imagine a better homecoming than seeing all of you looking like you just came down from the mountains sporting epic facial hair.

I get updates here and there from Hannah and it's always good to hear about you and the SDUMC crew. Give everyone my best!

Post #17: A Fight In My Honor

(Pictures: Group Pic of Mustache Party/Fried Food Fest; Some friends visiting Ming; Me and my host bro Gutrat)

I know I’ve been off the grid for over a month here. For that I apologize. My access to a more reliable Internet source should drastically improve in April when I move out and am living by myself. I have one main story to tell from the past 4.5 weeks, and then will sum everything else up in a short closing paragraph.

I know that a minor theme in recent entries has been my relationship with the host family. Long story short, the 22 yr old host brother (the one that ‘helped me out in the shower’ and have had several issues with ever since moving to Mingechevir) and I decided that we did not like each other. Well actually, without getting into too many details (A similar situation with the shower, but this time I was using the squat toilet…other stuff too) I ended up telling him that I was fed up with him. He didn’t like that at all so for about a week he and I didn’t even speak. Although his constant back-handed joking had stopped, I soon decided that I wasn’t very comfortable completely ignoring him or with him completely ignoring me. So what I decided to do was to have him play a role in my Azerbaijani Language lessons. I made a large amount of vocabulary words with index cards and handed them to him. We spent a whole week with him sort of playing teacher, not only with the words but with my pronunciation which has been my biggest problem from the start. What this ultimately did was give us something to bond over, gave him a sense of investment in improving my life here, and gave us something to do with each other while we just sat around the house; kind of just hanging out.
I’ve had a few weeks to reflect now, and I still think that the biggest success I’ve had while living in both host families has been turning this antagonizing relationship into a legitimate and trusting friendship. Really, Gutrat (pronounced Good-Rat….which I know find a bit ironic) is someone who has had my back several times since then. This goes for everything from when I am leaving the house and everyone asks where I’m going, he says “It doesn’t matter where he’s going, let him go in peace.” Or when I confess that my stomach hurts and I urgently need to use the toilet, he’ll go round everyone up and tell them he needs them inside for something to make sure no one is near the squatter while I (most likely noisily…sorry) take care of business.
Really he has my back on everything, but unfortunately I think it has gone a little too far at some points. The best example of this is while Gutrat and I walked down our street (he and I going to our respective work places) a couple guys our aged said something to us. It looked like my host bro knew them, but he immediately turned hostile towards one of the boys. Bantering words turned into angry expressions, expressions turned into a toe to toe staring contest, and then staring turned into a fist melee. The 2nd boy & I had to come between them and pull our fighters apart. As we walked on I asked him what that was all about. He said never mind, but after a few second said the guy insulted me.

Now, I’m sure I’ve heard whatever the boy said countless times since being here from other random people. It is what it is; most people are kind, some people are rude. This goes for ever culture. I really think Gutrat made it a bigger deal out of the whole thing than it needs to be and just knowing his personality, he can be a bit of a drama queen with things. Harassment isn’t an overwhelming part of life here as a foreigner but it does happen here and there (I’m saying that as a man. For women the story can be a bit different at times; this will probably be the next/first topic for the private email list- coming soon…I promise…I hope). Although the whole interaction was a bit odd and uncomfortable, I’d be lying if I didn’t feel a little bit good about a former adversary standing up for my honor.

The rest of the month was a blast. Mingechevir was sort of a destination spot for some good friends of mine and other volunteers all throughout February and it was great seeing people. There was also a great party that a fellow Volunteer hosted called the “Mustache & Fried Food Fest,” where everyone had to be wearing a real or fake stache; boys and girls a like.

My goal is to have another blog up by next Monday at the latest. Have a good week!

--------Comments From Last Time---------

Rob: You got me. I actually ran to Baku, and carried 6 other people on my back while I was in snow up to my belly button. Miss you brotha. Still waiting to hear about when you'll get a plane ticket out this way. With your back ground I think you'd really appreciate it!

Heather: HA! laughed out loud when i first saw that! You're right, I should have; totally has been known to work in the past

Nate: double HA! I hate my spelling, and thank you for mentioning it; I'm sure plenty of people who read this thing have been thinking it for a while. Miss you too man.