Esta Greña: or why its hard to have this hair in azerbaijan (part 1)

When I was getting ready to come to Azerbaijan with the Peace Corps there were two things that I worried about the most: the food and my hair. (I'll discuss my rather interesting food preferences in another post.) I imagined that in the Peace Corps I would be living in a hut somewhere in the middle of nowhere with no electricity or running water. (Isn't that what most people think the Peace Corps is like?) I'm sure there are some Peace Corps posts where that is an accurate description of a PCV's life, but that is most definitely not what the Peace Corps is like in Azerbaijan. (I am typing this on my laptop, that is currently charging, and will be posting this using the wireless DSL internet in my house.)


Okay I'm digressing a bit - back to my hair. For a good portion of my life my hair has been alisado. I don't remember what my hair was like antes del alisado, but according to my kindergarten graduation picture, it was REALLY curly. When it was alisado, my hair was very easy to straighten and this is how I would wear it most of the time. My go-to hair style was a bun or ponytail since I hated wearing my hair down/suelto.

A few years ago however I stopped alisandome el pelo because I decided not only are those chemicals proooobably not the best thing to be putting on your head, but I could still straighten my hair without having an alisado. I could have the best of both worlds, curly and straight hair whenever I wanted it. In theory, this is true. While I was still in America it was very easy to switch between the two depending on my mood. My aunt owns a salon and my mother, like most (if not all) Dominican women, know how to do hair. So basically whenever I wanted straight hair all I had to do was go home so my mother or aunt could do it, and whenever I wanted curly hair I just had to wash it and let it air dry with some leave-in conditioner.

But then there was Azerbaijan. I use a lot of hair products, none of which I was sure would be available when I got to AZ. When I was packing, I thought of this and had two huge ziploc bags full of hair products. Good thing I did because there really are no good products in this country for my hair type. You know what else they don't have here? Un salon dominicano. I had my mother send me rolos y un peine so I could try to do my own hair (that's still a work in progress).

So basically this means it is very hard to get my hair straight, or curly really. Unlike 99% of the PCV's here in Azerbaijan, I can't just take a shower and let my hair air dry without putting anything in it, because guess what? It gets big, it gets frizzy, and when it does these things, people touch it, people talk about it, I get way too much attention in the street, and frankly people make assumptions about me that I am not comfortable with.

I love my hair, I just wish it was a little easier to deal with.

Merry Christmas homies!

Azerbaijan is a secular Muslim country, so no one here really celebrates Christmas. However, they do celebrate the New Year, or Yeni Il, and it is one of the biggest holidays in the country.

The best part about this time of year in Azerbaijan is that all of the traditional Christmas decorations that we have in America are used here too - except they are attributed to Yeni Il. This means that we still have Christmas trees, and Christmas lights, and tinsel, and ornaments, and Santa Claus, and all that other wonderful crap associated with the holiday, without any of the baby-Jesus-related parts! So basically Yeni Il here is exactly like Christmas in America for anyone who isn't a practicing Christian.

I spent Christmas this year in Sheki at a PCV's house, which is where I spent it last year as well. Quite a few volunteers were there, and we all celebrated the holiday by watching Elf, doing a white elephant gift exchange, having burgers at the local hotel, and engaging in nightly dance parties. All in all it was a great time.

One kind of related note: Santa Claus. He's called Şaxta Baba here. Main differences:
1) instead of wearing a red and white suit, Şaxta Baba wears a long red robe.
2) Şaxta Baba also carries around a big stick. Why? I have no clue.
3) He ain't fat. Santa Claus is round presumably because of all the cookies and milk he consumes on Christmas Eve. Since Şaxta Baba doesn't give gifts, he never gets to eat all those calories either. Herego a skinny, and creepy, Şaxta Baba.
4) Like all classy gentlemen, Şaxta Baba smokes hookah. Evidence:

P.S. I Love Nar

Nar, the Azerbaijani word for pomegranate, is by far the best fruit in Azerbaijan. Before coming here I had nar maybe once or twice in Amerika; it is more common to see that POM juice than it is to see the actual fruit. I wasn't impressed...until living here that is. Nar is DELICIOUS. It is a fall fruit--which means I am forced to binge eat it for three months before they go away until the next year. Nar is so good that I would consider living in el campo when I get back to the US just so I could grow some nar trees.

Other reasons nar is awesome:
+ it will apparently cure many/all ailments...or at least that's what Wikipedia says.
+ it's been growing in Azerbaijan since ancient times -- we may actually be the birthplace of nar! How cool is that? Yea. Qəşənqdir!
+ i've heard that Eve's 'apple' may actually have been a pomegranate. (Whoaaa I'm blowing your mind right now aren't I???)
+ Narfest! An annual pomegranate festival in Goychay, Azerbaijan that I haven't been to yet but inshallah will be attending next year. I've heard there are nar eating contests. (Yes, I will try to enter.)

Even though my love for nar knows no bounds, I still don't actually know how to peel it. I've seen Azerbaijanis do it in like two seconds; when I try, I usually stain my hands, my clothes, and end up squeezing all the juice out of the fruit. Apparently the trick is to make four slits down the top of the fruit, pull it apart with your hands into four pieces, and then pick out all the seeds. (My goal is to master this by the time I leave.) My favorite way to eat nar is by putting all the seeds in a bowl, pouring a bit of sugar on it and eating it with a spoon. (My host fam likes to pour salt on theirs). Here there are usually two kinds of nar, the sweet and sour. I have no idea how to tell the difference, but it doesn't matter too much anyway since I love it all.

Another awesome thing about nar: its great in dishes!
+ It is one of the ingredients in a DELICIOUS dish here called levengi, which is like a walnut/hazelnut paste stuffing made with onions and nar, which is usually stuffed into some kind of meat or fish and then roasted. YUM!
+ Nar is an ingredient in many salads here.
+ Did you know that grenadine is actually made out of sweetened pomegranate juice? So cool!
+ One of the PCVs here makes chocolate-nar pancakes which I haven't had but I've heard they are delectable!

Basically, if you've been sleeping on this fruit, you need to take another look at yourself, reevaluate your life choices, and start eating some nar because you have been missing out!

Happy One Year PCVersary!

...to the AZ7s! Around this same time last year, myself and a group of about 62 or 61 (or somewhere around that number) swore-in as Peace Corps Volunteers. After two months of language and technical trainings near Sumqayit, we finally became official Peace Corps Volunteers (during those two months we were considered "trainees"); the seventh group to do so in Azerbaijan.

Throwback! the YD (youth development) group during orientation:


I remember packing up my things the day after our ceremony and then going around to my clustermate's homes to say goodbye to them and their families, which we had spent time with throughout PST (Pre-Service Training). (BTW: We were divided into groups of 4 or 5 trainees who lived in host families near ours, and each of these groupings was your "cluster". We had our language classes with the other people in our cluster. I'm trying to do a better job of explaining myself since I realized those who aren't too familiar with PC probably have no idea what the f I'm talking about half the time, especially when I use weird ass lingo and acronyms like "PST". My bad!)

The day after I packed up all my crap, I hopped on a marshrutka with the 5 other PCV's who were going to sites near mine, Zaqatala. (btdubs: We refer to our geographic location as the "middle finger" of Azerbaijan. On a map our area looks like it is the middle finger of the hand-shaped country.) I remember sitting in my seat on the 6 hour trip north thinking, "Okay, this is it. Ahora si que va comenza e'ta vaina!" I was excited, I was nervous, I was anxious; all sorts of emotions/thoughts were running through my mind.

Fast forward a year later. I'm sitting in my room, updating my blog using my wireless internet, having a cup of çay. I look back at all of the things that have happened over the past year, all the projects, all the experiences, all the new foods I've tasted that I refused to even glance at when I was still in America, all the people I've met and had fascinating and wonderful conversations with---and I'm so grateful to be here, right now, having had all of these moments and knowing that I still have another year to look forward to.

Little things that make your day when you're living abroad

I'm out of it today. No se porque but I am. So anywho I went out to do a little shopping today (for foodstuffs including rice, oatmeal, greçka, eggs, marshmallows, etc.), taking my usual walk with some headphones on (and listening to some Alejandro Fernandez)...when I passed a woman carrying a child. My guess is the kid was between 10 and 14 months old, and, since it was a bit cold today, he was bundled up so that he looked like the kid from A Christmas Story (fyi: I can totally make that reference now because I finally saw the movie! After years of changing the channel away from TNT and that horrible 24-hours-of-A-Christmas-Story marathon they always give on Christmas Day, I finally succumbed and saw it. My review: pretty good.)

BUT I DIGRESS... what was I talking about? Oh yeah so I'm walking on the other side of the street from this woman and child and I look over and he's staring at me, and I can see the mother is telling him something (which I can't make out because I'm listening to my iPod). And so I give 'em a "SALAM!" (which I try to do to every female or child that looks/stares at me on the street; hey if you're gonna stare at least greet me!), and then the baby starts THROWING KISSES AT ME! It was one of the most adorable things I've ever seen, for reals. He put his tiny little hand up to his mouth and made a kissing noise and sent me the kiss with his hand! How cute is that?? It's just not possible to continue having a bad day when a baby is sending you air kisses.

So that happened, which was awesome. And then I went to the post office to say hi to the lady who works there, and she actually had mail for me! And not from the Peace Corps Office! JACKPOT! (I can count on one hand how many pieces of non-PC mail I've received in this country.) It was a letter from my sitey's mom! An actual handwritten letter! I read it on the walk back home and it was awesome. Letters are so cool. (If you are reading this Löki or Lydia, THANK YOU SO MUCH!)

So I finished the letter and was walking up my street. And I looked up at the mountains and noticed the snow on their peaks was a little orangey - sunset time! My walk home is east-ward, and so I turned around to see what the sky would look like when BAM! One of the most beautiful sunsets I've ever seen. There was a little bit of cloud cover, streaks at the horizon colored pink like cotton candy. It looked like a rosy vanilla sky. It was so pretty, as though the universe was telling me "Yo, Yessiquita, whattup? You see this sky right here? Yeah, that shit is beautiful, I know. This don't happen every day either, you better appreciate it fool!"

And just like that my day turned around for the better! All it took was a strangely affectionate baby, a letter from America, and a gorgeous sunset.

XAŞ

A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of partaking in one of the most infamous (at least amongst PCV's) Azerbaijani traditions - eating xaş in the morning. What is xaş you ask? Wikipedia has a lengthier answer, but its basically a cow hoof and/or head soup. My host mom made it the other day, and it was quite a long process. Basically you take the hooves and head and boil it for hours (ours was boiling for pretty much the whole day before). I'm not sure what (if anything) was added to the soup in the cooking process, but basically the cartilage and little meat that is on the bones melts/detaches itself and gives the broth a very gelatinous consistency. You heat this up in the morning, the earlier the better, and eat it with bread. Usually there will be other things on the table that you can put into the broth to give it some flavor, my host mom had a garlicky-oil thing as well as some vinegary stuff. She served me a bowl and put a little of both of those additions before I could protest otherwise (if you know me you know how I feel about condiments/sauces/etc.!) (FYI: It is common here in Azerbaijan for men to eat xaş in the morning along with a few shots of vodka...some say it is to mask the taste.)

My bowl looked like this:


I'm not gonna lie and say it was the best meal I've ever had in Azerbaijan, but it really wasn't that bad. The broth ended up too vinegary for my taste (next time I'll forgo that part) but it wasn't too bad with bread. The best part was the bone/cartilage part though, it was pretty good! This is coming from someone who likes mondongo, which is exactly what it reminded me of. I even made a little sandwich out of the cartilage and a piece of bread, it was deeeeeelicious.

After my unique breakfast, my host mom explained to me all the benefits of eating xaş. Apparently it is great to eat if you have arthritis or when your joints hurt or basically when you have any kind of ailment. Something about eating cow feet & skull that is supposed to replenish the energy in your own joints. All around it was an awesome experience, and now I can check it off of my Azerbaijan bucket list!

that's my STREET name son!

I look different from most Azerbaijanis, and so when I walk down the street I tend to get a lot of stares, odd looks, and my favorite: random words screamed at me. This isn't anything unusual, I'm pretty sure 95% of the PCV's here can attest to the experience of having "HELLO! WHAT'S YOUR NAME?" shouted at them at least a few times a day. Lucky for me, I don't look like what Azerbaijanis think Americans look like so I get called a whole bunch of other random shiznit, yay!

First a disclaimer: I don't particularly mind being shouted at on the street, especially because its usually just some curious kids trying to get my attention. I do however mind when people are blatantly rude and disrespectful. You can shout "Hello" however many times you want, but the second you switch to 'F*** You!' THERE'S A PROBLEM! Luckily this has only happened to me a handful of times.

But anyway on to the point of this post: people come up with funny stuff. Below a list of the most amusing words/phrases:

- INGILIS! INGILIS!
- What's your name? WHAT'S YOUR NAME? WHAT'S YOUR NAME?!?
- Ohhhh, qara qiz! (Translation: Oh, black girl!)
- Teacher Teacher!
- Hello Teacher, how is weather?
- Beyonce (pronounced Bee-yons)
- Löki
- pssst, çinsen? (Translation: psst, Are you Chinese?)
- I LOVE YOU!
- Barack Obama
- I go to the
- Afrika necədir? (Translation: How is Africa?)

and my personal favorite so far:
- WU-TANG!

Dekabr Geldi!

December is here! So many good things will be happening this month that I'm very excited for! I like to make lists. BOOM, Listed:

1) One year anniversary of being a PC Volunteer (and one year until COS) on December 10

2) The new group of trainees, the AZ8's, will swear-in as volunteers and move out to their permanent sites!

3) Christmas = good food and good company

4) Yeni Il celebrations in Zaqatala are sure to be plentiful and awesome!

5) New Year's Eve = more good food and more good company

6) maybe the first snowfall of the season (inshallah)

7) the holidays usually make people feel happier

8) I get to listen to my Christmas playlist, which includes the following: Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas by Judy Garland; the Christmas Song by the Chipmunks; Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays by *NSYNC; This Christmas by Donny Hathaway; Holiday by Madonna; All I Want for Christmas is You by Mariah Carey; Fiesta de Pilito & No hay cama pa' tanta gente by El Gran Combo; Me Voy a Regalar by Marc Anthony; Salsa Pa' Tu Lechon & Esta Navidad by Johnny Ventura; Estas Navidades by Fernando Villalona; Dame La Mano Paloma by Aventura; Navidad Sin Ti by Marco Antonio Solis y los Bukis; Mi Burrito Sabanero by Los Villancicos.