Morisoñando

Today, February 27, marks the 167th anniversary of the declaration of independence of the Dominican Republic from Haiti. It is a very important date in Dominican history, as this is when the three founding fathers of the DR, led by Juan Pablo Duarte, sought to release their country from all foreign intervention (HA!). Jessica's History Lesson of the Day ends here but if you want to keep reading about the Dominican Republic and its history just go here.

As you may know, I am Dominican. I was born and raised in New York City (Washington Heights - aka American Santo Domingo) to Dominican parents who met and were married in the US. They migrated to NYC separately, (my mother with my grandfather and my father with his cousin) and then met through common workmates. They worked pretty much as soon as they got to this country so never had time to take any English classes, and so I grew up speaking Spanish in my home and with my family.

But why am I bringing this up? Because for the past year and a half I have not eaten any platanos. Because I had a dream last night in which I was guesting at an Azeri friends' house, and on the television was a woman speaking in Azeri and Spanish, and she was talking about DR. And in the dream I thought, "wow this woman sucks." I don't remember what she was talking about, but I remember thinking that she was horrible. And then when the show finished, they mentioned that she was a television host from DR who had come to be a special guest on the show for two weeks. And the first thing I thought when I heard this in my dream was "Oh my God YES! That means I'm not the only Dominican who has ever set foot in Azerbaijan!!"

And then my dream suddenly changed (because that's what dreams do) and I was standing at one of the stores here in Zaqatala that I like to frequent, and I was looking through some items on one of the shelves and I noticed a large can that said something in Spanish. It said "Lobia Guisada con Longaniza," which was weird because 'lobya' is Azerbaijani for beans, and in spanish beans are "habichuelas". When I realized what I was seeing, aka a can of beans made Dominican-style with pieces of PORK in it, I got mad excited and bought the can immediately.

From this dream I can infer a few things:
1) I am actually vain enough to think of myself as the first Dominican to come to Azerbaijan.
2) I dream of Dominican foods being available in my local Zaqatala stores.
3) I apparently like beans so much that I dream about them.
4) 18 months is truly too long to go without eating platanos.

Marshrutka

Azerbaijan is a country with a pretty extensive public transportation system. You can get from one end of the country to the other in about a day, hopping off and on different buses. For long distances from Baku (~7 hours or more), these buses are very clean, modern Coaches with heating/air conditioning and usually an attendant who gives everyone çay and candy. For all other distances/routes, there exists the MARSHRUTKA. Behold this lovely automobile:


Within cities and regional centers, marshrutkas take routes usually covering the entire town, and charging 20 qepik (about 25 cents) regardless of where you get on/off. On these rides in addition to the seating (usually ~16) there is standing room. Between cities in the country marshrutkas charge between 1-1.5 Manat per hour on the road. On these buses there will usually not be too many people standing, unless it is a holiday or some other occasion where lots of people are traveling.

Being a typical New Yorker who doesn't know how to drive, I am a huge fan of public transportation. I really like the marshrutka system here. If Greyhound was half as thorough as the marshrutkas in Azerbaijan, people would probably still use buses in America. Before I sound like too much of a fanatic, let me lay down some Pros and Cons of the marshrutka (because all us PCV's know very well that there are MANY CONS to this form of transportation).

PROS:
- They go pretty much everywhere: cities, towns, small villages
- If you are on the road somewhere along the route, they will pick you up if you flag them down.
- No tickets needed. Just show up and sit down (or stand up if its full)!
- There are no limits/rules as to what you can bring with you on a marshrutka (although if its taking up a seat you will probably have to pay an extra fare)
- All the drivers have phone numbers, so you can call and make a reservation, or call and tell him where you will be standing so he can pick you up, or call to tell him that you left your iPod on his bus and could he please get it for you...
- Most (read:ALL) of these vehicles are jerry-rigged to have more seats, to have bars to hold on to if your standing, to open only the front door, to have a ridiculously loud sound system, etc.

CONS:
- They stop running at around 6p or sundown, whichever comes sooner
- Cramped. I'm 5'4, and most times there is not enough legroom for me. I feel sorry for everyone taller than me (aka all other PCV's here).
- There are no limits/rules as to what you can bring with you on a marshrutka. Which means that the xanim next to you can bring a box full of live chickens and that old man in the back corner can bring his goat. These animals do not have pleasant smells.
- Xanim's trump everyone else (including the driver). If its 110 degrees in that marsh and everyone is sweating their asses off, but that lady next to you fears that the wind that will come through an open window will get her 'sick', guess who wins?
- The vehicles are jerry-rigged. It is very likely that at some point, you will be in a marshrutka that breaks down. Deal with it. (Luckily for the passengers, most marshrutka drivers are like Azerbaijani versions of MacGuyver and can fix anything with pretty much any kind of material.)
- If they need gas, they will stop for gas. If they want to buy some tendir bread from that stand, they will stop and buy that bread. They stop on their own whim.

All in all, I still kinda wish we had marshrutkas in America. (Some places kinda do: those dollar vans in Brooklyn, those 'dominican greyhound' vans that go from NYC to Lawrence, MA or Reading, PA)

Who Volunteers? Part 1

I am starting a new series of blog posts in which I will be discussing who volunteers, why, and what it is like to serve as a Hispanic PCV.

I am one of about 120 Peace Corps Volunteers here in Azerbaijan. It is quite an eclectic group of people, from all parts of the US, spanning all ages, with all sorts of life experiences. There is one commonality however that most of those 120 share: they're all white people. Yep, who would've known Peace Corps had maaaaad white folk?

According to the official Peace Corps website, "the agency has always reflected the diversity of America.... Peace Corps Volunteers reflect the rich tapestry of our country." America's a rug, and I'm one of the brown stitches! YAY! According to U.S. Census data, (which I got here), here is the racial/ethnic breakdown of the US population (as of 2009):

White 79.6%
Black 12.9%
Asian 4.6%
American Indian and Alaska Native 1.0%
Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander 0.2%
Two or more races 1.7%

Hispanic (of any race) 15.8%
Non-Hispanic White 65.1%

(Tthe percentages may not add up to 100, because Hispanic is considered an ethnicity, not a race, and therefore technically everyone who is counted as Hispanic is also counted as one or more of the other races.)

So if the Peace Corps 'tapestry' completely 'reflects' the American one, it would make sense that those same percentages hold true amongst Peace Corps Volunteers, right? The following stats were taken from the 2010 All Volunteer Survey (percents may total to more than 100% since Volunteers were asked to "Mark all that apply"):

Q: Are you Hispanic/Latino?
6% Yes; Hispanic/Latino, (Of Cuban, Mexican, Puerto Rican, etc)
94% No; Not Hispanic/Latino

Q: What is your race? Mark as many as apply to indicate what you consider yourself to be.
82% White
6% Prefer Not to Answer
6% Asian American
5% Other
4% Black or African American
1% American Indian or Alaskan Native
1% Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander

Notice any differences between the two sets of statistics? Hint: look at the Black/African American and the Hispanic categories. African Americans and Hispanics join the Peace Corps with much less frequency than their White or Asian American counterparts. Why is that? Is this something that is prevalent only within the Peace Corps agency, or is it more general? Is volunteering primarily something that white people do, and not minorities?

Peace Corps + the Daily Show = AWESOMENESS!

I love the Daily Show. Jon Stewart is hilarious, and it's probably my biggest (only?) source of news when I'm at home. My sitemate Löki, who is a bigger Daily Show aficionado than I, has recently started a Twitter campaign to get the Director of the Peace Corps, Aaron Williams, to be a guest on the Daily Show to honor this year's 50th anniversary of the PC.

Wouldn't this be awesome??? (YES!) FYI: here's some basic info about PC (from Wikipedia of course):

The Peace Corps was established by Executive Order 10924 on March 1, 1961, and authorized by the Congress on September 22, 1961, with passage of the Peace Corps Act (Public Law 87-293). The act declares the program's purpose as follows:

To promote world peace and friendship through a Peace Corps, which shall make available to interested countries and areas men and women of the United States qualified for service abroad and willing to serve, under conditions of hardship if necessary, to help the peoples of such countries and areas in meeting their needs for trained manpower.

Since 1961, over 200,000 Americans have joined the Peace Corps, serving in 139 countries. Many former volunteers have risen to national prominence, not least the four who have served as Peace Corps Directors.

PC's current director, Aaron S. Williams, served as a volunteer in the Dominican Republic (YEAAAAH!!) from 1967-70. He was sworn in as director in 2009. To read more about this (awesome) dude go here.

So here's what you should do right now: if you have a twitter account, you should totally retweet this:

50th Anniversary PCV present! Calling on @TheDailyShow to invite #PeaceCorps Dir. Aaron Williams to #ComeOnJonStewart on March 1st!

Or you can just click here and do it straight through Löki's twitter page.

Let's make this happen people!

Rap in Zaqatala

I'm from New York, which means I like rap. (Because don't those two things go hand in hand?) My favorite rapper is (clearly) Jay-Z, and I will listen to most rap as long as its not COMPLETELY ridiculous (Soulja Boy Tell 'Em?? Ummm NO!)... or at least the ridiculousness is hilarious in its severity (see: Cam'ron, Juelz Santana, Dipset, etc). So when I found out that we actually have rappers in my small region of Zaqatala I was super excited, because, really, how awesome is that?!?

Below is a music video by some of our local rappers. Enjoy, and feel free to leave any thoughts/comments/suggestions!

Support Local Artistry...

...by watching this youtube clip of a young musician here in Zaqatala. It was an impromptu performance at our local IREX center so pardon the off-sounding-ness of it.

My Tims

It's winter here and that means a few things: 1) its really cold all the time (especially indoors); 2) precipitation falls in the form of snow or (more commonly now because The End Is Near... 2012) sleet and freezing rain; and 3) slippery/muddy streets.

Being from NYC and having spent eight years in New England, I'm clearly familiar with the latter two of these. Even though I didn't know much about Azerbaijan before coming, I assumed winters here would be similar to those in the Northeast, and so I brought my most indispensable article of winter attire: Tims (check out their Urban Dictionary definition!). I got the pair I brought to Azerbaijan back when I was still in high school, and they still look exactly the same. But why the H am I posting about this anyway? A few things:

1) Apparently Tims are a sign of my New York-ness, since they're only popular amongst inner-city peoples of color... (none of whom are in the Peace Corps in Azerbaijan.) It's so weird to me to meet people who have no idea what the F I'm talking about when I mention Tims.

2) I've actually received compliments from Azerbaijani's on my boots. I thought that since they're huge and yellow and don't have a heel that people wouldn't really like them on a female. I mean, they do make me look like a construction worker. (Well, an American construction worker... Most of the workers I've seen here wear slippers.)

3) One of the local Zaqatala rappers (who was actually familiar with Tims...probably because rappers have mentioned the boots in songs) asked if he could have my Tims when I left Azerbaijan in December. It was an odd request, especially since he had to ask my friend how to say "Can I have your boots?" in English.

If explaining/describing my boots to people also means I'm talking about urban culture - does that count as cultural exchange (and herego Peace Corps' Goal 2)?

Friendo y Comiendo: Issue 04

Whenever PCV's get-together one thing is guaranteed to happen: food will be made. In larger get-togethers this usually means either burritos or one giant pot of some kind of pasta, be it mac n cheese or something tomato-based. I've been to my fair share of PCV gatherings and have noticed a pattern with these big meals: when there are 7 or more PCV's present, amounts will usually be underestimated and people will still be hungry after all the food is gone. When there are 6 or less PCV's, a ridiculously large amount of food is prepared and there ends up being enough leftovers for at least one or two extra meals.

So the other day I had a PCV over, and we decided to make lentil burritos (because they're super quick and easy to make with the ingredients here in Azerbaijan). We bought a bunch of things from the vegetable guy earlier in the day: cilantro, onions, peppers, spinach, carrots, and a pumpkin. These were not your ordinary burritos. We sprinkled some garlic pepper and olive oil on the carrots and pumpkin and roasted it in the oven; for the lentils we sauteed some onions and cooked them with a packet of taco seasoning; the spinach we just washed and left fresh. Our burritos ended up being lavash (tortilla-like flatbread) filled with lentils, mashed roasted pumpkin, spinach, sauteed onions and peppers, and crispy roasted carrots. It was delicious.

That was a week ago. Today, my dinner consisted of those same lentils that I STILL had over some white rice. I also needed to do something with all the leftover pumpkin...and so I looked up recipes online and found one for pumpkin gingerbread. I have no idea how it tastes, but I hope that the garlic pepper that was in the pumpkin is overshadowed by the ginger in the gingerbread... or else that is going to be one funky tasting bread. (It just came out of the oven, I am waiting for it to cool off a bit before I take the first bite.) The recipe for the gingerbread required about a cup of pumpkin...which means I STILL have leftover pumpkin from a week ago. At this point I don't even know what to do with it. (I'm not going to throw it out -- I'm a Peace Corps Volunteer, that would be soooo OLMAZ!) Maybe tomorrow I'll try some pumpkin pancakes...although I will still have the garlic-pepper-taste dilemma.

(Update: The pumpkin gingerbread is delicious. There is a hint of garlicky-pepperness, but its definitely overshadowed by the other flavors, thank goodness!) Look at it: