Here's To You, Peace Corps

Please read: The Rugged Altruists

This short op-ed from the New York Times provides a valuable perspective on the life of an international development worker and what it takes to survive the toils of living in the developing world. The author talks about the virtues of an aid worker: courage, deference, and thanklessness. I couldn’t agree more. Although short and lacking in elaboration, the article effectively illustrates what we, as Peace Corps volunteers, must go through and what we feel on a daily basis. This, along with the fact that my sitemate Stephanie has chose to extend her service for an additional 6 months inspires me to write a brief acknowledgement of the fantastic work that Peace Corps volunteers are doing all over the world.

So, here’s to Peace Corps volunteers everywhere, to their optimism, their persistence, their ingenuity, and their selflessness. We all struggle sometimes. We all question why we’re here, we half-ass a club because we just don’t have the energy, and we stay cooped up in our home watching movies and counting down the days until we get to return home to the warmth and familiarity of America and our families. But, we also stick it out, we get so immersed in our work, so emboldened and impassioned, that we ignore our unease and discomforts, disregard our insecurities, forget how far from home we are, give all of ourselves to our work, and embrace this new life we have chosen.

The work is usually never as dire and desperate as it seems in this article, and sometimes it is not as impactful, but it is always done with just as much effort, compassion, and fervor. So here’s to you Peace Corps volunteers, to your failures, your successes, your good days and bad ones, but mostly, here’s to the kindness and hope that you spread in everything you do, from the most heart-wrenching and “successful” of events to the seemingly inconsequential daily occurrences. You are making a difference, and I am inspired by you.

Playing homemade Azeri RISK in Qax!

Notice that there are very few white pieces on the board at this point. I was slaughtered!

Not All Glitz and Glamour

Upon returning  from Albania, I stayed in Baku for a few days for work. Through her work, my sitemate Bailey has made a lot of really great contacts in the capital city, where most NGOs and IOs are headquartered and do a majority of their work. (Side note: Peace Corps is one of the few IOs that does not place any volunteers in the capitals. In every Peace Corps country, we only work out in the regions, the smallest, most desperate places with the fewest resources.) Anyway, some of her contacts at the UN Department of Public Information had read about our arts summer camp. They were apparently very impressed by our work, especially given the small size and remoteness of our site. They invited us to attend a youth event at the SOS center in Baku and present to the children and guests. It was a spectacular success. All four of us met and were driven to SOS’s center on the outskirts of the city. There, we made a collage with all of the students where we prompted them to draw pictures of how they could change the world, or if they were to meet a world leader, what they would say to that person. After, we toured the SOS facility and listened to presentations with the likes of the UNDPI, Save the Children, OSCE, and UNICEF. It was nice to celebrate our success as a group, all four of us being recognized for our work together, especially in the company of so many great IOs. 

I digress, this is not the point of this post. Occasionally, as is clear from above, I must go to Baku for work, either to Peace Corps headquarters or to meet various contacts that I work with but that are stationed in Baku. When I go to Baku on official business, my travel and lodging is paid for. When I am there for my own work, like this trip, I must pay myself. I am too poor to afford a hotel room. Luckily, I have made some expat friends, and they have opened their home to me and many other volunteers whenever we need it. They have a beautiful two-story apartment equipped with a real guest bed, air-conditioning, and hot, unlimited showers ANY time of the day or night! It really is a treat to visit them. Oh ya, they are also great people and I really enjoy their company!

So, although the trip is long, when I am in Baku I tend to be a little spoiled. It’s comfortable, almost feels like a real, western city, and I can go out to eat and drink. Although I always wind up spending too much money and spending the rest of the month at site nearly broke eating oatmeal for every meal, it can be very soothing to spend a weekend there. This developing metropolis has a lot to offer, especially compared to my wonderful little town of Balakan. However, as this New York Times article reports, it’s not all glitz and glamour in the capital.

Families Face Evictions in Booming Azerbaijan

I will reserve judgment and keep this blog neutral and PG so as to not piss off any governments. However, after reading this article, you’ll see why the Azerbaijani government is probably not too pleased that this was published!

I don’t see the need to go into this any further, the article speaks for itself. Also, as a Peace Corps volunteer and a foreign national in a country like Azerbaijan, there’s nothing I can do, nor anything I should do; I’d just get myself into a lot of trouble. It’s just important to note that there’s a lot more going on behind the scenes than we usually notice or care to notice, and not just in Azerbaijan. In developing countries especially, but maybe even in your own backyard, many times it’s worth taking a second look, because it’s not all glitz and glamour.

Marie and I at Martin's (expat friend) birthday party 

My Program Director Tarana and I (Tarana is leaving Peace Corps at the end of this month)

The event at the SOS center

Our collage

Envera (Head of UNDPI Azerbaijan) being interviewed in front of our collage

An advertisement for fish sandwiches in Baku!

Catching Up

Where to begin, it’s been so long since I last posted – July 14^th to be exact. The devastating heat of summer has oftentimes left me lethargic, too sluggish to put my thoughts to paper and share them with you. At the same time, the freedom of summer, the sanguinity and innocent enthusiasm has kept me busier then ever. As 3 projects conclude, 4 more start up. Volunteers throughout the country are sending e-mails requesting assistance; camps are in full swing, preparations for the school year are underway, and oh ya, I almost forgot, I went on vacation to Albania for a week!

I try and keep my posts focused, narrowing in on one theme or event as opposed to just recapping what I am doing. However, it has been far too long and way too many things have happened to move on without summarizing just a little bit. So, here we go!

My last post was July 14. The next day, a Friday, my volunteer club had its second ever event. As you’ll recall, we had a used-item drive for the Internot School/Orphanage. This time, we returned to Internot, with the intention of holding a field day of sorts. Prior to going, the students all decided what games they wanted to teach to the students of Internot. We narrowed it down to 3: softball, ultimate Frisbee, and UNO. We showed up at around 10 (there were approximately 15-20 of us) and met the director. She summoned her students and instructed them to take us to the soccer field out back. This wasn’t much of a soccer field, strewn with grazing cows, geese, and more piles of cow dung than I think I have ever seen before. There was also the smell of a rotting carcass. We couldn’t pin point it, but something dead had clearly been sitting in the sun too long. Anyway, Trey and I were quite nervous. Our kids were hot and reticent, while the Internot students seemed wholly uninterested. I turned to talk to Trey for a second, to figure out how we would organize and motivate. Before we knew it, Muslim and Rasul had rounded up most of the boys and were distributing baseball mitts. A group of our girls had started teaching the rules of ultimate Frisbee to another group of students, while the younger ones sat in a circle with Layla and Samira playing UNO. Without any instructions or encouragement, my students had taken charge. Just like that, there was a baseball game being played on one half of the field, an ultimate Frisbee game on the other half, and all of the little ones had gravitated to the UNO circle. Trey and I were left standing there, useless, superfluous. This went on until about 1pm, when we finally tried to wrap things up. No one wanted to leave, neither group. The girls had a cult following, Rasul and Muslim were being called teacher (I don’t even get called teacher), and people were pleading with me to left everyone stay. It was getting too hot, so I conceded a little and we played a couple of group games before finally leaving at around 2, promising to return the following month. A great day completed, no thanks to Trey and I!

The Field at Internot

Had to include this one...too cute

Ultimate Frisbee

Muslim and Hecer teaching softball

The UNO circle

--

I didn’t have time to write about the Internot event because, on that Sunday, I brought Muslim to ABLE (Azerbaijan Boys Leadership Experience) camp, a national boys sleep-away leadership camp about 4 hours south of Balakan. This is one of Peace Corps Azerbaijan’s biggest projects. There is another one called GLOW (Girls Leading Our World) for girls the week after; I sent two girls to that. Anyway, I am also part of the committee that organizes ABLE. I worked on inviting guest speakers who come each day to speak about everything from the environment and fitness to gender equality, human rights, and project planning. I am also on the evaluation team that reports back to our donors on the success of the camp.

These boys are the best of the best! They must fill out an application and have 2 different PCVs vouch for them. The goal is to help foster their leadership skills, allowing them to meet boys like them from all over the country and putting them in leadership roles through various games and activities during the week. Being away from home for so long without family is a totally foreign concept in this country, so this camp is an enormous step for most of these boys.

Long story short, the camp was one of the most amazing experiences I have had in country thus far; I was surrounded by a fantastic group of PCVs and Azeris. The boys seemed to get so much out of the experience. So many times, kids would come up to me unprovoked to tell me how much fun they were having, or how they just did something that they had never done before. As well, the male PCVs really got to bond. A prank war unfolded in the last few days that included a midnight dance party, a stray dog, missing shoes, and a water balloon attack at 5am.

We were so busy the whole week, that by the end of it, we were popping Aleve every morning like they were Skittles. The camp was quite strict, and bossman Todd kept the kids in line. Those who broke the rules were sent to me for morning punishments. I took them on Indian runs, made them do pushups and wall sits until they cried, and generally tried to discourage them, through pain, from ever breaking the rules again. In most cases, it was a success; there were not too many repeat offenders. However, by the end of the week, I had some kids joining me just for the fun of it. Clearly, I was not cruel enough!

On the final day the Ambassador came. He met with the students, talked with them about leadership and respect, and awarded medals to the winning team. This, was my proudest moment. On the first day, the boys were divided up into 4 random teams. Most events counted for points, which were tallied everyday. On the final day, the winning team was announced by Todd and the Ambassador. Muslim, my boy, had been selected team captain by his peers; the Fire Land Gang was the name of his team. He was, by far, the youngest of the 4 captains. Regardless, his team won. It was so thrilling to see him call up his team in triumph, and then proudly shake hands with the Ambassador. I am so proud of him!

The AZ8s met one night to begin planning ABLE 2012! Next year, I am the project manager for the camp. I cannot imagine how we could make it any better, but we’ll do our best.

The panel of judges for the talent show. The winner did impressions of many of the counselors, including me!

Ambassador Bryza speaking to the campers

Ambassador Bryza and Muslim

Counselors and counterparts along with Ambassador Bryza

--

From there, I had a much needed vacation! Marie and I spent a couple days in Ganja with the world’s most gracious hosts, Dustin & Kelly…and Brad, and then went to Qax for a couple days to see Lori. She too spoiled us silly. On August 1^st, I took a flight to Tirana, the capital of Albania, to meet Tony for a week of fun in the sun! We met so many wonderful people along the way, from the 2 French couples on the streets of Tirana also trying to find out how to get to Saranda (the southern port city where we spent the week) to our newfound best buddy Stephen, the crazy Brit who teaches English in Iraq. Long and short of it, Albania is a magical place! It’s a backpackers paradise. There isn’t enough time in the world to list all of the interesting people we met along the way. It’s cheap; Tony and I struggled to spend our remaining money by the end of the trip. Fairly underdeveloped still, the city of Saranda is small and clearly unfinished, but quite hopping. Many restaurants, cafes, and bars line the waterfront. There are many hotels and inns, but if you are seriously looking to go, and want to keep it on the cheap, you can do no better than the Hairy Lemon Hostel. This hostel was perfect. Run by an Irish woman named Annette, it is clean, has a breathtaking view, and offers free booze and pancakes. What more could you ask for? Did I mention Saranda was beautiful? We spent our days exploring beautiful pebble beaches, swimming in the still turquoise water of the Mediterranean Sea. It was so wonderful catching up with an old friend, making new memories, and relaxing for a week. I missed the buzz of work and it felt strange walking around in an unbuttoned Jimmy Buffett shirt and headband without being stared at, but it was just what I needed. I am so grateful to Tony for taking the time out of his busy life to spend a week with me. Thanks buddy!

Tony and our new French friends

The Blue Eye Spring (a sink hole over 50m deep and 10 degrees C that constantly has water flowing from it)...I jumped into it. Unreal colors!

The view of the Sea and the Greek island of Corfu from our hostel

The beach at our hostel...we actually didn't even spend much time here

Marie gave Brad and I haircuts!

Dustin, Brad, and I in D&K's new pool!

Dustin and Kelly, my favorite couple

The gang hanging out after dinner

Dustin, Trey, and I in the mountains in Balakan washing off in the river post watermelon-eating contest. Trey won.

In other exciting news, my good friends Elvin and Elnura had their first child, a girl named Nuray! Now I get to be that crazy American uncle! 


And lastly, please, if you have any interest in donating to our national softball league, I would be most grateful. It is a fantastic project for the youth of Azerbaijan. Help them experience America's pastime!
Please go to: 
https://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=donate.contribute.projDetail&projdesc=314-084

Breaking Down Gender Barriers. Well, Sort Of...

This blog of mine must be getting pretty serious, as I am now providing up-to-the-minute post on events that just happened. Yah, this probably won't last very long!

Anyway, as a PCV, you try to predict everything that is going to happen as a result of your actions. How will the community react? Will this project be sustainable? What challenges will I face? What risks does such an initiative entail? What are the negative and positive consequences? I even ask myself these questions before doing the most simple of tasks, like going for a run in shorts, or buying a beer at the store 'cuz I just feel like it! But in such a foreign country, while introducing such foreign concepts, you simply can't predict everything. Truthfully, you can't predict most things!

Today's happenings came out of nowhere!

It's a problem all over the world, discussed ad nauseum by teachers and parents alike. Video games!

"They're a waste of time." "They're melting our minds." Personally, a game of NHL 2010 was a perfect way for my roommates and I to decide who would take out the trash that week, but that's just us. 

Here, the problem is just a prevalent as it is anywhere else. Boys spend hours on end, sitting in internet clubs sucking in cigarette smoke and playing Grand Theft Auto or Counterstrike until they can't see straight. The internet is relatively cheap (40 cents for an hour), but they spend every last penny they have killing Nazis and selling crack in these virtual worlds that have taken over reality. In general, I thought this obsession, this sickness, seemed only to plague the adolescent males of the world (and yes, I know this is quite a generalization). Did females bypass this craze? Does their femininity make them immune to the desire to maim and destroy? I thought this was the case.

As I mentioned in one of my previous blogs (Why I Love Maine), the internet club in town agreed to close for one-two hours per week for girls only, so that they too could utilize this resource without risking their reputation by being harassed by boys at a place the is usually understood to be a strictly boys only hang out spot. I had envisioned that the girls would all enter the club and immediately start blogging, thoughts flowing from their minds to the keyboards, writing pages upon pages about the topic we chose the day before (what they love most about their country/region). The only risk I had envisioned was that they may tend to glance at their Facebook profiles and Google images of celebrities a little too often. No problem I thought, we have time. Let girls be girls, let them have some fun. Well, of the 10 girls that showed up, only one of them wrote a blog today! 

I offered to close all of the games that had been in progress when the boys were kicked out, so that they could begin blogging. All, save for one, declined. They didn't want to write, they refused to write.  They wanted to play the games that the boys had been playing. They wanted to shoot RPGs at enemy tanks and run over civilians with Hummers.

So, that's it, there I was at "blogging club", helping Samira and our one boy Muslim write their blogs while 9 other girls broke down gender barriers like I had never seen before, killing zombies and becoming the crime kingpins of a virtual Baku. Little Xacay and Diana might not be so scary if you pass them on the street, but give them virtual AK47's and an unlimited ammo cheat and watch out!

Summer Camp: The Aftermath

The Balakan Arts Summer Camp has been my biggest project to date, but I can't find the time to sit down and write about it. I'm busy, yes. I've had my normal club schedule of 13 per week, I went camping for a couple days up in the mountains of Zaqatala, I am planning a baseball clinic with my students at the orphanage on Friday, I am finding guest speakers for the national boys summer camp (ABLE: Azerbaijan Boys Leadership Experience; a one week sleep away camp) happening next week, and my 6-month report is due! However, I must admit that I mostly cannot write about the camp because I really have no idea where to start. 38 kids, 16 volunteers, 3 Azeri counterparts, 6 days, and a whole lot of tie-dye and friendship bracelets later, I'm tired and don't know what to say.
It was an overwhelming success, greater than anything I could have ever imagined. My buddy Matt said it perfectly. It was "organized chaos", and we loved every minute of it. The kids were perfect, coming everyday on time and excited. The counselors were even better, inspiring and energetic. Every event, every game, every art form was met with more enthusiasm than the one before it, and I have my wonderful PCV colleagues to thank for that. They came from all over Azerbaijan to help, and each brought with them their own personal flare. Since their departure, my kids sulk around when asking why Gio, Lori, Marie, Brad, Erika, Clarissssssssa, Cryyyyyyystal, Matt, Mike, Dan, and Jodi had to leave, as if they're kind of over me.
I took on an administrative role, spending the week organizing events, including the Olympics and after camp adult activities like a kiddie pool belly flop competition), purchasing materials, and making sure everything was in order. I have to give special thanks to Stephanie, the mastermind behind the camp, and our 3 Azeri counterparts: Pervane, Ulduz, and Farid. They showed up everyday and stuck with the kids through it all. The Minister of Education even came, and was impressed. Well, actually, she first threatened to shut down the camp because she didn't know about it beforehand. But, after visiting and seeing us at work, she sang our praises all over Balakan, begging us to run the camp again next year. She even came to the showcase on Saturday night where the students performed and displayed everything they had done throughout the week (writing, visual, dance, drama, music, photography).
Anyway, to conclude, I thought in the spirit of sustainability and cultural sharing, if you'd like to see pictures of the camp and read firsthand reactions, check out the following two blogs, owned and written by two of my best students. Last weeks social media club assignment was to write about summer camp. These girls did a fantastic job and I think you'll find their stories very entertaining.
Samira
Leyla
If you have any questions about the camp or want to know, just make a comment and I'll respond ASAP.

Why I Love Maine

So, I am proud to say that our social media club is running at full throttle! At first, we were using a back room at the internet club, splitting 2 computers between 10 girls because the they do not feel comfortable being in the same room with all of the boys using the internet. Last week, it was way too cramped, way too hot, and the girls had had enough of all the stares from boys (culturally, it is really not a place girls want to be seen). Luckily, the man who owns the internet cub, Zamir, is a good friend and a great guy. He has now reserved two hours per week for girls only! This gesture is completely unprecedented here. Once I told the girls the news, they were back on board, and brought a few new friends with them!

This week, we are writing about what makes Azerbaijan and Balakan special. The students will write about what they believe is unique about their country and/or their region. In honor of this assignment, I wrote my own little list of the 5 things I think make Maine so special and what I most often think about while over here. 

1.     I love being so close to nature. From where I live, I can be in the mountains hiking, on the beach with my dog, and water skiing on the lake, all in the same day. I am a very active person and love being outdoors. In Maine, the possibilities are endless. Did I mention the skiing in the winter?!

Sunset on Long Pond

Running with my dog Gretzky at Higgins Beach

My brother waterskiing

Long Pond

2.     I’ve got to give a shout out to fresh Maine seafood! There’s nothing like eating a lobster, salmon, or Bang Island mussels, and knowing exactly where it came from! Plus, it costs about half the price! I’m getting hungry just thinking about it!

A lobster boat working on Casco Bay

3.     Swimming in the ocean or rivers (ideally off a rope swing) is certainly up there among the top reasons why I love Maine. The apprehension leading up to the jump, knowing how cold the water below is, the momentary shock as you enter the water, the girlish scream you involuntarily let out, the sharp sting that goes shooting up your legs and spine, the hyperventilating, the gasping, and then, finally, the adrenaline, the desire to jump again, and again, and again, and again. By this point it doesn’t really matter, you’re numb anyway!

The rope swing near our house on the Presumpscot River

My brother and I at the pier we jump off on Macworth Island

Jumping into the ocean at Five Islands

Ya...it's cold

4.     I never realized how much I’d miss the fog. Looking out onto Casco Bay, suddenly a bright, beautiful day can turn into a dark and dreary one that makes you feel like the sun will never shine again. And just like that, in the blink of an eye, the sun is back, shining brighter than ever!

The fog coming in at Portland Head Light

5.     Lastly, Maine’s proximity to other places is truly unmatched. Enjoy the peace and quiet of Maine for as long as you like. Personally, I can only take that for so long. Not a problem! In 2 hours, I’m in downtown Boston, in 5, I’m in New York City to the south and Montreal to the north! What more could I possibly need?!

Back to Work and Accidentally Spreading Anarchy

So today was the first day back to normal clubs following an extraordinary week of camp – more on that after I decompress and reflect a little bit more. Anyway, we started the week with our 7^th and 8^th form club. We tried to construct our own countries, talking about what makes Azerbaijan unique, and then discussing what we would like in our own country – everything from the country’s name and flag to its source of income and national dishes. It was a wonderful lesson (Steph’s idea) and the kids had some fantastic deas, but it was not without its jokes and peculiarities, namely, the country of Kemalistan Zombie Country!

Two of my absolute favorite boys, Kemal and Rasul, decided to create the country of “Kamalistan Zombie Country”. They went on to explain: this is an underwater country of zombies with no natural resources, and no allies. It costs 100 million AZN to get a visa to visit and the president is chosen based on who is the last man standing after a battle royale! When we posed the questions of how their country will make money and how the rule of law will be implemented, they curtly replied with an air of superiority that they are all zombies, so money doesn’t matter, and neither does the rule of law. We’re talking complete anarchy people! It seemed innocent enough, typical boys and their gruesome fantasies! The girls in the class (who vastly outnumber the boys) would certainly dismiss this violent fantasy and embarrass the boys into taking the lesson a little more seriously. Think again! The idea started catching on! Why have rules and sources of income and a national anthem when you can just have complete anarchy – no rules, just fun (or in this case just flesh-eating monsters). By the end of the class, the kids (our second youngest class) were pretty much over the intricacies of designing their own countries. They had abandoned their own new nations and embraced zombie anarchy! I guess we're all moving to Kemalistan Zombie Country! Thanks Kemal and Rasul!

I'd also just like to publicly thank Darien Book Aid Plan out of Darien, Connecticut, who just sent me 25 lbs. worth of books to give to the Children's Library here in Balakan. This is a wonderful program and I, along with the students of Balakan, are forever grateful for their contribution.
Here is their website: http://www.darienbookaid.org/ 
Next month we will be doing the World Map Project in the Children's Library, where we paint a giant map of the world on the wall in the main room of the library!

The gang celebrating July 4th up in the mountains

The book donation from Darien Book Aid (plus the librarians and two of my students)

The floors of the library are in pretty rough shape!