The EU parliament recently criticized Azerbaijan’s lack of a free press.
“The widespread practice of harassment, prosecution, and conviction of opposition journalists [in Azerbaijan] is alarming,” Tunne Kelam, an Estonian MEP, told the session. “We call on Azerbaijani authorities to release the journalists in jail without further delay. This concerns also two young bloggers.”
Here’s the link [...]
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One of the hardest parts of coming home from the Peace Corps is the identity crisis that comes with re-entry to the United States. As open-ended and confusing as Peace Corps service may be, there is a very clear mission when compared to the “what now?” realization that newly minted RPCVs are forced to deal [...]
Returning back to America after 27 months in Azerbaijan was made much easier by traveling after Peace Corps service. My itinerary, which started in Istanbul and stopped in Vienna two months later, took me from East to West, and at the same time took me from the developing world to the developed one.
Almost everything made [...]
The primary purpose of a blog kept by a Peace Corps Volunteer is to relay the story of life in another country as an American volunteer to those who are curious. It’s so hard to describe the experience to someone back home, that small, consistent updates, anecdotes, and photos have become the best way to [...]
I read this article about Peace Corps Volunteers getting denied entry into Turkmenistan. I can’t help but think that this is the future of PC in Azerbaijan as well.
The decision to bar 47 volunteers from the U.S. government-run program from the former Soviet state comes amid fears energy-rich Turkmenistan is reneging on commitments to open [...]
My trip to Sofia, Bulgaria included a short day trip to the Rila Monastery, a UNESCO World Hertige Site. I had no idea what to expect when I arrived at this place, but was pleasently surprised when I walked through the gate. I’ve got some photos uploaded here, which show off the cool Bulgarian architecture [...]
I’m in Veliko Tarnovo, the former capital of Bulgaria. It’s a pretty great little mountain town in the middle of the country. For those familiar with Azerbaijan, think of Sheki on steroids.
Bulgaria has actually been a pretty great surprise for me, as I had pretty low expectations. I was going to head to the beach, [...]
Here are a few photos from Istanbul. You can click here to access my flickr account, which will let you look at all of them. This is just a little preview. I’ll be uploading more when I get them off of my camera.
I’m sitting in Starbucks in Istanbul right now. I got up early and really wanted to just have a seat adjust to my new surroundings with an old friend: Coffee of the Day.
I announced my intentions to visit Starbucks to a friend and she acted like I told her I wanted to see the local [...]
No more countdowns. I’ve finished the Peace Corps.
I guess I’m just a normal dude now. Weird.
I’m staying at a friend’s apartment in Baku who lives near a construction site. Staying at his place comes with a nice wake-up at 8 a.m. in the form of a hydraulic jackhammer the size of a cruiser missile. It’s not so bad during the week, but on the weekends sleeping-in becomes impossible. Last night, [...]
I could have picked a better time to write on my blog than now (I’m frantically trying to pack up and move out of my house) but I wanted to make sure that I got this down while it’s still fresh in my head.
I went over to a friends house to say goodbye today. We [...]
Wait a minute… Didn’t I write that I had two months left about two months ago???
I did. But unlike the last time I wrote about having 2 months, which references having 2 months in the Peace Corps, this post marks how long it will be until I’m back home in the U.S.A. That’s right, I’m [...]
I was flipping through The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran, a Lebanese poet and was struck by how poignantly the story spoke about what I am going through as a departing PCV. The book is basically about a Prophet who leaves some last bits of wisdom with some people before he leaves them after 12 years [...]
I just got back home yesterday after a whirlwind schedule of ABLE Camp and some errands I had to run in Baku. First of all, ABLE Camp was great. I’ll post pictures once I get a decent internet connection. Hanging out with some great kids and getting to know some of my fellow PCVs better [...]
The time is here. ABLE Camp is pretty much the culmination of my Peace Corps service, and I’m leaving in ten minutes to get it started. This project has been in the works for almost a year now, so it’s pretty wild that it’s time for it to actually begin. It’s also [...]
A friend of mine emailed me a link that ranks Peace Corps countries by the responses volunteers gave in a survey that asks “How personally rewarding is your Peace Corps service?” Out of 67 countries, Azerbaijan is pulling a steady 42. Check the link to see responses by country, and the rankings of a couple [...]
I’ve been avoiding writing another post because I wanted to leave the previous one up on the main page. I thought maybe we would get lucky and have someone come across the blog and toss some moolah toward our project.
Apparently it worked, because ABLE is fully funded! It’s great news. We’ve got just over a [...]
I’ve mentioned it a couple times on my blog, but in case you haven’t heard, I’ve been heavily involved in a project that has been among the best experiences of my Peace Corps service. ABLE Camp is a summer camp for boys that aims to instill a sense of leadership and civic duty in young [...]
I’ve been writing the “X Months Left” post as a way to countdown my exodus from Azerbaijan, but last week marked a milestone that marks not how much time I have left in Azerbaijan, but how long I’ve been here. Two years ago, on July 27th, I touched down to Baku, Azerbaijan.
Looking at that, and [...]
Well not me exactly, but according to Business Weekly, Baku, Azerbaijan has been recently named the 20th most expensive city in the world. I’m not shocked by this at all.
Baku has always been overpriced in my opinion. What really gets me about this list of expensive cities is the value that they give for your [...]
When there is a funeral here, large, temporary tents are constructed in the street in front of the residence of the deceased. Yesterday, I noticed that my neighbor was putting one up outside of his house, which I thought was strange because I hadn’t noticed any grandmas or grandpas living there. I was [...]
I’m not sure how much press this is getting in the U.S. but the Iranian presidential election is today (Friday the 12th). Considering my proximity to Iran I’m excited about the election there. Not because there’s a big Iranian influence here, but because Iran doesn’t seem that abstract to me anymore.
I’d also say [...]
After a loooong weekend in Baku, I’ve returned to the heat of Ujar. Should be around 95 today and it’s going to be like that all summer.
I’ve got three months left in Azerbaijan, and actually, a bit less than that. Our Country Director has given volunteers who are finishing their service, the option of going [...]
A couple of weeks ago, I mentioned to a teacher at my school that I wanted to take a couple kids from our school to ABLE (Azerbaijan Boys Leadership Experience) Camp this summer. I have known this teacher for quite some time, and while he’s generally a pretty good guy, he can a bit [...]
If there was ever a day to reflect on my Peace Corps service, today is it. I just got home from Son Zang, which means Last Bell in Azeri. It’s the Azerbaijani equivalent of an American graduation ceremony, but with Azeri additions like singing, dancing, and a seemingly endless string of speeches, including one by [...]
Yesterday was a national holiday, celebrating the the anniversary of the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic. Ali gives some info on his frontline blog:
On 28th of May, Azerbaijan marked 91th anniversary of its first republic. Azerbaijan Democratic Republic or ADR as known by its initials is considered the first democratic republic in Muslim East with a functional [...]
I just got confirmation that our summer camp project has been awarded $16,500 by the Norwegian Embassy. This was fantastic news because we were getting to the point where we were worried if we’d even have a camp or not. If we were, it was going to be a bare-bones version of the [...]
On my walk home tonight I walked past a burning, plastic garbage bin. I could only shake my head as I saw the plastic dripping off of the green-plastic which had doubled-over as it melted. It’s common for people to burn garbage here, as there aren’t a lot of places to get rid of it. [...]
My Four months milestone was celebrated with a trip to a village called Neej (Nic in Azeri). We first heard about the village from a friend’s boss, who said that he had the best pork of his life in a small, mostly Christian village outside of Gebele. I took a quick peek inside Mark Elliot’s [...]
I read this article yesterday from the NYTimes, aimed at recent college graduates. Even though I graduated from PSU about two years ago, I feel like I’m on the same playing field as the kids who are about to move on from life on campus. Even though I have a bit more time before finish [...]
I had some people over this past weekend for a meeting about a project we’re working on. It was good to get some face time in with everybody instead of only communicating through email. Perhaps more exciting then our meeting though, which was mostly a check-in, was the games of basketball we played [...]
There was a shooting at a university in Baku today. The only thing that I’ve heard that seems credible is that there was a Georgian who was ethnically Azeri that entered the school and started shoot at people as he made his way up a staircase before turning the gun on himself. Here’s the [...]
I heard about the ‘pandemic’ of swine flu in the U.S. I hope those in charge are taking it seriously, but it seems like the panic mode that network news agencies are inclined to go in to is a little much at this point.
Over here, Azerbaijan is safe and sound because pork and pork products [...]
If you’re got Google Earth, open it up and set it to:
Latitude 40°30′46.50″N
Longitude 47°39′23.70″E
That’s where I live. I wanted to post a link to it, but I couldn’t figure out how to do it.
A lot of Azerbaijanis think that Barack Obama is a Muslim. People love it though. Unlike America, where this misrepresentation of Obama is meant to hurt his image, people here really dig the fact that a Muslim is in such a prominent position. So it really confuses people when I say “Actually, he’s not a [...]
I might have played my get out of jail fee card a bit early by joining the Peace Corps when I did. When I left America, everything was fine. Now, all I hear about, from both Azeris and American media online, is that we’re in crisis mode (or in Azeri cree-sees). The prospect of reentering [...]
Ali at IN MUTATIONE FORTITUDO translated an interview with Elariz Mammadoglu, Azerbaijan’s “king of elite weddings.”
When asked about politics, Mammadoglu added:
Oh my God, I nearly forgot, add this please that France’s President is Sarkozy. I like him very much. You know why? Because he is a womanizer.
The rest is like that. Silly. Check it out [...]
Finding blogs about Azerbaijan has been tough. Aside from Peace Corps blogs, which tend to read more like diaries than anything connected to the rest of the web, there aren’t a lot of people blogging about the Land of Fire in English. I’ve managed to find a couple of them, though, and I’d like to [...]
The Portland Trail Blazers just crushed the Denver Nuggets to close out an amazing NBA season. The Blazers ended up with 54 wins, which is above pretty much everybody’s expectations. A lot of people thought the blazers would be in the mix to fight for a playoff spot. Instead, we swooped in and got home [...]
Five months left in the Peace Corps. Time keeps on tickin’.
The past month has been really odd compared to other months I’ve spent in the Peace Corps, because, like I mentioned, I took some vacation days in Tbilisi and my mom came and visited from America. At this point, I don’t see myself leaving the [...]
My visited me over the past couple of weeks. I was naturally both excited and anxious for her visit. I haven’t spent ten days with my mom for years, so I knew it would be a bit intense. At the same time, I really wanted her to see me in my element over here, and [...]
Here’s the URL to my Flickr page, which includes my pictures from Georgia.
Check ‘em out.
I’m off to Georgia. I’ll be in Tbilisi for a few days. Until I get back, here’s a quick NYT write up on the referendum results yesterday.
Today is a big milestone. Not only does this post commemorate having spent 21 months in Azerbaijan, but this is also my 100th post. Based on a totally unscientific calculation, I’ve got that to mean that I’ve written about a post a week during my time here. Sounds about right to me. Keeping this blog [...]
The wind has taken over everything. It occasionally makes my power go out, and even manages to make my internet connection not work. I can’t quite figure out that last one, but I’m going to go nuts if my dial-up disconnects while i’m sending an email again.
[...]
There are two advantages to living in Ujar, my site in Azerbaijan. I don’t know if these advantages outweigh the bad things that come with this place, but if you’re going to make it through the Peace Corps, you’ve got to focus on the good.
The best thing about Ujar is our supermarket, which we [...]
Without doing too much background, new groups of PCVs come to Azerbaijan every year. That means that there’s always a new group, and there’s always one that’s got a year’s worth of experience. I’ve gone from the new group to ‘veteran status’ over the past few months.
One thing that used to crack me up about [...]
I came across this article by the LA Times, which looks at this historical relationship between the Peace Corps and Indonesia:
The last time Indonesiaallowed Peace Corps volunteers to work here, they weren’t sent into villages to teach English or build schools. The Americans were assigned to whip athletes into shape for the 1964 Olympics.
The peculiar [...]
Here’s our 4 newest residents.
I’ve never heard of quadruplets in ‘Baijan before. Ujar is on the map.
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