I thought I was done writing about Novruz. I figured I had to be after all I've written over the last week. But I’m not. I woke up today with another sinus infection. Actually, it’s the same thing I mentioned before – the cold that never goes away. It’s been a constant ear infection for nearly three months, and every now and then it expands to my throat, behind my eye and into other sinus-connected areas of my head. I’m so totally fed up with being sick, I got out of bed this morning, boiled some water and used it to clean my hands and face. Then I pulled out some cleaner that actually kills stuff and cleaned all of the surfaces in my living space. Some of these areas haven’t been cleaned in years. The dirt is thick, like paint, the paint underneath it is peeling off. There are dead fly and wasp carcasses lying in every crevice and corner. Most of them are hidden by curtains and furniture, so you don't see them unless you live here.
That pretty well explains the world here. Generally, the people here think that if you hide it from the surface, nobody will see it. I hate to say it, but that’s true of the Azeri people at the Peace Corps offices, too. I forget sometimes that they aren’t really Westernized, even if they think they are. Granted, many people in the States see or show only the surface of things, too, but it’s not as prevalent as it is here. It’s really the standard here. Along with that, they believe that if you say something is true, that makes it so. They don’t get the concept that what a person says and does are very often totally different things. These people are intelligent, so I suspect they understand that and know it, but they don't show it. If you refute them and point them at the truth, they see it right away. So, maybe I’m wrong – maybe they just act that way toward us (Americans) because they think (know?) we’re naïve. Or maybe it's just a whole different way of thinking and behaving that I don't understand, at least not yet.
Whatever the case, they are fooled by the packaging in people, houses, etc. Here’s a good example… Chi (the PCV from NYC) and I were walking down a street in Baku a couple of weeks ago and were admiring the beautiful buildings that were being put up. They’re an elaborate European style -- like the old buildings in upscale Paris, except that they’re new. When they're done, people will feel like they're walking down the awesome streets of Europe.
After walking a few blocks, we discovered that they weren’t building new buildings. They were covering the old ones. So when we passed by an open door to a five-story apartment building that was being covered with a European facade, we went inside. It was true. They were covering the old, slummy buildings with beautiful surfaces, but the inside was filthy, leaking, and falling apart. Each building has a courtyard in the middle where people string their laundry lines, dump their garbage, and store stuff you’d normally find in a garage. We went in and looked around, and it was full of rotting trash and who-knows-what. The walls looked like the inside of the hemam in my house (see the photos under Novruz Eve) and smelled far worse; like they've never been cleaned at all, with loads of insects, fungus, and surely mice and rats. We entered a couple more buildings, and they were all the same. One was partly painted and didn’t look quite so bad, but the outside of the building that people saw from the street still painted a totally different picture from what was really inside. Chi and I commented that the buildings were a good metaphor for the country. They’re making Baku look fantastic, because that’s the only place that the visitors with real money will ever see, while the rest of the country is aching for water, heat, schools, roads, water, power, and all basic infrastructure. And that metaphor carries through to the businesses and the people.
That is true in all countries and cultures to some extent. The extremities are broader apart here, with almost nothing in the middle. One of the things Peace Corps is trying to do is fill in that middle part. It'll take a lot of work. More than two years. It's already been more than two decades, and will surely be more than two more.
Well, Basira's grandkids and grandnieces/nephews arrived today at 8am, which reminded me that school is out this week for Novruz. It’s like spring break, except here the teachers don’t work during the break. The other three PCVs in Samaxi all work in schools, so they keep me informed about what’s going on (or not going on, as the case is today).
The kids are watching Toy Story on TV. They could be watching it at home on a big plasma TV instead of Basira’s tiny old tube type, so their parents must be off doing vacation stuff on their own. The ones who are here are good kids and kind of nice to have around. Most kids here are quiet and don’t cause any trouble. The friends who work in schools tell me that the boys can get obnoxious when there are a few of them hanging out together (it's the same everywhere) but the extent of the trouble that they get into is way more limited here than I remember from when I was a kid. But I was in a suburb very close to Chicago. Samaxi is probably more comparable to smaller US rural towns.
I need to go find an Internet connection so I can upload this to you. Then I need to work - my vacation will be spent catching up on loads of work for AzRIP's Baku office.
Novruz Bayram Mübarək!
That pretty well explains the world here. Generally, the people here think that if you hide it from the surface, nobody will see it. I hate to say it, but that’s true of the Azeri people at the Peace Corps offices, too. I forget sometimes that they aren’t really Westernized, even if they think they are. Granted, many people in the States see or show only the surface of things, too, but it’s not as prevalent as it is here. It’s really the standard here. Along with that, they believe that if you say something is true, that makes it so. They don’t get the concept that what a person says and does are very often totally different things. These people are intelligent, so I suspect they understand that and know it, but they don't show it. If you refute them and point them at the truth, they see it right away. So, maybe I’m wrong – maybe they just act that way toward us (Americans) because they think (know?) we’re naïve. Or maybe it's just a whole different way of thinking and behaving that I don't understand, at least not yet.
Whatever the case, they are fooled by the packaging in people, houses, etc. Here’s a good example… Chi (the PCV from NYC) and I were walking down a street in Baku a couple of weeks ago and were admiring the beautiful buildings that were being put up. They’re an elaborate European style -- like the old buildings in upscale Paris, except that they’re new. When they're done, people will feel like they're walking down the awesome streets of Europe.
After walking a few blocks, we discovered that they weren’t building new buildings. They were covering the old ones. So when we passed by an open door to a five-story apartment building that was being covered with a European facade, we went inside. It was true. They were covering the old, slummy buildings with beautiful surfaces, but the inside was filthy, leaking, and falling apart. Each building has a courtyard in the middle where people string their laundry lines, dump their garbage, and store stuff you’d normally find in a garage. We went in and looked around, and it was full of rotting trash and who-knows-what. The walls looked like the inside of the hemam in my house (see the photos under Novruz Eve) and smelled far worse; like they've never been cleaned at all, with loads of insects, fungus, and surely mice and rats. We entered a couple more buildings, and they were all the same. One was partly painted and didn’t look quite so bad, but the outside of the building that people saw from the street still painted a totally different picture from what was really inside. Chi and I commented that the buildings were a good metaphor for the country. They’re making Baku look fantastic, because that’s the only place that the visitors with real money will ever see, while the rest of the country is aching for water, heat, schools, roads, water, power, and all basic infrastructure. And that metaphor carries through to the businesses and the people.
That is true in all countries and cultures to some extent. The extremities are broader apart here, with almost nothing in the middle. One of the things Peace Corps is trying to do is fill in that middle part. It'll take a lot of work. More than two years. It's already been more than two decades, and will surely be more than two more.
Well, Basira's grandkids and grandnieces/nephews arrived today at 8am, which reminded me that school is out this week for Novruz. It’s like spring break, except here the teachers don’t work during the break. The other three PCVs in Samaxi all work in schools, so they keep me informed about what’s going on (or not going on, as the case is today).
The kids are watching Toy Story on TV. They could be watching it at home on a big plasma TV instead of Basira’s tiny old tube type, so their parents must be off doing vacation stuff on their own. The ones who are here are good kids and kind of nice to have around. Most kids here are quiet and don’t cause any trouble. The friends who work in schools tell me that the boys can get obnoxious when there are a few of them hanging out together (it's the same everywhere) but the extent of the trouble that they get into is way more limited here than I remember from when I was a kid. But I was in a suburb very close to Chicago. Samaxi is probably more comparable to smaller US rural towns.
I need to go find an Internet connection so I can upload this to you. Then I need to work - my vacation will be spent catching up on loads of work for AzRIP's Baku office.
Novruz Bayram Mübarək!
Julie
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