eti

I'm in my 2nd week of being a peace corps volunteer at present. Life thusfar has been good, I've really been enjoying myself. My life here isn't really anything you'd quite imagine living in a developing nation would be like while having the bustle of life in the U.S. all around you. In short, it's much slower. People have time to spend with their families inspite of an active presence of satellite television in my case.

I'm beginning to get to know my community but I haven't quite gotten into the pace of things yet. Seems like I'm integrating already, wanting to do things at the non-American pace. Last week was more focused on unpacking and unwinding from the intensive training (we only had one day off and even then weren't really free to do as we please). This week I'm still recovering from the madness that was my first official Baku weekend as a volunteer with our predecessors (AZ4).

One of my nights in town, my friends and I stayed with my expat friend, Bob. He's the same age as most of us in the Peace Corps but seeing the vast difference of our lifestyles really made the whole "living to the local standard" thing that Peace Corps wants us to do set in. Bob works with a subcontracted company that is doing stuff in Baku/Azerbaijan for the main oil company here, and again, like most of us, he's fresh out of college.

The company I guess as part of the incentives package to move to a Muslim-lite country most Americans can't even pronounce let alone locate on the map was a rather generous living arrangement. His apartment is much nicer than anything I ever inhabited in Seattle. He has a maid that comes a few times a week to clean and do laundry. He also has a cook that comes in 3x a week. There's air conditioning, internet and even hot water that doesn't need to be heated 30 min prior to showering. And if I remember correctly, their work typically arranges most of their transportation.

Have I been spoiled by my bucket baths, uncomfortable marsutka rides surrounded by people who have some of the strongest b.o. I've ever experienced and lounging around in front of a fan wishing for popsicles? I can barely imagine that sort of reality anymore. Bob is wanting to come visit my sitemate and I in Siyezen though, so that he can see what Azerbaijan is really like since Baku is pretty much it's own self-contained bubble.

Speaking of Baku, it was AMAZING. well let me clarify, it's great in that I can get a tuna artichoke pizza, drink in public/clubs, and find fish sauce (nuoc mam) at the bigger expat market. But Baku is also terribly expensive for a Peace Corps volunteer on what I won't even call a salary. Not including what we pay our host families, most of us are living on $2-3 a day. Even this small amount of money pretty much means we're living a middle class lifestyle in an economy where the unemployment rate is about equal to the employment rate.

Why is the unemployment rate so high? Well a lot of it is due to the fact that Azerbaijan lacks the infrastructure (ergo as a developing country, the Peace Corps was requested to come by the government at least twice to helpout with the process and the program was launched in 2003) that is in part a result of the imploding of the economy after the fall of the USSR. The country is still relatively young, I think 16 years old in fact. The former Soviet methodologies, attitudes and practices are still rampant in this country, not even a residual as most would hope as Azerbaijan identifies itself as more Western being a member of the Council of Europe, etc.

With my American eyes it's a little bit hard to digest what I observe. I don't pass judgment on the practices but when it's translated into disengaged and disenfranchised students/youth that have a difficult time dreaming of what more they can be as many Americans do from a young age, it's a little bit hard. In my summer school, we asked kids what they wanted to be when they grow up one of them answered that he wanted to be a "driver" meaning a taxi or bus. Many girls get married at a very young age (17-25ish, above that you're considered too old), and their husbands desire, shelve their (if any) university or career dreams and stay home.

A major component of Western ideology is the value of independence in and of individuals, which for the most part I don't see very much of in Azerbaijan. The number of options are limited though, as the adage that applies also in America, it's not what you know but who you know. And sometimes job referrals aren't "free." Every chance I get though, I try explaining to my female students that I got jobs on my own not because of my parents, that women in America work. Women in America are educated, drive cars or stay single if they choose. Or I ask my male students if they help their moms at home with the chores to try and spark a little bit of critical thinking about gender roles. They're bright kids and much more well behaved than their counterparts in the States. I've been trying to brainstorm ideas, models and such to get not just the overachiever kids involved and interested in their futures. I've got time, 2 years will definitely be enjoyable in Azerbaijan.