update for July

Whoa. More or less forgot that I had a blog, sorry folks! What can I say about the last two months? A slow as molasses pace segued into something where I've barely had time to breathe let alone keep up with blogging & emails. June somehow became really busy, between a HIV/AIDS workshop, playing softball with Azeri kids and wrap-up of GLOW (girls leading our world, aka the girls leadership camping I've been busting my butt for the last few months) planning and actually having GLOW! It didn't stop there, I got home from GLOW on Independence Day aka 4th of July where I joined some nearby PCVs for a very American style grilling of burgers and beer imbibing. Returning home, I had half a day before I departed for Lenkaran, furthest city in southern Azerbaijan, near Iran for another camp run by PCV Jane Flegal. She somehow got the crazy idea to do a month long day camp, with a different theme each week. My week was English language week, to be followed by Arts & Crafts week, Sports & Games week and wrapping up with Drama week. I admire her moxie in taking on such a huge endeavor, certainly won't be catchign me doing anything similar! I value the limited sanity I have out here (the scorching Azeri sun bakes away the rest, weather of late is close to triple digit farenheit....and it's pretty dang relentless).

A bit more in depth: GLOW. Again, stands for Girls Leading Our World - I decided to sign on back in Februrary and took on the finance/fundraising bit since I know nothing formally about fundraising and figured it'd be an opportunity to learn a skill I can hopefully take back with me to America. Fundraising in a single adjective? DIFFICULT. I spent a lot of time making contacts in Baku, it was a bit exhaustive and given that things didn't quite turn out the way I would've liked for them to - I definitely learned a lot about how to do things differently for the coming year in terms of building a network/contact list and then asking them for donations. Though my role was more on the finance/fundraising side, I ended up doing a lot of everything else to make the camp happen. The camp itself was a tiring, but fun week. The intensity of the girls was something to behold, more or less what I was needing at a vital point of service to give me a bit of faith in the development work I'm hoping to achieve in my remaining 14ish months out here. These girls gave me hope about the future of Azerbaijan. I just hope that their voices remain strong and don't go the way a female voice typically does as she steps into the gender role Azerbaijani society assigns for its women.

Lenkaran Day Camp: Jane asked me to come down and I agreed, not knowing when it'd be. (back to back camps not quite my idea of an ideal work schedule) But the kids needed some English teachers so there I was, alongside a few other PCVs who had also come for a week in Lenkaran's hot, mosquito ridden weather. I decided to teach the 5th and 6th form kids, just to see what it'd be like since this previous school year I taught older students (10th & 11th form mostly). The kids were precious! A bit chatty, but that was easily resolved through some mixed gender assigned seating which the kids fought for about 20 minutes since they're accustomed to self segregating according to gender. But I explained that this was a "pretend America classroom" and that boys and girls sat next to each other in America with no problems, the kids filed into class the next day without a word into their assigned seats. I was sad to leave at the end of the week, I was starting to get attached to the kids. I made them form lines for just about everything possible since lines don't exist here, trying to give them a sense of what order and fairness is. Anyone caught cutting was sent to the very back of lines for games, thankfully also enforced by the kids line cutters were cheating.

I came back to site to host a language workshop with some nearby PCVs. It's something quite miraculous to see how all of our Azeri language abilities has come in the last year. I didn't think I'd ever quite understand or get a grasp on the language, and although I am nowhere near fluency, I can successfully communicate most things I need to in Azeri - along with new phrases of how to tell off someone who rightfully deserves it. I'm quite a fan of the phrase "may Allah destroy your house" Though I'm a bit hesitant to use those phrases yet at my site being a teacher. The only kicker about that is that as my community was becoming accustomed to the "chinese girl who doesn't sell anything but claims to be an American and English teacher" we suddenly have an influx of guest workers doing highway infrastructure work in town who have no idea who I am or what I do. Being harrassed for being Asian was finally going down only to have it kicked back up and amplified when coupled with being harrassed for also being a woman. These guest workers are the equivalent of the leering construction worker stereotype we have in America. I have to play tricks on myself to calm the blood boiling inside me when the objectification occurs (and usually unchecked and unreprimanded, per local acceptable male behavior customs) and I want to scream obscenities at them but you win some, you lose some I guess.

It's hot once more in Azerbaijan. And I mean uncomfortably hot, day and night. I think the temperature is a minimum of 35 or 36 degrees celsius, which easily translates into high 90s farenheit if not more. My home's vanya aka shower room is currently under renovation so I can't even find refuge in a cold shower from this unforgiving heat. The only comfort I have is that I'll be home in America in less than 20 days for a (too) short visit. God how I miss the lovely Pacific Northwest and our summers. I've been making lists of things I must do and eat while I'm home. You can bet it's going to include all manner of delicious Vietnamese foods, top shelf spirits, running through sprinklers with my best friends and cherishing the precious 15 days where I'm allowed to be myself wholly again.