The Music of Peace Corps

   

Ah Beloit, you gave me so much good music

     Ok, this may seem like a strange topic, but I've noticed that music plays a really important part in surviving Peace Corps.  My mother, a Peace Corps Volunteer in Nepal back in the late 70's, often told me about how she would always ask her sitemate (who had a guitar) to play Jethro Tull's 'Locomotive Breath'.  To this day she loves that song, and it reminds her of her time in PC.  For me, the two songs that so far are my "Peace Corps Songs", are 'Some Nights' by Fun, and 'Gangnam Style" by PSY.  

     I know at least some of you groaned when you saw 'Gangnam Style', but what can I say?  It's everywhere!  I see it on T.V. hear it on the news, on commercials, on telephones, and my host brother is obsessed with the song, and sings it constantly.  So yeah, I will always think of Azerbaijan when I hear that song in future.  'Some Nights' just feels like America to me.  I'm not very patriotic and definitely not nationalistic; but the fact remains that America is where I grew up, and that music makes me think of a warm summer night in the Midwest.  It makes me relax and just seems to say, "home", when I am anywhere but.  Anybody else have special travel/Peace Corps music? 

Planting Trees I Will Never Sit Under

  It's been a month, but I'm finally starting to get a handle on my classes.  How each of them works, which students pay attention and which would rather be somewhere else, and how my counterparts like to teach.  I have only just started getting a foothold in the classroom, and at the moment I'm mostly focusing on English games, but really hope to expand.  The problem that I am running into is that I am in a small village, near a big (ish) town, and that town has some very good schools in it.  Anyone who can send their kids to Agdash, does.  That being said, the kids I have in my school are enthusiastic, and most of them do try in class, but they just don't have the same level of English that you find in towns and cities.  Somewhat compounding the problem is the fact they they have been taught by the Grammar-Translation method; meaning that they only learn English grammar and translate text from English to Azerbaijani.  So they know our grammar better than I do, and can usually translate a decent amount of text, but they can't actually speak.  For example, They can translate "Tell me about your family.", but they can't actually answer, or talk about their family.

One of my 5th grade classes

     I've been studying each class to find ways to try and get students to start practice talking, and actually start using the language, and I'm starting to lay the groundwork that will hopefully bear some small fruit in 2-years time.  One of my younger classes has a fair amount of students who don't have books, so those students pretty much ignore most of class, since it's all from the book.  For them, I've been doing a lot of hangman, which is starting to draw those dispassionate students into the discussion.  From there, I hope to move to more movement-based activities, which aren't in the book.  That should make it a bit easier for everyone to follow along, and that class needs to be more physically involved; too many students just sit there until I bring in an activity. (Side note: The kids have never really done classroom activities that require them to move around the classroom, or work with others, or be abstract, so it's a bit chaotic at first, because they can't fathom what they heck they are supposed to do.  But they're slowly getting it, and it makes for an interesting observation)((God, I am such and anthropologist))
     Another class has been frustrating me for ages, but today I finally made a connection, and found out that they love competitive games.  Splitting the class into two large groups, and delegating a speaker for each group made them all work together, especially after I told them that if anyone besides the speaker yelled out the answer, the other team automatically got the question.  Again, it took a while for them to realize that they could all come together and talk to come up with an answer, but after awhile, they were all huddling together and madly discussing possible answers, even if the other team had the question.  It was a great class, and I will definitely do more competitive games in that class; eventually (hopefully) by the time I leave, I would like to be able to pose a question and have them answer in complex sentences.
     I keep looking at what other volunteers are doing, and so many of them are doing great and amazing things, and I wish I could do what they are, but I also know that I have a different situation than what they might have.  I don't have access to magazines, or empty school buildings, or even coloured paper and scissors.  My resources are the students, teachers, and my own mind, which admittedly makes things a bit difficult, (especially since I'm such an introvert) but hopefully it will also mean that whatever changes I make here will be permanent and sustainable, since it's going to have to come from the people, rather than something I buy or bring in from outside.  Only time will tell, but I can only hope that what I do here will have some kind of lasting impact for the better.  Guess it goes with that old saying, "Society grows great when old men plant seeds for trees they never expect to sit under."  We never know what seeds we plant, since we won't be around to see what our impact will be.  We just do our best and hope it all turns out better than it would've been.

The Week in Highlights

     This week I'm just going to give a few of the highlights I found in the multiple rounds of guesting and feasting that go with the holiday. Also, apparently if you are in the Peace Corps, you can't use the Peace Corps logo on your blog, and since one of my posts had the logo with it, someone came in and removed the picture from it.  So I will eventually be designing and putting up my own version of the Peace Corps logo so I can have some kind of representation of it on here.  Any input on design ideas would be welcome.  But moving on, here are the things that I found interesting this week.

1. Family Interactions - I went guesting so many times, I believe my record now stands at 7 different houses within a 3 day period.  So I met lots of family, most of whom I still don't know.  But there were some good moments that came out of that.  My extended host family trying to teach the little kids to call me "bibi" (Aunt) is so far my favorite.  Following close behind that is the 'Battle of the Paklava (Baklava)', where they tried to get me to say which person's paklava was better, my host father's first wife's, or his current wife's.  I refused to answer until it was made clear that I had to if I ever wanted them to let me up from the table.  So I told them...in English.  I had the whole table rolling with laughter (and some frustration) as they tried to get me to admit which one was better, even calling in people who knew a little English (like my host sister) to try and figure out what I was saying.  I just spoke fast, and refused to answer in Azeri.  My family still is trying to find out what I said. (Though as we left, I whispered the answer to the wife I thought made the best paklava, and she burst out laughing, then acted all innocent about what I had said. *grin*)

2. The New Years Celebration - In America, New Years usually means New Years Eve on December 31st (to party), and New Years Day on January 1st (to recover).  Here, the celebration only starts on December 31st, and then it goes for days.  Mostly this means lots of guesting and tonnes of food.  Though if there are younger kids, going out to get their picture taken in front of the New Year tree with Shaxta Baba (Santa Claus) and Qar Qiz (Snow Girl) is pretty common.  There's also staying up 'till midnight on Dec 31st, as most people seem to do 'round the world, and setting off fireworks.  In my house, this also included shooting off a double barreled shotgun (flares and buckshot), which greatly amused my family since I don't like guns, not at all.  They have found out that I won't allow anyone to aim a toy gun at me or pretend to shoot me with their fingers, and if they ask why, my basic response is, "Americada choxlu adami va usaqlar olub.  Cox pis." Which basically means that lots of people die from being shot in America, and it's very bad.  So of course I stand far back out of the way when the gun is loaded, and my host fam laughs but usually says that it is good that I am careful.

3. Decorating My Room - Pretty much everyone in my family (and my good friends) know that I need to decorate my room.  I have done everything from covering the walls of my dorm with maps, scarves, and Christmas lights, to painting my room to look like an Indian Palace (complete with a painted 'window' looking out into a starry sky) and having a sari hung over my bed.  So it shouldn't be a suprise to anyone that I brought 6 framed pieces of art, a wall scroll, a T.A.R.D.I.S. magnet, a Japanese doll, my kayaking Santa ornament, some calendars, and my Chinese box (with my ink pad and name seal) to Azerbaijan.  For the longest time, I didn't have anything up because the paint here is so brittle, any form of tape will pull it off.  But this week, I finally decided to put everything up!  I had to put everything on the windows (and windowsill) and door because the tape wouldn't damage the wood, but I am quite pleased with the result, and feel much more at home now that the room reflects a bit more of my personality. (And my little T.A.R.D.I.S. magnet on my door handle just makes me happy!)

An example from my last room; Sparkle Cthulhu sitting in the Holy Grail.

(Yeah, my rooms are like that) 

4. Spiders - I hate spiders. No, I take that back, I hate spiders that are on me, near me, or just look downright freaky.  Unfortunately, there are lots of spiders in my house, as in, I see at least 5+ a day.  Most of them look kind of like daddy longlegs, and I'm fine with those as long as they stay off of me.  But then there are little (or big) black spiders with a big body, thick, short legs, and huge fangs that have a habit of hanging down from the ceiling and looking incredibly scary to me.  A few nights ago, my host ana (mom) asked me to brush a spider off the wall.  I did, but didn't kill it since it was the longlegged kind that I wasn't afraid of.  My host ana then pointed at my coat, and said I should take it off since I was inside; however, what I thought she was saying was that there was a spider on me.  I screamed.  And also threw my coat across the room. My ana, after a second of shock, started laughing hysterically, and didn't stop for almost 5 minutes.  My host ata (father) later said I almost gave him a heart attack.  My host sibs were just laughing.  Thus they discovered my arachnophobia.  In fact, the next day, I killed two of the little black buggers in my room by throwing books at them, and squashing them on the wall.  The loud "BANG" of the books hitting the wall brought my host sister, who again, doubled over in laughter, but helped me remove the squashed spiders. (I've been told that is Islamic culture, spiders are seen as protectors.  I said they can protect me from outside my room.)

5. Language Problems - This one is a bit unique.  There is a family friend who stops by often, and he likes to practice his English by talking to me, and somehow was also was given my cell phone #.  Anyway, he is a decent enough guy, though he tries to talk about God, humanity, philosophy, and basically lots of things that are way beyond his level of English.  So of course lots of things that he tries to say get garbled and lost in translation.  Well, I woke up one day to find a text on my phone from him, and it read like this, "to you most beautiful my present yourself give to yourself"...which made no sense. But it did raise a fair amount of wariness on my part (this combined with other things that he had said).  So when he came over later that day, I avoided him.  In fact I managed to avoid him pretty successfully for several hours.  Unfortunately, in Azerbaijan, there is no way for you to say, "Oh, I don't feel so comfortable by that person." without everyone asking why, and usually pulling the person over while telling everyone they can that you don't like that person (It just gets more awkward from there).  So when my host sister came and pulled me out of my room and said, "Here, Abdullah." I really couldn't get out of it.  So I sighed and grabbed my computer, pulling up Google translate.  He wanted to know why I hadn't texted him back, and why I kept 'running away' from him. Well, long story short, I used Google translate to outline why I was avoiding him, and my thoughts, and my response if that was the case.  After much explanation, he finally understood what I was saying, and backed way, way, off.  He apologized profusely, and said he never meant to say anything of that sort, and etc...  Anyway, now that has been settled, though it did lead to another awkward conversation about sexual innuendos and why you shouldn't say some innocuous-sounding phrases (ex. turned on) because of the cultural context.  Needless to say, he has studiously avoided all such phrases since then. (Though I still don't know what he was trying to say in that text.)

7. Gifts - This one is just flat out strange.  Apparently giving someone underwear (even lingerie-type underwear) is an acceptable gift between two women.  I have personally received a pair of with sparkly flowers (from my host mother), and another pair with bows and lace (from my female counterpart).  Other female PCV's have received similar gifts, and even though we agree there isn't anything improper about it in this culture (apparently), it's just seems so weird to us.  Soooo, yeah.