The first president.
Parker and Shani on Christmas
a group of us at Xan Surray
Great look Parker
Scarves are big here
Weighing the famous Sheki Halva
the owner who is in the pic in the backround
shani my site mate
These are characters out for new years
Tomorrow is New Year's Eve. New Year's Eve is a big deal for Azerbaijan. They have up New Year's trees, Santa Clause is walking around (shakta baba), lights are up in the city here in Sheki, boys are randomly throwing fire crackers around (sometimes startling) and people are getting ready to party... I think. (It looks a bit like Christmas here) Peace Corps has strongly encouraged us to stay with our host families for New Years. This will be our first holiday with our New Host families. I'm not sure what will happen. My family mentioned something about going to a concert here on New Year's eve. I have no clue when or where. I'll let you know how that goes.
Its been a little over 3 weeks here in Sheki. In many ways, everything feels new, exciting and a bit overwhelming. And in many ways, I cant believe it's only been 3 weeks. So far, work has gotten off to a good start. The students and English teachers are great. My counterpart is wonderful. Yesterday, I went to my first AzETA meeting. AzETA stands for "Azerbaijan English Teachers Association." Im going to give a little info from their web page:
"AzETA is a professional non-government, non-profit organisation of English teachers of Azerbaijan. It unites about 1,200 English teachers throughout the country...The Mission of the Association is to provide support for high quality education in ELT, professional development of English language teachers of the country. For this AzETA very closely co-operates with the Ministry of Education to make its contribution to the Education Reform Project implemented by the Government of Azerbaijan. The Ministry supports all AzETA activities. AzETA mainly co-operates with the Department of the High School and Pre-School Education in Rural Regions of Azerbaijan as the majority of AzETA members come from the rural regions....AzETA has a strategy of supporting ELT through different activities: teacher training, materials development, study tours, TV matinees, conversation groups, workshops, etc. ..."
There is more, but this is the gist. Yesterday, the Sheki branch met for the first time in a while. All of the new PCV's in the region were there to introduce ourselves and see how we can help. The teachers there are trying to do anything they can think of to give kids more and better opportunities to speak English. They also want to help English teachers learn new ways to teach. I think it is a great org. At the end of Jan, I will be teaching a life skills lesson of communication. Im looking forward to it and am a little nervous all at the same time.
Christmas was great. Some volunteers came into the region and we all cooked brunch together, had a white elephant gift exchange, did some sightseeing and had dinner together. A couple of us also read the Christmas story from the bible before the bigger group got together. It was a great reminder to me of so many things!
Unfortunately I will be moving on New Year's day. Ill pack up tomorrow and then somehow get to my new host family's on Tuesday. My current host family is great, but there was some stuff that PC requires (which I appreciate) that couldnt work out. So, I will miss them very much. They have been great. My new host family is about a 10-15 minute walk away. Host mom and dad, grandfather and young adult brother and sister. I have a room upstairs and there is a living room to relax/ work in. I will have wi fi (yea... posh corps) but will be changing to a squat toilet. Ill probably be ready to catch fast pitch when I come back as I am working on those muscles. Im excited, nervous and really just want to be be settled. I have an Azerbaijan tutor who I see twice a week and she rocks!!!
Ill post some pics here from Christmas, the university new years party and the local internat party for kids who are living at a boarding type of home for a variety of reasons.
I miss everyone. If anyone wants to skype, send me an email and we will set up a time.
RR youth. Thanks for the card. I received it at a moment that it was important to remember who I am. I believe the timing was divine!!!
Happy New Years
University New years party
counterpart, Ulduz
Shakta baba. He's here for New Years
Christmas morning at Stephans
The view from the university
hanging out at Kathy's on christmas eve
white elephant
one of the white elephant gifts
cliff has gotten something from someones package from home
This does not need explaining
working hotel... they used to park the camels here
Working hotel
My sacramento neighbor... sans Giants shirt thank goodness!
a local mosque
cliff, one of my site mates
Fellow pcvs dave and fong
christmas dinner
party for internat... some orphans, some with physical problems
This is Elchin. He's a university student and great with little kids.
