Home at last

Finally, sis has her own pad....... a basement of a home....the sink is for washing hands/teeth, etc. First door is her shower, outside kitchen is beyond and the door to her apartment is the door with glass at the back. Course we all know where the hole in the ground is :o)

Well, what a difference a year makes!! Who would have thought last year as I gathered with my family on a snowy day in Tacoma that this year I'd be 1/2 a world away with a totally different "family". Yes, how quickly your fellow volunteers become your family. I very much miss those at home, but know that they will have a great time without my creamed onions!! I just hope the Christmas box makes it there either for Christmas or in general!! It cost 79 manats ($100) to send and over 1 1/2 hours at the post office (gotta love the post soviet bureaucracy!!). I had put everything in a nice box (actually the box my water filter came in) and when I got to the post office, I either had to re-box it in the "official AZ postal box" or wrap my box in white fabric..yes FABRIC!! Well, since fabric isn't a word I know yet, that left only one alternative...their box. A very tight, bulging fit and lots of interest from those around me as to what was going into the box....it's all a team effort here!! And we are just so strange...Anyway, enough of the mail system. It is enroute to the US and may make it one day!! I'm now settled in a lovely town high in the Caucuses called Zagatala. It's a really great place, could remind me of Whitefish, Montana.... I went south to my assigned town but had a terrible asthma attack (don't know yet what caused it...) so said "I quit". I panicked... couldn't breath, couldn't communicate, just couldn't see myself staying there for the rest of my life which I determined would be very short if I stayed. So the Peace Corps got me back to Baku, I saw the dr. and we decided to try a different location. I'm still having a problem with all the wood smoke but I'll keep trying each day to make it work. I have a great little basement "apartment" in a home. It has hot water registers so no additional wood or gas burning in the house. My things will come up from Baku (8 hour bus ride) on Monday. I've been wearing the same things for 10 days. Good thing I have hot water which is such a treat so I can hand wash things. Cold water is so hard on my delicate hands!! Every morning I get to say hi to the chickens in their pen as I dash out to the toilet in the back corner of the yard. I've learned to take those holes in the ground with ease...actually, not bad at all if they are clean. And things just move so much better...plus I have the thighs of a 20-year old now...Wish the rest of the body was so strong!! tee hee hee. I've started "work" at the bank. I will do a lot of English conversation and business english. A few have taken English but are reluctant to use it. This certainly won't help my Azerbaijani since I'll be speaking in English all the time, but what the heck...I'll keep trying. Today, Christmas Eve, I'm going to a neighboring town (1 1/2 hours away) to join many other volunteers in celebrating Christmas. There will be about 30 of us coming from all corners of the country. I'll sleep on the floor in a friends house (thank you again Aran/Stacy for the sleeping bag!!). There isn't any snow on the ground yet in the towns, but the mountains are beautiful.