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Text of the page (random words):
as full of ladies from the market who had closed shop for the day and brought bags and bags of fruits and other stuff with them on the bus not sure when was the last time they saw foreigners but they kept asking if i was married why not and if not what then was my relationship with this man i was traveling with anyway the hot springs were closed for the day so we wandered into this little village the grass was soft and a pretty light green shade flowers were beginning to bloom and i could hear nothing but birds chirping cows mooing and frogs croaking the only thing missing was a bottle of bordeaux the next day we hired a taxi driver to drive us over the southern caucus mountains to a city called lerik we asked the taxi driver he wanted to bring his son the conversation went like this you son so he brought out his mobile and talked for 3 seconds literally 2 secs later his son shows up at the taxi stand so the 4 of us went on a pleasant but uneventful for the most part road trip i taught the little boy how to skip stones on the river below is lerik on the other side of the cloud covered mountain is iran on sunday and just a little over 24 hours after we arrived by electric train we said adios to our hosts and this lovely city we splurged a little for a first class ticket back to baku 5 00 for first class vs 3 00 for economy the ticket buying experience is a story for another time posted in 8th week fun 2 comments moo s and baa s april 11 2008 a few days ago i left my typical day in baku routine fled the traffic madness and took a mashrutka out to saatli a small city in south central azerbaijan to interview kiva loan clients i had already done many client interviews to date but this was a first as far as visiting a client base engaged in farming and agricultural businesses in a rural region it was exciting to learn about the economics of cattle and sheep business i also visited the usual trading services small businesses aka mom and pop stores but the small town context provided interesting color to the experience this was my very first interview with a man who took a loan for his cattle small business my initial impression was that he was dressed like a deloitte partner going to a client presentation instead we were walking through animal dung and mud it had been raining all morning anyways he told me through a translator he had used the 500usd loan plus his own money to purchase the 2 calves in the picture i m sure the answer to my next question was apparent to everyone around me ok so erm what do you do with the 2 calves many questions later i got the basics he bought these 2 calves at around 300usd bigger one was more expensive and will raise them for about 1 year before selling in the meat market for at least 600usd he also has a couple of milk cows which are expensive to purchase 1 200 1 500usd but produce a steady stream of income lastly there are also cows whose sole purpose in life is to pop out baby cows a good cow can reproduce 1 calf per year for up to 20 years aside from his cow raising and milk production business this entrepreneur also has an orchard he uses to grow wheat and fruits to supplement his income while the calves are growing and fattening up still that doesn t explain his dressing this was a client who used a loan to purchase 7 pregnant sheep to grow his flock to a considerable size so that he can begin selling them one by one to supplement his security guard job income how does he know that the sheep were pregnant when he bought them by the way they walk go figure at this interview with a tea house and doner kebab store owner the conversation below is pretty typical with trading services business clients me how did you use the loan him i bought stuff for my business me can you give me examples of what you bought doner meat vegetables kitchen equipment furniture him yes me which ones him shrugs little bit of this and little bit of that the funny story in the picture is that there were a few policemen in the background drinking tea and watching tv who freaked out when i took the picture because they were supposed to be out patrolling instead of hanging out at the chai house now the world knows in azerbaijan there s a lot of store signs written in english in spite of the fact that people hardly speak the language a client s men hair salon business had an interesting azeri fied english word on the sign gentlemen was spelled with a c which is pronounced like a j sound in azeri and an e was dropped so that one wouldn t mistakenly read it as gent le men makes complete sense no posted in 6th week getting dirty 2 comments a typical day in baku april 2 2008 let me tell you what my typical day in baku is like for a change i have a job where i don t respond well it depends to the question of what is a typical day on the job i wake up i wish to say at the crack of dawn but closer to 7 30 8am in reality i fill up a kettle and wait for the water to boil while i get dressed then i fill myself up with breakfast bread with yogurt spread and a cup of instant coffee forever grateful for the day i decided to turn my back on the tea drinking culture here and enjoy the view of haze shrouded baku city in the distant leaving my soviet apartment i head to the street to catch a mashrutka mini bus my thoughts are with each and every one of my friends in chicago who are still living in the winter the mashrutka comes 30 seconds later and upon boarding everyone in the bus stares at this strange foreigner for 3 seconds and discreetly for another 2 from the mashrutka i am strangely drawn to looking out for butchers preparing sheep cows for the day s sale decapitating skinning and gutting the mashrutka also passes my favorite or most hated depending on my mood intersection in baku this one intersection used to have a circle roundabout but the circle was removed and now its just free for all and complete chaos video below 10 minutes later and paying my 20 gepik 24 cents to the mashrutka driver i get dropped off at the metro station it will another 30 minute ride to cover 15km 10mi to my destination stop and these 30 minutes are my most dreaded time of the day if you think that chicago ls or nyc subways are packed i m sorry you re just plain spoilt when every miniscule inch of personal space is taken away 30 minutes is a long time i only hope that the woman s whose hair my face is burried into has been washed last week and that i am able to strategically angle myself in a way as to not come into contact with any man s groin the upside of the overcrowding is that there is no need to hold on to the filthy handrails i finally arrive at the office and practice my azeri for the day while tea is being served by our nice lady cook salam sabahin xeyr necesen hello good morning how are you while waiting for email to load i practice english with the coo and chat with other colleagues finally i get started working on my tasks that range from writing the organization s annual report marketing brochures website and new branch office location strategy the office people are very laid back and friendly to me the cfo speaks loudly in azeri and always sounds infuriated and one can mistake that there s a major crisis at one of the branch offices but i ve been told that all s well and it s just his accent and style we get served lunch by the nice lady cook and that sure is a perk i d love to continue having fast forwarding to sometime 6 7pm it s time to go play i meet jon the other kiva fellow somewhere in fountain square or old city for a drink or walk and dinner there s a pretty good microbrew that we sometimes go to otherwise we settle on the drinkable local xirdalan beer at some least prostitute bar like bar choosing a dinner spot usually involves deciding between this turkish restaurant or that turkish restaurant and while there are full menus at this or that restaurant the choices usually come down to 3 items the kitchen decides to make at the risk of oversimplifying the politics and history i have to say that azerbaijan is a very homogenous country i head home after dinner evening commutes are much more comfortable and i even get a seat and read a few pages of my book i arrive home usually a few minutes before water supply comes at 10pm a nice shower chat with my host and a few more pages of my book brings my typical day in baku to an end here s a video i took of my favorite inshaallah intersection in baku if god willing we will survive posted in 5th week living 3 comments dear ol macalester april 2 2008 i think i am clear of my bitchy dark mood seen in one or couple of my blog entries an experience also known as cultural shock i am reminded of a graph in the macalester international student handbook given to all newbies in the u s it depicts the highs and lows of one s moods at different stages of living in a new culture back then i thought that section on cultural adjustment in the handbook was pretty exagerrated but today i found that it pretty accurately described my experience to date as i m sure the only 2 people left following this blog are dying to go out to save a developing country here s the graph for your future reference posted in 5th week living 2 comments sud march 28 2008 today i was really proud of myself i bought milk from a store speaking only ok mostly azeri not without blunders however me salam sud var hello is there milk sounds rude but that s the way they say it here man su points to water from the fridge behind him me yok sud no milk man something something sud something something i think he understood i wanted milk me si hai err in my head in slow motion si wait no that s spanish hai shit that s japanese what the hell is yes in azeri err oh yes ha or beli but it s too late to say it now i feel so stupid man takes a box of uht milk and sets on counter something something me huh man points to made in germany print on box me ahh germany ok ne ceyadir how much man ikki manat elli gepik 2 manat 50 gepik me ha yakshi yes ok subdued excitement that i understood how much it cost and responded with the correct yes this time and added ok in azeri some japanese words like so desu ne also ran through my head oddly enough money goods exchange occurs thank heavens all humans who have experienced globalization to some extent share this common understanding me sag ol thanks goodbye have a good life may allah be with you anything really man sag ol i could say sag ol back to him at this point to which he will reply back with sag ol and theoretically we can stand there exchanging sag ol s all day but i decided to continue on with life i am averaging one new azeri word per week it seems posted in 5th week living 5 comments more thoughts about life here march 28 2008 azerbaijan celebrated its biggest holiday season novruz last thurs and fri everyone was given the entire week off work so i took the opportunity to go to the regions of ganje and sheki in the west and northwest respectively my trip probably deserves a blog entry filled with pictures but limitation of internet speed here leaves me no choice but to post a dull wordy entry which no one will read so here goes the rambling i realized that the more i travel outside the capital city of baku the city i considered conservative is extremely liberal in comparison to the rest of the country let s consider this little girl from a small city chances are that her parents considered aborting her 25 of females are aborted before they are born chances are that her brother in the picture will demand for tea at home even though she s busy cooking and cleaning while he bums around chances are that she will be smarter than her brother because she almost never leaves the home so she will have more time to study while her brother goes out to the internet café play football or chai house chances are that when she does leave home she never goes alone but always accompanied by her mom or some girlfriends but she probably wouldn t mind staying home because there are few places in town where it is acceptable for girls to visit those chai houses at the park are for men only no matter how nice the weather chances are that when she grows into a beautiful young woman she considers herself muslim but she will never hide her long dark hair under a hijab headscarf instead she will don fashionable tops tight jeans and heels as do most girls her age young men will accept their right to gawk at her as she walks by chances are that she will marry her first cousin by the age of 25 after which she d have missed her window of opportunity for marriage chances are that she will never learn to drive because women don t drive chances are that she will flash a row of gold capped teeth when she smiles by her 30s but in a photo you ll never see her smile chances are she will have a couple kids boys slightly preferred and lose her slim figure along the way chances are that she will consider herself happy in spite of all this posted in 4th week already 1 comment about life here march 19 2008 so i ve been in azerbaijan for a little past 3 weeks now i thought it was time to make some concrete opinions on how i feel about living in this country interesting things are still happening but it is about that time that what used to be amusing earlier on can now tick me off i do like roughly in order of most to less learning new things through seeing hearing reading and interacting still limited to english every minute of the day meeting and hanging out with random people completely random english speaking people at the metro on the street travelers staying at the hostel expats from the hash house harriers running group u s peace corps volunteers and finding out that many of these people are somehow within 1 or 2 degrees of separation less stress i do keep busy with work but there is no do it by eod or die type or competitive pressure i often felt i was under in my other life my money goes a longer way but just by a tiny bit examples of prices here 0 05 per metro ride 2 50 per local xirdalan beer at a bar 0 40 per loaf of freshly baked bread 2 80 per gallon or 0 70 per liter of gas i do not like definitely in order being stereotyped as an asian female who is somewhat sociable i e not spend evenings at home i am subject to many first i can live with looking different and getting some stares but i do not enjoy the type of stares i get when i ride the metro home later at night however i refuse to give up my freedom and social life if my personal safety is not at risk second i hate being assumed that i am a prostitute when i am traveling alone at night or at least i m paranoid being thought as one third i am amused still at this point that kids ask what i am selling chinese people are often seen selling things mainly toys on the street pollution pollution pollution fyi baku was voted the most filthy city in the world this year that public infrastructure really sucks what the eff does the government do with its oil money not being abl...