I keep meaning to tell some of the quirky things about this country and somehow, I just keep forgetting, but here are a few:
Bread is sacred here, you always have to have the bread right side up. The loaves are basically flat and round or oval, so it is obvious which is the top. Also, you can never just throw it away. It has to be eaten by humans or animals. So everywhere you go, there are pieces of bread perched here and there because people couldn’t just toss it.
Also, the original religion of this land was Zoroasterianism, which is a fire-worshiping religion. And boy, do the people have a thing about fire. In fact one holiday, Novruz which is around Easter-time and actually involves coloring eggs (an old Pagan custom) people make fires and jump over them. (Another old pagan spring-time custom) And this happens everywhere, even in the capital, which is a big city. But everyday here, people start these little fires. In Davachi they were always setting the brush on fire, and they make these little trash fires all the time, even here, in Ganja, where there is garbage collection. I haven’t seen any house fires yet, though.
People are completely uninterested in us Americans. They really don’t ask any questions other than what state I am from and am I married and do I have children. People here love to talk about money and how much things cost. They are always asking me how much something cost me. My laptop, my camera, etc.
Everyone loves weddings. They put on these huge weddings and if you are well-to-do you have it in a Sadliq Sarayi, which is a wedding palace. They all have satin chair covers, mostly gold and burgundy, and hideous silk flower arrangements. There is always a head table for the bride and groom under a marquee-like, bandshell-like thing, with light up letters that say “Best Wishes.” More fake flowers, all over. Usually, 200-500 come, and the guests are expected to pay their way. Not in the capital, where that is considered tacky, but out in the rest of the country. If you don’t have money, you put up a tent made from blue tarp in your street (yes, they just close the street) and borrow tables and chairs from your neighbors. This is also how funerals are held. But for the funeral tents, they hang carpets on the inside walls of the tarp tent.
The weddings, called a Toy, last for about five or six hours and the whole affair is videoed, from the time the bride is picked up at her house, then the groom is picked up at his house and they ride to the wedding palace in a big procession of cars. The driver of the bride and grooms car swerves all over the road and pretends to try and hit people. All the family members follow in cars and buses.
It is all filmed in real time. And people never tire of watching the whole 6 to 8-hours over and over. I personally saw one wedding twice in installments of about 2 hours per night. People just love it.
Oh yeah, they have all these corny effects too, running water, cartoon doves, etc. Technology gone bad.
Girls still have doweries here, and there are stores just filled with dowery items. (They all pretty much sell the exact same stuff, because people here all like having the same things, kind of like keeping up with the joneses). Fancy china is very popular and crystal and everyone has just about the same patterns of china and glasses. My Davachi family and my Ganja family have the same dishes although they are at completely opposite ends of the country and income scale. No matter how poor the family, you will find a cabinet full of gold-trimmed fancy teapots, dishes and crystal. For her 18th birthday presents, my Davachi sister got a set of glasses, a set of silver-plate trays, some frying pans and a bedspread set. She was thrilled. Most girls are married by age 22, if they are not going to University.
Let’s not forget the animal parts. Everyday while I was in Davachi, I would see a part of any animal, here a chicken head, there a calf foot, here a wing, there a scrap of fur, or a skull. One time on my way to school, I saw a cow horn on top of a rock on the school soccer field. The kids were using it for an out of bounds marker. I don’t see that anymore here in Ganja, while there are plenty of animals, there is also garbage collection. Everyday, though, I see cow legs or sheep carcasses hanging from a roadside butchery. The cuts of meat just hang out in the open. On the open road they wrap the legs and so forth up in cloth to keep out the dust, but you gotta think about the refrigeration issues. Mostly I try not to. Saw what looked like a whole, flat dessicated giant-mink like animal on the side of the road up in the mountains yesterday.
Right now it is mattress making season. Many of the numerous sheep have been shorn and their wool laid out, picked clean and washed and then the ladies lay it out on big rectangles of cloth and use the wool for mattress stuffing. In Sumgayitt, the third largest city in the country, women were making mattresses right out on the sidewalks and parks. I sleep on such a mattress, not bad, kind of like a futon.
On the good news front, there isn’t much I can’t find here that I want, the only exception is books. So everyone, save up any books you would like to donate and M bag them off to me. My address is Carol Laughlin, Suhl Korpusu Konullulu, c/o Ganja Business Group, 258 Ataturk Ave, Ganja, Azerbaijan, AZ 2000. (The words after my name mean Peace Corps Volunteer.) You go to the post office and ask for an M bag and they get out this canvas bag and you put the box of books in and you get a much, much cheaper rate than sending anything else.
I was really wanting coffee, but my coffee and Splenda came, my coffee maker got broken, but Alix is sending another and I might be able to find one here, as there are a lot of Turkish Restaurants and they serve coffee. They also make a pretty good pizza, and something very close to a Gyro plate called Iskandar (After Iskandar the great, Alexander to us Westerners). And I found a store that sells all kinds of Holland Cheeses, so my other big yen was filled. Life is good.
Oh yeah, here’s a real favor, I would like to ask anyone out there for. Could you clip out any crosswork puzzles you find and just fold them up and mail them to me in an envelope. I do miss them and some of the time here, I think I can’t even speak English anymore.
This is getting tediously long…. so more later.
