Celebrating American Holidays (Thanksgiving and Christmas)...Peace Corps Style

MERRY CHRISTMAS

to all my family and friends and readers of this blog.  Many thanks for your support and your interest.

Last summer, while visiting Istanbul, I was very much impressed with the mosaics on walls and ceilings of Hagia Sophia, thinking at the time that I surely had seen pictures of some of these mosaics on beautiful Christmas cards over the years, and deciding then that I would share these images, together with my wishes for glad tidings to all this holiday season.  Now, as always, the message of Peace on Earth has important significance, and as a Peace Corps Volunteer, it is the goal and objective of my service.  

The holiday season for Peace Corps Volunteers is of course a time of mixed emotions, missing home and family, and yet also a time for bonding with other Peace Corps Volunteers, especially important for those serving in countries (like Azerbaijan) where holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas are not celebrated.  Of course it is memorable and inspiring to partake in the local holidays with host country nationals, new friends who share with us interesting and fun celebrations.  But we do also appreciate the chance to share with each other our typical American holidays.  So for us Peace Corps Volunteers in Azerbaijan, this holiday season began with a gathering for all of us to celebrate a Thanksgiving dinner, complete with seven turkeys, stuffing, gravy, and so many side dishes...it was fantastic!

An awesome group of Azerbaijan Peace Corps Volunteers pose at the Thanksgiving gathering, loosely positioning themselves on the steps relative to the location of the towns or villages throughout the country where they serve--a human map of 

Enjoying Thanksgiving Dinner was great!

 Peace Corps Azerbaijan.

Watching the "talent" show was hilariously entertaining and enjoyed by  all.

 Some of the fun-loving talent show entertainers...

After returning back to our relative sites of service--our towns and villages, it was time to think of how we might celebrate Christmas.  In my town, we decided to celebrate early, since I (and some of my sitemates) will be out of the country around the holidays.  So we gathered at my Peace Corps Palace for a spectacular Christmas home-made pizza party and white elephant gift exchange...couldn't have been more fun!

The BEST home-made pizza--EVER...all fresh ingredients, straight from the local bazaar.  And baked in one of the ubiquitous Azerbaijani 'red ovens' -- this one in my kitchen--until just right...so delicious!






And then came the white elephant gift exchange, which some proudly display:

Flag-bearing Shakhta Baba

A dagger for all seasons...

A very useful tool

Having to give up the huge jar of peanut butter in white elephant trade 

The winner of the creamy peanut butter, gloating...

Peace Corps creative Christmas Tree, complete with flashing lights (looks better in person)

Last year I was privileged to spend Christmas Eve services and Christmas party at the Baku German Lutheran Church.  But this year I will be in Germany proper.  Having lived, attended school and worked in Germany, I have wonderful life-long friends whom I will be visiting, dear family friends in Duisburg (Muelheim) and Cologne, as well as my god-son in Duesseldorf.  

Christmas in Germany is especially delightful, with its colorful Christkindlmaerkte (Christmas Markets), Nativity displays, Christmas trees (O, Tannenbaum), and specialty treats.  And this Christmas I plan to  attend Christmas services at the Cologne Cathedral, the largest Gothic church in Northern Europe, and one of the most striking and impressive.  It has special Christmas significance, too, since the relics of the Three Wise Men are enshrined at the altar of the Cologne Cathedral.  Some traditions indicate that these Wise Men--Kings of the Orient--(or at least one of them) came from the Land of Fire, from the place where the ancient religion of Zoroastrianism was practiced, a religion whose wise men (magi) studied and noted the position of the stars, perhaps even the Star of Bethlehem .  This Land of Fire is today known as Azerbaijan!  So it seems all too fitting and special that I will travel from Azerbaijan to visit Cologne and worship this holiday season at the Cathedral of the three Holy Kings.

Koelner Dom (Cologne Cathedral) with Christkindlmarkt (Christmas Market) in foreground 

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

My Peace Corps Palace...continued...

More from my Peace Corps Palace...


The living room is adorned with an ornate chandelier, sculptured and embossed (but very aged) wall and ceiling paper, and thanks to good friend and neighbor Gulnaz is now home to some of her spare furniture...

 View from living room into the spare bedroom

 Views of the living room, following the addition of some furniture and personal decorating touches (family photos, scenes from Washington, Oregon, and California, maps of Azerbaijan and the Caucasus region, and  sports posters)--Thanks to AzETA teachers for tables, chairs, kitchen and bath supplies. <3

 My only source of heat--small red space heater on the floor near the table...so far, so good

The guest bedroom *before*:

Guest bedroom *after*, complete with some wardrobe clothes hangers attached by twine to the curtain rod:

 View from guest bedroom into living room:

 My bedroom *before*:

And my bedroom *after.*

My old iron framed, bed-roll-for-a-mattress bed--cost 10 Manat, used, is draped with the Peace Corps furnished mosquito netting (there are some malaria-carrying mosquitoes in some parts of Azerbaijan, though not necessarily where I live; nonetheless, the mosquitoes we have are plenty pesky--and despite the time of year, they are still here!)  The apartment was totally unfurnished when I moved in, and typical of housing construction here, no rooms have any closets--people buy free-standing wardrobe closets.  Not being able to afford that on PC budget, I fashioned my own wardrobe closet, by hanging looped twine from the curtain rod, then bought some hangers, and now hang my clothes in staggered fashion:

 In lieu of a *real* closet, I hang my clothes on hangers, suspended with twine from the curtain rod.  For winter, I covered the windows with some plastic:

 A PCV leaving service gave me a chest of drawers with only two functional drawers; I made a bookcase of sorts out of the front panels of the two broken drawers, held up with boxes from the USPS, thanks to the care packages I get from home.  I have been inspired by how resourceful most Azerbaijanis are--everything possible is repaired and reused.  And my mom and dad, survivors of the Great Depression, would be proud, I think--they, too, were very resourceful, and taught me to use and re-use long before recycling was a commonplace concept.

 The front pieces of broken drawers serve as book shelves and dressing table...small hand mirror serves as my wall mirror

View from entry hallway into my bedroom:

 View from entry door into apartment hallway and beyond into living room...house slippers await guests; as is common here, one removes shoes and puts on slippers when entering someone's home:

View to entry door of apartment and my bedroom to the left.  The bedroom door at one time must have had a glass panel in it, like the door leading into the living room.  But when I moved in, there was no glass panel in the door, so I bought an Azerbaijani flag to cover the opening:

Hallway leading past bathroom on left into kitchen in background:

Scenes around the neighborhood:

Other Peace Corps housing options in Azerbaijan:

Some typical "Khrushchev Housing" in Sumgayit, Azerbaijan...typical Soviet-era mass housing complexes, minimal amenities, with fluctuating utilities--i.e. water only every other day or for a few hours per day. 

Typical "yard house" in small town :

Yard houses have bath and squat toilets in a separate structure in the yard

Yard toilet:

  

Villages and small towns typically have roads with brick walls, behind which are the "yard houses"; the elevated pipelines are for gas:

Small "yard house":

Built into the wall in the corner of the yard is the toilet:

 Spotless and well-maintained yard toilet:

"Yard" houses also commonly have separate bathhouses for "bucket" bathing or showering (hamam); room in back in this photo can be heated and buckets of hot water can be used for bathing, or some hamam have showers; sink in foreground is fed by water from a tin reservoir, mounted to the wall above the sink; it is filled from a hose in the yard, the only source of running water:

 

"Yard" houses are often heated by gas or wood-burning stoves called a peç:

Some schools, such as this one in a suburb of Baku, also have yard lavatories for the students and teachers (two small structures to the left of school building); no running water in the actual school building:

 School yard lavatory