Can you still call it a sweat shop in the freezing cold winter?this

Since my apartment is a small cement box if you want more space the only way to go is up. So Jake build me a bunk bed. Jake is a pretty handy kid to have around. I don't really want to write much right now so lets call this one a photo essay.

Jake working on the blueprints

Jake cutting the wood

Putting the frame together

Putting the new kid to work

Final product. Notice the amazing leopard print.

The great bread crisis of '09

So, this week we had no gas for 3 days. I figured this would just mean that everything would be cold unless I felt the desire to go chop me some wood. I was wrong. I was on my way to my sitemate's house and he asked me to bring him some bread. I stopped by the corner store and asked if they had bread. "There is no gas, how can we have bread?" In case you don't know, bread is a pretty big deal in Azerbaijan. It is eaten at every meal. If it gets stale or moldy you don't throw it away, that is unacceptable! You hang it from the dumpster and the "Chorek Fairy" does something with it (this may be a mystery I never solve here). So no bread. For 4 days "because it takes a while to bake. Yesterday I went to the store and people kept sticking their heads in the door asking for bread. It was a difficult time, but we made it through. I made muffins actually. And I didn't burn them. Go me!

Winter Makes You Think

So, now that it is winter I have been thinking about where I was last year. Snow evidently makes me think deeply, who knew. I've been having flashbacks to my life one year ago and it is so very different now. This time last year I was living with a host family full of awkward situations like being offered money, complained to about health ailments, walking in on my host dad purposely putting me host mom into a coma ( he was a doctor, but still, in the living room?) screaming fits of rage by my host sister, and shotguns being pulled out during friendly card games. Now I live on my own (insert sigh of relief here). Last year I was also still fighting the "I am not an English teacher" war that every Youth Development Volunteer encounters. I have sort of gotten over that at this point. I work with some of the better English speakers in town and help some people write reports in English, but that is it on the English front. I've sort of found my groove helping people with office trainings, sports, and something along the lines of therapeutic recreation planning. It rocks. I've come a long way in the last year, I've grown wiser and a bit more bitter, but I don't think that is a bad thing. Here is a gratuitous picture (of the shack across the street from my apartment), cuz you know, I like blogs with pictures and I'm only sort of a hypocrite.

I woke up to winter

So, last Saturday was a beautiful day in Quba. It was sunny and clear, I could see the mountains covered in snow, basically gorgeous. Now, Tuesday morning I woke up and the place is covered in snow. This also happened simultaneously with the gas being out all over the region. Bad timing Azerbaijan, bad timing.