One month in Oğuz

It’s hard to believe I’ve already been at site for almost a month. I can mostly sum up my feelings about it by saying that I am absolutely in love with Oğuz. My host family is great, my house is nice, the town is GORGEOUS, my school is good, my counterparts are enthusiastic and kind…what more could a PCV ask for?

Sure, I’ve had plenty of discouraging days, failed attempts at integration and communication, and times when I’ve asked myself what the hell I’m actually doing here, but overall I’m quite happy.

Oğuz is a really small town, although I can’t get a straight answer on how many people live here. Perched on the side of a mountain, the streets of the city wind uphill and are dotted with rustic-looking rooftops and streetlamps (I really like streetlamps…). Always in sight to the east are the rolling tree-covered mountains and a patch of rocky, snow-covered mountains. On the other side is a sort of flat farming plain with more gorgeous mountains in the distance. My runs down the back roads of the town are full of breathtaking veiws, to say the least. Although I live in Oğuz Şəhəri (Oghuz town, verses a village), it is still quite rural; I pass a herd of sheep on my walk to school every day, and there are always at least two cows hanging out by my driveway. The milk and yogurt comes fresh from the neighbor’s cows and the bread is baked fresh every day…belissimo.

My new host family is very different from the one in Sumgayit. My host father is a dentist and my host mother is a teacher; they have three daughters, but all are married, have children, and live outside of Oğuz, so the house is a quiet place with only me and my host parents; a very welcome change from the craziness of my PST host family. Having raised three daughters, my host mom is fairly liberal and open-minded. I’m really thankful for this, especially because of my male site-mates, who I initially introduced as my big brothers; my host family has no problem with them coming over or me going to their houses as long as I don’t walk home alone at night. In my free time my host mom teaches me how to cook Azerbaijani meals and tells me that when I go back to the US I’ll only know how to make Azerbaijani food (I often joke [maybe inappropriately?] that I’m going to make a bad wife). My host father is a bit of a worry-wart who follows me around trying to feed me more food, give me candy, or toast to my future wedding (gah), but he’s very kind.

The house is comfortable by Azerbaijani standards; it’s genrally warm and cozy (as is my bedroom if I keep the door open to the main room with the stove). It has an outdoor squat-toilet, but I’m honestly completely used to this and it doesn’t bother me in the least. In fact, I often am thankful for the walk, because I get a spectactular veiw of the stars every night on my way to the bathroom. I only get one shower per week, because that’s when the peç is turned on to heat the water, but there is an actual shower instead of a bucket bath, so I’m thankful. It’s funny how quickly you get used to things like that when you try to be optimistic, haha.

I’m quickly learning the power of positive thinking…as a result, I’m quite happy.