I’m movin up in the world!!!

For the first time in my life I will live alone (which is kinda amazing in and of itself). I found a house in Lenkeran to rent and someone from the Peace Crops came down last week and approved it. A fun little old lady owns the house, but lives in Baku, so I get to rent it. It comes completely furnished (although I’ll need to buy a few things to add-mainly fans and a comfortable chair) which is nice. Unfortunately Tom is still looking for a new pad for himself. We looked for over 3 weeks and only found 5 places for $100/mo or under-which is insanely expensive since we only get $200/mo for everything. I am extremely hopeful the PC will help me out a little with my rent. By the time the PC came to approve the houses, they were all taken accept the one I got. Renting property is a weird concept out in the regions, so people won’t hold houses or sign contracts normally. It is first come first serve and you can get kicked out at any time basically. My landlord seems super nice, so I’m hopeful I’ll be able to make it all 18 months in the same house. The house is right next to the big park in the middle of town, so everything is within 10 minutes walk. It has a big yard/outside area with apple, pomegranate, and cherry trees. I have an outhouse and the shower is out there as well. By shower, I mean the room that has a water faucet with a big bucket and drain that I will be bathing in. I’ll have pictures up in 2-3 weeks after I move in. I’m going to go over today and officially tell her I’m moving in and hopefully get everything squared away. I’m going to miss Nene, but I’m really excited to have my freedom again. I’m still going to see Nene at least once or twice a week, so that will be good. She’s going to cook me food for my wood chopping services.

In other news, it is snowing like crazy. Saturday night we got about 4 inches, but it all started to melt off during the day. Well it started up again last night and we have about 8-12 inches now and it just keeps coming down. This is our first big snow in Lenkeran that has stuck, so we have been playing in it a bunch. All of the CED Volunteers and our work counterparts are supposed to go to Baku on Wednesday for a 2 day training seminar so I’m hopeful it stops soon so the roads will have a chance to get cleaned off before we leave. We will have 2 full days of training and 3 nights of Baku time paid for by the PC, so it should be fun times. I’m really lookin forward to some nachos…

Our final topic this week comes as a request from my father, Ronald Hunziker-enjoy dad!

Since most of my readers have not been to this part of the world (or have but have only stayed in nice hotels), Ron thought you should be enlightened on the typical toilet scenario. I have included pictures of toilets from around town (in order: Nene’s house, my office, and Tom’s office). There are some rare sit down toilets with lids around, but not in too many places. You typically have a squatter (tiled hole in the ground) or just a hole in the ground. You pull your pants down (chicks are lucky with wearing skirts in this situation) like normal, then pull the bottoms of your pants up some, then squat low and do your work. You then typically have a small water bucket with a spout (other options are plastic bucket, plastic bottle, I have a Corona bottle at work, or a water hose) available and you pour some water on your hind quarters and use your left hand (always your left hand) to clean away after you are done. Only in hotels or really nice places to eat (basically only in Baku) do you find toilet paper. Most volunteers carry toilet paper around with them to use, but I decided to live like the rest of the country (unless I’m in a hotel that offers westernized pooping facilities and toiletries). You then dump a bucket of water into the squatter to clean up your mess (or flush if you are in a fancy place). After your have finished your business you wash your hands EXTREMELY well. Tom’s house has an in between toilet squatter. It looks like a normal toilet but doesn’t have a seat and is only half as tall as a normal toilet, so sitting down isn’t really an option even though it may look like it.

Also featured in this week’s picture collection are: a sack Nene has in the kitchen (I love it!), Nene’s yard, the big park by my new house and the main street in town-all this morning.

T minus 16 days until I move out!!! I’m off to play in the snow-ave a great end of February everybody!!!