Not a lot to talk about this week. We had 2 days of training with our counterparts in Baku late last week. It was interesting to see the differences in everyone’s counterparts as well as what the counterparts had to say vs. what the volunteers had to say about our first 6 months at our assignments. There are some things that we all have to work on a little to better fit in with our new surroundings still, but everything should work out fine. I hit McDonald’s twice, had nachos once, and pizza twice, so it was a big weekend for my belly. Upon arrival to Baku I found out that I have officially lost 16 or 17 pounds since I left America. This is a little distorted since I ate a ton before I left and was a few pounds heavier than usual. What will be really interesting to see is what my weight does once I’m in charge of my own meals starting next week.

We had over two feet of snow total last weekend, so there were snow ball fights had and snow men made which was fun. I think we officially found Tom a house today, so that is good news for the Lenkeran crew. A few other Volunteers have found new places, but a lot of people are still having a tough time with it.

I have two Nene high lights of the week. This morning when we were eating breakfast a piece of wood in the fire made a loud pop/crackle noise and she told me seriously that the wood was talking about her-I kinda believe her oddly enough. She also cleaned my room while I was in Baku and said she had to clean my curtains 3 times because of the smoke from my furnace and then just stared at me like I did it on purpose. I told her it was her furnace that did it, but that I think black curtains are very pretty.

I am still waiting to hear on my grant from Disney, so hopefully I’ll get some good news on that soon. I just met with a local teacher and Tom and I are going to meet with her students for an hour each we to help them practice their English speaking. I also got some good news from the PC that a proposal a few of us made to create an environmental committee has been accepted. I also met with a local entrepreneurial organization and am hopeful that I can arrange/help with some basic business skills trainings at the new business center in Lenkeran. I don’t feel like I’ve done too much so far in my first six months as far as projects, I kept using the language and new environment as excuses, but that should all be changing now and hopefully I can get some good projects going ASAP.

I would like to say Hello! to another addition to the extended friends family: Ryan Elizabeth Hughes decided she was sick of traveling with Nikki 24/7 and joined the world late last week. Matt “Mr. Mom” Hughes should already be in full effect…

Pictures seen this week are of Magda, me, Tom, Rikki George and Ben at dinner, me, Ben, Tom and Magda screwing around in the hotel, me, Tom, and Rikki George, some funny little kid we saw in a store, the final snow count at Nene’s, Nene’s electrical set up with battery collectors, surge protector, and all sorts of junk it takes to have consistent electricity in Lenkeran, and finally what I use to wash my clothes…seriously it is called “Barf”-I can’t make this stuff up…