The Kniolas Survived The AZ!

Before I begin, please note that I have not sat still for the past 2.5 weeks, so sadly I did not put up a blog last week. Sorry kids. To make up for it I am posting 2 new ones right now, so read this one and scroll down to the next new one about the Novruz Holiday.

So Mike and Terry Kniola came to visit Tom last weekend. Several of us came into town Friday for a training on youth exercise programs and then we met up with the Kniolas around 5ish (they got in at 6:30am and had been bumming around Baku all day). We met up with them at the hotel (where they graciously got us a room) and then headed out to dinner with the usual suspects. We took them to eat nachos, chicken nuggets and cold beers. Somehow they stayed out with us until midnightish, and then they split up when we headed to the dance clubs. Keep in mind we are a fairly intense group to be around since we never get to see each other and basically save up all of our energy until we meet up in Baku and then we just explode (figuratively speaking). The next day Tom and I took the Kniolas on a Baku tour of all of the hot spots and then we all had a good nap time. Saturday night we all went out to a good Georgian restaurant for dinner and then we let the Kniolas go crash (jet lag caught up) and we went out on the town. The next day we headed back to Lenkeran after Tom and I showed them the McDonald’s burger/chicken sub sandwich combo for lunch.

The Kniolas stayed in the Gala Hotel (4 stars!) and had an awesome room! It didn’t feel like you were in AZ at all. They gave Tom some presents (Patron, 15 boxes of Mac&Cheese, and waffle ball stuff), so it felt like Christmas all over again. We immediately made Mac&Cheese for dinner and then all crashed. Monday was a holiday still, so we took them for an all day tour around Lenkeran. They seemed to enjoy it and said it was pretty much what they expected. We hit the bazaar, Caspian Sea saucer to make it cool faster as well as how to put a sugar cube in your mouth while you drink the scalding hot tea. That night we all went to eat at Tom’s house with his host family. I think Tom’s dad was a little caught off guard when Tom’s dad gave him the traditional hand shake and cheek kiss. Tom’s mom ate with us which was cool since that never typically happens. They made us a spread of all the typical Azeri food (especially rice and chicken lavangi-the Lenkeran specialty) and we got stuffed! After that we headed back to their hotel room and play, football stadium, river, parks, etc. Tom and I took his dad to a Tea House to see what it is like to be a man in AZ and to let /evening we went to the big event, NENE’S 70^TH BIRTHDAY! We were going to get to slaughter a sheep and cook out for it, but due to the bad weather we went to a really nice restaurant with the entire family. Nene’s son from Moscow came in to surprise her and her kids and grand kids from Baku all came down as well. There were about 20 or so of us for a massive meal, some dancing, more eating, more dancing, cake, dancing, etc. Nene stood up at the beginning of the deal and gave a toast, and then told us we all had to chant “Nene, Nene, Nene” when she was him drink some more traditional tea in its most common setting. We taught him how to pour hot some tea into youred Yahtzee for a few hours until we were all ready to crash. The next day we did some more touring (it was a cold rainy day sadly and we didn’t get to take them up into the mountains). They hit Tom’s office and bought some souvenirs during the day. That afternoondone and clap. She then had every single person there give her a toast-she literally called out peoples’ names when she was ready for them to praise her. Tom’s parents both got called out by Nene for the toasting and were completely caught off guard I think. It was pretty funny and they were really good sports about the whole thing. Tom's mom didn't seem too excited about it, so I made sure to include a picture of her toasting on this blog so it will be immortalized-sorry Mrs. Kniola! It was good for them to see how a big Azeri family/party goes and to see how people interact (husbands, wives, kids, etc.). They then had to leave early to go to another dinner with Tom’s co-workers. They had to head back to Baku to catch an early flight out on Wednesday, so we basically jammed as much Lenkeran/Azeri culture down their throats as we could in two days. I’m sure it was an overload, but I hope they enjoyed their trip. It was fun to have them here and we were all very thankful for their generosity they showed us all weekend. Yaxsi Yol Kniolas!!!

I had a 3 day training in Baku on project design and management. It was a really good workshop and I’m glad I went. I took a local Azeri friend from Lenkeran to the workshop and hopefully he and I can work together on some projects in the future. I got home yesterday and am dead tired. I feel like I’ve been going non-stop for the past 2 weeks or so. This week Tom and I are going to start planning our America Day in Lenkeran for May. I’m also going to start traveling around my region all of April trying to get ideas for projects to get going.

On a down note, I got my grant from Disney, but then I found out 2 weeks ago that due to the insane inflation going on in AZ right now, the prices for everything have doubled. That means I have to find another $500 somewhere. I posted a “Partnership Grant Request” on the Peace Corps website. You can put a description of a project up on there and then individuals or companies can make donations to specific projects. Hopefully someone will see it and fund it so I can get the project going. I’m glad I started off with a small scale project first, so I can see all of the problems that I will be encountering over here doing things. There are no contracts and their sense of professionalism/business sense is completely different that in America, so I really have to manage my expectations and plan for potential future problems in all of my projects.

The pictures are of: us at the Georgian restaurant, family pic at Tom’s house, the men at Tom’s house, us in the big park reading a paper from Woodstock, IL (they wanted this picture becaus

e in Woodstock it is tradition for locals to take a newspaper with them on trips and take pictures reading it in weird places, then they put that picture in the newspaper), us at Nene’s house pre-party, Nene addressing the crowd, oldest daughter toasting Nene, Tom’s mom toasting her, the delicious food we ate (a skillet with French fries, meat, tomatoes, onions, eggplant, tortillas, and tons of grease with hot coals under it to keep it hot), Nene dancing, a group picture, us all eating, the grandkids and one more big group picture.