Running Water... wow.

A quick apology to all you loyal readers and avid Aloink fans out there, in particular, Mrs. Flegal. I know this post is long overdue, but I have been trapped inside my sleeping bag for the last month.

Well, after two months, the wait for water is over. Last Thursday, I sat around my house while my landlord, two of her grandkids and a repair man were over fixing up my pipes. The first repair man they brought over told them it would take him a week or so before he would have the time and equipment to fix the water pipes at my house. This would not do, so we went to a different neighbor, I mean repair man, who made a shopping list of things to buy at the bazaar and went to work that afternoon. By mid-day Friday, I had running water from the cold water pipes again. Needless to say I was very excited because as you all know, running water is freaking awesome.

Also, and I don’t want to jinx it, but the weather has been fantastic the last few days. Temperatures in the 50’s and low 60’s with a slight breeze and cloudless skies are a great thing. So is running water. Did I mention that already? There is still a little work to do, as I had to leave Friday afternoon for a meeting at my office, but I think I can handle the rest. After carefully observing the repair man once all the new faucets and joints were in place, all I have to do is turn stuff on and bang on the pipes with a piece of metal. So that was my evening after work yesterday. All went well and I was able to shower this morning which was a wonderful thing, seeing as how I haven’t taken a shower at my house in over two months, or this year. I’ve used other showers, but it’s just so much easier using your own, you know? Enough of that, let’s move on to work related happenings.

As most of you probably know, I am on my second counterpart with my organization, since my first one moved on to bigger and better things with a job in Baku. While I was in Baku two weekends ago for Volunteer Prom (the 14th through the 16th), my new counterpart and Russian tutor, Aygun found a new job in Baku as well. So this is her last week working for CLEE in Lankaran and will be moving to Baku to work as a lawyer in a big firm. While I am once again a little disappointed because we have become good friends and she helps me out with everything I need, I am more than happy for her and glad that she has a new opportunity. Plus she’ll be working right across the street from our favorite restaurant in Baku, so I should get to see her whenever I’m there.

*Quick notes* Prom was awesome. I’m not sure exactly why it’s called Prom, because it’s just an excuse for all the volunteers to get together in Baku and party, but I guess it gives us a reason to dress up. Whatever. It was a blast this year. We didn’t go anywhere special, just the usual place, but everyone dressed up in some way or another and the bar let us play our own music so there was something for everyone. We went out for dinner in groups on Thursday and Friday night and Saturday, a small group of us hung out in a friends apartment and played video games and made lasagna for Magda’s birthday. The food was great and it set us up to have a great night. I’m getting pictures soon, so I’ll put those up next time, which will be sooner rather than later. Ok, back to the other stuff.

So Aygun is gone. Fortunately, we’ve already hired a replacement who I already know because she was Ashley’s Azerbaijani tutor when we first arrived in Lankaran so we are already friends. That should make the adjustment a lot easier. She’s being trained this week and I’m sure she’ll catch on real quickly. She speaks English too so that will make it easier dealing with my new project that is finally starting to get some legs. On Friday, Aygun and I met with representatives of the city from the Ministry of Youth and Sports about creating the sports league that I’ve wanted to start. It was important for us to get the city to support us and they agreed so this week we are sending letters to the Education department and will begin getting the schools and teachers directly involved (I hope). So it should be interesting to see how this project develops, but I’m real hopeful we might be able to have it put together by the end of spring so I can see the formation of the league before I leave. I’m cautiously excited at this point and hopefully this will keep me busy in the upcoming months. I realized last week that I haven’t really put up any pictures of the area where I live so I went out the other night and tried to get some good pictures while the weather was clear. These aren’t the best but they are what I have right now and I hope to get better ones in the upcoming weeks. The first picture is Ashley, Carlo and me at Prom. The next one is the street my house is on and then the other two are from the surrounding area around my house.