Another Crazy Week

This has been another testing week for me.  Last Sunday I hiked to waterfall in the next village with one of my Azerbaijani friends that I am teaching English to.   I had to cross a river (a little scary) and then climb down an extremely steep mountain (a lot scary) to get to the waterfall. That waterfall was absolutely beautiful and the water was so fresh and clean you can drink it right from the mountain. Fortunately, my friend is very strong and pull me up and down and across the river and mountain.  We hiked for six hours and it felt good to come home and feel so tired but knowing that you had accomplished something (and in my case, I did not die!!! it was a hard climb).

Climbing down scary

Hiking Loving it!!!

My grandchildren started school this week and as you can see (below) they are very happy.  This just reminds me of how they are growing up so fast right in front of my eyes (or SKYPE). It just seems like yesterday, Emma was just born, now she is 4 and in pre school. And Owen is in 2nd grade!!  How is that possible???  School here in Azerbaijan does not start until September 15, so I still have a couple of weeks.

Day 1 of School

Day 2 How cute are they!!!

I am moving at the end of the month so I am packing up and getting rid of stuff I don't need.  I am still trying to find homes for the kittens but the worst scenario is that I can temporally take them to my new place until I can find them homes. I am hoping some ex pats in Baku may want them.  I need to take Bounty in to get her spay which I will do at COS in September and hopefully I will be able to take the boys. Mint will stay here she is feral and knows the apartment, the mice, the birds, and everyone feeds her so it just wouldn't be fair to take her to some unknown place. I will truly miss her, she is an amazing cat.

I was at IREX doing a conversation club when I received at call from Security "we are having emergency consolidation test" and you must call your cluster and have them meet at your place immediately.  Darn... bad timing... Had a student take over class and went outside and just started calling my group.  One was in Baku (no problem go to PC office) another in Guba (no problem go to the consolidation there), one was out of country, three were on a field trip (but only one answered his phone) in another village with students and could not come until 5 PM. Another did not answer so I text, no response. Called security and give them my report.   The volunteer that did not respond finally answered that evening and told us her phone was not working.  I tell you, if this was a real emergency we would have failed miserably.  I really don't think that our two newest groups take it seriously and that could be a huge problem. There should be consequences for not answering the phone when you are called or not going to the consolidation point.  But I did my job documented it and gave it to PC security, next year it will be someone else responsibility.

Life Challenge:  In every one's life at sometime, our inner fire goes out.  It is then burst into flame by an encounter with another human being.  We should all be thankful for those people who rekindle the inner spirit.  Albert Schweitzer