These Boots are made for Hiking: Living In the Hood

I’ve been in my apartment for 4 months and I have had many challenges to say the least. One of them is my “scheduled water” but it is not so scheduled and because of this I have been very creative. I sometimes get it between 3-5 days. I may get it in the morning or I may get it in the evening. This week, I got it on day 4 and in the evening. Oh, the pump was not working properly so it took almost an hour to pump it in my small tank (usually takes about 5 minutes). You are asking "How does she know when it comes"? Well, two ways, one I can hear the pump starting up (at which point, I ran into the bathroom and turn on the valves) another way is texting my landlady and asking her when will the water be delivered (if it is off schedule). I have bought 5 liters water jugs (3 of them), and put the good water in my filter and fill them up with the pump water. We do have a water faucet that runs continuously outside (there is NO off valve), so that is how I fill my litter bottles. Go figure, I can’t get water on a regular basis but we have water outside running continuously, what a waste! Water management PCV’s please come to this country and shows them how to preserve this precious water before it is gone!! The positive is that I have a place I can cook for myself. Since this bug I got from Turkey, I have had to eat a lot of plain foods to avoid a flare up (the biopsy showed that it has become chronic). So my friends from the village to the city all help me with sweet jams and soups. I was making vegetarian chili (without the chili powder) and I kind of overcooked the beans. What to do? I looked in our PVC’s cook book and found a recipe for bean burgers and re fried beans. Hmmm good and look all the protein I am getting from this meal.

Homemade Re fried Beans and Bean Burgers

I finally got my meds and they all have side effects and I got a few of them. I think until my body accepts them, I will not feel the best. I am glad it is the weekend, so I don’t have to go anywhere. Two of the pills are huge and I have a very hard time getting them down (oh well, I only have to do this for 10-20 days) and if it means killing this bug, I will choked them down gladly.

The weather is changing quickly, from summer to winter in one day (what happened to autumn?). It has been raining almost every night and it has been overcast and grey and snow on the mountains but thank you God, no snow in Zaqatala. My apartment is between two other apartments which locks in the heat. This is an old soviet building and the walls are thick but let’s see when the snow finally comes and IF it stays warm because the heaters do not work. Oh, there is another problem I have here. They turn off the gas and electric for no reason. And it is turned off Gods knows when, you know when the electricity is off but when I want to warm up something or cook, that is when I find out that I have no gas. Again, I text my landlady and she will tell me when they will turn it back on!! Oh the joys of living in Azerbaijan. My neighbors (as most Azerbaijani) stay up quite late, so they have their TV blaring full blast (I guess they want everyone in the building to hear it). We have several puppies that are outside hanging around, they looked well fed as they go to the garbage bin and eat. Come winter, it will be hard on those little guys. I give what I can, but they are wild and I am afraid of getting bitten if I get too close. I am still a fascination to the neighborhood kids as they come up to me and say “hello, hello, hello” (over and over) and then follow me home. I make them stop at the bottom of the stairs because I do not want them to know where I live. Some do and they will knock on my door and run away. We also have beggars that come by asking for money. I don’t give it to them because they will keep coming back. I am decorating more (see my maps below). I have a world map and a US map (Boy, I am sure far away from home). When I read about the world news I go to the map to see where it is, it has become an education. I recently watch the 2010 movie “The Way Back” with Ed Harris, Jim Sturgess and Colin Farrell (A National Geographic Film), it is about prisoners in 1941 (one American) that were sent to Siberia Gulag and escaped. They walked 4000 miles (yes 4000 miles) to India and to freedom. Wow, I tracked it on my world map and that is a LONG, LONG way. A great movie, if you can rent it, it is really worth watching and seeing what survival is all about. I do have it better than the East coast right now with the results of hurricane Sandy with not only its devastation to so many states but also it also brought so much snow to their region. I pray for them to rebound quickly.