I love Forrest Gump - a little play on words. I thought I was being clever last week. I need to go to the Embassy every month but the end of October (Halloween) was on a Thursday and the first of November was on Friday.... Yea, I can kill two birds with one stone and don't have to return to Baku until December. I also would have dinner with several volunteers who were leaving. So off I go on the night train with another cold I received from my loving students. And who are my compartment mates (we are 4 in one compartment, usually I get young guys who drink and then pass out), but this time, I got a pregnant mom who was sick most of the time, with her father-in-law and her 11 months old baby who every time which was often,cried, they would give him candy to stop, oh joy, a long night (at least I didn't have to fight with any cats this trip!!). So when I arrived in Baku, I went to the Embassy and then to the PC office. I stocked up on cold medicine and was working on printing out conversation club material when I received a text "mandatory conference" next week in Baku. You got to be kidding. I tried my hardest to get out of it even speaking with the CD but new changes are being implemented and I must be there. I went back home with my site friend on the night train that night and we shared the compartment with a young couple and another baby. He was better only waking up 3-4 times crying but then going back to sleep. I was concern for my kittens as I don't like leaving them but I have my student feed them (only once a day, I feed twice) so when I got home, I was very surprise that they came running out of the kitchen with little fat bellies hmmm (if they only ate once a day how come their bellies are so fat). Well, I soon found out why, I went into the kitchen and a large bag (5 lbs. worth) of bacon bits my family had sent to me was on the ground empty, not a single bit was found, they manage to chew a hole into the bag and fed themselves all of my bacon bits!! Damn kittens. Lesson learn (it was an unopened bag, how did they know??)!! More pictures of my Hungry and Croatia trip in the summer when it was warm!!!
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| In Croatia National Park |
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| In Budapest |
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| One of the many waterfalls in Croatia |
My cold was not getting better, so I tried limiting my activities to try and nip it in the bud so to speak before taking another night train for the conference. The weather is a lot colder up here and always changing. We have fog and constant overcast with intermittent rain. I have my pech (heater) on constantly and we are only in fall! So off I go on another night train and guess who my compartment companions were yes another family with a baby (this one did not want to go to sleep at all). There should be rules about babies, they should have their own compartment (sound proof) with their families. This was going to be another long night!! I got into Baku at 8:15 am, took the bus from the station and walked into the conference at 9:01 am and it started at 9:00. There was a session in the morning with the doctors and when Dr. Sevinj examine me she told me that I had a bad case of bronchitis and she gave me antibiotics. So I guess it was good that I went back to Baku, because I am now on the mend. But another positive note was I met a new volunteer (the group that came in June) that for the five previous years before coming into the Peace Corps, she travelled to the national parks and volunteered. She had some great stories and a blog with awesome pictures of petroglyphs and parks. Which is exactly what I want to do when I get back home. The conference was uneventful but I did enjoy the Assistant Ambassador Derek Hogan who is intelligent, and extremely knowledgeable. I did go out one evening with my Peace Corps friends to wish them luck on returning home but I mostly stayed in the room after the conference to try and get better. So I took the marshrutka the next morning for home and lucky me I sat next to a couple with a baby about 2-3 months old and he had colic and cried almost the whole time home!! The couple was young and very inexperience so the women in the seat behind us, finally took the baby after an hour of constant crying and got that little one to sleep and he slept the rest of the trip (thank you God!!).
Life Challenge: You teach best is what you need to learn... Richard Bach (thank you Bobby)
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