Tying the Knot- AZ Style

This weekend one of our friends and teaching assistants (P) got married, and the other one (T) got engaged!  Add that to the Muslim holiday of Kurban, and it was a pretty exciting weekend.  We didn't get to go to T's engagement ceremony because it was the same night as the wedding.  But we were able to attend P's henna party on Wednesday after school, as well as her wedding on Friday.

The henna party was at P's apartment.  Traditionally, it would only include women in their twenties or younger, but she had invited all the women in her family as well as her fiancé's family.  We started with a delicious dinner her mother had cooked, and then broke out the henna and the Azeri dance music!

 

Some of the highlights of the evening:

·      One of P's friends brought her 11-year-old daughter.  She is studying English and pretty much attached herself to us for the whole of the party!

·       P's future mother-in-law pulling us up from our chairs to dance with her (in the traditional style, which we don't know!)

·       The little 5-year-old boy weaving through everyone's legs hugging the 2-liter Coke bottle I'm pretty sure he wasn't supposed to have.

·       One of the longest conversations we've had with a man we don't work for since we got here- talking to P's brother- I didn't realize how much I'd missed being friends with guys.

·       Being out after dark!  It's apparently something nice girls don't do around here, so we're usually home by sunset every night. 

They gave each of us a bag of henna to mix with black tea at home.  I'm definitely looking forward to trying my hand at some of those cool designs.  Assuming it's not disastrous (and maybe even if it is), pictures will follow!

 

Our new little friend



P draped in the traditional red veil



Colleen getting her henna

 

The wedding invitation said 6pm on Friday, so we met some of the teachers from Rachael's school at the metro station at 6:30.  Apparently arriving actually at 6 o'clock would have been ridiculously early.  We didn't attend the ceremony itself, only the reception.  In form it was much the same as wedding receptions in America.  It was in the details that it differed.  There was a dance floor and live band, for instance, but the music and dancing were Azeri, mostly centering around the hands.  We got up there anyway, but when the videographer zoomed in on me, I may or may not have hidden behind Rachael's back! :)  The dancing was also mostly, though not entirely, separated by gender.  There were dances where P was in a circle of women and her husband was dancing in the middle of a circle of men.  The couple didn't go around to greet all the guests.  Instead, guests came up to the main table to greet them and have their picture taken.  Since the photographer took our picture, I only have a hard copy and can't post it here.  But P was gorgeous!

 

All in all, it was a pretty fun weekend.  I feel so grateful to have been included in such a big event in P's life, since we've only known her for a little under 2 months.  But that's just another example of the amazing Azeri hospitality we've experienced here, which is a whole blog entry in itself!  When I'm able to get the rest of the pictures, I'll add them to the pictures page.  Until then, this is Molly signing off!



First Week of School

We've been in Baku for over a month, but Colleen and I only just finished our first week of teaching.  The reason: not enough students signed up.  We had several false starts- days that we expected to begin, but then no children came.  There were 4 children signed up, and they were holding out until we had at least one semi-full class.  Apparently several parents had been calling to ask if the English language kindergarten had started yet and when told 'no' they hung up in disappointment.  I find it funny that that's the exact opposite of the reaction we would expect in America- the idea of signing the kids up in advance not occuring to them.  So finally the school decided that we would begin anyway and then those parents would hopefully bring their children as well.

This last Monday we were all set to begin, but 9:00 rolled around and still no kids.  We finally decided that they must have cancelled again for some reason, and we headed down to breakfast.  Enter a screaming four-year old, clinging to his mother's hand in the lobby and trying to pull her out the door as she is trying to pull him in. 

Ahh.  I think this one's for us. 

Indeed he was.  Our first and, for a few hours at least, only student.  He threw an absolute fit when his mother left him there, and kept it up for a good hour.  Even at the time, I remember thinking that it was almost comical- four white coated teachers huddling around one screaming little boy trying to figure out how on earth to get him to stop crying!  Eventually two other little boys, 5-year-old twin brothers, showed up and we started our first day activities.  Now we're on a roll.  Hopefully the rest will follow soon.

Or not.  The youngest one didn't come back after the first day (they live too far away) and for the rest of the week we only had the two brothers.  Some days it went well- they seemed to focus well and learned what we had to teach them.  Some days not so much.  But we're settling into a routine.  They know what's expected of them, whether or not they choose to actually do it. :)  And we're slowly figuring out what it is to be kindergarten teachers.  It's still pretty funny to me that we have a 2:1 teacher/student ratio.  Even dividing the day up between the teacher/assistant teams, we have one teacher per kid.  Their parents are sure getting their money's worth!

So as we go into our second week, we're hoping more students will join the class.  Maybe it's a blessing that we got to start figuring things out with just these two, before adding more kids.  We'll see.  I'll definitely keep you updated either way!



With our students at the end of the first day-
one teacher for each kid, and one to spare!

PS.  I updated the "Pictures" and "Requests" pages again, if you want to check them out :)