An Unexpected Party and a Long Walk

Hey everyone!  Sorry it has been forever since my last post.  It certainly wasn't for lack of things to write about, but we lost the internet connection in our apartment our last two months in Baku and it was hard to keep updated.  I still want to share some of my pictures and stories, so I'll try to make up for lost time and post a few entries in short order to catch up. Then I'll pick up with (hopefully) more regular entries again.

 

One unexpectedly cool thing that happened at our school started out like a fairly normal occurrence.  Whenever a teacher had a birthday, we would have a little party after school, with cake and tea.  The only thing different about this time was that it was downstairs in the theater rather than in a classroom.

 

 

It slowly became apparent that this was more than a simple birthday celebration, though. First of all, it kept going. Usually at these things everyone eats, downs a glass of tea, and then leaves in pretty short order, but no one was leaving. We realized later that it had transitioned into a second party. Some of the teachers got up on the stage to dance, and we were even treated to a few (hilarious) interpretive performances by Bike (bee-KAY). Then suddenly we found ourselves watching a play.  Though it was all in Azeri, we got that it was about two boys who see a couple of beautiful girls, then go beg their mom to set them up.  Their mother then goes to the girls' mother, and eventually an engagement is made. The two brides-to-be sat with their backs to each other, and someone draped the traditional red veil over them both (you may remember that from Peri's henna party back in October). Then we were all invited up onstage and given lit candles. I was just thinking "Woah. This feels really real," when I realized that the two girls under the veil were in fact engaged (and one was crying). This had turned into their actual henna party!



 

 

It was really quite beautiful and emotional.  We danced around them, painted our hands with the henna, and wished them all kinds of love and joy in their future marriages.  What a lovely surprise!

 

That same weekend, I met Valerie to walk around downtown. We ended up in the old city and checking out the Shah's palace. I just wanted to share a few of our pictures from that afternoon.  It's really something worth seeing.

I can never get over the juxtaposition of old and new
here- the Shah's mausoleum with the TV and flame
towers in the background

On our first visit Rachael, Colleen, and I couldn't quite figure out what this
was for. But Valerie told me that the servants lived down below the house,
and if someone in the family needed something, they would call down
this shaft for someone to come to them

Me and Valerie