From the Land of Fire

It's Time For The Talk...

2015-09-22T11:08:00.002-07:00

It's about time for me to have that talk... the uncomfortable, "come to Jesus" talk that America desperately needs right now. I'm not talking about converting people either. I'm talking about the fact that America is headed in the wrong direction. I did not spend 3.5 years of my life, building good will and fostering good relationships with our Muslim brothers, to have it all undone by the Republican party.

Tell me, who is left that hasn't been alienated by the Republican party yet?

1. They don't support equal pay for equal work, paid maternity leave for new mothers, or women's rights to make decisions for their own bodies. That's over 158.6 million women (as of 2009).

2. They don't support immigrants, or "anchor" babies (which should be called US CITIZENS since that's what they are). That means 41.3 million current immigrants (as of 2013). Not to mention that if you aren't 100% Native American, that it means they would have sent your grand parents back.

3. They don't support the poor. That includes all 109,631,000 people in the US taking federal welfare benefits.

4. They don't support people who are sick/ill/in need of medical care. 133,000,000 people are estimated to be currently treated for chronic health conditions in the US (as of 2014 according to the NHC). That's a lot of sick people.

5. Despite the fact that our own Constitution swears to allow our citizens the right to personally choose or not choose a religion, and that that religion needs to be completely separate from our government, the Republican party doesn't support any diversity in religion in this country at all. That means the 23% of American people who self identify as anything other than Christian in this country are not important to the Republican party. So as of the 2012 Gallup poll, that would be approximately 72,243,000 people.

6. Black Americans have recently learned that the Republican party doesn't think that the "black lives matter" movement is even worth looking at. That's 41,700,000 black Americans that the Republican party doesn't think matter.

7. Jeb Bush recently made it clear that the Chinese people in America don't matter to the Republican party. That's 3.8 million Chinese Americans.

8. Donald Trump made it clear that he thinks Mexican Americans (including the 22.3 million citizens who legally immigrated and those who were born here) are not welcome in this country.

9. The entire party doesn't support gay rights, so that includes approximately 8 million people in this country.

10. The republican party pretends to care about veterans. But instead, the republican majority congress drafted the Veterans Choice Program in such a way to intentionally cut out medical care insisting they must live at least 40 miles "as the crow flies" away from the nearest VA facility to qualify, instead of 40 actual miles driving distance. There are 21.8 million veterans in this country. And their lives are more important than the $40 million that the Republican party valued more.

Jesus talked about the poor a lot. He talked about the rich a lot. Not one single Republican candidate is talking about anything Jesus actually supported and preached about. They are not talking about forgiveness, loving their enemies, turning the other cheek, caring for the poor or condemning the rich. All things you can find directly in the Bible. Yet the Republican party feels like they own the Christian vote. If you're really, truly Christian, you should be voting for the party that supports the poor, sick, and all people in this country.

Stop and think about who is left. If you're in one of the groups listed above, and intend to vote Republican, you're seriously throwing away your vote for someone who doesn't have your best interests in mind. America is supposed to be a progressive world leader on human rights; and yet, we have citizens who actually want to elect bigoted, racist, hate mongers to represent us on the international level. Why? Why would you send someone who hates other cultures, women and religions to represent us on the diplomatic level? Vote smarter, and stop letting the Republican party act like it owns the Christian vote.

We are not an "only child" in this world. We are required to share, play nice, and behave in a manner that is socially responsible. If children can get this concept, surely a country should be able to. Please, if you're reading this, make more of an effort to not support the political BS that is coming out of these peoples mouths. Support candidates that want to make a real difference in the lives of people in this country and around the world. People over parties. Speak up for rights and freedoms of all human beings. Let us truly be the land of the free and home of the brave.. because , as the great Dumbledore said, it takes a great deal of bravery to stand up to our enemies, but just as much to stand up to our friends. Friends don't let friends vote Republican.

3rd Goal Project - Language Learning Preservation

2014-01-22T17:47:00.001-08:00

Ray Blakney an RPCV from Mexico is currently working on a 3rd goal project with the PC regional offices, and the main office in DC, to try to create an online archive to keep the language training material made all over the world from getting lost. He has created a sub-section on the website he and his wife run -http://www.livelingua.com - with all the information he has been able to get to date (from over the web and sent directly by PC staff and PCV's). He currently has close to 100 languages with ebooks, audios and even some videos.

There should be something there for almost everybody. It is all 100% free to use and share. Here is the specific page of the Peace Corps Archive:

http://www.livelingua.com/peace-corps-language-courses.php

If you, or anyone you know, has some old material to scan or already have in digital form, and want to add to the archive, please don't hesitate to contact him by email.

Ray Blakney
blakney.ray@gmail.com

A Life of Service After PLU

2013-02-15T08:13:00.001-08:00

Austin Goble '09, Ruth Tollefson '09, Raechelle Baghirov 05, listen while Sallie Strueby '11, speaks during an Alumni panel discussion on service opportunities at PLU on Thursday, March 22, 2012. (Photo by John Froschauer)

By Katie Scaff '13

Volunteer service is about taking what you're learning in the classroom and making it bigger, according to four recent PLU graduates.

The grads, Sallie Strueby '11, Austin Goble '09, Ruth Tollefson '09, and Raechelle Baghirov '05, shared their experiences in a panel discussion on paid service opportunities on Thursday, March 22nd.

"The phrase 'a life of service' was thrown around a lot," Baghirov said of her time at PLU. "It made you look at what you were learning and how it could be taken to a higher level. I may not have thought of it as 'this is my wild hope component' but it was."

Baghirov studied abroad in London during J-term her last year at PLU and knew she wanted to spend more time abroad. She applied for the Peace Corps after graduation and spent three and a half years volunteering in Azerbaijan.

"Every volunteer service is different and it is what you make of it," Baghirov said. "Meaningful service not only changed the life of those I worked with, but it changed my own life as well. You get more than you give."

For some, like Baghirov, volunteering was a way to fulfill two passions, serving others and traveling. For others though, like Goble, who volunteered with Lutheran Volunteer Corps and Americorps, volunteering was a way to transition from college life to the "real world."

"I was excited about the opportunity to slowly move itno something else," Goble said.

Goble did two years of service. He spent his first year working with Lutheran Volunteer Corps affiliate Eastern Nebraska Community Action Partnership in Omaha. His second year was with Peace Community Center, an Americorp affiliate in Tacoma's hilltop neighborhood. The relationships he formed during these years had a large influence on him.

"I'm the one gaining from their life experience," Goble said. "It's a lot of personal growth, a lot of self examination and getting a better understanding of who I am -- that has shaped me immeasurably."

Though they had different experiences, the other panelists echoed Goble's words.

"It's self-sacrificing but it's so worth it," Strueby said, who is currently volunteering with Americorps at Federal Way Public Schools. "I went into this experience hoping to mentor, inspire, and teach these students and I know I'll leave with it being the other way around."

Volunteering is sometimes seen as a detour on the way to a career, but often it can lead to an better prepare you for your career, according to the panelists.

"It's mind-blowing how much you change," Baghirov said. "It forces you to look at yourself and imagine what you're capable of. I took away this sense that I was self-sufficient. I have the power to change my own life and my own world in everyday decisions."

For Tollefson, her service at Peace Community Center turned into a job. She's now the elementary programs and public relations director for the center. Looking back, she recognizes how her experiences at PLU prepared her.

"When I was a student here I was really really involved in student leadership and I think that is what helped me feel confident enough to go off and do service in a different community," Tollefson said.

Reposted from: http://www.plu.edu/news/2012/04/volunteer-panel/

An Open Letter (Reposted)

2013-02-13T18:38:00.002-08:00

Dear Person Contemplating Joining Peace Corps,

I imagine that you’re at a transition point in your life. Perhaps you’ve just graduated, perhaps you’re going through a career change, perhaps you have an itch for something more that can’t be scratched. Whatever the reason, here you are: contemplating joining Peace Corps.

But should you? Is it right for you?

Honestly, you might not know that until you’ve arrived. You can research by reading books and official publications or by talking with current/returned volunteers, but everything you read and hear will probably tell you the same thing: every person’s experience is different. Your Peace Corps life will be uniquely shaped by your country, program, and site.

I’d like to think, though, that there are a few things that are universal throughout the Peace Corps world, and those things tend all to revolve around how you yourself will change - for the better and for the worse - because of your time in Peace Corps.

‘Sanitary’ will become an obsolete concept. You will eat on mats that you know are saturated in urine. You will prepare food on counters that also serve as chicken roosts. You will not have consistent/frequent access to soap. You will eat street food that is undoubtedly questionable. You will be dirty, dusty, and sweaty at all times. You will have mind over body battles to force yourself to bucket shower in the winter. Bugs, lizards, chickens, ducks, and mice will crap on everything. These things will be ok. You’ll adjust. The sterile environment of the States will become a distant odd memory or a constant fantasy.

Your body, though, might not adjust as quickly. You will have parasites and infections and illnesses that you had never heard of before training. You will be constantly constipated. Or go the opposite extreme. I hate to say it, but you will probably poop in your pants at least once. You will learn to vomit over a squat toilet and into a plastic bag during a bus ride. You will discuss your bodily functions openly and enthusiastically with other volunteers. No topic will be taboo.

The way you communicate will completely transform. Learning a language from scratch through immersion is a powerful experience. You will learn to have complex communications though expressions, gestures, and basic vocabulary. You will learn to bond with another human being through silence. You will answer the same basic questions over and over and over again. You may never achieve the ability to discuss ideas and concepts. You will develop a new English language which consists of pared down vocabulary and grammatical structures. You will actively think of each word before you speak. Your speech patterns will slow. You will have to define words whose meanings you had always taken for granted. You will learn to listen.

Your concept of money will entirely alter. Paying more than $1 for anything will cause you to pause and question your purchase. You will understand value in the context of a different economic system. You will learn to barter, even on cheaper items. You will consistently feel as though you have been cheated on the price. You will be enraged by all prices upon returning to the States.

You will embrace the thrilling dichotomies of thrift versus splurge and ration versus binge. No one knows how to budget like a Peace Corps volunteer. And no one can binge like one.

You will be discontented with your work. You will wonder – and scream to the heavens – about the benefit of your presence. You will feel lost in unstructured expectations and crushed by promising ideas fallen to the side.

Your expectations will fade into an unexpected reality. You will learn to celebrate small victories. You will look at mountains and see mole hills. You will try to tackle the impossible. Maybe you’ll succeed. Maybe you’ll just pick yourself up and take aim at another impossibility.

You will learn to do all of this through pure self-motivation. You will be the one to drag yourself out of bed and out the door. You won’t have anyone holding your hand or pushing your forward. Just you. You will become a stronger person for yourself, by yourself.

You will be a celebrity in your community. That status comes will hardships and benefits that will ineradicably change you. You will be the exception to the societal rules. You will be the foreigner, the one set apart. You will receive privileges and have special attention/status because of your nationality. You will always have eyes on you. You will have joined as an agent of culture exchange and understanding, but you will still find yourself falling into an ‘us versus them’ mentality. Use it. Consider it. Contemplate the value we place on people because of arbitrary characteristics. You will come away from your experience more attune to your own merits, to those that are deserved and to those that are given.

Your culture of personal space, one that maybe you have always taken for granted, will be challenged. You will wonder why you need an entire room to yourself while no one else even has a bed to himself. You still won’t want to give your room up. Privacy will be a privilege or a rarity, not a right.

You will lose all control of your emotions and be on an unpredictable roller coaster of extreme ups and downs. You will go from happy and confident to sullen and tearful by things as simple as ants in your candy or yet another child saying ‘Hello!’ Your highs will be high, but they will be fragile. Your lows will feel inescapable. Your family and friends in the States probably won’t understand this. Your isolation will force you to become your own support system. You will become aware of yourself in the context of solely being yourself.

Your government-issued friends will be your reprieve. The love and closeness you share with people back in the States won’t change, but it will be your fellow volunteers who understand. They will be friendships forged from necessity, and they will be deep and fervent.

You will witness a whole new way of life, and you will question your notion of necessity. You will consider your personal wealth, and people will constantly remind you of it. You will discover what your ‘needs’ are to live a productive, satisfied life. I hope you will remember that when you return to a culture of plenty.

You will be the biggest product of your Peace Corps work. You will change. And you will bring that change back with you.

Reposted from: http://peacecorps.tumblr.com/
http://thesharpiemarkerapproach.tumblr.com/post/42420977797/an-open-letter

All credit goes to the amazing RPCV that wrote this as clearly as anyone could have said it.

Stuck in Samoa: The US refuses to take back this ‘stateless’ man

2012-10-04T07:25:00.002-07:00

VIENNA, Austria — Mikhail Sebastian’s trip to American Samoa redefines the term nightmare vacation.

Instead of a five-day holiday to the lush, tropical US territory in the South Pacific, the 39-year-old has spent more than nine brutal months there caught in an immigration law hell. Experts agree it’s an unprecedented illustration of America’s broken immigration system.

The key sticking point: Though he’s lived legally in Houston and the Los Angeles area for years under a special arrangement with the Department of Homeland Security, Sebastian is stateless, with no citizenship at all. The federal government argues that during his vacation he “self-deported” from the United States — despite the fact that American Samoa is a US territory.

Now the part-time travel agent and barista is stuck on the 76-square-mile island as federal and local officials hash out what to do with him. Though the local government is putting him up with a local family and giving him a $50 weekly allowance, Sebastian can’t work under American Samoan laws and can’t travel off the island.

Most days, he can be found at the local McDonald’s using an internet connection to post online appeals while drawing the sympathy of doting locals, who have been circulating petitions to get him back home. He’s living a sweaty Pacific island version of “The Terminal,” the movie in which Tom Hanks plays a traveler who loses his citizenship and is stuck in an airport.

“It’s horrible here, it’s hot it’s making me sick, I can’t stand it anymore” Sebastian told GlobalPost over Skype recently. “I just want to go home.”

Charity Tooze, a spokeswoman for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees’ (UNHCR) office in the United States, which is advocating for Sebastian, said: “There’s a big gap in the legal structure of the United States when it comes to stateless people, and Mikhail has fallen right through it.”

Stateless in America

To understand Sebastian’s case, one has to grasp the problem of statelessness in America.

At least 4,000 people in the United States don’t have citizenship in any country, through no fault of their own, according to advocacy group Refugees International.

In some cases, countries use nationality as a political tool, stripping people of their citizenship when they’re abroad. Other times states simply cease to exist, and no one will recognize their former citizens.

That’s what happened in Sebastian’s case, which is no simple matter. He is an ethnic Armenian born in what is today Azerbaijan, but when the Soviet Union broke up, Azerbaijan refused to issue him a passport because, he claims, of his Armenian background.

But Sebastian adds that he has been unable to convince Armenian authorities to grant him a passport either. The explanation, he says, is that Armenia isn't convinced of his ethnicity and won't grant him citizenship under its laws.

The US immigration system can offer stateless people a path to legal residency and possible citizenship if an asylum claim is accepted.

But often, as in the case of Sebastian, stateless people end up in a legal twilight zone of sorts. His asylum application was rejected in 1996, the year after he came to the US on a business visa in his USSR passport and decided he wanted to stay in the country.

After a judge ruled in 2002 that he should be deported, Sebastian was jailed for six months. But since no country would accept him, officials released Sebastian with a work permit and the stipulation that he regularly check in with immigration authorities, records show.

“People like this find themselves in a very precarious position, where there aren’t really any remedies for them at all,” said Maureen Lynch, an expert on statelessness affiliated with the International Observatory on Statelessness in the United Kingdom.

They can end up living in permanent quasi-legality — often until their deaths, Lynch said.

More than 70 countries have signed on to two international conventions that bind them to provide a way for the stateless to regularize their legal status.

But the United States never has.

And though lawmakers have introduced legislation in the past to offer a pathway to immigration regularization, it has failed each time.

Seeing the world

Because he can’t travel outside the United States, Sebastian says he’s been visiting the most exotic American destinations he can find — Guam, Puerto Rico and Hawaii, among others. To facilitate his travels, he has a so-called “World Passport” from the World Service Authority, which David Gallup, the group's president, describes as a global-governmental organization. A World Passport is a document that’s supposed to confer world citizenship; it can be issued to anyone, other than criminals, terrorists and citizens of certain countries, like Cuba and Iran, Gallup says.

Last December, Sebastian decided, the South Pacific was next on his list. He says he checked with US immigration authorities and was told that visiting American Samoa wouldn't cause him any problems. The American Samoans sent him an authorization to travel with the World Passport — because of American Samoa’s unusual relationship to the United States, everyone traveling there and back passes through customs.

Here’s the chain of events no one disputes: After visiting American Samoa, Sebastian took a side trip to the neighboring independent country of Samoa before crossing back into the US territory. When he tried to board a plane on the way back to the mainland, airline officials called US immigration authorities. They decreed that a World Passport wasn’t a valid travel document and he couldn’t board the flight back.

That doesn’t make sense to American Samoan officials, who wonder how Sebastian can be considered deported from the United States if he is now on American territory.

In a written statement to GlobalPost the Department of Homeland Security’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency wrote that Sebastian had, in effect, self-deported himself: “In 2002, an immigration judge with the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR) ordered Sebastian to depart the United States. At that time, he was not in ICE custody as the agency had deferred action on his removal. In the meantime, he had been granted employment authorization. In December 2011 when Mr. Sebastian traveled to American Samoa and Samoa, he was prohibited from returning to the United States due to the immigration judge’s order.”

Stuck forever?

On the island, authorities have been appealing to the highest levels of the federal government. The territory’s governor, congressional delegate and the local Office of the Attorney General have all begged the US to take Sebastian back.

And a thick web of pro-bono immigration attorneys and UNCHR have taken up Sebastian’s case.

But Homeland Security won’t give in and Sebastian’s supporters worry that he could be stuck forever. If that happens, American Samoa would have to change its laws to allow Sebastian to work or own land, officials say.

“As a US territory we can’t tell the US what to do. And we don’t have the same influence a state does,” said Vincent Kruse, a lawyer with American Samoa’s Attorney General who has been working on Sebastian’s case. “It’s definitely very frustrating because we just want to help Mikhail go home but we’re starting to think about the possibility that he may be here for the long run.”

In August Eni F.H. Faleomavaega, American Samoa’s delegate to the US House of Representatives, appealed directly to Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano in a letter, calling the situation “unprecedented.”

“There are no pre-existing cases that would provide a better understanding in addressing his situation,” Faleomavaega wrote, asking her to resolve the situation.

But in a Sept. 13 letter, the Department of Homeland Security rejected that appeal, prompting strong words from Faleomavaega as he once more demanded Napolitano’s personal intervention.

"It is clear to me that the US Department of Homeland security has no sense of compassion for Mr. Sebastian," he wrote Napolitano last week, citing Sebastian's "extreme" living conditions and calling his treatment by federal authorities "inexcusable."

Sebastian just wants to get back to California to reopen his asylum case — records show federal officials had previously approved its reopening but rescinded the offer after they realized he was stuck in the South Pacific.

Back in McDonald’s, Sebastian says he isn’t reveling in his mini-celebrity on the island of just 55,000 people. He’s feeling powerless and at his lowest points has even contemplated suicide.

“This whole situation is like a hell for me,” he said.

Article republished from:

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/americas/united-states/121002/stuck-samoa-us-refuses-stateless-Mikhail-Sebastian

Coming Full Circle

2012-04-15T22:01:00.000-07:00

As Returned Peace Corps Volunteers (RPCVs) one of the things we are asked to do is to take back what we have learned and experienced in our host countries, and share these things with people in our own community. Often, this can be difficult for RPCVs, as most people don't want to spend hours looking at photographs of strangers, or hearing stories of how we sat next to a sheep on a mini bus for seven hours. At a certain point, we have to re-examine what it means to bring the world back home with us.

Kennedy asked us to "strengthen Americans' understanding about the world and its peoples." For me, this took on a unique opportunity to not only strengthen my home community and America's understanding of other cultures and people, but to continue helping to develop youth from around the world. My husband and I recently signed up to become Area Representatives for a non-profit organization called Pacific Intercultural Exchange. The very same organization that my husband studied abroad though when he was an exchange student in Florida in 2003-2004.

As a non-profit organization focused entirely on secondary student exchange, Pacific Intercultural Exchange (PIE) offers both American and international high school students the opportunity to spend a semester or year abroad. "PIE is a not-for-profit corporation that prides itself on facilitating the exchange of cultures between young people, their host families, and host schools through semester, year long, and summer programs (outbound only). Like Peace Corps, PIE believes that only through knowledge can the fear of the unknown be eliminated and true cooperative unity be achieved." 1

PIE is open to any American or international high school students interested in foreign exchange. In addition, it is constantly searching for host families and volunteers to help expand the program by acting as the local area representatives in cities, towns, and rural areas throughout the United States.

"As RPCVs we have the advantage of knowing both the stress and benefits that come as a result of living and learning in a foreign country, opening our minds to new cultures, lifestyles, and flavors as well as what it is like to become a member of someone else’s family in the process." 1

For those of you who have never considered the impact of hosting an exchange student, it is never too late to participate! PIE has some of the highest standards for its' students, and for families we expect you to treat students as a member of your own family, provide them with a room (students may share with another of the same gender provided the family member is aged 10-17), and provide three meals a day. Although host families are not paid, students bring their own spending money, and the impact of hosting an exchange student far outweighs any financial compensation.

If you are not interested in being a host family at this time, there are other ways that you can help. Like myself, you can volunteer to be an Area Representative for students in your area. Even if you don't have a lot of time to commit, you can volunteer to be the representative for even just one student. Area Representatives assist host families with the placement process, and act as the primary contact for students placed in your area for the duration of their host stay. "PIE is seeking to break the model of the assumed American lifestyle portrayed to international students by the media, and show participants that there is no “typical” American or family." 1

I never expected that after returning from my time in the Peace Corps, that I would now be the one helping to find host families that treat international students as well as my own host family treated me. I only hope that those you who are considering the impact you can have on a student, are willing to reach out and contact PIE for more information. My host family will always be a part of my life, and I will always remember how they made my time and experiences in Peace Corps so much better than I ever imagined. I only hope that we can do the same for these students.

If you are looking for more information or want to get involved, call 1-888-743-8721 or visit the PIE website at: http://www.pieusa.org

(1: http://edweb.sdsu.edu/sdpca/back_issues/v22n6.html)

A thought on Christians and facebook...

2012-02-07T14:42:00.000-08:00

Let me preface today's blog by telling you that I am a proud Christian married happily to a Muslim man. I lived and worked for three and a half years side by side with Muslims in a Muslim community. They were open, accepting, and genuinely gracious to me about my religion. The image that American media paints of the Muslim world is not the reality that I have seen with my own eyes.

"The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man,[c] 25 nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. 26And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, 27 that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him." Acts 17:24-27

If as the Bible says, that all human beings come from one man, and that he created all nations, and that he gives to all mankind life and everything in our lives... then why do do so many Christians in America treat Muslims as if they were not created by the same God that made Christians? Why do Christians feel they have the right to discriminate, judge, put down, harass and ridicule a race of people created by God himself? What makes us so arrogant as a nation to think we are more loved, or better than anyone else that God put on this earth?

This week I've finally gotten back on facebook. I've tried to stay a way for the last two to three months, as every time I got online I would see posts and comments from my fellow Christians about Muslims and Islam. Honestly, it took every ounce of my willpower to just stay off the internet and not fight back. I hate that so many people make assumptions and judgments about millions of people they've never even met before. These human beings who want nothing more than to lead a good life, raise their children to be good people, to live a life dedicated to God (yes the same one that Christians worship, and if you think that is inaccurate maybe you should read Islam for Dummies). These are people that God created too. It hurts me to know that we are teaching the children of America to hate. We are openly and actively discriminating Muslim exchange students, and our own Muslims who live in America. Whatever happened to love thy neighbor? Do we get to conveniently pick and choose what passages of the bible to believe? Do we no longer believe that racism is against God's desires for us? (IF you don't believe that, here is a list of passages in the Bible that tell us God wants us to love each other, to accept each other, and to coexist together: http://www.openbible.info/topics/racism)

Look, I know I'm one person. I know that this blog may no longer even be read by anyone. But it hurts my heart to know that there are people I love who have no problem advocating for hatred against other people that I love, in the name of Christianity. The television show West Wing once used an analogy that the Terrorist Muslim groups are to Islam what the KKK is to Christianity. So why are we still acting like all Muslims are terrorists? Stop blaming it on Christianity and saying it is what the Bible says, because it isn't and presuming to know God's mind and heart is offensive. Presuming that God doesn't want us to love the Muslim brothers and sisters he put on the planet with us is offensive. Just stop it and learn to accept those people that God puts on this planet. No one asks to be born. We don't choose to be born. You can't honestly think that there are different Gods who create babies to burn in hell for being born into the wrong region of the world... really, are we that arrogant? Wake up and try living a life by example instead of trying to spend all your time telling everyone else how to live. If Facebook has become a way for Christians to justify their bullying then I want no part of it. We ask our children to not cyber bully, yet we have no problem using Facebook to publicly proclaim superiority. God shows no partiality. ( Romans 2:11 )

1 John 2:9 Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness.

Baku State of Mind

2011-09-11T09:20:00.000-07:00

One of the best parts of being a Peace Corps volunteer is sharing with the rest of the world all the things you see and do while in Azerbaijan. Two industrious volunteers, Tim McNaught (Az 7) and Brad Kessler (Az 8) calling themselves the "Baku Dreamers," have produced a video that is set to the tune of Jay-Z and Alicia Key's song Empire State of Mind.... but this one is entitled Baku State of Mind. In 2012, the capital city of Azerbaijan, will host the biggest and most widely televised music contest in Europe, Eurovision. Since Azerbaijan won first place this year, Baku will naturally host the next contest, and Azerbaijan is earning it's place on the map. These two volunteers have made what I feel is one of the best PR pieces I've ever seen for Azerbaijan... showing some of the places that are actually enjoyable for expats, volunteers and foreigners to visit while in the capital. Please watch the video, and if you can, rate it! These volunteers did an amazing job, and my hat is off to the two of them for promoting Peace Corps third goal in one of the most creative ways I've ever seen!

Congratulations!

2011-07-14T10:21:00.000-07:00

This morning I nervously opened my friend and former site mate's blog post. Farid and I had been anticipating their trip to Tbilisi for her husband's US visa, and were of course, expecting complications... as being in the Peace Corps in Azerbaijan almost always has something that complicates whatever you are attempting to do. Their visit went similar to our own, in the respects of being over prepared, scoping out the location of the interview, and being asked about every odd item in our bags. Her post can be read here: http://salammeanspeace.blogspot.com/2011/07/notes-from-georgia-part-i-zipper-drama.html

To my great relief, they were approved for the immigrant visa! I just wanted to write my joy and congratulations to them both!

Still Adjusting...

2011-06-14T10:54:00.000-07:00

For the few of you who still follow my blog, you'll be happy to know that Farid and I are finally moving out of my parents house! We were approved yesterday for an apartment, and will be moving out around July 7th or 8th. The current tenant moves out July 1st, and then of course the apartment will need to be cleaned... but then it's ours!

We've had a lot of set backs in the last eight months since my service ended. We came home on October 13th, with a nightmare-tale of return (see my posts from October 2010) and ended up spending almost the entire readjustment allowance to get back. Then, the economy was much worse than I had imagined, and I was unable to find a job for more than three months... I ended up taking a part time position instead (which I am still at.) The car we bought at auction blew up, causing us to spend our entire move-out savings on yet another car (three in the time we've been home!) and now, finally, we are able to move out. I will post pictures of course once we get moved.

I'd like to provide a little advice to any current PCVs that may still read this blog. However much time you think you will need for readjustment, finding a job, getting on your feet, or just feeling normal: double it... heck, triple that. I honestly thought that we'd be moved out and back to life as usual by new years. I was wrong. It took an additional six months on top of that for me to begin to feel normal again. And the reverse culture shock never entirely goes away. Last night I went to the Mariners game in Seattle with Farid, and I had a moment of extreme culture shock that I just couldn't describe. Hearing the national anthem live, sitting in the sun trying to catch practice balls, and eating cheese fries and nachos in the ball park... it felt unreal. There are a lot of times where I feel like I'm in a dream, and that I'm going to wake up in my apartment in Yeni Ganja. Readjustment takes time. It's a slow process and I'm finally getting there, one step at a time.

RPCV Friends of Azerbaijan

2011-05-19T16:20:00.000-07:00

Just before the end of my service, I submitted a request to the National Peace Corps Association to form a returned peace corps volunteer group for volunteers who served in Azerbaijan. It took a few months to get a reply, but the NPCA approved our request and will be giving us official recognition as an RPCV group! This is great, but also a bit frustrating as well... in true Azerbaijani fashion, the volunteers who served there tend to procrastinate (you know it's true!) So the burden of creating materials, events and finding information for the group is currently resting primarily on my shoulders.

For now, we have a Facebook group, as well as an email address (friends.of.azerbaijan@gmail.com) and a quarterly newsletter written by yours truly. It isn't much, but it's a start. So if you are an RPCV from Azerbaijan, please let other members of your group know the news. It's my goal to keep my blog going as the online publication forum for our quarterly newsletter and RPCV information. I can't see just deleting it, and want to continue to reach out to those who served. If you are interested in helping with the quarterly newsletter, have ideas for the group, or comments regarding the Friends of Azerbaijan RPCV group, please contact me at the email address mentioned above.

Azerbaijan on the road

2011-03-02T06:43:00.000-08:00

This makes me wish I had a video camera while I was in the Peace Corps. Props go to Az 5 Ujar volunteer Jeff for this great video of road tripping through Azerbaijan. PC Volunteers spend hours, days, weeks, on buses and crowded modified mini-vans called "marshrutkas" shlepping back and forth between their site and other volunteers sites or the PC office in Baku. This just gives you an idea of all we have to look at for hours on end.

In Honor of Peace Corps 50th Anniversary...

2011-03-01T08:58:00.000-08:00

The Peace Corps began in 1960, when then-Sen. John F. Kennedy visited and challenged students at the University of Michigan to serve their country in the cause of peace by living and working in developing countries. I'm sure you are all familiar with the quote "And so, my fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country." Most of you (if not all of you by now) have at least heard of the Peace Corps. Even those of you who have been closest to me over the last 4 years still occasionally ask what the Peace Corps does...

In 1961, President John F. Kennedy established the Peace Corps to promote world peace and friendship. The Peace Corps' mission has three goals:

Helping the people of interested countries in meeting their need for trained men and women.
Helping promote a better understanding of Americans on the part of the peoples served.
Helping promote a better understanding of other peoples on the part of Americans.

In a more simplified answer, we spend 2 years and three months (or an additional year like myself) in developing nations around the world. We teach whatever we possibly can to anyone willing to listen. We learn the language, the culture, and the values of the people we serve. Then we come home, and we try our hardest to get anyone to listen about our experiences and the culture of the people we served. (Hence this note.)

Throughout its history, the Peace Corps has had to adapt and respond to the issues of the times. In an ever-changing world, Peace Corps Volunteers have met many new challenges from AIDS education, trying to keep developing nations up to date on new technologies, fighting for environmental preservation, and helping businesses struggle to survive in new market economies. Peace Corps Volunteers don't give things to the communities they serve, rather, we teach the communties we serve in how to do things for themselves. We work in villages, towns, and cities around the globe.

In 1961, the first Peace Corps Volunteers accepted assignments to serve in six countries. Since then, nearly 200,000+ men and women have served in 139 countries. The world has changed since then, and the Peace Corps has changed with it. Today, 8,655 Volunteers in 71 posts around the world are serving 77 countries. This work is more important than ever.

There are many notable Returned Peace Corps Volunteers (RPCVs) in different sectors throughout history. You can find a list of these RPCVs that came home and continued to serve their own communities here: http://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=about.notable

Peace Corps officially established: March 1, 1961

Total number of Volunteers and trainees to date: 200,000+

Total number of countries served: 139

Current number of Volunteers and Trainees: 8,655

Gender: 60% female, 40% male

Marital Status: 93% single, 7% married

Minorities: 19% of Peace Corps Volunteers

Average Age: 28

Volunteers over age 50: 7%

Education: 90% have at least an undergraduate degree

Current number of countries served: 77 countries

Volunteers by Work Area

Education: 37%
Health & HIV/AIDS: 22%
Business Development: 14%
Environment: 13%
Agriculture: 4%
Youth Development: 5% (this was my program!)
Other: 5%

Where Volunteers Serve

Africa: 37%
Latin America: 24%
Eastern Europe/Central Asia: 21% (this is where I served!)
Asia: 7%
The Caribbean: 5%
North Africa/Middle East: 4%
Pacific Islands: 3%

Please, if you have actually read my note all the way through, take some time to look at my photos, read some of my other blogs, and ask questions. The Peace Corps experience doesn't end when we come home... we still have 1/3 of our mission left to complete. Happy 50th Anniversary Peace Corps! Here's wishing you 50 more years of success, friendship, and new volunteers. I'm proud to be a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer!

First Job Interview

2011-01-07T16:12:00.001-08:00

Today I received an email in my inbox from the company that is screening for the position I applied to in December. I had a great phone interview with them just over a week ago, and I was nervous waiting for a call for an interview. When I didn't get a call on the 5th or 6th (that was the date that they had mentioned they would make decisions for who is invited to the next round) I was a bit disappointed. But today, I found an email inviting me to attend an interview next week on Wednesday! I'm really excited, and a bit nervous, as I'm out of practice in my own interviewing. I have been teaching interview techniques for the last three years, yet I find myself a bit apprehensive about the process...

The position is with a great non-profit organization that is doing some wonderful things for the local community. It balances office management with event planning (two things I enjoy and am great at!) Not to mention, the pay is good enough to stay with the company for a few years, or until I'm promoted to something better. It also has a bit more flexible hours so that Farid and I can spend more time together.

I'd love to comment on a recent trend in employment that I've missed out on while I've been gone for over three years. It's come to my attention that employers now "pre-screen" candidates for positions. Not only do they review your resume and cover letter, check up on your references, and have you interview, but they also pre-interview. I've actually had 4-5 telephone interviews where I was screened to see if I was even eligible for the position. Some of these pre-screens are simple, just verifying the information that you listed in your application, or following up on any information that wasn't clear. A few of them however, have gone into significant detail regarding how my past experience might play into the current position I'm applying for. This can be a little nerve-wracking, especially if you're not in the mind set that it is technically an interview. I imagine that employers are being inundated with more applications than they would normally receive for a typical job posting. With unemployment being so high, and more people seeking second jobs to make rent, it's more competitive and therefore more difficult to narrow the field down to their top candidates. I hope that other recently returned Peace Corps Volunteers find this useful, and can see an advantage in knowing that the pre-screen is just as important as a full blown interview. Good luck to my fellow RPCVs, and good hunting!

Homesick for Azerbaijan

2010-12-06T11:09:00.000-08:00

As of today I've been COS'd for 2 months (Close of Service= our official separation date from service in the US Peace Corps.) To be honest, it's felt like six months instead of two. There are a mix of things that are going well, and then those that still frustrate me beyond belief. As for the good, Farid has officially been recognized as a permanent resident of the US. He has a green card in hand now, a bank account, and a social security number. Waiting for these felt like an eternity, as it can be hard to prove you exist without any ties. He has started his job, and has even begun to learn how to drive. Yes, he passed his written exam for his drivers permit! We've had two big holidays with the family (Halloween and Thanksgiving) and have enjoyed spending time with family and some close friends.

One thing about being a Peace Corps volunteer that is really difficult for volunteers is that we give up so much when we go to our countries of service. We spend so much of our time talking about America, that it makes us miss the little things... washing machines, dish washers, hot showers on demand, hot showers daily, television in English, driving a car, and food, food, food! We begin to idolize how great life is in America. Like any place, once you leave and go somewhere else, you begin to forget the faults. I find I'm having a bit of "the grass is greener on the other side" syndrome now that I'm back. I find I miss so many little things about Azerbaijan that I'm feeling frustrated adjusting to life in the US. I often feel out of place here now that I've spent so long overseas.

I miss the cheap fresh produce every day. I miss the rusty, old, ridiculously fast driving public transportation that took me anywhere I wished to go in the city for only .20 qepik. I miss having an apartment of my own where I was able to live without worrying about other people around us all the time. I miss having a job, a place to go where I feel valuable, and feel like my work is important and means something. I miss my boss and my counterparts at work. I miss having someplace to go every day. I miss my friends, who I could always count on hearing from someone every day whether Azerbaijani or site mate. I miss feeling connected to my community.

We haven't even been home for a full two months yet, but it feels like so long since that life. I find I am dreaming about Azerbaijan and people I knew there. It makes me realize that readjusting to life in the US means that I will have to adjust so much more than where I live and what I do on a daily basis. I'm still in the process of looking for a job that will even bring a fraction of joy and inspiration to my life the way that my Peace Corps job did. After having been gone for three years and four months, I find that America has changed so much since I left. The economy is worse than what I had heard, particularly in the area I'm in now. Many of the jobs that are available are in retail, and even those are competitive to get. Farid has had to take a position in retail, and on the dreaded grave yard shift in order to help us not completely drain our checking account. I've applied to a lot of different higher education institutions, and am hoping that even one in my area will pan out for me. Everyone keeps saying to be patient, but I don't like feeling useless. I've never been out of work this long before, it's a new experience for me.

Sometimes we here in America tend to think that life is so much better here than it is in other places. We have so much stuff, that we feel like we have the ideal lifestyle given the alternatives. Honestly, I felt, and still do, that life in Azerbaijan was more simple. It gave me a chance to learn to love my job, figure out what my passions are, and gave me a chance to enjoy life and everything in it. I'm feeling a little "homesick" for Azerbaijan.

Re-adjusting

2010-10-28T21:20:00.000-07:00

So I've been home for 2 weeks now. In that time, I've managed to apply for a ton of jobs with not one call (yet) and have had one heck of a chest cold. I've been sick from the moment I stepped off the plane, and attempted to make a doctors appointment without success... for those of you who are soon to be RPCVs (Returned Peace Corps Volunteers) beware of the CorpsCare Insurance. I was told to check online for a doctor in my area, but there is not a single doctor on the list in my area, within 25 miles of my house who is still working at the numbers listed for them. I was unable to make an appointment, and have consequently become more sick than I should be. Instead, I will probably just go to a walk-in clinic if this chest cold isn't gone by the beginning of the week.

Farid got a nice scare today... He went to apply for a job on base at the language school, as he speaks 5 languages and would totally rock as a language instructor. When he got to the base, the guards in the visitors pass area told him that he didn't have a valid stamp in his visa. They told him he needed some I-94 thing stapled into his passport with the stamp. He didn't have the I-94 thing, so they wouldn't let him on post to go apply for the job. I of course panicked... you all know me, classic Rae. So I called the immigration office in Seattle. They referred me to another number. I called and explained what had been told to Farid, and the woman at the immigration office was amazingly helpful. She told me that the military guards were wrong, and that I-94 forms in a passport are used for people on NON-immigrant visas to the U.S. Farid is here on a CR-1 visa (Conditional Resident visa) and that is considered an IMMIGRANT visa. So, he doesn't need to have an I-94. The only thing he needs for work is his green card. She said not to worry, that his green card will be arriving in the next 4-6 weeks at our address, and suggested trying again once he had the actual physical green card in hand (instead of just the temporary stamp in his passport.) That of course, made me feel much better, and at the same time annoyed me that my mother and Farid had gone all the way to the base only to be told incorrect information.

We didn't get a car on Tuesday as we had hoped. The "online auction" that we hoped to buy a car through, didn't tell you until you actually bid on a car that you have to bid through a broker. They also failed to mention that a broker charges a fee for registering, a fee for bidding, and a one time fee per transaction... so approximately $600 just to buy the car through the broker. So, instead, we are going to a physical auction on Saturday night. There are 81 cars up for bid at the auction, and you don't have to pay anything to participate. I'm hoping that because it is starting to get cold, rainy, and it will be in the evening, that not too many people will go. I'd love to drive home on Saturday. So keep your fingers crossed for us! At this point anything drivable without mechanical problems would be desirable!

Aside from all that, we haven't done too much yet. I still haven't even taken Farid to Seattle... I know, I know... I suck. But, when we get a car it will be easier to show him all the great places we love about the Pacific Northwest.

Getting home was tricky... know your visa laws before you fly!

2010-10-19T16:55:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to let you know that we finally made it home! My husband and I are finally in America. However, we had some MAJOR complications on our way home. We were fine all the way up until we arrived in Frankfurt for the last leg of our trip. Naxchivan was wonderful, and we visited with Farid's family for two days, which was perfect. Then we flew to Istanbul, which was also wonderful. We got to see Farid's brothers, and spent a lot of time just doing the tourist thing. We stayed in a little cheap hostel in the heart of the city where we were out late each night. It was fabulous, and I really enjoyed our time there even though we both had bad chest and head colds by that time.

Then we flew from Istanbul to Ankara for a short layover. That leg of the trip also went fine. Then Ankara to Frankfurt. That too went fine. However, when we got to Frankfurt, we were not able to leave the terminal were our Istanbul flight landed, and head to our boarding area for our flight to America because it had a one hour layover on the way to Seattle in Iceland. Since the flight had a layover in another European Union country, that meant it had to board in the domestic terminal. We were told that because Farid does not have a shengen visa (the European Union visa) then he can not enter Germany... after arguing something like this "we only want to go to our next flight, we don't want to enter Germany..." "But your night flight boards in the domestic flight terminal, so you have to enter Germany to get there, and you don't have a shengen visa so you can't go to your next flight." We finally found out that the only way we would be able to get home is to buy an entirely new set of tickets directly from the international terminal (US Airlines, American Airlines, or Lufthansa via United). Understandably, I was both panicked and freaked out, and crying, making a horrible scene at the airport. I was allowed to enter Germany, but Farid was not.

I went through into "Germany" aka the other side of the airport, and picked up all of our bags. Then I had to go bring them back to the transit area where Farid was waiting. This required a police escort, and the police were very involved in helping us to figure out exactly what customs had already told us, that they can't help us, and that the only way out is to buy a ticket back to Turkey, or a new ticket to the US direct. So, we had to buy new tickets to the US. We found that if we waited a day at the airport, there was a direct flight to Seattle. This cost us $3,000. The entire amount that PC had deposited into my account that week. We didn't have enough in the Bank, so we had to use the cash we had in combination with the money in my account. However, we got the tickets.

BUT, in order to check in for that flight, I had to take all of our bags... 3 of them, plus two carry-on bags by myself all the way through the domestic terminal and to the check in counter. I waited in line for an hour and a half, only to be told I was in the wrong line, that I was in "group check in" and would need to go somewhere else with all my stuff. After explaining that I was checking in for two people, I was told that a group is for 5 or more... but the nice man checked me in anyway. It was at this point I learned that unlike our original tickets that had a layover in Iceland, we were not allowed two bags per person, but rather one. So, we had to pay an additional 40 euros (70 dollars) for the third bag. This required me to go to the second floor in a different area of the terminal. I went to pay it, only to find out that they wouldn't take US dollars. So I had to go find an exchange place all the way back where I checked our bags. Then got euros, went back across the terminal, upstairs again, and then paid the baggage fee. The lady saw how stressed I was an apologised for making me "run around the airport." I explained it wasn't her, but told her the sad story. She immediately looked in her computer and found an "upgrade" to our seats. We got the emergency exit row! Which was awesome! It was like being in business class since there were only two seats next to each other with about 4 feet of leg room! It was great.... but, we haven't gotten to the flight yet.

I digress... after upgrading the seats, I was already 2 and a half hours away from Farid. Neither of us has a cell phone that works in Germany, so he is waiting for me in the transit terminal with no clue of what is going on or when I will be back. By this point, he was worried that something had gone wrong, and had used information to call the lufthansa line. They tracked me down while I was upgrading the seats, and they told him I was on my way back in 5 min. So I left the area really happy... then I got to the security check point between the two areas. They refused me entry. They said that since my ticket was for tomorrow, that I wasn't allowed in until after midnight! I told them that lufthansa had just told me to go to their check in desk in the transit lounge, but they still said no. So I went back to lufthansa and explained in tears that security refused me entry, and they knew my husband was waiting on the other side (without money or passport as I needed both for payment and check in for the flight). So they called security, and they told me to go through a different check point and that the security would notify that point that I was coming. I got to a further check point station as instructed, but was again, denied. I insisted that they contact their supervisor as he had been notified, but they refused. Then some nice young guard listened to my story, and said, come on, it's like seriously an hour and a half before midnight, so just let her through. I finally got through, but couldn't find my way to the transit lounge! The Frankfurt airport is too large. I found the area Farid was in, but I was separated by a glass wall. I saw him, he did not see me! I was pounding on the glass when two police officers saw me, and I pointed to Farid. They got his attention, and then showed him the way to get to my area. It took over 3 hours to get back to him. Then we had to sleep on a hard bench in the transit area over night because they won't open the area to the gates at night. Needless to say, it was not a good night. We were both worried our laptop bag with Farid's visa packet would be stolen. It was not, thankfully.

We finally got onto the flight, and the flight was smooth, without problems. Lufthansa is wonderful, and I will never make the same mistake again when travelling between the US and Europe. With airline tickets, you obviously get what you pay for... as the original tickets we had bought were only 550 each. So we will be trying to get a refund of any kind, as there were no notifications about shengen visas online when I purchased the tickets. In the US we arrived about 15 min late due to a late take off (too many planes on the runway). After arrival, we stood in line in the visitor's line (I had to check in with him) and were told the computers were all down nationwide for passport control desk. So we stood there for 35 min. Then when we finally got through, we were sent to another area for processing our visa packet. When we got there, the line was a good 10 people before us, most in wheelchairs and non-native English speakers. We got to the front of the line, only to be told to have a seat. They hat to check in everyone else that day before they would review our packet. It only really took about 45 more min. Which wasn't so bad. He got a stamp in his passport (it will serve as his temporary green card until the actual card arrives.) Then we hugged, and went to get our bags... some of the only ones left.

We are both very tired, and really just glad to have this part done. The travel part is becoming more and more complicated, as we just found out that the tourist visa to Azerbaijan is now only valid for 7 days... so much for going back to visit the in-laws. So, for now, we will just sit tight, and try to relax hopefully in the next week we'll be less jet-lagged. Just wanted you all to know that we are home, safe if not sound of mind.

Closing the chapter...

2010-09-24T23:00:00.000-07:00

This week was a difficult one, filled with a lot of different emotions. I cleaned out my office this week. I cleaned out my filing cabinet (my drawer) and arranged all my old projects into clear plastic cases for the new volunteer. I threw out the old exam papers and project documents. I took down the student art from my walls. For the first time, it really hit me that we were leaving soon. I of course, started to cry.

I started packing up the house on Thursday night. Took our pictures out of the frames, made piles of books and items to give away, and started sorting through all the papers tucked away into cabinets. It's so hard to determine what you can take with you, and what you must leave behind. Instead of taking Farid's spanish books, we opted to just donate them to the resource center at the Ganja Education Information Center, and bought used ones from Amazon.com instead. Most of the household items that we've purchased will go to site mates, or left behind for the site mate that is moving into our house when we leave. All of the things that made a home look like a home, are now being packed up and given away. The house feels empty already.

To top it off, today is our last official work day at GEIC. Both Farid and I are finished today. In the coming week we will come in to say goodbye, to get our letters of recommendation from the Director, and we will come to check email... but it's not the same. I've been here for more than three years now. Realizing that I will have no more projects to plan here, no more events to host, no more American holiday celebrations to prepare for... it all seems so final. In 11 days, I will no longer be a United States Peace Corps volunteer.

For those of you at home that are not RPCVs, you might not understand the importance of this chapter closing. Being a Peace Corps volunteer is so much more than just a job. It's an identity. Although we all come from different places in the U.S., we have different backgrounds, different interests, and different lives, we have one thing in common: our ability to spend more than two years (three in my case) giving our lives to the persuit of trying to make one small part of the world a better place. Whether that's through helping a business to be more successful, helping a student to finally understand the difference between "How are you?" and "How OLD are you?", helping youth to improve their lives through work and life skills building, or just helping people to understand the importance of a healthy lifestyle or environment, we come here to serve strangers; and we eventually leave here leaving behind friends and new families. It is hard to walk away from three years of my life. My energy, my creativity, my heart and my soul are in this place, it's hard to just walk away.

I know that many people leave their countries of service, making promises to return one day. Those promises mean so much to people here. They wait, and they wait, and they talk about us for years to come. The new volunteers feel like they will never measure up. But the new volunteers will earn their places in the hearts of the community in the same rights of passage that we endured. But unlike those volunteers who never make it around to coming back, I can go home knowing that I will return here some day. I am fortunate to be taking home an Azerbaijani husband, so I will feel the connection in so many ways. We will return some day to see family, friends and so many familiar faces. Although this chapter is closing, I must say that it is perhaps the best one I've had yet. I am so grateful to have had the experiences I've had. I'm coming home a very different person than what I left, and that makes me wonder if I will ever see the world the same again. Perhaps not, but I know one thing for certain... I like who I've become, and I like my new identity: Returned Peace Corps Volunteer.

Pastor Terry Jones is a disgrace...

2010-09-09T00:39:00.001-07:00

For those who do not know what is going on, and want to read about Pastor Jones' plans, this article ( http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-11223457 ) makes it very clear that he and his congregation are acting against the wishes of so many other Americans. In brief, Pastor Jones is the leader of an extremist anti-Islamic church in America, and is planning on burning copies of the Koran (the Muslim holy book) on the anniversary of September 11th. He has been asked to stop, and not to do this, as it will put the lives of Americans around the world in danger and will hurt American-Islamic relations for years to come.

As a United States Peace Corps volunteer serving in Azerbaijan (a Muslim country) I strongly condemn Pastor Terry Jones for his plans to host a public Koran burning on 9/11. He is single-handedly destroying the good work of Americans around the world who are trying to create peace and understanding between our cultures. This man is a sick and pathetic representation of America, and I hope Americans can see the irreparable damage this man will cause. Peace Corps is a non-religious, non-political organization, but we are often affected by both political and religious actions. Pastor Jones' actions are both, and they are both hurtful and counter-productive.

It's ironic that so many Americans hold all Muslims accountable for the actions of less than 50 Muslim extremists, and now the world will hold American accountable for the actions of 50 Christian extremists. I can only hope that more Americans will stand up against this man and publicly condemn hate speech, and stand up for the right of Muslims to practice their faith freely. I find it also ironic that we are willing to go to war to defend our right to freedom of religion, but this man wants to take away the freedom of Muslims. He says he wants to send a message to extremists, but instead all it's going to do is fuel moderate people's dislike of Americans actions.

There is no other way to say it, this man is just insane. On today of all days, the celebratory end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, I'm embarrassed to call him American. He certainly does not speak for me or my beliefs.

Youth Civic Leadership Summer Camp 2010

2010-09-07T02:49:00.001-07:00

This year was bitter-sweet. I've now done this camp three years in a row in Azerbaijan, and am always surprised at just how different each group is. This year we held two camps back to back (the same as last year) but divided the groups by age. The first camp had younger students, and the second group was older.

Do you remember the days of summer camp? Your room mates? Staying up late, talking until 4am hoping the counselors wouldn’t notice, group meal times, kitchen patrol chores, playing silly games, capture the flag, nature hikes, and singing songs? Well, kids in Azerbaijan don’t have summer camp. Unless a kid here knows a Peace Corps volunteer, the chance that they even understand the word camp is minimal.

The ideas of being free, close to nature, and having fun are so much more limited than what Americans know. For starters, Azerbaijani kids don’t get dirty. Sitting on the ground is “olmaz” (not allowed) as it’s believed to allow your body to absorb cold from the ground. And everyone in Azerbaijan knows that cold kills. So no sitting on the ground. Sports make you dirty. So girls don’t mind watching, but actually playing the sports? That gets you a look like you’re a silly American. Also, boys don’t wash dishes. That’s girls work. So when you assign a group of kids to do kitchen patrol, set up, tear down, and wash up, the girls are often not assertive enough to call out the boys when they don’t pull their own weight. Evening times in Azerbaijan always include a cup of tea. Even if it’s 100 degrees outside, tea is still a must. Could you imagine what would happen if you gave an American kid a cup of hot tea before bed at camp? They’d probably look at you like you were insane.

BUT, our camp was not an Azerbaijani camp. Nor was it an American camp… we’ll just call it “Azerican” a hybrid of two cultures fused together. Our kids got dirty. They played sports. They sat on the ground (sort of, more like a squatting position close to the ground), boys washed dishes (and even learned to like it, as one boy said “I like playing with the water”) and yes, we still drank tea. Our camp was really the kind were we just went with the flow.

For 11 days, we played games, we held classes, we had discussions, we did yoga, we hiked, we played mafia, and we ate. Boy did we eat. I have to give special thanks here to my site mate Vivian. She’s an amazing woman, and she has a special gift with her hands. She has the ability to make gourmet cuisine out of practically nothing. We ate like kings and queens for the entire camp. The kids ate all different kinds of food, and realized in true American fashion that American food means food infused with other cultures from around the world. (French toast is a hit in Azerbaijan by the way.)

Our first group consisted of 14 campers, and 7 counselors. Most of the kids in this group were under the age of 18. They were energetic, fun loving, and adventurous in every way. When we gave them something new and unknown, they jumped in head first, and never questioned our logic. We asked them to do some strange things, like dropping eggs off the balcony, act out survival strategies for nuclear fallout, and tracing their body onto giant poster papers and filling themselves in with how they see themselves. As this camp was funded by the US Democracy Commission through the US Embassy we elected a camp president and vice president. We even watched “Cool Runnings” in order to promote hard work and teamwork in the face of adversity. The final night held a talent show, with talents of being double jointed, comedy routines, dancing, singing, and knitting. When the first group left, I was so tired, and I missed them the moment they got on the bus!

Our second group was older. All of them were in the 18-25 age group, and we had 8 teachers. Now, have you ever tried to convince college aged students to play duck duck goose? It’s a lot harder than you would think. But by the end of the week, these kids learned to be silly too. They learned to really laugh at themselves, and really acted like a small family. The second group was a bit more obsessed with having free time to prepare their talents, and they were hesitant to do chores (aren’t all kids?) but they always made us laugh. Their energy was overflowing at times, playing cross the river they became more competitive than any other group I’ve ever played with before. Not to mention, teaching assertiveness to already assertive young adults can make for some pretty funny interactions later on. I believe one of the students successfully argued why they shouldn’t have to set the table, and it was a clear step in showing his assertiveness (he believed that he had contributed more than the other members of his team at previous meals, and that he deserved lighter duty that day as a reward.) Camp was exhausting, but fun. I loved it, and can’t believe this may be the last time I do a camp of this caliber. I feel very grateful that I had the chance to do it twice this year!

Oh America, what are you doing?

2010-09-06T02:00:00.000-07:00

Recently a friend of mine sent me a disturbing article about the Park51 debate in New York City (a cultural center that will include a Mosque built down the street from ground zero. Article enclosed at the bottom of this blog entry.) This debate has been heating up and really creating some ugliness with it. It's really starting to make me wonder what's wrong with Americans? One of my favorite things to tell people here is that America is diverse. That we have all different cultures, and we have people from all over the world. We aren't one religion, we aren't one race, we aren't all one language. We are the "melting pot" of the world. America takes the best of all cultures and combines them. It's a source of pride for us Peace Corps volunteers to be able to say that we have Muslims in America too. That America has "freedom of religion." We are free to practice how we want, when we want, and where we want. And now, we hear comments drifting across the world to us that Americans are fine with freedom of religion... as long as that religion is just not Islam. Which is a frightening thought for the more than 1.3 million* American-Muslims.

While a friend of mine who is also married to an Azerbaijani was in the USA she noted that random people would make very unflattering comments about Muslims, (eg "why do they come where they aren't wanted?"), and thought her husband was an Arab. Our program and training officer was also recently in the US for a Peace Corps conference, and people thought he was also an Arab -- for the record Azerbaijanis are Turks (descendant from Turkish ancestry). It's really unfortunate but there's a lot of misinformation and preconceived notions about Muslims, and people are becoming more vocal with their misinformed ideas. Sometimes that vocalization further spreads hate, violence, misinformation and fear about something Americans just don't really understand.

I've begun to notice through online newspaper articles, blogs, and other American news outlets online, that the American people don't know that not every Arab is Muslim and not every Muslim is Arab (there are Christians in Egypt, Lebanon, etc. and Indonesians and Turks are usually Muslim but obviously not Arabs). Worse than generalizing all Muslims as being Arab, people really don't understand that most Muslims are peaceful people. The number of people who think that Obama is Muslim has increased too, which shows how many people don't like the idea of a diverse president representing our diverse America. Does anyone remember when the US was afraid to elect a Catholic? Without John F. Kennedy we wouldn't have the Peace Corps today. The third goal of the Peace Corps is to teach Americans about other cultures around the world. I'm not even home yet, and my work is mounting up before me. I've got a lot of good things to say about Azerbaijani Muslims, and how it really hurts when this whole debate affects the people I love and care for, and who have loved and cared for me so well these past three years.

Since I'll be home in just over a month, I wanted to send this out prior to arriving with my wonderful Muslim husband. Azerbaijan is a Muslim country. But like America, most people don't wear head scarfs, don't wear scull caps, or any outward sign of their religion. It's a secular (as in, not a religious) state, and like America, the government is run separate of religious influence. It's very hard for many Americans to understand that Azerbaijan is a former soviet union country, and lies on the outside edges of Europe while simultaneously being a Muslim country. There are influences from many different cultures here, and if one did not know it was a Muslim country, you probably wouldn't be able to tell based on just the culture and looks alone.

Now, just to dispel any confusion... Like the Christianity, Islam teaches peace, and non-violence. Muslims in general are not violent people. The same way that Christians in general are not violent people. (How would you feel if your entire religion was effected and viewed based on the actions of Timothy McVay, the Oklahoma City building bomber?) If any of you have ever watched the West Wing there is a great analogy that you should know. Think back to SATs, when you had to compare things.

al-Qaeda : Islam :: KKK : Christianity

al-Qaeda is to Islam, what the KKK is to Christianity. It's a horrible subgroup of fring people that don't represent the views of the entire group, and focus on hurting people to prove their point. So for those of you who seem to equate all Muslims with terrorism, I know this bursts your bubble, but you'll have to look more realistically at the situation. A hand full of bad people can't be the whole reason that 1.57 billion** Muslim people become discriminated around the world. It isn't fair, and it isn't practical to assume that just because a few bad people do hurtful things, that everyone else will do it too. Please, don't be one of those Americans who uses fear and misunderstanding as an excuse to discriminate and hurt people who are really not that different from us after all. As Americans we have an obligation to all Americans, not just the ones who look, act and think just the same as we do. We have an obligation to uphold our constitutional rights, including protecting religions and the right to practice those religions for anyone who wants to, even if we don't practice the same one. We have an obligation to protect each other from violence, from hate speech, and from discrimination. We have the responsibility to give every American the chance to be themselves while building a better future for all of us.

*http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islam_in_the_United_States

**http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muslim_world

NYC mosque debate will shape American Islam

(Article By RACHEL ZOLL, AP Religion Writer Rachel Zoll, Ap Religion Writer Sun Aug 29, 2:28 pm ET)

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2012754945_apusnycmosquefallout.html?syndication=rss

NEW YORK – Adnan Zulfiqar, a graduate student, former U.S. Senate aide and American-born son of Pakistani immigrants, will soon give the first khutbah, or sermon, of the fall semester at the University of Pennsylvania. His topic has presented itself in the daily headlines and blog posts over the disputed mosque near ground zero.

What else could he choose, he says, after a summer remembered not for its reasoned debate, but for epithets, smears, even violence?

As he writes, Zulfiqar frets over the potential fallout and what he and other Muslim leaders can do about it. Will young Muslims conclude they are second-class citizens in the U.S. now and always?

"They're already struggling to balance, `I'm American, I'm Muslim,' and their ethnic heritage. It's very disconcerting," said Zulfiqar, 32, who worked for former U.S. Sen. Max Cleland, a Georgia Democrat, and now serves Penn's campus ministry. "A controversy like this can make them radical or become more conservative in how they look at things or how they fit into the American picture."

Whatever the outcome, the uproar over a planned Islamic center near the World Trade Center site is shaping up as a signal event in the story of American Islam.

Strong voices have emerged from outside the Muslim community. New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg has been steadfast in his support for the project. Jon Stewart nightly mocks the bigotry that the protest unleashed.

"The sentiment, say, five years ago among many Muslims, especially among many young Muslims, was that, `We're in this all by ourselves,'" said Omer Mozaffar, a university lecturer in Chicago who leads Quran study groups as a buffer between young people and the extremist preachers on YouTube. `That has changed significantly. There have been a lot of people speaking out on behalf of Muslims."

Eboo Patel, an American Muslim leader and founder of Interfaith Youth Core, a Chicago nonprofit that promotes community service and religious pluralism, said Muslims are unfortunately experiencing what all immigrant groups endured in the U.S. before they were fully accepted as American. Brandeis University historian Jonathan D. Sarna has noted that Jews faced a similar backlash into the 1800s when they tried to build synagogues, which were once banned in New York.

Patel believes American Muslims are on the same difficult but inevitable path toward integration.

"I'm not saying this is going to be happy," Patel said. "But I'm extremely optimistic."

Yet, the overwhelming feeling is that the controversy has caused widespread damage that will linger for years.

American Muslim leaders say the furor has emboldened opposition groups to resist new mosques around the country, at a time when there aren't enough mosques or Islamic schools to serve the community.

Rhetoric from some politicians that lumps all Muslims with terrorists will depress the Muslim vote, analysts say.

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, a potential 2012 presidential candidate, said in opposing the Islamic center that, "America is experiencing an Islamist cultural-political offensive designed to undermine and destroy our civilization."

U.S. Muslims who have championed democracy and religious tolerance question what they've accomplished. If the "extremist" label can be hung on someone as apparently liberal as the imam at the center of the outcry, Feisal Abdul Rauf, then any Muslim could come under attack. Feisal supports women's rights, human rights and interfaith outreach.

"The joke is on moderate Muslims," said Muqtedar Khan, a University of Delaware political scientist and author of "American Muslims, Bridging Faith and Freedom." "What's the point if you're going to be treated the same way as a radical? If I get into trouble are they going to treat me like I'm a supporter of al-Qaeda?"

U.S. Muslims are themselves divided over the proposed mosque.

Feisal and his wife, Daisy Khan (no relation to Muqtedar Khan), want to build a 13-story, $100 million community center called Park51 two blocks from the World Trade Center site. It would be modeled on the YMCA or Jewish Community Center, with programming for the entire city, and would include a mosque.

Some Muslims felt from the start that the plan was misguided, given the wounds of the Sept. 11 attacks and widespread misunderstanding about Islam. Yet they felt compelled to defend the proposal when the discussion over religious freedom and cultural sensitivity turned ugly.

Days ago, a brick nearly smashed a window at the Madera Islamic Center in central California, where signs were left behind that read, "Wake up America, the enemy is here," and "No temple for the god of terrorism." This past week in New York, a Muslim cab driver had his face and throat slashed in a suspected hate crime.

The poisonous atmosphere comes at a still fragile time in the development of Muslim communal life.

Leaders have spent years trying to persuade Muslim immigrants to come out of their enclaves and fully embrace being American. The task became that much more difficult in the aftermath of 9/11. Many Muslims pulled back, convinced that if another terrorist attack occurs, the U.S. government will put them in internment camps, like the Japanese in World War II. Their American-born children, meanwhile, have felt rejected by their own country.

David Ramadan, a Muslim and vice chair of ethnic coalitions for Republican Party in Virginia, predicts that comments from political figures in both major parties will depress Muslim voting in years to come.

Ramadan and other Muslim Republicans have been pressing GOP leaders not to support a particular mosque, but to acknowledge that American Muslims have equal rights under the Constitution.

"Who wants to come into the fold of the Republican Party today, or even the fold of the Democratic Party?" Ramadan asked. "They just increased the number of independents in America."

Ramadan Day 12 and 13

2010-08-22T21:50:00.000-07:00

Today we broke our fasting. As we are leaving for camp, our bodies need to be well rested, and ready for the intense physical activity of running a summer youth camp. It felt weird to stop though, as my body still woke me up really early in the morning. I need to get back in the swing of sleeping through a whole night. I'm sure at camp I won't be sleeping restfully throughout the night, but it will be the result of catching campers trying sneak out... I'm great at catching them, and the first year even slept in the hallway to prevent the girls from leaving.

Yesterday was a great day for us. We had a house guest from Sheki come on Saturday night, and she stayed and did our breakfast with us at 430am like a trooper. We of course gave her the option to sleep in and opt out, but she was curious so she joined us. Farid's students finished up their final leadership project yesterday morning, and our friend and I cleaned the house in preparation for our site mate "hub day." Almost all of the site mates came this time, and we had a nice fruit buffet. Farid and I were very good, and didn't become too tempted to actually partake in eating. After our site mates left, we went in to the office to purchase our plane tickets to America! We are very excited, as we finally found tickets home, and now will be headed out of Azerbaijan with a final end date in site. In 51 days, I will be foot down on American soil. I will be home, and there not just for a vacation this time. It feels a bit bitter sweet. I'm excited that we will finish my service and then head back to Ganja, catch a flight to Naxchivan to stay with Farid's parents for two nights, then fly to Istanbul to see Farid's brothers for 2 nights, then a flight to Frankfurt, were we will layover for an entire day (this is the price you pay for cheap tickets) and then we will fly to Iceland for a short layover before landing in Seattle. For Farid, he will still have to go through secondary processing with his CR-1 visa (conditional resident visa) and he will be issued his temporary green card at the airport. The final green card will be mailed to our house withing 6-8 weeks. He will have to register for selective service, and we will then start the job search, and start applying to graduate schools. We are looking into several places, including Minnesota, Oregon, and Nevada. Right now, we just need time to adjust to life in the US again. I have been informed by Peace Corps at our Close of Service conference that I will be going through "Reverse Culture Shock" and won't always feel "at home" in the US now. I know there are a lot of things about Azerbaijan that I won't miss. However, there are a lot that I will miss too. After 3 years and 3 months away from home, it feels a bit strange to not know what comes next.

Ramadan Day 11

2010-08-20T21:25:00.001-07:00

My own husband doesn't know what day of Ramadan it is. He's confused. He believes it's day 10. I think he's severely dehydrated and it's effecting his brain. I on the other hand know, that I'm now in day 11 of my Ramadan experience. Surprisingly, I'm doing well today. Last night was interesting, as we prepared dinner, then tackled the laundry. All that extra energy felt good enough to make me actually wash clothes.

Now, I should explain for those of you who don't live in Azerbaijan, that washing clothes here is a very time consuming, and energy using event. You see, we don't have a washing machine. Our washing machine is a large plastic bucket. So after heating water for a shower, we decided that we could wash clothes for camp. The actual washing for 2 pairs of jeans, 1 pair of khakis, and 4 shirts took about an hour. You have the soaping, rinsing, squeezing, rinsing, squeezing and about 5 more rinsing squeezing cycles. By the time you're done, your hands sometimes callous, and for beginners, sometimes crack from all the water and soap that dries out your hands. Then, comes the "easy" part. Hanging the clothes to dry. I'm sure you're wondering what is so difficult about this. For most volunteers, this really is the easy part. But for me, I have some sort of bad luck. I live on the third floor of an old soviet style block apartment building. We have a corridor out front of our door, and it has an open wall to hang our clothes on the line. It's like a balcony where everything is concrete. Usually, I don't hang my clothes on the line on the outside, because the neighbor above likes to throw her trash off the balcony. Meaning, our clothes get covered in garbage after being washed. This has happened twice before. Instead, I hang my clothes to dry on the rope between my neighbors water tank, and our water tank. This has been fine all summer. However, last night, after putting all that hard work into washing the clothes, hanging them out to dry, and finally climbing in to bed after 11pm... I heard the tell tale sound of a wet "thwack." In an instant, my heart sank. I knew that sound... it had happened only once before. The line broke. With dread, we got up, put on full clothes, opened the front door, and turned on the porch light. Sure enough, there were our freshly washed clothes, laying on the dirty floor of the corridor. It took a lot of patience not to scream and yell, and jump up and down like a 5 year old who is angry. Instead, we gathered up the clothes that had fallen on the ground, re-hung the others that were still dangling mid-air on the broken lines, and went inside to re-wash the clothes. We don't have very many clothes here, and Farid in particular only has a total of 4 pairs of pants. So when his khakis fell in the dirt, I was determined to get them clean again. We re-washed the items, and this time hung them to dry inside the bathroom. It was late by the time we crawled tired back into bed. It was a rough night, as the wind howled most of the night through our neighborhood, waking us up frequently between the early hours and the time we had to wake up. We even had to close the windows regardless of the sweltering heat, for fear the curtains would rip away from the rod on the wall.

430 came early, and I stumbled out of bed to light the gas to heat our tea-pot. It takes about 7 minutes for the water to boil. Everything else was ready, so all we had to do was wait. We lay down, and for a moment closed our eyes. I jolted awake 20 minutes later. It's a good thing that we had almost an hour between 430 and sunrise, or else we would have been extra hungry today. Most of the water had boiled out of the pot, and we both sleepily sat down to breakfast at the table. As soon as we were done, it was back to bed for our sleepy brains.

Then, at 815 we woke up for work... which we gave ourselves 15 minutes to get ready for. Can you tell how tired we must have been? After throwing on clothes, and brushing our hair, we left for work, checking on the clothes outside on the line. Immediately, Farid and I noticed "gaps" in the line. We both thought, "Oh no, our clothes had been whipped away down two stories into the trees and chicken yard below!" We spent a few minutes trying to see where they had landed... nothing from our floor could be seen. So we went down to the second, then the first, and finally to the ground floor to look around in the trees and garbage strewn field behind our building. We couldn't find them. I was so upset that I was devising plans to go to the bazar and buy Farid a new pair of pants. We had to go to work though, so we got on the bus. Half way to work, we remembered that those gaps in the line were not the khakis and shirts that had fallen in the dirt... we had re-hung those in the bathroom. I felt silly, and a bit embarrassed for looking around in the chicken yard behind our building. I believe we are truly tired today.

Ramadan Days 9 and 10

2010-08-19T22:14:00.000-07:00

I decided to take the day off of work yesterday, so I will combine the blog for yesterday and today. Yesterday was perhaps one of the best days yet in my experience. Since I didn't have to get up at 730 to go to work, I was able to sleep in a little more. That helped my mood immensely, and put me in the right mindset for the day. I made time for light exercise, and good stretching. I've felt so tense lately from the lack of water and proper sleep, that the stretching was really invigorating for me. I had time to clear my mind, and to find peace inside myself. I then had enough energy to clean the house, and visit with two of my site mates for the better part of the afternoon. Since I've been smarter in my eating habits, I wasn't even hungry when they ate lunch. That was a real surprise for me. However, the smell of watermelon does make my stomach act up. It's a nostalgic food, and that just can't be helped.

Farid and I talked a bit last night about Ramadan. We know that we won't be able to fast the whole month, as we are leaving for summer camp next week, and women traditionally break when their body changes cycles. We will more than likely fast up until the day camp begins, then stop when camp actually starts. This summer camp has such an intense schedule that it would be unpractical and borderline dangerous to fast while doing so much physical activity. Not to mention that I can't sleep in when I'm directing a camp, nor can I go to bed early. Therefore, we will have an 11 day break in the middle of Ramadan. We will resume the fast when camp is over on the 3rd, and may add the days to the end of Ramadan depending on our travel schedule back to the states.

Some days are better than others. Some days are so hard that I feel very close to giving up. I am 100% sure that the reason I've made it this far is my husband. This whole experience was my idea, and the fact that he is fasting to help me through the process just makes it so much easier for me. Yes my husband is Muslim, but that is not the reason I'm doing this. I've been living in Azerbaijan for three years, and each year I made excuses to exempt myself from Ramadan. But in reality, I'm ashamed to admit I was scared. I was scared I wouldn't be able to do it. I was scared that it would mean people would think I was converting to Islam (as if this would be something terrible.) I was scared my family and friends might think strangely about me, or judge me for "going native." But I'm no longer scared. This year is my last chance. I don't know when I'll be back to Azerbaijan. It may be a very long time before I get the chance to spend Ramadan in a Muslim country again. Like spending December in a Christian country, Ramadan is a very special month. People are nicer to each other, people are more honest, there are more good deeds, and more love in the community. Part of the Peace Corps experience is to truly try to understand the culture, the life, and the people. Ramadan is a part of that experience that I have been missing.

Fasting is a real test of ones willpower to not be tempted when you are cooking for others, or for yourself. Have you ever tried to cook without tasting the food you are making after spending the previous 15 hours fasting? Guessing how much salt or seasoning something needs is an interesting experience. I also find that the parts that have been the biggest sacrifice for me were not what I had imagined... giving up water during the day, and waking up so early. Each day feels a little easier in some ways, and I still have moments where my stomach feels hungry. One of my students and I talked on Wednesday about the importance of fasting. She said that it's good for one to experience what it feels like to be hungry, to go without. It makes us more sympathetic to those who do not have the choice. Which prompted me to look up some information about hunger world wide.

As of today, no one really knows how many people in the world are malnourished. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization measures "under-nutrition" and estimates that as of October 14, 2009 more than 1.02 billion people are under nourished. This has increased more than 346 million people since 2006. As a result of agricultural neglect, a worldwide economic crisis, and an increase in the cost of food for everyone, 15% of the world's population is going hungry*. Most of which are in developing nations. Azerbaijan is considered a developing nation. It is very easy to forget about these parts of the world. It is very easy to say "that's not America, you can't compare the two worlds" or "there's nothing I can do about it."

One of my favorite documentaries is called "Invisible Children." I first watched this video in my church collage group. After watching the video it made me want to join the Peace Corps to help more people in the world. Three years, 2 months later, here I am. I'm not sure if I've helped the world, but I've certainly learned a lot more about it. I've learned that I was pretty ignorant about a lot of things going on outside of America. It's easy to pretend that everything is fine and perfect when you are surrounded by so much excess, so much privilege. There are a lot of really great people in this part of the world. They a so similar to us in so many ways. They have dreams, they have goals, they have fears, they have needs, just the same as any of us do.

There are good and bad people in every part of the world, and no one person can represent an entire country or culture. I've been asked more times than I can count, "how do Americans feel about this..." or "what do Americans think about that?" How can I answer for more than 305 million Americans? I can't. But yet, sometimes we expect others to do the same, answer for "why do Muslims do this?" or "why do Muslims think that?" Every person is just that, a person, an individual. You can never fully understand a culture based on the thoughts or actions of a few people. Imagine how we would feel if everyone outside of America based their thoughts of America on what skin heads, or KKK members said and did. It would be a pretty skewed view of reality. The world really needs a lot more understanding about each other. Ramadan is one way that I can bridge the gap in understanding. It tests my patience and willpower, it tests my strength, commitment, and endurance. I am finally beginning to see that it truly is a sacrifice, and a very personal one.

(Disclaimer: Today's post is one of the rare ones in which I talk about my personal feelings regarding religion and politics around the world. As stated above, it is only my opinion, and does not represent the US Peace Corps, America, or Azerbaijan in any way. It's just one persons rambling thoughts about the world.)

*http://www.worldhunger.org/articles/Learn/world%20hunger%20facts%202002.htm

Ramadan Day 8

2010-08-17T22:05:00.000-07:00

Woohoo! I did it, I survived a whole week! Thank you to everyone for the positive comments and feedback. It really helps knowing I have a (small) fan base out there! Day 7 was really harder than previous days. I actually felt hungry yesterday. Previous days, hunger passed quickly, and my stomach was able to quiet. Yesterday however, while teaching class, my stomach decided to declare my participation in Ramadan... over and over again, loud enough for my students to hear. After work, I watched a movie to distract myself, which was a great technique. Only problem was, I didn't notice the clock ticking toward sun down. As hungry as we were, dinner was actually 10 min later than it could have been.

This morning was another early start. 430 felt like 230. My brain did not want to wake up, and I was still full from dinner when we woke. Have you ever tried to force yourself to eat something when you were already full? It's not a pleasant feeling. I had to force myself to drink water, and my stomach has felt bloated all morning. However, my hopes are high as I can focus on the fact that I was successful in completing the first week... that has to count for something.