The New Colossus

On the bus ride from staging in Philadelphia to our Delta flight 72 out of JFK, it seemed appropriate somehow that we were not only departing from the airport named for the President who founded the Peace Corps but also that on our way out of the country we caught a glimpse of the Statue of Liberty, shrouded in so much fog that I unfortunately could not get a good picture of it.  Not all the world's tired, poor, huddled masses, yearning to breathe free, have the great fortune of coming to America, so we're going to them.  At the end of this journey, I shall look forward to returning under the glow of world-wide welcome from her beacon-hand.

Baku State of Mind

Quick update: During pre-service training ("PST") (and so continues the torrent of acronyms and abbreviations), which will last from now through approximately December, correspondence and (ahem) care packages may be addressed to me at:

Peace Corps Azerbaijan
2C Hasan Aliyev Street
Baku, Azerbaijan
(994) 12 499 1720

My understanding is that mail will be collected at the Peace Corps office in Baku and distributed to us PCTs ("Peace Corps Trainees") once every week or two in the suburbs, where our community-based training will take place.

And I'll leave you with a little video that some current PCVs (Peace Corps Volunteers) put together:

Tierra del Fuego - Part 1

Introduction

Since I began telling people where I would be serving, the most common response has involved a hesitant and gentle furrowing of the brow, perhaps accompanied by a slight head tilt and something along the lines of: "Where is that?",  "Is that a real country?", and "Isn't that the place in Harry Potter?"  More recently, I've been happy to be able to inform people that Azerbaijan is the winner of Eurovision 2011!

To which, the response is usually: "What's Eurovision?"

This is Eurovision.  May it be everything you ever dreamed of and more.  I know it was for me:



Anyway, Azerbaijan is indeed a real country, located in the Caucasus region, which lies between and among two roughly parallel mountain ranges - the Greater Caucasus mountains to the north and the Lesser Caucasus to the south.

The Greater Caucasus are near the center of the satellite image, exhibiting strong snow coverage, and form a natural barrier between modern-day Russia, to the north, and the three countries of the Caucasus region, to the south.  The Lesser Caucasus run roughly parallel in the lower center of the satellite image.  Satellite image courtesy of NASA (left). Map courtesy of CIA (right).

The Caucasus

The Greater Caucasus mountains, themselves located in both Asia and Europe, are considered the boundary between Asia and Europe, whose highest point is considered by  many to be Mount Elbrus, located on the Russian side of the mountain range, across from northwestern Georgia, near Abhkazia. The Greater Caucasus mountain range are largely the result of the collision of the underlying Arabian and Eurasian tectonic plates.  The geological fault line running deep underneath the Caucasus region is a fitting metaphor for this historically and geopolitically significant crossroads, whose economic importance is matched only by the conflict that such importance inevitably brings and which plays out against the backdrop of an ostensible clash of culture and religion: predominantly Muslim Azerbaijan, Iran, and Turkey and predominantly Christian Armenia, Georgia, and Russia.

Image courtesy of wikipedia and is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License.

Azerbaijan

One of the official members of the Commonwealth of Independent States that is made up of former Soviet Republics, Azerbaijan is bordered by Russia to the north and Iran to the South, the Caspian Sea on the east, and Georgia and Armenia to the northwest and west, respectively.

Azerbaijan is on the west (left) shore of the Caspian.  Satellite image courtesy of CIA World Factbook.

Present-day map of Azerbaijan, courtesy of CIA World Factbook.

 

The flag of Azerbaijan

The blue refers to Azerbaijan's Turkic heritage. Red stands for progress to establish a modern state and develop democracy.  Green refers to Islam.  The crescent moon symbolizes Islam, and the eight-pointed star represents either the eight Turkic peoples of the world (as classified at the time) or the eight letters of the name "Azerbaijan" in Arabic.  Image courtesy of CIA World Factbook.