Intro
I didn't have time to post about my Site Visit in a meaningful way during Pre-Service Training, so I'll do it now.
[The Site Visit helps prepare Peace Corps Trainees for service by providing a first-hand look at the lives of actively serving Peace Corps Volunteers ("PCVs") and the opportunity to learn from their experiences.]
From Sunday, October 16, 2011 to Thursday, October 20, 2011, I traveled to and stayed in the city of Ağcabədi, eponymous capital of the rayon ("region"), with AZ7s Jeff (CED) and his wife Shira (TEFL).
As you can see on the map, Ağcabədi is located roughly in the "palm" of Azərbaycan, slightly south of center. (In this visual metaphor that is commonly used among PCVs, think of Azərbaycan as a right hand with the palm facing you. The Abşeron peninsula (where Bakı is) that sticks out into the Caspian is the "thumb." The protrusion along the south coast is the "wrist," the one along the northern coast is the "first finger," etc. If you keep going, you'll notice there are really only 3 "fingers," so it's not a human hand, but apparently that of a Disney cartoon character.)
Culturally, Ağcabədi is also fairly "central," in the sense that it is considered more traditional and conservative than other places in the country (such as the north / big cities (namely Bakı, Gəncə, Sumqayıt, and Mingəçevir)). Unlike in the U.S., this conservatism is not necessarily political or religious but rather manifests itself in a relatively strong version of a post-Soviet mindset characterized by a general underdevelopment of critical thinking / intellectual curiosity and perhaps even a propensity not to see the value of these concepts. This is not to say that there aren't exceptions, because I met several people who broke this mold, but it is to say that the overall culture has almost certainly resulted in, per capita, fewer exceptions here than you would find in, say, Bakı or Gəncə. However, the people were as welcoming and hospitable as Azərbaycanis are reputed to be and were, in general, more polite. Even during my short visit, I noticed less verbal harassment and more respectful behavior from strangers on the street. Not including staring. Always with the staring.
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| In the garden |
Getting there
If you don't have your own car (maşın), there are two ways to get to Ağcabədi: taxi and marşrutka. Marşrutkas are minivans that are frequently packed to the gills with passengers (and perhaps a goat or a chicken), cost 6 AZN, and take about 4.5 to 5 hours to get there from the Yeni Avtovagzal* (New Bus Station) near Bakı. I've been told that taxis from the İyirmi Yanvar roundabout in Bakı cost about 10 AZN per person but take only about 3.5 hours.
* The Azərbaycani term "avtovagzal" for bus station may have come from London's Vauxhall station by way of Russia. The story is that a delegation of Russians visited the station in central London to see how it was being built and mistook "Vauxhall" for the general term for "railway station." This was transliterated into the Russian "vokzal," signifying a major railway station, which passed into Azərbaycani during the Soviet era and the prefix "avto" was added to distinguish bus stations.
Since it was my first time to travel unchaperoned between cities, it was easier to take a marşrutka from the 'vagzal than to try to find the right taxi at 20 Yanvar (it's a madhouse, I tell you, a madhouse), negotiate the fare with my rudimentary language skills, and not end up on the side of a milk carton.
As one should always do when traveling in the 'Baycan, I went to the bathroom before we left. Unfortunately, my timing presumed (incorrectly, as it turned out) that the bus would leave on time at 9 a.m. When intercity buses are not sufficiently full, they will wait until they are before departing, which meant that we didn't leave until about 10:15 a.m. and, more importantly, that my bathroom schedule was way off.
Luckily, the bus stops halfway through the trip at a rest stop; however, the discomfort of those last 30 minutes cannot be overstated, especially since the road is fairly bumpy (I was sitting above the rear axle), the usual stuffiness was made extra robust by the driver's smoking, and, by this point, a woman of large stature had fallen asleep on me.
And so it was with great relief that I got out at the rest stop. After taking care of business, as I stretched my legs in the parking lot, one of those seemingly ubiquitous Lada's with fruit in the back window pulled up in the space next to the bus. Opening the rear driver's side door, the driver pulled out a crate of what looked like a bunch of lamb's wool buffing pads for waxing a car.
Close. It was a lamb.
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| at the rest stop |
A guy came out from the çayxana (teahouse), spoke with the driver for a while, and, apparently satisfied with the terms, took the lamb out of the crate, leaving it in the patch of grass between the sidewalk and the patio as he disappeared into the building. He soon reappeared with a knife - You can probably tell where this is going, so if you're squeamish, skip ahead and don't look too carefully at the picture - [highlight with your cursor to keep reading]and proceeded to slaughter and dress the lamb right there, first removing the head and feet, then hanging it up to skin it. I'm not squeamish, so the fact of all this didn't bother me. I was more surprised by the public location that raised, in my mind, some health code issues. The weird part is that the seller/driver stuck around. We left before he finished, but I think maybe the deal was that seller got to keep the wool or something.
Exploring Ağcabədi
First, let me say that my expectations for Ağcabədi were fairly low. When I told my host family, neighbors, and friends where other trainees were going for their site visits, the reactions were something along the lines of:
"Oh, Zaqatala - the mountains are beautiful!"
"Mingəçevir - very nice and clean city, and you can swim in the reservoir!"
"Lənkəran - beautiful and delicious tea and citrus!"
When I told people (only one of whom had ever actually been there) I was going to Ağcabədi for my site visit, I was met with blank stares, looks of pity, jokes about being so close to the Nagorno-Karabakh border (complete with thumb-and-forefinger gun gestures and "pew-pew" sound effects), or (in the most favorable review from someone who had family there) "it's not the worst."
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A) Lazy road construction crew, or
B) environmentally friendly vehicular speed reduction device? |
Nevertheless, I had a great time in Ağcabədi for two reasons. First, the city was not the backwater, podunk town that I had been led to expect. Second, I had great hosts.
The terrain was surprisingly green, criss-crossed by irrigation canals and patches of grass where farmers stake their cows for grazing. It felt a little like parts of the countryside in northern Louisiana, but not as lush. There weren't a lot of trees, and the ones that I saw were not too big or tall, perhaps due to the generally dry climate and irrigation issues. Maybe this is why they didn't cut down the tree in the pic to the left but rather paved around it. Or maybe it was just an obstacle to slow down the crazy drivers.
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| rental house (L); main house (R) |
After Jeff met me near the 'vagzal, we stopped for some kebab (and çay, of course) at a nearby restaurant, and, indeed, the quality of the meat lived up to its reputation. Then we went home to drop off my things and prepare dinner.
Jeff and Shira's rental was a one-room guest house next to the landlady's main house, which shared a separate tualet building in the yard. They had their own kitchen on the semi-enclosed patio, and the shower was in the main house. The tap water was drinkable, and the water tank was huge, providing plenty of running water for the day.
I don't remember exactly what we ate that night. It might have been the chili, but all the meals were very tasty ("çox dadlı"). In the event that I end up moving out on my own, I hope I can even approach the quality and creativity of Jeff's and Shira's cooking. Great company and great food. If that isn't nice, I don't know what is.
Work
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| AIM |
The next day, I accompanied Jeff to his primary host organization, the Agro Informasiya Mərkəzi ("AIM"), where his work included facilitating the procurement of equipment for conservation agriculture, delivering presentations regarding soil fertility and agro-forestry, and conducting professional training. Jeff also devised community projects, such as a cycling club, conversation clubs, tutoring, and academic counseling, and worked with other organizations like HEKS-EPER, which seeks to improve market conditions for low-income farmers. In addition, Jeff conducted research on chestnut blight for his Master’s International Program.
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| Bike Club |
Before anyone gets their expectations up about what I'll accomplish while I'm here, I should note that Jeff was a rock-star PCV (not literally. Although we do have a couple of those.). For example, both times that I heard then-Ambassador Matthew Bryza speak in person, he specifically cited Jeff as an example of the important work that Peace Corps accomplishes. Of course, I aspire to do as much as I can while I'm here, but consider your expectations managed.
Master’s International Research: Chestnut Blight
Although Jeff initially thought that AIM would be at the center of his research for his Master’s International Program, it soon became apparent that he would have to look elsewhere. Mostly by word of mouth, he became aware of the chestnut blight issue in Azərbaycan. Chestnut ("şabalıd") blight hit Europe in the 1940s, beginning in Italy, and spread out in roughly concentric circles, reaching Azərbaycan in the last five or six years. Because it's relatively new here, it was a perfect opportunity for Jeff to conduct field interviews and specimen collection to help researchers fight its spread.
Interviewing and Gender
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| Jeff's research |
Some of the communities in which Jeff spoke to farmers were extremely traditional and conservative, so that he was able to speak only with the men and never the women. As Jeff described it, the women would bring tea to the threshold of the door to the living room, where they would somehow silently signal their presence to the men, in some way that Jeff could not perceive, and the men would take it from the threshold to the table. In order to obtain participation from female interview subjects, Jeff traveled to the ethnic minority Avar communities in the north, where it was culturally acceptable for husbands and wives to be interviewed together.
HEKS-EPER
HEKS-EPER (Hilfswerk der Evangelischen Kirchen Schweiz—Entraide Protestante Suisse) is a Swiss NGO, with which Jeff became acquainted through its partnership with AIM and whose professionals he incorporated into his initiatives. HEKS’s primary project in Azərbaycan is to improve market conditions for low-income dairy farmers, which is funded by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC, the Swiss equivalent of USAID) and implemented according to the M4P methodology (Making Markets Work for the Poor) with additional focus on Disaster Risk Reduction (e.g., erosion and irrigation issues) and Gender Equality.
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| kitchen ("mətbəx") & patio dining |
HEKS-EPER's office is in a beautiful building with polished hardwood floors and tall ceilings. When we sat down to talk, however, I heard this weirdly quiet crackling, like the muffled sound of Rice Krispies. I was told that it was the sound of termites. Sadly, this might well be seen as an appropriate metaphor. Even when things look great on the outside, there may be forces at work just under the surface that, if unchecked, would threaten the stability of the existing infrastructure.
HEKS-EPER's approach is an interesting comparison to that of Peace Corps. By way of a very brief background, the continuum of development approaches available to an aid organization might be summarized like this:
- TO - deciding what a community needs without their input and simply doing the project "to" the community
- FOR - facilitating a community's own determination of what it needs (or deciding what a community needs with their input) and doing it for them
- WITH - facilitating a community's own determination of what it needs and working with the community to accomplish it
- BY - this is the end goal, where a community has learned the tools to develop and implement its own projects
Peace Corps primarily aims to work WITH communities in order to reach the BY phase, where communities can sustain projects on their own. However, Peace Corps recognizes that any given Peace Corps Volunteer may need to employ TO and FOR approaches sometimes, for example, to establish credibility and trust within a community.
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| bedroom / living room / dining room / guest room / parlor |
Based on my limited information, it would appear that HEKS-EPER also uses a combination of TO, FOR, and WITH approaches but without the long-term goal of empowering communities to design and carry out projects BY themselves.
After an approximately eight-month inception phase of research, analysis, and interviews with the community, HEKS-EPER selected the dairy industry as the area where it could achieve the greatest practical impact. HEKS-EPER aims to improve market conditions for low-income farmers by concentrating on three areas: (i) veterinary services; (ii) artificial insemination; and (iii) livestock feed. HEKS-EPER does not work directly with farmers but does work with vendors to improve the quality of products and services and systems of distribution in each of these strategic areas.
For example, gender barriers cause significant under-use of veterinary services by rural farms. The men are frequently away from home during the day, and because it is culturally unacceptable for women to be alone with men who are not part of the family, veterinarians (who are almost always men) cannot visit the farm to tend to the cows during normal working hours. As a result, many health issues go unattended, negatively impacting production capacity. HEKS-EPER is helping to address this issue by training female veterinary assistants, who will be able to visit farms tended by female farmers during the day, and generally improving the quality of veterinary training in the region.
Dairy Factory
One challenge for HEKS’ efforts to improve the dairy market will surely be Atena’s operation of a high-tech dairy processing plant (completed) and dairy barn (under construction), which I was fortunate enough to tour during my visit. The dairy factory features state-of-the art pasteurization technology, on-site container fabrication, quality control lab, and automated packaging, all of which is connected to a nationwide cold-chain system that begins with the delivery of raw milk to the factory and ends at point-of-sale distribution in retail shops (which may or may not stay cold depending on whether electricity is continuous).
Our tour began with donning white lab coats and hair nets. After passing through an air lock, we sanitized our hands at one station, went through a turnstile, stood on a grate that brushed and sanitized the bottoms of our shoes, and finally slipped on some blue shoe covers. Inside was an impressive operation, gleaming with stainless steel and filled with the gentle hum of smoothly running machinery and conveyor belts, which could all be controlled remotely from a central control room.
Unfortunately, neither Jeff nor I had the presence of mind to take pictures (I'm not even sure it would have been allowed), but click here for a picture of President Aliyev visiting the same factory. And here are some more pics of the President's visit to Ağcabədi (scroll through to pix 40-47 for more pictures of the President at the factory).
Reportedly, the factory has the capacity to process more than a couple hundred thousand liters of milk per day. Local dairy farmers, however, generally produce milk only at subsistence levels and could probably provide Atena with maybe 5% (at most) of its production capacity, even if the quality were acceptable. Accordingly, Atena is said to be importing milk from numerous international sources, but still operates well below full capacity. When the dairy barn project is complete, it is anticipated to meet the supply demanded by the factory's daily production capacity.
One agronomist opined that farmers’ cooperatives would be critical to helping local farmers improve their position in the future. This can only be more true as Atena ramps up production at the barn and factory.
After the tour, Jeff and I walked back to the city center, which was a good one and half hour trek through the countryside, and just one of many similar walks that we took. I never really noticed the time though because we had a lot of things to discuss, and the conversation was always good.
I also tagged along to a couple of Shira's conversation clubs (it's like two site visits for the price of one!) and visited a number of other people. Suffice it to say that I had a great site visit to Ağcabədi, thanks to Jeff and Shira's hospitality and general awesomeness.
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