What's Healthy?

Well I just found out that the health care bill passed. Also from what news I've gleaned a lot of people who really don't like the bill compare it to Socialism or living in the USSR.

My fellow PCV Aaron wrote a great post about views towards health here in the AZ. So instead of writing something myself, I thought I'd point you in his direction.

So this is for everybody, for the people who are celebrating and the people who are preparing to stand in bread lines: Health in Azerbaijan from Aaron's perspective.

P.S. If you're wondering, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Azerbaijan has gone from total Soviet health coverage to zero.

Thoughts from a Prostitute on Women's Day

Today was International Women's Day. It's celebrated all around the world with a lot of fanfare, though not as much in the U.S. The staple answer is because every day is "women's day" in America. It is also a governmental holiday so there was no school or work.

This morning in the middle of making pancakes I ran short of ingredients. So I set out to the store and not two blocks away encountered a group of boys in their late teens. As I walked by one of them yelled "red woman!" (prostitute) at me as his friends laughed and high-fived.

I was still thinking of cutting replies when I stumbled across one the sweetest women I know on her way to a friends house. "Happy Women's Day!" she exclaimed, giving me a kiss on the cheek.

All day I got text messages of congratulations and notes on facebook. Women called congratulations and holiday wishes across the streets to each other. Gifts of flowers, underwear, scarves, figurines and glassware were exchanged. I find myself grinning at just about every woman I pass.

All year women bring dinner and tea to men who never say thank you. Some are not allowed to work by their husbands and some are not even allowed to leave the house. There is statistical documentation that this is one country of many that have "missing daughters", meaning that there are statistically less girls born than should be, having been aborted after the ultrasound.

To paraphrase Julia, I'm not sure that saying "Happy Women's Day" and giving me a bottle of perfume makes up for that.

I've noticed that Women's Day is primarily celebrated by women themselves. The teachers get together and pitch in to throw themselves a party. Female friends give each other gifts (To be fair, I did get a lovely tea set from three of my seventh grade boys). A PCV friend said, "I like this better than what we do, because I may never get to be a mother", which is a good point.

And it really is an uplifting holiday. I saw genuine pride on the faces of women all weekend. It's like they know or hope that they are deserving, important, special and for the long weekend the answer is a resounding yes you are!

Which brings me back to the boy who called me a prostitute. Was he just trying to make sure I didn't get too uppity what with all the congratulations? Or maybe after 18 years of practice, it's just too hard to break the habit, even for one day.

Who Puts the Soap on Your Back?

Imagine this: You are sitting around on a Sunday afternoon with your extended family when your Aunt and Uncle, or maybe your brother and his wife, stand up and say, "Well, we're going to take a shower." No one blinks. And when they return everyone says "May you always be clean!" and the next couple skips off to the bathroom. What is your reaction?

I never really thought about how taboo showering together is in the States until we were living with our host family here in Shamaxi and I realized that the couples we were living with were not showering alone. In fact, our host brother once gave us the scoop on how much hot water was currently left in the tank by giving us the calculations for if we showered separately and if we showered together. At our second place of residence I noticed the same trend.

There are more than a couple of stories about PCV's being surprised by host family members appearing mid-shower to help. Talking to one of our friends today, she said that after she declined help her host mom asked "But who will put the soap on your back?" Host mom then explained that she and her daughter always help each other get to that pesky middle of the back.

What's interesting about stumbling across something like this is realizing that what for you is shocking, for someone else isn't the least bit questionable. And after being here for a while I'm seeing it for what it is, a simple cultural difference. There are some things in life that really are not black or white. Shower etiquette is one of them.

I'm even starting to wonder if a little bit of loosening up wouldn't be good for us. After our vacation to Georgia where we went to the public baths (boys to the boys side, girls the the other) At first I thought it would be weird. It wasn't. I couldn't stop enthusiastically raving about the benefits of public bathing for self-esteem. How valuable to stand in a huge room of women of all shapes, sizes, ages (and stages of gravitational influence) walking around completely un-self-consciously. And there's something about public bathing that leaves no room for cattiness; no room for "can you believe she's wearing that?"

And I think about the modesty standards in our country that would prevent this. Women in almost non-existent bathing suits will be a magazine staple in month or two but a few years back when a parenting magazine featured a cover of a woman breastfeeding the outcry was enormous. PCV's find themselves buying longer skirts and concurrently watching their underwear flap in the breeze for all to see.

Where do our feelings about the appropriateness of the human body and relationship come from? How come in Orthodox Georgia and Muslim Azerbaijan nudity within one's own gender is considered completely normal while in the United States it is not? It can't completely come from religion. Is it related to ideas about homosexuality? Was it Queen Victoria? Backlash from Freud? Just something to think about. See you at the baths.

Two Videos

I haven't posted in quite a while, so as an apology, ha ha, here are two videos.

The first is an Azerbaijani news clip where I end up calling the people of Azerbaijan "Guest Vegetable" - yes singular - instead of hospitable.

The second is a video I put together for a boys leadership camp at which I worked during the summer of 2009.

Enjoy.

Mathias

Parasites Detection Kit: Not as Cool as it Sounds

Another milestone in our service! We have now been here long enough to participate in mandatory checks for parasites. This involves depositing one's own stool samples in tiny pre-treated vials with the tiny plastic spoon provided. Not once, not twice, but three times. This is maybe one of the most unpleasant things I've done in a while and I'm just bragging that I got it done...

...And then I was thinking of that person in a lab somewhere in D.C. processing the samples of every PCV in the world. That's the true patriot!