Reunion

The first three months of any Peace Corps tour are reserved for Pre-Service Training. During this time, new Peace Corps Trainees (PCTs) attend daily language lessons, live with a host family and do their best to gain some insight into their host country's culture. PCTs in Azerbaijan spend this period of time in, and around, the city of Sumqayit. Due to the large number of trainees and the fact Azerbaijan is host to three different sectors (Teaching English as a Foreign Language - TEFL, Youth Development and Community Economic Development) new arrivals are split into clusters. These clusters are supposedly created with a number of factors in mind: Sector, Prior Exposure to a Second Language and Personal Learning Styles.

Emma and I, being of different sectors, did not share the same cluster. We lived in the same community but when it came to language / sector development lessons, we went our separate ways. My cluster was made up of five guys (Jeremy, Jon, Kevin, Tim and Myself) and Linda (a fellow married volunteer whose husband was in Emma's all girl cluster... poor guy). We became pretty close friends over the course of PST and thankfully our friendship has continued into our two years of service.

Last weekend, we all meet up in Ucar for a cluster reunion. Just five guys, just two nights, just one Kevin Neighbors.



We ate at a local tea house, visited the Bazaar and played a little plastic ball wall toss. Kevin even had us assist him in the making of some pretty fantastic falafal... but for the most part we just hung out and caught up. The latter being the best by far. Here are a couple of photos to fill in the gaps.

Nov 2008

Tim

Jeremy

Comparing

Jon

Me

April 2010