still alive still in azerbaijan

hello hello,
no time or no internet access (imishli...) and time goes faster and faster and we have more and more things to do, to discover,... and I am so tired, that I am not going to be able to tell you all the things we have done the last 2 weeks. Ha, I am anyway not sure if I remember all of it... and tomorrow morning we leave again for Imishli, have to pack, prepare myself,... and its already 23:14... grrrr

Ok, last post was about Hasch, Sunday, hm... in short:
I can not really remember that week. lots of office stuff I think. Our local project coordinator started working. So we did some training. And in the evenings was allways something going on. Went to play Basketball on Tuesday evening with some people from the american embassy and some BP people. Well, its just for playing some bball... was "taff" but fun. Wednesday I went out with Brian. we had dinner in some expat pub and meet a lot of young snobs and very drunken. lots of money, but could not find out why they are in Azerbaijan... Thursday, dont know anymore
Friday, we went Simon (Russian-US journalist), Kristina (Mikrofinance, Germany) and Brian to an nice irannian restaurant. Ali loved it, best Irannian restaurant outside Iran so far, he said. That means something I would say. We will take you there if you come to Baku!!! Afterwards we went out, but nothing special.
Saturday, with David (peace corps) who had been for 2 years in Imishli and with Jamie (marin) we went around in town. Tourists. Visiting the old town, hanging around in a nice cafe (view on the caspian, felt like beeing in Greec or somewhere else very nice). Pictures follow... Found finally a book to learn azeri. But have to admit, that I did not read a single page in the meantime. learnt some more words, but no serious studing so far. In the evening a bench of expats meet at the expat pub, same like on Wednesday. Later we went dancing in a place called "capitol". Few girls, most of people quite young (well, in my age everybody is married anywhy...) but we had some fun. dancing a lot.

Sunday, I went with some "microfinance" people playing streetball. lots of fun. Played for 3h and had nice turkish dinner afterwards...

Monday we went to a wedding in Imishli. Our local project coordinator is the oncle of the guy (sorry forgot the name) that got married. Wedding started at 13pm and went until 24pm. lots of dancing, lots of names (can not remember any of course, stupid as I am), lots of smiles and questions, lots of languages barriers, but very nice moment. Pictures will follow soon!

Tuesday, standing up early in the morning and driving back to Baku. Meeting in the afternoon with the team in Baku. Major issue of course the house/office in Imishli...
Went to play again Basketball...

Wednesday back to Imishli, staying in the house we do not want, security check, putting arguments together why we do not want that house... lots of running around in the morning in Baku (i.e. trying to answer some emails, packing,...)
In the evening we walked around in Imishli, went first in the wrong direction, before we found the "centre". did some shopping. Stuff is in Imishli even cheaper than in Baku. But there is of course less choice...
After dinner, we did not know what to do first. But than, Ali had the good idea to buy some vodka and I had some carts with me. Vodka and "Moumou", evenings in Imishli can be fun and are not expensive at all (Vodka bottle 0.75l kosts 2 Manat, thats 2Euro or 2.80 Chf) Hey, I nearly forgot the best part. We had great music! Why? Because I have great friends! What would I do without ipod in Azerbaijan???

Thursday, finally doing some work. No hangover, just a little bit tired. Planning and stuff within the team (we are 3 now). Nice lunch, more work in the afternoon
We had a second bottle, but I addapt quickly to my enviroment and went sleeping like everybody (animals, farmers,...) at 21h. However I slept a little bit longer. Was still tired after 11h of sleep!!!

Friday: starting with some more planning. than visiting a house (double space, more comfort and only half of the rent!!??!!). Participating at the opening ceremony of a NGO (development2006) and having lunch with the director and some "excom" (goverment representative in Imishli). And, hey!, you know what?!?! The director has been working for dcaf!!! has been one of the translators of the handbook on security oversight!!! the world is small!
Well, the second house we visited was not small at all. At least 8 rooms (I stoped counting) and wonder oh wonder a bathroom inside the house. Might be the only house in whole Imishli!!! What ever house we will have in the end, there are no small houses in Imishli. So, we have enough room for all our friends, at the same time, as long as you want to enjoy Imishli (you will not find something similar!)
And than we went back to Baku. 3-4 hours in the car. Taking a shower and than going to a friends place. Around 4h we found our way home... of course we could have continued dancing, but we had to stand up at 8h. Yep, 8h!

Saturday: at 9h we meet with some people from Hasch at the Carpet Museum. The bus tooked us to Nabran. Some place in the north at the Caspian Sea (and few km from the border). Ali and I were still drunken. I slept wonderfull, while Ali forced the driver to make a first "emergency stop"...
The weekend was full of running, walking, networking and drinking (what else can you do with Hasch people???)
Lots of fun. We stayed in kind of resort (very sovietic) with a !!! swimming pool!!! Wow, that was best thing to get rid of my hangover! Water a little bit cold, but swimming is great. Hm, I thing I miss swimming in the lake of Geneva a lot...
We did some nice walks though forest, fields and at the beach. Was good to be out in the nature! see pictures! Yes, Nabran is still in Azerbaijan.
We had lots of rain on Saturday evening, but sun again on Sunday. Autum slowly arrives here, but its still warm enought to walk around in t-shirt and shorts...
Sunday we arrived quite late in Baku.

So, hm, today, more meetings, more work, and some preparations for tomorrow. we leave again for Imishli. Our drivers daughters wedding is tomorrow... and we will stay rest of the week in Imishli. Sorting out the housing stuff and meeting lots of people is on the agenda. Well back on Friday in Imishli (and to world with internet). There will be a party in the US marins house...

so much about the last days. just some kind of overview. not best english, not a lot of details, but I will forget what happend, where I took pictures if I do not take any notes... well, at least some improvement when it comes to not writing in German! next time I will try to write full sentence :)

I am half asleep, lots of goodnightkisses
m