Being Lucky

I’m a lucky one. I always knew that, of course, but joining the Peace Corps and moving to Azerbaijan has hammered that home. I gave up a very comfortable lifestyle in the States to come here and was ready for very primitive conditions. I got lucky. I live in a harmonious home with a “mom” ten years younger than me, a university student, and a young teenager, all female. That’s lucky point number one. Lucky point number two, my new mom is a great cook and every morning I get to eat a ton of bread with chocolate-hazelnut spread, accompanied by a bottomless cup of hot tea (chay; our is black tea, not the spiced kind Americans call chai). We’ve had meat in one form or another every day since I moved in (unlike some of my PC cohorts), and eat dinners together each evening. Lucky point number three: I not only have a real, western-style toilet, but a washing machine for clothes and warm showers. This is MOST excellent. Some of my friends here don’t have flushing toilets….just squat toilets out in the corner of the yard. But not lucky me! We have a separate bathroom just steps from the front door with the toilet, sink and shower. I’m in heaven. At least until June, when I leave Sumqayit and move to my new, permanent home. Who knows how lucky I’ll be then.