Getting Around Sumqayit ("Soom-guy-it")

I brought the wrong shoes. I go to school or training of some sort from 9-6, six days a week. During this time, we have a business-casual dress code. Women don’t wear a lot of pants in Azerbaijan, so I wear skirts and dresses. I brought a pair of comfortable pumps and a pair of comfortable knee-high boots. Shouldn’t be a problem. It’s a problem. I do a lot of walking in Sumquayit. A LOT of walking. My short walking days are when I go to the local “cluster” school for language and technical training. Those days aren’t bad; only a 15-minute walk each way. At least once a week, the entire AZ11 group meets at the Hub school, which is more like a 30-minute walk each way. None of this would be much of an issue, except the roads and sidewalks, what there are of them, are often crumbling or don’t really exist…many sidewalks are really just dirt paths next to the streets, so we end up walking in the streets instead. Again, not an issue….until you realize pedestrians definitely do NOT have the right-of-way in AZ, and the drivers are pretty much out for themselves, period. You might occasionally come across a crosswalk here and there, but it doesn’t mean much; the drivers just blow right through them. So, basically, the strategy is to walk the fine line between being bold and being careful. Bolful. That’s pretty much it. Walking to school or downtown (a 40-minute walk), then, is always an adventure. At this point I don’t dare wear my tennis shoes; they just aren’t seen much on women here. I brought the wrong shoes.