My Life in Azerbaijan - Natural Beauty

January 18, 2011
They say darkness does evil things to your mind. Winter in Azerbaijan, sunset begins 6:00pm and the sun does not come out again until next morning 8:00am. For 13 hours, there is total darkness around me. I stay in the bank for 6-7 hours, so that means, everyday, I only have 4-5 hours to see the light. I take fully advantage of these precious hours. Most PCVs stay indoor to get warm, I do the appositive. I stay out door to get warm as my apartment usually is ice-cold. Most importantly, the walking and running lift my spirits so the evil things would not get into my mind. (i.e. torture the Azeri teenage boys, quit the Peace Corps etc.)

Yesterday evening after my routine exercise, I was rewarded by the most magnificent sunset. It was around 5:50pm. I was crossing the street in my neighborhood. A car stopped in front of the traffic light. As soon as the driver saw me, he blew the horn to irritate me; he even started the engine to scare me. How much I hate those dreadful human beings! I ignored him and turned to the other direction. Here it was, the big orange sun looking back at me.

It was a cloudy evening. The overcast sky softened the intensity of the desert sun. I could look at the sun directly without hurting my eyes. The sun looked ten times bigger. It had the most brilliant color; not so red, maybe pink, more like orange, gorgeous absolutely stunning! I ran home and graphed my camera. In order to capture the sun, I had to stand in the traffic. I was aware that I would create such a stir that those teenage boys would be thrilled to harass me.

“The hell with them!”

Half way crossed the street; I stood between two traffic lanes. I let the drivers blow their horns, fresh their headlights or even make fun of me. I held out my camera and took three photos. As soon as I was done, I pointed to the sun. I wanted people around me to enjoy that moment as well.

“Nedir?”

No one seemed to appreciate what I saw.

Sadly to say, being in Azerbaijan more than 16 months, I observed that Azeri people are curiously blind to the natural beauty. The color of the sky, the sunset, the moon and the stars reflecting on the Caspian Sea, all leave them unmoved. Yet they would adore things like a new pair of “made in China” 4 inches high heel plastic shoes, a ridiculous flamboyant wedding dress (wedding is huge here!), a new hairdo and other artificial beauties. Numerous times, I showed my host sisters and my co-workers the pictures of American National Parks, none of them seemed to be moved by what they saw.

It was useless to argue.