**Disclaimer** Any descriptive terms that follow are not meant to be derogatory, only a depiction of what we are encountering. Please understand that we are adventurers and WE LOVE THIS LIFE and chose it knowing full well what we might encounter. Our tolerance for the out-of-the-ordinary is very high, and we are having a great time! Some people would find this a hardship, we find it a thrill.
The cleaning lady has gold teeth. I am not kidding--I did not see one white tooth, they are all gold.
We met with England again this morning regarding acquisition of the work permit--it will be one thing for sure, interesting. Just found out that I will have to have a morning of tests for the medical certificate--blood work, urine sample, EGG, physical. Then there will be piles of documents with the proper stamps and stamps that validate the other stamps, etc.
Had lunch with England and Mrs. P., sandwiches and cake and some sort of cherry beverage. We set in order our Azerbaijani language studies and hope to start that the end of this week. That in itself should provide lots of content for future blog entry.
Went to the police station in the afternoon--what a zoo. It is completely out of control--typical post-soviet power struggle. Tiny little hall with one light bulb, tiny little office with 14 people waiting to get in, Gasham walks straight to the door and pushes his way in. We wait in the hall then are motioned in, three women share this little office which is crowded when four people are in it.The one guy that is suppose to be our interpreter is there, but can’t figure out what they are asking. He is saluting and asking, “How high? How high?” I finally figure out they are asking, “How tall?” then I must do some conversion in my head, “1,90” meters of course. And naturally, if someone doesn’t understand you ask them again in a higher volume. We finally got it all worked out and the right box signed and the right picture and the right stamp, but the officials ould not give the accountant a copy. There was some loud conversation and later on I learned that the director wanted money, aparently lots of money, for copies of these documents. Standard? No. Reason? Ask the Director, he will be here tomorrow. It is my first real-world introduction to corruption.
I will not dwell on the negatives of this life we’ve chosen, but it was a hard afternoon.
Back at the office I got to speak a little bit more at lenght about the scope of the job with The Bank, it sounds like it will be a good one. I am hoping that the powers that be will allow me to stay here and work it.
We left the office about five determined to find an ATM that would work for us, we stopped at six today to no avail. Walked to a new part of the city, found another ATM, no workee. Walked another 200 feet to another, guess what? Nothing. Behind us I hear, “You’re not in Kansas anymore, Toto.” We turn around to see J&B, the Americans we met yesterday morning! “Yeah, I’m figuring this out...” They were out for a walk, so we walked with them, looking for a friendly ATM and ha a nice visit. They seemed enthused to speak to new Americans, so we continued walking and talking, there was no rush to get back for us tonight anyway. We ended up having dinner with them and their family, and then Mrs. B. gave us a ride home after showing Beloved two good markets where we were able to make some key food purchases.
Got home about 8:30, the landlord wanted to come by to drop off another pair of keys, and then we got to bed about ten.
No comments:
Post a Comment