Last week was Beloved's birthday, and we visited the home of our housekeeper Yaver and her daughter Naza. There is a pretty good electronic piano there, on loan from N & L. Beloved played that day and it was lovely.
Yaver mentioned that Naza was taking some lessons once-upon-a-time but had not followed up on it recently. Beloved piped up immediately, "I would love to show her some things," so it was settled, and today was the first time that Naza and Beloved worked together. It was not a huge thing, just about an hour to evaluate where she is at and what will be the plan to move forward. I suppose we will go down to their house once a week or so and Beloved will give some piano lessons. Naza doesn't like to have her picture taken!
Hopefully I will be able to give some help with the house--it breaks my heart to know anyone has to live in this meager of standard--especially a single mom and a 12 year old girl. I never mean for this blog to be a downer to anyone, but I do feel compelled to show you what life is like in a third-world country. The house is about 250 square feet, the yard is 15 feet by 25 feet, and the hen eats anything that might grow in the dirt--not that it appears anything does. It is a walled yard, like all Azerbaijani homes have, but the gate is about an eight-inch step up to get out of the yard. I can imagine what this place looks like after a rain--and they have a basement storage area too.
I hope to be able to help this woman and her daughter raise their standard of living even if it is just getting the roof guttering to fall outside the wall or get some soil that might produce some grass. Check the photo--the window frame in the corner of the yard has a stick on top of it which is holding the gas meter up. One anchor drilled into the wall fixes this--how simple is that? The house is not in much better shape, there is no such thing as building codes in this region that I have seen, doors and windows don't fit very good... There are dripping faucets and so many little things that can be done. She just doesn't have a man in her life to take care of the little things. She is working hard and her priority is taking care of Naza--there is not much left over for anything else.
Hopefully I will be able to give some help with the house--it breaks my heart to know anyone has to live in this meager of standard--especially a single mom and a 12 year old girl. I never mean for this blog to be a downer to anyone, but I do feel compelled to show you what life is like in a third-world country. The house is about 250 square feet, the yard is 15 feet by 25 feet, and the hen eats anything that might grow in the dirt--not that it appears anything does. It is a walled yard, like all Azerbaijani homes have, but the gate is about an eight-inch step up to get out of the yard. I can imagine what this place looks like after a rain--and they have a basement storage area too.
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