Day 68 Monday

More cement work at The Training house, today we are leveling the floor. We add about two inches to the south side of the room and make it all drain to the center of the room at the floor drain. Hopefully! 

We stop and clean up at noon, we have been invited to join England and Mrs. P. to a Novruz celebration by one of the teachers at The Training House and her mother. They are very sweet ladies, and it is an honor to be invited. We arrive and the table is beautiful. We are seated and the first dish is served, plov. It tastes better than that name sounds, it is a rice dish with chicken in a sweet sauce with vegetables and nuts. Then came the second dish, which I cannot remember the name of. It is rice, sausage and spices wrapped in a grape leaf and cooked. It has a super-strong flavor. Gulbanas would not stop dishing these onto my plate, I ate about seven of them! Then the bread, then the salad, then the dessert, then the nuts and candy, then the chi (tea)--I have not eaten so much in my entire time here in Azerbaijan. It was a wonderful time!


We choose to go back to the Training House one more time, there is only about two hours left until dark, but we need to continue our floor-leveling work.


It is dark by the time Beloved and I leave the Training House, it is lightly raining but we want to see some of the bonfires that we know will be burning on the way home. It is about twenty minutes walk home, and we do get to see numerous fires and gatherings.


About 100 yards from our house is the taxi stand, we walk past it almost every day and have made a friend of one of the taxi drivers, Rassim. He knows N&L and The Coffeeman and we have used his services several times now. He is there tonight, talking with several other men, a couple are preparing a comparatively small fire. We are motioned over, and after the greetings all around are finished we are encouraged to jump over the fire. This is a local tradition, and we are happy to oblige. It is a nice connection point and can do nothing but increase our sincerity in the eyes of these people.