From long lost Tim!

Hey there everyone, Lahic got a foot of snow last week (cringe). Just when I thought winter was over... I was getting really excited to break out the sneakers after months in hibernation, but it looks like I'll be trudging around in my boots for at least another couple of weeks.

Things are moving along pretty well here in the 'baijan. School is going ok but my classrooms are freezing! No gas = minimal warmth. Being this cold makes it difficult to teach when all you are thinking about is warmth, and I know it affects how the kids learn too. When I teach class many of the kids are rubbing their sleeves together just to generate some sort of heat. As difficult as it is to teach 20 or so noisy 10th graders a foreign language, this only adds to the problem. Is it spring yet???

The road to Lahic is a very rugged terrain. It is unpaved, icy and incredibly bumpy. It is through the mountains and many of the passes drop off over a hundred feet. There is no barricade or guard rails to protect motorists from plummeting off the side of the mountain if something were to go awry. Many times buses won't run during the winter months because it is simply too dangerous. On a couple of occasions, I have gotten stuck in the neighboring city Ismayilli because buses were not running. I have had to hitch rides on the side of the Lahic road twice already. One time a man on a tractor rolled up and offered me a ride which at the time seemed ok, but after 5 minutes or so of slowing treading up the road at a mere 4 mph, I hopped off. At that rate I would have made it home at about 6 o'clock that evening (mind you it was about noon when the tractor man picked me up). Just last Sunday we had a snow storm, but the buses were still running to and from Lahic suprisingly. I was a little paranoid about the conditions and the capabilities of an old Soviet bus in the harsh weather, but reluctantly I got on. Usually it takes about an hour to get from the city of Ismayilli to Lahic but this time it took about 2 and a half hours. The bus driver had to keep stopping and reversing the bus to get up the snowy slopes and he had to stop the bus numerous times so he and the other passengers could get out and remove boulders that were blocking the road. Getting home has never been more of a team effort. On one particular pass, the bus couldn't make it up, so everyone had to get out and walk about 2 miles back up to the village. Not fun. These are the challenges I face everytime I leave home. It wasn't all that bad though, on the ride up a couple of old ladies (xanims) offered me some candy and a sip off their juice box. Now that's not so bad.

Stay warm,

trc