Central Asian Cultural Gifts

I have recently become obsessed with an application on Facebook called "Central Asian Cultural Gifts." This application allows you to send "gifts"-- pictures and captions of scenes from Central Asia-- to your friends. The cynic in me loves it.

Amongst my favorite gifts to send...
1. Fat butt sheep. In this part of the world, sheep butt fat is a delicacy. Depending on the kind of kebab you order, you're likely to find butt fat on the skewer in between your slices of meat. Mmm... sheep butt fat.
2. Food poisoning. All too often. I just got another round of mild food poisoning (or a very short flu-bug) yesterday.
3. A fountain in the middle of the @#!$ing desert. Like so many other Central Asian cities, Baku is located in a desert. Our water is rationed. In this apartment, we have water from 7-10am and 9pm-midnight. And yet, there is still enough water for 24-hour fountains in the park commemorating Heydar Aliyev, the former president. Hmm.
4. Sexual harassment on the street. So true! Men stare at me all the time here. It's creepy and unnerving. For a while I thought that people were staring at me because I'm a foreigner. Then I realized, however, that women aren't staring at me. I've been told that the problem is my light hair, which signifies that I am Russian and/or a prostitute. And thus it is ok to stare. I've recently tried staring back or yelling at them, but unfortunately that only attracts more attention and more intense stares.

To the available "gifts" I'd like to add a few of my own. These are Central Asian Cultural Gifts that I wish Facebook would add:
1. A crowded bus. It's common to be on a bus so crowded you are literally smashed body to body with the people next to you. It is suffocating, at least for this American. Tonight I was on a bus so crowded the driver could not close the door. I was lucky enough to get a seat, so I offered to hold another woman's purse and packages. I almost missed my stop because I was so blocked in by people next to me and packages on top of me!
2. The smell of burning trash. Incineration is a common form of waste disposal in these parts. And by "incineration," I mean some guy setting fire to the dumpster in the back yard.
3. Half-built buildings. The skyline of Baku is full of half-built skyscrapers. (This is also true in Almaty.) It seems that about half the buildings on any one street are empty shells of partially constructed buildings. These quality of construction is pretty low. Last year, a building under construction collapsed because it was not structurally sound, killing a few workers.
4. Car-based commerce. Sometimes you see people selling things out of the trunk of their car. Oftentimes, they're selling a trunk full of melons or other fruit. The strangest thing I saw was a guy selling sausages out of his trunk. The products are not boxed nicely in boxes, they're just spread and piled all over the bare trunk. And the cars are always old Soviet ones, Ladas and Volgas. Car-based commerce lend a distinctively post-Soviet vibe.

Back and better than ever

It has been several months since my last post. I got bogged down this fall with research, exhaustion, and other forms of procrastination. Also, nothing terribly interesting was happening and it didn't seem worth writing about. All that has changed this week! I am finding more quirky things about Baku that seem worth sharing. For example, these two pictures. First, the big bakery in town has started making chocolate cake which they name "Obama cake." I can't decide if it is a cute attempt to celebrate our new president, or if it's just racist. Second, I passed this bumper sticker yesterday. I think it's an anti-sex message...?