One last meal...

Tonight I had my last Azerbaijani meal in Azerbaijan.  It included stolichnaya, mimoza, and chicken salad. Also, we had plenty of bread, feta cheese and greens.  Finally, it was complete with 3 types of  kebabs.  My thoughts went back to some of the first times that I had similar meals here. The white/feta cheese we affectionately call "stinky" cheese. That is what Noah called it when we first came and he was just 3 years old.  He LOVED it but yet thought it was stinky so the name has stuck with us. I had many memories of many kebab cookouts often followed by local dancing. (one of my personal favorite things to do here in AZ) I remember one of my very early language lessons we made the Stolichnaya salad in order to practice language.  I was in charge of bringing the carrots but I was supposed to bring them cooked. I brought them raw! One of my very many misunderstandings in the language department. I have so many memories of my time here. I guess my fear is that these memories will slowly fade.  I guess that is why I'm writing them tonight when I should be getting to bed early as we leave tomorrow evening. I want a written record of the fact that I have loved Azerbaijan and her people with all my heart.

 The best part of the night was spending time with some special people.  These guys have been a special part of our lives for the last 7 years.  We will not forget them. Our hearts hurt as we left the restaurant as we don't know when or if we will ever see these guys face to face again.  We are honored and blessed to know them and will forever have them in our hearts. It is days like today I that I think God must have created Facebook and Skype just for people like us. It is of course, not the same as sitting side beside, holding hands or being able to greet one another with a kiss as we often do here but at least I have hope of keeping some contact with them.

I love these dear people.(and many others not pictured above) There is a part of me that feels as though I'm leaving a lot of unfulfilled  hopes and dreams here and yet I know that God-given hopes and dreams are not just dependent on me.(which is certainly a good thing!) I know that in my mind but tonight I'm trying to convince my heart.
So today I refuse to say Sağ ol (good bye) to my friends here in Az but instead I simply say helelik(see you).

Friends, Farewells and Favors

We have 9 days before we leave Baku.  It is very surreal. In the last 7 1/2 years our family has changed a lot.  We came as a family of 4 but leave a family of 5.  We came monolingual and we leave bilingual.  We came not knowing one Azerbaijani we leave not only knowing many Azerbaijanis but also loving them.
Over the years we have changed.  We will probably be realizing for years how much we have actually changed.
We have been changed by a different culture, a different language and a different world view.  We have also been changed by a Father who has us on a journey to know him more.  We used to think we were on a journey to change the world one person at a time for Him. Now we realize that first and foremost the Father is changing us.  Hopefully along the way, as God does his work in us, others lives are changed as well.   The realization that the only thing we really have control of is how much of ourselves we will let him have. As we prepare to leave Azerbaijan it is very bittersweet for us. Bitter that we will miss many that we love and care for, sweet that we know that God is leading us on this journey.

Over the last couple months we have been little by little saying goodbye to the people ad places that we care so much about.  Below are a few photos of some of the things we are saying goodbye to and some "favors" that we are taking along to help us keep Azerbaijan and her people in our hearts.

A friends birthday party and farwell

Our kids friends praying for them and saying goodbye

A tea set embroidered by hand

salt and pepper holders....I have bought many as gifts
but had never bought them for myself

Our kids painted some pottery at a local shop

Hannah and I had one last doner

Entrance to the Maiden's Tower

one last trip with friends to the country

Things I love about Azerbaijan (cont.)

AZERBAIJAN-The Land of Fire

Parks,Flores,Wallingford, and Fitch families

Tonight we went with some wonderful friends to Yanar Dagh-Fire Mountain as we foreigners call it. This is a place where flames burn continuously from the side of the mountain.  Just like with the mud volcanoes I can't give you the scientific reason for why the side of this mountain stays on fire but it is really amazing. If you are interested in the "how" you can follow this link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yanar_Dag to get more information.
 It's located only about 15 minutes from our home so we have visited here many times over the years. We have had chai and jam sitting out by the fire, and even roasted marshmallows and hot dogs. My advice is to have a very long skewer(sish) if you are going to do this. It is hot!!!  Just like the mud volcanoes there isn't really any regulation about how close you can get. No fences. No admission fee.  That still amazes me after all this time.

 As we are leaving for the States this June this was probably our last visit there. I realize I am sad about that. We all said good-bye to Fire Mountain as we drove away. I silently hoped that, Luke who is just 6, will remember being there. It's a special place and I really hope he has the memory like the rest of us will.  I realize what an opportunity I have been given to see so many wonderful and unique places but more than that to know so many wonderful people.  Life is full of bitter sweet moments. Tonight was one of those for me.

Noah and I

Things I love about Azerbaijan

Our family with our friends the Wallingfords

 It is Spring Break for our kids and we are revisiting some of our favorite places.  We leave for the States in June so we want to take every opportunity to visit places that are special to us. Yesterday we visited some of the mud volcanoes.  These are truly amazing and  remind me how creative God is. It is said that there are nearly 400 mud volcanoes in Azerbaijan, which is more than half of the total the continents.   Since I can't accurately explain what a mud volcano is I've included a bit of a description of  below. This is taken from Azerbaijan International. The author is Ronnie Gallagher.

"Mud volcanoes," also known as "sedimentary volcanoes" or "gas - oil volcanoes," are close cousins to magmatic volcanoes. Just like magmatic volcanoes, they can erupt powerfully and hurl flames to great heights (sometimes even several hundred of meters). They spew out millions of cubic meters of hydrocarbon gases and tons of mud. Mud volcanoes also exist on the floor of the sea and can form islands and banks that alter the topography and shape of the coastline and even trigger earthquakes.

Another feature of mud volcanoes is their direct relationship to oil and gas fields. Mud volcanoes resemble super-deep exploration wells in the sense that they are direct indicators of hydrocarbons at great depths and provide valuable information on the formation and migration of oil and gas. Both mud volcanoes and hydrocarbon fields are the result of a single process of oil and gas formation, which has a characteristic vertical zone with methane gas forming in younger strata, overlying a zone of intense formation of oil and fatty gases
http://azer.com/aiweb/categories/magazine/ai112_folder/112_articles/112_mud_volcano.html

Below you will find some pictures of our family enjoying the volcanoes. As you can see we can get up close and personal them.  I can't help but think that if this was in America they would be fenced off  and we would be able to get no closer than 1/2 mile to any of them. We would have concession stands and a gift shop. All we had was an onlooking shepherd and his sheep!!

Chased by a pack of wild dogs on the way. FUN!

Luke hanging out of the sunroof. I guess he was navigating.

Notice the mud "bubble" It's getting ready to explode!

The end of the explosion

The race to the top

Our friends daughter. Enjoying a mud spa treatment. haha

David and I

Notice it bubbling from the gasses.

Luke and his friend. Both very dirty!