Leigh in Azerbaijan

It looks like taking salsa dancing lessons won’t happen.  Two extra-curricular activities have come up.

• ESL in the mainstream is being offered and paid for by the school.  The course could count towards a masters degree that I’m still planning.  I hear it’s ten weeks of around 2 hours each week with extra study required as well.
• After a little lobbying Azerbaijani language is now being offered through the school through a teacher aide, who is actually a teacher in Azerbaijan.   It sounds like this will be starting soon on Monday afternoons.   I am keen as that’s what I’ve wanted to learn and have already had two lessons through a new friend, Narmina,  who I’ve met through the Baku International Fellowship which meets at the Baku International School.  She also goes to Greater Grace which has its origins in an evangelical church in the USA.  I went to Greater Grace on Sunday morning and a GG wedding service at a different location that night.  I hope I have the opportunity to talk to the minister about the theology of violence behind his sermon to the young happy couple.

I have had a haircut!!!  After living in fear of what a barber might do if I couldn’t communicate with him, I took the plunge. I had a few leads but in the end after walking towards home I walked into the first one that I saw, down an alley/entrance into apartments.  With pointing at his own length of hair and me replying ‘yox’ (no), he gradually worked out that I only wanted a little bit taken off.  Consequently I will probably have to have it cut in 4 weeks or so.

Ten Most Polluted Places   This BBC article tells of a town not far from Baku which was heavily polluted by the Soviets and has a very high child mortality rate.  It doesn’t even mention the massive areas polluted with oil around the city.  The smell of benzene in some areas is very high and affects cancer rates.