a quest

I would like to record the saga of one PCV’s quest to live alone. I would like to take you back in time. Please step into my way back machine. I’d use a time machine but I don’t have one, I hear Mark does, but he’s probably using it… My way back machine will take us all the way back to the beginning of February, when this PCV’s quest to live alone began. I started by telling all of my friends in town that I wanted to move out and asked if they knew of somewhere I could live, alone. I explained the parameters, it had to 100$ or less and it had to be with no one else, i. e. alone. Immediately I heard that one of them had a friend who had an apartment, that didn’t work out. After a week or so had passed, Charlie and I went to a realtor. He knew a place, an apartment. It was near the bus station, central location and a 10 minute walk from my work. The conditions were good, the price was right, and no one else lived there. Great! I was so excited the idea that I could be done with my search a month in advance, did I dare to dream?
It was Valentine’s Day 2007 when my heart was first broken by Azeribaijani realtors. I guess by repeatedly asking about the conditions of the apartment, and hearing that everything was there, I should have been clear that by everything I also meant a hammam. Yeah, I know this is Peace Corps and I should not expect to live in luxury, but going to the public baths to get clean was a line I was not willing to cross, and certainly not for 100$/mo. So my search went on and I found a new realtor, one that understood I at the very least needed a place to be able to bucket bathe myself.
Time went on and there was nothing for another two weeks. I would hear about apartments, and nothing would come of it. I was feeling a bit desperate, yet still I had a strange gleam of hope. Host Family Emil called to schedule and appointment to approve a place and on this blind hope I set the date, March 14th, giving me two weeks to make this work.
Then right before coming in for IST, and a day after setting a date blindly, it seemed like a miracle occurred. Carlo and I went into the realtor’s office and there were two apartments to see. The first was about 25 minutes from my work and beautiful; a nice, clean apartment. It was however, unfurnished and out of my price range. The second also unfurnished was dingier, a bit less nice, yet closer to work. I could live there, which meant I would have a place to live. I was so excited, and without a moment to spare, since we would leave for Baku. I told the realtor I would be back in a week and then I would take one of the apartments. I was so happy for those four days. I still remember the feeling of relief that my quest was realized. The following week, my heart was broken a second time by Azeri realtors, for when I came back from Baku ready to choose an apartment, they both had been rented.
After that Charlie and I went into overdrive. We went to the teachers, asked them to start asking around. I started to feel as if I would not make the deadline. I started to worry, should I call Emil and cancel the appointment? But I gave it a few more days.
The day before Emil was to come approve a house I did not have, I went back to the realtor. I sat there nervously, and to my surprise there was an apartment. It was the apartment that was too expensive before. I saw it, the price had come down to something I could afford and I was full of glee.
Upon being driven back they asked if I would like to see a house, I definitely did. They showed me a house that was 15 minutes from my work, and gorgeous. I mean really quite nice, and then the tragedy. This house was 300$/mo. Shattered I asked to be taken home. I would show Emil the apartment. It would be ok. I would get it and have to wait a week or so for furniture, but that would be ok. I pulled the pieces of my broken heart together and tried to remember the glee that was there a mere quarter of an hour ago.
The day had arrived, Emil would come see the apartment and a house that I had not yet seen that one of the teachers Charlie knew had arranged. Once in town, Emil called the woman, she had no time that day. I felt my heart sinking, but there was still the apartment. We went there, he would approve it with furniture! We went to discuss some issues with the owner and that’s where the trouble began. The landlord suddenly wanted 300$ to furnish the apartment, he came down to 250$ but that was it. I sat there listening to the negotiations knowing that I was not going to be getting a home that day. My heart broken yet again, I went to see Josh at his office for some sympathy. I sat there told my story of my failed quest and got some paper work done for a grant that was due the next day. In the middle of my retelling of my saga, I heard the familiar single note chime of my cell phone. I had a text. I checked who it was from, and was floored. Ulkar my LCF and some time Azeri tutor was texting me after two months of no communication. Stranger still, she was texting that if I still wanted a place to live she had found one and to call her when I had time. Time I had but contour I lacked. My heart raced as I went to the ATM, put money on my phone and went home and waited for it to text me to say that the money was there. I ate dinner and nothing. I colored and nothing. I started to pray and nothing. After two hours I tried it despite the lack of single note chime, and it worked.
After that I called Ulkar she said I should come over we’d look at the place that night. Emil and I went over, of course this turned into a gonag-fest as her family does love me. Then off to the apartment where at about 10pm with a flashlight and a cell phone for light on March 14th, 2006, I was approved to move out! I had done it. The quest was over. 30 hours later I moved in, nervously I brought boxes up to my new place hoping that I would still like it in the light of day. After being shown how everything works and meeting the neighbors who offered any help they could, I was there alone in my apartment. And the first thing I did was lay on my new bed and as a feeling of relaxation rolled over me I knew; my quest was over, I was home!