my apartment

Okay,

Well I have been significantly slacking on writing things up lately! I have no real excuses or reasons. So I feel like I should describe my wobbly home to you all.

I live in an apartment. For any of you that saw my place in Germany you know what Soviet –style block apartments can look like. Well my building is structurally similar it’s tall-ish, very much like a plain rectangle sticking out. There are only 3 apartments per floor and I live on the third floor. I like it because I can see everything that happens on the street but they can’t see me.
The only it has to my place in Germany is that across the way from my place in Germany there was a retirement home, and now there is a hospital. Though the way that I look across is no longer a peacefully empty German parking lot, it is the main street in Sheki. And for all of you thinking it, no they aren’t the same thing. There are cars and people that drive them in my town, it isn’t so small that you don’t have to watch out for cars. Also my apartment is much bigger than my German apartment. My bedroom is about the size of the bedroom/living room in my German apartment or for those of you that never went there about the size for the big downstairs bedroom I lived in in San Diego (it’s actually bigger than that). In my bedroom I have two twin beds pushed together a desk and two night stands. I also have couch that converts into a bed (like in Germany) and a table that seats 4-6 people. The major difference is that my kitchen is comparatively enormous. I have two kitchens or a dining room and a kitchen. I think of it this way. There is a sunroom or a converted balcony (think very small room with tons or windows). The sunroom is where all the cooking for the kitchen takes place. It has a small sink a stove and a small oven in it. I also distill my water in that room and store my dishes. In the next room I do all the prep work for cooking. I have a counter top there cabinets where I keep my food and a refrigerator, with a freezer! There is also a table in that room, so it is very comfortable to prep all the food in there, then I cook in the sun room and usually eat in my bedroom. There is also a small living room that I have not gained access too yet, but have been promised. It is fairly typical that Azeris will live in one or two rooms and lock up another as storage, the idea is why heat two rooms also families really like to see each other, I think more than American families. It’s hard to say but I think my sisters appreciated not sleeping in the same bed longer than we did. And I know in my family we didn’t spend the entire evening together.

Anyway, then I have a small toilet room, with a sit down toilet that I pour water down to flush. I also DO NOT put toilet paper down it. For all of you grossed out by this skip to the next paragraph. So most building pipes and certainly water pressure is not designed to flush paper so those of us that use paper still put it in a bag or bucket kept in the toilet room. I still use it. The other way is to have what looks like a plastic flower watering thing that you use to clean yourself with. I don’t do that because, well I have never really reconciled the wet but situation. I know some PCVs do it, and some use it and paper and they seem to be really happy with that. For me, I stick with paper.

Ok moving on, I also have a hammam, a shower room. Although I don’t believe there is enough water pressure to shower. There is also a bathtub, I have asked Joy to bring me back a flat plastic tub stopper while she is state-side (as she is now!) After that I will start bathing. Now I bucket bathe. What does this consist of? Ok glad you asked? It means I fill up a bucket with water and if I am feeling special, I heat it on the stove and then wash myself and my hair. If you are thinking what you don’t have hot water- um no. Maybe I should also go into my water situation now.

I don’t have running water during the day, at night 9 or 10ish the water comes on and I fill up about 5, 5 liter bottles of water and a big bucket so that I have water for the next day. I use this water for everything. The water to wash dishes, the water for the toilet, the water to shower, the water to wash my face or brush my teeth, the water I need to distill so that I can drink water, the water I use to boil to make tea or rice. All of it. And if you are wondering hey magda what is the quality of this water, let’s put it this way, I am no longer that into the idea of mineral bathes! Some days the water is very clear and some days the water isn’t.
The electricity situation in my apartment, like most of Sheki is currently, I have power till 11 then it is off till 4-5 then it comes on till some point in the middle of the night, 2 maybe, I don’t know because I sleep through it and it is on again when I wake up. I have always had gas in my apartment until yesterday, which is great because I can usually cook something. But now I know there will be times without gas I will buy my own gas balloon and burner so I have it for when I need it.

My apartment is setup so you walk in and you are in a hallway to your immediate right is the toilet and next to that is the hammam. Directly in front of you is the living room. You turn left and on your left is a wall full of cabinets and on your right is my bedroom. Keep walking straight and you will walk through my kitchen prep room and end up in my kitchen/sunroom.

If any of you reading are PCVs that haven’t been over yet, I can only think that would be Tom and Ash, well my apartment is exactly like Terah’s layout but backwards. The difference is that she sleeps where I have my living room and vice versa, and my apartment is a lot wonkier than hers. By wonky I mean the floor is much creakier and the like.

Ok I think you all know about as much as my apartment as you have ever wanted to now!