Dear Betty Blair,

It is ten to twelve again in the midnight. Although today is Saturday I have to work and don’t have time to think freely until now. Everything around me has gone to sleep, the whole world is silent but me who want to take this chance to smell flowers and have a deep breath. So I turn on my laptop to write you and share my impressions, knowledge, feelings and love of Baku and Azeri people with you and all my friends. I am sure I cannot finish it tonight not only because of the limited time but also the long story of life will never end. As the sun is new everyday my knowledge to this society will continue to improve and the spring of my creativity will never be depleted. Therefore the stories are going to begin like this:

Friendship

I came to Baku on Apr. 1^st last year to work in an oil company as a geologist, this opened a new page in my life to know this country and his people. Through the window of the plane I saw the Caspian Sea like a blue pearl or a necklace hanging in front of a beautiful girl’s chest, it is different from the Pacific Ocean along east China. The whole city looked yellow and dry, but it showed me the energetic life and long civilized history.

I was thinking how different it would be from my home before I entered into my new apartment in Baku that night, at last I found out that almost everything inside was similar with what we use in China except that the small oil painting on the wall of living room was abstract to understand and all the words printed on the electric appliances were Russian or Azeri. Luckily we finally understood the meanings of the picture, it was a young woman with roses and her long black hair. I forgot the four hours time difference between here and Beijing, I was too delighted to go to sleep. Curiosity allured me to open TV, all the programs were Russian and Azeri except BBC and Discovery. Though it was difficult for me to understand but I still was glad because I could improve my English and Russian through listening to the news and watching films.

I spent nearly three months working in the field last year that enabled me to have a good contact with local people from all walks of life and make many friends.

One day when I finished my job on the wellsite and returned to Baku it was too late, we had driven about 150km and I was really tired. So I told the driver Mr. Zatir to drive me directly to my apartment in aqueous park, but I didn’t know he understood me or nor because he could not speak English and I could neither speak Russian nor Azeri. I couldn’t tell the road while we were driving inside the city and didn’t know where we were going to and where we were, after about 20 minutes our big jeep suddenly stopped in front of a house. Before I realized what happened the front gate of the house opened, a middle-aged woman and a boy came out, they wanted to invite me to their home. I was a little surprised and hesitated while he waved his hand to ask me to get off and eat at his home because I was from the field and not tidy to be a guest. I saw the frankness and friendship from their faces and gestures, in seconds I knew what I should do. I got off and said Salam (peace on you) to them, I was so happy and followed them into their home.

This is a very good place and there is a big courtyard in front of their house. Through the dim light of the night I could see the trees near the door and flowers beside the windows, a dog tied to something was barking at me. Being scolded he came near us and began wagging his tail and showed me his welcome, never after that he was hostile to me.

The house is a kind of typical dwelling for average Baku citizen outside the downtown area. Maybe it is not very good compared with the apartments in the center part, but it is really a tranquil place to live and have a rest after a day’s hard work, only in somewhere like here can make you calm down and feel relaxed. The scene reminded me of my hometown in northeast China when I was a young boy, we lived in the countryside where there were similar houses with bigger gardens. My parents cultivated our garden every year, we planted vegetables, fruits, trees and also some flowers, poor as we were we still lived a happy and hopeful life at that time and we never felt so tense and over-pressured as what we are today. Time passing by, all these things have become a good memory to me.

The rooms are not very big and the decoration is not modern as well, but it is traditional. I saw a large carpet hanging on the wall of the living room, the pattern and color were very beautiful. Although it was the first time for me being invited to local Azeri home I didn’t feel any strange at all, it seemed that I was in China and with my own family again.

We couldn’t talk freely due to the language problem, I only knew a few Russian and Azeri words, but it could not prevent us from communicating anyway, we used gestures and body language together. I understood that they welcome me to their home, asked me to sit down on sofa, to have a cup of tea, to watch TV and so on. Mr. Natir showed me the pictures of his family, I knew from his talking that they have tree sons, one of them is serving in the army, and the youngest is about 12 year old, he is still a pupil and likes playing football.

While we were talking his wife, Malahat Xanim, was preparing dinner and made it ready. She put dishes, tea, bread, cheese, vegetables and juice on the table and we began to eat. I was hungry but unfortunately I felt very bad in my stomach those days especially after the long journey in the daytime without eating almost anything, so I could not eat like a horse as I should and just tried everything. I drank the juice and it was very nice, I learned later that it was a kind of homemade beverage. The other things that I cannot forget are the dishes called dolma, I had two kinds of dolma that night, one was made from eggplant and another from tomato. I was told that dolma is a very popular food in Azerbaijan and it takes long time to prepare, so they don’t eat it very often, only on holiday or festivals some families serve it. You can imagine here how long time it took and how hard it was for the hostess to make dolma for us, he might call his wife many hours ago about his plan to invite me when we were still on the road, and I had no idea about this.

After this too late dinner we talked a few minutes and I tried to suggest him to drive me back to my apartment, but he persuaded me to stay and spend the night at his home and then we went to office together next morning. While I was thinking whether it was ok or not for me to sleep here in the living room and watching the Azeri TV program that I could not understand the couple had gone to the master room to make bed for me. They changed the sheet, the cover of the quilt and the pillow, everything was new when they told me it was ready for me to go to sleep. I was really touched and went to the room directly, I didn’t want and couldn’t bear to bother them any more.

I waked up at 7 o’clock next morning, and found out that they got up even earlier. We eat some breakfast and left for office around 8. Before we got into the jeep Natir asked me to polish my shoes at the doorway, so I did it after him.

The morning sun, the blue sky, the house, the tree, the dog formed a picture and scenery with us inside, this harmony between soul and peaceful life made us forget about any hardship of yesterday. Every morning is a new start, we keep on struggling forward day after day and step by step, our dreams will be nearer and nearer to us.

I learn from this visit how important are jobs to this family, to you and to me, that is why we should cherish what we have today and work hard to contribute to the society. He showed me and taught me how to love life and how to find the beautiful aspects from trivial things by polishing shoes before leaving. I feel my life is full of energy and hope again after that.

Time goes by, the bad feeling in my stomach became worse and worse, and at last I had to go to see a doctor in the media club. This was a really hard time for me because I didn’t know how to express my situation in neither Azeri nor Russian. While I was at wit’s end my colleague professor Siyaush learned this, he accompanied me each time to the hospital to help me to be examined and treated until I felt much better and bought all necessary medicines. A friend in need is a friend indeed, he gave me his hand when I was helpless. I feel from the bottom of my heart the kindness of local people, it makes me far from loneliness, sad and disappointed because I am always living within my friends and I can talk and share my feelings with them.

Holidays and festivals are also the dull time for foreigners while all the local colleagues are out of office and leave you alone to do the endless work, sometimes I don’t understand the meanings of their celebrations and red-letter days because we have different traditions and festivals. During these days we, the Chinese stuff, may have some kind of gather-together also, but it has almost nothing to do with the local events.

Fortunately I was invited by my friend Mr. Karam at last Novruz Bayram to his home to have a good experience of their celebration. This festival is very important in Azerbaijan similar to the spring festival (Chinese lunar new year) in China or Christmas in the west, but their celebrations are not as long and ceremoniously as in our country, it lasts only 3 days here to my memory.

In the afternoon of that day I gave up the planned schedule to join a party held in a big restaurant and was very glad to go with him to join his family. We drove his old Lada all the way from office to his home; at that time I really felt the forthcoming happy atmosphere spread in the whole Baku city.

After about 15 or 20 minutes we arrived at his apartment on the third floor in a building not far from the traffic road. This is a typical Azeri family also, there are two children in the family, one daughter and one son. They are all teenagers, very beautiful and smart. His daughter is older than his son, the girl is learning English and the boy computer. His son is a football fan and also a good player in the junior schools of their district, and he has won a medal that shows his potential.

Mrs. Karam had prepared a lot of food and put them on a long big table, it looked very nice and delicious. Most of them were sweets, fruits, nuts, bread and so on, we talked a lot while eating together though Karam and his wife cannot speak fluent English, but we can understand each other easily, and sometimes their children can help a little. I learned to remember the names of everything on the table in Azeri and could speak some, however I forgot them later very soon due to the lack of practice.

The children ate little and fast, especially his son, who was eager to prepare wood with his friends to make bonfire on behalf of the people living in this apartment. Karam told me that there were three or four times of bonfire celebration during the festival which I could not remember clearly now, and each bonfire had a different meaning, the one at that night was the most important one.

Youngsters were very active and delighted to make the bonfire ready. We could hear their laughter, yelling, chatting and even the hilarious arguing through the windows, which allured Karam and I going to the balcony to have a look. The happy vision brought me back to the cozy spring festival eve in my country when every family hangs big red lanterns or other colorful lights in front of the gate, in the courtyard or inside balconies, instead of bonfire we fire fireworks at midnight that makes the peaceful dark sky a dreamy world and fairy land. Like here in Baku, all this kind of works are done by the young people who are longing for festivals which will give them enough time to be free from homework, textbooks and any other dull things.

The bonfire began at last while we were still talking about the tradition of Novruz, we hurried downstairs to the outside to join them. I saw the smiling faces and happy expression of every boy and girl, man and woman, young and old standing around the fire. The big flame dispelled the dark of the night and brought us hope, dream and good luck, Azeri or Chinese we felt the same at this time.

When the bonfire was getting small brave young people began to jump through the fire, we applauded them. They believe that the jumping can bring them good fortune and make them exempted from disease or any other bad things. I don’t know it is true or not but I am sure I was blessed as them too.

Little children like to knock on the door of their neighbors and then hide away waiting for the reaction of the hostess. Usually in this case they will put some candies and nuts or sweets into a small bag and then put it outside the door, the kid will come and take it. There is similar tradition like this also in China, the morning after the New Year eve children will have their best on to visit neighbors and relatives to say hello to the elders, they will be treated with candies or something they like. If the elders are kin to the children they will give them some money as gift as well. The only difference is that they need not to knock on the door or hide, they just put their award into their pockets and go to the next home. I remember that night the little Sevinch living downstairs knocked on the door at least two times. So when we went upstairs after the bonfire Karam stopped me, we knocked on the door of her home and hide away. After about one minute there was no response inside, the whole family might still be outside. How interesting it was! We were little kids again.

I asked to leave at about 11 o’clock that night when almost all the celebrations came to an end. Mr. and Mrs. Karam insisted on giving me some candies, sweets, nuts and a small bottle of vodka though I don’t drink at all.

We chose to drive in a longer way to my apartment to have a good sightseeing of the night Baku, the whole city was immersed in a kind of peaceful happiness. I felt the same and was very glad to be a real member of this society that day.

Through the cooling air and the flickering light I knew my apartment was near, but our work will continue and the friendship between us will be everlasting. 

The beauty of Baku

Last time when I went home on vacation my daughter, who is ten-year old, asked me “ Dad, do you think Baku is beautiful? ” while she was browsing the photos I snap-shotted here by myself on her computer, I said yes. But she just did not agree with me, she began to argue and told me “ you see the buildings in your pictures, most of them are old, gray and not colorful. Why do you think Baku is beautiful?” I explained my opinions to her, she sat there listening, and I was not sure she understood me or not. A few minutes later she just went away and left me alone.

Walking along the seaside avenue of Baku Harbor on a Sunday this spring I found out that everything was so harmonious and natural, people just roaming, chatting and eating snacks, they were enjoying their lives and having a good rest. Especially the kids, they were very delighted chasing each other, playing and yelling. I was a little excited also, and followed some people to the tollbooth of the small port paying two manint (2000 manat) to buy a ship ticket for a short travel on the sea. Although the ship was big it was still crowded, so I wedged through onto the foreboard to have some fresh air and a good view. This place was almost occupied by the young people especially the young lovers, they filled here with romance. When the ship was sailing fast a young couple standing on the prow started to give us a rehearsal, the girl opened her arms and the boy stood behind holding her with his hands around her waist. Maybe they just wanted to remind others the scene of Titanic and the romantic deep love of the dramatis personae, but I was not feeling so good as they were because of the end of that story.

Two students beside me broke the ice; they tried to talk with me in English. I don’t think their English is very fluent, but anyway I could understand them. As you know I cannot speak English freely as well, it is foreign language for all of us. The chatting began from the very common questions such as ‘ can you speak English? Where are you from? How long have you been here? ’ etc. the last few questions I remembered during the voyage was ‘ what is your impression of Baku? Do you like it? Is it beautiful? ’

I told them what I thought of Baku and Azeri very briefly. ‘Baku is very beautiful, and Azeri people are very friendly, they live peaceful lives, I admire them’. The two guys just doubted me, and asked back ‘ you really think so? We even don’t have many new and high buildings as you know’. ‘Yes’ I said, ‘the beauty of Baku mainly lies on it’s long history, old and traditional architecture, city sculptures and cultural relics. Sure the skyscrapers are symbol of modernization, but they are not the most important things. If you have only cultural treasures it means you still live in the past and have not made progress; but if you have just fashionable things that means you are rootless, this kind of things won’t last long.’

I had no idea if they understood me or not when we got off the ship. Baku boasts both the old and the modern things, and it is developing very fast in fact, her charming future will attract everybody’s attention.

It was the same situation about 15 years ago when foreigners began to pour into China to invest or do business in everywhere especially in big cities. Some of them found out that China was quite different from what they had imagined before, some thought that even big Chinese cities like Shanghai, Beijing and Guangzhou were shabby, poor, dull and disorder compared with New York or London. On the other hand, there were still a lot of expatriates attracted deeply by the great history and cultural heritages, and they plunged into the study of China.

High-nosed laowai (foreigner) was rarely seen in the streets at that time, everybody would feel surprised and was curious to talk with them due to the long closed-up and separation from the outside world. We asked the same questions also, but when they said that they liked China and the city was really beautiful we sometime just didn’t believe them or doubted it. We thought they replied in this way might be to the consideration of politeness, however as you know it is not the case at all most of the time.

Beauty is the eyes of the beholder, if you love and be proud of Baku you will feel the beauty of it from many aspects. It is one of the safest cities in the world to live and work to my experience up to now, so I like it!

Traffic

One of the things that impressed me most in Baku is traffic. Generally speaking, the city traffic is very convenient; there are subways, buses and private cars, they all give good service to make the city move. Like anywhere else there are still some problems in this aspect.

I am afraid that I have to say that most of the drivers here are sometimes very crazy, it seems to me they never know what the zebra line means and never pay any attention to the pedestrians who want to cross the road or even in the middle of the road. They don’t want to slow down to let you go first but speed up to make you like a fool and have your life at the mercy of his desire. On the other hand the walkers are also mad, most of them don’t watch the traffic lights, they just cross the road at anytime and any place they like, this really increases the danger and risk to the ceiling degree.

It is found very frequently that some people jump the light, especially the guys who drive Mercedes-Benz, BMW or other fashion-model cars. They might think that they are something in the world, but they are nothing at all as a matter of fact because they even don’t know how to behave as a civilized man should. I have experiences to cross the road safely here, I wait until the green light is on and all the cars from both side stop, and then watch around to see whether there is someone trying to rush at me. If everything is ok I will walk fast or even run across the road.

There are such kind of problems in China also especially in the small cities or towns where people like to live casually. I remember once in news of CCTV reported that a truck driver jumping the light hit a woman dead in the early morning in the suburb way to Beijing, he stopped his stupid truck and became dumfounded when he realized what happened. He was arrested soon, the whole process had been recorded by the monitoring camera installed somewhere. Throw him into prison cannot get rid of this problem, the fact is he killed the innocent woman and damaged her beloved family.

Another strange phenomenon is that the traffic lights usually turn to red or to green suddenly, sometimes the yellow one may flash one or two times but it never leaves you enough time to react or make a wise judgment. You cross the road while the light is still green, but it turns to red abruptly and make you besieged in the road by the mad cars running at you. You really don’t know what to do, go forward or backward.

In our country, there are countdown bulletins and cameras installed on the traffic light poles in the busy roads that can show you clearly how many seconds have left for you to cross the road and who has broken the traffic rules, it is very easy for the policemen to follow up the bad eggs.

It would be much better if Baku applies these equipments, at least it can be a determent to everybody. Although the car density here is not as high as that of Beijing at the rush hour it is still crowded. Constructing some crossovers or underground chunnels at main crossroads can really help relieving the traffic problems.

Usually Azeri people like working and living peacefully and leisurely, you can hardly see anyone hurrying to do something on the street. Therefore it is difficult for me to some extent to understand why they are so impatient while driving or crossing the roads, to save the time of few seconds?

At the rush hour in Beijing there are very often traffic jams in downtown areas, sometimes you cannot drive more than 5km per hour, this really makes you crazy even though it is an eight-way or twelve-way road. There are too many people and too many cars going restlessly all the time, man and woman, old and young, they are walking or running as busy as bees. By bus, taxi, underground or city train they reach their destinations.

Though the cases of traffic incidents in Beijing may be higher than in Baku few people dare to ignore the rules, there are police and monitoring cameras everywhere.

I have had some experiences to take buses to make a tour inside the city. There are two kind of buses here; medium-sized or mini bus. The public traffic is fast and convenient for the average citizen, buses go to almost every corner of the city. I just jump on the bus randomly and get off at the last stop or somewhere seems to be interesting. The one-way ticket usually costs between 500 and 1000 Manat, it is a reasonable price. Although it is clearly written on the windows sometimes I have to pay a little more because perhaps I am a foreigner. Anyway it is a very good chance that I can go with them together to some places to have real feeling of the daily life, this help me a lot in understanding the society.

Most of the buses, I am sorry to say, are out of date or even shabby, Baku should buy some new buses to replace those. It is not only beneficial to the local people but also save big money for the government in the long run. Competition can be introduced here in the management of public traffic, this can decrease the price and increase the number of new buses as well.

Like anything else Baku traffic is still on the way.

Beggars

There are beggars everywhere in the world, rich country or poor country. Each time when I meet or come across some of them in Baku I have all kind of feelings, I really don’t know I should love them or hate them, they are different from the beggars of China in many ways.

Last year I live far from my office, everyday after dinner I walked about 40 minutes back to office. On the way I could meet at least 5 beggars, especially on the pedestrian street. Most of them are young women around thirty years old with a little baby carried in their arms, they stand there begging and saying something that I never understand. This scene will make everybody moved or even heart-broken, I really cannot imagine what happened to them. I give them money whenever I have changes like min manta in my pocket, but very soon I find out I can hardly afford to do so because you have to pay one shervan almost every time. So from then on I just give money to someone that I think her suffering is true or it is the first time I meet her.

I had consulted one of my dear colleagues about this matter before, asked her some questions like; who are they? Where are their husbands? Why their husbands don’t take the responsibility to support them? Are they widows of Nagorno-Karabakh war? And so on. She told me that most of them are refugees or gipsy who travel into this country. I know it is true that there are a lot of refugees in Azerbaijan especially around Baku, but I am still wondering whether they are really refugees because that war broke out almost 15 years ago and their babies are so young.

There are also girls about the age of 15 begging all the day in the busy streets, Fountain Square or along the seaside of Baku bay. Whenever they see young couples or foreigners like me they will come all the way to you, stop you and grasp your hand until you give them some money. I have been attacked many times at the seaside while walking by a group of woman beggars. Suddenly a small girl appears in front of you, stops you, grasps your hand and follows you all the way, you are either touched by her suffering or have no choice but give her one manint, she frees you. Then you just go ahead, but maybe 10 or 20 meters away you are stopped by another girl in the same way. Ok, one more mamint and go away. Unfortunately another middle-aged woman comes up and follow you, sure one mamint again. I remember clearly I was attacked by seven begging people one time in this way and many times later by a group. Now I become clever and look far away while walking and change my route if possible when I see any of them. The problem is they always stand there searching for their prey and even you have given them money, they still ask for money next time when they see you. What is the future of these young girls? Can they live on begging the rest of their lives?

Although it is scarce to find male beggars in Baku I still encounter some. They are usually middle-aged or young men, they don’t have fixed places and just roam along the street. When they see you they come up from somewhere you haven’t paid attention to and ask for money, give or not, it is up to you, they don’t act as the women do.

There is a man at the seaside with his little son begging, I have met him many times there. Thanks to all the kind-hearted people he has lots of money in his hands. I look down upon him and feel sick of him whenever I see him, and I never give him money.

What I don’t understand is that all the male beggars are young and healthy with two hands and two arms, why they just don’t want to go to work to make a living by themselves. Someone may argue that it is difficult to find work here, but where is it easy? God helps the one who helps himself, if you don’t want to work, how can you find work? Everybody likes to live like a king but there is only one king in a country. could it be you? I don’t think it is more graceful to be a beggar than to be a labor polishing shoes for others on the street. Giving money to this kind of man is really encouraging him to become lazybones and good for nothing. This will set a very bad example to his children, he not only ruins himself but also his next generation as well.

I had been attacked by a group of young boys for two times when I come back from office to my apartment not far away. They hided in some corners, when they saw me the young one came and grasped my hand first and the others just followed behind. He could speak some English, “give me money, give me money” all the time. I refused to give, so they just didn’t let me go. I became angry at last and pushed the boy away from me. You even cannot imagine they yelled at me and shouted out very clearly “ fuck your mother” in English, this really made me crazy and furious. If this happens in my country I sure enough I will hit them to death, but this time I had to persuade myself “ sir, please keep your shirt on. This is a foreign country, you cannot make trouble here, and no one will support you”. Unfortunately I met them again one night when I went home at the same place, they did the same thing and pronounced the same sentence. I lost control and turned around suddenly to catch the bad egg, he ran madly into the street nearly hit by a car. I stood there to wait the other boys coming out, but there was no sign of it. I regretted later, how dangerous for the boy to run away.

Most of the beggars in China are male disables including some disabled boys or a few old men who cannot make a living by themselves. They beg in a different way, usually they sing songs, play some musical instruments, write something that shows their suffering, or say some sentences of good fortune to make you happy, then you may would like to give them some money.

Beggars in Baku wear good clothes and look tidy. The Chinese beggars usually have shabby things and look thin and weak. The ideas or perceptions about the way of life may be different between Azeri and Chinese. You may come across some Chinese in the street look like beggars very much, but in fact they are not, they are poor hard-working labors. They can do any kind of unimaginable hard works to earn the bread, that is why Chinese people survive all the disasters happened in the past. I am not sure that people here like to work so hard.

I remember this spring when we were doing the seismic acquisition we wanted to hire a jobber to clean the supervisor’s room, one hour is enough each day just to make the room tidy. Although it is so easy even the refugees refused to do this job for two dollars a day, they asked for 100 dollars per month. I really cannot imagine what happened here, if this thing occurs in China I am sure at least 100 persons will come to compete for the job even in big cities let alone in the countryside.

The behavior of the Baku beggars shows me that the life here may be much easier and better than in China. The experience of this makes me puzzled sometime, I love, sympathize and like to help most of them, but I hate some of them also.

这是应邀写给Betty的有关巴库印象，但由于没时间，信没有写完也就中途停下了，所以读起来有一种不完整的感觉。这一点我很遗憾，不过就让它去吧。