The Joy of Packages

Winter has hit, and hit for what seems like good. The next two months are supposed to be the hardest of our service, and if we get through them, it’ll be smooth sailing from then on. If we make it to March and Novruz holiday, we’ll make it to summer. But in the meantime, we must find the motivation somewhere to make it through each week. It’s harder now that Christmas and New Year’s have come and gone, as surreal as they were. Sometimes it’s enough to plan for a trip to see nearby volunteers, an escape to Baku, and in a month we’ll be able to look forward to the Super Bowl. But other times we need something extra, something unexpected. And that’s exactly what I got this past weekend. A package from home.

This package has been hanging over me for the last month. It was sent before I got to site, now exactly a month ago. It’s crazy to think I’ve been here in Ismayilli for a month, but that’s another post. I checked the post office day after day, waiting more and more impatiently. I had just about given up, after re-raising my hopes multiple times—because it’s a big package, because it’s the holidays, etc. I checked this past Friday before I went to visit my AZ7 sitemate in the village. Nothing.

As our falafel fried, he got a call from his host father saying a package needed to be picked up. Of course, they couldn’t deliver it, so he had to run to the post (not the office, but in fact some guy’s home, where all the village’s packages wait in his living room). So off he goes, and comes back lugging one heavy, beautiful package for me.

All three of us Ismayilli-ers were expecting, and I lucked out, finally. And was I ever lucky, for it was Christmas in a box. A nutcracker, New Yorkers, Frosted Mini Wheat’s, Resse’s Peanut Butter Christmas trees, and the biggest coup, a dog that dances and sings “Donde Esta Santa Claus?”

So, Merry Christmas to me, at just the right time, when I needed it the most. And to all a good night.

A small addendum: I have now been at site for one month, and it’s been wonderful how unlike training it’s been. It feels like I’ve done a lot and nothing at the same time, but since arriving, I’ve gone from sitting in on English classes to leading my own conversation clubs, and have gotten involved in the summer camp program we do for boys, ABLE. All in all, probably possibly a successful first month.