Tuesday, December 13, 2011

December Baku bits

  • An Indian shopkeeper and a scarved young Azeri woman decorate a Christmas tree at the New World Supermarket. Christmas in Azerbaijan! 
Christmas tree decorated with crescent moons (sorry you can;t see) at our nearby traffic circle


  • Happiness when local fruit and veg guy A) has broccoli and B) it is only 6 manat a kilo = $3.50/lb. Usually, when you can find it, looking pretty wilted in the supermarket, it is 9 manat or even more = $5 +. Otherwise we are down to cabbage and cauliflower, and the occasional tiny head of leaf lettuce. This is what being closer to the food chain looks like.
  •  Bread and salt are considered something very close to holy, a blessing. If one happens to have leftover bread, stale or moldy perhaps, one has [perhaps sinned? and] to put it out near but not in the communal trash bins on the street. You see bags of bread scraps hangng from nearby posts. 
  • This is the local fountain from which Tom scrounged water in order to flush the toilet a couple of weeks ago...just because I had the camera
  • And all is right with the world (well, my little world) as I obtain WARMTH --The Sheepskin Coat