Today’s guest post comes from Jim in Clark’s Grove

I had the good luck to be selected three times to serve as an agricultural volunteer by ACDI/VOCA, a nonprofit organization. In an earlier guest blog I wrote about the volunteer work I did in Bolivia. I also worked in Bulgaria and Azerbaijan. On all of these assignments I had the opportunity learn about parts of the world that are very different from the United States. Of the three countries visited, I think that Azerbaijan differed the most from the USA. When you hear someone saying that a place is different they are usually mean it is a place they don’t like. Personally I enjoy exploring places that are different and found many things that I liked in Azerbaijan.

Azerbaijan was formerly part of the Soviet Union and is now an independent country which had as its President a former high member of the ruling party of the Soviet Union, Hydar Aliyev. Hydar’s son is now the President of the country. Azerbaijan is set up as a Democracy. In fact, Hydar and his son have ruled Azerbaijan more or less as dictators because they rigged their elections. I was told by an Azeri, as a joke, that Hydar had visited President Bush and had told him how to rig his reelection. I was also told that Bush would be visiting Hydar because there is a lot of oil in Azerbaijan.

I was asked to help with issues related to vegetable seed production. A stop was made at a tomato processing plant where they were saving the seeds extracted when doing the processing and giving them back to the farmers for planting. I found that this procedure worked well. While at the tomato plant I heard another humorous comment about an American. A man who ran a fish processing company told us that he had been visited by an American who asked him about plant inspection procedures. The American told him how it was done in the USA and the Azeri man said it is the same with us. It isn’t the same because you need to bribe inspectors in Azerbaijan. After that we had a joke about how things are done in Azerbaijan that included the phrase, “same with us”.

I was treated very well by everyone. One man told me that the Azeri people were extremely shocked and very sad about the events of 9/11. The food was very good, included delicious grilled sturgeon with pomegranate sauce. I visited an impressive very old walled section of Baku, the capital city, and strolled through an attractive city park at the edge of the Caspian Sea. There are some very poor people in the country, but there doesn’t seem to be much street crime. I felt safe at night walking alone in the central part of the capital. It is one of the most liberal Muslim countries with laws protecting the rights of women.

What is the most different and interesting place you’ve visited?

Today’s guest post comes from Clyde.

Every New Years Day, which it is when I am writing this, I remember our first trip to Savannah.

A school district southwest of Savannah hired me to come do a workshop from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. with the faculty of an elementary school on the Friday after News Years Day. Now think about that. A Friday morning after New Year’s Day. I was suspicious, but the principal, a charming woman with one of those endearing Georgia accents told me it would be fine. (Does any state have a wider range of accents than Georgia?)
If I flew to Atlanta and came back on Monday, it was cheaper for two tickets than one alone coming back Saturday. The district agreed to pay the two tickets and two nights stay.

My wife and I flew down on New Year’s Day, which wasn’t as hectic as I expected. It was a pleasant drive down from Atlanta. The next morning, I went looking for the school. It was difficult to find in those pre-Google days, when GPS was in its undependable infancy. I always allowed myself ample driving time on mornings like these, fortunately. I drove west on a state highway through Fort Stewart, which I had not noticed on the map. When I got to where, by the map, I planned to turn south, I was not allowed to do so because it would take me through military gates. It took awhile to find how to get around the fort proper. Then I asked for directions; no one could help me because no one who worked in gas stations or who came in as customers had lived there very long.

Now I was really suspicious. Why was a faculty coming in on this odd Friday where so many people lived temporarily? By stories told to me by former students, I expected most of the faculty were Army wives, who had been home for the holidays and now had to come back for this Friday instead of coming back on Sunday. I stumbled upon the school.

The principal told me, yes, most of her faculty were Army wives. She also told me that the school board had been angry with the faculty when they wrote the calendar the previous spring, which is how this day came to be. All three elementary school faculties would be in the group. The secondary teachers had their own workshop. Wow! Was I going to have a fun morning or what! If I were in the faculty, I would be angry and not a willing participant.

The workshop was very participant-active; about 65% of the time they would work on tasks instead of listening to me, which would make the day terrible if they did not comply. I began with some fun loosing-up activities, to which they fortunately responded. At coffee break they told me their grievances, but that they had decided not to hold it against me.

The five hours flew by. They laughed, did the work, posted their work on the walls, and gave me high reviews for the day, among the highest I ever received. Afterward the principal and teacher leaders took me out to lunch. The principal, with a bit less of that charming accent, told me she had lied on the phone, that she expected open rebellion. As one of the teacher leaders said “I guess we just turned the other cheek.”

That afternoon and for two days, my wife and I discovered Savannah. We walked the squares, rode the buses, toured old homes, strolled Tybee Island beaches, ate wonderful meals. We were blessed with two other trips to Savannah when the Savannah Schools hired me after hearing about that first day.
Ah, Savannah!

When have you seen someone turn the other cheek gracefully?

Today’s guest post is by Jim in Clark’s Grove.

A few years ago I was given an agricultural volunteer assignment in the Yungus region of Bolivia by a non-profit organization, ACDI/VOCA. Yungus is a region of Bolivia located in the mountains East of La Paz. I was asked to help a small export company control bean weevils that were attacking black beans which this company was introducing as a crop. Many Yungus farmers grow coca as their main crop and were interested in growing black beans.

Coca is a legal crop in Bolivia. Illegal production of cocaine from coca is discouraged. I passed through several control points where checking was done for chemicals that could be used to manufacture cocaine. Dried coca leaves, which are chewed by some Bolivians, are sold locally. Coca tea is given to people to help them with altitude sickness. I drank some coca tea and didn’t experience any change in mood that you might expect from cocaine.

My trips to visit bean fields involved traveling on very narrow mountain roads and walking up long steep trails. Part of the time we traveled in taxi cabs that went very fast on the winding roads. I was extremely frightened by the taxi rides until I got use to traveling in those cabs. On the trails I was barely able to keep up with my party and then only if they slowed down. It was my good luck to have a bright young translator and a good natured representative of the export company as my traveling companions. They maintained their good humor throughout the trip.

I visited a wide selection of the farms that were growing black beans. These farms were located near small villages that had facilities for travelers which were not always in great shape. There was usually a nice small park or town square in the middle of these villages. Citrus grew along the edges of roads and trails. The fruit on these trees was freely available to eat by all who passed by. Chicken was the main dish served locally and it was often served with quinoa soup, rice, and cooked plantains. In some places we used a translator who could speak a language used before the arrival of Europeans. Some woman wore the traditional colorful skirts seen in many pictures from this part of the world.

This trip was a great adventure. I have many fond memories associated with my visit to Bolivia. I was highly impressed by the political climate. The President of Bolivia, Evo Morales, is a former coca farmer who had been involved in political organizing in rural areas. Some people were creating a problem for Morales by demanding a change in the location of the government. During my stay a rally of more than a million people was held to provide support for Morales. The head of the export company that I was helping said that Morales was the best hope the country had for solving its many problems.

I very much enjoyed my trip to Bolivia in spite of the difficult traveling conditions.

Do you remember having a lot of difficulty on a trip that turned out well in the end?