People and Buildings: Xinaliq

The men above were more than happy to let Marlys photograph them. They even asked if she had a telephoto lens and suggested a different angle. I bet they are among the most photographed men in Azerbaijan (besides the president). Their suggestion for composition is below--I like Marlys' initial take with the layers of terraced rock walls, but theirs showcases the village more. You decide.
Here is the garden of the house we stayed in.


The whitewashed doorway and little window below the white jeep are where the wash house/toilet are.














There used to be a house right there--and indeed houses used to crowd side by side all along this level--but as you can see from the next photo, many houses have fallen into disrepair.


It doesn't take more than a winter or two with houses made of earth and rock. If you don't keep the roofs well plastered and pitched properly, and shovel the snow off regularly, then they begin to leak. With so many families choosing to move into larger towns for the winter these days (the shepherds take their flocks much lower for the winter months anyway) up to half of the homes are no longer permanently occupied and many have just fallen apart.




That's not to say people aren't still building and maintaining homes here. In the following photo you can see a number of well-kept homes, including the one we stayed in at the far center of the photograph--a large stuccoed house with a metal roof and little enclosed front stoop. But it is very expensive to bring in materials, so for everything besides the earth and stone, you need cash--and that's not easy to come by.















Here's a kid who was shy about having his picture taken, but stood very carefully still for Marlys anyway.
And in case you didn't quite catch the T-shirt--plus he's smiling a bit now:


I'm starting to run outta steam here--it's nearly midnight and using multiple photos on this blogger program is a layout nightmare--it's really designed for one or two photos per post. It's nearly impossible to get things placed right. But here are several more photos below of buildings and people. There's a great one of a stack of the dung and straw fuel they use for heating in the winter.


For 40 years they had very cheap electricity and heated their homes that way, but with independence and rising energy costs, they now have gone back to the old methods. Our host said that each house must keep a couple cows just for this purpose--which can be a lot of work, especially for the older folks whose kids have moved out.

You can also see the hay piles for the winter to feed the cows and few sheep and goats not gone to lower pasture.



Kids on the roof in the hay picture just were hanging out, but we also saw the usual football (soccer) play--often kicking the ball from roof to roof--even when there was flat area for easier play below. I personally think the game could be much more fun if played on a terraced field!

In a couple of the next photos notice the water line snaking up the street. It brings water to the town from a source higher up (wise, given the way toilets drain into the mountainside and animals wander about in the streams at town level especially).



It runs continuously via taps into a trough at the center of town where everyone has to go to get water. Well, not everyone. This was clearly a job for women and children--mostly girl children. Strong women.

The young woman in red is carrying a tub of wet laundry.




The water has to run continuously so that it doesn't freeze in the subzero winter months. This is also why no house to house plumbing exists--the pipes would just freeze unless you left the taps open all the time. Of course, everyone in town knows the term"global warming" and adults talk about how when they were kids there was snow by this time of year (October) and snow year round on the nearby peaks—which are, after all, 3710-44466 meters (12,000-14,600 feet) high--the highest mountain in Europe is in the Caucasus. Al Gore's Nobel Prize had just been awarded and folks saw it on the news. (They also were watching the US vote on labeling Armenian genocide--but that's another blog post.) We saw just a dusting of snow on two of the peaks--so little it can't really be made out in the photos we took.


What we don't have photos of--the two weddings we attended (low-budget, night-time, largely outdoors under tarps, dancing bundled against the wind), the inside of the house where we stayed (very comfortable--slept great), the outdoor set up for washing hands and face (very clever low-tech water holder/dispenser contraption), the food we ate (they made us vegetarian food!). You know, the everyday things that one takes for granted. And we were having low battery issues with the camera--we could buy more in the little store, but they only lasted a short time.

Marlys took a hundred more lovely photos (most of our photos are by her). I'll try and get her to post a few of the 4WD trek we did up the rocky river valley, as well as some Fall pics coming back down through Quba. Oh Yeah--and some great pics from the new village museum.



Last words on Xinaliq from me for now--this is a village that's changing quickly. A new road was put in just this last year that more than halved the time it takes to drive there from the nearest large town and made the place accessible in winter. There are now two small shops in town where there were none 5 years ago. A new school has been built that allows children of shepherds to board while their parents are off with the sheep. And because of significant mention in the only good tour guide to Azerbaijan, they now get tourists, including Azeris from Baku, all summer. It's clearly an amazing base for hiking the Caucasus. Finally, with the dedication of the new road and school, the president came for a visit and of course the ubiquitous giant billboard of he and his father (the previous president) has been planted in full view next to the road through town (well the road kind of stops at the town, but it trails off slow). The attempt to make the populace love the son through images of the father is everywhere--I think they must have a plan for a billboard every few minutes, no matter where you go. Somehow I forgot to get a picture of it in Xinaliq.