Well, it's been nearly 3 months--during which time we had the pleasure of 3 week-long visit from Grandma/Mommy Janet and nearly 10 weeks of Dad/Doug. With such great distraction, the blog fell by the wayside :(.
Well, we are now back to just the 2 of us and ready to blog, but we have moved to a much cheaper, much more "local" apartment and location where, we are told by our old ADSL company, the state run ADSL company has a stranglehold on new connections--and our company says that while we could try going with the state company, they have heard about very bad experiences of tacked on streaming traffic fees and that the state will just cut your phone line if you disagree and refuse to pay. Who knows, but we decided to stick with trusty dial-up, which suffices for email but sure pales when it come to uploading pics.
I tend to believe it's no coincidence that the market for ADSL appears competitive in areas where foreigners tend to live--and competition disappears when you move outside those phone numbers prefix areas.
Speaking of utilities--we've had multiple visits this past week from "utility bill collectors" in our new apt--this happened sometimes at the old place as well, with results that Doug may be documenting in his forthcoming newsletter on his time in Az. I saw our electric bill--there was no past due and this months bill was a mere $6--which we gave the landlady money for and she said they'd go pay for us--I believe her. We did the same by taking a gas meter reading and calling the gas company to get the amount to give them to pay for us. She says she pays water--nothing from us for that. She's a very cautious woman, in fairly constant terror that we'll forget to turn of the gas heater at night and not wake up in the morning (a legitimate fear when I think about how the embassy would surely become involved and cause all kinds of problems for her--though I doubt she's thinking that far ahead!).
The first few utility visitors we sent away by being linguistically stupid and saying we were just guests. When I told the landlady, she was so worried she came in person after work to inform the innocent Americans about how there are lots of bad people in Azerbaijan and never to open the door to anyone we don't know or risk being robbed and our throats cut. Because of her excited and many times repeated gestures, I would have had no trouble with her Azerbaijani even if I hadn't just learned the word for "cut" (I learned throat some months ago--handy word). So today I just peered out at the knocker and ignored subsequent knocks when I recognized the "electric" lady from a few days ago.
I think what happens is a lot less sinister than the landlady imagines--but still no fun. I think that there are folks who follow the billing cycles--maybe employed by the state utilities, maybe not, who come by wanting to "take care of your payment." Of course there would be something off the top--or on the top. I am continually amazed at the level of corruption that is built into the economy here--no one can really survive off the bribery grid as far as I can tell--but more on that in Doug's newsletter. (See this is really just a teaser post.)
Our apartment is really quite comfortable--cold in the kitchen/bath, but main room is warm with the feared gas heater (actually not a very scary device). The gas flash hot water heater only works with high water pressure when the city turns the pumps on for a few hours morn and night. Well, even then it has been an iffy appliance and I'm getting ready ask for it to be replaced if they can't make it more reliable. Hot showers are nice...Happy teenage daughters are even nicer.
I'll try a picture upload now--cross your fingers! It worked (took about 7 minu
tes). It's one of Doug's series on construction safety. I think those will make an appearance in the newsletter as well. I don't have any pics of our new place on my computer, but will hopefully add those next time. Please forgive less photos from here on out...I'll try and make them tiny kb. The second photo here shows a giant mothy thing that I thought was a tiny hummingbird at first--anyone want to ID it? It has a huge body for a bug and flies like a hummingbird.--Alison
