Another Week Alone

John left for Kazakhstan a little while ago. He says he will be going over there pretty much every other week for the foreseeable future (the reason we are starting Russian language lessons on the 10th) and he gets to fly in one of these really cool planes! That's him closest to the camera....looks thrilled, eh?



I just looked over at the coffee table and the noise canceling headphones I gave him for Christmas are still sitting there. I have a feeling he might miss them on this flight.

This is his second trip since Christmas, his first being about twelve hours after I got back here from Canada. It was kind of a nice welcome home surprise, but I guess I was lucky....he had to do some fancy flight wrangling to not be already gone when I arrived.

I've begun a list of all the things I want included in my next DHL care package from home. Stupid me left my two favorite pairs of pants in the dryer back home, so I might as well throw in some more things to fill up that flat rate box. I can't get the Folger's Singles that I am going to run out of next month since I haven't seen them for sale in Nova Scotia, but I'm going to get the textbook for my summer class, some brown gravy mix, Costco canned chicken, Red Rose tea bags, the rest of my afghan yarn, and a few large boxes of Milk Bones....so far. I can send up to 55 lbs in this pretty good sized box. Maybe I should get my good Nikon sent over so I'll have it for our vacation.

John took part in the Azerbaijan Open Golf Tournament in Dubai in December. The Azerbaijan Open is held in Dubai because there are no golf courses in Azerbaijan. Lucky him won 2 round trip air tickets to anywhere in Europe and after much humming and hawing we have decided to fly to Frankfurt. From there we plan to rent a car and drive to Austria where we'll spend a week touring around, and getting touch with our inner Von Trapp. We might even go to Prague. Our plans are still sketchy at the moment but we have a week and I think we should be able to do it.

So this trip will be it until we go home in late June. I have to make it in Baku for 6 months, which I didn't really think was going to be all that tough until I found out about John being away every second week, and friends here began expressing sympathy.....extending invitations to girls weekends out in Istanbul.

I'll make it. I know I will and I'll have a new afghan to show for it. I'll be must better read, too, since I loaded my bags with books this time....plus one New York Times Crossword Puzzle Book. I have still one more set of Clay concert photos from 2007 to edit, and all of my film negatives with me to scan into digital files. My class this term isn't turning out to be much of a challenge other than the fact that I have to find someone here to proctor my midterm and my final. I'm going to try the principal at the international school but if that doesn't work out there are a ton of universities here, full of people who won't object to making a few extra manat. Explaining what I want and actually pulling it off will be the hard part. I have to get going on these arrangements soon.

Lena was here today and left about noon, before she left she passed on some very bad news. She has a breast tumor.....the "C" word being taboo in these parts. I have a bad feeling that such a diagnosis could be a death sentence here. I also have a bad feeling that early diagnosis isn't the norm here, either. Her eyes were puffy and she told me she had been crying all day yesterday. It was obvious she is very worried. Tomorrow she has another doctor's appointment and she will find out more about her treatment, but she did say she needs an operation....or in her words "cut". After she left, I had to call John to translate some of her Russian words for me, as she didn't know all of the English words to describe what she had. John asked Ali, and Ali explained what she meant, though I had at least gotten the general idea. I tried to ask her about medicines or other treatments in addition to surgery and she nodded, but I don't think that means very much.

She is worried about herself, but I think she is worried about how she is going to pay for it. It kind of mindboggles me that a country that was once part of the Soviet Union doesn't have universal health care but apparently it doesn't. Lena said the operation would cost about $2500.....a bargain by American standards but a fortune when you make $600 a month. I don't know how it all works exactly but my understanding is that doctors do get paid by the government but the pay is small and patients are expected to kick in the rest (or the bulk) of the cost. Ali told me it cost him about $500 for his wife's prenatal care and their baby's delivery. And that's pretty much all I know about paying for health care in Baku. Do they bill? Do you have to pay up front? Are there ways to work around the system?

I'll try to talk to her on Friday when she comes back, and maybe if it's okay with her, I can call her daughter to get some more details about what they are going to to do and what is available to her. I wish I felt more optimistic, but I just watched a very sad woman walk out of my gate to her bus stop.