Martyrs' Day

No school today because of another mystifying Azerbaijan national holiday: Martyrs' Day, though not that mystifying once I learned about it. On January 20, 1990, citizens in Baku were in the streets protesting Soviet policies and agitating for Azerbaijan autonomy. Soviet tanks rolled in, and about 180 civilians were killed. This day is commemorated as the beginning of Azerbaijan's road to independence, which finally officially took place in October 1991.

I happened to have "primary source" material for Martyrs' Day, a copy of the Washington Post dated 20 Jan. 1990, for quite another reason.

In the wee hours of Jan. 19, 1990, ex-mayor-for-life Marian Barry was finally nabbed for coke possession, the famous (among those of a certain age) "bitch set me up" arrest.

So this summer, clearing out boxes in preparation for the move to Baku, I found dozens of newspapers documenting historic events, or what I considered historic events. The Pope's 1979 visit, John Lennon's 1980 murder, the 1981 release of the hostages, 1986 Challenger crash--and 1990, Marian Barry's arrest.

Under the fold on that day--news of the Baku uprising and Soviet response. It meant nothing to me at the time. I probably didn't even read it.

I threw out the other newspapers, but kept this one.

Azerbaijan alphabet chart

I've been collecting alphabet charts ever since I started traveling. I hang them on the walls of my classroom, wherever that is at the moment, charts from Sweden, Korea, Ukraine, Germany, Spain, France, Taiwan, and now Azerbaijan.

I have an Azerbaijan chart for the Azerbaijan alphabet, then I found an Azerbaijan chart to teach kids the English alphabet. I bought it and put it up in my classroom a couple of months ago without looking at it too closely. The other day, I was idly gazing at it while my students copied their homework assignment. I noticed that a donkey was used to represent the letter "J", which in Azerbaijan sounds like "dzh" (djonkey?) but isn't a very good picture for J, I thought.

"Look at the chart!" I told my students. "Who can find the mistake for the letter J?" They all looked and agreed that donkey starts with D, not J.

Then, to my shock, I saw the picture for the letter N.

Cripes! In the US, I'd be fired for having this on the wall! Before I took it down "to burn it" as I told my friends, I showed it to a couple of them. They said 'Well, it could be "native" or "Nigerian" ' but that probably wouldn't be the automatic response here, where the N-word is casually used.

Also, my friends said the J picture was probably "jackass."

What I did on my winter vacation

Baku-London-Frankfurt CANCELLED due to snow
Baku-Istanbul
Istanbul-Frankfurt CANCELLED due to snow
Istanbul-Stuttgart-Mannheim
Mannheim-Frankfurt-Paris-Minneapolis
Minneapolis-Philadelphia
Philadelphia to Chester County in a rental car
Chester County back to Philadelphia
Philadelphia-Minneapolis
Minneapolis-Amsterdam-Moscow-Baku

The last two legs haven't taken place yet. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

On this odyssey, I visited my sister and her family in Germany, my mother and other sister and her family in MN, then (travelling with my mother) my aunt and uncle and cousins in Philly, and my other sister and her family in Chester County. And now I seem to be coming down with the flu. I don't usually see so many relatives in so short a time--someone gave me something.