Carry your papers

Everyone at school was in a tizzy this week, esp. new teachers. Alvin, the music teacher, and his wife were picked out of a crowd by police when they were walking downtown on Saturday, asked for their papers, and since they didn't have them, they spent SEVEN HOURS IN JAIL.

So we're all being warned to carry our BP badges, copies of our passports, and letters stating that we're employees of the school and here legally because--here's the catch--we're NOT here legally. We came in on 30 day-tourist visas which have expired, and our long-term visas haven't arrived yet. So without all this documentation, any one of us could be picked up and thrown into the slammer.

We all know, however, that it most likely happened to Alvin and Tina because they're from India. The first thing the police officer asked was "Pakistati? Hindustani?" Alvin said "Hindustani." The officer wanted documents, they weren't carrying them, the officer told them to get into the car, Alvin refused, and the officer forced him into it. These were plain-clothes policemen in an unmarked car. Apparently Tina was relieved when they were driven to the police station; they could have been taken anywhere.

Alvin and Nina are gentle, kind people. It's a shame that this happened to them, but overt racism is common here (as it was in Ukraine).

And now we're all even more illegal because Azerbaijan just reduced its 30-tourist visa to 7 days. So we've been here without proper documentation for 49 days instead of 26.