ONE DREAM AT A TIME: The one and only CounterPart Conference

After Peace Corps volunteers get placed at their site, Peace Corps hosts a counterpart conference. Essentially it's the first stage in relationship building, finding out about your organization, and exchange some ideas on what to expect/look forward to. There were roughly 20 of us being hosted by the super chic (by Saray's standards) hotel called Neapol. This place was NIIIICCEEEEE in comparison to where I stayed during orientation week. Such a gem of a hotel that would utterly go undiscovered because of the highway leading up to it which just blows!

Anyhow members and directors of organizations got a chance to meet it's future volunteers for the first time. Some organization had never had a Peace Corps volunteers and others weren't new to the game. It was a day we had all been anticipating because this is the gateway to some insight into who you will be working with. The counterpart is like the liaison between you and the rest of Azerbaijan. In a culture where word of mouth is the preferred mode of communication you can quite literally find out all you need to know about your site just by talking to your counterpart. If you are successful with this relationship then a whole other world will open to you. Not only about your site, but important people in the community, where to shop, where to eat, how to find the best people to carry out a project, and AND..when the time comes-independent housing. Since we will be going into new host families, the counterpart will help you navigate that as well. But then there is a small small possibility that the counterpart will only be there in the physical and not in spirit. Just showing their face and leaving you to fend for yourself.

Anyhow, everyone got to meet this special person and it was like watching people on blind dates. Some had instant chemistry, chatting up a storm, smiling, connecting. A few looked like they were struggling, stale air filling up the space between them. I thought it was quite interesting.