Essay
It is our first day of our three-week trip. My copartner and I are from the United States. My name is Rod and my partners name is Todd. We have been best friends since preschool and we now work for the same company. We are journalists that are doing a documentary on the country Azerbaijan. The television network that we work for believed that we could make a lot of money if we showed the public about this unknown country. As we flew in today, we realized that Russia, the Caspian Sea, Iran, Armenia, and part of Georgia border Azerbaijan. This region is known as Western Asia. My partner and I both feel that our stay in Azerbaijan will be both fun and educational.
It is day two. We have just gotten back from a long trip. We have met a lot of people. The way people greet us here is with a handshake. We have found a lot of neat stuff here and found out a lot from our tour guide Mike. As I looked around, I saw our tour guide praying. After he was through, he told us how he was Muslim and they pray five times a day. He also informed us that the major religion in Azerbaijan is Islam and the majority of them are Shias with a small amount of people being Sunnis. The people here take their religion very seriously. Later after that incident we were all walking down the street and I realized how peaceful everything was. I soon asked Mike what kind of government Azerbaijan had. He told me that they have a presidential republic. And that it was very familiar to the government in the United States. He also said that there is a head of the state, which is president for a term of five years and the president appoints a prime minister and cabinet members. And he said that there is something called the Milli Majlis, which has a lot in common with our senate. I found this to be very interesting. Mike said that the current president is a man named Aliyeu who is apparently a great guy who has helped out the economy tremendously. Mike said the economy was boosted by major cash crops such as cotton, wine grapes, vegetables, and tobacco. The principle foods in Azerbaijan are grains and wheat. I was very surprised when Mike told me Azerbaijan had a good economy because they only have a population of 7,798,497 people, which was recorded in 2002. I looked around I then realized why I did not see many people. It was called to my attention that 57 percent of people in the country live in urban areas and we were in the mountains. Mike continued talking to us for a while. I couldn’t help but recognize his thick accent. I soon asked him about it. He told me it was his native language of Azeri, which is a Turkic language of the Altaic family, which closely resembles Turkmen. Mike taught us various words of the language. He said that hello means hallo, please means lutf etme˙k, head means kÖp?k, no means xeyir, and that love means sevgili. I found this fascinating. As we all began walking into the city, I saw a huge temple. Mike said that the building is known as Ateshgakh, which is a fire temple that was built in the year of XIX, for ancient people of worshipping. Near this I also saw a man and a women getting married. I overheard much music. According to Mike, he said that Music is a very big part of the country’s culture. I saw instruments such as mugas, which were part of the old folk tradition. So far we are pleased with our stay.
Well it is our third day on the trip. We have just gotten back from a journey to the rural lands of Azerbaijan. We say a long stretch of mountains. Mike told us that they were the Caucus Mountains, which extend for five hundred feet. I couldn’t help but notice that one peak was larger than all the rest. I looked at the country’s brochure in my pocket and it stated that is Mount Bazarduzu, which is at a towering 14,552 feet. I didn’t see any water near by, and I thought how could this growing population survive. Mike told me that the country has two main waterways, which are the Kura and Aras rivers. There was a dam built there in 1953 to redirect the direction of the water. As we got away from the mountains, we found ourselves in a vast area of trees. Mike told us that forests of beechen, oak, and pine cover 13 percent of the country. We also saw much wildlife as well. We saw bear, deep, and wild boar. But because I know the Middle East has been known for its oil, I asked Mike if Azerbaijan had any. He told me that, it is its main resouce. The oil is located mainly offshore beneath the Caspian Sea. Mike told me that the country also has other resources. Mike said they have good sources of iron, copper, lead, zinc, limestone, and salt. The oil is sold to other countries for a lot of money, the iron is used it manufacturing, and the salt is very fine and they sell it to various commercial restaurants. In the middle of our lunch, Mike told me that there are not many tour guides in Azerbaijan. He said that 38 percent of the population works in agriculture which includes forestry and fishing. People go to this after they have joined the military, because every male at age 18 must serve in the military. He said the wealthiest people of the country work in the government. For our documentary I wanted to what the country’s Gross National Product was. I looked it up in our brochure and I came to realize that it is somewhere around 3,300 dollars.
It is our 4th day in Azerbaijan. I gave Mike the day off, so Todd and I decided to stroll the city of Baku, which is also the country’s capital. As we walked out of our hotel, I signaled for a cab. Todd brought to my attention that all the roads were paved. We got into the cab and the cab drivers name was Tom. Surprisingly enough, he spoke English fluently. He told us that the transportation system in Azerbaijan is very inadequate for the country’s needs. But he said many people walk from places to places. Tom mentioned to me that the country has sixty nine airports and said there is a railroad which the country relies on that goes through Georgia. I told our cab driver how much it cost to fly from Los Angeles to Baku. And his mouth dropped when I told him it cost 1529 dollars for one person. I had a great experience on this trip.
It is our fifth day, and we are going to leave the journal in the hotel for a few weeks. I have learned a lot over the past few days. Azerbaijan is fascinating and friendly. However, I did meet people who did not like us just because we were from the United States. We have encountered much and hope to keep doing so. We will leave our journal and personal necessities in the hotel because we are going camping in the mountains. We will be there for about a week and we hope to come back with great footage of the country, which can fascinate the people of the United States. We will be back soon, but for now so long.
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