It was REALLY cold

When I say cold, I mean in your bones, chilled so bad it takes days to warm up again. A good reason for this may be that all day long we were meeting in old school houses and government buildings that had no heat, often times no electricity, no running water - and only on rare occasions, a tiny wood burning stove to heat the whole room. It was cold. But the work was simply fantastic. Amazing. Gratifying. I worked for 3 weeks in the southern-most region of Azerbaijan, near the border with Iran, and traveled to 14 different communities and villages. I listened and spoke with community leaders and various women in these more remote villages about their views on gender issues facing women in Azerbaijan. It was an incredible journey, so the suffering cold and challenging food issues were well worth it. I hope for an opportunity to continue the work began, in some capacity of another, some day in the future.