The Village I am From

“What village are you from?”
“San Francisco…It’s in California. You know where California is?”
“Um, yes. Yes.” Narin’s hair is pulled back. She wears a dress, khaki-colored, collared, which hangs slightly below her knees. It reminds me of a dress I could find at H&M. Her skin is pale, calm like her.
“What does your father do?” translates Narin for her mother, Sevinj.
Thumbing for the answer, I point to the screaming televised soccer game. Except when the electricity is out, the television is on, usually with a Turkish serial or a dubbed American cartoon. “Television.” Whether he is a small-time producer or a famous actor, I can’t explain. But it doesn’t matter. “Yaxşı.” This, I know, means “Good.”
“What does your mother do?”
“She is a housewife,” I say, to reduce the length of the explanation. This satisfies her mother who is also a housewife. Narin opens her eyes widely and says, “She likes you.”
The boys, seven and 13, are shy and don’t make eye contact with me until their father Saiq says I should ask them questions in English. “How old are you?” “What’s your name?” “Where are you from?” Narin answers them all in perfect English sentences. “My father wants to know how’s my English.”
“Amazing,” I tell Narin. And like my oldest host brother’s fear to speak English I do not want to say, “Belli,” the word I think means excellent. I haven’t yet spoken a word of Azerbaijani, and she asks me what I know in her language. I can only remember a quarter of the words I’ve learned language class and I can’t yet muster a word.

Three weeks later and I am formulating sentences on my own. They are slow coming: “Men…yeti…yox,…Men… sahar sәhәr… palter…paltar… yumaram—yox.” “Tomorrow, I will wash my clothes,” I try. “Yumaceyem,” corrects my host mother. Damn future tense. She understands. Today Saiq told me that my Azeri accent is good. This gives me confidence and motivation to really focus on my four-hour daily language lessons. I feel like a two-year-old: frustrated, unable to communicate the food I need. But holy Hell, I am speaking Azeri.