She wears a lot of hats during the high season, preparing 1,200 jars of pickled cucumbers and another 1,800 jars of ajika (spicy dip to flavor food), and cooking 40 pieces of pirozhki (hand-sized yeast-leavened buns) per hour. With only a 60 minutenap during the day, her non-stop working hours start before dawn, at around 4:00 am, and last till twilight, up to 6 pm. Furthermore, she neatly sets out shelled hazelnuts into six different groups, moves through the whirling roads of her village, making use of agritourism opportunities and planning Günel’s future.
A resident of Kebeloba, a rural settlement in Azerbaijan’s northwestern administrative district Zagatala, and a beneficiary of the EU’s project Development of sustainable and inclusive local agri-food systems in the north-west region of Azerbaijan, Ilhama Musayeva speaks of the good people she has come across, the application of skills, the hopes she has pinned on agritourism, and the ways of implementing her plans for the upcoming spring.
It was almost ten o’clock in the evening when I planned to call Ilhama. It’s not too late I thought to myself…. and when we were saying goodbye and wishing each other sweet dreams, it was past 11 pm. Four hours later Ilhama was supposed to wake up and start working at the hearth.
Our phone call went like clockwork as if the Almighty wished so. It turned out that I called when bingo! – it was between 10 pm and midnight when Ilhama was having a break time. She had folded the dough for 200 pieces of pirozhki and left their stuffing – boiled potatoes – to cool off.
Dough that is rolled out with devotion…
I am cooking pirozhki from four till eight o’clock in the morning. Then Günel and I will go to the town to deliver the turnout, and on the way, I will take Günel to school. At nine o’clock in the morning, I have to be at the hazelnut facility. My work there finishes at six o’clock in the evening. I go home with Günel, fold the dough, and boil potatoes. I started cooking pirozhki this autumn. In the beginning, my pirozhkis were coming out hard versus soft. Then I spoke with another baker, a person I know. Could you imagine what she advised me to do? She said: “Ilhama when you fold the dough dispel even the slightest doubt that you will have hard pirozhkis in the end. Rather do your job with devotion and love.” I followed her advice. You wouldn’t believe it but my pirozhkis turn out soft like cotton, although I stuff them with copious amounts of mashed potatoes. I used to buy potatoes for 1.2 manats (roughly 65 euro cents) per kilo, but now I get them for 45 manat cents (roughly 24 euro cents) per kilo from the same person in the village. We got a deal that he would grow potatoes and I will buy his entire harvest. I need to make a choice either in favour of the pirozhki business or the hazelnut job. If the former goes well, I will leave the hazelnut facility since I am very tired and would like to concentrate on the better of the two. Hazelnuts are a tough job to handle. Because I have to sort out hazelnuts all day and everything goes dark before my eyes by the end of working hours at the facility. We sort out hazelnuts into six categories: small-sized ones, broken ones, rotten ones, buta-shaped (almond cone-shaped), unripe, and incomplete (variety). The hazelnut facility allows me to earn 11 manats (roughly six euros) on a day-labour basis, while every piece of pirozhki means seven manat cents (roughly four-euro cents) of income. So my daily earnings are 25 manats (13 to 14 euros). That’s not a small amount, may the Almighty bestow more on us. If I manage to increase the daily demand to 200 pieces of pirozhki, then I will have my plans for the summer materialised.
I used to wake up at six o‘clock in the morning. When the demand for pirozhkis started to go up, I grew accustomed to waking up at four o’clock. The other day I had plenty of work to do and figured out that I wouldn’t be able to bake 40 pieces of pirozhki per hour so I had to call Günel earlier than usual to help me. Hungry people stay hungry because they fail to roll up their sleeves and, consequently, they have a longer sleep. I never feared doing any work.
The Kebeloba Bride
Although I performed well in secondary school, I could not acquire tertiary education due to financial constraints. On the other hand, I was always smart and brisk. Perhaps these personality traits are in my genes. My mom was a deputy, an elected member of the local soviet district council, then she was the director of farming operations. My grandpas were hard-working men of courage. Since I lost my dad at an early age, I helped my mom to manage our household. I came as a bride to Kebeloba when I was 28 years old. My husband used to own a business and made good money out of it. So he did not allow me to work but I took care of our kids from his first marriage. They lost their mother at a young age and I did my best to be a decent, loving, and caring replacement. Unfortunately, our family business became somehow unprofitable, and that put Chingiz, my husband, in a pensive mood. Then I started knitting and crocheting to partake in paying the family bills. This all happened before Günel was born. After her birth we faced another hardship – medical treatments further impoverished us. It was a hard time – we could barely make both ends meet. Once Günel fell seriously sick. She was only four years old. I was standing in front of a pharmacy holding a doctor’s prescription to buy medication worth 60 manats (32 to 33 euros) and did not know what I could do since I did not have a penny. I told the pharmacist that my husband was doing his best to keep our family so I would not show the prescription to him but rather earn that money myself. The pharmacist asked me if I could make pickles. That was a chance since pickles were required for the wedding party of the pharmacist’s daughter. I did it, making five jars of pickles and the pharmacist covered the missing 25 manats (13 to 14 euros) as a sign of good luck. It all started from there – before the wedding party took place I started accepting new orders. My husband was still against me earning money. This was upsetting for him.. I told him that we were getting older, and nobody could predict which of us would outlive the other. Meanwhile, there was Günel, and she did not come to this world to stay either beside him or me when any of us passed away. We had to make arrangements for her education. In addition, I wanted my husband to have peace of mind because I was – and am still – not in the mood to dictate the game and my conditions and impose them on him. Furthermore, I would deal only with the wives of customers. Chingiz listened, got to understand my intentions and eventually agreed.
There was a great love binding us. This is how we got along with each other until he passed away. He was a very good person.
The ‘Aha!’ that lifts mountains…
I did not do anything after the loss of Chingiz, for my life bonds were in shreds. I felt lonely and abandoned. There was not anybody around to help and support me. I was totally demoralised and despondent. My hands were swollen and went numb. I could not even go out. Then I came across a female acquaintance of mine. “Ilhama, what is going on? Why did you let yourself get out of hand?” – she asked, adding “You must build up, bounce back and stand firmly on your own feet. Something worse might have happened. You have to raise your daughter. Don’t tell me you are powerless. Stand up and tell yourself that you are powerful. Ask the Almighty for strength and a job to help yourself as well as the people around you.” Her words kind of excited and awakened me to life. Within exactly one week, I was a different person – every morning I stood in front of the mirror telling myself ‘Ilhama you are strong, you can do it, you must raise your child yourself and you cannot die and have other people in charge of your daughter.’ You would not believe it, but it really worked. I managed to bounce back, and I started to feel my hands. They have not swollen ever since. The portrait of a new, stronger Ilhama was traced out. That year I prepared 1,200 jars of pickled cucumbers, and 1,800 jars of ajika. I slept only an hour per day. The number of customers was on the rise, and I earned 16,000 manats (around 8,670 euros) during six months. Moreover, it took half a year for me to finish the interior plastering works in the incomplete house my late husband and I once built. Our elder children married.
Those six months were a turning point in my life. So many good people emerged to lend me a helping hand. Saadat Dibirova is one of them. I teamed up with her under an EU Project. We complement each other. She inspires me and gives me the impetus to carry on. She keeps saying, ‘The Aha feeling can make you leapfrog to the top or pull you down.’ This is definitely a clear case as far as my personal life goes. Your ideas and intentions are crucial. What you think of doing gets materialised in the end.
Business woman
This year I changed the profile of my business after joining the EU project and got involved in agritourism. I’ve received a certificate in acknowledgment of attending three training courses. The project has decorated the interior design of my house, spending 10,000 manats (around 5,420 euros) on a TV set, a multi-split type air conditioner, a couch, an armchair, four wooden beds, a wardrobe, and a small refrigerator.
Consequently, last summer my house accepted tourists twice. The first group was a family of seven members, the other visitors – couples – came from Russia.
Now I am working round the clock to earn money to build a pool in our courtyard, a summer balcony, and a kitchen. Also, I want to keep domestic fowl and rabbits to add some fun to the lives of visiting kids.
My greatest desire is to contribute to our rural community. Mina Nazirova is a well-known hero who lived long ago in our village. Samad Vurghun, Azerbaijan’s prominent folk poet dedicated a poem to her, while Zeynab Khanlarova, the country’s greatest soprano composed and performed a song in Mina’s glory. I want to continue that tradition and build a road leading to Kebeloba. Frankly, a 700-meter road section needs to be asphalted. The existing road is in a desolate state and is gradually washed down by heavy rains. We need good road conditions to develop agritourism. I go to the district centre every day and take Günel to and from school. I have another big dream – that’s to arrange for my daughter to get an excellent education. I take her to all events to understand what toil is all about, for she needs to be astute, to build and secure her place in life. I am happy with my life and do believe that where there is a will, there is a way.