Wednesday, August 4th, we were given a free day to do as we please. It was advised to hang out with our families and get a start on packing. Being of the procrastinator sort of course I did not start this task and instead decided to go on a 7 hour hike. This was intense. I had heard from our village mayor that there was a church above Teghenik up in the mountains, and then at the top of the mountain there were ruins of a fortress/monastery. Some volunteers from the neighboring villages had attempted this hike a few weeks earlier and said it was awesome so we decided it needed to be done before departing from our PST villages. 8 of us met at the khanoot for 10am departure, however, we were held up and finally departed closer to 11. The weather had not been too bad earlier in the week, but by 11 we could tell it was going to be one of the hotter days we had had in awhile.
Thankfully there was only one psycho fitness person in the group so we were able to take breaks for rest and water on the way up. As we climbed up the mountain road we left the village below and at about 1200ft above it we encountered the church.
This is a very small church but apparently visited quite often by people and daily by the local sheep and goat herd. We found the shepherd asleep under a tree as we approached and tried not to wake him as we refreshed ourselves in the mountain stream there but he awoke and offered us vodka. Go figure. “Thank you sir, but we are hiking this mountain here and vodka shots might deter us.” Shockingly he was all right with this.
So we chatted with him for awhile and then went around the other side of the church to where a small trail was visible and started the ascent to the top of the mountain.
This became a climb. Literally at some points we were on rock faces pulling ourselves up over them and then scrambling to make sure we didn’t roll down the mountainside. We also had two guys that were afraid of heights and were not excited about this part of the hike. But the view became more spectacular as we climbed up.
The 8 of us that were hiking were representing 5 PST villages and from the mountain we could see all of the training villages. Since it was warmer that day there was a pretty thick haze and we could not make out Mt. Ararat, bajts vochinch. We reached the top by going around the rock wall and climbing up from the back of the fortress. It was awesome. From the fortress we could see the entire valley where we had all been living the last 10 weeks and on the other side, of course, more mountains. But to my amazement there was also a marsh/bog/wetlands looking thing. I found this very interesting since earlier in language classed I had asked the word for this ecosystem and none of the teachers knew what I was talking about at all. “Those don’t exist here.” Allll righty then.
We picnicked at the top gazing out into the mountainous openness and then adventured around. The ruins of the fortress made it look like the length was about 75 meters and about 15 meters wide with sections for rooms on the side looking out into the valley. What is left of it is a foundation of rocks that all had to be brought there and formed into a beautiful rock wall averaging about 3 meters tall now and what I imagine continued on up as a structure. The formation is still exquisite and many of the rocks now are covered with moss adding to the grandiose. It as we climbed up onto it, it reminded me of how I imagine Narnia to have been. Oh yes, Joy’s little dog started following us from the khanoot and made it all the way up the mountain with us. We were all truly impressed (and some were maybe a little bitter that we had to share our water with him).
From the top of the fortress we could see a road that led up to where we were so we decided to take this back down instead of fumbling down the rock cliff.
We encountered a huge locust about 5 inches long + his antennae.
We had a few people wanting to venture down the mountain since the road was taking us away from the village, and so with much discussion 4 went down the mountain, and the other four stayed atop to trek through on the road. I was a part of this group of 4 along with the two guys afraid of heights, Tylor and Joseph, and Scott. So we continued on the road, and then SURPRISE the road ended. It just ended into open rolling fields of wildflowers and what we would soon find out were stickers.
Stickers and burrs and thistles everywhere. WE were not able to escape these and I can definitely say I have never had so many stickers on me at once. We were needing to stop every 5 minutes because they were invading our socks and making it quite uncomfortable for the three of us that were in shorts.
Finally we saw a man made tower and decided, where there is a tower there must be a road. However, I got the idea that we should just head down the hill to the road we could see below (far far below) and intersect it there. Also, at this point we could see the other group down on the road. The only problem was there was a huge foresty patch of trees between us and the road (and about a 1000 ft elevation difference). The other group saw us and called me, willing to coax us down the hill and give us directions to make it through the least thick patch of forest. Well, he had good intentions but we mostly ignored his advice and went through the thicket. It was ridiculous.
Thick underbrush complemented with rocks, more thistles, huge spiders, and cliffs had us slithering through the forest and on more than one occasion I was crawling to get through the minimal space provided. Now remember that I was in shorts because it was hot and I had thought we would be on a road or at least a trail the entire time. No. I headed into the forest trailblazing for the rest of the group with them warning behind me to at least take a “spider stick”. I forged on sans spider stick and trying to ignore the abundance of stickers still lodged in my socks and the scratches I was gaining with every step. Clearly I am alive since I am writing this, but at times it felt very Blair Witchy and we really had no idea what we were doing or where we were going. No serious damage was done to any of us though, we found a clearing, and then a road, and then high fived for prevailing against the mountain.
Right as we hit the top of the village a woman doing her laundry called us into her compound to look at her flowers. I at first thought I would have appreciated water more but they turned out to be Dahlias: my favorites!
I snapped a few shots and then she gave me a large bouquet that was simply gorgeous. We rejuvenated with some ice cream at the first available khanoot since they were lacking any water “sans gas”. And no sensible amerikatsi enjoys carbonated water.
We finally made it home, about 7 hours after departure. I have not been that exhausted in a long time, however, I had the tiring task of doing my laundry so that I would have fresh and clean clothes for the trip to my site. I thought this to be a good idea since I still had no idea what kind of a situation I was getting into at my site. That was followed by a celebratory beer at the bridge to congratulate ourselves on completing PST and reminisce about the past 10 weeks together in this glorious country.
Thursday was our swearing in ceremony. Before the ceremony I spotted my Project Manager (the man I was supposed to be harassing about finding me a host family at site) and finally he had good news for me! Margaux was no longer to be an orphan. Whew.
(last marshutni ride into Charentsavan)
(with Tylor beforehand)
with the Karashamb youngins and Teghenik.prom style
My Armenian language teachers
with Darryn before the ceremony. Whenever we are alphabetized (14 hour plane rides and swearing in ceremonies) we get to sit next to each other. He is an excellent and entertaining partner to have for these events.
With the Country Director and Nick Bruno (who does something really important in country but not sure what is actual title is)
Many of our host families from training and anyone involved in our training with Peace Corps came to the ceremony and we were sworn in as Armenia’s 18th group of volunteers by Madame Ambassador.
She had very positive words of encouragement and advice to make our service as productive as possible as well as heavy congratulations for us. As we crossed the stage to receive our certificate and Peace Corps Armenia pins we took a photo with her individually and then collectively as a group. This is the photo that will go up in the embassy as well as in Washington next to all the country assignments and volunteers who have been sworn in over the years. Woot.
Me with my host mama
There was much congratulations from all the families, our teachers and even some of the school children we had taught showed up.
With my extended host family
Robyn and Me with our Tech Trainer Piruza
My favorite man in Armenia. Vahajan our Safety and Security Officer
Me with Austin. He was one of the volunteers who did a speech in Armenian during the ceremony. Smarty pants.
With our Language Coordinator Armine
Tylor, Peter, Robyn and Me. The greatest Hajeren Language class group ever.
Afterwards we were “initiated” by the A-17 volunteers and headed to our favorite café for one more afternoon together before departing to our sites where most likely there would be no American around for kilometers. We had a great time, except for when I was offered Veggiemite to try. This is how one of the former vegetarians has attempted to stay mostly vegetarian. No thank you. It was disgusting and so I will continue to eat the Armenian meat.
I enjoyed a delicious last supper with my Teghenik host family and then spent the majority of the night packing up.
It is shocking how many things I have accumulated in country. It is mostly books and other teaching supplies but because of it I did not give a real concerted effort to conserve space for the trip to site.
Friday morning, August 6th we all met at the school and piled into our designated vehicles for the trip. I was with one other girl heading south so we piled our luggage into one taxi and ourselves into another for the 7 hour drive. The 7 hours of course includes the 6 stops we made on the way: cigarette/scenery break, 2 breakdowns (1 for each car), 2 gas stops, and one very quick eatery stop. All in all we had a pretty great ride down. I did get a little nervous as we made it into Kapan, the large southern town approximately 20 km from my site, and realized the taxi driver had no idea where he was taking me in the village and neither did I! hastily I called my PM, no answer. I got ahold of another high-up guy who found my PM and we got it sorted out.
My host father/brother since I think he is about my age, met us at the gate and directed us to the house. Our compound is pleasantly situated off the main road and very close to the school. I piled out of the car with my bags and bags of stuff and was greeted by my host mother (actually the age of a mother) and my host “mother”/sister. Since this was the first time to their home I was very eager to meet them and of course to not offend them. So when I was immediately handed a cup of coffee to drink, errr, I drank it. This is the first coffee product I have had in years, and the first time I have EVER drank coffee all by itself. Ugh. And since my body doesn’t deal with caffeine I was pretty much cracked out for the rest of the evening. Hopefully I didn’t creep them out too much.
The family dynamic here is much different than it was in Teghenik. The couple just got married three months ago and I assume they are between 24-30ish. Armen is the man and works on construction projects in the village and surrounding areas.
Ira is the wife and she works in Kajaran, the smaller city on the other side of the village from Kapan She is such a sweetheart. Ira’s mother, Svetlana or Sveta, lives with us and I am pretty sure speaks Russian constantly because I can barely understand anything she is saying.
Usually she works in Kajaran also but hurt her leg somehow so for the time she is at home most of the time being the house wife. Ira’s younger sister, Gayineh who is 22, also lives with us but works in Kapan every day so I really only see her in the evening. She appears to be quite the jokester and tells the most animated stories.
Collectively the family is fantastic. They seem to be much happier and have lots of fun with each other. It might be that the majority of the household is women, later generation of marriage, the region or just that this family in this village is incredibly happy. Regardless of the reason it is fun to just sit with them and watch them interact because even though I am not understanding much of their dialect it has made me happy being around them and their happiness. Not to be too sappy but it is comforting since I am the only American for miles and the majority of the people down here have never encountered an American and very sporadically even any western foreigner.
The next day I unpacked and relaxed. I adventured around the rest of the compound but did not have the need to leave and trek through the village. I decided on this because the evening when I arrived I asked where the khanoot was and the reply: “khanoot chka”. There is no store. There is no store? WTF. This goes along with the fact that there are about 100 people in my village, I think making it one of, if not the smallest village that any volunteer is currently serving in. This has some ups and downs, but does mean that for anything I will need to go into Kapan. So no store means I stayed hung around the house and played with our dog. Another reason I like this family, the dog is legitimately our dog. He is actually named, Tiger (pronounced Teeger), has a dog house, a collar and is fed and given water on a regular basis.
As you walk down the stairs from the house you encounter the chicken coop which has 10 chickens and one large majestic rooster who cock-a-doodle-dos in the morning about 10 ft away from where my sleeping head rests. And he goes through waves during the day of crowing repeatedly for 5 minutes nd then taking a rest. This continues all day long.
Their coop connects with the outhouse. When I say outhouse I mean outhouse. The toilet is not a squat (thankfully) but it just runs into the ground (yummy). There is a tub with a shower head (thankfully) but the shower head is about 5 feet off the ground so I am doing squats the entire time(fun times).
The trees in front of the outhouse however, have a hammock.
Delight of my life. It is perfect for sitting and reading, studying, napping or just thinking as it looks up into the mountains adjacent to Dzaghedzor. I have al ready designated it my favorite spot. We have a very nice garden with all sorts of vegetables in it and a few fruit trees also. The living part of our house is only one level which I also like much better. We have a bigger kitchen and eating area connected with it which connects to a big living room.
This living room is doubling, or tripling, as the bedrooms for Sveta and Gayineh now. I fear that them taking me in has pushed them out of their bedroom and out there. Which is incredible if the two of them were sharing my room. It is a very nice room with a big window and stays very cool this time of year. It is about 1/3 of the size of my room in Teghenik though, but I have made do perfectly fine.
Next to my room is Ira and Armen’s room which is very spacious and they are currently doing some renovations on it, I think trying to put more shelving in. Maybe because now that one room is where all the rest of the families possessions and clothing are being stored?
T
The food here has been a little different, but still very good. Instead of the thin tortilla like lavash that accompanied every meal in Teghenik more as a vessel than actual food, here Ira makes fresh bread every day. It is delicious, especially when hot out of the oven. They also think of it not really as food and seem somewhat bothered that I don’t want to eat an entire loaf myself. Carb load when all I am doing right now is lazing around? No thanks. They also can not seem to understand that all I want to drink is water. Always. They push juice on me at every meal, and tea and hot cocoa at least three times a day. Which of course is supposed to be accompanied by a basket of cookies going directly into my belly. I just feel terrible though when they bring it to me, or just pour it for me without even asking, so often I drink a little bit of it. Then they get upset. “Why don’t you want to drink this?!” and I rebuttal a half lie that I like it but just some of the time. And in turn they continue to make me drinks and think I should drink them. Vicious cycle.
A positive change are the sunflower seeds. This is something I haven’t written about yet because I have not been a huge fan. But every Armenian is a HUGE fan of sunflower seeds. Everyone grows them and at any given time has stores of them in their house and usually handfuls in their pockets. They roast them and I think it is the only thing they don’t add salt to so they are quite different than David’s ranch creation. However, they are delicious and I have enjoyed eating them here right as they come out of the pan and are still warm and toasted perfectly. I do feel a bit inferior though since Armenians can eat 500 seeds in 5 minutes. This may seem like an exaggeration, but I tell you it is not. They rapidly break them open and in one swoop pull the seed out with their tongue and deposit the shell on a plate as they are reaching for another. My pile of shells looks much more messy and in 5 minutes amounts to nothing comparable with their horde.
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