the last 5 weeks

The last few weeks have been crazy busy, hence the absence of any new news on the blog. I just haven’t had any time to sit down and write, so now I will attempt to get the last 5 weeks into a somewhat cohesive fashion and make it manageable to read (aka not too detailed).
After our trip to Yerevan, the next day me and my fellow villagers walked over to the neighboring village of Karashamb to help them with their community project. They are all TEFLs and were teaching American children’s games and the corresponding English with them. Im not sure the kids actually learned any English but we had a great time playing with them!
The next significant event was the following weekend when we had our 4th of July celebration. It was mandatory for each village to do some sort of celebration and we decided after the fun in Karashamb with the kids we would do American games with our village youngins as well as a BBQ feast. Robyn, Marisa and I went into town to buy any food that was somewhat American to prepare for our feast. We planned to make hamburgers, hot dogs, chicken and veggie sishkebabs, potato salad, salsa, apple pie and brownies. Buying ground meat was an interesting experience but we did become best friends with the meat man. We made this happen mostly because he was working in a black netted shirt that had flowers on it. So it was see through and he was letting all of Armenia drink him in. Free samples of him to anybody that was wanting it. ha. Unfortunately I didn’t have my camera that day, but the following week when we returned with a camera the stars had aligned for us and he was once again wearing our favorite teenage girl night clubbing shirt. And we jumped on the opportunity to take a photo with him.!
Back to our celebration of America’s independence in a foreign land. I made the potato salad, salsa and brownies. The first two were fairly easy with the ingredients we found, however, brownie making in Armenia was a challenge for even my superior baking skills. Arent we all used to the delicious Ghiradelli boxed brownies these days? Yes, I know it, because even my mother who is a superior baker actually uses those boxed brownies. So brownies from scratch,. Hmmm. And in a country that doesn’t have baking chocolate, baking powder or vanilla extract in liquid form. Well, with substitutions of hot cocoa, powdered vanilla and foregoing the need for baking powder I would like to say that they turned out quite delicious. Minus the fact that there is only one size baking pan in Armenia and we tried to make a barrier to only have the mixture cover ѕ f the pan. Obviously that didn’t work while it was baking in my family’s oven which is comparable to a 8 year olds Easy Bake Oven so some parts became quite crispy. No biggie, Armenians have never had brownies and didn’t know the difference. And we Americans were so thrilled for anything besides the tasteless cake here that we scarfed it down. My host mother did praise my mixture and of course then wanted to name three suitable Armenian men she knew that would love for me to marry them. “Oh you would make such a great Armenian wife!” ha. Lovely offer, but I think I’ll pass.
Our games with the village children were a blast. We played four square, hopscotch, red light green light, did potato sack races, three legged races, relays with hula hoops and of course a water balloon toss. All were a blast! The kids had so much fun and have continued over the past weeks to ask us daily when we can play again.
We ran home to finish preparing the food. Then came the daunting task of actually BBQing. Our volunteers to do the grilling were confused by the fact that we didn’t have charcoal, lighter fluid or anything else that would have made this task the easy and fun event that it usually is in the states. So with bunches of kindling, Armenian assistance we got a raging fire going and cooked our food with some ease (read: this was an experience I think none of us want to go through again). The Armenians were mostly afraid of our food, especially the hamburgers but after eating we broke out the sparklers we had bought and what a mighty fine time we had with them. I don’t think that something as trivial as a sparkler has made me turn into a giddy 8 year old girl so easily in a very long time. Slip n slides will of course do it every time, but these sparklers were right there with it. And for all of us they had the same effect. We frolicked around and went through the 100 sparklers very quickly. A lovely ending to our Independence Day.
This was after our celebration, but this photo was taken to convey one of our favorite lines that has come out of our language classes. One of our teachers, the young, very fun and lively adorable one, Satenik, who we love very much, we often joke with when anything slightly off happens in class. At which point we then put our hands on our hips, cock our heads and say, “Saaaaaaatenik”. This photo embodies the ridiculousness.
Tuesday July 6 our Technical Training was awesome. We were taken north to Dilijan to hike in the national preserve and learn about the environmental issues surrounding that area. Generally, Armenians like their nature but they value it in a very different way then most Americans. Being in nature and appreciating it involves going into the forest (not very deep) and having a horovats. Sometimes they will pick up their trash, and then leave. So while it is absolutely beautiful, the idea of hiking and going far off a road seems completely ludacris. We did have a tour guide who was not of this thinking, and a professor of ecology and preservation and legitimately loves nature and being in it. So it was very fun to go with him and hear about the issues and get to see some beautiful scenery. We saw a cool statue, climbed a staircase, found wild strawberries, were generally impressed by our teacher and her friend who managed to wear business attire into the forest and not get dirty at all, went into a sweet cave, tried to take a normal photo and then a jumping photo and then took the classic Peace Corps photo. Twas lovely. We also got to stop at Lake Sevan when we were heading home which was fun for the very brief time that we got to be there. Just seeing a large body of water made me feel more comfortable in this land locked country. Of course there was more display of the serious safety issues that take place here.
The next day a few of us headed over to one of the villages hosting PCVs, Arzakan, and meet some others to hike to the monastery there. Straight uphill, but not very long of a walk from the middle of the village and awesome. It reminded me of the movie, “The Man from Snowy River” with the little cottage above the monastery and the cattle driver there on his horse. The monastery is sorta in ruins but very neat. We sat down and powwowed for a few hours inside. While we gossiped two Armenian boys were trying to climb the inside wall. When they finally accepted defeat realizing that they never would in fact be successful at scaling the wall since they were lacking Spiderman skills came to sit in on our conversation. Of course they do not understand any of it, but kept creeping closer to try to listen in. It was quite entertaining. Oh Armenia.
Next came site announcement and then site visit. This is when all of the volunteers are told where they will be spending the next two years, if they don’t bail. We have only lost 3 so far who are once again are enjoying American accommodations and hopefully Mexican food that I am craving like no other. So I am headed to Syunik Marz which is waaaay down south. Remember that Armenia is only the size of Maryland but from Yerevan it took in a packed van with no air conditioning 6 hours. There are lots of volunteers that will be in that marz but from the top of the marz to where I am takes at least 3 hours so we will be quite spread out. I am very excited though because my bestie here in the Peace Corps is very close to me so that will be awesome. There are also two guys that will be in the city that we are close to and there are previous volunteers there also. These are all things that are reassuring to me since I am in a tiny village and technically right now still don’t have a family. And since I am moving there in 5 days, well, it is just nice to know that there will be some other Americans somewhat nearby.
My village is nice though, and Syunki Marz has amazing landscape and absolutely terrifying switchback roads on the mountains that the drivers have no fear of. My first night there I spent in the village in a room with three other women over the age of 60. Interesting. The next day I went to see the school and it is a very nice school. The nicest one that I have seen yet actually and they are very proud of it and super excited to have me there working with them. I think on top of teaching environmental/nature science I will help with English teaching and also be the gym teacher because as they put it “I look in form”. Sure, I’ll teach these kids how to play volleyball and table tennis, incidentally the two sports that I’ve really never played. Maybe I’ll fundraise for the installation of a pool. After the school visit I did get to meet for about 3 minutes the people that apparently are going to be my host family except they don’t have any accommodations for me currently so they are remodeling, which to me looked like them just building a new house. However, construction was delayed (something about the roof) and I wont be able to move in until October. Hmm, where will I stay for the first two months? This is still up for debate. I am told there are options, but we shall see where I end up. Then I was shuttled off to the woods with a bunch of the teachers from the school, my counterpart and her entire family and my director at the school and his son and a friend. About 20 of us in the woods, horovatsing for approximately 9 hours. At the end of the night I did do my part to start their environmental education and went around picking up the trash that they nonchalantly had tossed into the woods and what had been previously accumulated. The small children became excited by what I was doing and jumped right in to help. So maybe I have all ready started to impact them? Meh. So I return to the village and one of the ladies I had stayed with the night before who also works at the school, Merita, asked if I wanted to go to Kapan. Um, sure. So the three tatiks and I piled into a car and were driven into Kapan where I stayed the next two nights on a rock hard pull out couch in a one bedroom apartment. It was also unbareably hot. And the next morning since I was in the city I wanted to go see the other volunteers in Kapan, but nooooooo. I was once again whisked away to the woods, this time there was at least a river nearby so I went adventuring but I think they thought I was going to fall off a rock and drown in the three feet of water. I sorta pretended that I didn’t know what they were saying to me and just went on my merry way. No biggie. They do have really cool spiky red algae here in the rivers and fresh water crabs. I did see one but my picture was way too blurry since it was under the water. Frogs are everywhere and quite a few butterflies and dragonflies and of course the gutted out frame of a car on the opposite river bank. I was somewhat baffled by how it had gotten there. I sorta swam with the kids and taught one of the older ones how to skip rocks and thankfully this activity didn’t end miserable for the little 2 year old girl who kept trying to catch the rocks.
This was a pretty fun time, but another nine hours later I finally was taken back to the apartment and given time to do the mountains of homework that I had. Oh and I think I called Mom and bitched about the situation for about an hour. So thanks for that support Mom. I returned to Yerevan without any serious physical or psychological damage (at least evident to me) and I am sure/crossing my fingers that everything will turn out marvelous.
July 16 started out with language class. Our homework the night before had been to create an invitation to a party since we had just learned Subjunctive. Robyn and I had quite a blast creating cards. Mine was an awesome pop-up wedding invitation for the first two volunteers who have become an “item” and of course we ruthlessly tease them so the invitation which none of you will be able to read was a bit snarky, but still hilarious. So this is the classroom that I spent the last 5 weeks learning Hajeren in. Fun times!
After class we had another PCV field trip to go see Garni Temple and Geghard Monastery which is up north about an hour and a half. Garni is (if I remember correctly) a 3rd Century temple that is pretty neat and based off Greek temples. There is also the ruins of a church there and stellar views of the surrounding countryside. It was a beautiful day to be there and we embraced the opportunity after moseying around to have a beer overlooking the deep gorge. We drove to Geghard Monastery and it was awesome. I first ventured with a few of the boys up off the path to some caves which turned out to be very cool with pictographs and some sort of old dwellings actually being built into the cave. Keep in mind that I was in sandals and a skirt doing this which proved to be a bit challenging on the way back down the mountainside. As I managed to make it down to the bottom and start heading up to the monastery there was a wedding party heading in which was quite the procession. This monastery is massive also, at least relative to the other churches I have been to so far. I will let the pictures do most of the talking for this monastery.
As we left the monastery on the backside was another mountain that of course many of us wanted to climb up. I decided against this adventure but did head up a little ways up to a cave and as we crossed over the river we had the delightful treat of seeing some ridiculous parasite crawling out of a cricket. It was one of the most disgusting and painful looking and at the same time awesome things I have ever seen.
The next morning the Environmental Ed volunteers were taken to Lake Sevan again to do some bird watching. This proved to be quite exciting and we saw some awesome birds, but mostly unphotographable.
That evening we had a kickball game against the volunteer group that has all ready been here for a year, A-17ers because they were all together in a city for their mid=service exams. They claim to still be undefeated but we would say that most of the game was unfairly called due to the umpire being one of their volunteers. No hard feelings.
However this place was amazing, the city is very modernized and we went to a huge sporting gym that had a pool, albeit it was empty, but had platform diving boards all the way up to a 10 meter! And there was gymnastic equipments, punching bags, basketball court and a legit locker room. Needless to say that we are excited to be there for our midservice next year.
Monday the 19th was Robyn’s birthday so we had a little party for her at her house equipped with copious amounts of delicious cake cooked by her lovely harses that had edible glitter on it. At least we think it was edible.
Monday also started our model school. As environmental education volunteers we had a pretty wide range of options on what we wanted to teach. We had to team teach 5 lessons and then two individual in English and then the last two days we taught in Armenian with no translators. I thought it was a blast, a bit difficult at times because we really have no idea what the students know at certain ages but on a whole we did a pretty awesome job of getting the kids engaged and excited about whatever we were talking about. And an excellent job of teaching in Armenian and pretending to know what was going on when the students asked us in depth questions or were having a discussion. Praise in a classroom has never been so easy to give as when you have no idea if they answered the question correctly or not. We became a little delirious by the end of the two weeks and most of the students think we are the craziest people ever. They might be on to something though.
We had a ceremony for them on Saturday to congratulate them on making it through the two weeks with us. I have never seen children so excited for a certificate for completing something but it was nice to see their excitement and dedication for coming to school in the summer completely of free will. Or to gawk at the Americans. Some of the students are absolutely adorable, and then some, just as in America, are a bit too self-important. While model school was fun we were definitely thrilled to have it come to an end and did a bit of celebrating by heading to our favorite site in town “the bridge”.
Oh, we also had a pool party last weekend at one of the EE's houses which was amazing. I felt complete again swimming!
PST is winding down. Our language exam is tomorrow and on Thursday we have our Swearing in Ceremony and Friday we are shuttled off to our sites to begin our two year service. Excitement and nervousness are mainly the feelings I have right now, but it will also be very sad to depart from this village and leave the Americans we have bonded with over the past few months. The next two years will be very different and undoubtedly challenging with language, culture differences and whatever else will be thrown at us but I am sure we will all manage supremely.
I hear that calling, and I am picking up the phone! (that was for you Dom)