Im going where for two years?

This week has been rather exciting for numerous reasons. Sunday was a pretty good day as described in the previous post. On Monday after language class we all got together because we had to work on our interviews of the village. Our assignment was to interview two people in the community about a health issue. So we all met together and came up with ten questions. You may think this is easy but think of this. Go to another country and after only 4 weeks of the language come up with ten questions to ask someone and then write it down and then write a report on the subject. This was no easy task. So we came up with ten questions. During this brainstorming session we get a message from our LCFs (Language and Culture Facilitators). There are two for my village, Solak, Irina and Anahit. They are our teachers and also are the ones we talk to if we have any problems or concerns. Also if there are any problems from the Peace Corps office they are the line between us (trainees/volunteers) and Peace Corps.
So last night, I did my interview. One with Armen, a 22 year old that works at the school and my grandmother who is 77. They had very stark contrasts in what they believed. Armen believed in medicine. The grandmother did not. In Armenia the people believe that opening two windows is bad because it creates a draft. Drafts are no good and are apparently the sole source of all transmission of diseases. Even though its eighty degrees outside, the grandmother always wants me to wear a jacket especially if there is a gust. Also it is customary to believe that sitting on the cold ground will leave a woman sterile. Interesting perspectives. I was just trying to conduct an interview so I just wrote things down. The thing that was most interesting was talking about pre and post-soviet times and how healthcare was handled. The grandmother knew much more about this than Armen since Armen was only 1 when the Soviet Union collapsed. I got my interview finished (somehow) and written up.
My other great news is that I have gotten my first cold. I believe i got this cold because one day after school, Armen came up to me and asked him if I would help him carry a door to my house. After a lot of confusing banter back and forth I went with it. I thought I didn’t understand what he was saying because why would someone ask a foreigner to help carry a door. My understanding was correct though so I helped him carry a door. Now the problem with this is that when we started carrying the door, it started raining. You know in Forrest Gump when Forrest is in the Vietnam War and it rained for forty days and he talks about the “big-ol-fat-rain”, yeah well, there was that same rain here. I was wearing a buttom-up shirt and if you can picture this, Armen and I were running with a solid wooden door across the road and on the railroads in the rain. I was soaked when i got home. I had been exhausted that day and decided that I would take a nap but i was wet and when I awoke I had a bad sore throat. I was really excited though because it is the first cold that I have had in Armenia. Weird huh.
Today was really exciting because we found out where we were going to be. I am going to be near Lake Sevan. It is a village with 5100 people and there is actually another volunteer in my village. She has been there for a year already and she is a TEFL, English teacher. There are several others that are very close to me so it will be nice to have that kind of support later on. Mike was disappointed at his site placement because he is in a rather large town (19,600) and close to the second largest city but feels that he will miss out because all his friends are elsewhere in the country. Im not too worried though because I will visit him frequently. Megan is placed not too far from me so that is cool. She is about an hour from Georgia’s capitol and it will cost her 3 dollars to take a train from her site to the capitol. In fact she is closer to the Georgian capitol, T’blisi, than she is to Armenia’s capitol, Yerevan. That will be a nice way to visit Georgia. Mike and I started planning our trips yesterday. The current volunteers said it is a good idea to schedule a trip every six months so that we don’t lose our minds. Sounds like a good idea because taking a regular shower, and not a bucket bath, once a while is something I believe I will start looking forward to. So far, the shower count since June 3rd has been... 3. Ha. I don’t smell bad though... I think. Anyway, Im in good spirits and feel pretty gosh darn good about my site placement. Tomorrow we get to go to Yerevan to visit some NGOs there. One of these days I will need to get a guitar... Until next time.

Love
Me

Different language, same idea

So today (Sunday the 21st), I got the opportunity to go to church. Let me first start off by letting you know what yesterday I got to take a shower. I will start off this entry with an explanation of shower day. Notice how I said day and how I noted it by only including one day. Thats right. I take one bath a week. Im sure you (Amanda) are thinking “wow, I bet he could make my eyes water by the amount of stick he exudes”, but I will have you know that I have a routine. Every morning, before putting on my clothes I take the top off of my old spice stick of deodorant and in order to conserve my deodorant, I only use one swipe. However, if you have ever used Old Spice, you would know that one swipe is all you really need. Also, mid-week, I change the clothes that I wear. I bet you are asking “wow, no shower and no fresh clothes everyday? how in the world do you stay so fresh and so clean (clean)?” Well Ill tell you... the weather here is really dry and I don’t really do too much physically exerting movements during the heat of the day (which is about 75 degrees F). Anyway, I welcome the mid week because I get to put on some fresh threads. Anyway, about the shower... “shower”. Ha.
Saturday is everyone take a bath day. I get to go first (or last depending on if I am in the house or not). There is no running water in the house. In the washroom, there is a small stove (which looks like it is from the 19th century- it actually probably is). It heats up a large cauldron of water up. I take off my skivvies and make a nice mixture of hot and cold water. Then I douse myself with water, lather with soap, and then rinse again. The first time I took a bath, it was pretty gross because cakes of skin came off of my stomach. Since then, I have learned to take mini baths throughout the week to get the natural-everyday sweat off of me. Anyway, enough of that. My body is adjusting (well?) to the lack of bathing. My skin gets really dry and my hair is really dry right after my bath. During the week, my skin is rather hydrated and my hair is not very oily anymore. I guess with everything there is just some time needed to get acclimated.

This morning I woke up at 9:00 and decided that I should go ahead and do my laundry, so like the bath, I got the hot water. Well this time, instead of the cauldron, I went to the kitchen and filled up a pot with water and waited for it to boil. After boiling, I take the hot water to the same wash room and make my luke warm mixture. I mixed in the detergent and then added my clothes and let them soak for ten minutes. I then agitate the water/clothes mixture and then go through two cycles of cold water rinse. When I say two cycles of cold water rinse, I mean I physically take the clothes out, wring them and then run them through the second bucket of cold water. (This is why I don’t change clothes several times a week- you try hand washing clothes and see how tiring it is). After the last “cycle” I go to the clothes line and hang dry my clothes. The first time I did it, I was a little freaked out because the whole town (not really) gets to see what my underwear looks like... Its alright now. Anyway, I am starting to get pretty proficient at doing my laundry.

So, anyway, to the point of this blog and its title. I went to church with my host family this morning. What an experience. At 11:30, we walked to the meeting point of the Marshootni (bus) to take us to church. It was in essence a church bus. In a bus the size of mixture of a 15 passenger van and a regular soccer mom van, we crammed in about 20 people. That’s just what happens here. I got to cram in the front seat with two other full sized men. What an experience. We drove the 25 minutes to the church. Armenia still struggles with the gender roles. As soon as we got to the “church” the women got out and went inside. The men stayed outside and just talked for a while. (This is an aside). The church is usually outside with the mountains in the background, but it rained today so it was inside someone’s house. Literally, someone’s basement was turned into a small congregation hall. It had a little stage. Here is some history. The pastor actually speaks English really well (remember this for the later part of the story-the part about the pastor speaking English well). He tells me about problems with corruption of the country in the post-soviet era. He said that for churches to open in Armenia, a member of the KGB is required to attend the church and all its meetings so instead of doing that, they just meet in a house. (I hope that a member of the KGB doesn’t read my blog and shut down the church). Anyway back to the story... So when the men felt like attending church (keep in mind that the pastor is a man and was outside with us) we went inside. When inside, I heard the women were already singing. The first three rows were reserved for men. The women sit in the back, the men in the front. Different. I sat in the very front row. This is where things get a bit uncomfortable. In Korea since I didn’t know how to sing the songs, I would just hum them. I thought that that was what I was going to do here. Ha. Not so much. The man that spoke English (the pastor- I didn’t know this at the time) came up to the front and stood in front of the man on my left and was actively translating the song into English as the song was being sung. He was singing the song in English over the Armenian. It sounded like he was competing with the Armenian because he was yelling. The whole time I was thinking “what the hell is this guy thinking”. That and “Maybe there will be some weeks he is not here”. I tried to ignore him but their singing went for fifteen minutes straight and you would think about the first song or first 5 min you would stop this act, but no, he went for the whole time. So here is this guy yelling the English words of an Armenian song. If you can picture this in your head you would realize that English words do no sync up exactly with the Armenian. Its like watching an old Jackie Chan movie where he speaks in Chinese and the English lags a little. Anyway, in addition to this, the man was getting right in my face. Now, I want you readers to do a little experiment. Try holding your breathe while humming and do this for fifteen minutes. After about two minutes you will feel like you are about to pass out. Well I had to do this because Mr. Pastor man decided he wasn’t going to use Mr. toothbrush or eat a Mr. peppermint. So to sum everything up, I was about to pass out at the Mr. Pastor man who was way to close to me singing the English translation of an Armenian song. I was sweating because I was feeling rather embarrassed. Not for me, but for him. He wasn’t a very good singer. I know his intentions were good. Oh, it gets worse...
After the singing, the man speaking english got on stage. Up to this point, I hadn’t realized he was the pastor. At this point I realized he would, in fact, be at church every sunday. Anyway, I brought my Bible from the US and wanted to follow along. Well I asked Zora (my host dad) where we were. I thought he said Corinthians. Mr Pastor man saw that we were talking so he decided to stop mid sentence and come and help me out. The man stopped his serman to walk over to me (in the front row). He said it wasn’t Corinthians but Collossians. I apparently couldn’t find it fast enough so he took my Bible, went back on the stage and in complete silence found the book after two minutes of absolute silence and then walked back to me from the stage and explained to me where I had gone wrong in finding the right book. Then I looked at Zora again because I didn’t know what chapter I was supposed to be reading. Fatal mistake number 2. Mr. Pastor decided that he wanted to help again and came back to me (after pausing serman) and point to where we were. He went back to the stage. (Oh, Im not finished yet). He continues his serman for five minutes and then decides that he wants to make sure that I know whats going on. He looks at me, while on stage, and starts to give his serman in English. IM THE ONLY NATIVE ENGLISH SPEAKER. I felt like a total putz because everyone else in the congregation didn’t know what the Pastor was talking about. Finally after five minutes he went back to speaking Armenian and stuck with that. I just kept my head down and just read and just kept reading. I was sweating pretty badly and it certainly didn’t have anything to do with the temperature. The man meant well but that is probably the most uncomfortable I have felt in a long time.

Church ended. I went home and had lunch then I hung out with Mike for the rest of the day. Him and Lisa. I came home around 9 and helped Zora put in the metal rods to get the bean vines to grow up. I called Dad to wish him Happy Father’s Day and now Im going to bed. Wednesday I find out my site. A bit nervous but excited. Wooo. What an experience. There is a church ruin on top of a mountain build in the 8th century that I am excited to hike up to one weekend.

Oh, that pastor that totally embarrassed me is on a team to find Noah’s Ark on Mt. Ararat which is located in Old Armenia or current Turkey/Armeanian border. Thought that was pretty interesting. That is all for now. Im tired and Im going to bed. Until next time.

Love
Me

From the railroad tracks...

After almost two and a half weeks of living with my host family, I am starting to understand somewhat of what they are talking about. With the little bit of language that I am starting to understand and the power of deduction, I am getting the hang of whats going on. I am still continuing to make coffee after some meals. I have cut down on the amount of coffee that I am drinking because I don’t want my blood pressure to go way high (this stems from constant nagging from mom to always be mindful of my blood pressure... guess what... its paying off). I am cutting back on the sweets too. Anyway, as for coffee, this is the typical conversation translated into An-gler-an (English).
My-reek-ee (mother)- do you want coffee (this is after lunch)
Me: do YOU want coffee (and yes, I have figured out how to put the intonation on the correct armenian word)
My-reek-ee: do you want coffee?
Me: I want coffee, if you want coffee
My-reek-ee: I will have coffee
Me: I will have coffee too

Now, this conversation happens everytime there is a chance for coffee. Then I finish it off by asking how many cups I should make. Let me clarify by saying that armenian coffee is served in the espresso sized cups. It is pretty good, but the coffee grounds are at the bottom of the cup (usually as long as you don’t turn the cup all the way upside down, the grinds will stay at the bottom). Anyway, language is coming along...

This week has been hectic. Things are starting to get busier and busier. We had two central days in Charensevan. They are usually long because they are filled with lots of things to do, such as medical class (this week it was STDs and AIDS), S&S (safety and security)- basically don’t do anything stupid. S&S is interesting. Last week we talked about evacuation methods and there is decently thick book given to all of us with numbers and evacuation routes in case there is an emergency. To me... they know what they are doing. It gave me a lot of confidence in this organization when I saw that. Anyway central days usually last from 9am to 6pm with breaks scattered here and there. It is a good time to catch up with the other 5 villages and see how life is. Tomorrow we are meeting back up in the town to play different sports together (american sports). This is just a time to relax and hang out.
We have to plan a Fourth of July celebration for our village. We are meeting with the village mayor on monday. Should be completely awkward. We have to organize it as well as invite our families and friends to attend. We are going to have sparklers... great.
As health volunteers we are to go around the village and seek out potential problematic areas. Now, most of you would say... well, they should replace all the outhouses with indoor plumbing, but that really isn’t a huge health issue. That is what they are used to. Its different but its not bad... to them. (it really isn’t that bad to me either- except for in the middle of the night, when I have to put on my shoes and jacket to quietly sneak out of the house by walking to the door, unlocking it, and trying to awkwardly find my way to the outhouse in the dark. (At least there is a light in the outhouse because that has the potential to be really gross). Anyway, Two things I will never ever take for granted anymore... Charmins and indoor plumbing.

Herding sheep is pretty interesting. Megan is from Montana and her family has a sheep farm so she has no qualms with it. Sheep are stupid, but I am a bit afraid of them even though they are really docile. Coming from the city where sheep are not really abundant... when you see twenty sheep coming straight at you, it is only natural to be a little hesitant to be standing in their way. I always start laughing when they start Baaaahhhhing at each other. Papeek (the grandfather that stays with the sheep all day) always gives me a weird look when I start laughing ( I get a lot of those- although the little girl, Anahit, has stopped looking at me like Im retarded).
Another thing we have to do (in our “tech” training- which mine is health) is to interview people on their health habits. With three weeks of language, this may be a little tricky, but we have to do it. There is a lot more work than I thought in this thing called Peace Corps. Good thing it pays well (wait a second)...
On Sunday, I am going to Razdan which is another larger town/small city to go to church with my family. Should be interesting because I stick out like a sore thumb. People just stop and stare. Its interesting. Anyway, Im excited about going to the church. Should be a good time. Good thing I brought my Bible so I can read it in church and somewhat know whats going on (ha ha).
Other than that. I am in a good routine. There are mountains surrounding the village and on one of the mountains there is a church in ruins which was built in the 8th century. My family said they would take me up there sometime. You can see a little bit of the rubble from the village.
The stresses of being here are taking their toll. From the frustrations of not knowing the language and starting to get over the honeymoon stages are starting to unfold. Mike had his day. I had mine with Megan, Paul had his yesterday and Lisa I think is going through hers now. There will be more days but that is just a part of it. Constantly seeing each other. Being frustrated with just things... thats just a part of it, but I think we are coping well.
Again, I cannot complain about anything. I am learning a lot and am still stunned every morning when I walk to school. I walk up the trail behind my house to the railroad tracks and walk on them for about 50 meters and then go on a trail heading up a small hill to the road. It is at this point, I have a clear view of most of the village with the mountains stretching out as far as the eye can see. It is here that I just forget everything for a moment and am just in awe. I can’t say it enough... its just beautiful here. I haven’t gotten tired of it yet. (the view- or anything else).
I suppose that is it for right now. We get our site placement next thursday. I hope I don’t get placed somewhere crappy. Most of the health people are placed in rural villages (meaning two years of outhouse-age). I don’t know if I mentioned this before, but I have started to make a flushing noise everytime I finish in the outhouse so that I am not completely lost when i come back to the states.
Done and done... until next time.
Love,
Me

Farming 101

Today I am writing an entry up to June 12th. I get an opportunity to get into Charevsavan to go to a cultural session on Armenia so I am stopping at the internet cafe to submit this entry. I don’t remember what I said the last time I wrote so again my apologizes for repeating myself. Things so far are still going well. Language class is really intense. REALLY INTENSE. The group got broken up so it is now Megan (from Montana), Paul (from Maryland) and myself (North Carolina). They are all my age so its pretty fun. Anahit is our teacher. She is young so class is pretty fun but again, very intense. Anyway, this week has been pretty much routine except this afternoon we got a team building thing with Cassie (from montana) and Sean ( from florida). They have been here for a year and are A-16s. (Armenia, 16th year.) By deduction, that means I would be an A-17 (Amanda, that means Armenia, 17th year). Anyway, we did team building exercises. They are pretty fun. I am already pretty close with my group. I suppose you really have to be. They are meant to be your support group. I think I lucked out because I got a really good one with a wonderful sense of humor. However, as it was explained to us, we are still in our “honeymoon” period. Apparently there are 4 steps we are supposed to go through as a group and we are still on stage one. It is nice though to mentally prepare yourself for the stages to come. Next is called “storming” where we pretty much are jackasses to each other. After that things get better. I mean I think this is good. You really do get to learn a lot about someone else by getting in a fight with them. I think that is why I know Will so well...

I am looking for the “storming” thing. Today we talked about how we need to be dealt with when we get angry or mad so the others know how to react. Mine was funny. I said I bottled everyone up and just have word vomit on anyone that triggers my anger. I mean I had to be honest and now they know what to expect if I get angry. I don’t know if this will happen to me... maybe it will, maybe it won’t. either way, we all know what to expect from each other and how to react to it. But like I said, I really like our group of 7, which includes me.

An adventure...

So on Wednesday, we went to Arapars ( think that is where we went). We decided to take a taxi. David (from Texas) arranged it through his host dad. We totally got scammed because we were foreigners. The seven of us took taxis and it cost 18000 dram. 1 dollar is about 370 drams. So... it was really expensive. This amount is the total cost, one way. We got to the house we were visiting and talked to Sean about this and he totally flipped out and said it should have been around 2000 drams total. Anyway, since the taxi was going to come and pick us up, he said he would go out there any talk to them about it. At 9, when the taxi came back, native Armenians, some of our teachers, and some A16s went out there to the taxis and yelled at the taxi driver. Needless to say, we got it resolved and we got a free ride back and some money back. It worked out for the most part. I guess that is the best way to learn... from experience. It was just a blessing that there were people there to help us sort everything out. We had a good time at the gathering because a lot of the volunteers were there. It is kind of funny though (the reason they had the gathering). One of the neighbors had a get together with some (like 10) volunteers and the neighbor wanted to one up them and invited half the Peace Corps contingency. There about 25 volunteers there. How interesting. Anyway, it was nice to see everyone...

Farming. I don’t live on a farm. Actually the house that my family lives on is no bigger than a normal lot in America. However, they have a lot of grazing fields behind their house. A huge hill on the other side of the railroad tracks. There is a huge three prong soviet memorial on the hill that we hung out at the first couple days we were here. Anyway, about farming. I helped my host dad, Zora, make irrigation rows in the small “garden” they have behind the house. They grow all sorts of things. Zora works really hard. Works about 11 hours a day and then comes home to work some more, so I decided that I would help him out. I asked if I could help and he kept calling me a city boy, so I took the shovel and copied what he was doing. At first he was hesitant but it really isn’t that hard. After two rows, he just left. I finished the rest of the field. Now, I want to clearify that this field is not very big. A little smaller than half a basketball court. Anyway, he really appreciated that I helped out. It was nice to get some exercise anyway. In addition, I helped move little chicks from the yard to the house. i freaked out at first because I have never held a chicken before and they kept moving around before I got them in my hands, but the second I had them in my hands, they were really calm. It was pretty cool. Then I freaked out again because I was worried I would get the avian flu... Today, I helped herd the sheep. Oh my they are stupid animals and its amazing how much they need to be in a herd. They are really funny to watch and they have spray paint all over them because that is how they are identified. Anyway, you just whack them with a stick to get them to move. The Baaaahhh noise they make cracks me up. This family also keeps bees. How interesting. Zora let me hang out with him when he was checking the bee hives. I made the mistake of walking in front of the hives. Apparently not the best idea. Due to my lack understand of the Armenian language, I missed the part when he said “don’t walk in front of the hives”. I didn’t get stung (Dad, stop getting worried). I just froze when he told me to stop and slowly moved behind the hives. He opened up the top and we smelled the fresh honey. He made a very approving sound. i thought it smelled like poop... which technically it is... Anyway, if the US doesn’t get out of this economic crisis, don’t worry, I know how to make irrigation channels...

Lastly (I think), I had my interview with the Program Coordinator who overseas the whole CHE program. This was mainly for our permanent site placement. Um, it was an interesting interview. I can’t really mention too much about it because there really isn’t too much to say. Anyway, it lasted about 15 min whereas it seemed like everyone else’s lasted for 30-40 minutes. Don’t know what that means but we will see. I find out June 24th.

Things have been going really well and I have fallen into a pretty good routine. I am excited because I get to take a shower tomorrow. (And by shower I mean I get to get a bucket of water, dump it on myself, lather up with soap, dump more water over myself and then dry off). First time in a week. Honestly though, I don’t think I smell, and if I do, I smell like everyone else. It is really dry here so I don’t sweat much. Will can also atest to the fact that I don’t sweat that much anyway. Also, (mom), Every morning and night I wash my face and arms and feet (because Im afraid of athlete’s foot- we saw pictures during our training and it kind of freaked me out). Like I said before, things are really good. The sun doesn’t go down until 10:15 and then after that, the stars are magnificent. This country is seriously beautiful, just everywhere you look especially in the village. Speaking of village, I will probably be in a village. Maybe 250 people. Im excited about it. Being in this setting, I have already become accustomed to this population size. When we went into Charensevan on Tuesday (which is a small city), it freaked me out because of all the cars and people that were walking around... (uh oh). The village I am in is pretty isolated but... its awesome and its my home now.

I guess that wraps it up for now. Until next time...

Love,
Me

PS. Naera and I spoke yesterday about our families and she couldn’t believe that my mom would let me leave for such a long time. Ha...

and so it goes until August 14th...

I still catch myself stopping in my path to school to look over Solak (the village im in) and just taking in the view. It is truly amazing at how beautiful this place is. To add to this, the village setting. If I can figure out how to load pictures, I will and you will get a taste of the great culinary special I like to call Armenia (actually, a lot of people call it “Armenia”...) Anyway, I figure I will go through the day with you:
I start off the day around 8:00 when i wake up. I don’t set an alarm clock, but the sun comes through the windows and somehow wakes me up around 7:30 even though the sun comes up around 6am. Anyway, after getting up, I make it to the outhouse and unload some pounds and pee the urine that I have been holding all night because I don’t want to go outside to use the potty. No big deal. I then go into the kitchen when I eat dinner with Zora (my host dad) and Nara ( my host mom). The kids are usually still asleep as they don’t have school during the summer. Then I make my way to school and get there to start with my six other colleagues at nine. We go until 1:30. I come back from school, which is just an intensive Armenian language class) and then eat lunch. Usually with Nara and maybe one of the three children. I have yet to see Anahit eat but Im sure she does. ( by the way, she is probably the cutest little girl I have yet to see...ever. She is really funny because she talks to me like Im retarded but always does so with a huge grin on her face. Anahit is 12.) Then I usually hang out around the house. Do some of my Peace Corps homework as there is actually quite a bit to read and understand. Basically to cover the bases so that I don’t do something stupid. Anyway, around 4, I meet the other PCT as the school to just hang out. Zora is usually at work and doesn’t come home till 7 or 8 and Nara goes to the market. I don’t know if she works there or if she just has to get groceries. Anyway, there is usually no one home except for Papeek (grandfather) or Tateek (grandmother) so I usually just hang out with the other PCTs until 7. We walk around the village and go to the ho-nots (store) and get some kind of treat. I usually just bum off of Mike’s soda because he always gets way more than he can drink. There is a hill behind my house so we usually go and walk up there. There is a huge soviet memorial there that we go and hang out at. ( I don’t know if I am repeating stuff from the last entry as I have already forgotten what I wrote. If I already mentioned it, well then, you get to read it twice.) Anyway, I come home and eat dinner with the family and then I get my Armenian homework and Annie, Anahit, and Ha-Cheek help me with my homework. There are usually a lot of blank stares and me just saying “shot love” (very good) and then handing one of them my dictionary (which sucks because none of the words are ever in there- when it does from English to Armenian, it works... not the other way though. I have yet to find a word that they can translate to English). Anyway... Usually this is in the family room with the TV so we usually all hang out as a family and then I am usually the one to wuss out and I make my way up to my room but not before saying bari- gishair (goodnight). Around 10:30, I am in my room and either reading or typing something up (like what Im doing right now).
Today (sunday June 7th) was cool because it was Zora’s 45th birthday so there was a really big birthday celebration where a lot of his family came over around 5. The food was really good. Pretty much all the food they eat, they make. For example, they grow their own vegetables such as potatoes, leeks, etc. The eggs are taken from the chickens that roam freely and the chickens that we eat... well... lets just say that the chickens are one less on my way to school if we eat chicken for dinner the night before. They do a really good job of making sure that I don’t see it. Either on purpose or not... Today, we had lamb. That... I did see. I walked in to get some water from my filter downstairs and there it was, right next to my filter, a dead skinned lamb with no head. It really wasn’t as gross as I thought it would be. It was pretty delicious though. Anyway, only a few things like cucumbers and tomatoes do they get from the market. I hope this is a healthy way to live. (mom, don’t worry, I eat a lot of vegetables and I don’t add salt to anything- that’s not entirely true, I add salt to my eggs, but not a lot). Anyway, apparently after eating, the kids get up and dance. That is what they did. My village mates came over to my house to join the celebration. I think Zora really liked that because we sang him “happy birthday”. Anyway, I got suckered into dancing (like a moron- because I didn’t have a clue what I was doing and I was completely sober and was very conscious of the fact that everyone was looking at me). Fortunately the others got up and danced. It was pretty fun and I think the Armenians enjoyed seeing us having a good time. We took pictures and that was that. I got a good one with the whole family. Today was a good. Like I said before, life here is just a little slower but there isn’t anything to really stress me out, other than learning the language. I am constantly being observant to see what kind of lifestyle the Armenians live. Some things are just different, not bad. Even the bathroom situation. It is kind of an inconvenience to me but to them, its what they’re used to. There isn’t anything really unsanitary about that. Stuff like that.
I took my first shower yesterday and my was it awesome because I hadn't bathed in 5 days. It was a bucket bath. I stood in a little bucket and poured warm water on my self. Do you know how hard it is to get soap off your body when you don't have a constant stream of water? Anyway, I used less water than I thought I would. I washed my hair about three times because after the first one, it still smelled like shit. Although no one else claimed that they couldn't smell me, I could catch whiffs of myself if the wind was just right (gross, I know, but I love it). I also did my laundry. That was gross too because the water was a dark brown/green). Whoa. Probably more than you want to know but you know what, that's going to be my life for the next two years and honestly, Im really excited about it.
There are stories though that integration back in the US is actually harder than to Armenia. There have been cases where people will be back from the Peace Corps and have break downs in a grocery store. (I think that would be kind of cool). Anyway, as Brandon will probably tell you, I take more showers than most people (at least twice in one day), so going to taking a bucket bath once a week is going to be awesome. I think my body is handling it well and I don't think I completely reek.
Im really excited though because I think the family is getting comfortable with me being around. Its really cool. Im excited to see how things go. There is a certain magic between the family and myself and I think that is largely due to not being able to communicate in the conventional form. Every “conversation” is special because we both have to work really hard and everything is better when you have to work for it. Don’t know. So far, everything has been really awesome and I look forward to seeing what happens next.
Anyway, I hope everyone at home is doing well. Until next time...
Love,
Me

Posh Corps?

I can’t get to the internet everyday as I am in Solak, a village in Armenia near Cheransevan. This entry is for Thursday, June 4th. It is night two in my host house. I will catch you up to this point from when I left Vienna.

Soon after my last post, we got in the plane and headed to Armenia. It was a flight starting at 10:35pm and landing at 4:55am in Yerevan, Armenia. Things up to this point were great and it still had not set in that I was going to move to Armenia. The flight was fine. I sat next to Bill (who was afraid of flying) and Jocelyn (who tried to convince herself that she was going to sleep but failed to do so). The flight was fine. We landed in Yerevan close to on-schedule. Customs took a while but with no problems. As soon as we got to baggage claim, there was another line of Peace Corps volunteers. It was to get our FREE SIM cards in order to make calls in Armenia. That saved me a whopping 1200 drams ( a little over 3 dollars). Anyway, I got my bags and suckered Jocelyn to let me use the baggage cart thing. Actually, she was nice enough to let me put my bags on hers. As soon as we left the airport, we were greeted with several Peace Corps people with signs showing us where to go. We put our bags on a white truck and we got on a bus. We all got a little “goodie” bag which consisted of a snickers bar( big size), banana (which was severely bruised- my dad would have eaten it), and a water). I sat in the second row of the bus because I wanted to see Armenia. The view was incredible. This country is so beautiful. It rivals my trip with Brandon to Ireland. This place is amazing. The bus took a short stop at an old Christian ruin which looks onto the tallest mountain in Armenia. I forgot what it was called but it was snow-capped and really nice to look at. We took a group photo in front of the ruin. We were supposed to wear business casual, but after all that flying and laying-over and a flight landing at 4:55am, we all looked like crap.
We ended up making our way to the “hotel”. I got to room with Ben (from Texas) and Hector (from LA- I called him Hermano, which means “brother” dad.) The hotel was beautiful too. We got to meet some of the staff in the morning and eat an Armenian breakfast. Basically a lot of eggs and potatoes in different varieties but good nonetheless. In the afternoon, we decided that we would go and climb the mountain behind the hotel. Basically straight up. It was really intense. I made it up to the top first. This was kind of a big deal to me. A lot of people turned back, but thinking about it, I told myself that if I could get to the top then I could handle the next two years. It was a great way to think about it, because I got to the top and now I have the total mentality that I can do anything. About ten of us made it to the top. We took a look at the amazing view and then we headed back down just in time for dinner. We ate and played volleyball. That was really fun. Early night.
The next morning we woke up to breakfast at 8:30 and then training starting at 9:30 and ending at 5:30. Dinner was at 7. After dinner we played volleyball again and then had a birthday party for ben. It was really cool. I really like the group that came on this adventure a lot. Its one thing to be forced to have friends, but its another to actually enjoy their company. My language class is really fun. There are ten of us in the CHE (community health education) group but seven are in my language class. My my my how fun is it to learn another language. (seriously). Its probably the people. Anyway, while at the hotel, its been only an hour long. Anyway, there was another day of training and then on June 3rd, it was time for the host family meeting. We woke up half an hour earlier and got an overview of what was going to happen, had an hour language meeting and then we got in our groups to meet our host family. There are six villages that the 47 of us are getting split up in. Each group got called out from the lobby to the outside where the families were waiting. We were introduced second to last. Before we met our family, we had to rip a piece of bread from a huge loaf and dip a bit of it into a dish of salt. It is a ceremonial thing of Armenia as the bread is a major staple of their diet. I don’t know what the salt is for, but it made the break taste like a pretzel. I met my host mother. Her name is Na-e-ra. We took a picture together and had awkward conversation. Then they had a traditonal Armenian dance show and then it was time to go to Solak (my village- Amanda, try to keep up).

I got my HUGE water filter and medical kit and loaded up a van full of my groups stuff and headed on the thirty minute drive to Solak. I got to sit shotgun. The driver started by rolling backwards and popping the clutch. I just stared at the driver. The windsheild was cracked into about 30 peices and my window didn’t roll down. Mike (who’s from Texas and who is one of my new good friends) yelled from the back “turn on the AC.” Yeah. Anyway, we rode down the road with one member of the host family in the back with us. I was the only one to not have my host mother next to me. Anyway, I was the first one to get off the bus. The house was awesome. I don’t really know how to describe it but it just felt right. There were chickens and sheep running everywhere. The downstairs is separate from the upstairs. The bedrooms of the family are upstairs; so is mine. The grandparents live downstairs. The family consists of Zora (George-the dad), Na-e-ra (the mom), Annie( oldest sister 14), Ha-Cheek (13), and Anahit (12). They are awesome. The painting or the moulding on the walls are really cool. Apparently an artist used to live in this house. It is really beautiful. My room is huge and my bed is pretty comfortable (much better than the hard “mattress” bed that I had in Korea). I hung out with Ha-cheek. he showed me around the town and showed me where the school (de-prots) was. Life here is just slower and that’s ok. There is nothing taken for granted. Life in America is COMPLETELY different but family is key. They all seem really happy. Zora (the dad), was at work and when he came home, you could tell he was a really nice man. He was really helpful and went way out of his way to make sure that I was comfortable. Fortunately, they had a PCT (Peace Corps Trainee) last year so they knew what was going on. Armenian families tend to force feed guests and try to pressure them to drink, but I got neither one. I don’t even think this family drinks and they don’t make me eat. They always ask (doo-koosht-em)- are you full? And if I say yes, then that’s it. The family is great. I went to bed early yesterday around 10:30 and woke up at 8. I was exhausted. That was the first night that I have had any decent sleep.

Let me tell you about the bathroom situation. It is an outhouse. It is an outhouse with just a hole in the ground. If you have to take a deuce, there is a chair you move over the hole with a hole in the seat. Charmins has apparently missed Armenia in its conquest to be competitive because for toilet paper, I have to use old cut up school papers. yes, notebook paper. Apparently, I didn’t use the bathroom correctly because you’re not supposed to throw the paper into the hole, but into a bucket next to the bathroom. Last night I made that mistake. This morning, when I went, I saw that there was trash in the bucket which made me realize that I messed up. No big deal. Its great though.

Today I woke up at 8, had breakfast with Zora and then went to school from 9 to 1:30. This was just language. We have two teachers Irina and Anahit and seven students including me. Its awesome. I love learning Armenian. After school, I came home, had lunch with Ha-cheek and Na-e-ra and then hung out with Ha-cheek in the garden making some sort of bracelet. I helped carry water to the house as there is no running water. Women (by the way, do all this kind of work), so Na-e-ra was really happy that I was helping. At 4, I met up with the other PCTs and we walked around the village. It was really fun. We were out for 3 hours. There are a lot of reminders of the Soviet empire. There are random statues on hilltops. We went to explore. We ran into some sheep herders and talked to them. I made the mistake of saying “Turkey” which made this really awkward because Armenia and Turkey have always had some kind of trouble with each... probably that genocide thing of 1915. Anyway, I got back at 7 and hung out again with Ha-cheek until 8. There was a really bad wind storm that came through which blew a window out of the kitchen, actually two. Neither of the parents were home so the children and I tried to clean it up. Then it started thunderstorming. Fortunately the parents came home. Zora is really resourceful and got a glass cutter out and cut glass to replace the window. I guess since Armenian’s don’t have that much, they are really resourceful. I hope I can learn this skill in two years. To be honest, it really makes me realize how wasteful I was in the US.

We ate dinner together and then I got my books and studied while the rest of the family was watching TV (yes, they do have electricity- even though it goes out pretty easily). Annie, ha-cheek, and Na-e-ra helped me study. It was really fun tonight.

I had a hard time the first day I was here because I think it was the first time it really hit me that I was really here but I know this is a good thing and will take away from it the most I can. The people here are really happy we are here and they automatically know what “peace corps” is. Peace Corps does go way out of their way to make sure that their volunteers and trainees are safe and healthy. For Example. They pay the host familes about 4000 duams a day which comes out to be about 800 dollars in two and a half months. A police officer gets about 100 dollars a month here. So, the family here makes sure that I have everything that I need. Either way, even without the money, the culture here is to be very hospitable. I can tell with ease they are not doing this because of the money. It is also a status symbol to have an American staying at your house.

Overall, Im really excited about what’s to come. Im still on a high but so far, everything has been far exceeding my expectations. For anyone that has read this far, I miss you and love you, but I hope you know that I am happy and safe. Until next time.

I love you mom and dad.