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
No comments:
Post a Comment