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...