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
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