Happy 4th of July

First off, I know that a lot of you have sent me emails and I have not responded. Even left me messages on facebook. I know it is very frustrating to write all that and not have anything returned. When I get to my permanent site, I will have internet at my school so I should be able to be better at responding to messages. I do appreciate the emails and the facebook messages so at least know that I am reading them, even if it is on my phone. As I mentioned before the internet here is unreliable and it takes me about thirty minutes to even load my blog. Anyway, I just want to send out my apologizes now.

Moving on. Today was July 4th. The birth of our country. We had to plan out and execute a July 4th party for the village. We had to cook the food and come up with games to keep them entertained. It turned out really well. It took about three weeks to plan. I mean, think about a regular party that you would have on the fourth, then factor in the fact that you have to invite key people like the major, the Peace Corps country director, and other key people. Most of the people we invited don’t speak English so that is another obstacle to overcome. We invited our families and some closer friends. In all we probably had over 50 people. Maybe even seventy. And what an adventure it was.

Time has really been going fast and in the month I have been gone, I have already become acclimated to what Armenia has to offer. Yesterday (friday the 3rd), we took the bus into Hrazdan (one of the larger cities in Armenia) and we went to a supermarket. Like one that is comparable to one in the states. After a month, it was weird to find myself overwhelmed at the choices and selections there were. I saw milk for the first time in a month. There was air conditioning in the building (even though it is a comfortable temperature outside- I don’t really sweat here; the reason behind the need for only one shower a week... ha, “shower”). Honestly, being here and not having to buy my own groceries and being used to the corner shop, it really was a bit daunting to go into a much much larger supermarket. I got excited when I saw that they had more than one variety of shampoo... and that I could actually read the bottle. (Head and Shoulders has made it to Armenia). I was also very excited when I saw that there was toilet paper. Real “soft” white toilet paper. I had to touch it. It was everything I thought it would be and more (even though there was a barrier of plastic between me and the actual feeling part). Anyway, with the 65000 dram we were given (200 dollars), we spend about 52,000 of it (180 dollars). It was awesome. We made such things as deviled eggs, potato salad, mac and cheese, and I made hamburgers and hotdogs. I would like to say Thank you to Brandon for grilling out so many times when we lived together, but I have lived with him long enough to know that he is dating a girl now and when he is dating a girl, the blinders go on and the only thing he sees is that girl, so, if someone wants to tell him “thank you” for me, that would be great. Brandon, if you have actually been reading my blogs, My bust... you must have changed...
Anyway, it was a success. We played games after the meal. One of the games we played was kickball. One thing I learned. In America, when you say “kickball is just like baseball” everyone understands how to play really quickly, but when you don’t know what baseball is, then disaster happens. It actually turned into a game of dodgeball and just kicking the ball. Whatever it was, it turned out well.
Yesterday before we went shopping in Hrazdan, we had our language test. It was a ten minute conversation that you had to have with one of the LCFs. I think it went pretty well although I was paired up with the LCF that I didn’t like. The LCFs that we had our interviews with were not from our village. I really like my LCF. She is hilarious.

One of the major things we are supposed to do in our host family’s homes is to try and break the traditional gender roles. Now, some of you may be offended when I say this, but Im going to say it anyway. In America, if the lady of the house decides to stay home, she cooks and cleans and does the stereotypical “womenly” things, while the man goes to work. If the man didn’t have a job, then the man would help out. Here it is not exactly the case. If the man doesn’t have a job then he doesn’t do anything. The lady still does everything. If a pregnant lady is sitting out, as soon as the man comes home, the pregnant lady stands up. Now this is not true in every family, such as mine but apparently it is rather prevalent here. At the same time, some women don’t want things changed because it gives them purpose. Remember just because it doesn’t fit the American mold doesn’t make it wrong. That is what we are trying to learn here. Anyway to get to the point. To see a man cooking (me) is a rather interesting site. So, since i was cooking the hamburgers and hotdogs, I took the family’s little portable stove and sat right at the door where everyone had to come in to see that I (a man) was cooking. I got some weird looks. Secondly, I was over at Lisa’s house before the party helping her cut the vegetables (apparently a very unmanly thing) and got some weird looks doing that. Lastly, and the most funny, was when I tried to clean a pan. I had to take the pan from Lisa’s mom’s hands and I cleaned it myself. She laughed the whole time because a man was cleaning the dishes. They can’t really imagine that a man can do the things the women do. Even in my own house, my host mom doesn’t believe that I can cook something for myself. She was very impressed (she didn’t believe me at first) that I cooked the meat for the party. interesting, but a fact.