Learning to fly

The other day, someone in my village (I think it was victoria) said that we needed a Solak song). Personally, I think this is a great idea because everytime you hear the song, you will be thrown back to those memories associated with the song. I have songs for Korea (Coldplay- viva la vida), Sweden (destination unknown), and others that I can’t recall as of this moment. London (move- by ross golan). Anyway, I don’t think there is a better way to put things in the Peace Corps right now through training, than through the words of Tom Petty and his song (learning to fly).

“well i started out on a dirty road. I started out all alone and the sun went down across the hill, and the town lit up, the world got still..

Im learning to fly. But I ain’t got wings. coming down. is the hardest thing.”

Now, Mom and Dad, if you have ever seen Tom Petty you will probably jump to the conclusion that he used lots of drugs. In fact, you’re right, but just as fortune tellers use very generic, broad conclusions to tell your fortune, through this song, I feel like it shares a generic, broad conclusion of what this is like. Though I don’t want you to think that I feel like I am alone, it is like I started alone on a dirty road and now, although I don’t have my wings yet, I feel like Im learning how to fly.

Training has been intense. I have gotten over my cold now and its only mucous in my throat that from time to time decides to get coughed up. (your welcome). We went into Yerevan on thursday to visit a women’s help group. They are an NGO that moves toward equality. It was interesting but the way I was feeling and the hot temperature made it less interesting. I don’t really like Yerevan too much. It just has way too many cars and I always get a sore throat from breathing in the exhaust of the cars. Its an interesting city and once the summer heat passes, it may be manageable

Yesterday (the 27th) we went to Ae-ch-mee-ot-see. It is the center of the Armenian Apostolic Orthodox Church. Basically it is the Vatican City of this religion. It was interesting to go to this place as it had a lot of history. We had a Father who showed us around. He is actually from the states and is doing a one year stint in Armenia. He goes back next February. The church was very old but beautiful inside. The whole monastery was nice. It was huge too.

I got to take a shower yesterday.

Michael cracks me up. Everyday he wants to hang out. After school I will tell him that I am going home to eat and then take a nap and that I will call him later, but about an hour after school, he will call me and try to convince me not to go to sleep. There have been two occasions when he has actually come over to my house, walked in my room while I was sleeping and woken me up. Now, if any of you know me, you realize how important sleep is to me, but due to my new surroundings I have tried to be more patient with mike.

This is pretty funny. So David wanted me to cut his hair. Basically give him a buzz cut. Then I said that it would probably be a good idea if I got a hair cut too. So I shaved Davids hair. It took forever because the electric razor he had wasn’t meant for all that hair cutting. After David, Mike went. By this time, there wasn’t enough energy left in the razor so the following day before we went to Ae-ch-mee-ot-see I did some trim work on Mike and then Paul wanted his hair cut. Well. When David went home to charge the razor, he didn’t read the voltage on the charger because it said 120v. Basically, the razor didn’t charge, but it had enough charge to finish Mike’s hair and then start on Pauls. (I emphasize the word “start”). So I started on Paul’s hair and I got the top part of his head shaved and then we could all hear the power of the razor go out...and then it stopped. There was a moment of pause and then Paul asked “what just happened.” We tried to recharge the razor but this is when I made the discovery that we needed a 120v power source. So for the next thirty minutes, during what should have been my lunch time, I got the scissors out and started cutting Paul’s hair. Actually no one noticed that i cut his hair and actually I got some people asking me if I can cut their hair for them.
Today was Sunday and Megan, Mike and I went to the local church which was of the Armenian Orthodox denomination. It was pretty cool. Mike and I were the only guys in there other than the Priest and the Deacon. Everyone else was a Grandmother age person. We got a lot of looks. Everyone was really nice but what else can you expect when there are only 20 people in the whole church. It was nice but really long. About an hour and forty minutes which seems longer when you have no idea what they are saying. This church was very similar to the Catholic Church and thanks to Laura Helen for taking me to the Catholic Church for so many Sundays because I didn’t freak out. The whole service was sung in some kind of Gregorian chant. I don’t think there was any speaking at all. The guys voice was really nice.