By the time you read this you will know that tomorrow I will be sworn in to be part of the 17th year of Peace Corps in Armenia. I am very excited to finally be a volunteer rather than a trainee. It was rather intense. More than I would have imagined. I thought that homework only existed when you were in school... not the case. Peace Corps also has homework and a lot of it. But, you will be happy to know that by now, I will have finished all the work and filled out all the forms that I needed to in order to become a volunteer. It wasn’t an easy road. As of now we have moved from the original 47 to 44. We lost another one on Friday. I used to think that if you couldn’t make it for two years, then you just weren’t strong enough but thats not the case. One of the guys that left a week or so ago would have been the last person I thought would have left, but he was the first. I think Peace Corps is very unique. Unique in the sense that there are so many variables that you have to be so flexible with and if you’re not, then you aren’t going to be happy. Its not a matter of living with the unhappiness. It is much better to terminate early that to go on being unhappy because if you’re unhappy, people around you will be unhappy. I have noticed that when you don’t speak the language, you have to rely on body language a lot. Actually, it is pretty much your sole mode of communication. People can pick up on how you feel. For them, it just wasn’t a good fit and there is nothing wrong with that. Fortunately for me, that isn’t the case. I don’t think Peace Corps could have done a better job finding me a better place than the place I have now. Armenia is in itself wonderful (as I have mentioned several times before). Anyway, someone throw a party somewhere in the states on thursday because that’s when I get sworn in.
At the same time, it is a sad time. Tonight (Sunday) Mike, Paul, and I went up to the rocks to watch the sunset. Megan joined us a little later. It is nice to look out over the village and see the first place that really welcomed us to Armenia. It really is hard to imagine that two and a half months has already moved by that quickly. A year ago today (Still Sunday), it would have been a week before I left for Korea. I can’t believe that was a year ago. So much has happened in that short amount of time. Korea, coaching lacrosse, mowing the lawn (like 3 times), studying at the lady’s college. Anyway, the sentiments around the house are sad. The tateek (Amanda, that is grandmother in Armenian- you’re welcome for the clearification), never fails to remind me when Im leaving and how sad she is going to be when I leave. She always calls me “im tehra” (my son) and then says that she is going to miss the way I make coffee. She is really nice and its fun to talk to her. Its going to be hard to leave this family, but the fun is about to start.
Satuday, (yesterday), we took our last cultural trip to Gharni and Gerhart. Gharni is a temple that follows that of Greek Architecture. Its like Greece decided “hey, we have too many of these buildings with the same columns on the front, lets give one to Armenia” and that’s what they did. There is this building that looks like the stereotypical Grecian building right next to a huge canyon or gorge. Its pretty cool. I didn’t pay attention to the history. Gerhart, to me, was a lot cooler. It is a church that was built way back in the day and it is built into a mountain. There are four parts to the church and two of the parts are built into the mountain. Actually what happened was apparently two brothers (speculative) drilled a hole in the ceiling and chiseled out the whole inside from that single hole in the top. It was really cool. In this part of the church, the acoustics are so good that a single note will keep resonating for roughly 40 seconds. Thats a long time. We are singing an Armenian song for the swearing in ceremony. There are about 15 of us. The lady in charge said that we needed to sing the song in the church and we did. It sounded really cool (Josh Grobin sounds like Brandon singing compared to how we sounded). It was a really nice experience. Anyway the rest of the church was just really cool. It reminded me of the Petra in Indiana Jones- quest for the holy grail. Really cool.
(Dad, remind me to tell you about Dubai and India- I forgot to tell you the other day).
Today (remember its Sunday), I did a whole lot of nothing.
Oh, I forgot. So after this cutural day, we went over to David’s house. This David lives in another village. It started to rain when Mike and I left. We got a Taxi to come back to our village. As we were driving back it was raining really hard and it was really cool because you could see lightning everywhere. You could see lightning hitting the fields all around us. In fact as we were driving, I heard this really loud boom and then a really bright flash of light. Yes, we infact got struck by lightning. I told the driver that this was very exciting. He just stared at me with a blank look. But, that was incredible. The car drove like it had been driving. It was just really cool. I didn’t even know what was going on. In fact I don’t think anyway did until Mike said “did we just get struck by lightning). Anyway, Mike spent the night again last night. The power went out last night so I got to take a bath in the dark. How cool to take a bucket bath with a candle. (im serious). As long as the water is hot, I don’t really care. In fact, its amazing how fantastic you feel after you take a bath. I feel literally, like I won a million dollars. (actually, I haven’t won a million dollars so that is a slightly invalid statement- but you get my drift. I figure I had to add that aside because Will is probably currently thinking- Dan hasn’t won a million dollars, how can he possible relate those two things... inconceivable) But, it sure does make you feel good.
Tomorrow (monday), will be low key. First the first time in 5 weeks, we have one more 4 and a half hour language lesson. It is going to feel like its going on forever. Awesome. But after that, its pretty much all over. Im going to do my laundry, hang out, finish up some work and maybe start packing. Whoa.
So, probably the next time I write will be when I am at my new site. The next post might be a while but don’t worry ill let you know how the move went.
Until next time.
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