First off, I would like to clarify exactly where I am. There seems to be some confusion because I got a couple emails from people who thought I was in Algeria, and Romania. I am in ARMENIA. It is an ex-soviet country just north of Iran, east of Turkey, west of Azerbaijan, and south of Georgia. Now, I know by adding this little aside, that I am inviting all my friends to send me emails that say "I thought you were in Thailand" or "didn't you say you went to Senegal" or "Wait, you left the country..." Yeah, real cute. Anyway... Like I said before, I am in ARMENIA.
This past week was rather uneventful I suppose. Not too much happened. But before I get to that, I will have to give an update on something I was trying... So one of my friends here, Pat (really interesting guy, went to VT), anyway, he doesn’t ever use his water filter and he only got sick once way back in the summer. So I thought, hey, maybe the water is clean. I was over at my language tutor’s house really thirsty and I just asked for a glass of water from the tap. No filter. While I was drinking it, I realized that this was unfiltered water. At first, I said to myself “oh (expletive)” but then I thought that maybe I could turn this into a little experiment. Knowing my past problem with the food poisoning I got, I figured it couldn’t be worse than that, and I got through it so I drank probably half a gallon of water just to make sure that if there were little Giardia bacteria floating around in the tap water, that I would get it. Well, its been two weeks and I feel fine. They say it takes about 2 weeks for the bacteria to take full form, but it has been over two weeks and still no sign. (I say that today, and watch it hit me with full force tomorrow). Im sure Peace Corps is going to read this and really be thrilled that I am trying to get a disease that they strongly try to keep you from getting. But if you think about it, you can’t avoid it. The fruit is washed in tap water, you bath in the tap water, I brush my teeth with the tap water. I mean it has been 2 months in site and I haven’t gotten sick... from the water. So, Dad, I know you’re totally thrilled to be reading this, but I’m fine.
Anyway, Terri and I decided that we wanted to start a health club. Actually it started out as an English club, but Terri thinks that’s a waste of time so we are doing a health club. We (and by we, I mean Terri) made signs and we (and this time, I mean Terri and myself) went around the village and put these posters up. Wednesday came and from a village with around 5000 inhabitants, zero people came. ZERO. I mean you can’t help but laugh at that. So we walked around the culture house. Since Terri was a dancer way back when, she was trying to teach me how to do the “moonwalk,” the signature dance move that Michael Jackson does in “Billie Jean” where he glides backward and it looks like he is floating. It was awesome...until the weightroom guy came in and just stared at me. (I’m getting it down- if I take anything away from the Peace Corps, its going to be learning how to do the moonwalk... Mom, Dad, I’m just kidding)
There is a weightroom in the culture house and if you can conjure up an image of what a Soviet weight room would look like, you would be right. It looked just like that. Anyway, the man that runs the weightroom actually wanted to sit in on our little class. Well, the weightroom man took us to meet the culture house director. At this point, Terri and I were thinking “huh, maybe we should have talked to this guy before we decided to have a class in his building.” Anyway, he was really nice and was really supportive in what we wanted to do. He said that our timing was all wrong. Right now it is still harvesting time so they can’t just leave their work to come to a health class, so we changed the day and time. After this, the director, his friend, the weightroom specialist, Terri and I went to the culture house director’s house and we ate a whole crapload of food. It was really good. It was tolma, one of my favorites. We stayed until about 10 and then I came home. What great fun.
The rest of the week was pretty normal. Nothing really new happened. I had to go back to Yerevan on Saturday to do some errands. That journey is getting long. I just want to get there now instead of wait the two hours. I know the different landmarks though, so when I look out the window, I know pretty much exactly where I am, which if you think about is pretty useless because regardless, you are still on a little bus.
I did some initiative stuff there for the HIV/AIDS thing. So far, I have three organizations that want to meet and a couple more that are willing to help. Its really hard organizing this thing because I am in the village, the organizations are in Yerevan. Day trips are hard to do because the first bus from my village is at 9 and by the time I get to Yerevan, its 12 and the last bus leaves at 6 to come back. So I have a good 6 hours to get stuff done but its hard when you have to walk around the whole city... But you got to do something to keep yourself busy right? Regardless of the problems I may encounter, I still have two years here and Im sure within that time, I will figure all this out. Just in time for me to probably leave. This is what happened when I was in Korea. As soon as I figured out the ropes, met friends, found out how to better do things, I had to leave.
Speaking of Korea, I mention this because my uncle Wan-Young in Korea reads my blog. I miss that place. Don’t know if its because its my birth city or what, but my cousin sent me pictures from there and I miss it. Weird. I guess I miss it there more than America because in the back of my mind I know that I am going to go back to America, whereas Korea, I may visit but then I have to go back home. Its hard, yet interesting having family all over the world. I guess you just have to value the time you have with the people you want to be with...
I guess that’s it for now. This week should glide through pretty easily. I hope (unless Giardia strikes).
Until next time...
Shannon, if you’re reading this, have you had your baby yet?
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