For you Dad

This is Rubik. He is actually a teacher at the other school where Terri used to work. Im not exactly sure how we became friends but he is a really good guy. He always makes things awkward because when we are at the same party or something, he will make a toast to friendship. He will say “I am happy for friendship and my friendship with Danny. I want to have a friendship with him but I don’t know if he wants to have one with me, but that’s his business.” Never fails. We joke about it now but at first, a bit awkward. Now I just yell across the table at him and we get a good laugh.


Me and the illustrious Vardan. I can’t say enough good things about this guy. He cracks me up and is always willing to help me out.


Zaria is the Grandmother and Karine is the other lady in the picture, her daughter (in-law, maybe). If she is hanging out outside of her house, she always stops me on my way to school and always tries to convince me to come to her house for coffee. This time with Emily, I thought it would be an interesting experience if we went inside. Coffee turned into mounds of food...


Me and Grandma drinking coffee. Our ritual which starts everyday for us. I enjoy these sit down moments because if gives us some time to talk about stuff. Sometimes we just sit in silence.


This is the picture for the following blog. Read to find out more... These pictures were taken by Emily Haas. So Thank you Emily for coming to my village and capturing my life here. Or a part of my life here.

A computer, a goat, potatoes, and friends...

Last time I wrote I was just coming back from our All-Volunteer’s Conference. I had just gotten home and had less than one day to myself. On Saturday, Emily, another volunteer from my group who lives in Yeghegnadzor (the place I visited with Mike over Halloween), came to visit. She is in charge of the 50th Anniversary and wanted to film my life here. Or at least some aspects of it. It was pretty fun. The day she got here, we just laid low and just walked around a bit. Sunday was pretty awesome. We woke up and went to the Market. Like I said before, its just so draining to go there because you have to take the bus which is packed full of people, get to the market, where again it is packed full of people, and then ride back on a bus... again packed full of people. Its just a lot of things going on at the same time. Lots of noises, smells, sights, people staring. Yeah. Overwhelming.

Emily got some good shots there of the Market. She gave me money to buy some mandarines because she wanted some and needed some film of me having interaction with Armenians. We got back and rested for a short while. Then we went over to Vardan’s house. The proceedings are not made up. It is so wild I can’t make it up. Its really not that crazy.

So, in my area where there are a lot of potatoes, we have this thing called “poor.” The “r” is rolling and the “oo” is pronounced like you would the “oo” sound in “sue.” Anyway, to refresh your memory, you take dried cow feces which has been baked in the sun for weeks and burn them down to coals and then take potatoes and baked the potatoes under the cow feces coals. It may be a mental thing, but the taste is like no other. Its really good. Vardan wanted Emily to experience this, so we went over to his house. Then we went to an abandoned neighbors house which is all fenced in and made the fire. Interestingly enough, inside the gates, there was a goat. Livestock isn’t that dangerous, but when you have grown up in the city, anything bigger than a mouse can be intimidating. Especially things with horns.

As an aside, its always funny watching 7 year old kids with sticks herding cows that are measured in hundreds of pounds and how afraid the livestock are of these kids armed with sticks.

Back to the story. We were having our potatoes and Vardan wanted to play with the goat so he kept putting his foot up so that the goat could ram it. Obviously, the goat was playing too because it wasn’t charging. It would just up on its hind legs and just fall over. They had some kind of relationship... “relationship.” After eating, I told Vardan that I would be back in half and hour because I needed to talk to my parents. He said, bring your computer out here. I didn’t really think too much about it but he said that we could show my parents this “poor” experience... and the goat. What a great idea. So, Emily has all her cameras with her and she was filming me sitting on the ground talking with my parents via skype with Vardan and his wife crouching over behind me, with our other neighbor fighting the goat in the background. I will post a picture. But, this kind of event you can’t plan. Nope.

So, now that Emily had that experience, we went back home and hung out with Grandma. On Monday we went to school, and she filmed some stuff at school. My bathroom, the teachers, some classes we went to. It was fun. We didn’t do much after school. On Tuesday, we went back to school because I needed to take care of some business with the school director and then we came back to the house, rested a bit and walked around the village. I introduced her to some people in the village. Tuesday was interesting because I took her to one of my neighbor’s house down the street. A really sweet grandma who always yanks me into her house. Well, usually when an Armenian says coffee, it really means feast. So Emily and I went inside and sat with the Grandma. At 11:00am we had quite a bit of vodka, wine, and coffee along with too much food. So, that is why we needed to rest. Always an interesting cultural experience.

That evening, Emily and I were walking to the other side of the village because she wanted to take some village shots. Vardan saw us and gave us a ride. That was fun.

Wednesday, I went with Emily to Martuni to find her a ride down to her town. Then I came back and went to the last two classes on Wednesday. Wednesday is kind of a down day anyway, so no big deal.

The rest of the week was pretty normal. Nothing new really happened. On Saturday, I went to Vaghashen because there was supposed to be a meteor shower. Clouds came so I came back home.

Sunday, nothing really happened. I just laid low, did some reading, prepared for the upcoming week. This is my last week of school...already.

This evening I went to bed early because I had to get up at 2:45 for a phone interview with Dr. Hogarty. An Osteopathic Physician who agreed to write me a letter. So I prepared myself for our 3:00am phone conversation. It went really well. We spoke for 30 minutes. As I write this though, I am in a daze. This weekend’s sleep cycle was not conducive for productive behavior. Ill be back on track by tomorrow. I guess it’s already time to start thinking about the future. Only one more semester. Weird.

Overall, the weather here has been pretty good... until recently. I have a friend in Ukraine who I tell the weather to. I do it in such a way that seems instigating. Ill say “it’s really warm here”... the next day... freezing. This has happened pretty much on the button everytime I have said it. From this, I have learned to keep my mouth shut. My point is... its cold here now.

However, Peace Corps gives us two heaters. One that just blows hot air, also known as a space heater, and a radiator. A lot of the other volunteers always say that the radiator does not work, so I never tried plugging the thing up. However, within the last week, it has occurred to me that the volunteers who I talked to also have really large rooms. I plugged my radiator in, and in 15 minutes my room (which is the size of a moderately sized walk-in closet) heats up. Heats up to the point where I just need to wear a sweater. This would have made my life a lot easier if I thought about this last winter, but I guess its better late than never.

This week will be pretty regular.

I hope everyone is having a good time getting ready for Christmas and the New Year. I’m very much looking forward to Christmas in Ukraine. New Years Im still trying to figure out.

Until next time...

1. No explanation needed...

2. During Thanksgiving I decided to take some headshots of the guys in my area. I was inspired by reading a “New Yorker” which had headshots of many of the world’s presidents. A photographer stood outside the UN building and stopped as many of the presidents as he could and took pictures of them. The layout was nice too with a black and white of Obama on the opposing page of a color photo of Ahmadinejad.

3. Coming down from Artik, the driver took a weird way so we went by these stone carvings of the Armenian Alphabet.

Dad... again some explanations

1. One of the defaced cemetery stones. You may be able to see the crescent and star at the top of the stone.

2. A church up near Novemberyan, Lisa’s site, with the original structure dating back to the 4th century with a rebuild in the 12th century.

3. Arpine came to our Thanksgiving. She had some work in Tbilisi and asked if I she could bring something back for me. I said a coke. The bottling plants here and there are the same so it was meant as a joke. She brought me that can though...

4. Basketball Photo of both the A-17s (champions) and A-18s (non-champions). Bill, the guy holding up his finger wearing the blue shirt didn’t even play. I don’t know why he is in the picture...

5. Proof the flashmob did happen. It was epic

A Bittersweet Symphony

Whoa nelly it has been a long time since I have written but there is a lot to write. Lots of traveling, and lots of stories and opinions.

Since I last wrote, I have been going around the country for various reasons. This was well before Thanksgiving and as I write I realize how long it has been since I have been back to my site. I left on Friday, November 19th from my village and went to Kyle’s house in Vaghashen. Kyle is one of my site mates. I packed my huge bag full of clothes, a sleeping bag, etc. for two weeks and off I went. The six of us got together and started getting stuff for Thanksgiving. We were preparing for Thanksgiving Martuni style 2010 in Vaghashen. Since I was leaving for the upcoming week and some of the others wanted to go to other parts of Armenia for actual Thanksgiving, we had it on Saturday, November 20th. At Vincent’s house, Hector, Vincent, Pat, and Nick prepared sides and the turkeys, and at Kyle’s house, I made a bunch of apple pie (from scratch-yes, PC has taught me how to cook things and not reheat them...). Kyle made mashed potatoes and Rosa made biscuits.

We invited our whole Marz (state) and the Marz over. In total there were 13 people there but we had enough food to easily feed over 40. We got tables and chairs from neighbors and sat down and ate Thanksgiving together. Mom, I even gave a prayer of thanks and it wasn’t dumb. We ate, and ate, and ate and ate... and ate. There were a lot of people who overate. Hector looked like he had a really bad hangover, but in fact, just ate way too much. I was in the same boat. The bathroom was the most popular room. The food was good and cooked and everything, it was just the fact that people needed to create some space... After that, in true Thanksgiving form, Hector downloaded an American football game which was played on Halloween night and we sat down and watched football. This was Hector’s third time watching the game... This, in true Peace Corps Style. I loved it. After this, the guys and I made a “Martuni Christmas Card.” It is attached. For those of you who do not read my blog, I will be mailing some out. But since you don’t read my blog, you don’t know that so I don’t know why I just wrote it.

Thanksgiving was great. On Sunday, November 21st, I went to Yerevan and met Mike. I got some work done in Yerevan concerning the flashmob and that was that. Mike and I then went over to Kilikia bus stop and waited to head up to Novemberyan. A town in the Northeastern part of Armenia. I had never been up there before. It was a weird ride because pretty much everyone talked to us. I mean its cool and fun at first but after the first 20 minutes, it gets old. There is an unstated rule that when the vehicle is moving, there is no more talking. This was not the case. It was a 3 and a half hour ride. Not too bad for Armenian standards. The weird thing was, while we were riding, there is a tunnel. Before the tunnel, everything is flat, there are no trees, or really anything. We went through this tunnel and emerged on the other side to see a completely different scene of trees everywhere, hills, and rivers. Really nice. I felt like I was back in the mountains of NC. We got to Novemberyan and met up with Lisa. Lisa is a 40-something who looks like a 30 something. She is pretty cool and very interesting. We bought some supplies and then took a cab up to her village. She lives in a cottage looking house by herself. It was pretty nice. We were there for 3 nights. When we got there on Sunday, we just had dinner, talked and went to bed. Monday morning, we went into another town and went to a really nice art center. There were two girls there who run the art center. They were really nice and had some nice things to offer. Lisa usually takes stuff from the art center and brings them to some of the PC functions to sell them. Usually they sell pretty well. We got back to Lisa’s house and cooked dinner and then helped Lisa with her grant writing and some school preparations. Then we went for a walk around her village. She took us to an old Azerbaijani cemetery. Azeris inhabited this area until 1988 when they were driven out. Their graves were defaced. It was a sad sight. All of the stones except two were defaced. Most were pushed over and the whole area was not very well kept. Walking through was interesting though. The Azeri stones had the star and crescent and had their occupation on the side of the stone in the form of a picture. For example, if the person was a doctor, there was a picture of a syringe; if there was a sewing machine, a tailor. Like that.

The next day, we went finished up some more grant things and worked on the Health packets I have been working on for such a long time. Around 1, we called a taxi to take us to two old style churches. They were really pretty and far away. By this point, we were about 15 minutes, driving from the Georgian border. The churches were nice but I don’t remember the names and like I said before the churches are basically all the same, just the location is different. It was nice regardless.

We got back to the house and relaxed a bit. That night we made pizza. Actually that whole week was nice. We made egg rolls (from scratch), pizza, tuna melt (the tuna was in cans sent from the States. A commodity here... We also made brownies from the States. At this point, I had gained about 4.7 pounds between eating this food and eating at Kyle’s. Danelle came over just for dinner. She is a new volunteer. That night, we set mouse traps because Lisa was not having any luck catching mice. Mike and I set about 5 traps. It was funny because Lisa set the kind where you put glue on a piece of glass or something, and she got the glue all over the place. Great fun. The next morning, we had snapped the neck of two mice (you’re welcome Mom). We set more and off we were to Artik where Mike lives. We didn’t go through yerevan but found another way. We went to Vanadzor by marshutni or small bus and switched to a shared taxi. It was a really pretty ride and I wish I took pictures along the way. Anyway, we got to Gyumri and helped Lisa again with her grant. We went to a playground store and ordered some things for Lisa. Then we went to get lunch and Mike and I were on our way. We took the train from Gyumri to Artik and got to Artik around 7. I had to carry my bag from the train station to Mike’s house. Mike had moved... further away... from where he lived before. My bag was not light.

We got to Mike’s house. His house is really nice actually. His renter lives above him but he lives in a pretty cozy place. He is getting along really nicely there and is much happier now. Im happy for him. Nicole was there. She is the only married one in our group. She was there seeing her mentee who is Mike’s sitemate. It was fun. We got there on Wednesday night and hung out and then on Thursday, we got ready for Thanksgiving at Mike’s school. Mike’s church back home in Texas got money together and sent about 200 dollars over to provide for Thanksgiving dinner at Mike’s school. Some of the older volunteers from Gyumri came and helped cook everything. Mike works at a “special school for the mentally disabled”. I don’t understand that because when I am there, I seem to have trouble differentiating between the students there and any other kid. Maybe ADD is a mental disability here.

So you know back in the States, families spend hours making the Turkeys. Well, Michael went to the school and checked up on everything around 10am. The Thanksgiving meal was supposed to be around 2:30. Well, the Turkeys were just in a large pot still in water, uncooked. Mike was not pleased but came back laughing saying that we were going to be having chicken soup... We all went to the school and were pleasantly surprised. The turkeys were actually really nice and turned out well. Apparently they boiled the turkeys and the broiled them. 200 dollars was enough to cover the cost of 4 turkeys and pies and stuffing, drinks and some other things for 80-90 people. The dollar has the potential to go a long way here. It was a lot of fun and the kids seemed to be liking the food. Barbara was a bit concerned because apparently she has tried to do something like this before. She had brought the pumpkin pie and was certain that none of the kids would eat it. So, I went around to every kid and asked if they had tried the Pumpkin pie. They said no, so I asked them to try it. If they said no, I just stared at them until they tried a little piece. They would like it and eventually eat the whole thing. Some of the kids got more. I was pleased about that. The whole event went really well. I was really happy and proud of Mike. Afterwards we went to Mike’s and had a Thanksgiving of our own. One of my friends, Arpine who is from Armenia, came down from Gyumri and had Thanksgiving with us. She was a FLEX student and does a lot of international work and knows English really well. I get surprised when she speaks Armenian because I forget that she is Armenian. She is really cool though. It was a good group who was up there. Nicole, Ashley, Mike... I guess that was it. It was a good group. We just hung around Artik until Sunday when I came to Yerevan. This week was All-Vol of the All Volunteer’s conference that is held in Yerevan every year. I went on Sunday to help cook the Peace Corps Thanksgiving dinner. I helped make 25 pies of various tastes and cut up a garbage bag of stale bread for stuffing. That is hard.

The conference started on Tuesday. Monday was our travel day but Monday night we had our Thanksgiving dinner. This year was weird. It wasn’t as good as the previous year, maybe because the novelty of it had worn. Don’t know. But after dinner, we had our talent show. I played the song that Mike and I wrote on our trip to Greece called “the Peace Corps Type” modeled after the Lemonheads song called “the Outdoor Type”. It was supposed to be funny talking about failed projects and suffering from Giardia, but I realized as I was singing it that the song was a bit sad. I felt that I was going to start tearing up actually when I was singing it, especially our line that said “I can’t believe its been a year, with just a few months left...” I was looking around the room at all the other volunteers realizing that this was the last conference I was going to have like this.

The following night after the Tuesday Sessions, we had the A-17 vs. A-18 basketball game. It was really a lot of fun and it seemed like I was back in High School. It was a really good game and my group, the 17s came out on top. I don’t remember what the score was but regardless a lot of fun to play. But that night as well was a little hard because we played really well and the reason that happened was because we had played together before, but that we knew each other well. This would be the last time we will have the opportunity to play at an organized PC function. We took a nice picture though...

The final day of All-Vol was nice. We had minor sessions in the morning and then a development fair. A sort of Meet and Greet thing. Afterwards, the long awaited Flashmob. Everyone had their shirts and we walked as a group to the Opera to meet with other organizations. We were there at 5:30 and waited till 5:45. I gave the instructions and off we were to the top of Northern Avenue. We got camera crews to come out and as soon as the whistle was blown, everyone took off their jackets to strike a pose and show off their AIDS T-shirts we made for this event. The event lasted for one minute but got the point across. It was well received and a lot of people said how cool it was. And that it was. Afterwards, everyone went to “That Place” a bar who said they would sponsor the after party. I had ordered pizza the day before and went to a dessertary to buy some cakes. The pizza place forgot to put in my order so it was about an hour late coming to the bar. Nonetheless, it was awesome. I got up to say some Thank yous and it was something else to be standing on the stage looking at the 90+ volunteers and other participants in their grey and red shirts having a good time. I was touched that so many people participated. The event, I don’t think could have gone any better. The girl who I worked with when I was working with American Councils came over and interviewed me for their Youtube site. When I know where and when it will be posted, Ill let you know.

For these reasons, All-Vol was something else. There were three very direct and sentimental moments that I will probably remember for a really long time.

I got home. It was nice to be back. Grandma came over and gave me a huge hug and kiss on the cheek. I asked her when she was leaving. Her answer... not anytime soon. We will see how true that is.

Finishing up my third semester as a teacher and a volunteer is hard. Knowing that time is flying by and is always against you is a hard thing to swallow. Sure I have 8 months before I go back to the States, but 8 months ago was April which seems like yesterday. I finished up one major project and I just have to do some paperwork for my bathroom grant and I will be finished for this year. Its strange. In the Spring, of course I will have projects to work on, but nothing major. Now, I keep hearing of my colleagues planning for the next step, the same thing I am doing. Already.

I will attach some pictures either today or tomorrow. Ill give people a chance to read this first I suppose.

Until next time...

Mona Lisa’s smile... overrated

Again, I appear to be way overdue with this blog thing. What is happening with the time. Is it really halfway through November already. Im not ready for that. I will recap the events of the last two weekends and explain things to come.

So, two weekends ago, I met up with my friend Ashot, who works at the Post Office in Martuni. It had been a long time since we hung out and he mentioned that. I asked him what he was doing that upcoming weekend. He said nothing, so we decided that we would do a khorovats or an Armenian BBQ outside. Some of my sitemates, Kyle and Nick, had school on Saturday, so I took my time getting into town. I bought the meat and Vincent marinaded them on Friday so they were good to go on Saturday. I got into town around 4 and called everyone. We met and Ashot came over with one of his friends. We bought some extra stuff and then we got in taxi’s and rode out to this area near the lake. It was really pretty out there.

We collected wood. That is one thing that I just don’t like to do. Collect wood. Usually because the places you want to build a fire is where everyone else has built a fire so there is no wood laying around, so you have to walk a half mile to find any decent wood. Anyway, we all found wood and built a fire. The fire was horrible. Combustion requires three things: fuel, oxygen, and an ignition source (heat). Well, we had all these things, but Ashot and his friend kept putting leaves on the fire, which is great if you want to make smoke signals but doesn't’ bode too well if you are trying to make coals because the charred leaves suffocate the potential coals from becoming coals. Finally, Nick told them not to put leaves on the fire, they said no, it is making the fire bigger... Yes, but for about 5 seconds and it totally defeats the purpose of what we are trying to do. That was awesome. So, we got Ashot’s attention turned to putting the meat on the skewers. We finally got coals. We also got darkness. Yeah, since we got out there so late, it was 6 by the time the meat made it onto the fire. We were standing in the dark. I think Ashot and his friend lost interest, because around 8, they walked back to the town. We stayed out there. The six of us, and it was fun. We really did have a great time. We hung out there until about ten and then walked home. The sky was great because it was clear with no moon so the starts were extra bright.

We got back to Vincent’s house and hung out there for a while and then Kyle and I walked to his house in Vaghashen. About a thirty minute walk. It was great until we walked through a construction site and got concrete all over our shoes. (Don’t worry, the next morning, after lots of scrubbing and picking, it all came off). We got to Kyle’s and talked for a while, played guitar, started watching “Back to the Future” and then fell asleep.

The next morning, we went to the market to meet up with Hector and Pat. We walked around for a bit and then headed home. Sunday’s its a bit weird because all the buses run through the Market, so you have to go to the market and then get on the bus to your village. Nevertheless it was fine. The next day I just did laundry and just hung out the house.
Following week, not too much to report on. The bathroom is coming along beautifully. They made some changes in the plans, plans that I was not too thrilled about. They changed things without thinking how it would effect things. For example, my design had four separate rooms with four doors for each bathroom. Two on one side of the school and two on the other. Yeah, well, they decided that they were going to put in just two doors and put a wall in the middle. This is a common practice in Armenia. However, the problem comes when the second person is finished using the bathroom and wants to leave and opens the door to everyone in the outside world. Basically, if you are popping a squat, and you aren’t finished yet, in the first toilet position, everyone is going to be able to see you doing your business. I brought this problem up. They said it was fine. I disagreed, so we are making a new wall that will obstruct the view. Cinderblocks being only 33 cents each, that problem won’t be that hard to fix. That is about the only problem that there is. Anyway, the bathroom will probably be finished next week. Today I walked about the place and they are putting paint on the walls and tomorrow or the next day they are going to lay the tiles. Good.

This past Friday I went to Yerevan to have a meeting with my sub-committee members about the Flashmob. Its going to be awesome. We planned everything out. Afterwards, I went to the T-shirt place and ordered 87 T-shirts for the volunteers. Pretty exciting. This event will take place December 1st.

Next week is going to be hectic. I guess everyone at home will be in a rush as well since Thanksgiving is right around the corner. This upcoming Saturday, the guys in the area are going to throw a Thanksgiving dinner. I am going to make Apple Pie. Let me rephrase. I am going to attempt to make Apple Pie. Im looking forward to it. Then, I head off to Lisa’s site with Mike to teach a lesson at her school and then head to Mike’s town to help him cook Thanksgiving dinner for his school. Mike works at a school for the mentally disabled so he got money from his church and some other volunteers and ourselves, are going to make Thanksgiving for them. Should be a story... Then we have our All-Volunteer’s Conference the following week. There we have another Thanksgiving dinner. Geez. Im going to be all turkey-ed out. Wait, no I won’t because Grandma has really been sticking with Potato dishes lately. I won’t be back to site until December 3rd. Weird. After All-Vol, I am going to stay with my Solak (training village) host family. Zhora my host Dad there, keeps calling me asking why I haven’t been coming by. I haven’t seen them since the summer. Its been a really long time.

Tomorrow my host brother comes back from the Army. After the two years of mandatory service, he will be here. There is usually a pretty big party for neighbors and friends to come over and congratulate the guy coming home. Grandma is preparing right now making all sorts of food. More than likely, tomorrow night I am going to slip into a food coma. Looking forward to it. Soon thereafter, he is going to move to Germany to be with his Mom and his younger brother. After that, Grandma is going back to Belarus. She says probably before the New Year. I don’t know what I am going to do, but thought about just moving into the town and commuting to school every morning which won’t be that hard. Who knows? However, I am starting to look for places to live.

I will be uprooted at that point. Of course my real family is in the States but my family, in Armenia will all be gone. I won’t have something to come back to in the future. Sure, I have made friends but my family here is the one that took care of me. That empty feeling is starting to creep on me now. I guess I’ll just have to take things one day at a time.

Grandma. She has been with me the longest during my Peace Corps Service. Like I have mentioned several times before, we understand each other. We kind of have our own language too. Its going to be rough seeing her go. Yesterday, I was watching her cut up meat and she just has a way of doing things that is really funny. She looked over because I was smiling and she just looked at me and just smiled. Not just a smile but a real genuine smile that you don’t find everyday. A rare glimpse of a 70 year old Great-Grandmother smiling. Another one of those memories that is burned into my memory; a smile that surpasses any other that I’ve seen. A camera just won’t do it...

Picture explanation:
1) Kyle being Kyle... Awesome
2) You can notice on the right side a mound of leaves... you understand now. This was Vincent blowing on the fire. He did this for about 15 minutes. Afterwards, he passed out. It was pretty funny.
3) Building the Fire

Until next time...

A punctuation mark... but not really

This post may be a little weird but I just had to write it because I thought it was funny, but probably not very culturally sensitive.

So, last weekend, I had two volunteers come and stay with me. One of them being a girl and the other a guy (Mike). Anyway, we walked to Hector’s village and when we walked back, I ran into my Aunt who asked me to come and have coffee with her. The girl had to go to the bathroom so my Aunt told her which way to go. The girl came out and said that she had ten minutes to get home. I asked her why. She said she was having her period. Well, as you can imagine, when someone asks you to have coffee and then you just use their bathroom and you have to leave, its a little rude. So, I told my Aunt that we had to go home. She asked why. I said that the girl needed to get home because she was having girl issues. (That is in fact exactly what I said “girl issues”).

I told my Aunt that Mike and I could stay and the girl could go back because I didn’t want to be rude. Then my Aunt flat out said “I don’t want you guys to stay, I already know you guys, I want to talk with the girl.” Then I said that we could come back which my Aunt responded, its going to be too dark.

Ok, so we got home and the girl took care of whatever.

A couple days ago my Aunt came over to my house and my Grandma asked about Mike, the girl, and I coming by her house. My Aunt said that we had to leave early. Grandma asked why. My Aunt said that the girl was sick. Then Grandma got very concerned and asked “sick? She didn’t look sick.” Then my Aunt said “she was sick” trying to hint at it. Grandma still didn’t get it. I got frustrated because its a bit awkward still for Armenians to talk about that stuff and they refer to the monthly menstrual cycle as “being sick.” Well I took the liberty to chime in because it was getting frustrating for this back and forth-ness.

I told Grandma that the girl had “girl issues.” Grandma still didn’t get it. So I said it again slowly trying to imply something. Grandma still didn’t get it. So then I said, “it’s when red water comes from a woman once a month.” Grandma started laughing and her face got really red. I had embarrassed her but then she asked how I knew about it. I figured that was a good time to end that conversation. We spoke no more of that and the conversation came to an abrupt end.

I think that was the highlight of my week. Nothing else really happened. The bathroom project is coming along very nicely (better than I expected) and the flashmob planning is going well. The weather has started to get warmer. I don’t get it, but being in a house with two foot concrete walls really doesn’t do much to keep you warm, in fact, its kind of like living in a refrigerator. Beautiful day today though.

Matt. Are you still alive? Thank you Brandon for reading months of blogs to catch up. I hope you’re not lying to me because there will be a quiz when I get back to the States...
Until next time...

Pictures for Halloween weekend

1) Me and Noravank
2) Me and the Distiller
3) Emily, Mike (my group) Becky and Meag (new group)
4) The walk down from Noravank. Really nice through the canyon
5) My village Verin Getashen

Rosemary's Baby is horrible...

Work during fall break... But my understanding was fall break meant vacation. I was wrong. Monday, I went into Martuni because a lot of the volunteers were going there for a sports conference. Because there were so many volunteers there, I decided that this would be a good time to invite the other health volunteers to come to get some stuff done. In one of the previous writings, I explained how the Health and Environmental Programs have been cancelled in Armenia. However, Health is still a major concern in Armenia and as PC Volunteers we wanted to keep this idea still alive. So, the formerly known Health Volunteers got together and we wrote up one-sheet, really easy health lessons that anyone could do. For example. One thing we decided to do is to get water-based paint and poster paper and have kids dip their hands in the pant and stick their hands on the posterboard. Then, we would wash our hands and while we were washing, we would show the correct hand washing methods. We did that and we came up with an AIDS T-shirt design for the flashmob. Surprisingly, we got a lot of stuff done.

Mike came on Monday to hang out this week because he didn’t have school and because there was no more room at Kyle’s house, Ashley came and stayed too. The next morning, I was woken by my school director who called at 8:00am and said that they needed to talk about the grant. So I was at the school by 9:00am and we talked about grant stuff. Currently they are almost finished with the septic tank and drainage system and they have taken off the old plaster material which lays on the walls now. We bought the toilets and sinks and some other things so that should start this upcoming week. So, when I walked to school, I found out that we had school. There were kids going to school. Things are like the States here. The previous Friday, it was announced that there would be no school and then without telling me, Saturday there was an announcement that there would be school the following week. Well, I had this conference, so I ended up not going to school. On Wednesday, after we did our work, Ashley, Mike and I walked out to Hector’s village. It was a nice day to take a walk. We went out there, ate, and then came back.

Thursday, Ashley left and Mike and I walked to Kyle’s house to make sure that everything was clean and that nothing was broken because when you have that many people in one house, something is bound to break. Nope, not this time. Nothing broke and everything was clean. However, as Alex (a new volunteer) was packing, he threw his sleeping bag to his backpack and the drawcord caught on a picture frame and the frame fell to the floor and broke (just a corner). We were so close so we left some money for that. Not a big deal. But we were just so close. Afterwards, we walked back to Martuni and put some people on buses. Mike and I went back to the village.

The following day, I decided that I would go down to Yeghegnadzor where Emily lives. I had promised her for about ten months that I would visit her. So I took the bus to Martuni. There is a pass that connects Martuni to Yeghegnadzor and that is how people from Yeghegnadzor trade their fruit with the people of Martuni who sell potatoes. If you go through Yerevan, it would take about 5 hours. However, this pass allows you to go from one place to the other in less than an hour. There is no public transportation between the two places so you have to know someone to drive you. Its called the “Selim Pass” and it used to be part of the real Silk Road. There is even an old Persian Hotel there and it looks over the whole valley and its gorgeous.

One of my relatives said that they knew someone that worked for the Army and could drive us down the pass. We met him on the road. He said he was going to Yeghegnadzor. So, I noticed this when I opened the door, but next to the center console was an automatic machine gun pointed up at the ceiling. This guy had army fatigues on. As I was getting in, he said, “don’t step on that.” I thought that was a given...

Anyway, the Selim Pass was just as advertised. It was absolutely gorgeous and it was a really quick ride. We talked about different things on the way down the road. He asked if we wanted to stop at the old Persian Hotel. So we stopped and took some pictures and we were back on our way. While we were riding, Hovik (the driver) got an apple out of his center console and handed it to Mike in the backseat and then got a knife out and handed him a knife. But, it was no ordinary knife. It was a military issue bowie knife that had a footlong blade on it. I really wish someone was there to take a picture of our facial expressions as he whipped that thing out. I mean really, who pulls out a blade that size to cut an apple?

By talking to him, I found out that this guy was right below a General. I don’t know what that is here but he said he controlled the different regimes here. A pretty high up guy. We got to Yeghegnadzor and he took us to a cafe and we sat down and drank coffee and talked some more. After some time, I found out that he owned the cafe. It was a really nice cafe, like to American standards nice. Emily, Meag, and Beckie met us and we talked with the guy for a while and then left after several thank you’s. Hovik said that if I needed a ride back, he would give me a ride and gave me his phone number. He said he really appreciated what we were doing for his country.

We went to Emily’s house, which is really cool, and we made pizza. Kind of. Whatever it was, it was good but it wasn’t really pizza. We then walked Meag home and went by this tank. Like a real blow-things-up tank and we played around in it. Mike went inside and moved the barrel around. We got back and went straight to bed.

Mike and I got to share the futon which was great since it was so big... (just in case you missed the sarcasm, it was really small).

The next day some other volunteers came by and we hung out. Nothing really that interesting, they left in the morning, and I helped Emily’s host family make vodka. It was awesome. I know how to distill vodka. Really easy actually. If you are a US Government official, don’t worry, I know the laws about distilling alcohol. But while Im in another country, Im taking advantage of it. Emily had work to do, her host mom had work to do and so did her dad, so I got to keep an eye on the vodka. I sat by the distiller and played guitar while I waited for one jar to fill up before I put another jar under the tap. It was 160 proof but it didn’t burn your nostrils and smelled really good. However, taking it, the vodka burned and probably took all the color off of my insides. The whole distilling process was cool.

That day, Emily and I went to Noravank, which is an old chuch somewhere in the mountains. She studied photography in school and took a lot of pictures of me which I have posted. She also taught me ways to better take photos. Really interesting. We got a ride to the top and then walked the 8km back down the mountain. We got back to Emily’s house and had barbeque at the family’s house. It was really good.

The next day, it was back to the distiller in the morning and then the next day we went to a 4th century bridge. It is part of the Silk Road and still has Arabic written on the side. We then walked the long way through a village and came back to make chili, cornbread, and apple pie for Halloween. Some other volunteers came over for dinner and watching some movies. We watched “the uninvited” and “Rosemary’s Baby”. “Rosemary’s Baby” is probably the worst movie ever made. “The Uninvited” was alright, but if any of you know me, you know that I don’t do well with scary movies. I think it all started when I watched the Stephen King “It” when I was in second grade with my Dad. Thanks Dad for scaring the crap out of me when I was so young.

It was a nice weekend. I came home and my Grandma said that we didn’t have gas and we hadn’t had water for the last 9 days. So we didn’t have gas to heat up our igloo house, or water... I know most of you are like "oh, you're in Peace Corps, thats suppused to happen" but see the problem with this is, I live in a really nice house and for the last 15 months, I have had 24/7 electricity, water, and gas. When the water goes out for 5 hours, it is a bit of a panic. There are a lot of places in Armenia where this is not possible, such as my training village but I learned to make due without running water. Now being here, I have learned to have all these "necessities" so not having water and gas is a big deal for me.

Fortunately, the water came on yesterday but we are still without gas and it leaves me to wear my marshmallow jacket around the house. The long underwear has come out and I guess this means it will stay out until next May. Sweet. The winter is here. The mountains all around us are covered completely with snow. It snowed here while I was in Yeghegnadzor on Saturday. It has begun.

On a separate front. The bathroom is coming along really nicely. Hopefully to be completed in two weeks. One thing off my mind.

Now the flashmob is my biggest stressor. Sweet.

Alright, that’s about all I have. I hope people are doing well and had a good Halloween.

Done and done.

Until next time...

JUST GET IN THE CAR...

So I guess a lot has happened since Thursday when I wrote last. Thursday I called over fifty of the volunteers and asked if they were having an problems with the HIV/AIDS poster contest and if they wanted a T-shirt. All but 4 of the 50+ wanted a T-shirt. So, it was a success. However, that night when I went to bed, my throat was a little scratchy and my voice was a bit weak. Overall, I was really happy with the volunteers participation in buying a shirt to wear for the flashmob in about 5 weeks.

That night I went to bed watching a little bit of Eddie Izzard. I woke up the next morning. I guess you never talk until you run into someone to talk to. I did the usually. Got out of bed. Stood there blankly for a while. Made my bed, moved my computer back to my desk, got my washing supplies and towel and headed to the bathroom. Everyday, on the way to the bathroom, I see Grandma in the kitchen making breakfast. Every morning I say “Dobrum Utrum” or “Good Morning” in Russian. But not that day. The sound that spilled out of my mouth was a combination of a whisper and squeaks. I had lost my voice. It was gone. Completely. I will never forget my Grandma’s face because she just froze and looked at me and asked if I was sick or feeling bad. I started laughing. I said “no.” Then she mocked me and then made fun of me. I went to the bathroom and did my usual bathroom things, put my things back in my room and went to breakfast. Grandma asked me some questions. I kept forgetting that I didn’t have a voice and I tried to answer. Grandma really got a kick out of that. Yeah...

That day didn’t go over so well. I went to school on Friday momentarily and then got on the bus and headed into Yerevan again to go to some meetings. I got into Martuni and met Hector there and we went together to the tailors because the zipper on his bag broke and needed a new one put on. So I went with him and then went to the bus stop and got on a bus to Yerevan. It was a quick ride and I got there around 12:30. I went straight to the Peace Corps office and met with Nick about the flashmob we want to do December 1st. So far, there are no problems. I was afraid of some of the red tape we might run into but so far nothing has gotten in our way. After that meeting, I went with Kevin, a new volunteer and introduced him to American Councils. We met with the Alumni Coordinator there and got them to join us for the flashmob and buy T-shirts. There are going to be a lot of people there and it should be pretty fun. Hopefully at least.

After that we got some lunch with some other volunteers and then I went to the hostel to give Gevorg his wedding present. He wasn’t there so I just hung out there for about an hour before going to meet a friend. We talked for a while and then went to the opera to see a concert. It wasn’t as good as the last one I saw, but there were some guest performers, a cellist from England and a pianist from Italy. Both really good. You know, I enjoyed the encores more than the actual performances. I really like the cello played by itself and I really like the piano played by itself. The Italian guy was really good. They played Dvorak and Tchaikovsky. Pretty good.

Afterwards, I walked back to the hostel to get my bags and then headed over to Gevorg’s house. Since he just got married, he moved in with his wife and wanted to show me his new place. It was really nice. I had a great time there and we talked for about 3 hours, until about 1:30. He is a really interesting guy and his wife is really nice. She didn’t talk too much but Gevorg had a lot of interesting things to say about life and about how life works. Another one of those people that really have an impact by the things they say.

I left there and got in a taxi to take me to Jason and Elvira’s place. The taxi driver was awesome. He was just a really nice guy and we talked the whole way to the apartment. He didn’t want to even take my money but I forced it upon him. It was one of those really good taxi experiences, and yes, good taxi experiences are amazing. I got his phone number just in case I needed a taxi one day. His name was Ando.

I got to Jason and Elvira’s house and snuck in. They usually just leave the door open for me, so I snuck in and just passed out for 5 hours. I woke up at 7:00 to get ready to go to the Embassy. The Embassy was having its annual auction and since my neighbors computer broke, I told him about this auction and said they sold computers there. My neighbor, Varton didn’t come but sent his son-in-law out there. A nice guy. We met there for the first time and then headed in. They had all sorts of things there from pretty nice furniture to cars, to computers. The computers weren’t that good so I didn’t get anything for him. It was funny though because the son-in-law fell in love with some lawn furniture and kept asking me about it. I mean, what do I know about lawn furniture, but this guy was all about it. Well, he didn’t want to wait until the auction for that particular item started so we eventually left. He gave me a ride to the bus stop and I got on the bus and waited for about twenty minutes and then left. I was the only guy on the bus besides the bus driver. Interesting.

I got off at the village exit and just walked home. I just wanted to get home. The previous night I didn’t sleep much either and after running around and going to meetings and hanging out and this and that, I just wanted to sleep. No one was home on Saturday when I got home so I just passed out. I woke up and it was 6. I fell asleep at 2. I woke up and Grandma said that Varton was looking for me so I went over to his house and he and his extended family was having a get together. They were roasting potatoes, so I stuck around for a while and had some potatoes and a crapload of vodka. Actually, it wasn’t that much. I came home and hung out with Grandma and then went to bed.

I slept through the night and my voice was pretty much back. A little weak but overall not too bad. You can understand me now.

Early this morning, Grandma and I went to the market to sell some beans. Its funny here because as soon as you get off the bus, there are people wanting to buy beans and other things to take to Yerevan to sell. So, not more than 15 minutes later, Grandma had already sold her beans. I needed some meat so I got some meat from the meat people or butchers, I guess. The cow was probably moo-ing 6 hours prior... The meat was fresh.

I came home on the next bus and Grandma stayed at the market because she needed to buy some clothes. I came home and started making some food for my guests Gayane and Mane(t). I always make fun of them because people from Yerevan rarely leave the capital. So, I told them to come to my village and I would educate them about Armenia. Ha ha. Well, apparently I didn’t do the best job giving them directions because instead of telling them to go right, I told them to go left and they got lost. We made a bet that they couldn’t find the house, but they did, even with wrong directions. They were just an hour late. But, it was my fault. They came and met Grandma. It was funny though because in Armenia there are very laid out gender roles and I broke about every one of them. All the ladies were sitting down, and I was cooking, cleaning, taking their dishes, making coffee and tea. Grandma said that I would make a great wife... Thank you.

So it was time for Gayane and Mane(t) to leave. We started walking to the intersection and I called Vincent. Vincent got to the bus station and said that the bus that was just about full was about to leave. I started trying to figure out what we could do. I saw a truck coming and stopped it and asked if the two young men could take the two young girls to the intersection to meet the bus that was leaving Martuni. I called Gayane every 5 minutes to make sure that the guys didn’t kill the girls. They didn’t. Mane(t) and Gayane stood at the road for about ten minutes, saw the bus pass them and got in a taxi and just went back to Yerevan. They paid only 300 dram more (about 80 cents) more than they would have if they were in a bus. So, in the end everything worked out. I was really glad they got a chance to come out and see where I live. It is common for people from Yerevan to never leave Yerevan and see the outer regions. This accounts for the great disconnect between the development in Yerevan and the regions.

It was funny how many people, as I was walking home, asked me who the two girls I was walking with were. I just explained that I worked with them over the summer and we had some work to do and they had to come out.

Ok, I have to post this post because there is a lot more for me to write. I forgot about this post until now, the 29th but I need to start a new blog.

Until next time... (although you probably already read the latest blog by now...)

I think they're here to take me to jail...

The pace is picking up and its hard to imagine that its almost November. Already. Geez. Last Friday, the new country director came to my house with Mariam the “executive assistant.” It was really fun. Diana the new CD wanted to visit some volunteers and see how we lived at site. It was a welcomed visit. After they visited Nick in the next village they called me and I told them I would meet them on the road and that they would see me. Well, I figured they would ride on the main road, surely to see me. Not the case. They called and asked where I was, and I responded by asking where they were. The PC drivers usually go to the same regions of the country so they are familiar with where we live. We have to submit a map and an emergency plan to PC when we first get here. When I first got to site, about 14 months ago, I drew in another road. A road that I thought was the main road but apparently was not. So, they had passed me on the other road and I didn’t see them because houses blocked my view. Honestly, I don’t know why I wrote all that, because its not that interesting...

Anyway, they came to my house. Diana used to be a PCV in Ukraine a number of years back and still knew her Ukraine/Russian pretty well. She had also finished as the CD in Ukraine this past spring so it was still at the forefront of her brain. Grandma was thrilled about this because usually PC Staff comes just to talk to the volunteers and she just does stuff. This time she was an active participant in all conversation. It was much more interesting that way. I may have already said this, but when Grandma speaks Russian/Ukrainian, she always gets a big smile on her face. That may because, to her, its funny to hear me try and speak it to her. She still had the smile on when Diana was talking so Im thinking that she just likes to hear it.

One of my students made me a box of baklava the previous day. I had tutored her for three weeks as a FLEX crash course review session thing. She wanted to pay me but as volunteers its against the rules to accept money, so she made me baklava instead. So we sat in the kitchen and ate baklava, drank tea, and just talked. It was a really good visit and I really appreciated the effort she made to come and see me and the other volunteers.

After our meeting, I asked if I could get a ride to Gavar because I hadn’t seen Bryan in a long while. Gavar is the next biggest town on the way to Yerevan, about 45 minutes up the road. We went the opposite way to Vaghashen to pick up Kyle because he was going into Yerevan to meet his parents at the airport the following day. Exciting. So, we picked up Kyle and off we went. We got to the Gavar Bridge and I got out and started walking the 30 minutes into town. Its just what you do as a volunteer. I did some filming of the walk and Ill include that in my next documentary that I am going to start making soon. Soon-ish. (Speaking of, those of you that still read my blog and said you were going to make a video last December, where is it... Matt, Kelly, and Laura?)

Usually walking, people will ask for a ride. People in cars. This time, there was a dump truck that started honking and I thought he wanted me to get off the road even though there was no one else in sight. As the truck was coasting, the driver was pantomiming, trying to ask if i wanted a ride to Gavar. (I wish I got that on film). I nodded so he stopped and I got to ride in a dump truck (I don’t know why that excites me so much). Anyway, it was fun, and I talked to the driver as we headed into town. Conversation was good and I forgot where I needed to get off, so when the truck stopped, I got out and had to backtrack about ten minutes to get to where I needed to go.

I got to Bryan’s and hung out there. He made Sloppy Joes and it was really good. Remember that my diet mainly consists of potatoes and potatoes... That night, I talked with Bryan and his site mates who are all new volunteers, Genya, Danna, and Chris. A good bunch.

The next morning, I wanted to take the bus back. Hmm, no bus anymore. The man said that the bus didn’t run anymore because not enough people were taking it, so I waited for a shared Taxi. The bus is usually 500 dram and a private taxi is 4000. But with a shared taxi its 2000 dram, 500 dram per person. I didn’t understand the math but whatever. So, I waited with the taxi driver and two people showed up going in my direction. We waited another another hour and then the driver said, “listen, how about you pay 1000 dram. That is what everyone else is paying and we can go.” I knew he was lying but I went along with it and pretended that I didn’t know what he was talking about and we left. The taxi driver and the other two passengers planned some kind of conspiracy against me. I wasn’t born yesterday. So we started riding and we got to a village outside of Martuni and the two ladies got out. The lady made it very obvious that I see that she handed the driver 2000 dram. Then the driver for some reason got out and I looked back and the driver was giving 1000 dram back to the lady. The driver got back in the car and we started going. I was a little peeved at this. I told him that I wanted to go to this road that connects my village to the road. I said that he didn’t need to go all the way into Martuni and instead of going all the way there, he could make up the differing distance by turning onto the road. When he turned, I asked if we had gone far enough and I said, “no, turn left here... we are almost to my house,” so he kept driving and asked again if that was far enough. Again I told him that the house was just a little bit further. So we got to my house and I gave him 1000 dram and he said that it wasn’t enough. I told him I saw him give back 1000 dram to the ladies. That was the end of that conversation.

So Saturday, I just laid low, relaxed a bit. Studied my Russian and I think watched a movie. Sunday, I was going to go to Hector’s house just to take a walk out there, but the clouds looked ominous, and Grandma wanted me to help out with some other things, so I just hung out again at the house. It was fun. We had a good time.

Monday, I didn’t go to school. I had some work to do in Martuni and I met up with Hector. I needed to get some software from him to install a language program on some of the school computers. We had some time to catch up and then I came home.

The following day, after my classes, I went out to Vaghashen to meet Kyle’s parents with some of the other volunteers. Kyle was taking his parents out to the lake with some kids to do some water quality tests. Since I had class, I went out there a bit late and walked from Martuni to Vaghashen. Then I turned and took a road out toward the lake. It was beautiful (footage will be included in the documentary). The area out there was clean and the trees were changing colors and you could see the lake in the distance. It was really nice. I took the wrong road though and walked through the field into the forest when I realized that there were no footprints of the dozen kids and volunteers and parents on the road. I called Kyle. I was on the wrong road. So with some cows as companions I walked to the right road and met up with everyone. We came back to Kyle’s house, talked there for a while and walked to Kyle’s host family’s house. Kyle moved out...

There we talked with everyone and then had a dinner. It was funny because here were Kyle’s parents from the States and Kyle’s family made pizza. Yeah, that’s all I ate. I ate nothing else but the pizza. It was pretty good. Around 9, with Pat, Vincent, and Nick, I walked back to Martuni. It was really nice out. I got my package from Vincent’s house along with his 15 pound heavy duty plastic lockable case and rode the taxi back home.

I got home and Grandma just stared at the plastic case then looked at me and then went back to watching her show. Priceless.

Two or three of the homes around my house had been broken into. This concerned Grandma. She said that, yeah we have a TV and dvd player, but she was worried about my computer, camera, whatever else in my room. A bit of paranoia set in because now she won’t go somewhere unless Im at home. Apparently the windows are easy to break into with a knife and that is the kind of window I have in my room so her uneasiness was understandable. I really didn’t have any concerns, but I emailed our safety and security director who decided that he would just call the Martuni police and then call me afterwards. He called me and said that the Martuni police hadn’t gotten any police reports or calls about the robberies but that they could come to the house.

Well news spreads like wildfire and the village talks, so when they saw a police car come to the American’s house, there was some speculation and talk. I love it... Grandma and I were drinking coffee yesterday (Wednesday) when we heard the outside door open. Grandma went out there. The police asked if Zoya (my host mom who moved to Germany) lived here. Grandma said no, that she moved to Germany but that was her daughter. Then they asked if the American lived here. She said yes as I was peaking my head out the door. Suhweet...

So the policemen came into the house and we talked about some things. They heard what Grandma had to say and they listened to me and my concerns. I just said I didn’t want Grandma to worry. There is someone on patrol every night in the village and he said that the police person would come to the area around the house to keep an eye out. I also bought a heavy duty lock for that case that Vincent got me. Doubtful that they would go into that much trouble to take whatever is here. Usually when I leave my house, I take my computer and camera with me anyway.

When the policemen left, Grandma asked why they came and I told her that they were here to take me to jail but I convinced them not to. Grandma just started hitting me and pushed me into the house laughing.

I went to school yesterday and talked with the school director and it looks like we are going to start on the bathroom tomorrow. We have the workers and the mold for the concrete now. I was on the phone yesterday for about six hours calling the volunteers and talking to other people and I woke up this morning with a non-existent voice. I tried talking this morning and nothing. This was hilarious for Grandma because I didn’t realize this until I tried to say Good Morning to her and all that came out were cracks and whispers. After she asked what was wrong, I told her I lost my voice. It must have really amused her because she would ask me a question, just to hear me speak, then she would mock me and make fun of me and then laugh. Five minutes would go by before the same thing would happen. I think she got tired of it now. I still don’t have a voice which is going to make my meetings tomorrow nearly impossible and probably embarrassing. Yeah.

So tomorrow, I am going to Yerevan for meetings and staying there until Saturday. Then on Sunday, the young ladies that I worked with this summer are going to come to my village to see what village life is like. There is a really big disconnect between those that live in Yerevan and those that live in the village and I think it would be good for them to see what’s on the other side of the bridge. They said I had to cook something, so Im still trying to figure out what to make.

Next week is fall break and we don’t have school. We are having a sports conference here. By “we” I mean not me, but some of the other volunteers. I have other things I need to be doing so Im just going to sit around.

If this is the last message before Halloween, have a Happy Halloween. Brandon, if you still read this, Happy Birthday on the 30th boyo. Mom and Dad, don’t buy crappy candy. Buy something good for the kids, like snickers, or twix, or skittles...

That’s all for now.

Until next time...

Kids say the darndest things...

Last weekend, my friend Gayvorg got married. I was excited because although I went to Sean’s wedding, it wasn’t a completely Armenian style wedding. I wanted that cultural experience. Gayvorg and his wife are both Armenian and I was ready for this experience. From what I heard, it was a whole lot of drinking, dancing, and a whole crapload of food. I went to Yerevan on Saturday and took the evening bus in because I don’t really like being in Yerevan longer than I absolutely have to be. I went to the office and did some work there and used the internet and headed over to Elvira and Jason’s house. I stay there sometimes when I need to a place to stay and I like hanging out with Jason. Jason is interesting because he is the gardener boss of “lover’s park” and he owns a church in Vermont because he thought it would be a good investment. Now, some five to ten years later, he still owns it. He used to live in it. I can hear him tell that story a million times and never get bored of it.

Ok, so they frequently have visitors over, whether other PC Volunteers or couchsurfers. This particular night, there was a full house. A family from New Zealand was staying at their house to I slept on the floor. No big deal. The next morning, we had breakfast, and then I sat around for a while until it was time to go to the wedding.

So, it was Elvira, Jason, Their ten month old, and myself. We got in a taxi and went to the hostel where Gayvork works and waited. Elvira asked me to go and see what was going on, so I went and asked some of the other workers at the hostel, Ani and Anahit. As I was turning around, the bus was pulling away so I ran after the bus. The bus stopped and I asked if there were three seats on the bus. After the bus driver said yes, I ran back to the taxi and told them to come to the bus. But then, someone else pulled up in their own car and said they could give us a ride, so I ran back to the bus to tell them that they could leave. Then I ran back to the taxi to make sure that Elvira and Jason were coming and then we collectively ran to the car and got in. So, if you can imagine, a guy in a suit running around a street trying to get a ride to the wedding which was held in a village outside of Yerevan. We got in and we were on our way.

We were about 15 minutes. Armenian weddings are about 20 minutes long. I got to see five minutes of the wedding. I didn’t know any of the other people there and neither did Jason nor Elvira so we just huddled and talked and walked around. I asked the same guy if he would give us a ride back to Yerevan and he said that since he brought us out there, he would take us back. Sweet. I think I forgot to mention we picked up two of his friends, so I was sitting in the front, Jason, Elvira and two girls sat in the back with the baby... in one row. Again... sweet.

So from the church we went to some private house somewhere. I had no idea where it was but all 60 some people went in. This is where it deviates from a true Armenian wedding. Basically, it was everyone standing up drinking wine and eating hors devours. I was starving and as soon as I got into the place, I picked up a wine glass and starting drinking because I thought there would be ample amounts of food. This was not the case. I was about two glasses in, and realized there was no food except for hors devours so Jason and I went over and tried to make a meal out of the hors devours. It didn’t happen. So in my semi-drunk state, I wandered into the kitchen and asked if they needed a hand making the food faster so that I could soak up some of the wine swishing around my stomach. I asked in Armenian and the guy responded in English. The owner of the house owned a restaurant which serves pretty good food. His name was Charles and he is originally from Scotland. His Grandfather was Armenian. So we got into a conversation and then finally Jason came in to help out with the talking. I kept telling him how I loved his lawn because it had real grass on it. This is something you don’t really find in Armenia... a lawn with grass. I told him that it had been about 15 months since I had touched real grass. He just looked at me... He also had two black labs. Reminded me of Raven, our black “lab” back in the States. Anyway, it was nice talking to Charles. (its even better if you say “Charles” in a classy British accent).

Anyway, Jason, Elvira, the kid, and I left early and went to find a place to get some food. We ate and then Jason and Elvira had to go back home so I met up with Gayane, the girl that I taught with for FLEX and we hung out with her friends. It was the 2792 birthday of Yerevan and there were bands playing everywhere so I went with her group to see some concerts. They were just on the street. I was the only sucker wearing a suit. I knew this because it seemed like everyone that passed me just stared at me. I get stared at anyway because I don’t Armenian, but the suit just added to it.

Around 9:30 I left and went to the wedding after party at a bar somewhere. I didn’t know anybody there, but struck up conversation with random people. Soon thereafter I left.

The next morning I left to come back home. I got back and met with my school director to talk about the progress of the bathroom. We were supposed to start the previous Thursday, then it was supposed to start on Tuesday, then today, and now probably next week. Um, its getting wicked cold here and it has already snowed once in the village where Hector lives which is 1 hour away from me by foot. So I don’t know what’s going on with that.

Onto another subject. I am teaching English now and I was in the class with the 7th graders and there was a little girl reading this line “The sun was out shining” She read it as “The sun was out shitting.” I about lost it. I think I remember this happening last year. I started chuckling a little and the teacher asked what was funny, so I had to tell her that the story reminded me or something funny. Aren’t kids just the darndest. Other than that, nothing really else to say. I know I say this everytime, but is has gotten colder. I wear my down jacket now everyday when Im at home. Its swell.

I am going up to Gavar tomorrow to see some of my friends there and just hanging out. Should be a good time.

Dad, I got my package yesterday. I don’t have it here but another volunteer saw it and has it now and I just have to get it from him now.

That’s it.

Until next time.

I could never smuggle drugs...

Last weekend we had our first AIDS initiative meeting with the new volunteers. It was fun because a lot of the volunteers came to Yerevan so we got to get some work done and then hang out. Since I only live two hours from the capitol, I woke up early Saturday morning and headed in with Hector. I have started taping my second documentary, so for those who I send it to, you will get to meet Hector. I did some taping in the morning and then got ready for my meeting.

It started at 2:00. There were about twenty or so volunteers there. A rather good turn out. It wasn’t the 32 people that signed up to come but that happens. I was still happy about the turn out. The meeting went on for about an hour. Our new Country Director was there to see how things went and she stressed the importance of the HIV/AIDS Initiative in many countries. My impression was after that speech and being there that she would stay more than five minutes, but no, she left. We covered a lot of stuff ranging from the continuation of the presentations to getting packets together to organizing a “flashmob.”

Now, I didn’t know what that meant and Im going to explain what it is for you Mom and Dad. A flashmob is when you get a bunch of people together and do an organized activity in a public place. What we are going to do is get shirts printed and get other organizations to join and we are going to go out to Republic Square on December 1st, or World AIDS Day. There at a certain time we are going to just be walking and when the clock hits the hour, we are going to take off our jackets and just be wearing our shirts in a frozen position for about five minutes and then after five minutes, just put out jackets back on like nothing happened and continue walking. We are hoping to get the Armenian Red Cross to come out there so that they can be there and give out information. Basically, it is a ploy to get the general public to start asking questions. The first one being “what the heck was that” and then “huh, I want to find out more information about whatever is going on.” Apparently they have been done before and they have been successful. (However you would define “success” in this situation)

After that, I hung out with some of my friends I hadn’t seen in a while and then went to the US Embassy for a fundraising party. Some of my friends I worked with when I was teaching for FLEX were there so I got to see them and that was fun.

The morning, I got ready and left pretty early to come home.

This week was rather uneventful. I taught some classes but it seemed like I had to go to Martuni almost every day to get stuff done for my grant. On Tuesday, I met with my school director and he said that we would meet the following day and that I should be at the mayor’s office at 8:45am. So, I got there at 8:45 sharp and in true Armenian form, the mayor and the school director got there at 9. Awesome. We went inside and the mayor said that he was busy after three minutes of talking. I just sat there thinking “I thought that they arranged this meeting...” Anyway, I went back home not in the best of moods. The next day I came back but got to the office at 9 and met with the mayor. Apparently my school director forgot about the meeting so we had to wait for him.

We went over the plan of the project and again talked about the distribution of responsibility. Things were going to work out well. I went back to the school and met with the contractor who said that he would measure everything. I looked at him and asked him “what do you mean you are going to measure everything.” He said that he wanted precise measurements. I told him he should have done the first time he took measurements. I don’t think he took me seriously the first time, but now that I actually have the money, I think his mindset has changed. It was very aggravating. I told him that I can’t get more money and that if he is short on anything, the money is going to come from the village. He responded by saying that the money was enough. I was with him re-measuring everything and surprisingly, after however many years he has been doing this, he has a good eye because with about every measurement, he was almost spot on.

It was my turn. I looked at my budget and try to see how much everything was. The school director got everything organized and the stuff was delivered to the school. I had to bring the money. So I went to the bank and told them I needed them to raise the limit on my withdraw amount. That is what they did and then I withdrew 700,000 dram or about 1600 dollars from the bank.

You know when you do something bad and you know you’re doing something bad you are supposed act normal. Yeah, well, easier said than done. I had my shoulder bag with me and as soon as the 700,000 dram came out of the ATM I stuffed it in my bag. I was basically on top of the ATM so that no one could see me take the money and shove it in my bag. So, already I looked suspicious. Then as I was walking I had the bag on my back and the strap across my chest. About 50 meters into the walk I got self conscious and put the bag in the front even though there are two plastic clips and a lot of velcro holding the flap shut including a large velcro strap on the inside. So, strike number two with the “acting normal” thing. Lastly, when you try to act cool in a situation, you rarely do and this was the last act that tipped me off. My eyes were bugged out of my head and my head would swivel everywhere at everything that happened. If I was walking on the street, and people were passing me I hugged the wall or walked into the street so that everyone was at least an arms distance away from me.

So, imagine a guy straddling an ATM, then walking with a bag in the front of his body and then walking quickly with bug eyes hugging walls and walking in streets... Basically it looked like I was cracked out.

On the bus, I embraced my bag and had a death grip on it until I got off the bus and back home. I didn’t tell a soul that I had that much money, including grandma. Not that I don’t trust her, but more so because the village talks and I don’t need Grandma telling our neighbors that the American has a crapload of cash in the house by accident...

I paid my school director and got a signed paper saying that he received payment. I let out a sigh and he asked what was wrong and I told him that I don’t like having that much on me. He said not to worry about it. I told him next time to go to the bank and I would pay for everything there and he could handle keeping that much money. To that, he simply laughed. I don’t know what that means.

So that was my week of excitement. Ground-breaking begins on Monday... or Tuesday... or whenever they get around to it, but soon. Im going to be glad when this is over. All this money exchange, getting people to get their part done, etc.

It has been raining a lot here. About every night it will just pour rain. The surrounding mountains already have snow on them. Winter is coming. Crap. I got out my heater and remember when I put it back in the box. It seemed like it was just yesterday. Geez. I got my down jacket out and am waiting for it to fluff up and get ready for me to wear. I wear my toboggan almost every night. Im sure soon the gas heater will be constructed.

Today, I am leaving to go to Yerevan to see one of my Armenian friends get married. Its going to be pretty sweet. Maybe. This is my first true Armenian wedding.

Laura if you still read my blogs... are you alive?

I am spending Christmas in another country. Looking forward to that...

I bought my tickets to go to Spain to see Kamran. Really looking forward to it because Ill meet up with Will, TJ, Derek, and Alex. (Mom and Dad, you don’t know the last two... Derek is Amanda’s Boyfriend/Fiance). Anyway, after almost two years, it will be nice to kick it with the fellas. But there is a winter standing in the way between now and then.

I guess that’s all I got to say right now. Yup.

Until next time...

Excuse back, could you please not leave?

This past weekend was interesting. Nothing really happened on Wednesday or Thursday. I did find out that none of my students made it to the third round of FLEX testing which left me in a disappointed stupor but I guess that’s life. I am thinking about having another club with some of the eighth grade kids to teach them English so they have a fighting chance next year. We will see how things go. Its been busy.

Anyway, last Friday, I went into Martuni to get some errands done and get a haircut. After a year of going to the same haircut man, he finally understands how I want my haircut. Everytime I tell him I want a centimeter taken off, make it clean around the ears and the neck. He takes it upon himself to lop off much more than that but its fine. I still need to work on getting more cut off my neck, also in the front. Maybe one day.

After getting a haircut, Nick and I went to go to the place he gets his clothes altered. I needed to go for two reasons. Some of my pants have gotten long and I want them to look nice and not so baggy. This may be a problem when I use a real dryer because line drying clothes tends to stretch them out. I fear that when I do wash my clothes with a washer and drier that my clothes will tighten up and will not fit me as well. No matter, by the time I use a real washer and dryer I will be back in the States and none of my clothes will make it back. They have been warn out and have rips, tears, stains, fringes, etc. They are not making it back home. Second reason is my shirts are a little big and I need to get them taken in. I always tuck in my shirt here so if the shirt doesn’t look fitted it looks like I am wearing a parachute in the back.

Ok, so we went to the tailors house. He is a deaf man and it was really fun talking to him. He was really nice and it was a really nice cultural exchange. His wife is deaf too. I was changing and I kept hearing Nick talking to the guy. He can read lips but it was funny because Nick kept forgetting that he was speaking English so I kept yelling from the changing area that he was speaking English and the Tailor wouldn’t be able to understand what he was saying. Ha. It was a nice exchange. He wouldn’t let us leave without taking some apples so that’s what we did. Really nice guy. I got a cotton sweater shortened, a shirt taken in, and pants hemmed for about $2.50. Yeah.

We went to Yerevan and met some of the other volunteers. I did some work at the office and met with Susanna as it was her last day at the office. She truly is awesome and it will be sad to see her go. That night I went with her to a concert at the Opera. Its called the “Opera,” we didn’t go see an opera. It was Susanna, her friend and myself. It was really nice. There is this guy (his name escapes me now) Vladamir ________ who Russian and played a lot of concerts for Armenians to raise money when the Spitak Earthquake of 1988 came through. Everytime he comes to Armenia, every seat is taken. I got a seat on the top tier front row with Susanna and her friend. It was amazing. Vladamir had an orchestra which had about 20 violinists, eight cellists, this that and whatever else. It was huge and the sound was awesome. Truly awesome. The performers were young performers from all over the CIS countries. There were also some performers from China. There was a solo opera singer from Belarus and a solo violinist from China. The violinist was phenomenal. Absolutely phenomenal. His fingers were all over the fretboard. A true pleasure to watch.

Also, we were seated about 20 meters from the president of Armenia. He looked exactly the same as he does on TV. Nothing amazing. Eh. Pretty cool nonetheless.

The concert ended around 9 and I had to run back to the office. I had a conference call with Washington DC to talk about WASH (water, sanitation and hygiene). The idea was pretty cool. There is a service called WebEX which connects volunteers from all over the world to have a conference with someone in Washington.

However, things didn’t happen quite like this. I got online and downloaded everything that I needed to and then called Washington. This was in the Peace Corps Conference room. So I was ready to go and just waiting for the other people. The phone was connected but there was no one on the other line. I heard a beep and then I said hello. I heard my voice through the earpiece but it sounded lady like. I waited another five seconds and said Hello again, hearing the same voice. I was really confused because my voice sounded really girly. So, I just waited and started saying some things to myself and humming and singing a little bit and then typed something in the computer to see if anyone was there. Then someone on the phone said “Daniel, yes, someone is here.” Apparently what happened was, the lady in Washington was saying “hello” the same time I was and that is what I heard. She heard my talking to myself and singing and humming which was a little embarrassing. We both got a really big laugh out of that.

It turned out that I was the only person who was participating in this call. She said she did a poor job publicizing the event. If the conference had gone as planned and there were a lot of people, I wouldn’t have gotten anything out of it really because it is aimed at countries that have water sanitation problems. Armenia, as a whole is not one of those countries. She however did give me lots of suggestions and resources on other things. We talked for about 30 minutes and it proved to not be a waste of time.

Already its time for potatoes. I wasn’t really looking forward to it but it turned out to be pretty fun. Well, my back doesn’t think so, but yeah. Its a good bonding experience for me and Grandma. We have a good time out there. I usually dig the potatoes out and she picks them up and sorts them in bags. Then I carry the potato bags to the cellar, she hands me the bags while I am in the hole and then I dump them into predetermined piles varying in size and quality. We joke that this will be the last year that we will have to do this because she is going to Belarus, or Germany now and this time next year, I will be somewhere not here. The first day, Grandma broke down the garden and said we could finish everything in 6 days. I knew I was going to Yerevan and I said, “I think if we work really hard we can finish it in 3. Well, if i didn’t have to go to Martuni today, we would be finished in 3 days but since I have to go, we will finish the last three rows tomorrow. It will take maybe an hour. So basically we did 6 days work in about 3 days, but I am feeling it. Eh, at least we are finished.

One of the most interesting things that I have experienced here is a thing called “Poor” but it has a rolling “r” at the end. Its when you take a break from potato digging and you build a fire out of dried cow crap, wait for it to turn into coal and then put the potatoes under it and let it cook. You then peel off the burnt parts and eat it with butter, or salt, or whatever. Its got a really good flavor to it. Maybe that’s the cow crap... Anyway, its just a nice social setting. We just talk about whatever and complain about how much more there is to do.

I really like working out in the garden for the most part. I get some sun, exercise, and get a chance to think about things. Sometimes I get carried away and forget about the potatoes and end up cutting them in half. Last year, my Mom would yell at me because you can’t sell potatoes that are half cut. Ha. This year, there is no real reason to care because the potatoes are just for us to eat really and maybe to sell a couple but we won’t need them really this year. So, the stress is a bit off. I remember last year, if I did cut a potato I would hurry up and bury it before my host mom could see it. After 5 times being yelled at, I got the hint that I was messing up, I didn’t need to be reminded several times more. It wasn’t really a yelling, it was just more of a reprimand? I don’t know. I didn’t really care. My relationship with my host mom was usually always tense so it didn’t really phase me. Grandma is awesome though. I think we are in the same boat as far as the potatoes are concerned.

Nothing really new going on here. Waiting to get my money for my grant and helping out with the potatoes and trying to convince my back not to go on a hiatus. This weekend we have Initiative weekend where we try to rope in the new volunteers to join our initiatives. It will be a good chance to hang out.

That’s about all I have. Application work is starting for med school. Its a total pain in the ass. I found out yesterday that I may have to come home right after Im finished with Peace Corps... major bummer. We will see...

Until next time...