So, I know to those who regularly read my blog, you have been wondering where I went. I used to be a regular reader of Grahams blogs and remember getting irritated at him when he would spend more than 2 days coming up with another blog. Anyway. My family did indeed move to Germany. They left and now it is just me and my "tateek" (grandmother) in the house. It is kind of sweet. She cleans and cooks for me and we get along just fine. Its actually really nice now. When i got to my Armenian lessons during the evening, she goes over to a neighbors house and then after my lesson I have to go and get her and walk with her home because she is afraid of the dark. ha. I went up to see Michael at his town and see him in action teaching his health class. My "tateek" said call me when you get back to Yerevan so I know you made it back from Arteek alright, and then call me again when you get back from the Ukraine. You can tell the excitement and relief in her voice when i call.
So, I left my site on Friday. I went to help Pat with some of his classes and judge an art contest. After that, I went into Yerevan because I had a number of meetings to take care of including those with American Councils, the organization who sent me to Ukraine. I met the two young ladies that I will be working with. They were pretty cool and I was excited to start this thing.
The Iranian New Year. So, if you are a regular reader you will know that I talked very fondly of my first experience with them in early January. This time was better. I went out and met with Ani and talked with her for a while and then we had dinner with some other PCVs. Afterwards, Ani helped me and Brent find out where Khashi (my Iranian friend) lived. We went over there. About twelve of his friends came up to Yerevan to celebrate the Iranian New Year. It was awesome. Brent and I were obviously newbies but everyone was so nice. SOO SOO NICE. They talked to us a lot and gave us lots of food and drink. We danced... That was funny because we had to dance in silence because the music was coming from an iPhone. After a while we realized that wasn't going to work so they just started singing and we were just dancing to the singing. That was really an experience. Afterwards, around 11:30 we walked to a nightclub. It was an exclusively Iranian nightclub and you had to buy tickets. Tickets we didn't have. The bar man asked Brent and myself which nationality we were. We said American... After that they gave a huge smile and welcomed us in. It was awesome. I just can't get over how nice everyone was.
So many of you have seen me dance. I won't elaborate anymore than that. In the states, girls will dance with someone if they will try. Even if they are horrbile and leave it at that. I was dancing with an Iranian girl that apparently didn't like my style. After she stopped laughing, she grabbed my arms and hips and sat there teaching me what I needed to be doing. It was just an experience. We left kind of late and walked back to the hostel we were staying at. So thank you again Khashi, Moh, Maria for another unforgetable time.
The next day, Sunday, I went up to Arteek to spend some time with Michael. I got up there but wasn't that much fun because I was exhausted from the previous night. So I went to bed at... 9. We woke up the next morning and walked around Arteek before his classes at 1. We saw some old churches and his town. It seemed like he has integrated well into the community as people knew who he was and everyone there was really nice as well. We went to his school. He works at a "special" school. Try working at a school like that in another language. Kudos to Michael. I watched his lessons and helped out a little. Then we hung out for a bit with some other Peace Corps Volunteers.
On Tuesday, I left Arteek and came back to Yerevan. I went to stay at a Hostel before my flight the next morning. I had a lot of complaints about this place. It wasn't like the hostel I usually stay at. It wasn't that great.
What made things worse was the news I got that night. Ani, my piano playing friend, and one of my best friends here, told me that her father passed away the night of March 21st. He had had many strokes in the past and I believe he had his last one. Anyway, that was difficult to deal with because here is a really close friend who is going through this and there is nothing that I could have done since I had to leave to go to Ukraine the next day. If you are of the praying variety, please do so for her. It has been really hard on her because she doesn't know now if she wants to go and study in Germany which she needs to do... Anyway, as Mom always says "that's life". My blog about my trip to Ukraine will come shortly. I have to go and get a wart burned off of my hand. Ha.
Peace Corps is awesome. So...
Until Next time...
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Sunday, March 14, 2010
So what you're saying is you're not coming back?
I went through another slump last week. Somethings happened not related to Peace Corps or my village per-say. I got back from a birthday party last weekend and felt really weird. The first thing is to obviously blame Armenia. Usually when that happens, I think, “what the hell am I still doing here?” and every time, I always get an answer that flips my world upside down.
Two things. The first. As some of you know, I am trying to find a house to live in for reasons that are understandable. I want to have some freedom back; as in, have friends come over and do what I want to do when I want. The thing that has gotten really old is when I am hanging out in my room and someone from my host family knocks on my door to tell me we have guests. Great. So I get to spend 2 hours sitting in the living room thinking about stuff because I have no clue what they are all talking about. Now, I think that my Armenian is pretty good at this point and I have no problems communicating. You have to understand though that there is what people call “clean Armenian” or “Yerevan slang”. This is the grammatically correct Armenian. The kind of Armenian that the educated group uses. In the village, they don’t use this Armenian and I have had to learn a bastardized form of the language which includes completely different words, shortcuts, and slurring of the words. For example, its like someone from Angola coming to America learning British English and having to talk to people speaking Ebonics...
Anyway, that is just one example of why I want to move out. I don’t want to say anything more about that. So, as I have been looking around, people told me that they didn’t want me to pay them, that they were just happy that I would want to live close to them. That is great to hear.
The funny thing about this is that sometimes people, as helpful as they are, doing really critically think. I was shown a house the other day without a roof. Yeah, without a roof. Not like the roof wasn’t there, more like the walls stopped and there were huge gaps between the top the wall and the top of the roof. I mean, you can’t help but just laugh.
It has been really difficult finding a house. Most of the homes that people don’t live in don’t have bathrooms. There is no kitchen. Its just a bunch of rooms. The windows are broken out and there are huge holes in the wall. Of course Peace Corps won’t let me more in unless the house meets some standard. I have one year left so its not like I need to have the most fancy house but the more comfortable the house is the better. Eh.
Something happened the other day that really changed everything. This was on Tuesday after my slump week and weekend. Tuesday I went over to my neighbors house. He had missed a lot of school because he hurt his back somehow. As an aside, let me tell you a side story. The organization, American Councils, is the one that is sending me to the Ukraine to train how to train the Armenian students who will leave to live in America for a year. Anyway, for the work, they will pay 350 US dollars as a sort of salary, but because Im a volunteer, I can’t accept it. I decided that I am going to give the money to the school. I asked my neighbor who hurt his back his ideas. This is what he said: He said that what we should do is by a nice cabinet and label it as the “health cabinet” where all the health supplies can be kept. Then they would take a picture of me and frame it and put it on the cabinet and when I leave, they will always be able to remember me and what I did.
When I heard him say all this, I almost broke down. This is a poor village. Not too much going on here. 350 dollars will go a long way and what does this man say? He wants to buy something to remember me by. I get caught off guard. What do you say to that?
I mentioned earlier that usually when I get in a slump, I am quick to blame Armenia and me being here... But it is always the Armenians, my family, neighbors here that have some way of making me feel really good about being here. That they really appreciate me being here and just being that weird American wanting to do something in their village. Its been quite a humbling experience.
Lastly, my host family is gone. It is just me and the Grandmother now living in the house. My host mom and youngest brother went to Germany. It was a weird talk that I had with my host mom. This is how it went:
HM: we need to talk (a great way to start any conversation)
we are going to Germany
Me: I know
HM: we aren’t coming back for a while
Me: I know
HM: we may come back in a year, two, three, four, we don’t know
Me: (blank stare until the translation hits me) WHAT?!
HM: you can stay here as long as you want. If you find a house you can move, if not, you can just stay here.
So that was a little hard to take in. Its one thing to move out of the house knowing that if I needed to I could always go back to see them. Its a completely other thing when they leave the country and probably won’t be seen by me again. I don’t know what they are doing there, or anything. Of course I wish them the best of luck knowing that they will be able to make a life there in Germany. It will just be a little hard at first for my little brother because neither of them know German. Fortunately, my host mom’s sister already lives there.
This upcoming week will be really good. Got a lot of things going on. I am planning on going up to Mike’s site for a couple days to help with some health related things. And this is right before I go to the Ukraine.
Its raining... again... but I guess that means that the snow has stopped. Good sign that the warm weather is coming along. Awesome
Until next time...
Two things. The first. As some of you know, I am trying to find a house to live in for reasons that are understandable. I want to have some freedom back; as in, have friends come over and do what I want to do when I want. The thing that has gotten really old is when I am hanging out in my room and someone from my host family knocks on my door to tell me we have guests. Great. So I get to spend 2 hours sitting in the living room thinking about stuff because I have no clue what they are all talking about. Now, I think that my Armenian is pretty good at this point and I have no problems communicating. You have to understand though that there is what people call “clean Armenian” or “Yerevan slang”. This is the grammatically correct Armenian. The kind of Armenian that the educated group uses. In the village, they don’t use this Armenian and I have had to learn a bastardized form of the language which includes completely different words, shortcuts, and slurring of the words. For example, its like someone from Angola coming to America learning British English and having to talk to people speaking Ebonics...
Anyway, that is just one example of why I want to move out. I don’t want to say anything more about that. So, as I have been looking around, people told me that they didn’t want me to pay them, that they were just happy that I would want to live close to them. That is great to hear.
The funny thing about this is that sometimes people, as helpful as they are, doing really critically think. I was shown a house the other day without a roof. Yeah, without a roof. Not like the roof wasn’t there, more like the walls stopped and there were huge gaps between the top the wall and the top of the roof. I mean, you can’t help but just laugh.
It has been really difficult finding a house. Most of the homes that people don’t live in don’t have bathrooms. There is no kitchen. Its just a bunch of rooms. The windows are broken out and there are huge holes in the wall. Of course Peace Corps won’t let me more in unless the house meets some standard. I have one year left so its not like I need to have the most fancy house but the more comfortable the house is the better. Eh.
Something happened the other day that really changed everything. This was on Tuesday after my slump week and weekend. Tuesday I went over to my neighbors house. He had missed a lot of school because he hurt his back somehow. As an aside, let me tell you a side story. The organization, American Councils, is the one that is sending me to the Ukraine to train how to train the Armenian students who will leave to live in America for a year. Anyway, for the work, they will pay 350 US dollars as a sort of salary, but because Im a volunteer, I can’t accept it. I decided that I am going to give the money to the school. I asked my neighbor who hurt his back his ideas. This is what he said: He said that what we should do is by a nice cabinet and label it as the “health cabinet” where all the health supplies can be kept. Then they would take a picture of me and frame it and put it on the cabinet and when I leave, they will always be able to remember me and what I did.
When I heard him say all this, I almost broke down. This is a poor village. Not too much going on here. 350 dollars will go a long way and what does this man say? He wants to buy something to remember me by. I get caught off guard. What do you say to that?
I mentioned earlier that usually when I get in a slump, I am quick to blame Armenia and me being here... But it is always the Armenians, my family, neighbors here that have some way of making me feel really good about being here. That they really appreciate me being here and just being that weird American wanting to do something in their village. Its been quite a humbling experience.
Lastly, my host family is gone. It is just me and the Grandmother now living in the house. My host mom and youngest brother went to Germany. It was a weird talk that I had with my host mom. This is how it went:
HM: we need to talk (a great way to start any conversation)
we are going to Germany
Me: I know
HM: we aren’t coming back for a while
Me: I know
HM: we may come back in a year, two, three, four, we don’t know
Me: (blank stare until the translation hits me) WHAT?!
HM: you can stay here as long as you want. If you find a house you can move, if not, you can just stay here.
So that was a little hard to take in. Its one thing to move out of the house knowing that if I needed to I could always go back to see them. Its a completely other thing when they leave the country and probably won’t be seen by me again. I don’t know what they are doing there, or anything. Of course I wish them the best of luck knowing that they will be able to make a life there in Germany. It will just be a little hard at first for my little brother because neither of them know German. Fortunately, my host mom’s sister already lives there.
This upcoming week will be really good. Got a lot of things going on. I am planning on going up to Mike’s site for a couple days to help with some health related things. And this is right before I go to the Ukraine.
Its raining... again... but I guess that means that the snow has stopped. Good sign that the warm weather is coming along. Awesome
Until next time...
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
always follow the recipe
This past week was a bit long. Don’t really know why. I was just excited about the weekend. My host brother went up to Ijevan to hang out with his sister. What a welcome. I think I figured out all my friends with siblings had a hard time getting along when the sibling was in their early teens. Holy crap. Enough about that. I don’t even know what happened last week... It just went by...
Not really anything to talk about. We are in the midst of Peace Corps week where we talk about Peace Corps and American Culture. Today we went to Pat’s school. That was pretty fun. We showed them how to sing “head, shoulders, knees, and toes” and then we talked for a bit and then played basketball. It is really funny because we played as a demonstration and we asked the kids if they understood, shooting, passing, creating space, that kind of thing. The second we let the kids play, all of that went out the window. I have a new appreciation for coaches. Then again, back in the States we constantly have the ability to watch sports and also play sports. Even though I totally suck at basketball, I understand the fundamentals because Dad always watched basketball, and because I got the opportunity to shoot around with my Dad and I played one year of basketball in seventh grade before I realized basketball wasn’t for me.
This week is going to be fun. Today we came to my school. It went pretty well. There was a bit of a miscommunication. I told the other volunteers to come to my school by 2. 2 passed and there was no one. All the kids were waiting in the gym and no one was there. I called almost everyone of them and no one answered their phone so I thought they were playing a practical joke on me. Anyway, I waited and finally everyone showed up. It was interesting because they thought it started at 3. We had a question and answer session. I got my English class, during English to write questions to ask the volunteers. That turned out to be a disaster because they asked in English but never translated, so the other kids never knew what was going on. Afterwards, the students looked at pictures of the US and ate some of our butter cookies. We then played some basketball. The guys wanted it to be volunteers vs. students. Needless to say we won. I won’t tell you the score, but it was fun and hopefully they understand how to play better.
Speaking of Butter cookies, at each school we make a batch of these butter cookies. On Sunday we all got together at Vincent’s house and “followed” the recipe. Uh, apparently we didnt’ do something right because we looked in the oven and the flour was floating on a vast ocean of butter... Next time, we added more flour. The next cycled just had more flour floating on the butter. Apparently we didn’t follow the directions and mix everything correctly. When we followed the directions and mixed everything correctly, things actually came out right. Who would have thought. Lesson: follow directions.
So funny story. Actually the main reason that I wrote this blog. Today I went to school and before the class started, my school director asked me if I would go over to the other school, Terri’s school and help teach a health class, which is fine because that’s what I do at my school. So after two classes at my school, I walk over to the other school. I meet the teacher and we briefly talk and we walk to the classroom. We get started and I am not lying when I say this... He says, “This is Danny, you all probably recognize him, he will be helping with the health class today”. Then he says “ok whenever you’re ready”...
I really wish someone had a camera pointed at my face at that exact moment. Let me explain why. First off, this “teacher” calls my director to see if could come over. So I go over. The “teacher” doesn’t tell me what lesson we are on, doesn’t let me prepare, and expects me to give a 45 minute health lesson by myself with no preparation in another language. So, I stared at him and said “you want me to give a health lesson without any preparation by myself in Armenian?”
I think after that, some things started to click together. I started laughing at the ridiculousness of the situation. He didn’t laugh. I think he didn’t have anything planned and thought he would by sly by getting me to come and teach the lesson, because after I told him I couldn’t teach the lesson, he had no idea what to do.
After the class, I made it very clear to him that I needed time to prepare and that I wouldn’t be doing the class by myself... ever. One of the goals of Peace Corps is skills transfer and I can’t transfer any skills if I do everything myself.
The house hunt is going pretty well. I have three prospects, but I need to still go see them. Brandon asked me a pretty good question. “How does one go about finding a house in a village?” Its all word of mouth. The whole village knows that I am looking for a house. My faculty has been really good about helping me out and I am meeting with the major on Monday. Good thing I teach one of his students...
I had a dream about riding my bike and playing lacrosse last night. I think that is the hardest part. Having dreams and realizing they aren’t going to come true for a long time...
Until next time...
Not really anything to talk about. We are in the midst of Peace Corps week where we talk about Peace Corps and American Culture. Today we went to Pat’s school. That was pretty fun. We showed them how to sing “head, shoulders, knees, and toes” and then we talked for a bit and then played basketball. It is really funny because we played as a demonstration and we asked the kids if they understood, shooting, passing, creating space, that kind of thing. The second we let the kids play, all of that went out the window. I have a new appreciation for coaches. Then again, back in the States we constantly have the ability to watch sports and also play sports. Even though I totally suck at basketball, I understand the fundamentals because Dad always watched basketball, and because I got the opportunity to shoot around with my Dad and I played one year of basketball in seventh grade before I realized basketball wasn’t for me.
This week is going to be fun. Today we came to my school. It went pretty well. There was a bit of a miscommunication. I told the other volunteers to come to my school by 2. 2 passed and there was no one. All the kids were waiting in the gym and no one was there. I called almost everyone of them and no one answered their phone so I thought they were playing a practical joke on me. Anyway, I waited and finally everyone showed up. It was interesting because they thought it started at 3. We had a question and answer session. I got my English class, during English to write questions to ask the volunteers. That turned out to be a disaster because they asked in English but never translated, so the other kids never knew what was going on. Afterwards, the students looked at pictures of the US and ate some of our butter cookies. We then played some basketball. The guys wanted it to be volunteers vs. students. Needless to say we won. I won’t tell you the score, but it was fun and hopefully they understand how to play better.
Speaking of Butter cookies, at each school we make a batch of these butter cookies. On Sunday we all got together at Vincent’s house and “followed” the recipe. Uh, apparently we didnt’ do something right because we looked in the oven and the flour was floating on a vast ocean of butter... Next time, we added more flour. The next cycled just had more flour floating on the butter. Apparently we didn’t follow the directions and mix everything correctly. When we followed the directions and mixed everything correctly, things actually came out right. Who would have thought. Lesson: follow directions.
So funny story. Actually the main reason that I wrote this blog. Today I went to school and before the class started, my school director asked me if I would go over to the other school, Terri’s school and help teach a health class, which is fine because that’s what I do at my school. So after two classes at my school, I walk over to the other school. I meet the teacher and we briefly talk and we walk to the classroom. We get started and I am not lying when I say this... He says, “This is Danny, you all probably recognize him, he will be helping with the health class today”. Then he says “ok whenever you’re ready”...
I really wish someone had a camera pointed at my face at that exact moment. Let me explain why. First off, this “teacher” calls my director to see if could come over. So I go over. The “teacher” doesn’t tell me what lesson we are on, doesn’t let me prepare, and expects me to give a 45 minute health lesson by myself with no preparation in another language. So, I stared at him and said “you want me to give a health lesson without any preparation by myself in Armenian?”
I think after that, some things started to click together. I started laughing at the ridiculousness of the situation. He didn’t laugh. I think he didn’t have anything planned and thought he would by sly by getting me to come and teach the lesson, because after I told him I couldn’t teach the lesson, he had no idea what to do.
After the class, I made it very clear to him that I needed time to prepare and that I wouldn’t be doing the class by myself... ever. One of the goals of Peace Corps is skills transfer and I can’t transfer any skills if I do everything myself.
The house hunt is going pretty well. I have three prospects, but I need to still go see them. Brandon asked me a pretty good question. “How does one go about finding a house in a village?” Its all word of mouth. The whole village knows that I am looking for a house. My faculty has been really good about helping me out and I am meeting with the major on Monday. Good thing I teach one of his students...
I had a dream about riding my bike and playing lacrosse last night. I think that is the hardest part. Having dreams and realizing they aren’t going to come true for a long time...
Until next time...
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