The end of the school year is approaching and the new group of potential volunteers are saying their goodbyes back home to embark on a journey in which I only have one more year of. Weird. In the respect of being consistent, I will write about my past week’s adventures.
Last Tuesday, I went to Yerevan to get some business done. It was the A-16’s (the group before me) COS (Close of Service) Conference. Potentially that was the last time that whole group was together. Weird. Anyway, after my work at the office, I went to meet some of my A-16 friends and hang out with them. It was pretty fun.
The next morning, I had more meetings. Meetings can be really fun. I met with Susanna my Program Manager for the first time in maybe two months because she had been gone on vacation and because she got caught up in the volcano fiasco. Anyway, I caught up with her for a long time. There was a lot to cover due to her two month absence. It made me reflect on a lot of things. Such as my trip to the Ukraine, and my family moving out, which it has been two months already since they left. Whoa. Afterwards, I met with our PTO (Program and Training Officer) who is helping me with probably everything. Everything from the AIDS initiative to the bathroom that I am trying to build. Really great guy who is really willing to help out. Anyway, both of them are really great and will go way out of their ways to help you out so I am really glad for that.
Anyway, after my meeting with Nick, the PTO, I got in a shared taxi to take the 7 hour taxi ride down south to the city of Kapan. About two hours from the Irani border. There were eight of us for a seven person taxi. Oh my. We can to cram in there for seven hours. Not that comfortable, but at least it was only volunteers and we all knew each other. We had a good time getting down there. Didn’t really feel like seven hours I guess. I passed out a good amount too so that helped.
Kapan was beautiful. Mike and I stayed at Shannon’s house. She was a really good host. We ate grilled cheese for dinner which is a delicacy here. The next day, Sean came over and we went hiking around. We went to an old church and then went to Halidzor Fort which has an incredible view of Kapan. That was hilarious because I was the only one out of Mike and Sean that wore boots. They had mud up their ankles. I have some pictures that I will post later on. After walking back we just hung out and then went to Andrea’s house for dinner. I got to hang out with a lot of volunteers that I usually don’t see so that was fun.
The following day we went up to Sue’s Village (Sue is the older women and we met at the airport the day that I left- she lives in Greensboro in real life). Anyway, we went up there. She has an excellent view as well because she just looks over the gorge and into Kapan as well. I was supposed to do an AIDS presentation there but it fell through. No problem. We walked down from her village and went to a girl scout meeting at Shannon’s NGO. There I talked to some of her co-workers about doing AIDS related presentations and then sat in on the girl scout meeting. We made beads out of magazines. It was fun. I guess when you get older it is harder to relate to younger people. I tried to make conversation with a ten year old. I think I freaked her out. She gave me one word answers and didn’t really seem interested in being my friend. Eh. So, I was going to talk to that group about AIDS as well, but figured that ten year olds wouldn’t really care to listen to me, so instead I talked about hiking. The group was going to go on a hike in two days, so I told them what to bring and what to wear and that kind of thing. At least I did something.
After the girl scout meeting, we went to an outdoor cafe and hung out for a while. That was nice. Kapan is really beautiful. You will get some kind of understanding when I post some pictures, but there are these really nice mountains all over the place. Really pretty. So green too.
The next morning Mike and I went to Goris. I had been there once before with Hector and Pat in December but now that it was green, it was so pretty. This is the city that is in a bowl. You have to go down about 1000 feet to get to the city. It is so nice there. When we got there, we went straight to Findler’s birthday party. That was interesting. From there we went to Brian’s village and stayed there. We worked on some things there and just hung out.
The following day was a lot of fun. We walked from Brian’s village to Sean’s village. Sean’s village is about 500 large and is really pretty. We settled into his place, ate some food and then went on a hike. We walked down the gorge and then half way up the other side. The walk took us about 2 hours to get there. We went to a 10th century monastery there which had been partially destroyed in a landslide. Some of the rooms were underground but it was so beautiful because there was a lot of green growing all over it. We took a lot of pictures and then walked to the waterfall. The water was freezing cold but it felt really good. Then we went and sat on a hill and had a snack. That area was really really nice. We could see Sean’s village across the gorge.
So, we walked back to Sean’s village. As with most gorges there is a river that runs at the base of it. It was really warm out and it was the first time this year that I had broken a sweat. We hung out by the river and I let my feet cool in the water. This parts gets funny. Somehow we convinced Mike that he smelled bad (which he did) and told him that he needed to take a bath in the river. So he got down to his boxers but realized that he would get them wet. So he got completely naked and got into the water. We told him that he had to completely submerge himself. Now remember this is snowmelt so it is really cold. He did it. The funny part was that a rapid came and knocked him over which he was crouched in the water and his naked body was flailing around in the water. The water wasn’t that deep so he wouldn’t be taken away. (we aren’t that stupid). Anyway, he got out. He said it felt really good, so Sean and I did the same thing. I guess its just a man thing, I don’t know. Anyway, the water did feel really good. But it was bitingly cold. So, we walked up the other side of the gorge and stopped at old Halidzor. (the fort’s name in Kapan and Sean’s village in Goris have the same name).
Anyway, old Halidzor is the old village that was inhabited until the 1970’s. The place just looks magical to be honest and its really pretty. No one lives there now but the homes are somewhat destroyed and are built into the hill. Again, I will post some pictures. We looked around for a while and then walked back to Sean’s village. We bought some things at the store and then went back to his house and ate a lot of food while eating on his deck looking over the gorge. It was really nice. He didn’t have enough water for us to take proper showers, so we did the same thing again as we did in the river. We got naked and poured cold water over the other person. Just to clarify, only one person was naked at a time and one person was crouched in the tub holding their junk and the other person was standing, full clothed, outside of the tub pouring the water. The reason it took two people was because who in their right mind would pour frigid water over themselves. Really... The best part was watching the reaction of how cold the water was. The facial expressions and the lack of words was very laughable.
So, afterwards, we just hung out and then the next day we went to Sean’s school and then walked around a bit more. At 3:00 we took the hour bus into Goris again and went to Findler’s house. We had a relaxing night and then the next morning, Nick came and picked us up to drive us back to Yerevan. It is always nice to get a ride from Peace Corps staff for two reasons. First, its comfortable and free. Second, because all the vehicles and white Toyota landcruisers which look like UN cars, so naturally when you are sitting in the backseat, you feel like you are somebody. Its pretty cool. The view driving out of Goris was amazing. Honestly, I would say that Armenia is prettier than Ireland. Although Ireland is green year round and may be pretty for a longer period, Armenia, if you come at the right time, is absolutely breathtaking. Keep that in mind when planning your help vacation.
I got back yesterday night. It was really nice to be home. Grandma greeted me, I talked to her for a bit and then unpacked my things. While I was, she cleaned everything. My bedsheets, towels, even my sleeping bag and all my clothes that were laying around. Amazing. Seriously, could you ask for a better Peace Corps experience than this? The answer is no, no you can’t.
Its getting busy here planning out everything, but it sure is making the time fly by. Anyway, hope things are going well back at home.
Until next time...
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