Saturday, July 17, 2010

This summer is going too fast...



This week was pretty ordinary. Nothing really spectacular happened. I hung out at Michael’s house in Artik until Wednesday. One bad thing... Vart-a-var.

Its a holy holiday where you are allowed to throw bucketfuls of water on anyone you want. There are kids and adults prepared to get the unsuspecting victim wet. Being a foreigner, it was as through my forehead had a tatoo that said “please try to throw as much water on me as you possibly can.” It was a really hot day so most of the time I welcomed it. The first time it happened, Mike and I were walking down the street and kids came from behind and this kid had a water gun. So after he got my back all wet, I took the gun from his hands, held the kid, and shot water all over him. That was the part that was the most infuriating about it. They would wait until you passed and then they would get you wet. I got really mad at one guy who was older than I was, who waited for me to pass before throwing water on me and then laughed. Cute. So, from the last paragraph, you can gather that my first vart-a-var was not that pleasant. Only one more...

Mike and I took a walk up to Harich where a new volunteer would be placed. I was up there at Mike’s site during site visit where the new trainees go and visit their site for three days. We went there originally to go see a church that was there. So, we started walking up this hill in the middle of the day. It was wicked hot. Mike is a really funny guy. As we were walking, he said “let’s take this road, its a shortcut”. So we just followed. The road curved around, constantly to the left. I realized we made a semi-circle and looked back down the road when we came to the intersection. I asked mike if that was the road we had originally walked on before we came to his “shortcut”. Apparently, we walked about 300 meters when we should have walked just 50m. We got a good laugh out of it. So we continued on up the road and got to Harich and walked to the church. It was a really nice church with some good views all over. Bigger than most and it is a working seminary. We met up with Erin and then went to her house for some coffee. It was nice getting to meet her family. She will have no problem in that village.

Afterwards, we started walking back but instead flagged down a bus and got a ride back in Artik. When we got back, we made some dinner and just hung out for a bit. Nothing else new really happened.

On Wednesday, I went to Yerevan to meet some of my friends. I saw Khashi and Mohson, my Iranian friends as well as some of my Peace Corps friends. Afterwards, I went to Charentsavan and woke the next morning to do my last Peace Corps session of the summer. I just presented the HIV/AIDS initiative. Afterwards, I had lunch with Kyle, Jack and some others before going back to the school.

I went back to the school because I needed to see the doctors. Apparently when I was at Mike’s site I got some stone-dust in my eye which I rubbed really hard. My eye was dry and it felt like something was inside it and my vision was a little blurry. When I went back to the school, the doctors took a look at it and then made the decision to take me to an Ophthalmologist's office. Peace Corps took good care of me as again, I didn’t have to wait and just went to the head of the line to get checked out. The Doctor there said that I had a scratched cornea. Great. Five days before my trip I get something like this happen. However, the Doctor said it wasn’t that bad and only needed to wear an eyepatch for 3 days (Im already completely better now so Mom and Dad, you can stop worrying about it). So here I was wearing an eyepatch.

Kyle and I left to go back home. He helped me not get killed crossing roads and stuff. The ride home was easy enough. It was nice to finally be home after 2 weeks being gone. I came in the door and Grandma was pissed. I think in Russian (not Armenian) she said something along the lines of “what did you do this time...” Anyway, I asked her how she was doing and she said “Im good, but you’re bad, you got that thing over your eye.”

Yeah, so afterwards we ate dinner and then Grandma asked if I wanted coffee, which I said yes to, which she said “good, go make it”. So I made it. But it is really hard to pour something into small cups when you only have one eye. I ended pouring coffee all over the table because I either missed the cup entirely or I didn’t think that the coffee was near the top of the cup until it was too late. Everyone got a good laugh out of that.

Also, another bad thing about this patch is recognition. The baby is in the house and knows who I am. When I am around it puts its arms out for me to help it walk around or hold or whatever. I walked it the first time, saw me and put its arms out, and then when I got closer, it saw the patch, withdrew its arms and started crying. Awesome.

Later on, things were fine. Now that the patch is gone, there is harmony back in the world and the baby comes to me down. Swell.

Tonight we are having another khorovats (Armenian bbq) with rabbits because my cousin from the army is going back to Belarus tomorrow. I didn’t really get to know him that much so its not a big deal for me, but he was a nice enough guy. Anyway, Grandma is probably not going to handle it too well. We are all going to Yerevan tomorrow because I have to go in for my Mid-Service conference. Yeah, Im halfway finished. Weird.

I saw Terri yesterday. I will see her one more time before she goes back to the states. When I went over to her house, everything was barren. Terri did a really good job decorating the place and put magazine clippings on her walls and doors and had cool stuff all over. Now its all gone. Ah. I don’t know what its going to be like when she leaves. I will come back from my trip and will be the only American in the village.

Anyway, after mid-service, I am taking a bus up to Georgia where I am going to spend a night in Lauren’s village. Lauren is a girl who is a volunteer in Georgia who I met in Ukraine for FLEX. Then she is going to take me to Tbilisi for the second night and help me to the airport. Looking forward for this thing to start. After three years, I am going to see my friend Marco who I met in Sweden. He and I, as well as another Italian and two Spaniards were my roommates. Really looking forward to seeing him.

So, I don’t know when I will get to write again, if I have time on the trip, I will certainly update the blog but no promises. My Dad is also going to National Jamboree where it is really hot so keep him in your prayers so that he doesn’t have any problems. First year he is going alone.

I hope everyone at home is having a good summer. Im just glad my obligations are finished with now.

The first picture is of my students at FLEX. IT was awesome. The second picture is Jon and myself with our Solak family. Jon was the volunteer before me. Jon has now left the country and is on his way to Iran for a little bit. Cool guy.

Until next time... (whenever that may be)

Saturday, July 10, 2010

VISA and all its glory

This week was pretty fun. I went to Solak, my training village, for the Fourth. The trainees were there planning for their celebration. Last year, we made a lot of American foods... just American food. This year, they made Armenian bbq for the Fourth which I thought was pretty funny. It was very different from ours but it was still successful. Afterwards, we went out and played some games like “duck duck goose” and some other games. Its really funny trying to explain this stuff to Armenian kids because they have never played these games first. You would also seem like it would be a pretty easy game to follow. Not the case. The kids were running all over the place, smacking the kids on the head, would just stand there after saying “goose”, the kid who said “goose” would start chasing the kid instead of the other way around... It was really funny to watch. Also what was funny is, you don’t really notice how much language you have learned until you compare with someone else. Someone else being the trainees. I know I was in the same boat last year, but a year into service it was funny for me to listen to the Trainees try to talk because there was a lot of English mixed into the mix. Ha.

At the end of the summer last year, Kamran told me that I was 8.75% finished with my service, when in actuality I hadn’t even started my two year service yet. Anyway, at the end of June, I passed the halfway mark of my service. Weird.

Things are really easy now for the most part. I know enough of the language to hang out with people, I know how to get around, have friends to hang out with, my living situation is good and I am satisfied with what I do in the country as far as work and Peace Corps are concerned. I meet a lot of new people too. The reason for saying this is that this next year really is going to go by really quickly. Geez.

So Sunday night, after July 4th, I went back to Yerevan where I stayed at Sean’s fiance’s house with him and her family. That was fun just to have a quiet night. The next morning, I left to get some work done at the American Councils office but it was closed due to the Armenian holiday. Lame. So I just went to the hostel where I met a lot of my colleagues because Secretary of State Hilary Clinton was in Armenia and they got to meet her. I asked them if they got to touch her, and they said no and they just listened to her speak, so I didn’t count that as really “meeting” her but still thought it was pretty cool. Anyway, it was another slow day which was nice because I knew the upcoming days would be really hectic.

Tuesday morning, I went to the American Councils office to get some things printed out. The first trickle of kids started coming in and before we knew it, we were packing up the buses to go out to Lusakert, outside of Yerevan. We got out there and unloaded everything and pretty much started with everything. It was a lot of fun. The days were really long, especially the second day which went from 8:30am to about 11pm just filled with sessions. The whole time was very fun teaching. I really enjoyed working with my counterpart, Gayane, who was a ’05 FLEX alumni who went to Louisiana. I guess our personalities meshed well but our sessions went off without a hitch. (is that how the expression goes?) Anyway, the kids were really interesting to talk with. They will all have a great time in the states.

I guess some of the more interesting things were how they responded to questions. A lot of the lessons were a lot of questions about what they think America will be like. It was interesting to hear their ideas of what America would be like. There was a movie we showed “Ten things I hate about you” where it shows a California high school and all that happens in high school. Although the movie is not completely accurate, the baseline things are, and talking about these kind of things with the kids really blew their minds. Prom being one thing. It seems like internationally, whenever I talk about Prom, people don’t believe its a real thing and are very shocked to know that it is. Even the point of sports teams and that each school has so many sports teams to chose from. Just to see the excitement in the kids eyes that they would even have the opportunity to take part in these different activities was very exciting even for me. Comparing that with Americans, we expect to do these things. What would high school be like if there were no after school clubs and sports.

Its a nice way to understand your own culture when you have to explain it to someone else. Another thing that was interesting was talking about personal space. I guess being here, I have had to sacrifice that. But telling boys not to interlock arms with other boys in the States was an interesting conversation to have because here, no one would think anything if they saw a boy interlocked with another boy. Another thing that I’ve noticed is that I am starting to forget my English. When trying to explain some things, it takes me a while, and a lot of concentration, to try and come up with the right word to explain some things. Same thing for cultures, it took me a while to come up with some explanations because I honestly forgot.

The summer for me is wrapping up now. Now the FLEX is finished, I have one more session for Peace Corps and then I have my Mid-Service Conference and leave for my trip. Im really excited about it now that most of my obligations are behing me. However, last night I found out that there was some fraudulent activity on my credit card... about 1000 dollars worth. Its funny calling VISA in the States. Filling out the fraud paperwork was interesting to explain because they said there is about two weeks that I had to get the paperwork. I told them I was in Armenia and they thought it was some city in America. (I would have thought the same thing, except the first thing that I said was, I am a Peace Corps Volunteer in another country”) Anyway, I told them just to get a letter to me would take two weeks or more, let alone being able to send it back. Then they said they would fax it to me, which I got irritated and responded by saying “yeah, let me turn on my fax machine in my village where only a handful of people have a flushable toilet”. Needless to say, the lady wasn’t very happy with that comment which I apologized for and hoped that she understood my frustration that some one in Bulgaria wanted to go buckwild with my credit card, somehow...

Anyway, just so that people back home understand, and I hope that some VISA representatives are reading my blog to gain some perspective, things outside of the US move a bit more slowly than back home and not everyone has a fax machine or reliable mail service for that matter. So, for those of you back home, please thank your postman or postwoman for getting that letter to you in a prompt amount of time.

I guess this blog turned into more of my complaining more than anything else but thank you for letting me vent. Its hotter than all get out here. I am now in Artik, Mike’s site hanging out with him for a couple days before I go back to give my last session for Peace Corps. Its been nice seeing him and hanging out. At least relaxing a bit. So Mike, Thanks for letting me stay at your house and hang for a little bit. I guess that’s all for now. People stay cool back at home. Awesome...

Until next time...

Friday, July 2, 2010

Doing what ya gotta do...

The last two weeks have been rather hectic. So hectic in fact that I totally forgot that I hadn’t updated my blog in a while. And for the 5 of you that still read this, I give my apologizes.

There is a certain problem with this as I look out my window at the rain coming down while the blistering sun still shines: I forgot what happened since the last time I wrote...

Now that I have consulted my calendar, and wrote about things that wasted about ten seconds of your time, I will start writing something of substance. So, I went to Charentsavan again the following day and then went to a concert with some people at the opera. It was really nice. We were on the third balcony but since there weren’t that many people present, we were asked if we wanted to go to the first level. I would have rather stayed where we were. I got to see a lot more from up there. Either way, it was really nice.

First I should mention that the “Opera”, that’s what its called, is beautiful. It was built in the thirties, I think, by the Russians. There is white marble, beautiful plaster molding, large chandeliers, and nice seats. It was really nice. The music was really nice too. We listened to an orchestra play, Stravinsky, Mozart, and Tchaikovsky. Afterwards, we went to a nice outdoor cafe. That is one great thing about Yerevan. It has some really nice outdoor cafes and at night the weather isn’t so hot. Rather nice actually. Afterwards, I made my way back to Charentsavan. The following day, I had a session on AIDS with the new volunteers. It went well. That night I got to hang out with Andy and Nicole. I had roommates. It was fun. We made a lot of grilled cheeses. (Its the small things that matter). We stayed up and talked for a while and then the next morning, we went to the PST office where we were asked to be on a panel. That was interesting because one of the Doctors just called my name and said “Danny is from the region of the country where they drink the most alcohol. Danny, tell us how what you do about alcohol consumption.” Awkward. What she said was true. This area is heavy on the potatoes and the vodka. I explained that it is perfectly acceptable to deny alcohol if you don’t want it. Also, that the village keeps an eye on you if you are getting drunk. They feed you so much food its amazing that you could even get drunk. You will suffer from your stomach exploding long before you had any problems with your drink...

After that, I came home. A bit later than I had hoped. I got to the bus stop and then came home and decided that I would walk from where the bus let me off back home. I got about 400 meters down the road and someone picked me up and took me home. I was exhausted so I welcomed the ride.

The next day, I visited some of my neighbors. I had one full day at home with grandma before I had to leave again, but this time to plan my lessons for FLEX. I got back to Charentsavan on Friday and went to one of the Training villages to look at a community project. At this point, I realized how far I had come in my service. I also remembered one year back to our community project. PST was one of the most stressful times in my life because you have just arrived somewhere completely different, you have four hours of language class in the morning, you have tech-training in the afternoon, need to plan a community project, implement it, plan a Fourth of July celebration for your village, get ready for site-visit, all with new people you just met, living with a host family that doesn’t quite get you... Its intense, but really worth it. Anyway, their community project brought me back to that. I was laughing to myself for two reasons. One- because its amazing how much language you learn in one year. The new group could barely explain how to do something to the kids participating, but the kids still understood. It was funny to watch them struggle. ha. Two- because in the middle of the field with all the activities happening around them, there were two cows just eating grass. I just found that so funny. You would think you would get used to it, but no, you don’t. Still funny.

Afterwards, I went back to the apartments in Charentsavan and unpacked my things and decided to go to Yerevan to see some people. Hector’s fiance had come from Turkmenistan (she is a volunteer there) to visit and wanted to catch up with them. I had met her for the first time in India. I met some other volunteers and we watched the World Cup. I don’t remember who was playing but I suppose it was fun. I didn’t stay out too late, maybe until 9 and then rode back to Charentsavan with Sue (the lady we met at the airport in Greensboro). I got back to the apartment and pretty much passed out.

The next morning I woke up and went to Yerevan to start planning my lessons. Gayane and I started working and around 3 o’clock she said she needed to leave in an hour. I gave her an irritated face, since last time she bailed on me when I thought we would spend the next two days planning, and finishing, our lessons. So she moved it to 5, which was fine because by that time, I would get tired too. I again went out and met some of my friends, had dinner and then watched Korea lose and then the US lose. I met up with my Iranian friends for the second game. It went into overtime so I was out for a while and finally got back to the hostel around 2 am. There were other people in there already asleep so i quietly just got into bed and fell asleep.

The next morning I was the last one to awake. I went outside and saw Judy, Stacey, and Barbara. Three in the 50+ group. I talked to them for a moment and found out that I was sharing a room with them. I thought that was a bit odd. We got a good laugh out of it. Usually they don’t put guys with girls, and usually the age is somewhat close to everyone else’s. Whatever.

I got to the FLEX office again around 10:50 to start working with Gayane at 11. At 11 she showed up and again we worked. We worked until 7 that night. She helped me get a city bus to the bus stop and then I took a shared taxi to Charentsavan.

The time previous to this one, when I went back with Sue, the taxi guy was a jerk. The ride from Yerevan to Charentsavan to 500 dram per person. We got to Charentsavan and asked the taxi driver to drive down the street a little bit so that Sue didn’t have to walk in the dark. When we came to the stop. I gave the driver the money and he said it wasn’t enough. I asked him why. He said that because he drove down the street (not more than half a km) we had to pay him another 500 dram. I mentioned that was the same amount that we paid to come from Yerevan. I asked him if that made sense... He looked at me, I got out with Sue, I said thank you, and that was the end of that.

However, on the contrary, this last time when I came home by myself, the guy asked where I was staying and I told him and he took me directly to the door. He was so nice. I told him what happened last time with the other taxi driver and he said that that wasn’t right and asked me for his description. Anyway, I was so happy that this guy wasn’t a jerk that I tried to tip him. He said no, that he couldn’t take extra money from me. Really nice guy. Gah. You win some, you lose some.

David came in because he had some things to do, so the next night, Sue, David and I got together for dinner. David is a really good cook, so we made chili. It was so good. SO SO SO good. A welcomed change from the stuff I usually eat. The next morning, I went to the office and there I did a Stress Management session with our Country Director. It was fun.

That day was also the day for site-announcements. The day when all the trainees find out where they are going to be spending the next two years. It was nice to see my friends that I usually don’t see. There will be absolutely no people in Martuni or the surrounding area. This is the area that Im in, which is fine. There are 7 new volunteers coming to our marz or region. We will see how it goes.

Right after that, I wanted to get home so I got a ride with Staff back to Yerevan with Vanessa. We got on the bus and with no problems got to Martuni. There, I bought 2kg of tomatoes and 2kg of cucumbers for $2.50 (for all of it) and came back home. It was nice to see Grandma again and be home.Anyway, yesterday, One of Grandma’s grandsons came back from the army. He was stationed in Kharabah, the disputed territory between Azerbaijan and Armenia. Grandma was really worried about him because shots had been fired between the two countries. She didn’t sleep that night, but sure enough, her grandson, Roman, came home. She was so happy. Really nice guy. He came up and hugged me, and then thanked me for taking care of Grandma. Ha. Little did he know that she was taking care of me...

The A-16 group are starting to leave now slowly. July 23rd is the first COS date so after that, they will all go home. Terri is leaving at the end of July. It is going to be weird to come home from my trip and know that Terri isn’t here anymore. Whoa.

This morning I met with my school director. That was when I really noticed that I missed being in the village. Everyone saying hi, wondering where Ive been, asking what Ive been up to; its a really nice feeling. I spoke with the school director and the mayor and then came home to continue doing my work. During the times I have been at home, Grandma and I have been working in our garden. Its a lot of hard work doing everything with just a shovel or your bare hands but its nice. It gives me a chance to get away from work work and do something else. Its nice spending time with Grandma in the Garden too. She tells me stories about her life and her family and things like that. Same thing after breakfast. I make coffee for the both of us and we sit there for thirty minutes to an hour just talking about whatever. One of those things I will never forget.

We slaughtered a pig the other day to sell the meat. That was interesting. There is a methodology to how it is killed, skinned, cut up. It was interesting to be apart of that. The man asked me if I wanted to help. It was when we were separating the skin to from the body. I kept messing up and cutting too deep so the guy took the knife back. The skin smelled kind of bad too. Eh.

Tomorrow is my last day here before I leave from another 12 day tour elsewhere in the country. I am doing my FLEX training next week in a place called Lusakert. Pretty excited about that. Then afterwards, I am going up to Artik to Michael’s site for a while to hang out with him. He requested a site transfer, but was shot down. Awww. So, I will write again to explain how all that goes.

Until next time...