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...
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...
I read your blog, but I just don't leave comments. Heck you dont even know me, but I started reading your blog a few months back and have been checking it every single day. Trust me, I read all your entries and find it interesting :) I just don't leave comments...this is my first one
ReplyDeleteGood job on the blog..keep it up!