Khashi leaves the city

So during my down day in Martuni, after the PDO, I basically just laid around, that is until my Regional Manager asked me to go back to Yerevan to talk to the host families about living with a volunteer. These were going to be the families who were going to permanently host the new A-19 volunteers. Vardan, my neighbor, was there. It was good to see him there. I picked on him quite a bit during my talk about experiences in the village but he was a good sport about it and laughed.

Now Vardan is not the most cultured of people, a good guy, but in social settings, he could learn a couple things. I was standing in the back of the room watching our RM tell the future host families about whatever. My RM said that the volunteers could range from age 21 to 70. As soon as my RM said 70, Vardan yells from the crowd “70?” (awkward silence, then me slapping my forehead). RM “yes”. Vardan “there are 70 year olds who come to Armenia?” This was very awkward for me. But I spoke to him later and it was fine.

There is something that you (as the reader in America) should understand, is how excited older volunteers get when they see trainees because they are new blood. I don’t know what happened, but as we were leaving the PC Office, I saw one of the PC vans pull up and I ran after it like a dog running after a meat-covered car. I swung open the door and said “HEY” really loudly. I just got blank stares.

I think I over did it…

Anyway, after that, I went to meet Lizzie and Mike. We then walked to meet Khashi. Together we went out to Martuni. It was fun. We hung out for a couple days and then they headed back. Khashi and I hung out in Martuni for a couple more days with Hector. That was great.

The first full day, we went to my village and I showed them around; views of the village, my family (or those still around), and then I called Vardan and asked if we could come over. So we bought 2kg of chicken and went over to Vardan’s house. We helped Vardan make the khorovats (bbq-seriously, if you don’t know what this is by now…). It turned out really well. We basically just ate, drank, and talked for six hours. It was great. Around 11, we left the village to head back to Martuni (by taxi). Really a great time, another one of those great memories.

The next day, Lizzie and Mike left, so Hector, Khashi, and I went out to Tsovinar. My friend who is a A-14 came and visited my first winter in Armenia. David. Anyway, he lived in that village during his service and has had some trouble getting in touch with them, so we went out there. It was a lot of fun to go out there. So beautiful. So amazingly beautiful. We sat with them for about an hour or so and then walked back, taking pictures along the way. I don’t know why, but Khashi found some brown audio tape from the 80’s flapping in the wind and held onto one end of it as we walked back. Whenever we got too close to him, we were reprimanded. I wish I had a picture of that, but I don’t.

Tonight Kamran comes in to Armenia. I am excited. Because Kamran is Muslim, I have been giving him a hard time saying that Armenians will kill him and throw rocks at him. Khashi is Muslim. No problem. I’m going to see how long I can milk this…

It is so hot in Yerevan.

I will get some pictures up soon...

Until next time…

I changed my shirt

The sunsetting over the mountains behind my village. This was taken in Martuni from the apartment I live in now.



Every year the kids spell out "FLEX". Last year, the kids did this at 7am and started yelling all the Staff people's names. This year, they did it in the midday heat, so I took my time taking this picture.



Chris's Class



My Class



My TA, Diana, and myself.

Free time seems to always elude me. I have been meaning to catch you all up (by “all” I mean probably just Mom and Dad, unless Brandon is still reading this thing) for a while now but time has not decided to let up a bit. It has been pretty busy so I’m hoping that July will relinquish some free time so I can breathe. Maybe it’s good though that there are so many things to do.

Two weekends ago, I came into Yerevan to do my final prep work with Diana on planning this year’s Pre-Departure Orientation for the FLEX high school exchange students. It was fun and by Sunday the 12th, we were finished with everything. Chris and I took some time to hang out ourselves. After planning we went with Diana to a book reading flashmob. This actually makes no sense conceptually. I mean, a flashmob, you get a group of people together and at a predetermined time you stop what you’re doing and you do some kind of collective activity. When I read, it’s when I am by myself, somewhere quiet, quite the contrary to a flashmob. I honestly think that Chris and I may have messed this thing up. I’m almost certain we were the only foreigners there. Since we didn’t really know anyone, we sat down by the large statue in the middle of everything and started to read. We noticed that everyone else started reading too. Then random people started taking pictures of Chris and myself reading. We were about fifteen to thirty minutes early. We were just bored. After a short amount of time everyone started to leave. So it’s either we messed things up, or someone spread the word around the “reading flashmob” was to begin about a half hour early.

After that, we hung out a little bit with some other PCVs in Yerevan and then we got hungry. It was about 11:30pm when we started walking back to Jason’s, so we went back to the American Councils office and got some old pizza out we had ordered for lunch a couple hours back. It was nice. We just sat there in the office talking about stuff and eating cold pizza before walking home.

I went back to Martuni on Monday and hung around Martuni for the week hanging out with Pat until some volunteers came over. They needed a place to stay. I left the following day which was Thursday, early in the morning and headed back to Yerevan. There I finished up my school applications and then met with Diana. Before we met, I went to the post office.

Same lady. This lady who helped me before is pretty funny. Somewhat in an annoying kind of way. She was really nice last time, being really patient as I weighed everything out. This time, she just wanted to argue with me. Everything I wanted to sent was 2.10 kg, so I had to take some things out. Well, she decided what she wanted taken out. I told her which things to take out. She didn’t listen, and kept saying its going to be too heavy. I asked her to humor me. It wasn’t. My item stayed in. The box weighed 1.98kg.

Then she decided that she didn’t want to send it with the box and wrap things up in paper and ship it that way. I said that I would rather her send it in a box. She asked me “what do you know about this? I have been doing this longer than you have”. My response “ longer, but probably incorrectly….” She laughed and said it will get to America… Yes, but will it get there unbroken? So Mom and Dad, expect to receive a brown wrapped thing with about a roll’s worth of clear packing tape all around it.
I’m not sending more things home…

Diana and I then met and went through our lessons. It was fun. We made more flipcharts and other necessities we needed for our lessons starting the following day. That day night we got some sleep, readying ourselves for the following day.

Friday, we woke up early and headed to the American Councils office. We were there at 9:00am getting ready for the influx of kids. It is always a really exciting time. We loaded up and headed to Lusakert. It was great. This year, only 24 kids came compared to the 37 last year due to budget cuts and the increase in credentials needed by host families in the States. I had a great time and I took it to heart too. Nostalgia started creeping in. I started thinking about last year’s PDO and the time since then and that I will soon be in the same country as these kids in a couple months.

The sessions went well, the kids were great, the barbeque was great, we had a great time. The funniest thing about the PDO was this. The last day, there is a male/female gender break-out session where we talk about sexual harassment and how to act in the States. You wouldn’t believe how many times we had to tell the kids not to fight if there was a problem. In Armenia, the kids defend “their honor” by throwing punches. In America, we had to explain that people in America solve problems in a more civilized way… you know, in court, where we will sue someone if it makes the other person feel uncomfortable. Yeah.

Ok, so the best part. So, as conservative as Armenia is, the guys are very close. They do not have an open mind to homosexuality, but sometimes if you saw two guys walking down the road, you would see their arms interlocked, or a guys head in the lap of another guy if they were watching TV. They greet each other by kissing on the cheek (just a cultural difference, Armenians believe hugging to be more intimate). Anyway, when we told the kids not to do any of those things and that Americans value their personal space, one of the boys in the front row said in Armenian “oh, we are all gay….” Smooth. Ok, guess you had to be there.

This year’s PDO was great. Hard to compare with last year because last year I had to do a lot of things myself. This year, Chris was there and he made for a great PDO. Also, since Jason and I had become friends since the last PDO, it was fun hanging out with him whenever he wasn’t sleeping.

So as soon as I got back to Martuni yesterday, I received an email asking for me to come back to Yerevan to talk to the host families about how to welcome their new volunteers, so here I am back in Yerevan. Tomorrow morning, I am going to the airport again to meet the FLEX kids arriving from the US. This will be a much larger group. Very exciting. Then I have some friends coming out to Martuni for the weekend and then Kamran will be coming to stay for a week or so. I don’t have a clue what I am going to do to keep myself entertained for the month of July and August…

I forgot, I got to see the lunar eclipse. Really cool.

Until next time…

A Martuni Resident

Kyle, Hector, Me, Pat with the Volcano behind us.



Goodbye Kyle. He is number 2 of six to leave the Martuni 6 group



Playing Ball at the top of the Volcano



Church, lake, snow...



Yes, there is a road that goes to the top. Instead, all the times we have made it to the top, we have gone up this incline. Not easy...

As an official resident of the local town to my village, I feel like nothing has really changed. As far as my work is concerned, it is easier to get “home” now. I don’t have to walk through the dingo infested field before getting to my village, I don’t have to haggle with the taxi drivers about taking me home, and I don’t have do all this while carrying usually a cumbersome load on my back. Now, I let everyone get off of the marshutni and then the driver drives up basically to where I live now. Very easy.

This does have its down sides. Grandma is gone now. For sure. She is gone. She called and she is in Belarus. I know that she was supposed to leave last December, but it is a fact now, she is in Belarus. I have been busy so I haven’t really noticed it too much except for the few things here and there. I don’t have someone yelling at me to have coffee so now I don’t drink coffee in the morning. No one to drink it with. When I get back home now, my clothes are not clean on my bed. This year, when I would get back from wherever I was, all my clothes would be clean. Ignoring my requests, Grandma would go into my room, take all my dirty clothes, wash them, dry them, and have them in my room. Also, I have to go to the grocery store or market and buy my own food, and then make it. I know these things may seem trivial but she really did take care of me. I have to incorporate time out of my day now to do those necessary things that I never had to think about in the past. Mainly, I miss the coffee and the conversation associated with that ritual. I live a different life now. I feel like I am a freshman in college after being taken of by my parents in high school. Ok, maybe not so much.

My roommate Pat, has actually been a great roommate. He is not here because of Green Camps, but when he was here last week, it was good.

Last Tuesday, we hiked up the volcano again, for one last time… at least for Kyle. It was nice getting up there. We woke up early, took the bus to Hector’s village, walked up the mountain, thought I was going to die, and then walked down. Really fun. Ill attach some pictures. I wore the shirt I got at Kamran’s gay bar in Barcelona when we inadvertently scheduled the wrong night to go to the normally straight club. (Yes Kamran, this will haunt you for the rest of your life…)

Last Thursday, Hovik, our new Regional Manager came to my village. He picked me up and we went in to meet my school director and the director at the other school. My village is the only village in this area that even applied for a volunteer. Last year there were 8 volunteers just in the Martuni area, next year…one, two at most. Both in my village. Our marz, or state, went from being the largest consolidation point to one of the smallest.

It was fun though, going through the village and locating host families. More than likely Vardan will be hosting the new volunteer. I had to laugh. I am planning on going back to the village when the new volunteer is there to show them around.

Speaking of, since my last writing, the new group of volunteers, A-19s, have arrived in Armenia. I think yesterday they went to their training village host families. It is a bit nostalgic thinking back now because I can picture being dropped off at my training village host family two years ago. Surreal.

Anyway, after that, I went into Yerevan and met with Chris and our new Pre-Departure-Orientation group. Like last year, I will be teaching Armenians about American life and culture. During a very intensive 3 days, the Armenian students will learn about integrating, customs, culture, etc. I loved it last year and I expect to share the same thoughts this year.

I was introduced to my new Teaching Assistant, Diana. She finished her last University exams ever yesterday. Congratulations. So, we planned on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Sporadically in the mix, I managed to finish my school applications. I have yet to start on my Description of Service. Whatever. It is weird working with Diana as her style is very different from Gayane’s. I also think Diana doesn’t understand my sense of humor and views me more as an authoritative figure than as a colleague. I’ve always wondered when that magic age is. I found it… 26. Regardless, we are having a good time planning and I’m certain that the PDO will go very well next weekend.

After we planned on Saturday, Diana went with me to the post office as it was right next to her house. I had two boxes I wanted to send home. One was 3.1kg and the other about 4.3kg. To send a 3.1kg box home would be about 27,000 dram or about 80 dollars. As with most Armenian places, Armenians get very excited if they notice a foreigner speaking their language. I spoke to the post lady for a while and she asked me if the things in my boxes could be broken up. I said yes, and she got out several boxes. Apparently, if you can send a box weighing 2kg or less, its 7,000 dram or about 20 dollars. So we sat there, working together to package and weigh the boxes, going back and forth from the scale to the box, taking things out, adding other things in. So, right now, there are 4 boxes on their way to America and it cost me just 90 dollars or so.

I got home from Yerevan and I hung out with Hector and Kyle. Kyle is leaving on Saturday to go home to start studying at Syracuse. It is a shame he is leaving. So we made burritos. Very good.

Tuesday I went to Gavar to help judge the spelling bee. Some of those kids were amazing. Even though they probably just know how to spell the word and don’t know how it is used in a sentence, it was really impressive to hear these students spell these really difficult words. The funny part was, Katrina and I were assigned for the 11th and 12th graders. Some of those words, I had never heard before, so we were looking up the pronunciation of them. Katrina had the hardest words and during the word read out, she would lean over and discuss how to pronounce the word. We had a good time though. Really impressed with the kids.

On my way back, since there is no direct route from Gavar back home, I had to take a bus to the road, and then flag down another bus going toward Martuni. As I was walking around trying to figure out which bus to take, I asked people on a bus if this bus went by the intersection I needed to get to. Some of the kids heckled me and kept saying “oui, oui”. Naturally, in Armenian, I said “oui” was French and that I was an American, then while walking away, adding “moron” for good measure.

I saw another bus coming, the one I needed to be on. It pulled up next to the bus of kids who heckled me. I sat down on my bus and started reading. Those kids came over and apologized for giving me a hard time. They said the bus driver heard them and that they got yelled at. We spoke for a while and off they went. That made me feel a lot better about things.

It is weird being back in Martuni. Last night was the first night I had slept alone. I can count on one hand how many nights I had slept in a house by myself. Weird feeling. This month is busy, but July is soon to come and things will surely slow down.

The weather here is nice, but if you can believe it, in the middle of June, there is still snow on the surrounding mountains. Last year at this time, there was no snow anyway around mid-May.

Until next time…