So, funny I should name my blog that because in fact it has been sunny and just sunny for the past month I have been here. This has been nice because the roads are not paved and they are just dirt so due to the dryness they are not muddy. Obviously. however, since they are just dirt, they are also very dusty so everyday I get back from school, my dark brown loafers are a nice beige color and everyday I have to go out to the little well and get enough water to wipe off my shoes. Fantastic. Oh, and speaking of being sunny in Armenia, it rained the last two days. Its been great. Today I didn’t have to wipe off my shoes. (this was a waste of a paragraph).
Anyway, the first full week of school has been good. Like I mentioned before I am a PE teacher. This is how the classes go. Every class too. The girls change out of their dresses in their classrooms and meet the boys outside (the root of my beige shoe problem) and then stand in a line, shoulder to shoulder. Then they practice different army drills and then they start marching. Honestly, you would see the same thing in an army movie. Then they do a couple laps around this little area and then get in different marching patterns and do some more marching. After all this, they will do some kind of relay race and that is the end of class. Two days ago they did the whole marching thing and then decided to see how far they could hurl this metal bar. PE class has been interesting to say the least. I really want to introduce some other games to them, with maybe... a ball. Also, when they did play volleyball, they weren’t really playing volleyball. Some of the kids would catch the ball and then throw it over and the teacher would praise them for doing it right. Maybe they weren’t playing volleyball. Maybe the joke’s on me. But they called it volleyball but they were certainly not playing volleyball. Goal #2 (after playing more sports with balls), teach the real game of volleyball. You know what, the kids are having fun so why mess with things.
I think it was Tuesday or Wednesday, I got to school and the PE teacher wasn’t there so guess what I had to do. I had to teach the PE class. First thing I told the class: “I don’t know Armenian.” Actually that strategy worked because when I spoke to them in Armenian they helped me out a lot. I taught them how to play kickball. Like in my last village, this was not an easy task. I asked them “do you know baseball” and all of them would say “yes, of course” and then I would say, “well, kickball is like baseball but without bats and tight pants”. They didn’t get the tight pants reference. And you want to know what else they didn’t get... the concept of baseball. They had no clue how to play. Which was fine. I got to teach them. After all the explaining and making myself look like an idiot they just started to understand how to play and they were actually really into it. Even when the bell rang, they didn’t leave, they kept playing. That was a really good day. What I learned that day: Persistence pays off...
Things at the polyclinic have been good too. On Wednesday and Thursday, the first graders had to go there to get a check up. Blood work, eye test, everything that’s in a physical. I got to help out. It was pretty fun. Not as fun as watching the babies get shots in their tush but pretty close. When they got their blood tests there was a lot of crying. I don’t know why I laugh so much when little kids cry. I think its their faces right before the flow of tears. Cracks me up everytime. And just as fast as it starts, it stops. Amazing. I am creating a good repoire with the nurses and doctor and look forward to going there. I feel very welcomed there. I have moved up to the coffee maker which they get a huge kick out of because that is just simply something that men do not do in this country. I have translated all the forms they have. They didn’t ask me to do it or anything, it was just something for me to do there and so now I have a clue what their doing, or more precisely what they are filling out. Overall really good.
Language class is coming along too. Im starting to understand the tenses and am actually using them. Its just weird because this is the first language where I have actually had to think about tenses. There are a lot of them out there too. Just like English, Korean I just picked up because Mom’s Korean, so just like English, I didn’t have to actively think about tenses. Its hard though. There are about 8 tenses or something like that. Think about it. Anyway, its starting to come along and i know that these classes are helping me because I understand a lot of what my colleagues cannot when we are at a bar or restaurant in town and the owner or other patrons come and talk to us. Can’t complain.
Things with the family are going really well too. With the mom here, I try and help her out as much as I can. We went out into the garden which is pretty big here. I would say about the size of two average property sizes in the states. We are now pulling out all the dead plants and weeds. Its not really that easy because its all done by hand. She really appreciates it because I cut her work in half. My mom here works really really hard. She can barely keep her eyes open at night because it is non-stop physical labor from sun-up till sun-down. But as you all are saying “awww” and “geez” you work really hard when its warm and then when its cold, all you do is try to stay warm. Also, I still help my brother with his math homework. There is another little boy that comes over and gets English help from me. I don’t know how old he is but he must be about 7 or 8. Really nice kid.
The weather here is getting cooler. I can’t just wear a T-shirt or just a button-down anymore. I have to wear a jacket and sometimes that’s not enough. I think it will be time to break out those long-johns. They say this year I should expect about 6 feet of snow on the ground at a time. This is going to be awesome. (Im going to totally eat my words).
So apparently Terri, my site-mate, is going to share my address to some of her friends because she never updates hers so... I hope you like reading it? I will try and give some general updates too.
Tomorrow I am going up Aghmaran, the extinct volcano, again with the other volunteers in the area. We are going to attempt to make some horovats (Armenian bbq). Should be interesting. Then for the first time in a month, I am going to go into Yerevan to get some work done and meet some Armenian friends. Should be a good and tiresome weekend.
Until next time...
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