Excuse back, could you please not leave?

This past weekend was interesting. Nothing really happened on Wednesday or Thursday. I did find out that none of my students made it to the third round of FLEX testing which left me in a disappointed stupor but I guess that’s life. I am thinking about having another club with some of the eighth grade kids to teach them English so they have a fighting chance next year. We will see how things go. Its been busy.

Anyway, last Friday, I went into Martuni to get some errands done and get a haircut. After a year of going to the same haircut man, he finally understands how I want my haircut. Everytime I tell him I want a centimeter taken off, make it clean around the ears and the neck. He takes it upon himself to lop off much more than that but its fine. I still need to work on getting more cut off my neck, also in the front. Maybe one day.

After getting a haircut, Nick and I went to go to the place he gets his clothes altered. I needed to go for two reasons. Some of my pants have gotten long and I want them to look nice and not so baggy. This may be a problem when I use a real dryer because line drying clothes tends to stretch them out. I fear that when I do wash my clothes with a washer and drier that my clothes will tighten up and will not fit me as well. No matter, by the time I use a real washer and dryer I will be back in the States and none of my clothes will make it back. They have been warn out and have rips, tears, stains, fringes, etc. They are not making it back home. Second reason is my shirts are a little big and I need to get them taken in. I always tuck in my shirt here so if the shirt doesn’t look fitted it looks like I am wearing a parachute in the back.

Ok, so we went to the tailors house. He is a deaf man and it was really fun talking to him. He was really nice and it was a really nice cultural exchange. His wife is deaf too. I was changing and I kept hearing Nick talking to the guy. He can read lips but it was funny because Nick kept forgetting that he was speaking English so I kept yelling from the changing area that he was speaking English and the Tailor wouldn’t be able to understand what he was saying. Ha. It was a nice exchange. He wouldn’t let us leave without taking some apples so that’s what we did. Really nice guy. I got a cotton sweater shortened, a shirt taken in, and pants hemmed for about $2.50. Yeah.

We went to Yerevan and met some of the other volunteers. I did some work at the office and met with Susanna as it was her last day at the office. She truly is awesome and it will be sad to see her go. That night I went with her to a concert at the Opera. Its called the “Opera,” we didn’t go see an opera. It was Susanna, her friend and myself. It was really nice. There is this guy (his name escapes me now) Vladamir ________ who Russian and played a lot of concerts for Armenians to raise money when the Spitak Earthquake of 1988 came through. Everytime he comes to Armenia, every seat is taken. I got a seat on the top tier front row with Susanna and her friend. It was amazing. Vladamir had an orchestra which had about 20 violinists, eight cellists, this that and whatever else. It was huge and the sound was awesome. Truly awesome. The performers were young performers from all over the CIS countries. There were also some performers from China. There was a solo opera singer from Belarus and a solo violinist from China. The violinist was phenomenal. Absolutely phenomenal. His fingers were all over the fretboard. A true pleasure to watch.

Also, we were seated about 20 meters from the president of Armenia. He looked exactly the same as he does on TV. Nothing amazing. Eh. Pretty cool nonetheless.

The concert ended around 9 and I had to run back to the office. I had a conference call with Washington DC to talk about WASH (water, sanitation and hygiene). The idea was pretty cool. There is a service called WebEX which connects volunteers from all over the world to have a conference with someone in Washington.

However, things didn’t happen quite like this. I got online and downloaded everything that I needed to and then called Washington. This was in the Peace Corps Conference room. So I was ready to go and just waiting for the other people. The phone was connected but there was no one on the other line. I heard a beep and then I said hello. I heard my voice through the earpiece but it sounded lady like. I waited another five seconds and said Hello again, hearing the same voice. I was really confused because my voice sounded really girly. So, I just waited and started saying some things to myself and humming and singing a little bit and then typed something in the computer to see if anyone was there. Then someone on the phone said “Daniel, yes, someone is here.” Apparently what happened was, the lady in Washington was saying “hello” the same time I was and that is what I heard. She heard my talking to myself and singing and humming which was a little embarrassing. We both got a really big laugh out of that.

It turned out that I was the only person who was participating in this call. She said she did a poor job publicizing the event. If the conference had gone as planned and there were a lot of people, I wouldn’t have gotten anything out of it really because it is aimed at countries that have water sanitation problems. Armenia, as a whole is not one of those countries. She however did give me lots of suggestions and resources on other things. We talked for about 30 minutes and it proved to not be a waste of time.

Already its time for potatoes. I wasn’t really looking forward to it but it turned out to be pretty fun. Well, my back doesn’t think so, but yeah. Its a good bonding experience for me and Grandma. We have a good time out there. I usually dig the potatoes out and she picks them up and sorts them in bags. Then I carry the potato bags to the cellar, she hands me the bags while I am in the hole and then I dump them into predetermined piles varying in size and quality. We joke that this will be the last year that we will have to do this because she is going to Belarus, or Germany now and this time next year, I will be somewhere not here. The first day, Grandma broke down the garden and said we could finish everything in 6 days. I knew I was going to Yerevan and I said, “I think if we work really hard we can finish it in 3. Well, if i didn’t have to go to Martuni today, we would be finished in 3 days but since I have to go, we will finish the last three rows tomorrow. It will take maybe an hour. So basically we did 6 days work in about 3 days, but I am feeling it. Eh, at least we are finished.

One of the most interesting things that I have experienced here is a thing called “Poor” but it has a rolling “r” at the end. Its when you take a break from potato digging and you build a fire out of dried cow crap, wait for it to turn into coal and then put the potatoes under it and let it cook. You then peel off the burnt parts and eat it with butter, or salt, or whatever. Its got a really good flavor to it. Maybe that’s the cow crap... Anyway, its just a nice social setting. We just talk about whatever and complain about how much more there is to do.

I really like working out in the garden for the most part. I get some sun, exercise, and get a chance to think about things. Sometimes I get carried away and forget about the potatoes and end up cutting them in half. Last year, my Mom would yell at me because you can’t sell potatoes that are half cut. Ha. This year, there is no real reason to care because the potatoes are just for us to eat really and maybe to sell a couple but we won’t need them really this year. So, the stress is a bit off. I remember last year, if I did cut a potato I would hurry up and bury it before my host mom could see it. After 5 times being yelled at, I got the hint that I was messing up, I didn’t need to be reminded several times more. It wasn’t really a yelling, it was just more of a reprimand? I don’t know. I didn’t really care. My relationship with my host mom was usually always tense so it didn’t really phase me. Grandma is awesome though. I think we are in the same boat as far as the potatoes are concerned.

Nothing really new going on here. Waiting to get my money for my grant and helping out with the potatoes and trying to convince my back not to go on a hiatus. This weekend we have Initiative weekend where we try to rope in the new volunteers to join our initiatives. It will be a good chance to hang out.

That’s about all I have. Application work is starting for med school. Its a total pain in the ass. I found out yesterday that I may have to come home right after Im finished with Peace Corps... major bummer. We will see...

Until next time...