Mona Lisa’s smile... overrated

Again, I appear to be way overdue with this blog thing. What is happening with the time. Is it really halfway through November already. Im not ready for that. I will recap the events of the last two weekends and explain things to come.

So, two weekends ago, I met up with my friend Ashot, who works at the Post Office in Martuni. It had been a long time since we hung out and he mentioned that. I asked him what he was doing that upcoming weekend. He said nothing, so we decided that we would do a khorovats or an Armenian BBQ outside. Some of my sitemates, Kyle and Nick, had school on Saturday, so I took my time getting into town. I bought the meat and Vincent marinaded them on Friday so they were good to go on Saturday. I got into town around 4 and called everyone. We met and Ashot came over with one of his friends. We bought some extra stuff and then we got in taxi’s and rode out to this area near the lake. It was really pretty out there.

We collected wood. That is one thing that I just don’t like to do. Collect wood. Usually because the places you want to build a fire is where everyone else has built a fire so there is no wood laying around, so you have to walk a half mile to find any decent wood. Anyway, we all found wood and built a fire. The fire was horrible. Combustion requires three things: fuel, oxygen, and an ignition source (heat). Well, we had all these things, but Ashot and his friend kept putting leaves on the fire, which is great if you want to make smoke signals but doesn't’ bode too well if you are trying to make coals because the charred leaves suffocate the potential coals from becoming coals. Finally, Nick told them not to put leaves on the fire, they said no, it is making the fire bigger... Yes, but for about 5 seconds and it totally defeats the purpose of what we are trying to do. That was awesome. So, we got Ashot’s attention turned to putting the meat on the skewers. We finally got coals. We also got darkness. Yeah, since we got out there so late, it was 6 by the time the meat made it onto the fire. We were standing in the dark. I think Ashot and his friend lost interest, because around 8, they walked back to the town. We stayed out there. The six of us, and it was fun. We really did have a great time. We hung out there until about ten and then walked home. The sky was great because it was clear with no moon so the starts were extra bright.

We got back to Vincent’s house and hung out there for a while and then Kyle and I walked to his house in Vaghashen. About a thirty minute walk. It was great until we walked through a construction site and got concrete all over our shoes. (Don’t worry, the next morning, after lots of scrubbing and picking, it all came off). We got to Kyle’s and talked for a while, played guitar, started watching “Back to the Future” and then fell asleep.

The next morning, we went to the market to meet up with Hector and Pat. We walked around for a bit and then headed home. Sunday’s its a bit weird because all the buses run through the Market, so you have to go to the market and then get on the bus to your village. Nevertheless it was fine. The next day I just did laundry and just hung out the house.
Following week, not too much to report on. The bathroom is coming along beautifully. They made some changes in the plans, plans that I was not too thrilled about. They changed things without thinking how it would effect things. For example, my design had four separate rooms with four doors for each bathroom. Two on one side of the school and two on the other. Yeah, well, they decided that they were going to put in just two doors and put a wall in the middle. This is a common practice in Armenia. However, the problem comes when the second person is finished using the bathroom and wants to leave and opens the door to everyone in the outside world. Basically, if you are popping a squat, and you aren’t finished yet, in the first toilet position, everyone is going to be able to see you doing your business. I brought this problem up. They said it was fine. I disagreed, so we are making a new wall that will obstruct the view. Cinderblocks being only 33 cents each, that problem won’t be that hard to fix. That is about the only problem that there is. Anyway, the bathroom will probably be finished next week. Today I walked about the place and they are putting paint on the walls and tomorrow or the next day they are going to lay the tiles. Good.

This past Friday I went to Yerevan to have a meeting with my sub-committee members about the Flashmob. Its going to be awesome. We planned everything out. Afterwards, I went to the T-shirt place and ordered 87 T-shirts for the volunteers. Pretty exciting. This event will take place December 1st.

Next week is going to be hectic. I guess everyone at home will be in a rush as well since Thanksgiving is right around the corner. This upcoming Saturday, the guys in the area are going to throw a Thanksgiving dinner. I am going to make Apple Pie. Let me rephrase. I am going to attempt to make Apple Pie. Im looking forward to it. Then, I head off to Lisa’s site with Mike to teach a lesson at her school and then head to Mike’s town to help him cook Thanksgiving dinner for his school. Mike works at a school for the mentally disabled so he got money from his church and some other volunteers and ourselves, are going to make Thanksgiving for them. Should be a story... Then we have our All-Volunteer’s Conference the following week. There we have another Thanksgiving dinner. Geez. Im going to be all turkey-ed out. Wait, no I won’t because Grandma has really been sticking with Potato dishes lately. I won’t be back to site until December 3rd. Weird. After All-Vol, I am going to stay with my Solak (training village) host family. Zhora my host Dad there, keeps calling me asking why I haven’t been coming by. I haven’t seen them since the summer. Its been a really long time.

Tomorrow my host brother comes back from the Army. After the two years of mandatory service, he will be here. There is usually a pretty big party for neighbors and friends to come over and congratulate the guy coming home. Grandma is preparing right now making all sorts of food. More than likely, tomorrow night I am going to slip into a food coma. Looking forward to it. Soon thereafter, he is going to move to Germany to be with his Mom and his younger brother. After that, Grandma is going back to Belarus. She says probably before the New Year. I don’t know what I am going to do, but thought about just moving into the town and commuting to school every morning which won’t be that hard. Who knows? However, I am starting to look for places to live.

I will be uprooted at that point. Of course my real family is in the States but my family, in Armenia will all be gone. I won’t have something to come back to in the future. Sure, I have made friends but my family here is the one that took care of me. That empty feeling is starting to creep on me now. I guess I’ll just have to take things one day at a time.

Grandma. She has been with me the longest during my Peace Corps Service. Like I have mentioned several times before, we understand each other. We kind of have our own language too. Its going to be rough seeing her go. Yesterday, I was watching her cut up meat and she just has a way of doing things that is really funny. She looked over because I was smiling and she just looked at me and just smiled. Not just a smile but a real genuine smile that you don’t find everyday. A rare glimpse of a 70 year old Great-Grandmother smiling. Another one of those memories that is burned into my memory; a smile that surpasses any other that I’ve seen. A camera just won’t do it...

Picture explanation:
1) Kyle being Kyle... Awesome
2) You can notice on the right side a mound of leaves... you understand now. This was Vincent blowing on the fire. He did this for about 15 minutes. Afterwards, he passed out. It was pretty funny.
3) Building the Fire

Until next time...