A Bittersweet Symphony

Whoa nelly it has been a long time since I have written but there is a lot to write. Lots of traveling, and lots of stories and opinions.

Since I last wrote, I have been going around the country for various reasons. This was well before Thanksgiving and as I write I realize how long it has been since I have been back to my site. I left on Friday, November 19th from my village and went to Kyle’s house in Vaghashen. Kyle is one of my site mates. I packed my huge bag full of clothes, a sleeping bag, etc. for two weeks and off I went. The six of us got together and started getting stuff for Thanksgiving. We were preparing for Thanksgiving Martuni style 2010 in Vaghashen. Since I was leaving for the upcoming week and some of the others wanted to go to other parts of Armenia for actual Thanksgiving, we had it on Saturday, November 20th. At Vincent’s house, Hector, Vincent, Pat, and Nick prepared sides and the turkeys, and at Kyle’s house, I made a bunch of apple pie (from scratch-yes, PC has taught me how to cook things and not reheat them...). Kyle made mashed potatoes and Rosa made biscuits.

We invited our whole Marz (state) and the Marz over. In total there were 13 people there but we had enough food to easily feed over 40. We got tables and chairs from neighbors and sat down and ate Thanksgiving together. Mom, I even gave a prayer of thanks and it wasn’t dumb. We ate, and ate, and ate and ate... and ate. There were a lot of people who overate. Hector looked like he had a really bad hangover, but in fact, just ate way too much. I was in the same boat. The bathroom was the most popular room. The food was good and cooked and everything, it was just the fact that people needed to create some space... After that, in true Thanksgiving form, Hector downloaded an American football game which was played on Halloween night and we sat down and watched football. This was Hector’s third time watching the game... This, in true Peace Corps Style. I loved it. After this, the guys and I made a “Martuni Christmas Card.” It is attached. For those of you who do not read my blog, I will be mailing some out. But since you don’t read my blog, you don’t know that so I don’t know why I just wrote it.

Thanksgiving was great. On Sunday, November 21st, I went to Yerevan and met Mike. I got some work done in Yerevan concerning the flashmob and that was that. Mike and I then went over to Kilikia bus stop and waited to head up to Novemberyan. A town in the Northeastern part of Armenia. I had never been up there before. It was a weird ride because pretty much everyone talked to us. I mean its cool and fun at first but after the first 20 minutes, it gets old. There is an unstated rule that when the vehicle is moving, there is no more talking. This was not the case. It was a 3 and a half hour ride. Not too bad for Armenian standards. The weird thing was, while we were riding, there is a tunnel. Before the tunnel, everything is flat, there are no trees, or really anything. We went through this tunnel and emerged on the other side to see a completely different scene of trees everywhere, hills, and rivers. Really nice. I felt like I was back in the mountains of NC. We got to Novemberyan and met up with Lisa. Lisa is a 40-something who looks like a 30 something. She is pretty cool and very interesting. We bought some supplies and then took a cab up to her village. She lives in a cottage looking house by herself. It was pretty nice. We were there for 3 nights. When we got there on Sunday, we just had dinner, talked and went to bed. Monday morning, we went into another town and went to a really nice art center. There were two girls there who run the art center. They were really nice and had some nice things to offer. Lisa usually takes stuff from the art center and brings them to some of the PC functions to sell them. Usually they sell pretty well. We got back to Lisa’s house and cooked dinner and then helped Lisa with her grant writing and some school preparations. Then we went for a walk around her village. She took us to an old Azerbaijani cemetery. Azeris inhabited this area until 1988 when they were driven out. Their graves were defaced. It was a sad sight. All of the stones except two were defaced. Most were pushed over and the whole area was not very well kept. Walking through was interesting though. The Azeri stones had the star and crescent and had their occupation on the side of the stone in the form of a picture. For example, if the person was a doctor, there was a picture of a syringe; if there was a sewing machine, a tailor. Like that.

The next day, we went finished up some more grant things and worked on the Health packets I have been working on for such a long time. Around 1, we called a taxi to take us to two old style churches. They were really pretty and far away. By this point, we were about 15 minutes, driving from the Georgian border. The churches were nice but I don’t remember the names and like I said before the churches are basically all the same, just the location is different. It was nice regardless.

We got back to the house and relaxed a bit. That night we made pizza. Actually that whole week was nice. We made egg rolls (from scratch), pizza, tuna melt (the tuna was in cans sent from the States. A commodity here... We also made brownies from the States. At this point, I had gained about 4.7 pounds between eating this food and eating at Kyle’s. Danelle came over just for dinner. She is a new volunteer. That night, we set mouse traps because Lisa was not having any luck catching mice. Mike and I set about 5 traps. It was funny because Lisa set the kind where you put glue on a piece of glass or something, and she got the glue all over the place. Great fun. The next morning, we had snapped the neck of two mice (you’re welcome Mom). We set more and off we were to Artik where Mike lives. We didn’t go through yerevan but found another way. We went to Vanadzor by marshutni or small bus and switched to a shared taxi. It was a really pretty ride and I wish I took pictures along the way. Anyway, we got to Gyumri and helped Lisa again with her grant. We went to a playground store and ordered some things for Lisa. Then we went to get lunch and Mike and I were on our way. We took the train from Gyumri to Artik and got to Artik around 7. I had to carry my bag from the train station to Mike’s house. Mike had moved... further away... from where he lived before. My bag was not light.

We got to Mike’s house. His house is really nice actually. His renter lives above him but he lives in a pretty cozy place. He is getting along really nicely there and is much happier now. Im happy for him. Nicole was there. She is the only married one in our group. She was there seeing her mentee who is Mike’s sitemate. It was fun. We got there on Wednesday night and hung out and then on Thursday, we got ready for Thanksgiving at Mike’s school. Mike’s church back home in Texas got money together and sent about 200 dollars over to provide for Thanksgiving dinner at Mike’s school. Some of the older volunteers from Gyumri came and helped cook everything. Mike works at a “special school for the mentally disabled”. I don’t understand that because when I am there, I seem to have trouble differentiating between the students there and any other kid. Maybe ADD is a mental disability here.

So you know back in the States, families spend hours making the Turkeys. Well, Michael went to the school and checked up on everything around 10am. The Thanksgiving meal was supposed to be around 2:30. Well, the Turkeys were just in a large pot still in water, uncooked. Mike was not pleased but came back laughing saying that we were going to be having chicken soup... We all went to the school and were pleasantly surprised. The turkeys were actually really nice and turned out well. Apparently they boiled the turkeys and the broiled them. 200 dollars was enough to cover the cost of 4 turkeys and pies and stuffing, drinks and some other things for 80-90 people. The dollar has the potential to go a long way here. It was a lot of fun and the kids seemed to be liking the food. Barbara was a bit concerned because apparently she has tried to do something like this before. She had brought the pumpkin pie and was certain that none of the kids would eat it. So, I went around to every kid and asked if they had tried the Pumpkin pie. They said no, so I asked them to try it. If they said no, I just stared at them until they tried a little piece. They would like it and eventually eat the whole thing. Some of the kids got more. I was pleased about that. The whole event went really well. I was really happy and proud of Mike. Afterwards we went to Mike’s and had a Thanksgiving of our own. One of my friends, Arpine who is from Armenia, came down from Gyumri and had Thanksgiving with us. She was a FLEX student and does a lot of international work and knows English really well. I get surprised when she speaks Armenian because I forget that she is Armenian. She is really cool though. It was a good group who was up there. Nicole, Ashley, Mike... I guess that was it. It was a good group. We just hung around Artik until Sunday when I came to Yerevan. This week was All-Vol of the All Volunteer’s conference that is held in Yerevan every year. I went on Sunday to help cook the Peace Corps Thanksgiving dinner. I helped make 25 pies of various tastes and cut up a garbage bag of stale bread for stuffing. That is hard.

The conference started on Tuesday. Monday was our travel day but Monday night we had our Thanksgiving dinner. This year was weird. It wasn’t as good as the previous year, maybe because the novelty of it had worn. Don’t know. But after dinner, we had our talent show. I played the song that Mike and I wrote on our trip to Greece called “the Peace Corps Type” modeled after the Lemonheads song called “the Outdoor Type”. It was supposed to be funny talking about failed projects and suffering from Giardia, but I realized as I was singing it that the song was a bit sad. I felt that I was going to start tearing up actually when I was singing it, especially our line that said “I can’t believe its been a year, with just a few months left...” I was looking around the room at all the other volunteers realizing that this was the last conference I was going to have like this.

The following night after the Tuesday Sessions, we had the A-17 vs. A-18 basketball game. It was really a lot of fun and it seemed like I was back in High School. It was a really good game and my group, the 17s came out on top. I don’t remember what the score was but regardless a lot of fun to play. But that night as well was a little hard because we played really well and the reason that happened was because we had played together before, but that we knew each other well. This would be the last time we will have the opportunity to play at an organized PC function. We took a nice picture though...

The final day of All-Vol was nice. We had minor sessions in the morning and then a development fair. A sort of Meet and Greet thing. Afterwards, the long awaited Flashmob. Everyone had their shirts and we walked as a group to the Opera to meet with other organizations. We were there at 5:30 and waited till 5:45. I gave the instructions and off we were to the top of Northern Avenue. We got camera crews to come out and as soon as the whistle was blown, everyone took off their jackets to strike a pose and show off their AIDS T-shirts we made for this event. The event lasted for one minute but got the point across. It was well received and a lot of people said how cool it was. And that it was. Afterwards, everyone went to “That Place” a bar who said they would sponsor the after party. I had ordered pizza the day before and went to a dessertary to buy some cakes. The pizza place forgot to put in my order so it was about an hour late coming to the bar. Nonetheless, it was awesome. I got up to say some Thank yous and it was something else to be standing on the stage looking at the 90+ volunteers and other participants in their grey and red shirts having a good time. I was touched that so many people participated. The event, I don’t think could have gone any better. The girl who I worked with when I was working with American Councils came over and interviewed me for their Youtube site. When I know where and when it will be posted, Ill let you know.

For these reasons, All-Vol was something else. There were three very direct and sentimental moments that I will probably remember for a really long time.

I got home. It was nice to be back. Grandma came over and gave me a huge hug and kiss on the cheek. I asked her when she was leaving. Her answer... not anytime soon. We will see how true that is.

Finishing up my third semester as a teacher and a volunteer is hard. Knowing that time is flying by and is always against you is a hard thing to swallow. Sure I have 8 months before I go back to the States, but 8 months ago was April which seems like yesterday. I finished up one major project and I just have to do some paperwork for my bathroom grant and I will be finished for this year. Its strange. In the Spring, of course I will have projects to work on, but nothing major. Now, I keep hearing of my colleagues planning for the next step, the same thing I am doing. Already.

I will attach some pictures either today or tomorrow. Ill give people a chance to read this first I suppose.

Until next time...