Me and some Georgian Volunteers: Brian, Lauren, Johny, Laura, Danielle, Me
Mike and Lauren acting like Mike.
Me and all the oak barrels from the Cognac tour
Me and the rug lady
The rug. Mom and Dad, here is a preview... You will get it soon.
Thursday not too much happened. I went to school in the morning and figured out some things with the project. Funny thing, I told the school director that we couldn’t do the cafeteria project, but then they started. It is actually working out because he liked the idea of renovating the cafeteria. He is bringing in 3 new windows and 2 doors. The remaining amount from the bathroom grant was 123,000 dram or about 300 dollars. The doors each cost 75,000 dram and each window about 50,000. It is nice to see that he is interested in helping his own school out. Since he said he would be finished at the end of January, I told him that he had one month from Feb. 17th to get everything fixed or else I would tell the grant committee to never allow another grant to come to that school. This was an empty lie to get everything taken care of. Im tired of dealing with the grant. Anyway, he was so sure that everything was going to be finished that he wrote a letter, signed it, and stamped it showing that everything would be finished. I don’t think we are going to have kind of problem anymore.
That evening, I went to Yerevan and went back over to Jason’s house. Always a good time there. His and Elvira’s kid is pretty cool. He has the funniest laugh. Patrick and Meaghan were there. I have spoken about them before. Really like hanging out with all of them. Patrick and Meaghan are extending to Mongolia. A sure thing. They are flying though Seoul which is pretty cool, to get to Mongolia. Anyway, we just stayed in and talked. I started drawing and since Elvira is a professional artist, she gave me some pointers on how to make the drawings better.
The next morning, I left early and went to the Embassy to meet the Embassy medical officer. That was the first time I had been to the Embassy. It was pretty cool. Lots of security but it wasn’t too bad because I had an escort. So, I went to her office and we sat down and talked for about 80 minutes about her experiences working overseas and some of her colleagues. She told me that she has lived all around and gave me a lot of pointers. It was interesting getting her perspective. One thing that will stick with me are two things. First, she said when I am in medical school to take time and shadow nurses, practitioners, PAs, candy strippers, etc. to get various perspectives. Second, she said that if I pay attention, nurses will be my greatest ally if I let them.
She also spoke of some doctors who she worked with. Two specifically came to her mind, both living in Albania. Both American doctors. One of them works and teaches at a medical school there. Every year he takes about 20 students to do extra work and study. From these, usually 12 make it through to the end of the year. He gives them a certificate which shows they have an “American training” or more hands-on training. Then each year he chooses 2 students from that group and allows them to shadow him. Much like an apprenticeship.
The second doctor was very inspiring. He opened up a clinic and treats diplomats and high officials. He makes them pay a regular amount. He then uses that money to support the poor and unable.
This got all the more excited to start my education when I get back. She had more stories to talk about which were inspiring. A million thank yous to her for giving me so much of her time.
I went to the park and met with Jason and we went to the carpet factory. We picked up the carpet that I ordered. That was fun because we got a tour of the factory. We went into a room where women were sitting in front of looms making the carpets. I was asking her questions and they told me to sit down next to her. It was amazing watching the lady work. She was so fast with the knotting, it was almost unbelievable. She knew where to go. She could have been blind and still have done the same amazing job. Anyway, I sat down next to her and she tried to explain how to do it. Very interesting. It was funny because she didn’t think I knew Armenian and she told her supervisor “I’m going to redo that knot aren’t I?” The answer. Yes. Anyway, we got some pictures of the rug with the people and then we went back to the city.
We went to eat at a pizza place and then had a cup of coffee while I was waiting for the Georgian volunteers to come down. Lauren, who I visited last summer, came down with 4 other volunteers. We found each other pretty easily. They wanted to eat at KFC. Yes we have KFC but we aren’t sure if its a real KFC or not. We ate there, went to a supermarket and went to the bus stop. There we got on a bus and we headed to Martuni. That was a fun ride. The weather was really nice. Basically when you leave Yerevan all you see is white. So it was nice driving by the lake where there was the blue lake, with the white mountains behind it and then the clear blue sky. I don’t think the others really knew about the scenery because they were all asleep. We got to Martuni and it was really cold. They were complaining the whole time about the walk to the other side of the city. We just out and talked with some of the other volunteers and then came back to Yerevan the next morning.
I got everyone up at 8, and we were on the bus ready to go at 9:00. We got to Yerevan around 11:30, went to the supermarket again, got some food, and then dropped our stuff off at the Hostel. There were several people we were meeting so Jason and Cheryl came to the hostel and we were off. We went to the Cognac factory tour. It was really nice of them to give us a private tour on a weekend. It was an hour and 40 minutes. It was really interesting to hear about the factory in soviet times and how it changed after the fall of the Soviet Union. They used to make wine but then stuck with just brandy. The coolest part was, we got to taste wine from 1924. We got about 2 oz. of the wine and it tasted like porto. They said that a bottle of that stuff would go for 2000-5000 dollars, but instead they let people taking the tour taste it and give bottles to dignitaries. It was pretty cool. As far as I know, they might be getting Porto and giving that to us, but that takes away from the coolness of it. Afterwards, we went to a brandy tasting area where we tried the 10 year and the 20 year brandy. Yes, there was a major difference, but honestly, in my opinion, the 10 year brandy from Ararat is leaps and bounds better than both the 10 year and the 20 year from Noy. And now I know. It was a really good tour, especially for 10 dollars.
Afterwards, we walked to the open market and walked around. Two of the Georgian Volunteers had to go to the bathroom so we went to Champions which is a Thai food sports bar. Yes, I know it makes no sense. We walked in and there was no one there, so while I was waiting, I spoke to the manager. I asked him how business was and he said that it was slow. I said that since he was so nice to let the girls use the bathroom I would try and bring people back to the restaurant later that night. He said that would be great if I could, but if not, no problem.
We went back to the hostel and rested for a while and then got ready to go out for the evening. We ended up going back to Champions. I walked in first and saw the manager and told him I brought some friends and he was happy to see about 7 people with me. As we were talking, more and more of my friends came in. In total we had about 16 people. He started dancing. That made my night. We had a really good time talking and eating. There were people from different groups. People from Kiva, Peace Corps Armenia and Georgia, Gayane came, and Cheryl, a girl who is here just volunteering. Im counting Jason as a Peace Corps Volunteer. So there was no stale conversation.
Afterwards, we left and we to a lounge. The waitress was really nice there. We had a small room. I asked her if I could bring tables from other rooms over. A room comfortable for about 10 people held about 20. More people met us at the lounge. We had a really good time there, and I regret not taking a picture of that.
We went back to the hostel and hung out for a while before going to bed. Around one, the Georgian volunteers made their way back. I made plans to see Lauren on my way back home so I will see her again. It seems like every 6 months I have seen her since last march.
I came home and got some work out of the way. I hung out with Grandma for a while. I spoke with Ameian, one of my best friends from scouting. This was the first time I have spoken to him in almost 4 years. He has a 3 month old now. Weird. It was really nice talking to him though. Tonight I am talking to Brandon. This will be the first time I will be speaking with him since my going away party. We email quite a bit but he is too afraid to answer call with a phone number he doesn’t recognize.
Today was great. (Monday). I had a health lesson today. I only have 2 more classes before I am finished with the health lessons. That is pretty much it. I will go back to helping with English classes but the health classes awesome. I have a really good time with those and the kids actually listen to me. I got in an argument with a kid today. We talked about Gender roles. I asked a kid if a man should help out around the house. He said no. I asked him if it would be fair if both the man and woman both worked as teachers and then the woman had to clean and cook and take care of the kids. He said yes. Moron. I was very pleased to hear some of the other guys think about their question saying that if both man and woman had to work, both man and woman have to equally take care of the house. Slowly I think my counterpart and I are getting to the kids. Some kids are just dumb... (yes, I said it).
This week should go by pretty quickly. I have some work to do in Yerevan on Thursday and Friday and then I leave for Spain to meet TJ, Will, Derek, Alex, and Kamran. I am really looking forward to it. Half because other than Will, I haven’t been in touch with the other guys. Kamran doesn’t count because he lives in Spain now. We will see how all that goes.
Until next time...
No comments:
Post a Comment