Eva

The weather is changing. The second I thought that the weather was changing for the better, it snowed 7 inches or so in an afternoon. However, now the snow is melting and the sun is out without a cloud in the sky. Its still cold as all get out but the feeling of the sun hitting your face walking to school is a feeling welcomed. As the sun comes out, it is only appropriate to listen to the everlasting lyrics of the one and only Jimi Hendrix.

I forgot if I mentioned that we did get our PEPFAR grant. I have been going into Yerevan quite a bit for meetings. Meetings with the Armenian Red Cross. Planning thus far as been going well and I am excited to see the turn out. We are planning to have a three day training for Armenians on the topic of AIDS. With the 9000 that we got, we are going to bring ten teams of three to Yerevan and teach them everything needed to have a successful training for other Armenians in the regions.

Other than that, I have been going to school. I can proudly say, after three months of constantly nagging my director where the hand driers are, we finally got them. I saw then in the box. We got them out and tried them. I understand that this may seem ridiculous that I am writing about hand driers but if you only knew how hard I had to work to get those things in the school, you would understand that it was no easy task.
I am that much closer to closing my SPA grant. Only have to get one door or window installed and I will be able to finish the final paperwork. Words cannot explain how excited I am to close a project opened at the end of September; a project I have been working on since its opening last March.

Teaching English has been entertaining. This week the kids had a dictation exam where the English teacher Arpine reads a story and the kids have to write it out, in English. Since it is easier for me to grade the papers, I do it. Usually by the time I get through it, the paper is bleeding red. To me that makes sense because the kids know what they got wrong and it is up to them to learn from their mistakes; a sentiment that is not shared by all teachers. Going through the exams, sometimes the teachers will correct the mistakes in the exams which to me, makes no sense. Another thing that is interesting is when I had the exams back, one by one, Arpine looks at the name and then gives the grade. Some of the exams will be perfect, but she will still give a 9/10. Some of the exams will be absolutely atrocious and she will look at the name and give a 6/10.

I got in an argument (friendly) with Vardan about this because he said that it is bad to correct absolutely everything because it is discouraging to the students. Discouraging to the students or to the teachers? I don’t know if it is just the way we are taught in the States, but there, you learn from your mistakes. Interesting. I still continue red-ding up the papers because that is the only way the kids will know of their mistakes. Still some things here I will never understand, but maybe Im not meant to.

In the third form, there is a little girl. A cute little girl who sits in the front row and listens attentively. Eva. She is mentally disabled. Not completely, but it is easy to discern that she is slower than the other children. She is probably my favorite, because she will listen to every word and she has a permanent smile on her face. She always tries to come up to the board and write her sentences like every other student. She does pretty well, it just takes her a little longer. Its amazing some of the things you can learn from those you perceive to have a deficiency. Maybe in some things. You can see the passion of learning, of wanting to get somewhere. I don’t know every kids name, but I will remember hers and her willingness to try to get a grasp of something that may seem so intangible to someone looking from another perspective.

Peace Corps recently sent out a survey asking what motivates us. Eva was my answer. (with some explanation).

It is not always so easy though. I caught two students cheating today. It was actually pretty funny, because Arpine does a good job pronouncing not just the word, but each letter in every word, phonetically. A boy had already written out the story, or maybe got the story from another class, and was writing what was on the other sheet while Arpine was dictating. I went over and grabbed it from him. I looked at it and gave it back to him telling him that he could use the sheet he already had because he would get a worse grade than if he had been listening to Arpine. He looked discouraged... probably because I was laughing at his failed attempt at looking off a paper that would leave him in a worse state than when he started.

Tomorrow is the Armenia/Russia game. Our plans of painting ourselves are still on, but it may be a bit too cold. So, be sure to watch TV if it is showing on ESPN 2 since it is a Euro qualifier and see if you see some morons painted in the red, blue and orange.

So is life. I guess that’s about it.

Until next time...