Disclaimer.....since writing this my new site has been changed, but I do not have the time to elaborate now. I can tell you that I am now going to the town of Vayk, which is the south of the country near the city of yegheghnadzor. You can probably find that on a map. Check in next week for an accurate update,
So much has happened since my last post that I barely know where to begin, and yet I can hardly keep my eyes open long enough to type these few words. It is my goal to get this entry at least started so I can post it sometime in the next week or so. As you will soon find out, things are extraordinary busy and schedules and are a little out of the ordinary as well. But my brain gets ahead of my fingers…we will begin with those events which have already occurred (they are easier to write about, anyhow).
I think the rainy season is finally passing us by—it is still raining, but less frequently, and although it took almost 5 days, my clothes finally dried. Well, maybe dry isn’t quite the proper term, but they were enough less wet to iron, fold and put away. Almost everything in my room is damp enough that it feels wet when I put it on. But, my room is now up to a balmy 64 degrees, meaning I can sleep without wool socks and a sweatshirt. This is July after all. Can also now add to my list of accomplishments figuring out how to open the windows in my room, which has helped some with the humidity and cold.
Sunny weather also means hikes, and I finally got to go on a nice long sweaty one with four fellow trainees—we were gone about 5 hours and were able to follow a road up above the village into the mountains for some awesome views. It was so nice to finally get some real exercise again and to get my heart rate up! Our hike was in the shorter range, which we were nearly at the top of. Probably 8,000 feet or so. The taller range still has snow on it in patches and I still hope to get there before the end of PST. Which, by the way, is rapidly passing us by at this point. In fact, today (July 6) marks the middle—it is down hill from here! I am super psyched to finally have gotten some good exercise (and a sunburn, and blisters…) and the scenery was enough to make want me do the same hike every week. Rolling green mountains, grazing cattle, vibrant wildflowers, streams and waterfalls, and even forests. We will certainly all miss Margahovit when we move on. More on that subject in a bit…gonna try to keep this in chronological order here…
The day after our hike was July 4th, which we celebrated in style with a giant picnic for all the trainees and their host families in a nearby town called Steppanavan. Not only did we get to celebrate our American Holiday, but we got to share it with the Armenians, who in turned shared some of their customs and celebrations with us. It was quite a day! We took a bus to Steppanevan, which took almost two hours, mostly because busses in this country do not go fast and uphill at the same time. Also because busses run on Natural Gas instead of gasoline, and stopping at the “gas station” is a 30 minute process: everyone has to get off the bus, the old tanks (which are large red things on the roof) are taken off and new tanks are put on. Kind of cool, but not something to do when you are in a hurry. Not that hurry is really something that Armenians know about. Our journey also took a while due to the cows laying in the road. That’s right, just having a little np in the middle of the highway—a nap that not even busses can disturb.
Upon arriving at a clearing in the forest outside of Steppanavan, we played games and socialized while the fire pits for the horavats (barbecued meat) were prepared. Meat (mostly pork, but also some chicken) is cooked in big chunks on long metal skewers—about 3 feet long or so, over large pits of coal. This is a mans job. The women in turn prepare the rest of the meal—cut tomatoes and cucumbers, arrange fruit and cookie plates, etc., and set the “table,” a long piece of plastic for each village, lined with place settings and filled with food. It was quite a sight. While this was going on the kids and the volunteers played. One learning for the day was that Armenians do not have Frisbees. We taught the kids how to catch and throw them (after a lot of coaxing) and they enjoyed it, but I spent a lot of time chasing Frisbees down hills rather than catching them….what a cross-cultural exchange! And then, of course there was dancing, most of which occurred after lunch. Lunch? Dinner? Both? And the next meal too…..
The second learning for the day? Give me vodka at lunch, and I will dance. Not only that, but I will dance well, much to the Armenians delight. It is a good thing Armenian dancing isn’t too difficult, I have a feeling I will be doing a lot of it in the next two years. This was actually the first time I have had vodka with the Armenians, which I am a little surprised about, since it is basically the national drink. Almost more common than water, and cheaper than beer. I have been offered a few times previously, but this was the first time at a big party with toasts to the Americans, so I had to at least take some in my glass. I decided that I had set enough of a precedent in the earlier weeks here that a shot or two mixed with juice would be okay. It was, and they respected me when I said no more. My host family was just delighted that I was drinking and dancing…I am such a good Armenian!
Seven hours later we started back home, and when we were almost there when the Armenians had a proposal: “lets stop somewhere and eat the leftover food and dance!” To which the Americans responded: “Are you kidding? You want to eat and dance again? It is 9pm and we have donw nothing but eat all day.” Apparently these are silly considerations. Our LCF’s to the rescue…we did not stop, but had a second feast the following night at one of the trainees houses to eat the leftover meat. Which I am sure wasn’t refrigerated. I am so surprised that I am not sick yet…really. At least they heated it up again.
The fun and excitement of this week continued today with permanent site announcements! Perhaps you are as anxious to find out as I was until this morning…. Well, I’m not going to tell.
Okay, fine, you got me….I can’t not tell. (Drum roll please)
My new site will be a village called Yernjatap (yair-en-JA-top). Don’t worry, you won’t find it on any map, so don’t bother trying. Look instead for Aragatsotn Marz, (a marz is basically a state) North of Yerevan. Yernjatap is located near Aparan, which might be on the map if you can find a good one. If not, then the best I can tell you is that it is in the NorthEast section of the Marz. It is a small village, pop. 650 (compared to probably over 5,000 in Margahovit). It is also a brand new Peace Corps site, meaning that I will be the first PC Volunteer the villagers have ever seen, or probably heard of, and most likely the first American as well. This brings its blessings and challenges. I won’t have to deal with precedents set by earlier volunteers, which usually go one of two ways—either the saint whose reputation you can never live up to, or a volunteer who gave Americans a bad reputation that you can never live down. It also means that I will most likely spend a great deal of time in the coming months trying to explain who I am, what the PC is, and what I am doing in a small Armenian village for the next two years. Add to this the fact that I am an EE volunteer, and there is currently no EE program of any sort there in the schools, and the concept of ecology and environmental education is new to the country as a whole. Additionally, there is currently no foreign language being taught in the schools, which means two things: one, no English is spoken in the village (this includes my counterpart), and two, they will want me to teach English. Hello, secondary project.
My sense of the situation is that I will have a lot to do…eventually. First, I will have to endure a lot of coffee and chocolate, a lot of talking and not much doing, and a lot of trying to figure out how to say that I am from the Peace Corps and I will be teaching about the environment. Actually, I already know how to say that, it is more like trying to figure out how to say WHY I am doing that and why it is important. My actual job assignment entails working at the village school, which also serves a neighboring village, with the biology teacher (my counterpart). They are interested in starting an ecology club and I will probably eventually help with the science classes as well. Once I figure out the language, that is. I am also assigned to work with what seems to be a fairly successful NGO (non-governmental organization) called Armenian Forests, which is based in Yerevan. I do think that there are people with the NGO that speak English…this is good. My language skills are coming along, but I am by no means fluent and am pretty sure I won’t be in 5 more weeks. PC does allow us a tutoring allowance to continue our lessons while at site. I fully intend to take advantage of this, and it is a possibility at this point that my current teacher, Hasmik, may be able to be my tutor as well. I am very excited about that possibility as we are developing a nice friendship and her English is very very good. She is also an excellent teacher, and teaches English at one of the Universities in Yerevan during the year.
Fortunately, my site is close to Yerevan, and there is a daily shuttle from Yernjatap to Yerevan. This means I will have good access to goods (maybe even peanut butter!), I will be close to the PC office, and many volunteers come to Yerevan on the weekends, so I can see them as well. There is also an A12 who lives in Aparan, which is very close and also has a daily shuttle—I am sure we will become good friends! My village only has one phone—its in the post office—so internet in the village is out of the question, and phone won’t be much better. But again, Yerevan is probably the best place in the country for communication, so don’t you worry. And write lots of letters…there IS a post office.
On Tuesday we leave for Yerevan as a group to meet our counterparts at a conference in Yerevan and then travel to our sites for a three-day visit. This will give me a chance to meet (and evaluate) my 6-monh home-stay family and see what exactly I will be getting myself into. I should mention that Yernjatap is located in on the flanks of Mt. Aragats, the tallest peak currently residing in Armenian, and is a part of the marz that is highest in elevation. This means beautiful scenery, nice forests nearby (fast becoming a scarcity in Armenia right now) and cold winters with lots of snow. I am currently trying to figure out the best method of getting my hands on some snowshoes, I hear that I will need them! I am also curious of the heating methods used in the village. Central heating doesn’t really exist in this country, and the methods used range from wood stoves to gas to electricity to cattle dung. My impression is that each household usually uses a combination, because although most households are equipped with modern (well, relatively so) heating such as electricity or gas, the cost is prohibitive to using it regularly, or to heating the entire household. Time will tell….
Although I am a bit nervous about living with an Armenian family for six more months, I am also relieved to have the opportunity to learn things like how to survive the winter and what to cook when fresh fruits and vegetables are no longer an option. I understand this to include a lot of cabbage and potatoes! So, those of you who at home who are perpetuating the potato joke will have your redemption. I am learning to like cabbage. And mushrooms, they were he main course last night. I am also learning to eat things that I might never eat and the states and consider it a meal. What, you may ask? Well, hard boiled egg and butter sandwiches for one, perhaps I will enumerate further in a subsequent entry. Stay tuned.
I get off track….it remains difficult to live with a family and to adapt to cultural norms of being pampered and meddled with. Regardless, I have no choice, and I am learning more and more about the culture and ways to interact each day. Theoretically, it should be easier the next time around. It is still difficult to think that I have to go through the process again however—the awkward social moments, the feeling each other out for boundaries and limitations, the mutual learning about culture and expectations, the constant best behavior…it is all tiring. It is sort of like breaking up with somebody and then facing the prospect of starting a whole new relationship again: exciting, yet daunting. I also must consider the fact that I will be in this village for the next two years and the way I present myself and interact with my host family will affect my work potential infinitely. I have had some discussions with PC staff members about how to present myself as a young single woman in a new village. Their advice: make friends with the tateeks (grandmothers), all of them. Older women are very respected in this society, and if they all adopt me as their own, the village will do the same, even the young men. Once this has occurred I will be ready for business, but I need to be patient for this to happen.
Patience, a two year practice in patience. Armenian is a slow country, everything takes longer, and you have coffee before you do it anyhow. I am excited about the prospects of my site—it has many opportunities to pave my own road and truly make a difference, but I have to ride out the waves in the beginning in order to make space for this to happen.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment