My muscles are sore, and although it hurts to move my head around too fast, or to lift my arms, I am happy because I know I have done something. I don’t think the Armenians really understand sore muscles—they would probably be busy smearing yogurt all over the skin, soaking bandages in vodka, and drinking tea. I, on the other hand, know the true cause—productivity. A day of working at a Habitat for Humanity site in a nearby village. Although my work consisted of merely passing metal buckets full of rocks down an assembly line (a full discourse on Armenian building techniques to come later…), for the first time, I felt that I was really doing something useful. An important project, with a tangible project at the end—a house.

Certainly this is important, but the reality is that truly any Armenian over the age of six could be doing the work I was. There is no reason for me to fly half-way around the globe to pass buckets in someone else’s country—at this point there is more than enough work of this type at home (unfortunately). The difference, or what makes the difference, is that volunteerism is a foreign concept here (literally in many cases…). The importance of my work lay not in the actual house, although the home-owners were certainly grateful, but instead in lay in the example we set as Americans in our willingness to help, to perform hard, physical labor, simply because we want to help and feel that is the right thing to do. More and more I see that the best thing I can do here is teach the Armenians how to help themselves, they have the resources, they just need to figure out how to work together for the greater good, to rearrange their thought patterns, and to exchange complacency for self-directed betterment.

Sometimes our American ideals get the better of us, plunging us into greed and gluttony, but it is there same values—hard work, efficiency, independence, strength of character, resolve, desire to improve, initiative, that have so quickly launched our country to the powerful leadership position it is in. Perhaps now we find ourselves with too much of a good thing in terms of the state of our international affairs (I am still somewhat connected via Newsweeks and news in Russian—the former more helpful than the latter). Simultaneously I find myself in a place with too much of a different style of government.

One of the best things we are doing right now is encouraging young Armenians to get involved in their communities and to begin volunteering their time towards productive entities. Rapid change in a country like Armenia can be good and bad—we have to try to steer the urban explosion and mass migration to Yerevan back towards the good end of the spectrum. I am pretty sure the only way to do this is to make other places in Armenia appealing in terms of a place to live rather than a place to escape from.

Yesterday the volunteers (peace corps) outnumbered the Armenians, but there was a small showing from the local university, and we did our best to make it a fun day in hopes that these few students would spread the word. Habitat for Humanity Armenia, is a little different from that in the US (as you might imagine). Instead of starting from scratch, they use housing structures that already exist…there are lots of shells of houses to choose from, salvage what they can, and rebuild the rest. This means that houses can be built relatively inexpensively (by US standards anyway), often a “new” home is finished for $5000. Of course, all of the typical Armenian building techniques are employed—cement floors, single pane glass windows, no insulation (I must be thinking about the cold). And hence, the buckets of rocks--we filled the entire house with a layer of large gravel, upon which the cement will be poured.

Meanwhile I have managed to get involved in a few other micro-projects and I learning more about what I need to do here and how I can possibly go about doing it. Some of this has come through deeper interaction through my Armenian friends (who speak English and thus enable me to have a conversation of some depth). I have spent some time with some of my LCF’s in Yerevan, and interacting with them outside of PST, in what constitutes their day-to-day life had been enjoyable and educational. It is nice to be able develop friendships with host country nationals on this level. These, however, are people who are used to working with American, who understand the Peace Corps very well, have traveled outside of Armenia themselves, and who in general, have a positive outlook for the future of their country. They are certainly the exception rather than the norm.

Through these LCF’s I have had the opportunity to work with some English language clubs in Yerevan, and to actually teach a lesson on the environment for one of the clubs. Due to the fact that an American was coming, 44 students, ages 17-18 showed up for the lesson (I was told “I don’t know how many, but probably more than 20”) more than 20 indeed. Fortunately, we were able to start with a 30 minute question and answer session about why I was in Armenia, what I think about the country and what exactly I am doing here. I am not sure of all the answers myself, but I guess I made stuff up pretty well. Then we discussed the environmental problems of Armenia (there are many) and what we can do about them as individual citizens.
This group of students taught me about the way their generation thinks about Armenia and about the problems that plague their country. There is an obvious recognition of the problems, but also an underlying resignation to the inability to do anything about it. How can I give these kids hope while at the same time instilling the message that they are the hope? I did my best to convey this message and provide some optimism (although one of the two male students in the room did his best to do the opposite). I am planning to go back in the future to do more lessons with this group and hope to bring them information about places where they can get involved and hopefully impel them to do so.