Kyle’s Journey in Armenia

I would like to take you through my day yesterday. Not because it was anything unusual, but because it was completely typical, and might provide some insight into what Armenia is really like. And if you’re actually interested in “how I’m saving the world”, I’ve updated the Peace Corps projects section on the righthand menu, and I have a new address if anyone’s interested (wink wink). So on to my day…

• 08:30 – The first of many school bells from the neighboring (literally) schools begin to ring, but does not really disturb my slumber until..
• 09:45 – My cell phone alarm goes off.
• 10:00 – Host mom has a tea-cup of surj (Turkish coffee) waiting for me, which I drink while reading a book.
• 10:15 – I eat a massive plate of macaroni topped off with matsun (yogurt-ish), along with hats (bread) and panir (really really salty cheese). I have now eaten enough carbs to run the Boston Marathon.
• 11:00 – Off to work at Yerevak, which usually begins with email, another cup of coffee, and “building relationships” with my coworkers. We talk about where I’m (not?) finding grant money for this tri-village wide wireless project they have. Unfortunately, the internet is down.
• 12:15 – Visit the bank to get money for lunch. The phone line is down (and has been since Tuesday), which rules out Sunny’s Pizza.
• 12:30 – I go to visit my fellow volunteer, Eileen, at her NGO, and talk to her counterpart, who speaks English fairly well. She coaxes me into fixing her computers, and instructs me to “begin drinking coffee” and “begin starting to work”. Maybe after two years I will begin to tell her to stop saying that, but it’s just too damn funny – if you don’t believe me, say “Boys, begin to drink vodka” outloud to the person next to you.
• 13:00 – Time to eat again! I meet up my Armenian taxi driver friend, Armen, who drives me to the out-of-town BBQ/Georgian food/whatever they can make with meat restaraunt and distillery, and get two kabobs for Alex and I. This costs me $1.
• 13:30 – I meet Alex in the park, we eat kabobs and chat with the ~20 kids running around on lunch break from school about our cell phones and what kind of cars we have in America.
• 14:00 – Try the bank again – “come back tomorrow”.
• 14:30 – Meeting at the School #2, talk to my new tutor about hours, about the details of my new twice-a-week computer club (!!), and about a new Special Education and wheelchair accessability project we’re launching there (!!!). To celebrate all of this talking we drink conac. Yum yum!
• 16:00 – Off to the Nkarchakan Deprots (art school), where I taught my first ever class in all Armenian. I am teaching them a Corel Draw lesson once a week. I should point out this is the best teaching job ever, because we eat/talk for an hour, I teach for an hour, and then we eat and talk even more.

• 19:00 – Before going home, Alex and I go to the outdoor cafe. I was drinking my juice and talking baseball, when this old drunk man asks if I was a “little girl” because of my taste in fruit drinks. After joining him for a beer, establishing that computers are the worst thing to happen to Armenia, I am a very underpaid CIA spy, and that, among other things, George Michael is the “light of 1000 stars” and will never die, we paid the bill and I headed home.
• 21:00 – I reheat the dolma (basically meat wrapped in cabbage – delic!) from the other night and heat a bucket of water for my..
• 21:30 – Bucket bath! The best part of my day.
• 22:30 – A 9-game series of Nardi (Backgammon) with my host mother, in which I’m narrowly defeated by a roll of double fours.
• 23:30 – Say my goodnights, read some more, and write all my emails and documents for work for today (with this Internet, you have to).
• 01:30 – Baree Geesher!

The best part is, I get to do it all again tomorrow. I love Armenia. Oh, we also had our “Warden’s Weekend” this weekend, which is basically a practice for if we have to be evacuated from Armenia. We met in Stepanavan, ate great food (Elvira, my warden, is an amazing cook, esp considering what we have to work with), and saw Communist Caves (where they hid during the Bolshevik Revolution). Cool huh?

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