Yesterday all of the volunteers converged back on our training site to meet the new volunteers, and most importantly, finds out where their new sites will be. The whole event is pretty fun – the staff paints a large map of Armenia on the school driveway (like those big maps we have of the US at our elementary schools), and then the program managers call out their trainees and announce their new site, and everyone stands on the map. So the big question: will Noyemberyan have any fresh faces come August?
Yes! Welcome Kevin, Noyemberyan’s newest Community Health Educator!
Eileen, Alex and I are very happy to welcome Kevin, who will be working at Noyemberyan School #2 teaching health classes. He is also going to be doing some work with the Bridge of Hope NGO, who is doing the training for the new special education classes which will begin next year at the school. But most importantly, we’ll have fresh faces, fresndex.php?title=Garnih ideas, and a fresh perspective on the ups and downs of Noyemberyan. Personally, I’m eager to walk around with him the first day just to see his reaction to the sheer number of pigs that roam the street of Noyemberyan (I swear it’s 1:1 pigs to people)!
Anyway, he will arrive in mid-August. Another village close to us, Ptghavan (it’s impossible to say, let alone write), where uber-volunteer Paul called home, will be getting a volunteer also. He is also extremely tall, pretty skinny, and looks rather uncannily like me. I’ve always wanted a twin!
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In a completely unrelated note, tomorrow we break ground on our first wheelchair ramp for School #2, which was funded by the Yerevan’s International Women’s Council (thanks again!). I will try to post pictures regularly to keep everyone abreast on the progress – it’s going to be such a great addition and a blessing for the 50 or so students with disabilities who will attend next year.
In a second, even more unrelated note, I’ve posted a bunch of photos from a field trip I took last weekend with my NGO to the historic Armenian sites of Garni Temple, Geghard Monastery, Khor Virap Monastery, and Haghartsin Monestary. They were all beautiful and interesting places – I will post much more about them later. We also ate bar-b-que in the forrest and had a dance party in our broken down mini-bus. Welcome to Armenia: here’s the pictures.
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