Kyle’s Journey in Armenia

Ay where to begin? First of all, thank you all for your support from my previous post. It’s good to see there are others out there like me who believe in what we’re doing and why we’re here. Now go tell your Congressmen! 😉

I’ve been out and about a lot in the past few weeks, both for work and pleasure. We’ll start with the former – I was a trainer at the Peace Corps’ Project Design and Management workshop last week. Basically, all of the volunteers from the new group got together, and us old folks taught them the steps of project design. Really, it was an excuse for most people to get out of their cold villages and have a hot shower, but I think the workshop was really beneficial. I don’t like teaching that much, but this is one of the few Peace Corps trainings I find worthwhile. Plus we got to teach with an Armenian counterpart, which is always fun, and mine did a great job (hope she’s reading this!).

When not rambling on about goals and budgets, I did have some fun in my travels, and got a taste of one of my favorite past-times, skiing! Well, I say taste because it was not quite the intense, all-day back-country adventure I’d like. The first trip was to a new “resort”, Jermuk, which is famous for it’s mineral water (they stopped selling it in America last year because of high mercury levels…). We arrived at the lifts to find we were the only people there (this is a weekend in late January, mind you – high season). Why, you may ask, was it empty?

Us: Is this place open? We can go skiing here, right?

Workers: Well…

Us: Well??

Workers: Well, you can take the lift to the top, no problem. You can ski down about a hundred yards. But when you get to right there (points finger to the rock-covered home stretch of the only run), you have to take off your skis and walk down the mountain.

Who in their right mind would travel 8 hours to a ski resort only to walk half the run?? Three times. Apparently me. Behold, in all it’s glory, me “conquering” Mt. Jermuk:

Yup. Three times of that was just about enough. Fortunately I was able to ski again at a different mountain the day after our conference, and that was a much better experience. Although I still had to pay every time I went up the lift – no day passes here, folks!

But, life didn’t stop when I returned to Noyemberyan last weekend. The most exciting news is that we started construction on the handicap accessible bathrooms! Granted, this is only the first week of the next 4 months of work, but it was great to finally see the first old rusty pipes removed and served to our stray dogs:

Note: no dogs have been harmed in the building of our bathrooms.

Right now, the Noy is covered in snow and ice, and to keep the heat in, only the front door of the school is kept open. That means, to go to the bathroom, you must go down to the first floor, around the school, up an icey slope, and then use the bathroom in an exposed brick room. This project can’t be finished any too soon!

To contrast the most exciting news from Noyemberyan, I offer the most depressing news (for me, my hair, and those that must smell me): our building has officially not had running water for 50 days!! Yes, I do have water to drink, cook with, bathe in, etc – we just bring it from the forest, or wait for the army truck (which only comes because our neighbor on the 5th floor is a general, and he makes the soldiers come after hours) to fill up our bath tubs. The city government, to its credit, came up with an ingenious solution that did restore water to the other buildings. After assembling Noyemberyan’s finest engineering corps, they traced the main pipe to the valve where it was frozen, and set to thaw it out. With a tire fire. Yes, they dug the pipe up with a back hoe, and lit three truck tires on fire on top of the pipe until it thawed. Brilliant, I tell you! But I would have been far more tolerant of the plumes of black smoke had it worked for our building. Oh well. It’s just a real pain in the butt, and I now realize all those people asking me if I can get them a visa to America (or if I’ll marry their daughter for the same reason) might not be joking after all…

Perhaps this could all be solved with some accountability from the government – so it’s a good thing the Presidential elections are next Tuesday. One of the great things about being a Peace Corps volunteer is that we are instructed to remain on the sidelines for politics. So, instead of offering my own brilliant insights into the elections, I’ll turn you towards some blogs/websites with much more in-depth coverage.

• Meet the candidates
• US Embassy’s summary of the media’s election coverage (nicely translated in English!)
• A British journalist/photographer’s blog
• A local’s perspective

I’ll leave it to the OSCE (the election monitors from Europe) to give the official report on just how “fair” and “free” the elections are and will be on the 19th. If you care for my unofficial, on the ground, voice-of-the-people reaction, you’ll just have to wait until August 15th. Which brings me to my last talking point, and makes today a happy day for two reasons: my mother’s birthday (I love you!), and the 3/4 finished (or 1/4 remaining) milestone of my Peace Corps service! Reflections to follow, but home sweet home in a little under 6 months! Taco Bell, here I come!1

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