As my time in Peace Corps draws to a close, I’ve realized there are so many things I have yet to do in Armenia. I still haven’t visited the best two museums in Yerevan (anyone want to come and play tourist with me?), I need to head down south to visit the beautiful Tatev monastery, and who knows if we’ll ever finish the bathrooms at the school. Well, not about to let every opportunity slip by, especially one in the form of a distinguished art school, I had my portrait painted! Here’s how it turned out:
I think it looks great!! The boy who painted it, Ara, is finishing up his degree in art studies, but he is an absolutely amazing artist. We are working together to figure out how to bring some of his work back to the States to sell, or at least to be a good conversation piece at my future home. His sister, Satenik, also painted one, and Ara did a wonderful portrait of Kevin, too:
Yes, for those who think Peace Corps is all work, this does prove I have some time to literally sit there and do nothing. I’d say was it worth it, though! In the other 22 hours of my days, I’ve been developing Noyemberyan (because that’s what PCVs do). As I mentioned, we hosted our spelling bee on Sunday. It was an adventure. We didn’t give the students the word list in advance, which I think was a mistake, as the whole contest took only an hour, for 5 grade levels. Oh well. It was a little entertaining (one kid took almost five minutes to misspell), a little painful every time I had to hear the letter “zhet” (what they call Z) or “double l”, but overall the students did well and I think they will be competitive at the national contest May 3rd.
[On to a completely unrelated topic] Armenians walk really slowly down the street. I’m not sure why this is, but I’m not even stereotyping. Literally, every time I walk down the street with one, they comment about how fast I walk. Granted, I have unusually long strides, but I walk like an American – always with an end and a goal in mind. (Ha! I caught you if you were making a joke about “walking like an Egyptian”). Today, while walking with my a co-worker of mine, I finally slowed down with her and it was nice to stop and look around. When you take your time, you can genuinely say hi to people, notice things you would otherwise forget, and in general appreciate the beauty of life a little more. So, go Armenians for that! This post was inspired by a Pulitzer Prize winning article about a world-class violinist who played in the DC subway, and no one noticed.
In my final random digression, one of Peace Corps’ goals is sustainability. Obviously, when I leave, this blog will not be a sustainable resource, so I’ve started to accumulate the blog links for volunteers from the recent group (the A15s) or the group that will arrive in June (the A16s). If you have anything to contribute please let me know:
- Marie and Keith in Armenia (A16)
- Elizabeth Pou (A15) – Business volunteer in the big city of Gyumri
- Robert Dietrich (A15) – Business volunteer
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.
3 Responses:
April 12th, 2008 at 1:57 am
It’s amazing what kind of talent is hiding in remote corners of the world like that. Those paintings are incredible.
April 15th, 2008 at 1:48 am
I love the paintings. And if you are able to bring back some work, I may be interested in buying some (though probably not a portrait of you). Out of curiosity, what is the bird in the second portrait of you?