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.
It wasn’t until I was on the phone with my parents this past week (and subsequent messages from Sarah and Mrs. Z) that I realized it’s been a year here in Armenia! It’s been a year of fond memories, some not-so-fond memories, and more squat toilets than I can shake a stick at. But I’m already half-way done… which, as many of you may have guessed, was demarcated by the arrival of the new group of volunteers to Armenia!
They arrived at 6am on the morning of June 1st, bright-eyed, bushy-tailed, and over-dressed for such an occasion. Last year I only have vague memories of the arrival; we were all running on so little sleep it all seems like just a blur. Essentially, Peace Corps tells the new trainees they must put on their finest suits and dresses for the arrival to make a good impression when entering the country. This all turns out to be a little ridiculous when they meet up with the old volunteers, who are not at all dressed up, and moreover have also slept very little the night before (although probably for different reasons). Nevertheless, it was very interesting to meet them (we have old vols introduce the new ones – I had Michael from Maine) and I wish them the best of luck over the next two years! Plus the donuts and coffee were fantastic 😉
When not waking up at odd hours of the morning, I’ve actually been pretty busy since Sara left. It was hard getting back into the grind of Peace Corps life, but now things are back on track. I ended up going to Georgia again with Kathy, a volunteer from Vanadzor whose two children were in town. We had a really great time, and trekked up to Stalin’s birthplace in Gori, Georgia. It was very interesting – they had the home he was born in, his bullet-proof train car, and an interesting with museum and everything presented in Russian. More interestingly, however, was the fact that there were no lights or electricity in the entire building! The town also has the largest (and probably only) standing Stalin statue in the world:
I also had the privilege of my first bath and massage at the Tbilisi sulfur baths. While unfortunately I don’t have any pictures, I would agree with Mr. Dumas that it was in fact the best bath I’d ever had. Any time a 300-pound man can scrub your body with a cheese-grater-esque-sponge whilst not being able to communicate, it’s a good bath. It actually turned out he was from Azerbaijan and he knew Armenian, which was very interesting (he’s never allowed to go to Armenia because of the political situation).
The next day was my Bazum host mom Layli’s 50th birthday. This summer, she always had trouble reading and I kept suggesting she get reading glasses. The thought of this did not go over well, and she exclaimed she wasn’t 50 yet and would not wear glasses until she was at least an old woman (at 50). Like any good son and 50th birthday party attendee, I made sure to present her with a new pair in a toast about the story and always staying young, even if it does require reading glasses. She looks good though, right?
The same day my host brother and new husband, Tigran, left for Russian for the summer. This time, of course, he had to leave his 20-year-old wife Hasmik, who longs to live in Russia but must stay and help Layli, back in little old Bazum. The evening was extremely emotional for everyone; I can’t imagine having to leave your new wife after only a few months. Tigo has to go to Russia every summer to send money home to Layli – they do not have any other income and there is no work for him around Bazum. It is very tragic and there was something clearly missing in Layli and Hasmik’s eyes the next morning. This was the first in a series of events over the past few weeks that have provided a lot of emotional insight into the Armenians and their daily lives.
Last Friday was the local celebration of “Vergi Zang”, or graduation day from dprots (high school). This was a very exciting time for everyone in town, and all of the students and families put on their finest whites for the event. The 10th form students (they only have grades 1-10 here) performed a variety show, of sorts. It was a lot less formal then our graduations with speakers and awards, but it was very interesting to see. However, at the heart of it all were families who feel the same sort of emotions that we feel when our kids graduate. They were hopeful, yet uneasy about their children’s futures, and above all, they had a beaming sense of pride at their children’s accomplishments. Some pictures:
The other event I was fortunate to attend was a bar-b-que in the woods for the director of the Art School I teach at. This was a really good time. It reminded me of days at home or school when we could just go to the park, have a picnic, play cards or soccer, and just relax out in nature. I took a hike down to a waterfall, played badminton, and just genuinly had a good time with the people around me. While the eating and drinking was a little different from America (our “toast master” fell asleep in the grass later that day…), it was a great experience.
I guess all of these moments put together many more pieces of the Armenian puzzle for me. While they were all great for building bonds and relationships with friends and family, they provided a genuine insight into what Armenians feel as people. This is when I realized that, aside from our political or religious or cultural differences, we’re all the same people on the inside. We are all proud of our children and their accomplishments, and want a better life for them than ours. We all truly value the time we can just relax with our friends and family, and enjoy a peaceful existence with one another, laughing and joking. We are all sad, torn, and face tough challenges (especially if it means sending someone we love away from us). But above all, it shows there is hope in all people, no matter where we are or what we’re doing or how we must live in order to survive. There are good people here, with good hearts, who want good things for their futures. It’s these kinds of things that transcend politics and religion and petty differences and give me hope in what I’m doing and that we all might just make a difference after all.
As promised, it’s time for part II of Sara and I’s adventures overseas. Things actually did not start very well in Istanbul; we arrived in Turkey at 2am after a late night flight to an airport an hour outside of Istanbul. Price to pay for using the discount airline and a free stopover in Dubai, though, I suppose. After finally making it to our hotel at 3am, banging on the door for 15 minutes, and carrying our bags up three flights of narrow stairs, we arrived in a room… the size of my closet. And my closet is not big. Here is the bathroom, as an example (yes, that’s the shower above the toilet):
So it wasn’t the biggest place, and didn’t have the cleanest sheets, but we were in Istanbul, who cares, right? How much time do you spend in your room in a place like this? If you only knew…
We woke up to a pleasant surprise: that we were being changed rooms to one with a big window overlooking the Blue Mosque! From there on out, all was well with the hotel and they were extremely nice people. On the top floor was a cafe terrace with many tables and a great view of the Bosporus and the Blue Mosque/Haghia Sophia. After a nice breakfast we wandered through Istanbul and saw many interesting sites, including the Galata Tower (the oldest tower people can ascend [and descend] in the world), the Sultan Ahmed (Blue) Mosque, the Hippodrome, and the underground Basilica Cistern. We capped the day off with some Indian food and bought some plane tickets for Ephesus the next day.
Ephesus
The next day we took a late-night early-morning (5am) flight to Izmir, and then traveled to Ephesus, one of the most famous ancient Roman ruin sites in the world. Many think (and I agree) that the ruins here are much better preserved here than in Rome itself. More on that later. The place itself was absolutely beautiful, with some very interesting ruins including an old library and beautiful amphitheater. I was only minimally jaded by the construction cranes “reconstructing” the ruins at the site and the closed off area which charged you more to see newly excavated ruins of old houses. While probably interesting, I’m sure someone you know was on one of the 30+ cruise ship tours there also, and they took pictures. Just saying…
Afterwards we went to the 7th Wonder of the World, the Temple of Artemis, which is really just one column in the middle of the field. Pretty cool nonetheless. However, about the same time, the English speaking contingent in my group began a coup de tat of sorts, and demanded asked politely that we divert the tour from our planned stops to see the museum and Basilica of St. John. For those of you less traveled than these folks, almost every tour you sign up for offers a free, complementary shopping trip included with your tour package. This was no exception, and we were herded to a “gold factory” and a “leather warehouse” to buy over-priced goods hawked by annoying salesmen. I was personally hooked on the selection of leather goods, although I was once again jaded by the lack of chaps or any jackets with frill. Maybe next time…
Back to our tour, we also went to the (alleged) house of the Virgin Mary. It is said she died there after being taken to Ephesus with St. John. You can decide for yourself. The place itself was really nice, with a nice (reconstructed, of course) house with a stream running under it. They say if you drink it, you will be rich, healthy and happy. After visiting the hospital of course. After hitting my head on Mother Mary’s door frame (“that boy conked his head” – thanks tourist guy), we headed back to the airport, with a two-hour stop at the beach. While not the nicest, it was the first time in a year I stuck my feet in the sand and water, and it was WONDERFUL!
Istanbul, continued
Our arrival back in Istanbul corresponded with Sara falling sick, from what we may never know (she’s ok now, though, thanks for asking). With her bedridden for the next two days (I knew that small room would come back to bite us…) I set out alone during the day but was able to visit a lot of the other Istanbul sites including Topkapi Palace and Haghia Sophia, two of the most famous sites. They were both very beautiful, but of course not the same without good company. Topkapi Palace does have an amazing harem and treasury, where the sultan’s hundreds of wives and their jewelery resided, respectively. Too be honest I have never seen diamonds that big in my life and just seeing them made my life seem quite humble. Hopefully I’ll never encounter a diamond that big again (sorry, future Mrs. Gifford). I also saw the ironically-named “New Mosque”, which was completed in 1663. The rest of the trip was enjoyable, and we spent a lot more time squatting on our rooftop patio than anything else, but vacations aren’t about what you’re seeing, it’s about who you’re seeing them with.
Armenia and Hadgohutsyuns…
Long story short (too late) we went back for another night in a nice hotel in Dubai with a pool, relaxed, ordered room service and watched American TV (Baywatch reruns!!). We returned back to Armenia and visited my host family from Bazum and then went back to Noyemberyan. Sara had a chance to meet all of the students from my English clubs and we had a really great last few days. The send-off at the airport on Tuesday was rough to say the least, but amidst the tears in the security line, a nice old man behind us gave Sara some candy to calm her down. I was later informed his wife cried on the airplane citing “how romantic it all was”. There’s your mushiness for the year, folks, enjoy.
That was our trip. It was good. It was enough of the West to tide me over for a year (that pizza was really good), and now I am back to work. Which is good. The Partnership Project mentioned two posts ago about IOC camp has already been fulfilled (YAY! I feel like Pip from Great Expectations) and thank all who donated. We break ground in two weeks on ramp construction at the school. The new volunteers (47 of them) arrive on June 2nd. Life is back to normal… time for a bucket bath.