This past Friday, my sitemate Alex and I decided to go hiking on the neighboring mountains. I’d forgotten how peaceful hiking can really be, and it was great to get away from work for a while. My own little Walden’s Pond, I suppose. Anyway, during our hike, we stopped at a clearing overlooking the next mountain range, and we saw what appeared to be a little house on the side of a cliff. Naturally, our curiosity was piqued, so Monday we went out again, binoculars in tow, only to discover it was an old church perched on the side of this mountain. You can see our view below:
So, we set out to find it close-up. Being Armenia, we didn’t really have a “map” or “idea of where we were going”, so we just set out in the natural direction – straight towards it. As you can probably discern from the photos, the mountain we climbed was very high, and very exausting, especially with a pack on. After about two hours of walking through the woods, and a lot of “it’s probably around this ridge” comments, we finally gave up. Fortunately, this is often when most good things happen to me. We were walking (sliding) back down hill, when I stop to whine about where we were, and I looked to my right to see none other than a steeple of a church!! After about 5 minutes of convincing Alex I wasn’t being dillusional, he hiked back up, and 10 minutes later we arrived!
There are actually a lot of these random churches/monestaries scattered about the mountains of Armenia. This perticular church is called Soop Sarcis, which I believe is Saint Sarcis. Anyway, it was a pretty beautiful, and offered great views of the surrounding countryside, and the leaves which are just starting to turn. Unfortunately, there was some graffiti on the church, which is kind of sad, but even more disheartening was the random chicken beaks on the windowsills. Don’t ask, don’t tell…although I will if I ever figure it out.
The walk home was uneventful, except for “finding a trail which leads directly to the church and would have saved us 1.5 hours of hiking blindly through the woods”. But as they say for most things in Armenia, “vo ching”! So, moral of the story kids, don’t give up, things will work out, and there’s always an easier way of doing what you’re doing. But you’ll figure that out later.
Yesterday (September 21st) was Armenia’s “Anghaghootsyoon Ore”, or Independence Day. For most, it was like any normal day in Armenia, and most stores and businesses actually stayed open. Peace Corps gives volunteers that day off, however, so Alex and I began our day around noon with a hike into the woods around Noyemberian. 5 mountains, a lot of miles and about 4 hours later, we made it home, exausted. It really made me appreciate the nature and lack of pollution up here. We’re going to try and make the hikes weekly. We saw an old monestary on the side of the mountain, which we’ll plan on hiking to Monday. I’ll make sure to bring my camera this time…
After a short nap, I went to Noyemberian’s Independence Day festivities, at the town square. Hundreds of people showed up, which was very encouraging to see this town with an actual sense of community (something I was beginning to doubt). As you can see below, it was pretty packed!
There were 8 live singers/dancers, most of whom were pretty decent. There was this group of five young girls who danced to American hip-hop music I could have lived without. I’m pretty sure my high school dance team was better than them. We had a great time anyway. Paul, a volunteer who’s been here a year, came into town and we did our best to get the big group dancing (which Armenian’s normally don’t have a problem with, except out in public appearently). We did get a decent size group dancing, including some college-aged boys, to my great surprise (I was one – we don’t dance). It was a wonderful time, and after the singing, dancing and picture taking finished, came my favorite part of the night: FIREWORKS!! Needless to say, I went home hungry, exausted, but with a big smile on my face (as you can see from the pictures).
Some of our new friends:
Alex and I leading the Tango:
I will be able to post again next week, as I’m leaving town to meet the Europe-Mediterrainian-Asia Peace Corps Regional Director (oooh, ahhh). Maybe we can teach him how to dance.
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?
For any of you that have seen the movie Eurotrip, or Hostel, or any other movie which attempts to stereotype Eastern Europe, they are dead on. I live in Soviet-era block housing, where every single apartment, floor and building are the exact same, everywhere in the country. Makes it very convient when walking up unlit stairs at night, because I only have to count the same 12 steps every floor. We have water every 3 days. When the water does, come, we get very excited and my host Mom usually runs up to me and says “The water is coming”, much like a small child when the ice cream truck drives by. At this point, we let the water run and fill our bathtubs until it shuts off again. Finally, we finish the celebration with a bucket bath, and I lay down to sleep amidst the light of the burning trashcan four stories below.
This is all true, but I love it and I am so happy. One thing that the movies don’t show is that people don’t really need hot showers, running water and trash pickup to be happy. I am incredibly content right now – I have a wonderful new family, great (and enthusiastic) friends in Noyemberian, great food, and a lifestyle that’s not stressful, but still busy and fulfilling. I think it would be refreshing for everyone to walk through town with a muddy pig by your side – it truly helps you understand the important parts of life.
My new surroundings also helped inspire my first sustainable development project, for my apartment. Thank goodness Duct Tape lasts forever. This is my small taste of home, for all you St. Louisians out there:
The first day of school was also this past week, on September 1st. They have a big ceremony, called “first bell”, where the new students (the equivalent of 1st grade) present flowers and recite poems for the school director. There are two schools in Noyemberian, and students can choose which one they want to attend. As you look at the photos, please note I’m incredibly jealous of these kids clothes – makes me want to spend even more money on tailored suits here in Armenia.
And finally, as promised, here are some pictures of my host Mom (Gohar), my new suit and friend Cheryl at swearing in, and my birthday party, respectively. Enjoy!
