Howdy! I hope everyone is doing well at home, and for Truman folks, I hope you had a great time at Greek Reunion. Things are going very well here, with a lot of the usual goings on. We were able to go to Yerevan, the capital city, on Monday, and it was very interesting. It’s very “European”, in that people dress far more liberally, the hold hands (gasp!) and have non-Armenian food. I don’t think I’ve ever binged that heavily on Thai food before in my life, esp. food not made by a Thai. Brings back fond memories of the STL and our coconut shrimps…
Otherwise we just took a look at Peace Corps’ main office and visited an IT cooperative in town. They work a lot more with bigger businesses in the capital, like Lycos, whereas I’ll be with the locals in the city. They are planning some projects like translating FireFox and OpenOffice into Armenian though, which is kind of cool!
We will be visiting our host sites and new host families from next Wed through Sat, so that will be great to see where I’ll be for the next two years. I’m definetly in an interesting area, and it will be both scary and fun to be so close to a closed border! Appearently I can come pretty close with a short hike, so look for those seedy “look I’m over the border, now run!” pictures soon. Hadgoh!
Berev Dzez! Yesterday we found out where our sites will be for the next two years. I will be in a village called Noyemberyen, which is about 8,000 people. It is located in the far northeast of Armenia, very close to the Georgian and Azeri borders. Sounds like quite a fun area actually! It’s about an hour and a half from the Georgian capital, three and a half hours from the Armenian capital, and about 15 KM from the nearest landmine! All in all not so bad 🙂 Actually it sounds like a great area with really nice weather (very mild in the summer and short winters), and it is said to have especially great hiking. I will be there with two other volunteers: Eileen, another business volunteer, and Alex, an environmental educator. We visit the sites in a couple of weeks, so I will post more about Noyemberyen soon.
In other news, this past week we had two great parties. The first was a talent show/competition/dance-off on Saturday night, which was a lot of fun. My personal favorite was the Armenian equivalent of bobbing for apples – but, instead of apples, we used flour. Naturally. I did manage to beat David thanks to my parents and their large-nose genes, so that was certainly a high point. We followed it up with an after-party featuring my favorite: watermelon and ooree (Armenian for vodka).
We also had a 4th of July “picnic” on Tuesday, which was supposed to be for all of the volunteers and their families, but was cancelled do to rain. Instead our village got together and made some wonderful horovats (BBQ) and had a great time dancing, playing party games (we taught them limbo) and singing national songs. The volunteers led a rousing (and probably eardrum-busting) rendition of America the Beautiful. I also won the musical chairs competition, which gave me the honor of dancing an entire song to myself. I was able to compensate a little bit as one of the local 10-year-olds joined me for some twiriling and a tango (sorry Sara).
I hope all is well with everyone back home! Take care and I hope everyone had a wonderful Independence Day. I’ll certainly look forward to watching some fireworks in 2009 ;)]
Sorry it’s been a few days since I’ve posted, my MP3 player/flash drive got fried at the internet cafe last Friday :/ So if anyone is looking for birthday presents for me (August 26), this is a big wink wink. Anyway, there’s been a lot going on lately, tons of fun times with hiking, the locals, etc, but I’d like to share my adventure from last Sunday, because it was nothing short of that – an adventure in language, culture, and Armenian fun.
I decided to go into Vanadzor (the neighboring city w/ around 100,000 people – my village is 1,200) to do some shopping and to buy a new USB drive. All was well, and I even got to explore the Armenian bootleg cd market, which was of new interest for me. However, I had to catch a bus back home so I could attend a 2pm party – so I hop on the bus which says “Bazum” (my village – in Armenian) and ask them, brokenly, is this bus going to Bazum? I get a slew of yeses, and a half hour later, I end up at “Bazum” street, on the opposite side of Vanadzor. So, lost with no map, no cell phone and only a few words of Armenian, I managed to spend most of my money, but I got back to my village and ran home to change for the party. That’s when things got crazy.
I arrive at the neighbors party, which is celebrating the return home of their son from the Army (here it’s a compulsory two years for men). What I thought would be a small hootanany was anything but – probably about 300 people:
Plenty of dancing:
and enough food to literally feed an army:
And of course, vodka:
As you can see, it was a great time – even the Tateek (Grandma) was having fun! But, nothing goes better with Vodka and Armenian men then toasting with Americans, so I met a new friend who quickly became “yerkbyr-jan” (Dear Brother of mine). To clarify, this guy is “that drunk uncle” at your family reunion. Long story short, he ends up following us home (and leaves and comes back) because he misses me so much, and in the process gives me more kisses and hugs than I received in my four years of college. Let me tell you, it was sad to say “hadgogh” to that guy…
But, that’s just another day in Armenia. Until next week, please take care! And hi Dave’s mom, and any others out there!
Another exciting week has passed in my village, Bazum, with many perilous tales to share with you. A few choice selections:
- There are some older Armenian men who are always waiting at the bus stop when we get out of school. I finally worked up the nerve to talk to them the other day, and after being motioned over, the guy I always waved to affectionately asked, “Sprechst du Deutsch?” (Do you speak German). In my confused stupor, I was only able to say, “Ja”, noted that I speak a little Armenian, and walked away. I’m glad they have a sense of humor about it 🙂
- We went hiking the other day. The mountains here are beautiful, but are interspersed with old buildings and remnense of the former Soviet republic (factories, old homes, etc). It is a very interesting site to see concrete pads mixed with sprawling mountains, and it definetly makes you appreciate how fortunate we are in America. However, how many times would you find a small American child willing to be your Shuka (guide) back to the city?
- I sat down for coffee with one of my LCFs, or language and culture facilitators. My teacher, Sveta, is very nice, well educated, and near fluent in English. We had a long talk about life in the former Soviet era, the transition period, and present life in Armenia. I’m extremely humbled by the resilience that many Armenians showed during the transition period. Sveta herself graduated high school and spent most of college studying by candlelight. We also discussed a lot about life and culture in modern Armenia, including marriage and dating. Very interesting stuff. Of course, I also spent about five minutes trying to ask her Tatik (Grandmother) where the bathroom was, but hey, I’m trying!
- I’ve successfully converted my host mother’s grandaughter, Lilik, into an American game addict. She has not only mastered, but can now beat me in Uno, and is a pretty darn good frisbee player. Next on the agenda is teaching the kids in this village how to play ultimate.
Also, *finally* have some pictures working! Here are some:
My host mom/dog:
My house:
And my outhouse:
The rest of the photos are on the photo page on the right, as is the link with my address. Take care!