Since my last post, the fun hasn’t stopped as my last few weeks here in Armenia wind down. I officially have less than one month to go, and a month from today I’ll be “just another tourist” wandering the streets of St. Petersburg! Until then, I’ll update everyone on my recent adventures, and let you know what I have planned for the next few weeks.
A week ago Thursday, I checked out of the Noy for a few days to return to Dpravak, the site of the infamous 2007 Thanksgiving and “the Real” Peace Corps. I love that place. Friday morning we woke up bright and early for what was likely my last major hike here in Armenia – a 10 mile, up-hill hike from her village to Lake Sevan. The hike was absolutely beautiful, and offered a lot of scenic, panoramic views of Armenian state forests and historic churches. After a little more than 5 hours of hiking through everything from dense forest to patches of snow (yes, it’s June), we arrived at the peak of the mountain, which opened up to a view of a large percentage of Armenia. Please, admire the view:
The rest of the hike we encountered huge untouched patches of wildflowers which were absolutely beautiful. I’m really going to miss the freedom to go on such hikes, and their proximity to the city. Really, my biggest concern is that this level of nature won’t be here in 5 or 10 years for the next volunteers to see, as illegal logging remains a big problem. Anyway, the Saturday after the hike, our group continued to Berd, where my friend and fellow volunteer Patricia was getting married. Her husband is an Armenian man, who we affectionately call Ray. He speaks great English and is a lot of fun. The party was destined to be great from the beginning, but I’m not so sure the the villagers of Verin Karmir (population ) knew what to think. We brought guitars, my Armenian dancing talent, and our versions of wedding toasts to the table. We had an amazing time altogether. While it was not a full-on traditional Armenian wedding like my previous experience, we had the toastmaster who led the festivities (and the dance party) but we did through the bouquet and garter in American style. All in all it was a ton of fun.
No sooner had I returned to Noyemberyan did work start up full force. Working with my NGO, we organized our second annual Computer Camp, where we taught 9 students how to use the Internet, build web sites, use scanners and digital cameras, and set up networks. It was an extremely long week of work, but very rewarding when we had our presentation and awards on Friday. The students learned a lot, especially since they don’t get exposed to these sorts of things during school.
Also this past week, I went to my friend Ara (you might remember him as the talented artist who drew my portrait)’s Army Party. Here in Armenia, every young boy over 18 has a compulsory two year service in the army (although some get out of it through some under-the-table dealings). Army service is not the most ideal situation, as most go to the occupied territory of Karabakh. As such, one of the biggest Armenian parties (aside from weddings and engagements) is the Army Party. There’s really no special rituals or traditions, here – it’s toasting and dancing till all hours of the night. We went up to the forrest for Ara’s party, which started at 2 PM and ended up sometime around midnight.
With Computer Camp and party adventures finished, I left Noyemberyan last Sunday for Martuni for my first (and unfortunately last) Green Camp. For many years, Peace Corps volunteers have organized these camps annually in 5-6 sites around Armenia. Last summer I did not get a chance to participate, so this year I made sure to sign up early. And I’m so glad I did. The camp I’m at has 42 children, aged 9-13, and during the week we teach them about a wide variety of topics about ecology and the environment. For instance, today was trash day – we learned how long it takes for things to decompose, what things you can and can’t burn, and we did a trash cleanup around the school hosting the camp.
The camp is divided into small group games and large group games; I am a small group leader. Working with an Armenian counterpart, we teach more focussed lessons to our team, “Bazey” (the Hawks), and make sure everyone is safe, well fed, and hydrated. It’s been so much fun this week. My group of kids is really enthusiastic, quickly understands the lessons, and has a lot of team pride, making them very easy to manage. The camp will go until Saturday, and Friday we will have an excursion to the forest. Very exciting stuff.
After Saturday, it’ll be 2 camps down, 1 to go for the summer and my Peace Corps service. Next week I’m going back to the Noy for my final week, which will mostly be goodbyes. On Wednesday the 2nd, we are doing an opening for my SPA project, the handicap accessible bathrooms, where we are inviting Peace Corps, the media, our other sponsors, and students/parents who our projects have affected. July 4th we plan to have a last hurrah with our English Club, and go to the forest and have a nice American BBQ, with burgers and hot dogs. But July 9th is the day I will pack up and leave Noyemberyan for good, and it will surely not be easy to say goodbye to all the close friends and family I’ve gained here and the cultural exchanges and fond memories we’ve shared. I did meet our new Noyemberyan volunteer, Mark, today, who will be an Environmental Education volunteer at one of our schools. He’s also a mid-twenties tall boy, so I doubt he’ll have much trouble filling my shoes (possibly literally).
Wait a minute. Strike that. Reverse it. When not recalling Willy Wonka quotes, Ive found myself surprisingly busy lately, which is quite the contrast, to say, the entire winter. Ill start from the top the bathrooms. Yes, theyre still building them, and thankfully, theyll be done pretty soon! Right now we have a completion date set for June 20th, with a party soon after. There are several crews working on them now. Here are some updated pictures:
Certainly a lot better than the old ones! They really are very nice and the school and the community are very proud of the work being done so far. Otherwise, things in Noyemberyan are going well. I am doing a computer camp next week (much like last years camp) but with more of a focus on the Internet, correct web site design techniques, and fun things to engage the children with computers (Google Earth, putting music on their cell phones, and cool Armenian and English language web sites).
In my free time Ive been all over the place. Two weeks ago, I visited some friends in Yeghegnadzor (where I celebrated my birthday last year) and had a great time. Yeghegnadzor is located near a big gorge and also produces some of Armenias best grapes (and hence, best wine). We spent a day relaxing by their river, which was refreshingly void of dead animals and trash, and talked with the local cow herders. The next day I ventured back to Yerevan to welcome the new volunteers, the A-16 group!
Unfortunately, due to some flight changes, we could not organize the same early-morning welcome as in years past. Instead, we surprised them the next morning at the local community center with cheers and some skits about Armenia. From their POV:
While the introductions were brief, they seem to be full of energy, and Im really enjoying reading their blogs. Its so interesting to hear about the things that surprise them, and it really makes me feel old being here nothing really shocks me anymore. Oh well
After returning to Noyemberyan, I spent the first three days running around fixing an Internet problem, but on Thursday I was able to relax and went to the forest for an all-day bar-b-que with my friends from the Koghb Art School. It was nice being with a group of young people who I can really call friends, and who have taught me so much about Armenias culture, youth, gender roles, art, dashi dushi dancing, and horovats cooking technique. They let me take over the reigns as lead horovats-er, and the results werent half bad. Friends and family, get excited for Armenian bar-b-que when you come to visit me in Dallas!
Clockwise from top-left: the finished bar-b-que, posing by the river, fun with Duct tape, and homemade Bache ball!! They have to learn how to have an American bar-b-que sometime.
Unfortunately I hit the road again this weekend for Vanadzor, which was full of meetings Friday, Saturday and Sunday 🙁 Fortunately, I was able to visit my training village of Bazum and my old host family, which was nice. Its almost strange being back, and it really shows how the two years have passed. People age, my host brother (who was in Russia while I lived there) is now married, and theyve remodeled most of the house. Were able to communicate using actual Armenian words instead of convoluted hand gestures, but unfortunately one of the last things we had to talk about was saying goodbye.
Its after weekends like this that I wonder where the two years have gone but Im glad Im going strong until the very end, with the computer camp, as well as a Green Camp (environmental camp), International Outreach Camp (which is now fully funded!), and seeing the tourist sites I couldnt fit in the last two years. Oh, and an American-Armenian wedding between a female PCV and male Armenian this weekend! With only one month until I leave Noyemberyan and six weeks until I leave Armenia, these last adventures should be every bit as interesting as the first two years. Wish me luck!
Readers of other Peace Corps-Armenia blogs will likely know that last weekend was Verdji Zang, or Last Bell – aka graduation for the 11th form students. The students have actually only attended 10 years of school, but due to some restructuring of the education system, they are technically 11th graders – but still only 16 years old. Anyway, I digress. This year most of the students from our English Clubs were graduating, and technically it is my “last bell” as well this year (more on that later). Fortunately the graduations were scheduled in a way I could visit most of our students, starting on Saturday with the Noyemberyan School 2 ceremony.
Noyemberyan’s ceremony was run about as professionally as a small Armenian town’s graduation could be – it had PowerPoint presentations, hip-hop dancing, skits, fireworks, and my favorite, live animals. At one point, as a symbol of being “released into the future”, two graduating boys presented two doves – really pigeons from their house – that they planned to release from the auditorium window. The first dove made it out fine, but the second dove hit a roadblock (literally), smacking into the window frame and then flying around for the next 10 minutes stunned. Don’t worry, reader, there is hope for the Noyemberyan Class of 2008. They eventually caught the dove and released it, thus ensuring their success for the future. In a high point for my Peace Corps service: after everyone left the school, I talked the director into letting me ring the school bell. C’mon, don’t tell me you’ve never wanted to try it…
On the opposite end of the spectrum, the Berdavan ceremony was far more… spontaneous. They preferred a more open-ended, outdoor ceremony, where no one was quite sure when one thing was supposed to stop and another to begin. There was a lot of singing, dancing, gift-giving, photo-taking and toast-making throughout the ceremony, and not all the graduates. At one point (not joking) the school director invited almost 20 kindergarten-aged children to the microphone to give speeches. The Peace Corps volunteers received an impromptu invitation to participate in the ceremony when half-way through the speeches, the school director saw us in the crowd, ordered 4 chairs brought to the front, and marched us in to sit with the other distinguished guests. So much for maintaining a low profile…
You can view the rest of the photos here. Anyway, as I said, this is also my last bell, which was somewhat bittersweet for me. On one hand, I was very proud to see all that’s changed in the past two years, to see the students grow up, their English develop, and the friendships that we’ve forged. At the same time, it’s just another of the ever-growing reminders that I’m leaving Armenia in a month and a half. It’s very strange how the questions have suddenly changed. It’s no longer “where are you from?”, “why are you here?”, and “will you marry an Armenian girl?”; now it’s “when do you leave?”, “do you plan on coming back here?”, and “will you please marry an Armenian girl?”. It’s going to be hard to leave here, as I’ve forged a lot of interesting, strong friendships that will be hard to say goodbye to. And while I enjoy the big things like these graduation ceremonies very much, I know I’m going to miss the little things so much more – the conversations with my crazy leprechaun neighbor who insists I don’t know English, walking into a store and almost tripping over a newly butchered cow’s head, and watching the “road crew” repair pot holes with piles of dirt.
My little trip down memory lane brings me to the theme of this post… eloquently ripped off from the “Semisonic” song Closing Time. Peace Corps is ready to send us off to the world right at the time when we’ve finally learned enough Armenian to be productive and have taught our livers how to handle enough homemade vodka to not be productive. With us leaving, it’s time for the replacements – the A16 group of volunteers arrives this weekend! Right now it’s a super-secret when and how they will be greeted by us, but I promise, come Monday, I’ll have some pictures of their terrified faces after meeting our rag-tag group of volunteers. Stay tuned!
As the headline might suggest, the past 7 days have been anything but calm around here, which explains why it’s taken me so long to post again. First, thank you everyone for the kind feedback about the Koghb Art School website. They really do appreciate you looking at their work and the compliments you’ve extended.
But now, let’s rewind a week to last Saturday, the date of the 2nd annual National Armenian Spelling Bee! We had our local bee in early April, and the winning student from each grade (7th-11th) qualified for the national competition. I was really proud of all of them, as they put in a great effort and studied hard for the bee. I was especially surprised at our two boys (who, generally as a gender, aren’t overly excited about education in this country) that met us nearly every day in the week leading up to the bee. We knew it would be a good trip!
Like most road trips in Armenia, this one began by leaving early in the morning in a stuffy mini-bus to the town of Hrazdan, which is famous for its cement factory (yes, it’s as beautiful as it sounds). We had a great road trip there and back, and sang a lot of Armenian songs in between spelling words. Here are some pictures of the competition:
Our kids did well, and we had one student (Sergey, 10th grade) finish in 3rd place! Personally, it was a great experience, and I felt like one of those proud sports parents cheering our kids on (and secretly wishing for the others to misspell their words). While we couldn’t all be champions, we worked hard and tried our best, which is the best lesson of all, right?? (Insert your awww’s, here)
Sunday was spent recovering, because Monday we were celebrating the Mexican (and American Universities’) holiday of Cinco de Mayo! With our English club, we have tried to go one further than just teaching “American culture” by explaining that Americans unofficially recognize many nationalities’ holidays because our country is so diverse. We had success with Halloween and St. Patrick’s Day, so we decided to pull out all the stops with Cinco de Mayo. Alex, Kevin and I prepared a Mexican feast complete with homemade chips, salsa, and 5 lbs of taco bar! The meal itself received rave reviews…
But what’s Cinco de Mayo without two of the greatest things to come out of Mexico: tequila and pinatas?! Answer, it’s not… because these two go surprisingly well hand-in-hand. After dinner, I put my four year college education to good use and demonstrated the proper way to do a tequila shot – licking the salt, taking the drink, and eating the lemon. Afterward, the students (who were all over 21, don’t worry) gave it a try… twice… and were surprisingly ok with it. We have video of this all, but it’s best left archived for now…
After loosening up, we turned on the Enrique Iglasius (we didn’t have much for Latin music) and attached the pinatas! Earlier in the week, Kevin and I taught the students how to paper miche, and we made several interesting pinatas, including a heart, a globe (with our homes marked off), and our favorite, the “Art School chicken” with Alex’s adoring face taped to the front:
We danced the night away, which made it especially difficult for Alex and I to wake up the next morning to go to our Close of Service Conference in Yerevan. Yes, I said Close of Service, which, if translated correctly, means I’m leaving Armenia in two short months (July 21 to be exact) and will be living in Dallas by the end of August (with a train trip across Russia to China for the Olympics in between).
The conference itself was nice, and was a good opportunity for reflection, and most importantly to spend a last time with my group’s volunteers who will begin to trickle out to the foreign service, grad schools and their parents’ couches over the next few months. It was definitely bittersweet, as I’ve made so many great friends in these two years, although I have great people to come home to as well1
Aside from the introspective sessions and touching slide shows, we went to two banquets, one held by the US Charge d’ Affairs Joseph Pennington (for those that don’t know, he’s the highest ranking American diplomat at our embassy, since we don’t have an ambassador still), and the other held by our Country Director, Lee Lacy. Both were amazing, with good food (cheeseburgers!!), ping pong, and were a lot of fun. Thank you again for your hospitality Mr. Pennington, Lee, and the American Taxpayers (that’s you!).
Are you tired of reading yet? Almost done! Friday morning I left Yerevan for the bus station, back to reality in Noyemberyan. With a few hours to kill before my bus, my friends and I stopped in at a new restaurant accross the street, at least hoping for a free bathroom (the one at the station costs 50 whole dram, and should be condemned). My eyes lit up immediately – and here’s why:
Yes, a buffet. In Armenia. An Armenian buffet. Our world-renouned American gluttony has finally stretched world-wide, and I celebrated by spooning out all of the pig kidneys I could eat. It’s amazing how everything, especially my pig kidneys, taste better spooned out underneath a sneeze guard. After this, I know it will be smooth sailing from here on out. I just wish the bus ride had been the same way…
Finally, happy Mothers’ Day, Mom (and all the others out there)! Also, congratulations to Truman State class of 2008 and their most beautiful graduate, Sara Barnes! I love you so much and thank you for your support these last two years. 🙂