Monday, July 27, 2009
Just another monday in hayastan...
Well, I'm currently trying yet again to post photos on Facebook but it is not going very well. I've been waiting 15 minutes for six photos to load! I'm in Charentsavan today working on my practica. Rian and I set up a meeting on Thursday with CARD (The Center for Agribusiness and Rural Development) to try and connect the organization with the mayor of the village we are working with. I'm excited about meeting with them and having another chance to go to Yerevan. We all went to Yerevan on Sunday and went to the National Armenian History Museum. We didn't really have enough time to see everything, but afterward a group of us found a Thai food restaurant and I had some good pad thai which help soothe some of my food cravings.
Friday, July 24, 2009
Three Weeks of PST Left!
Hi All! So we officially have three weeks of PST (pre-service training) left before we are sworn in as official Peace Corps Volunteers! My days recently have been full of meetings because I am working on my business practica. I am working with another trainee, Rian, and we are helping facilitate a meeting between a village mayor and a NGO in Yerevan because the mayor wants to start a farmer's cooperative for the dairy farmers. Tomorrow I'm going to Yerevan to the National History Museum and the Armenian Genocide Museum. Then Sunday I am going to Lake Sevan to look at birds. The address that I have posted on my blog is no longer good to send mail to so once I find out my address at my site I will post it. I swear in on August 13th and I move to site on the 14th. I will be sad not to see all my fellow Americans as often but I am super excited to be officially a volunteer and be done with days full of meetings. My American food cravings are getting pretty strong but I got a package yesterday that will help me stave them off a bit longer. I hope everything in the States is going great. Don't forget to keep in touch - I check Facebook everyday on my phone!
Love, Sarah
Love, Sarah
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Finally Internet...crappy internet, but internet
A lot has happened in the last month, fortunately I have not had the opportunity to get on a computer with internet to update my blog or add more photos to Facebook until today.
My average day in Armenia consists of language class from 9am-Noon then I go home for lunch and then in the afternoon we generally have a meeting or business technical training. My Armenian is coming very slowly, which is a bit frustrating. The everyday words I need I have a handle on but understanding to an actual Armenian when they speak to me is very difficult because of the speed in which they speak. We had a practice oral language exam a few weeks ago and they told me I need to work on speaking in more complex and complete sentences which is can be difficult. I have to study a lot in the next month though because I must take another oral exam in August before I am sworn in as a volunteer and my work counterpart doesn’t speak much English (about as much as I speak Armenian).
I found out about two weeks ago where my permanent site would be (i.e. where I will live and work for two years beginning on August 15th). I just spent five days at my site and with my new host family, kind of like a sneak peak at the next two years. I will be living in a village called Aygepat, which has about 1,500 people who live there. It is not on many maps I’ve seen, but it is 6km from Artashat, which is the capital of my marz (region) Ararat. Artashat has a population of about 35,000 people so that is where I will do a lot of my shopping and can use the internet. My village is in the Ararat Valley of Armenia, which is known for its fruits and vegetables. We have apricot, peach, apple, pear, plum and walnut trees, as well as grapes, corn, tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, watermelon, and many types of herbs.
My new host family is made up of my host mother, Anahit, who is a 40 year old housewife and is recently widowed, her three children, and her 87 year old mother-in-law Lusik. The children are a girl, Ani, who is 15 years old and two boys – Garnik, 10, and Davit, 5. They don’t speak any English because the school in m village teaches German as its foreign language.
My work assignment is to work with the Aygepat municipality and YCAP. YCAP stands for Youth Community Action Plan and is a nation-wide initiative that is sponsored by AED (Academy for Educational Development) and USAID to increase volunteerism and community development efforts by the youth of the villages and towns in Armenia. My village’s mayor signed up to be a participant a year ago and my role is to help organize events, contribute new ideas and skills, and help with the management of the organization. All Peace Corps volunteers are assigned to a counterpart at their partner organizations to work with and my counterparts name is Vika. She is 22 years old and recently graduated from college in Yerevan. She is a member of the youth group. If anyone is interested you can check out http://aed.am
The marz-wide director told me they are working on getting internet on the computer in the office so hopefully soon I will have much better access to the internet, but until then I will be able to take the bus to Artashat to use the internet. My office is in the village center, down the hall from the mayor’s office and next door to the post office. As soon as I know my new address I will post it. The address currently posted is good for mail sent before the end of July because of the lag time in it arriving in Armenia.
I really love my host family and everyone from work I met. It was extremely hot while I was visiting but I was told it should be better when I return. Luckily because of the hot summers the winters are not as harsh as other parts of the country. In some sites winter begins at the end of October and can last until April or May, but in Aygepat winter starts in December and is over by March.
While I was visiting my site my host family took me to a historic site called Khor Virap which is an ancient church where St. Gregory was held captive for 14 years by the King because of his faith. It was really beautiful and behind the church you could see Mt. Ararat. I will have to go back because I did not have my camera to take any photos. My family and I had a miscommunication – they told me on Saturday that tomorrow we would all go to church together so the next morning when we were getting ready to leave they asked if I wanted to bring my camera, but since I thought we were going to an actual service I said no, but come to find out we were going to a tourist attraction! It is not far from my village so I plan on visit again when other volunteers come to visit me.
I could tell plenty more stories but I will save those for another time because I can’t write anymore at the moment (I just got done with a day of school, which leaves me brain dead!). Keep your fingers crossed that I have internet in my office and I can post every day.
I tried to post photos on Facebook but the internet wasn't cooperating!
Սեր Հետ (With Love),
Սառա (Sarah)
My average day in Armenia consists of language class from 9am-Noon then I go home for lunch and then in the afternoon we generally have a meeting or business technical training. My Armenian is coming very slowly, which is a bit frustrating. The everyday words I need I have a handle on but understanding to an actual Armenian when they speak to me is very difficult because of the speed in which they speak. We had a practice oral language exam a few weeks ago and they told me I need to work on speaking in more complex and complete sentences which is can be difficult. I have to study a lot in the next month though because I must take another oral exam in August before I am sworn in as a volunteer and my work counterpart doesn’t speak much English (about as much as I speak Armenian).
I found out about two weeks ago where my permanent site would be (i.e. where I will live and work for two years beginning on August 15th). I just spent five days at my site and with my new host family, kind of like a sneak peak at the next two years. I will be living in a village called Aygepat, which has about 1,500 people who live there. It is not on many maps I’ve seen, but it is 6km from Artashat, which is the capital of my marz (region) Ararat. Artashat has a population of about 35,000 people so that is where I will do a lot of my shopping and can use the internet. My village is in the Ararat Valley of Armenia, which is known for its fruits and vegetables. We have apricot, peach, apple, pear, plum and walnut trees, as well as grapes, corn, tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, watermelon, and many types of herbs.
My new host family is made up of my host mother, Anahit, who is a 40 year old housewife and is recently widowed, her three children, and her 87 year old mother-in-law Lusik. The children are a girl, Ani, who is 15 years old and two boys – Garnik, 10, and Davit, 5. They don’t speak any English because the school in m village teaches German as its foreign language.
My work assignment is to work with the Aygepat municipality and YCAP. YCAP stands for Youth Community Action Plan and is a nation-wide initiative that is sponsored by AED (Academy for Educational Development) and USAID to increase volunteerism and community development efforts by the youth of the villages and towns in Armenia. My village’s mayor signed up to be a participant a year ago and my role is to help organize events, contribute new ideas and skills, and help with the management of the organization. All Peace Corps volunteers are assigned to a counterpart at their partner organizations to work with and my counterparts name is Vika. She is 22 years old and recently graduated from college in Yerevan. She is a member of the youth group. If anyone is interested you can check out http://aed.am
The marz-wide director told me they are working on getting internet on the computer in the office so hopefully soon I will have much better access to the internet, but until then I will be able to take the bus to Artashat to use the internet. My office is in the village center, down the hall from the mayor’s office and next door to the post office. As soon as I know my new address I will post it. The address currently posted is good for mail sent before the end of July because of the lag time in it arriving in Armenia.
I really love my host family and everyone from work I met. It was extremely hot while I was visiting but I was told it should be better when I return. Luckily because of the hot summers the winters are not as harsh as other parts of the country. In some sites winter begins at the end of October and can last until April or May, but in Aygepat winter starts in December and is over by March.
While I was visiting my site my host family took me to a historic site called Khor Virap which is an ancient church where St. Gregory was held captive for 14 years by the King because of his faith. It was really beautiful and behind the church you could see Mt. Ararat. I will have to go back because I did not have my camera to take any photos. My family and I had a miscommunication – they told me on Saturday that tomorrow we would all go to church together so the next morning when we were getting ready to leave they asked if I wanted to bring my camera, but since I thought we were going to an actual service I said no, but come to find out we were going to a tourist attraction! It is not far from my village so I plan on visit again when other volunteers come to visit me.
I could tell plenty more stories but I will save those for another time because I can’t write anymore at the moment (I just got done with a day of school, which leaves me brain dead!). Keep your fingers crossed that I have internet in my office and I can post every day.
I tried to post photos on Facebook but the internet wasn't cooperating!
Սեր Հետ (With Love),
Սառա (Sarah)
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