Lake Sevan & The Broken Foot

A couple of weekends ago I went to Lake Sevan with a bunch of other A17s to celebrate begin at site for a month. Lake Sevan is one of the largest alpine lakes in the world and a popular vacation spot in Armenia. A bunch of us met up in Yerevan to catch the marshootni to Sevan which is always entertaining to have a group of Americans on a marshootni especially when you have luggage. We were all so excited to see each other that we piled in the back of the marshootni with all our bags on our laps and laughed the whole way while the Armenians facing us stared.

Once we arrived in Sevan we met up with Hayley – the volunteer who is assigned to Sevan to get supplies for the weekend. As with anywhere we going walking into a store with more than one American is always a show. Hayley’s host dad was with us and once we finally got all our stuff and were almost done checking out the store manager came over to the register and made the cashier unpack everything and recalculate it. By this time all the customers were standing around the register watching us. After all was said in done they said we short 4 dram (which doesn’t actually exist because 10 dram is the smallest unit here)!

When we finally made it to the peninsula we got settled in our dolmiks (metal storage containers that have been turned into cabins). We all got so excited hanging out and talking that by the time we decided to start making dinner it was dark and we had to go collect firewood. It had been raining a lot in Sevan so all the wood was wet. Earlier when we were at the store we kept asking Hayley’s dad that we needed to get firewood and he kept saying spasi or heto which means wait or later, which seems to happen a lot when we ask for things here. After we couldn’t get the fire started because the wood was wet we called Hayley’s dad and he brought us some dry wood. By this time it was 9:30 and we started making our dinner. It was so good we made quesadilla-tacos! We melted cheddar cheese we bought in Yerevan between lavash (Armenian flat bread) and used it as the shell for taco meat and fixings! They were amazing mostly because I’ve had nothing but salty Armenian cheese that doesn’t melt so having cheddar like heaven. Is it sad that having cheddar for the first time in four months is one of the best things that has happened in a while!
Saturday the rest of our group came into Sevan and the party could truly begin! We walked up to this old church on a hill overlooking the lake and took some amazing band photos. Rani loves taking band photos which are fun pictures that you would but in the cover of an album – the pictures are on Facebook and they are amazing! That night Hayley’s dad came and helped us prepare a horavats (Armenian barbecue) and then had an awesome dance party! Sunday we were all moving a little slow so we just hung out and played cards.

Later that day I was walking out of one of the cabin and as I turned out of the door to shut it I stepped off the stairs leading into the cabin and landed on the side of left foot. At first I thought it was nothing because I walked back to the other cabin where everyone was, but later when I tried to get up I couldn’t put any weight on my foot. I had a large bump on the side of my foot and it was starting to swell. A couple of the boys carried me out of the cabin and we wrapped it and did the whole RICE thing. The rest of the time I couldn’t put any weight on it so I hopped around on one foot or sat watch in my chair while we made spaghetti for dinner. The next day with the help of my lovely friends I made it back to Yerevan where I went to see the Peace Corps doctor. I wasn’t alone because Amanda had to see the doctor to so we braved a night at the PCMO because Monday was Armenian Independence Day and apparently you can’t get an x-ray on a holiday in Armenia! Tuesday we went to the hospital to get an x-ray and it turned out that I had an evulsion i.e. I chipped on the outside of left foot. So they had to give me a cast that I have to wear for a month. The hardest part about the hospital was that everyone was talking and I couldn’t understand what was going on and the Peace Corps doctor wasn’t translating anything. I knew that it wasn’t a big deal but I wouldn’t want to go there if something really scary was happening just because when you are at the hospital and you have no idea what is going on it’s just awkward and confusing. According to the Peace Corps doctor I got the most expensive fancy cast, it’s made out of fiberglass and it is removable. I can walk on my cast but not too much because otherwise the corners rub on my ankle and I’m starting to get sores. I have to wear my cast for a month, which isn’t too bad but is still no fun!

Working It

I thought it would be nice to devote an entry to what exactly it is that I'm doing here in Armenia and what my life as a Peace Corps volunteer is like. So this entry is all about my work and my co-workers. I hope it helps explain what in the world I'm doing over here...

Every Peace Corps volunteer is assigned a counterpart with their organization or school. Our counterparts are supposed help us not only navigate our job assignments, but also integrate into our new communities. At my job I have a counterpart Vika - she is 22 years old and recently graduated from college. She wants to be a teacher, but it is really hard to find jobs here so she works in her families store and tutors children on the side. I work for the mayor’s office in my village so I can do lots of different things…pretty much anything that involves community development. Specifically I am working on an initiative in the village called YCAP. My other co-worker is Ovsanna - she works for YCAP and the community center. YCAP operates all over the country and it has been in my village for about a year-and-a-half. My YCAP boss is Laura – she is in charge of all the YCAP groups in Ararat Marz where I live. All the regions in Armenia are called Marzs – there are 10 marzs in Armenia plus the Yerevan district.

Right now I’m conducting an English club in my village for some of the students because there isn’t an English teacher at the school. I’m not really supposed to be teaching English, but I feel like it is a good way to meet the kids and hopefully once my Armenian has improved I can move on to not just having an English club but also a youth club that is focused on community development and youth issues, which is more in the realm of my sector.

All volunteers are assigned to a site (a village, town or city) and the volunteers in villages have an extended community which includes the nearest town for shopping and banking. Artashat is the capital of my marz and my extended community. Laura’s office is in Artashat so I go there quite often for meetings. Artashat had a Peace Corps volunteer five years ago and there is a lot of work there for secondary projects. Laura set up an English conversation club for me at the Artashat Cultural House. We have only met once two weeks ago because we couldn’t meet last week because I was on bed rest for my broken foot. Our first meeting went well I had about 25-30 young adults come although only 15 stayed for the whole meeting. I assume that once Laura explained that the club wouldn’t be an English class but rather a conversation club where people can come to practice their language skills while we discuss a range of topics that involve youth issues in Armenia. All of the participants are in their early to mid 20s and either attending university or graduates of university.

At our first meeting we had a short discussion of some of the differences between Armenian and American youth. The main difference I came up with was the amount of freedom given to American youth compared to Armenia. Most Armenian teenagers especially in the villages spend most of their time at home with their families. They don’t work especially Armenian girls because a lot of times it is considered shameful for an Armenian girl to work because it means that their families can’t support them. One of the girls made a really good point that in Armenia youth are expected to attend school and work hard to get into university and then while in university they are supposed to study but not work so that when they graduate from university they have not practical experience. She works for SMENDC (Small and Medium Enterprise National Development Center) which is an NGO that acts a consultant for local businesses. I am hoping to work with them in the future when I being to look for secondary projects.

My big project right now is planning a Harvest Festival/Halloween Party for my village. The students in my English club told me how much they love Halloween and wished that more people here celebrated it and asked if we could celebrate it. I was originally planning on just having a Halloween themed club meeting but when my Project Manager Stepan came to visit my site we had a meeting with Vika, Ovsanna, and Laura and they all loved the Stepan’s suggestion that we make the event cross-cultural to attract more people in the village because a lot of Armenians think Halloween is all about devil worship, etc. My small Halloween party soon transformed into a village wide festival so now I must begin planning because the festival is going to be on October 20th because Halloween is too late for the harvest. It is going to be cross cultural because there is a tradition of having a fall harvest festival where all the families in the village make a table displaying their harvest - they carve the fruits and vegetables in decorative ways. I’m going to have an American corner where I will have American Halloween decorations, treats, and some of the posters explaining some American Halloween traditions written in Armenian. My students and I are going to work together to make decorations and masks for the festival.

It definitely takes time to learn about a new work culture and the best way to get things done here so I have a long way to go. I really just hope that my first big project is a success because I think I need that confirmation that I do indeed know what I'm doing or that I'm at least not completely hopeless. I also think it would help the village gain confidence in my ability to get things done. I'll keep you updated as the festival approaches and after I have a few more club meetings under my belt.

It's Official

So most of this info is from a month ago but the internet in Armenia, like life is unpredictable!

I’m no longer a lowly Peace Corps trainee but an actual sworn-in volunteer! They last couple of weeks of training were hard because we were all exhausted and excited about swearing-in. Our swearing-in ceremony was great! All our training host families came to watch us and the US Ambassador to Armenia was there to administer our oath. Best of all is we got our Peace Corps Armenia pin, which is the Peace Corps logo and the American and Armenian flags. After the ceremony we had a great party with the A-16 volunteers who came for the ceremony.

I was ready to move to site but I was definitely nervous because I am the first volunteer in my site and I’m not really close to any other volunteers. I got comfortable at my training site so it was kind of like starting all over again. There have definitely been some challenging moments, but all and all things are going good. I’m still in the transition period and work is slow so I have a lot of free time which can be overwhelming because you feel like you should be doing something! I’m working on my Armenian still but I should step it up if I want to start getting any real work done because there are no English speakers in my village so I’m going to have to communicate fully in Armenian. Currently I work a couple hours a day and I’m trying to brainstorm project ideas with my counterpart. Really I spend a lot of time wondering what is going on and what I’m doing. I’m trying to just stop worrying about and roll with it but that is hard because I’m not used to not knowing what is happening in my own life. I’m definitely learning to have more patience.

I moved to my site on August 14th and although I had come to visit before in July the first couple of days were a little awkward. Just imagine that you move in with a family you barely know and can’t really communicate with. It took the first week or so to stop feeling like a house guest and like I actually live there. My host family is really great though they have been nothing but welcoming and gracious which makes being here a lot easier. My host sister Ani has made the transition really smooth. When I first got to site she would go everywhere with me and introduce me to people which is really helpful since my assignment is to work with the community youth club so she brings all her friends to my meetings. She helped me figure out how to get to town and where the bank, stores, and cafes are. Even though we don’t always understand each other we can joke around and laugh together. My oldest host brother Garenik is the most reserved of the three kids and we haven't talked too much. My youngest brother Davit is cute and hilarious but he is also a handful with nonstop energy—he is the classic baby of the family, dramatic and a show off.

Work has been the most challenging part so far. Learning a new work style and culture takes time and I’m so used to the go-go attitude in the States which is definitely not how things operate here especially in the village. I’m in a new Peace Corps village so they have never had a volunteer before and in a lot of cases I am the first American a lot of people in my village have ever met. All the volunteers who have been here for a year told me that it is best that I am the first because they won’t constantly be comparing me to their previous volunteers, which I guess is true but there is also a lot of uncertainty on my co-workers part of what I should be doing. My counterpart just graduated from college so she is really anxious about this being here first job and doing a good job. For the first two weeks of work I just went to the office and either studied Armenian or taught my coworkers English. I just finished my third week in site and it was much more productive at work. Now I have a weekly English Conversation Club/Business Class/Youth Club in town scheduled at the Culture House and a weekly youth club in my village. My first meeting in town is on the 16th and I’m really nervous about what I am going to talk about – I’m stepping into unknown territory.

Definitely the hardest part is that everything is unknown territory…everything is new and different. Parts of it are super exciting like traveling but it can be overwhelming when everything is unknown and changing. Every single thing in my life is different than it was three months ago and its new and exciting but from time to time it is just too much.

The first day of school in Armenia is September 1st and it is a really big deal. My family all went to town to get new outfits for school and then they came home and modeled them or me. On the first day of the school all the students and parents stood outside the school and the kids lined up by class. There were lots of little speeches and awards (which I didn’t really understand). Then all the new first graders were given new bags for the beginning of school. The boys got little black briefcases and the girls got bright pink and purple backpacks. All the students brought flowers for their teachers. Since it was my youngest brothers first day of school my host mom and I went to his class and all the parents stood in the classroom taking pictures and they were all presented with their books.

Funny Moments
•One of the women at the mayor’s office told me I am pretty but very plain (i.e. I don’t look like I’m ready to go clubbing at 11am at work like most Armenian women)
•I walk way too fast for Armenia...I don’t have my casual Armenian stroll down quite yet.
•Chocolate Butter...not as good as it sounds
•My little brother Davit asks every afternoon if I want ice cream because he knows if I say yes he will get ice cream too.
•Everyone I meet thinks I’m Russian or German never American and they can’t believe that I’m going to live in a village in Armenia for two years.
•Potatoes, Potatoes, Potatoes! If you don’t like to eat potatoes I wouldn’t recommend living in Armenia

more posts soon...

it has been awhile but I promise there will be many new posts soon because I know have access to the interent at school in my village. rather than trying to write the off the cuff now (which makes for rather scattered and not all that exciting posts) I am going to write them at home and then post! Miss you all!