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