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!

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.

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

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)

Greetings from Armenia!

So I've officially been in Armenia for 19 days and this is my first time with the ability to use the internet other than on my phone. As of know I can check my email and facebook from my cell phone, but because it is a pain to type on the phone the blog posts will not be coming as often. I'm hoping to set up a system where I write my entries prior to coming to town so they are not so freeform but that didn't happen last night because I went to bed at 7:30pm intending to take a nap and staying asleep all night! I'm recovering from a virus that is being passed around among all the peace corps trainees. More detailed stories about adventures involving crazy chickens, the strange moments involved with living with a host family that you can't talk to beyond the capacity of a 3 year old. I live in a small village of about 300 people called Teghenik with seven other Peace Corps trainees. The nearest city on a map is Charentsevan. My host family is great and we are slowly breaking down the language barrier and the strangeness of living in another family's house. I have a host dad named Arto and mom named Marené and a 20 year old host sister name Rosan. We have two cows, chickens, and my mom makes yougert and cheese. Don't forget to write letters because they announce at our Central Days who got mail and it is like being in camp and everyone gets super excited! I promise to post tales from Armenia next time I come to town and get a chance to use the internet...they are keeping us pretty busy with training. I love it here but I do miss everyone back home and I hope that all is well back in the U.S.

P.S. Check out photos on Facebook of Philly, Vienna, and Armenia!