A brief review a month into service

My, has the time gone by. Sorry I haven’t posted in awhile, but I’ve been quite busy trying to pick up Eastern Armenian language and adjusting to life in a new country. It is already June 25th and it feels like I just left New York’s LaGuardia a few days ago. I miss everyone dearly.

Today we have site announcements, which means we’ll find out what city, town, or village we’ll be put in for the next two years. We also learn who are site mates are, or which other peace corps volunteers will be near us. My site is in the northeast portion of the country in the Tavush marze (state), which borders Georgia. For me it will be about a 1 hour marshutni ride to Tiblisi, Georgia and a 4 hour ride to Yerevan the capital of Armenia. I have 6 other volunteers that will be fairly close to me so that was definitely exciting news. I’ve been told the city will soon have Wi-Fi connection so I’ll be able to update my blogg more regularly from there. The only problem is that we only have water for 30 minutes a day. So my bathtub will soon become my primariy source of water. I guess that explains a lot about the world we live in; where occasionally an undue priority is placed on technology and information at the expense of basic essentials of life. More about my site later, we’ll travel there within the next month so hopefully by then I’ll know more.

The past couple of weeks have been filled with fun adventures with family members and 6 hour days of school coupled with studying. Also, the fellow volunteers in my village and I have found free time to hang out together which is definitely a relaxing reprieve from the constant infusion of an unfamiliar language, new people, and completely different culture.

In our village there are 8 PCVs (Peace Corps Volunteer) left, 4 gals and 4 guys. Initially we had 9, but one volunteer’s aunt became critically ill and she went home and decided that she wouldn’t be returning. Overall three PCVs have left out of the initial 50, so we are down to 47 volunteers; we had 14 that were over the age of 50 and many over the age of 30. The makeup of our group is surely a unique blend of Americans. Out of the 50 original our life experiences are as diverse as our age range. We have people who have worked for the State Department, one man who worked daily with General Petreaus in Iraq helping with the military’s website, a girl who worked as a biological observer on fishing boats based out of Dutch Harbor in Alaska, former teachers, an Australian, and many others. The group overall seems extremely competent and everyone from our group is very well educated.

The amount of knowledge other volunteers’ posses is extremely impressive and a bit intimidating. Not surprisingly the group is extremely liberal especially by the norm I encountered in Georgia. I would probably be one of the more conservative volunteers’ which is a change for me. At UGA I was surely considered a bit liberal by many of my peers, yet amongst my fellow volunteers I am definitely not the loner lib in the Peace Corps.

In our village we are all between 23 and 27 in age. I guess we’re the stereotypical ‘peace corpers’, an idealistic bunch who are obviously still looking for what exactly life has in store for us. In our village we have 2 girls from Portland, 1 from Colorado, and 1 from California. The guys are from Florida, Ohio, and Wisconsin, plus me. We are all environmental educators (EEs), some of us with experience in the field and others just with a will to work and help others.

Our village is the smallest of the 6 villages PCVs are located in during Pre-Service Training, the first 11-weeks we are in country. We have about 300 families in our village, but many of the town’s men are in Russia and the Ukraine working. Armenians are very similar to the Latin American’s coming to America to work. There is a very high rate of unemployment in Armenia and the jobs that are available pay little. Many men go north and west looking for well paying jobs.
Although our village is small most volunteers are in agreement that our village is one of the nicer ones if not the nicest. Every volunteer in our village has a western toilet, at least one TV in their house, and hot water for showers at least a couple days a week. These amenities are nice, but also auspicious since as environmental educators we’ll probably encounter the worst living conditions. The school we go to in our village is fairly modern with well furnished classrooms, a gym, and a computer lab, but we have been told this is the exception for Armenia. Every day we see Mercedes, BMWs, and Land Cruisers cruise around our town, but this too is extremely weird and suspicious. It makes you question if we’re helping the right people, but I’m still confident our help is needed. Some people from Yerevan, the capital of Armenia, have summer homes in our village and others have made money in other countries and have returned home to retire. Living in Armenia is very cheap with a liter and a half of soda costing .50 cents and a kilo (2.2lbs) of beef costs about 6 dollars.
So far I feel like my family is too nice to me, I feel like I am treated like a king, but Armenians are just very nice to their guests, especially male ones. My laundry is washed, hung-up to dry, starched, and ironed for me. The only problem is that all of my clothes are starched and ironed, even my boxers. In the morning the natural gas is lit prior to me waking up so that the water tank heats up so I can take a nice shower. Breakfast is on the table when I’m ready. Fresh-homemade apricot jam from the trees in garden, two hard-boiled eggs from the chickens, homemade butter, lavash (Armenian flat-bread), and a cup of cocoa made from the strong and pungent smelling milk of the family’s cow, a taste that lingers in my mouth throughout the morning. Upon arriving home from school I am fed pastries and a cup of Armenian coffee called surch to hold me over while my lunch is being prepared. The surch is extremely thick, usually people don’t drink the last quarter of the small cup since it is thicker than crude oil. After resting or studying for a half hour my lunch is ready. Lunch is usually a collection of leftovers and other foods that can be quickly prepared. The choices for lunch always consist of fresh village cheese, a tomato, onion, and cucumber salad, lavash/bread, some type of potato dish, some type of meat dish, and oftentimes some type of lentil soup.

So far I have had several fun adventures with my host family. One night after having a big hor-o-vats, or an Armenian bar-b-que, we went to a nearby crusader church, which was built in 1031 AD and it is still in almost perfect condition. We paid a 100 dram or about .30 cents and lit 6 candles in remembrance of family members that had passed away. My host mother’s father has a prominent grave there; he was a priest at during the middle decades of the 20th century.

By the way the hor-o-vats, or bar-b-que, was done in pure Armenian style. The celebration was my arrival to Armenia, the sacrifice a lamb. After my host brother killed one of my families lambs, the dead animal hang motionlessly, feet from the pin where 20 to 30 other domesticated animals watched as their friend was beheaded, de-hoved, and skinned. The head was tossed to the dog, Belka, whose white fur quickly turned blood red. Next, my host brother Arsan and a family friend from Yerevan took the meal to the chopping block where the animal’s meat was separated from the inedible portions of the body. After separating the various types of meats in large bowls we took the meat up to the kitchen to be seasoned. Simplicity was the key to seasoning the still warm meat, using only salt and pepper. Finally, we put the meat on skewers which was then cooked in the horovats pit. From pen to plate the meal took about 2 hours to prepare, the meat was fresh, tender, and overall was extremely delicious.
Another night after going with my host father to work on some electrical wiring at a local kindergarten we met some guys there that took us to the nearby city for dinner. In Armenia if there is a problem or somewhat complicated work to be done multiple men must stand around arguing about the problem and talking. In the end the wiring didn’t get fixed, but the men definitely enjoyed the company and the opportunity to show an American a good time. These guys, all of whom were from my village, weren’t exactly the epitome of morality. One guy had a wad of a hundred dollars bills in his wallet and repeatedly wanted our waitress to sit in my lap. To his dismay that wasn’t about to happen as I said ‘che’, or no, about 100 times that night. We ate a lavish meal of kebabs, freshly cooked fish with fresh lemons, salad, tomatoes, fried potatoes, and many other side dishes.

The actual restaurant was a neat setup where each group has their own building with a bathroom, living room area, and a separate dining area. When you arrive at the restaurant you pick up a pager and go to your personal building. Whenever you need something, you page the restaurants’ main area with a little clicker, and within a minute or so the waitress is there to wait on your every need. The bill was over 20,000 dram or more than $60 USD.

Currently we’re preparing to have a big 4th of July celebration and I can’t help but think of back home. I hope the big family reunion goes well I’m sorry I can’t be there, but I’m sure y’all will have fun. I’m in charge of planning the party for our village and it has already become a big deal. We have invited the village mayor, prepared our budget to be turned into the Peace Corps, and there already is a buzz around town. I think most of the village people are curious about what type of party we’ll have. Peace Corps has given us $200 USD and we’ll have to feed and entertain about 50 people. We cannot use any of the money on alcohol or tobacco which is a good thing, since the Armenians would go through quite a bit of both of those.

If anyone has any ideas for activities the input would be much appreciated. Currently, we’re planning on having a tug of war, egg relay, American touch football game, water balloon toss, dancing, music, a piñata, pin the tail on the donkey, fireworks and a huge bon fire. Our menu consists of hamburgers, hot dogs, deviled eggs, potato, fruit, and pasta salads, peach cobbler, and s’mores.
A side note: two days ago an Armenian soldier was killed on the Azerbaijani border. I talked to some people and it sounds like this happens a few times every year, so it shouldn’t be anything to be alarmed about. Also, this whole weekend there have been political rallies in Yerevan over the outcome previous election in February. So far everything has been peaceful from what I can determine and hopefully it stays that way.
Sorry if I didn’t write enough, I’ll try to pick up my output. If you have any questions about my village, my host family, Armenia, or how I’m doing e-mail me or leave a post. I miss everyone and I hope the summer has been going well for all. We have CNN international at my host family’s house and it seems like Iowa has not been doing too well, but from what I can tell the Quad-Cities are doing alright.

Also, sorry if grammar is off and my writing is not as clear as it should be. I’m trying to give a general gist, not write a novel or a piece to be considered for an academic journal.


Remember this blog is a reflection of my own personal thoughts and reflections and in no way represents the views of the Peace Corps or the United States' government.