A bit on my permanent site visit

Saturday, July 19, 2008



My, oh my, another week has gone by and it seems like only a few hours have passed. Life has been extremely crazy the past couple of weeks, as Peace Corps’ has put us Trainees through their version of boot camp. Recently I visited where my permanent site will be for two years and luckily it is in one of the most beautiful regions of Armenia. Not only does my site have beautiful scenery, think Helen, Georgia or somewhere in Bavaria, but also the city I will be living in is one of the most technologically advanced areas in all of Armenia. My future site even has fast wireless internet not even most cities in the states have that.



My new host family at my permanent site, who I will live with for at least 3 months, is completely cool. This family has hosted several volunteers over the years, which made my job a lot easier since they know the rules and regulations of the Peace Corps. Yet, more importantly they have adapted and have had experience with foreigners living at their house. Many volunteers’ experience extreme over protection from host families who have never had volunteers before. This is a tribute to the close bonds within Armenian families and their emotional attachment to family members, temporary or not.

Below and to the right there is a picture of my new host father playing shagmat or checkers with some relatives and close friends. This was during the hor-o-vats or barbecue at my permanent site. The men played board games as the women prepared the next course and socialized.

Further down is a picture of the actual hor-ovats, this is how Amrenian's cook their food, but at most home their is an elaborate hor-o-vat grill, here we are at a campground.



My family also runs a dairy factory, which they built after the fall of the Soviet Union and once Armenia gaining Independence. If only more Armenians had ability to adapt like my new host family has done, their country wouldn’t be in such bad shape. Adaptability was and is a key component of success in post-Communist Eastern European and central Asian republics. Many of the folks that I’ve met in Armenia still hope the government will step in and assist them in their day-to-day needs; however the people need to realize the government’s job no longer includes providing every civil service imaginable.



My family’s factory mainly produces cheese, but they also make tan, matzon, and milk. The factory has no cows, but instead all of the villagers bring in their milk every morning and my family buys their excess milk. When the village milk is brought in, my host mother tests the milk’s nutritional value with a machine they bought a couple of years ago with the help of a former volunteer. I believe the machine checks the milk’s fat, protein, carbohydrate and sodium levels. Thus, the family thwarts any of the villagers’ attempts to dilute the milk with water or other liquids.



Also, the dairy factory has another really cool feature; the outside of one wall is covered with solar panels. So, all of the electricity needed to light the factory, run the machines, keep the cheese cool, and heat water is collected by the solar panels. Whenever I see the solar panels I think to myself why am I over here trying to help the Armenians with their environment, when we could definitely learn from them too. I must also remember this solar panel is an anomaly in Armenia and by no means the norm. It should also be noted that my family's success should also be attributed to the help of PC Volunteers over the years.



Today the EEs or Environmental Educators went to Dilijan National Park which was extremely beautiful. The park is in the same marze (Armenian county/state) as I am in, so many of my EE friends were able to see just how beautiful my new site is and many of them were jealous. Dilijan is known for many different attributes including: a wide assortment of beeches, oaks, keni-trees and redwood trees, hundreds of species of birds, the European lynx, and recently the reappearance of the snow leopard. There was also an ancient monastery in the park guarding a bluff and the valley below.



After the long hike we packed 15 sweaty, Peace Corps volunteers back in our van and headed back to Pre-Service Training Sites, but first we stopped at Goshavank Monastery. This is really the first monastery complex, per se, I have seen outside of Echmiadzeen, (the Armenian Apostolic Churches’ version of the Vatican). Goshavank was impressively beautiful and its restoration had recently been completed. There were three huge doomed buildings all of which were use by this particular monastic order, which I don’t know the name of. At the monastery complex there were tourist from all over Armenia, particularly summer camp groups, but there were also many English-speaking people, which was a surprise to us.



(Picture of us Environmental Educators in the cultural center)

Coming up in the next two weeks we have our teaching practicum where we’ll have to teach 9 class altogether. I’ll be team teaching 6 of my classes with another volunteer, then I’ll have three lessons I’ll have to do completely on my own, two of which I must teach only in Armenian. That’s going to be difficult.



We also have a community project which must be completed by August 3rd. Each town which volunteers are currently living in has a community project. For the community project we had to survey a sampling of our villages to see what the needs of our village are and then come up with an effective project to address those needs. My village really has no meeting area for the kids of the town. So were taking this abandoned stone building and converting into a youth play area with a environmentally themed mural. We are also adding soccer goals to the school yard so the kids will have some where decent to play soccer. We have a budget of $0, but we were extremely resourceful for the 4th of July celebration and I’m sure we’ll make do this time as well.



(Shamat cake, my host mother in my PST village made. She is the best cook in town.)


Well it’s getting extremely late here, but as always I hope things are going well in America and I’ll talk to y’all later.



peace.shalom.salaam.
Mark Jensen







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.

The 4th of July

July 7, 2008

Hey Everybody,
So it has been about a month so far since I left home and everything is going quite well so far. We had an awesome Independence Day Celebration with our community. I was in charge of planning the event for our village and it was an overall success. The planning was surely time consuming, but we had a great, nostalgic time with our village.
Planning the event was quite a burden for a person who knows very little Armenian, but it was definitely an experience to remember. In the past Peace Corps Armenia would have one grand 4th of July celebration for all new volunteers, but this year we were the guinea pigs and were more or less on our own, as part of the learning experiment, of course. Peace Corps provided us with a 60,000 dram stipend or about $200. Also any foods that are not common in Armenian cuisine, the Peace Corps found what they could for us in Yerevan. The most important thing Peace Corps’ purchased for us were marshmallows, which were used to make some mighty tasty S’mores .

The 4th of July was a lot of fun as well as a good deal of hard work. Although our party wasn’t until 5 p.m., all day we were setting up chairs and tables, preparing food, and compromising over last minute details. One unexpected and sad part about the day occurred late the night before when an old man who was 85 years old died. The respect the entire village showed the man and his life has been tremendous so far and the mourning will continue for 40 days after his death, as is the custom in Armenia. Relating to the party many things had to be worked out to make sure nothing was done to dishonor the life of the 85 year old man. As the party director, any wish the mayor had or uncertainty he conveyed to me, I obliged or eased his uncertainty by agreeing with his demands. The two things he really didn’t want was the playing of loud music and dancing; and to keep the majority of the party behind the school and out of view of any would be mourners coming from other towns.

The mayor was definitely a great help for our party since he helped coordinate several key components of the party and donated several things. Probably the most interesting thing he donated was a lamb, which he wanted us to watch it be killed and skinned. I’ve already helped skin two lambs and I had a lot of other things to do at that time so I didn’t witness the sacrificial lamb being slaughtered. But if you would like to see the slaughter our camera man took plenty of pictures. The mayor also gave us a good deal of wood for our grilling needs and a metal grill top to cook hamburgers on, since Armenian grills generally don’t have metal tops, they almost exclusively cook all of their meet on kebab skewers.

Now for the food and activities. The party’s menu consisted of hot wings, hamburgers, hot dogs, sausages, a lamb, lavash chips, bean dip, pasta salad, deviled eggs, grilled vegetables (eggplant, zucchini, tomatoes, etc.), cherry pie dessert fritters, s’mores, and several cakes brought by our host families*. The activities were probably the best thing about the party and one of the best ways to show our crazy American culture to the Armenians of our village. Also, the activities got the men, at our unintentionally gender separated party, to get up and have fun with the tug of war. Throughout the day we played Frisbee, soccer, and volleyball, but the main events included: Pin the Tail on the Donkey, a Piñata, a water balloon toss, the ever infamous tug of war, and a bon fire with s’mores and sparklers. Our Armenian friends definitely didn’t get the purpose of pin the tail on the donkey since everyone that played walked directly up to the donkey and correctly placed the tail on its rear-end; even though they repeatedly told us that they couldn’t see through the scarf we put over their eyes. The piñata was also great. One of my fellow volunteers made a beautiful pig out of USPS box, paper machete, and a balloon. The best part about the box was that it was practically indestructible. During the several attempts to bash open the box another volunteer hit the box so hard that it broke the stick in half. And where did the other half of the stick end up… right into the side panel of a new black Mercedes, practically a perfect shot. The water balloon toss was also a hoot as mayor of the town and his partner ended up being co-champions with one of my friends and me.

Both the tug-of-war and the bonfire were events that several men participated in a change from the normal serious nature of the men of the town. During the first match of tug-of-war the teams were hill people versus town’s people, depending on where in the village you lived. My host families house is a good 20 minutes from the center of town and at the very top of the village, so deductively I was on the hill team. We won that match, but then the Armenians wanted to do Armenians versus Americans. We were doomed from the get go, but we gave it our all. The first match they dragged us a good 10 feet before winning, and were not very small American either, we had one guy that played hockey in college, another who was an eagle scout, and the other guy is about 6’2”, 230lbs, but the Armenians we faced for the most part work manual labor, so unfortunately we were owned. The second match we were a bit wiser and decided to use our experience in tug-of-war matches, instead of our seemingly measly strength. After the start of the match, I counted one… two… three and all four of us Americans let go of the rope, as our opponents tumbled unsuspectingly to the ground, prompting a huge laugh from the women watching on. Next my host father challenged me mano y mano and after what seemed liked 20 minutes I was able to pull him over the line, but he is also in his late 40’s and a chain smoker. Overall he's a good guy though.

Finally the bon fire was ridiculous, even though we had to keep it small out of respect for the older man who had passed away. The sparklers were a great hit for the kids and even some of the adults. The Peace Corps was able to find several packs of sparklers for each of our villages, which was a great help to us. Some of the older adults enjoyed running around with the sparklers as well. Also the Peace Corps was able to find marshmallows in Yerevan and we made some spectacular tasting s’mores. I think this was my proudest moment, because it was a food that our Armenian friends had never even seen, but they willingly tried the s’mores and most of them love them. The mayor also tried the s’more, but after a bite or two I think he had had enough. The mayor’s willingness to try any food or activity was definitely a highlight of the day as well.Soon I’ll be leaving to visit my next host family in my permanent location, where I’ll be living for the next 2 years. There are many other stories to tell and soon I’ll try to get them out my journal and onto the web. I hope all is well in the States and though out the world. Sorry I haven’t been online lately, but planning the party took away all of my free time in the city where the internet cafe is located. Also with nearly 50 Americans all wanting to use the internet at once and the internet running slower than molasses it is extremely hard to accomplish anything substantial online. Nevertheless, hopefully my blog postings will become as regular as my…

Also, once I get to my permanent site I'll start uploading pictures like crazy including one's from the 4th.

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.

A quick up-date from my permanent site

This weekend I am visiting the site I'll be permanently located in for the next two years. The village has a population of about 5,000 people and has an extrememly beautiful alpine setting . It is remenicent of Helen, Georgia back home.

My new host family is fairly well off and is extremely well off by Armenian standards. They own their own dairy factory which seems like a perfect fit for me. Their cheese is very delicious, but not necessarily in the quantities they want me to eat it, by the kilo. I will soon add more post once I am permanently living here which will occur sometime in the middle of August.

I miss everyone back home and I hope everything is running smoothly.

Peace.Shalom.Salaam.

Mark Jensen

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.