My first couple of days at my permanent site

Tuesday August 19, 2008 and Wednesday August 20, 2008

Hey y’all,

Its 2 o’clock here in Armenia and the summer weather at my new site is definitely more intense than the temperatures at my PST village. It is really not that hot just in the high 980s, but here at my new site there is little wind even though the environment is more reminiscent of an alpine village, plus there are few place in Armenia that have air conditioning.

The past few have been rather relaxing. Yesterday was a holiday, but not for anything in particular. I asked several people in Armenian what the holiday was for and everyone said it was for anything in particular. Being my inquisitive self I really wanted to find out. So I went to the 3 semi-proficient English speakers in town and ask them what the reasoning for the holiday was and they too, in English, just said it was a work-free day for anyone in government, but they had no clue why they actually had the day off.

This phenomenon of not knowing, but just doing is fairly common in Armenia. Many of the holidays or traditions are still performed, but the reasoning behind celebrating these things has been lost during 70 years of communism. One prime example of this is vathavar or water day. On this day Armenian children run around and dump large quantities of water on each other and just unlucky people passing by. I was in Yerevan on this day, which was sometime in the middle of June, but it was completely crazy. Gangs of kids were collecting water from the public fountains and soaking each other and random people. The kids mainly stuck to the streets, but many times they would drench people in taxis, marshutkas(buses), and in hyanoots (stores). Although I think roaming in place other than the streets broke vathavar norms and etiquette. Anyways vathavar falls on different days throughout the country, but it always falls on a Sunday between the last Sunday of June and the last Sunday of July. It was originally a plea to the gods for bountiful rains during the summer months. Now it is a celebration for the children of the country to have a fun day before the long work days of summer begin in the fields. Yet, the cosmopolitan kids of Yerevan were completely unaware of the significance of this event.
The day before yesterday on Sunday was also quite relaxing. I actually studied for about two hours and to my amazement I found some weights to work-out with only two floors up from my host family’s apartment. The weights actually belong to my host brother-in-law, if that makes sense. Anyways he has a 16 kilogram cow bell, a 12 kg dumb bell, a punching bag, and a bar to do pull-ups on. In the mornings I have been trying to run to a nearby by village which is about 10 kilometers away, but my knee has been hurting a little bit and I was a bit sick over the weekend. The run is extremely hilly, but it is also goes through one of the most beautiful mountain passes I have seen so far in Armenia.

The region that I live in now used to be considered part of the Armenian industrial heartland. Once Armenia became an independent state late in 1991 it lost the Soviet technical know-how as well as the logistical infrastructure for carrying out operations at factories. Many of the raw material, partially manufactured goods, and markets to sell these goods either no longer existed or were in complete disarray during the early 1990s. For the most part entirely new business arrangement needed to be set-up, yet still to this day they are lacking.

Interestingly, Armenia initially did not want to leave its dependence on Russia or at least to not completely distance themselves from the Soviet power. As the Soviet Union was collapsing in the early 1990’s, Soviet Premier Gorbachev repeatedly tried to resurrect the failing Union. Political force within Armenia ousted the Soviet Party leader of Armenia, Suren Harutiunian, in favor of the Armenian Nationalist Movement party or the HHSh under the leadership of Levon Ter-Petrosian. Even under a more nationalist government in Yerevan, Armenia on October 18, 1991 signed into an economic cooperative agreement with Gorbachev and the faltering Soviet Union. Then, on December 8th 1991 Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus- the three predominately Slavic republics of the former Soviet Union, announced they were forming a sort of Commonwealth which all satellite countries were invited to join. This commonwealth would have provided military inter-dependence, strong economic relations and a standardized monetary system.
Ter-Petrosian, the newly elected, strongly nationalistic Armenian leader, was fully supportive of this commonwealth initiative and he indicated Armenia’s intentions of joining the commonwealth. On December 25, 1991 the Soviet Union collapsed altogether along with Gorbachev’s dreams of preserving even a sliver of the old regime. Ever since the early 1990s Armenia has continuously fostered good relations with Russia and has generally supported Russian initiatives and proposals in the international community.

Although most Armenians are extremely proud of their county’s sovereignty and independent status now, I think Armenia’s reluctance to leave the mutually beneficial relationship with Russia has been forgotten by a majority of Armenian people. This reluctance to be more independent on the international scene is also something that I believe has stymied Armenia’s growth to a degree.

However, Ter-Petrosian’s calculations in wanting to keep extremely close ties with Moscow were logical, pragmatic, and foretelling. Armenia needed the Soviet Union much more than the Soviet Union needed Armenia. In 1991, Armenia only made up 1.1% of the Soviet population, it produced only .9% of the USSR’s GDP, Armenia exported 63.7% of its national material product (NMP) to other Soviet republics, while only exporting 1.4% of its NMP abroad or outside the Soviet Union. Even more statistically disturbing for the Armenian leadership of the early 1990’s was that 40% of all enterprises in Armenia during the Soviet period were dedicated to defense procurement. This would have been a benefit to the newly independent nation at war, yet most of the raw materials and engineering expertise had already left Armenia as the Russian’s began to re-allocate resources within Russia proper (whatever that is).*

As a result of the collapse of the Soviet Union new border wars started among old enemies. The period know as Pax Sovietica ended as lands with heterogeneous populations or at least regions with large minority contingencies began to fight in hopes of reclaiming land. The same thing that occurred in the Balkans between Croats, Serbs, Bosniaks, and Kosovo’s citizens were occurring simultaneously in the Caucuses as Armenian, Georgians, Azeris, South Ossetians, and Abkhazians tried to settled centuries’ old territorial disputes. The situation in the Balkans has become relatively cold and non-confrontational in recent years, as seen by amicable diplomatic relations and the success of the UN Peace keeping force on the ground. Internationally, the Balkans’ conflict of the early 1990s seems to have cooled, even though the local population’s still hold strong resentment toward their former foe. This underlying bitterness can be seen in terroristic acts committed in the cities of Mostar, Belgrade and Sarajevo; and in the continued use of nationalistic symbols, especially by Croat ustache followers.

In the Caucuses the case is quite different and maybe this is due to the fact that the Caucuses are not directly on Western Europe’s back door step. Rather the Caucuses are situated between the giant bear to the east, Russia, and the Middle East, an already uncertain and tumultuous region. In general there are many enclaves within the Caucus region that are still disputed, mainly on historical grounds. Now, South Ossetia and Abkhazia are fighting for their independence from Georgian suzerainty, even though most members of the international community recognize both regions reside within Georgian borders. So there is still quite a bit of controversy in the northern part of the Caucuses. While Georgia, a pro-Western nation, has strong economic and thus diplomatic ties with Baku and Ankara. So in effect the Georgia-Sunni triangle (Azerbaijan and Turkey) geographically isolates Armenia from its historical friend and ally Russia and has forced Armenia to become more dependent on their Shiite friend to the south.

Currently Armenian has few friendly neighbors and those nations that Armenia has good relationships with, in the region, are not on the best of terms with the United States. Most Armenians I’ve met still have a very strong nostalgic yearning for the calmness and certainty that existed during the Soviet years and Armenia as an independent nation maintains friendly ties with Moscow. Calmness and certainty are probably two of the rarest conditions the Armenian people have lived under throughout their history. By de facto geographic arrangements Armenia has very good economic relations with their Persian friends to the south—Iran. While most Armenians still strongly dislike Turkey, who still has not taken any responsibility for the acts the Ottoman government committed against the Armenian civilians around the time of the 1st World War. Then during the late 1980’s and early 1990’s Armenia and Azerbaijan fought over several disputed territories, but mainly in Nagorno-Karabakh. Most Armenians classify both Azeris and Turkish people as Turks and there is a general dislike of both nationalities. Still today Armenia and Azerbaijan are officially at war and each country loses several men every year mainly due to sniper fire. Currently Armenia’s borders with both Azerbaijan and Turkey are closed, which has negatively affected Armenia’s transitional economic growth from a Soviet Republic to a member of the international free market.

Today I went for quite a long run in the morning, but went at a little bit of a slower pace from the previous run which I was completely excited about doing. Lately I have had a runny nose and a little bit of a cold and running in the morning I had that wonderful mucous build-up from the night before. When I got back to my host families apartment I wanted to take a shower, but like most things here it takes a bit longer to do everything. First, we had to move out the washing machine, redirect the water supply to make sure it was going to the bathroom, and assure my host mother that I knew how to take a shower. My ever-so-loving, but occasionally over protective host mother was convinced I didn’t know how to turn the hot water for the shower on, so she sent her 32 year old son in to help me when I was completely naked. I reassured him that I knew how to turn on a water faucet and informed that I first wanted to shave and that is why I didn’t have the shower on.

After having that lovely experience I sat down to eat my scrambled eggs and hot dogs in a big juice pile of grease. I think that why I haven’t recovered as quickly from my cold, since most of the stuff I eat here would not exactly be considered health foods and I don’t even know if a family from the Deep South could stomach the quantity of grease ingested with every meal.
After running, showering, and eating I finally made it to my place of employment, school number #1. I walked into the teachers’ lounge where the entire faculty of the school was present. At that point I was very happy that I had shaved, but also that I dressed up in nice clothes because you know what they say about first impressions.

The school director, who is named Rubeek, is a cool guy and he was the one who actually invited me to go to the Turkey versus Armenia soccer game on September 6th. The school director jokes around quite a bit and so it makes him a bit more difficult for me to understand, but overall we have a friendly relationship. My counterpart, the lady that I work with is named Susanna. She is the geography teacher at my school and is just as enthusiastic about learning English as I am about learning Armenian. She is probably in her late-40s and has a daughter and husband who are both very friendly and patient when we communicate.

My counterpart and I really didn’t do much work at school, but we did go over some vocabulary words both in Armenian and English that each of us want to learn. I suggested that we both start a dictionary of words that we use frequently and she was up for the idea, so I have started my dictionary, but let’s see how long this project lasts as the craziness of the school year is about to start.

When I got home or to my host family’s apartment, no one was home and it was quite hot so I decide to make a peanut butter sandwich, the peanut butter was a gift a former volunteer gave me, it was by far the most delicious thing I had tasted in my entire life. I sat down to watch some Olympics coverage but the only thing I could thing about was that peanut butter sandwich, so of course my disciplined self ate two more scrumptious peanut butter sandwiches. By that time my host mother had returned home and I was thinking about offering her some peanut butter, but my altruistic spirit faded when I thought of all the possible repercussions of parting with such a rare commodity in this part of the world.

As I was enjoying my peanut butter sandwiches I was also watching the Olympics. Armenian television stations rarely show any Olympics coverage so I am kind of lucky that my family has satellite t.v. Armenians love watching wrestling, judo, and weight lifting, but many team sports don’t seem very popular. Anyhow the only channel that I can pick up regular sports coverage is Abu Dhabi Sport. It is actually pretty cool. The set looks very similar to a Sports Center set, however the announcers are dressed in their traditional wardrobe, which I sadly forget the name for.

After studying for about an hour my family said they were going out to the field to work. My host mother’s daughter lives in a village a couple of kilometers away and there we worked for about 4 hours. The work was very relaxing and calming. I dug up, gathered, and bagged about 100 kilograms of potatoes. They told me if potato gathering was an Olympic sport I would surely win gold. I don’t know why, but I really enjoyed the work. I also received a nice perspective of what some of my ancestors probably went through in Ireland during the 19th century and the kind of work people across the planet do every day. When the truck came down to get us I was pretty confident that the axel was going to snap in half as the driver bounded in and out of pretty large ditches. It was also enjoyable loading up the 35 kilogram bags of potatoes into the back of the old Soviet era truck. After loading up the truck my host father and I jump in the bed with all of the bags of potatoes and headed back to the farm house. We constantly had to duck as we swiped the limbs a number of trees on the way home. The roads were iffy at best and the Armenians keep the quality of the roads sufficient enough to transverse only on the best of days.

Today August 20th has been a bit slower of a day. Surprisingly, my cold has not subsided and I still have a runny nose. I arrived at school early in the morning and to my surprised there were wine and cognac bottles spread throughout the teacher’s lounge. It was one of the teacher’s birthdays and I guess the style of celebration in Armenia is not dependent on the location of celebration. Or rather birthday celebrations at home are conducted in a similar way to birthday celebrations at the work places.

After celebrating for a little bit my counter-part, Susanna, and I went to the school’s library to see what text-books the school had this year for geography and in general what resources were available. The library, although looking very dreary and in disrepair, had a wide-range of books and resources and I was fairly impressed. There were books in Armenian, Russian, French, German, and English. The English selection at the school was comical at best, when considering that these books are available so that students can begin reading elementary English books. There was a book on how to remodel basements and attics, a text-book for advanced accounting, an anthropology text-book, and several scripts of bad American movies that never made it to theater.

After school I went into to town to get some pictures developed and use the internet. I was able to get the pictures developed they were from the one year olds’ birthday party I went to last weekend and her father liked some of the pictures that I took and he really wanted a couple of them. Yet the internet was definitely down and the computers were running extremely slowly in general. I have become convinced maintenance of property, equipment, and capital is not a priority in Armenia. The computer’s fans could no longer run probably due to the fact there was a good half inch of dust collected on every fan blade. I also began to de-frag the computer’s hard-drive, but I soon realized this would be a two day process. So I promptly cut my losses and left the computer lab after paying 100 dram or about .30 cents.

The rest of the day I have spent organizing resources that I received from Peace Corps and preparing them for presentation tomorrow. For lunch my host mother tried to feed me a range of hot dog looking things and I declined politely. I decided to only eat the fresh cucumbers, tomatoes, and bread which are delicious as always.

My new host mother has a variety of remedies that she claims will cure my runny nose and slight cold. Usually I accept her tea and fresh honey which always makes my throat feel better, but since it is so hot here I am usually sweating profusely after drinking the tea. She also wants me to eat straight butter which she continuously claims will help my cold, but I am a bit weary of that. I think she gave up trying to feed me straight butter and so now she tries to put it in my tea. Just seeing her trying to put a big chunk of butter in my tea makes me cringe in disgust.
Life has definitely changed completely over the last week. While, I was in Pre-Service Training every hour of everyday was planned out. Now, at my permanent site the days are completely free which I love. I have time to go running, work out, type blogs, read, study Armenian, and in general have more control over my life. This fact is very comforting especially in a country where your language skills are limited.

I hope everyone is doing well in the states. Overall things are still going well here in Armenia.

Mark Jensen

*Suny, Ronald Grigor. “Soviet Armenia”in The Armenian People From Ancient to Modern Times.

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.