My first snow in Gavar!

It finally snowed here in Gavar.  The fact that it waited until December to do so is awesome considering by this time last year, snow had been on the ground for over a month and the very cold temperatures I am currently experiencing had been around just as long.  So while it’s getting pretty cold here and each day I seem to need to add another layer (I don't quite look like Randy, Ralphie's brother from A Christmas Story, but it's coming ), I am so grateful that this winter, so far, is very mild compared to last!

Quick update from my last post, the World AID’s day event went very well in Gyumri.  I presented alongside two other PCV’s, Chris and Brian and we had about 30 people in the audience including our PC Country Director, David Lillie, our Training Coordinator, Liana, and the Regional Manager for the North, Liana.  I also decided to stay the night in Gyumri so I got to spend time with Kim, an A-19 who I adore, Brian, one of the other presenters, and Amie and Brian from my PST village.  Then on Saturday, one of the bars in Yerevan hosted a World AIDs Day event which we all attended.  AIDs still tends to fairly taboo here in Armenia so the fact that a bar held an event was a pretty big deal.

I actually have lots to report on, as I have said pretty much every post, I am never without something new happening in my life over hereJ  First, I got to be on Gavar TV!  A couple of Sunday nights ago, I, along with 6 other members of the community spoke about volunteerism.  It was a really great experience and was also very interesting for me to hear the perspectives from the other ladies on the panel.  I did have to have a translator as my Armenian is not nearly good enough yet, so I lost a little but of what was said, but it was still a pretty cool experience!



The big news is, I have switched NGO’s.  While I enjoyed getting to know and become friends with the social workers and director of VIA, there is not enough work for me to be doing with them right now.  They are currently meeting with World Vision to develop an action plan and, at this time, it is not the right place for me to be working, though I will be acting as a consultant for them as they work through next steps for the NGO.  We ended things on good terms and Gegham, my former counterpart, and I will continue to work with each other on small projects and trainings, so our relationship will continue to grow over the next two years.

So I am very excited to report that I now have a dual placement with two really amazing NGO’s and three even more amazing counterparts!  I began with my new placements this past Monday, and, while everything is new and we are just starting to work on a schedule and project ideas, I couldn’t be more excited about the next two years with them.

My first placement is with an NGO called Bari Huys (Good Hope) NGO.  Good Hope NGO works with Gavar’s rehabilitation center and helps support the children and parents of children with disabilities who are seen at the center as well as children throughout our Gegharkunik region.  My counterpart at Good Hope is Gevorg, a very motivated and active member of Gavar’s community, who worked with a Peace Corps volunteer in the past and grew a great deal during his time working with Chris.  Gevorg is incredibly enthusiastic and so excited to work with me.   I will also be working with Gevorg's sister, Mariam, on a few projects as well.  At Good Hope NGO, I will be helping with new project ideas, strategic planning, social media and public relations, and fundraising.   Below is Good Hope’s mission:

The mission of Good Hope NGO is one that empowers special needs children and their parents on health, social, and educational issues facing disabled children in Armenia and particularly in the Gegharkunik Marz. We believe in protecting the rights and interests of children with special needs, including access to legal, psychological, and physical council. We believe in challenging the legal establishment in favor of children with special needs.

The other NGO I will be working with is Armenian Caritas Gavar.  I will be working with two different programs at Caritas, the Little Prince Program and Aramazd.  My counterpart for the Little Prince Program is Tatavik and Diana, who I go to the orphanage on Sundays with, is my counterpart for the Aramazd program.  The Little Prince program “aims at alleviating the poverty among disadvantaged children and their families living in Gegharkunik Marz through the enhancement of the social protection system.”  Little Prince has an after-school program, which I will be helping Tatevik with (coming up with new training and project ideas for) as well as a psychologist who all of the children can meet with as much as necessary.  In addition, Tatevik and I are going to work on trainings for the parents of the kids as well as projects that will bring together the kids from Caritas and the Orphanage to assist with relationships and integration for both groups and most of the kids tend to be considered outsiders. 

The goal of the Aramazd program is “to support the development process of the refugee-populated communities in sub-regions of Amasia, Varednis, and Chambarak through continuation of capacity building activities of the local NGOs in the targeted sub-regions and provision on mini-grant opportunities.”  Diana and I will be working together with the NGO’s located in Vardenis and Chamabarak assisting them with needs assessments, capacity building, fundraising, project ideas, etc.  Vardenis and Chambarak are both located about an hour drive from Gavar, so I will have the opportunity to work in a different community which I am very much looking forward to.

Working with both of these organizations this week got me really excited for what the next two years of my service will be.  I look forward to updating you with all of the good things happening with Caritas and Good Hope as well as with my really awesome counterparts.



some of the older girls with their puzzle

Diana and I continue to go the orphanage every Sunday afternoon and I really enjoy this time, not only with the girls, but also being able to work with Diana.  We have two groups with about 12 girls each.  The older group tends to be a little tougher to work with, there are a lot of personalities, some psychological issues, and a little push back, but at the end of the day they are all wonderful girls and I love being able to spend Sunday afternoon with them.  This past week was our most successful yet, we did a lesson on what the similarities are between the girls and what makes each of them unique.  After a discussion, we put together a personality/unity puzzle.  Each girl got a puzzle piece to draw a part of her personality which was most important to her, then we put all of the pieces together.  I  was quite surprised how successful the activity was given some of our more challenging gatherings the last couple of weeks and was pretty excited that the girls immediately hung their puzzles on the walls.  Next week is our last week with the girls before Nor Taree (New Years) and then we will start back up with them mid-January.

some of the younger girls with their puzzle

 

My new work is my biggest news these days.  Otherwise, it has gotten quite cold around these parts, so I have started to come up with ways to cope with the cold.  The first being a morning challenge, how long it takes me to get out of bed, take a shower, get the guts to get out of the shower, run back to my bedroom, get back in bed and then get warm.  The amount of will power it takes is actually pretty amazing and I have to laugh at myself every time because I keep trying to convince myself that it is not going to be that cold, but it seems to get worse.  The good thing is, because I can mostly live in the bedroom/dining room area of my house, it’s pretty easy to get that space warm pretty quickly.  It’s just the bathroom and kitchen which are tough, but again pretty entertaining, I can see my breath when I am cooking and when I am brushing my teethJ

The other big excitement in my life these days is I will be seeing my sister, and a few of my dearest friends in 18 days!  I will be celebrating the New Years holiday with them in Prague and Budapest and am beyond excited!  While I will be here for Christmas, we, the other PCV’s and I, have a lot of fun things planned.  Next weekend, I will be headed to Yerevan Friday night and Talin Saturday night for a Pre-Christmas celebration with a bunch of the other PCV’s.  Saturday we will be singing Christmas carols, watching Christmas movies, and doing a Chinese auction.  Then, I believe I may be hosting Christmas Eve here in Gavar with a few other people.  I even decorated with purple lights, bday present from Dorrie, a handmade Christmas tree centerpiece, and a walk hanging of Santa.  So definitely getting in the spirit around here!

Last but not least, I realized today that I can’t walk down the streets of Gavar without running into someone I know, feel like that’s a pretty good sign that I am starting to become a part of the community hereJ

Hope everyone is enjoying a wonderful December, sending lots of love your way!

 

Winter is coming!

 

It's starting to get chilly in Armenia, but happy to report, no snow yet!  First things first, Anne to answer your question, I have a ton of buckets in my apartment!  The one you see in the picture from my last post is my water filter.  I actually do not drink the water from the faucet in Armenia, all of the water I drink is either filtered, bottled, or boiled.  I also have a bunch of buckets in my bathroom to fill up my water filter, for bucket showers for when I don't have water, and for my toilet.  I only have running water for a few hours a day, so have to fill my buckets in the morning for use for the rest of the day.  Also, rumor has it my pipes tend to freeze during the winter, so water storage is pretty important:)

So some fun things that have been happening here...

There is a Cultural House in Gavar and one Sunday night I went with some of my Armenian friends to one of the most fun and interesting events I've been to since I've gotten here.  It was basically a night of traditional Armenian music and dance and what a cool experience.  The music was amazing and the energy incredible, people were even dancing traditional Armenian dance in pretty much every aisle in the whole place.  It was quite the event and there is talk that they are going to have similar events once every month or two which would be pretty great.

I've also gotten to travel a bit which of course has made me super happy.  I travelled to beautiful northern Armenia to celebrate Halloween with my fellow PCV's where I got to experience the leaves changing, quite similar to an east coast fall, and got in a wonderful hike throughout the town of Berd, where we all stayed.  It is amazing how quickly the scenery can change in this little country and we are so lucky to be able to travel and visit each other and see as much of Armenia as we can, which I plan to take full advantage of! 



With David in Berd

I  also traveled to Chambarak , a town greatly affected by past wars with Azerbaijan...devastation which is evident even though we were only there for a brief period, with Counterpart Int'l to observe a business training with the youth club in the small village of Martuni.  As Arpine, my Armenian friend who did the business presentation said, the people of Chambarak literally work so they can live, the level of poverty there is quite significant and apparently the winter is one of the most brutal in the countrry, making their challenges even greater. 

Last week, all of the A-20's (PCV's in my group) gathered in Tsakhkadzor for trainings.  As a CYD (community and youth development) volunteer, I was a part of the Program and Design Management training along with my counterpart Gegham.  All of the CYD volunteers and their counterparts attended this training in order to take a potential community project and develop it from start to finish.  Gegham and I chose to work on an agricultural production training project which we have discussed implementing in both Gavar and Noratus( Gavar's neighboring town).  It was an incredibly beneficial and significant training for both Gegham and me and I hope that we will be able to put our plan into action.  The last day of the training, all of the volunteers in country got together for an all volunteer conference.  It was pretty great to have all of us together, only time it will happen, to be able to get advice from the A-19's/A18's and to compare experiences, think all of us valued that time together. 

While I continue to work with VIA on a schedule and plan, I have gotten involved with other NGO's/orgs in my community and am most proud of my partnership with the Orphanage in Gavar.  Diana, one of my other Armenian friends who works with an organization called Armenian Caritas (an NGO I hope to begin working with soon) and I started going to the orphanage on Sunday afternoon/early evenings to work with the girls on a leadership curriculum.  Peace Corps has a program called Glow Camp which is a camp focused on girls leadership and empowerment.  Glow stands for Girls Leading Our World and is a program available in many Peace Corps countries including Armenia.  Because funding only allows for 40-50 girls throughout the country to attend, Diana and I decided we would do a mini Glow camp of sorts with the girls at the orphanage.  My time with Diana and the girls has been my best experience in Armenia to date.  So far, we have addressed communication and personal values and will continue with such subjects as leadership, character building, respect and manners, environmental awareness, exercise and health, self esteem, etc.  We meet with the girls in two groups, one group is 15-18 and the other 11-15. 

I am also involved with the two initiatives here in Armenia which are Gender Equality and HIV/AIDs awareness.  World AIDs day is December 1st so we are planning to do presenations in 4 different cities/towns in Armenia on Keith Haring, an artist who was an activist in New York City and who passed from AIDs related complications in 1990.  Along with two other volunteers, I will be presenting on his life, work, and HIV/AIDs awareness in Gyumri, one of the largest cities in Armenia. The other presentations will be in Yerevan, Vanadzor, and Kapan. 

So that is the latest from beautiful Armenia.  Winter is definitely making her way here quickly, so have to imagine my next post may have something to do with the cold of Armenia.  But so far so good.  In fact, Gavar was not the first to get snow!  Several other volunteers announced their first snowfalls last night, so Gavar is holding out for the moment, but is definitely cold enough for it!

Im Znoonda!

Im Znoonda..My Birthday!

I just celebrated my 31^st birthday, my first one in Armenia.  While it was a little strange to not be home with friends and family this year, I was overwhelmed by both the love from friends and family from home and my new friends and “family” here in Armenia, both American and Armenian.  My counterpart and a few of the social workers from VIA surprised me with a cake and roses and serenaded me not only with Happy Birthday in English but also in Armenian.  I also made my first real meal in my new apartment, tacos, lavash chips (kind of like homemade tortilla chips), fresh salsa, no-bake cookies and a little red wine, which my site mate Donna and I enjoyed.  And I also, received phone calls from 6 of my new Armenian friends and countless Peace Corps friends.  And, as if that wasn’t enough, 4 of the girls from English club surprised me with roses today.  So while I certainly missed celebrating at home, I can’t think of a better way to have spent my 31^st.  Mom also sent me a pretty amazing birthday box, Baltimore and the Ravens are now very well represented over here:)

 

sweet birthday presents from my awesome mother

 

birthday celebration with my counterpart Gegham

Birthday dinner with my site mate Donna

 

               
 Gavar continues to feel more and more like home every day.  October 1^st I moved into my new apartment and could not be happier with my new digs.  Another Peace Corps volunteer lived in my place before, so it came highly recommended, mostly because of its amazing shower, which is hard to come by here in Armenia.  I also have a kitchen with a stove and sink, working on getting a table and fridge, but it’s pretty easy to make do without both, a large room, which is basically my living space, with my bed, wardrobe, dining room table, and an amazing shade of pink paint, and a sun porch, which I mainly use to dry my laundry and store things.  Come winter…which probably means in a few days, I will close that room off as it will be way too cold to venture into, and I will mostly live in the main room of my apartment.  It has already started to get quite chilly here and I have to admit, I have slept with a wool hat on once or twice already.  But my counterpart, Gegham, has sworn that we will be getting a heater for my place this week, so I should be able to start warming the place up soon.

My apartment!

                I continue to be amazed at how wonderful the people are here in Gavar and became even more aware of that during the several meetings I have had with various NGO’s and organizations over the last couple of weeks.  Last week I met with the Director of the Orphanage, the Police Chief, several members of leadership from Gavar State University, two of the other PCV’s counterparts, one from Gavar’s rehabilitation center and the other from a business training center, and the business school (a group of some of the most motivated and influential young professionals in Gavar from several different NGO’s).  I was able to propose some ideas to the different NGO’s and they also identified several ways in which they would be able to use my skills and are eager to start working with me.  I also realized even over the last two weeks how lucky I am to be placed in Gavar.  There are several NGO’s and a lot of people really working hard for Gavar and many of them are very open to my involvement. While I am still in the process of scheduling projects and proposing ideas, I have a lot to look forward to and am very grateful to be in such a great site.  This past Sunday, I did a presentation on conflict management to the members of the business school and was invited back next week to do a presentation on leadership.  I will also be heading to a village called Martuni, on the border of Azerbaijan, for a presentation on business management alongside Counterpart International and Arpine, one of the Armenians I’ve become closest to in my time here, from GCCI (Gavar’s anti-corruption center).

                So life is good, continues to keep me on my toes, I really never know how things are going to go here, am practicing patience like never before, and am learning a lot about just not having expectations because nothing ever happens the way you think it will.  The other volunteers are really great too.  Now that most of us have moved out on our own, the level of freedom and independence we feel is pretty awesome.  A few weeks ago, I headed to Talin, a town just west of Yerevan, to participate in the Talin 5K, a really awesome event hosted by one of the other Peace Corps volunteers and his organization.  It was one of the best weekends I have had in Armenia and was so encouraging to be a part of such a successful event.  Over 120 people participated, kids, adults, PCV’s, people from the US embassy, and the enthusiasm from the town of Talin was just really inspiring, it’s amazing what can grow from a good idea! 

getting the kids ready for the 5K

                                                     

Jumping with Brian, the PCV who organized the 5K!

                                

Two weeks ago, I got to see a new part of Armenia, a bit south of Yerevan, and it was beautiful.  It is amazing, for how small of a country Armenia is, how vastly the landscape can change.  There was a wine festival in the town of Areni and I met up with 40 other Peace Corps volunteers, it was actually quite amazing to be around that many Americans!   And then this past weekend, a bunch of us went to cheer on Armenia in a World Cup Qualifier game against Italy.  While Armenia did lose, they made one legit goal against Italy and the energy in the stadium at that moment was like nothing I have ever experienced. I think I can officially say, I now have Armenian pride!

with my dear friend David at the Areni Wine Festival

PCV's love Armenia!

        Thank you again to all of you for the birthday love and for all of your support during this crazy adventure I am on.  Hoping to send some more good updates soon!

a little added bonus, view of Mt. Ararat from Yerevan last Saturday morning

                  

Imal es?

Imal es = How are you?...but only in Gavar, slowly learning the dialect here:)

Over the last two weeks, I have been to two birthday celebrations, learned how to “dance Armenian”, taken a marshutni ride with a hungry chicken pecking at my feet (I don’t know what it is with me and live chickens), started an English club, traveled to the three biggest cities in Armenia, sang Let It Be solo for most of the members of my NGO, explored an abandoned Soviet Camp, spent a weekend celebrating “site unlock” (we are required to stay at our site for the first month to help better with integration) dancing and  paddle  boating with my fellow A20’s, and met the newest member of my Armenian family in Argel and loved mostly every second.  I feel like I am finding my place here in Gavar and Armenia and I am really enjoying all of the new experiences and friendships that are a part of the process. 

I have been very lucky to be invited to several birthday celebrations since I’ve moved to Gavar and this last week I got to attend two for people I’ve met through working at VIA.  Birthdays are a bit different in Armenia in that the person’s whose birthday it is has to bring their own cake (in my experience, every single cake has a layer of bananas which I find completely random, but delicious at the same time), there is a lot of Armenian dancing, lots of toasts, a firecracker like candle for the cake, and, in some cases, karaoke.   Over the last two weeks, I’ve been lucky enough to witness and be a part of all of this and have been honored at how much the friends I’ve made in Gavar want me to be a part of their celebrations.  The first party I went to was for Sat, a girl who has been incredibly welcoming and helpful ever since my site visit back in July.  She is fluent in English and has basically been my personal translator and also been somewhat of an Armenian culture teacher for me.  She is also the reason I now know how to “dance Armenian” which I was thankful for as I will be expected to do this over and over again for the next two years.  One of Sat’s friends is also the 2^nd place arm wrestling champion in Armenia and I am pretty sure I am the only PCV in country who can say they’ve hung out with him…got a kick out of that.  There was also karaoke, my only participation in this was when we all serenaded Sat with Let It Be, which was pretty awesome as it is one of my favorite songs and all of the Armenians knew the words, which I did not expect.  The second birthday was for Narine, the girl who I go to the music school and gym with.  Narine’s birthday was extra special, not only because I got to spend the day with everyone from my NGO and was called a friend and part of the group by many, but also because I made my first toast in Armenian:  Shat shnorakalem vor ints lav demavorvestseenk.  (Thank you so much for the wonderful welcome) Khamoom enk mer ankerootstyoon knatsa. (Let us drink to our friendship)  They were just as excited about it as I was, so another memorable moment in the midst of many.

 

 Socializing and building good relationships with the people from VIA has really been beneficial for me both personally and professionally.  And getting the key to the office was certainly a sign of trust and acceptance from my director and counterpart.  Having the key to my office has meant that I’ve been able to research and prepare a needs assessment, start to put together workshops and trainings for the future and prepare a curriculum for the English club which I started last Tuesday.  I also had the really amazing opportunity to go on a road trip with my NGO to Gyumri (the second largest city in Armenia- sometimes called Father Armenia- Yerevan is referred to as Mother Armenia) to do a site visit with Gyumri’s World Vision office.  This gave me the chance to see the Child Sponsorship Program in action.  A lot of VIA’s time and resources are devoted to a Child Sponsorship program developed by World Vision which supports children from vulnerable families.  VIA has 13 social workers involved with this program in Gavar and several surrounding villages, supporting over 3,500 children.  The goal is to give the children access to events and resources to ensure that they are educated, healthy, and protected, and there is also a spiritual element as World Vision is a Christian organization.  This trip not only gave me the opportunity to better understand the sponsorship program and VIA’s role with World Vision, but also gave me plenty of time to bond with my VIA co-workers and the World Vision staff.  It was one of the best days I have had in country and not only strengthened my friendships but also showed me how much my colleagues are accepting of me and appreciate having me here, I can see how I am slowly earning their respect.  We laughed, we sang…I was cheered on to do a Let It Be solo…played games, talked about how important the kids they worked with were to them, and just really enjoyed each other’s company, certainly a day to remember.  Two of my sitemates, Amie and Brian, from my training village now live and work in Gyumri, so I got to meet up with them, which was really exciting even if it was only brief.  I really loved Gyumri and am looking forward to going up to explore it a little more with Amie and Brian.  I also realized that when Armenians travel, they take their time, stopping to rest, eat, explore, canoe(probably not a normal occurrence, but one of our stops just happened to have canoes to rent so clearly, they had to canoe), have coffee, and who knows what else.   What should have been a 2 ½ hour trip, took us over 4 hours, but it was a good reminder to just enjoy the moment, which I get better and better with every day.
 

 I am also starting to hang out with the other volunteers and am really happy that there is such a good group over here.  Last weekend, I spent some time in Vanadzor, the third largest city in Armenia, to celebrate Chilean Independence Day on one of the other volunteers’ behalf and explore Vandazor while the weather is still nice enough to do so.  On Sunday, a few of us went for a stroll to an abandoned Soviet Camp and it was really quite amazing to see.  It was also really nice to spend some time with other Americans.  I love the friends I’ve made in Gavar, but with the language barrier, it is hard to be completely myself or for them to really know me at this point, so it is nice to be able to just be me around other Americans, which is certainly and will continue to be refreshing on occasion.  We are lucky to be in such a small country (Armenia is about the size of Maryland) because the opportunity to travel and see most of the country and each other is certainly possible.  And I learned this weekend how easy it is to get around (though I do occasionally miss driving) so that is an added bonus.

This past Friday was Armenian Independence Day from the USSR, which meant we had off from work, so I took full advantage to go spend the day with my host family in Argel.  Arpi had baby Liova on Tuesday and my host father, Liova, who I had not met, was home for a break from working in Russia, so it was a really special visit.  It was such an awesome day, I was surprised at happy and at home I felt being with them and it was also really cool to see how far I have come since first moving to Argel.  My language has gotten better, the biggest parts of my transition are over, and I feel adjusted to life here in Armenia.  I am very happy in Gavar, but I think Argel will always feel like home and I hope to see my family there as much as possible over the next two years, especially to be able to watch Sylvie and Liova grow.  And, as promised, Soosana made my favorite meal, dolma and I was wildly excited to see the she now flavors the dolma’s with Old BayJ

 Today, I went to a couple of meetings in Yerevan to discuss the two initiatives which Peace Corps Armenia pursues, Gender Equality and HIV/AIDS.  At this point, I am going to try to be involved with both as much as possible, especially since VIA’s mission is basically to empower youth and the community to get involved and make a difference in Gavar and its surrounding communities.  The focus of the gender equality initiative is mostly empowering women and addressing domestic violence and the focus of the HIV/AIDS initiative is to increase the knowledge and access to information for the communities throughout Armenia.  At this point, I am on two committees for the HIV/AIDS initiative World AIDS day and new project ideas, so if anyone has success stories or ideas for either, please feel free to share with me!  I am also hoping to come up with a way to engage my NGO with Domestic Violence Awareness month which is October, a film screening at Gavar State University is a possibility.

 So that is the latest from Armenia.  I will be moving into an apartment on October 1 and am really excited.  Even though I will miss Alita and the company of my host family, I am ready to be on my own.  I should sign my lease next week, so will send my new address when I do.  Hope all is well back home and Go O’ and Ravens!!

Music to my ears!

I spent my morning at Gavar's Music School with one of the social workers from VIA, Narine.  (She's also the girl I go to the gym with) This morning was the most amazing I have had since I have been here.  I witnessed some incredibly talented women sing and play the piano.  And they were excited that I was American and could communicate with them in Armenian and that I was genuinely interested in listening to them perform, that I now have an open invitation to visit whenever I please...so I am going back Monday morning:)  I also let them know that my dad plays the trumpet and they have extended that invitation to my dad and whoever else comes to visit!  Dad, they were besides themselves that you played, they kept saying shat opres, which means very excellent kind of literally, but also means they were very pleased:) 

 

So, every day I am finding something else that I am excited to share with those who are coming to visit and to write about for those who are interested.  I was also given the key by my NGO two days ago and my director called me Laur-jan.  Jan is a huge sign of affection here so it was major progress. Jan basically means either my Lauren or Lauren dear and it is a really good thing when someone uses it:)  My relationship with my NGO grows by the day and I am really looking forward to working with them over the next 2 years.  And being able to come into the office, even if no one else is here, is really great.  It gives me the chance to have somewhat of a schedule which I like and also gives me the chance to chat with the social workers as they come in here and there to check-in and drop-off materials.  In fact, that is how I got to go to the musical school today.  I was in the office yesterday working and Narine came in to meet with one of the families she works with.  Had I not been here, I certainly would have missed the opportunity to hang out with her yesterday and to get the invitation to the school today.

 On Wednesday, the day I got the key, I met with several people from VIA to go over some things.  During that meeting with Rudek, Gegham, and Sat from VIA, we actually got a lot accomplished.  I was able to ask what they were looking for in a volunteer and we have come to the conclusion that for now, I will start to work on a capacity assessment tool, start to build workshops for such things as resume building, computer skills, health, etc, and I will also start working on lesson plans for an English Club, which will probably meet once/week and each week will have a theme, book reading, film viewing, overview of current events, etc.  Next week, there will also be a meeting with all of VIA,, Rudek, Gegham and all 13 social workers to discuss an annual plan which will certainly clear a lot of things up too.

Narine and I are headed back to the gym today for our 3:30 class and we are hoping to ask if we can start going everyday:)  The whole gym concept is very new here, so when I originally asked if I could go everyday I think they thought I was crazy, but now they seem to be warming up to the idea!  I am hoping to get a yes before it starts to get really cold, they have a treadmill and bike which will be great for cardio and also weight machines and a whole exercise class room (getting a little ahead of myself, but I have thought about proposing the idea of teaching a zumba class too!)

I have to say, everyday here Gavar feels more and more like home, I think this is the best possible placement for me.  And, while initially it was difficult not being around Americans, it's actually pretty tough at first not to have other Americans around, it has been a blessing in disguise for me.  My Armenian has gotten better, I am making friends, getting to know the culture, and falling in love with Gavar and its people more and more every day.  And the opportunities as a result of integrating are pretty amazing...sitting in at the music school this morning was truly one of the coolest experiences I've ever had.  One of the girls even got excited to perform Celine Dion for me and sang My Heart Will Go In, I was blown away with how good she was.

 

I have also been able to go to events, picnics, churches, try to play the accordian, and so much more thanks to the wonderfully kind and hospitable Armenians I have met in the short time I have lived in Gavar.  I think of how much I have already been exposed to here in less than a month and can't even imagine all of the exciting new experiences awaiting me in the future!

This weekend I am headed to Lake Sevan to spend the weekend with all of the other volunteers for our official site unlock.  We are put on site lock for the first month to help us with integration and such and now it totally makes sense.  While I am excited for this weekend and to see everyone, I am already a little sad to leave Gavar!  But, when I told my host mom Alita I wanted to bring something to share with everyone in Sevan, she got really excited and so for the last few days we have been making home-made pasta sauces, ketchup, and who knows what else.  She is turning me into quite the cook and I am loving spending the time in kitchen with her, even though the only extra apron she has is child size so everytime I put it on, I think of Tommy Boy...fat guy in a little coat...haha:)

So that is all for now, happy to report Gavar and I are getting along just fine, hope to write some more soon!

 

 

Another one for the books

August 15, 2012

Had to share the latest adventure as Gavar has not disappointed once again.  Today was my director, Rudek's, birthday, which we celebrated at Lake Sevan.  As with many birthday celebrations, there were countless toasts (shots of cognac or vodka for the men, sips of wine for the women), a little swimming, some horovats( basically BBQ), lots of Armenian I didn't understand, and relaxation in the sun.  But, yet again, the unexpected happened, twice. 

First, my director went to change into his swimgear and came back out wrapped in an AFC Champions Ravens towel, I couldn't believe it and got so excited that I was trying to explain how awesome the towel was, that it was my hometown, one of my favorite sports teams, and on and on, all in broken Armenian, he just smiled at me awkwardly and I am now pretty sure he thinks I am crazy.  Apparently, World Vision handed out the towels to the kids in the sponsorship program last year and the leftovers went to my NGO, now we know one place where some of the extras end up....

Then, at the end of the celebration, they realized Rudek's car needed to be jumped.  So Gegham, my counterpart, pulled his car up to pretty much the edge of the lake to help jump start it.  I have never thought my reflexes were particularly fast until today.  Gegham got out of the car, turned around, and his car started to roll towards the lake.  I have seriously never reacted so quickly in my life.  I screamed his name, and grabbed the back of the car and started pulling backwards because clearly, what else was I supposed to do?  Luckily, three others were nearby and joined in until Gegham realized what was going on and jumped in the drivers seat.  Honestly, had I not noticed, his car would have been in the lake.  Gegham's response?  Why were you scared?  The car would have been fine...oh Armenians, their response to things that would get us crazy...vochinch (no worries).

So Gavar has continued to entertain me and keep me on my toes.  For the next month, my sitemate Donna will be in the states so I will be watching her cat, which is awesome because I now have a place to do a workout DVD without a bunch of eyes watching my every move:)  And it can also be a place to just relax and read with a little peace and quiet if I need it.

I did get home tonight and Alita had made what is as close to hamburgers as I have seen in Armenia, it is amazing how excited one can get over a little taste of home!

First 24 hours in Gavar

Finally writing my first blog post from Armenia!  I am going to backtrack and play catch-up later, but figure the beginning of my service as a PCV is as good a place to start as any.  Sorry for the long post, but my first day in Gavar is one I never want to forget!

August 9, 2012

I really hope to do my experiences of my first 24 hours in Gavar justice as I try to explain the most entertaining, ridiculous, and unique day I have had in countryto date.   This is a bit of a long post, but I also want to remember today so wrote out pretty much everything that happened.  Fair warning, part of my day includes a chicken which started his morning alive and didn't make it through the whole day, so you can skip over those parts of the story if you want.

 I arrived in Gavar Wednesday after sad goodbyes to both my wonderful host family in Argel who I am going to miss terribly as well as all of my fellow trainees who I will forever have a bond with after PST and whom I will also miss, but Peace Corps was able to get us on a phone plan in which we can call all of the volunteers for free so we won't have any problem staying in touch. Saying goodbye to my family in Argel was way tougher than I thought itwould be, they really did become family to me, I really depended on them when I first moved to Armenia and couldn’t speak a lick of the language, they were there for me when transitioning to life here was tough, and I really grew to love them.  Arpi will be having alittle boy in mid-September, so I am going to be able to head back to Argel in a few weeks to meet the baby(who Arpi is naming after her father Liova)  and meet my host father Liova as he lives and works in Russia and comes back to Armenia very rarely.  (Unemployment rates in Armenia are incredibly high so migration to Russia to provide for the family is very common, though Armenia would obviously like to see big changes in the employment arena)  I will also be able to go back in mid-Octoberhopefully for baby Liova’s 40 day birthing party.  In Armenia, they do not celebrate when a baby is actually born but 40 days after the baby is born to celebrate the baby’ssurvival, such is the tradition here. 

So, my first day in Gavar was somewhat uneventful.  I went to VivaCell, my phone and internet provider, and was able to successfully communicate with the employee in Armenian which was pretty awesome and took a walk around town by myself.  After being in PST, and lacking a bit of my independence, and being used to always having other Peace Corps people around, being alone for a few hours felt very strange unexpectedly, but it was nice at the same time. I don’t start work with VIA until Friday, PC was to give us an extra few days to settle into our new homes, so Thursday, I thought I would just be relaxing, organizing, unpacking, and reading. That’s how my morning started, but what followed was the most entertaining few hours I have had in a long time. 

I got up super early to upload some of the pictures of Argel and swearing-in and was able to read for about an hour before the rest of my host family woke-up which was lovely. Then, at about 9, Alita’s neighbors starting coming over.  Alita is a very social woman and knows a lot of people which will be wonderful for integration and making connections with people. So for the next few hours, I drank a ridiculous amount of coffee,introduced myself to countless new people, spoke the little Armenian I knew,and said no to candy and pastries at least 20 times.  Armenians love to show up at friends houses whenever they want to, they also expect to have coffee, and they eat more,especially candy and sweets, than any other group I have ever been around.  And, when it comes to food, they don’t like to take no for an answer, I think the word Ker!(eat!) is actually the word Ih ave heard most since I moved here. Luckily, I am over the sweets and candy, so I have no problem saying chem ozoom! (I don’t want!)

At about noon there was a bit of a break in gossipy ladies, so I was sitting in the living room chatting online with some of the other PCV’s when my host mom, Alita walked in with a live chicken.  I was so shocked I didn’t even have time to think what the chicken may have been for. Also with Alita was an 11 year old girl whose name I learned was Karolina and who I have since realized will probably be someone I will rely on very heavily during my first few months here in Gavar.  Alita put the chicken, whose legs were tied, next to me, saw my surprise, and let me know that we were going to kill the chicken.  Even though I know some Armenian, the communication breakdown over the next few hours was pretty ridiculous.  She kept saying the name Hovannes, which is my host brothers name, so I thought she was telling me that Hovannes was going to kill the chicken, had no idea why but thought since he was 14 maybe it was a rite of passage or something.  Turns out what she was saying was St. Hovannes and that the chicken was going to be sacrificed for St. Hovannes (took me two hours to figure that out). 

After a few minutes, Alita left me and the chicken in the living room alone.  WhileI  love to eat meat, I have never witnessed an animal being slaughtered nor has it ever been on my list of to dos.  As the chicken and I stared at each other, I seriously considered becoming a vegetarian, I was a bit freaked out and a little irrational about the whole scene.  About 20 minutes later, I had kind of forgotten about the chicken and went back to chatting with friends whena ll of the sudden, the chicken started screeching, flapping its wings and somehow managed to go airborne.  I started to scream, Karolina started to scream, Alita couldn’t stop laughing and we realized that the chicken had pooped and as he/she was flapping its wings,it was flinging poop all over the room. I am sorry to share those details, but today was so ridiculous that I just can’t bring myself to not share everything that happened.  Karolina and I both went running from the room so that we wouldn’t fall victim to the chicken or its poop and Alita grabbed it and somehow it disappeared, apparently to someone elses’ home.  At this point, I was sure I had dodged the witnessing the slaughtering bullet and sat down to read after my heart calmed itself down. 

 An hour later, Alita took me with her to a friends house to teach me how to make Gavaree gatas (Gavar pastries), which were of course delicious, but I let Alita know quickly that I didn’t want to gain any more weight but in fact wanted to lose it, at which point she got really excited,said something I didn’t understand in Armenia and led me to one of her friends bedrooms.  Turns out, she wanted me to weigh myself, you learn quickly in Armenia there is no privacy and there are no secrets.  Luckily, I have lost 5 pounds since I’ve been here, but I have a feeling Alita and I will be seeing that scale together again several times over the next two months to check my progress.  At this point, I was starting to get tired and was ready to just chill out and read. 

Alita and I went back to her apartment and I had just sat down to read when Karolina showed back up. She told me to put my shoes on and motioned that it was time to slaughter the chicken, awesome, thought I had missed out on that delightful event.  So, I left with Karolina andAlita with it not even occurring to me that Alita wouldn’t be joining us, silly me.   Alita put me in a car with 5 other people, I knew Karolina and the others looked familiar, but pretty much they were all strangers, oh and the chicken was sitting in the lap of the passenger in the front seat.  I trust Alita, she has hosted 4 other PCV’s in Gavar before me, so I knew whatever I was doing was for my benefit in some way, but doesn’t mean that I wasn’t totally weirded out, confused, a bit hesitant, but certainly intrigued.  A few minutes later, wew ere on a road which was clearly under construction going a direction I had never been with a live chicken in a bag staring at me from the front seat. 

 After a really interesting ride, some cool houses, some really run-down and clearly very poor areas, we parked the car next to a little chapel on a hill.  The scenery was beautiful so it calmed me down a little, but as we walked up to the church, I realized we were there for the sacrifice.  Luckily,Karolina knew I was totally not into watching the big event, so she grabbed my hand, moved quickly past what was clearly the sacrificial area thanks to remnants of past sacrifices, and took me inside of what ended up being one of the most unique and beautiful places of worship I have ever been.  Happily, I was so distracted by the beauty of the yerkaretsee(church), that I completely missed the scene with the chicken,huge relief!  After lighting some candles and taking some pictures, we all piled back in the car, yes people and animal,and headed to Lake Sevan for horovats (BBQ). By this point, I had decided that I was not going to be a  vegetarian and that I had to get over being there for the death of the chicken I was about to eat. 

When we got to Sevan, Karolina and I decided to take a long along the water, and it was just lovely, cool as a fall day in Maryland and the lake looked absolutely beautiful.  It also meant we got to be very far away from the horovats preparation.  We ate and I admit the chicken was delicious and getting over everything that had upset meabout the chicken was actually a good bit easier than I thought it would be.  For the next few hours, we laughed,I spoke choppy Armenian, they spoke the 5 words in English they knew, and we played a game called Gorts ants Gorts (kind of like monkey in the middle meets dodge ball). I of course am still just as clumsy as I was in the states, so during the game, I wiped out and landed badly on my right foot.  It’s just a little sore, not really a problem, but I mention it because it feeds into something which happened a little later in the evening.  After the game, we sat down to eat some fruit(we ate something which they call melon, and tastes like a mix between cantelope and honeydew but is a white fruit) and looked up and saw that there was a rainbow stretching from one side of Lake Sevan to the other, one of the most amazing moments I’ve had since I’ve been here.

We enjoyed Sevan and then headed home.  After the day, I was really excited to be able to relax, read my book, and go to bed early.  But within a few minutes of being back, Karolina called to invite us over.  We stayed at her house for a bit, drank more coffee, ate more fruit, said no to chocolate and headed back to Alita's.  In many apartment buildings in Armenia, there is no light in the hallways, so it’s very difficult to see when going up and down the stairs and also outside as there is very rarely light on the streets outside either.  Of course, I was the one leading us down the stairs, Alita clearly doesn't know me well enough yet...  I was on the last step when I literally fell out of the apartment building and into a garden.  I would like to blame my gimpy right foot,but realistically, it’s because I couldn’t see …so for the second time in one day, Alita doubled over laughing at me, luckily this time I joined her:)

Oh and almost forgot, found out the horovats we ate wasn’t even the chicken which was slaughtered, turns out he becomes a meal on Friday….oh what an amazing introduction to my new life in Gavar, can’t say I’m not excited to see wherever this crazy experience is going to take me next!