I passed my language interview! I honestly thought I had failed so passing is such a relief. It took me quite some time and sign language to remember what the verb for “to travel” was: you would think I would remember that one… Anyways, I’m almost an official volunteer now. We are done with language classes, technical trainings and cultural sessions. Time has flown by. I can’t believe it has been 2 ½ months already. I’ve been hanging out with the other volunteers in my village a lot this week. The hardest thing has been trying to divide my time between my family and friends. I’m sure Wednesday will be an awfully sad day, but I know that I will grow to love my new village as much as I love this one. On Tuesday the 16th at 6:00 am east coast time will be our Swearing-In Ceremony. Message me if you want the web address! Now back to the impossible task of packing L I’ll leave you with a list of all the new, for better or worse, experiences I have had in Armenia:
Killed 18 huge spiders in my bedroom
Used (and will continue to use) an outhouse
Gone without bathing for 4 days
Climbed to the top of Mt. Hadis, twice!
Crammed 23 people on a marshutni
Spent an entire day throwing buckets of water on people
Learned how to knit
Ate lamb, liver, gizzards, walnut shells, fish (with bones and skin!)and more oil than I ever want to see again
Slept without a door for 3 weeks
Learned basic Armenian (I can slowly read the alphabet and know enough to get by, hopefully?)
Dried my underwear outside for my whole village to see
Taught English in a classroom
Learned traditional Armenian dances in Yerevan
Made great friends with the other A-19ers!
I'm so glad I could be a part of most of the things on that list!!!
ReplyDeleteAsh jan! that is a nice great descriptive photo -Julius Caesar wrote in 47 BC in his Roman temple: "Veni, Vidi, Vici" (came, saw, conquered). The A-19 came in 2011 to a Roman temple, and 'wrote' we came, saw and conquered.
ReplyDeleteAbout "Going without bathing for 4 days,: you can always take a bucket bath, just heat or warm some water and first wash the places that get dirty and smelly most often and you will feel refreshed. In absent of water use your "baby-wipes" if you do not have any, let them send some.
About "Using (and will continue to use) an outhouse," this is of course a problem in cold of the winter, however you may use a commode bucket in your room, have it lined with plastic bags then seal it afterward and throw it at daytime in the outhouse hole. For liquid waste, of course you have to use bottle like commode. Those should have been supplied to you by the US taxpayers by now, however first made a request your office stuff. If negative see if can be send from you from US or if you can order by internet. Don't be ashed to use it like babies, princes and queens used it also when modern pluming was not invented and they kept their commode bucket under their bed.
Below is the illustrated website where you can order things from Yerevan that are put to sell by individuals mostly. Some are in Russian and you need to use google translator but if you reply in English they most likely do also:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.list.am/category/15
Just remembered --in bucket baths it is recommended that you add some bleach or vinegar or rubbing alcohol (i forget the Russian name for it but its sold there) or vodka to the water to disinfect it and kill any possible harmful germs or microorganisms.
ReplyDelete