Summertime in Armenia

I’ll pick up this blog where my last one ended.  I left Washington DC for Armenia and arrived at the airport 24 hours later.  The airport taxis tried to charge me double the normal price, so I hopped in a random taxi that charged me the correct price.  I talked a little with the taxi driver and 30 minutes later I was dropped off at the hostel.  I checked into my room and realized that I had left a bag in the taxi, the one carrying my computer, ipod and kindle.  I had no way of contacting the taxi driver I took, so the hostel worker called another taxi for me so I could try and find him at the airport again.  For the next hour my taxi driver and I looked at the cars near the airport searching for my previous taxi driver.  Then I got a call from the hostel worker saying that the taxi with my bag had driven back to the hostel once he realized I had left my bag.  Only in Armenia would the driver have come back.  I don’t mention enough how kind most Armenians are, especially to foreigners.  I ended up having to pay both taxi drivers again, but it was totally worth it to have my electronics back.

I finally went to bed at 3 am and then got up the next morning to travel to another village in Armenia to be a counselor at an English Camp.  A bunch of pcvs got together and had a really fun week that culminated in a talent show.  Then I went to back to Yerevan for a volunteer’s birthday and celebrated with some of the new volunteers.

I went back to my village in a great mood and was ready to enjoy summer in hayastan. I soon realized that mosquitos had overtaken my house and there was no stopping them.  I covered myself in bug spray for the next 5 days and took a chance every time I opened a window to take a break from the heat.  I had a pretty bad allergic reaction to something that bit me and had to have a volunteer bring me medicine from our doctors in Yerevan.  It’s getting better now, but here’s a look if you want to see how swollen it was L 

For the past 2 weeks I’ve helped with a few training sessions in Yerevan for the new volunteers and visited my good friend in another town for her birthday.  I also spent a day in the forest at a fun camp held my village’s art school (pictures below). In a few days the new volunteers will Swear-In as official volunteers and move to their sites.  I’m lucky to be getting a volunteer in my village and another volunteer in Noyemberyan, I’ll write more about them next time!

Also, I updated my wish list and book list.