Post Office Woes

Sorry this blog post is going to be boring- not much has happened lately.  Things that used to surprise or shock me now seem normal, like young kids driving cars or cattle blocking traffic on the street. I found out where to buy cell phone/internet minutes in my village so that was a big discovery. Last week at school went better than I was expecting.  I met the mayor and talked with students and teachers about a spelling bee my region is having. We even sent the spelling lists to the other school in my village.  Two winners from each grade will go to a big regional competition in November.  This week I will start clubs to practice for the spelling bee, hopefully students show up!

Random story: I had quite a fiasco trying to mail a letter last week.  I was walked home by a young student who showed me where the post office was.  I walked in and asked where I could send a letter.  I was escorted upstairs and everyone was thoroughly confused as to what I wanted.  I called my tutor to translate and it turns out I had ended up in the mayor’s office.  One of the ladies walked me to the post office, but because I was trying to send Armenian coins to the U.S. the postal worker didn’t know what to do. So, my letter was not sent, but at least I got to meet more people in my community and introduce myself as the American volunteer who doesn’t speak Armenian well.  My host mother tells everyone that I speak Armenian fluently while the teachers at my school think I don’t speak Armenian at all. My host mom finally started knitting my sweater so be on the lookout for a picture of a sweet green sweater. The other day she even surprised me with cauliflower- score! Then it was deep fried…. Delicious but still, the health gods are against me. 

I spent the past weekend relaxing at Lake Sevan with a bunch of other volunteers.  For one month we were under “Site Lock” and unable to travel outside of our extended sites.  We celebrated by renting cabins on the lake and hanging out for the weekend.  It was nice to see everyone again, but now I’m back to school.  How will I handle the stress of watching my counterpart teach 2 classes a day AND actually teach 3 English clubs this week? Tune in next week to find out if I survived the madness…

One Month at Site

I've been in my new village for exactly one month now.  The first month at site we are suppose to integrate into our communities and observe our counterpart. My teaching schedule keeps changing every day because I’ll show up for work and my counterpart will have already taught our classes for the day without telling me.  Now that I have been at site for a month I am hoping to really start teaching. While things at school aren’t going so well, everything else is great. I just started an English club with another volunteer at the art school.  The people who work at the art school have been so welcoming to me. A dancing troupe came to my village last weekend to teach traditional Armenian dances to anyone who wanted to learn.  At least 100 people, mainly children, showed up to dance.  I even won a cd of Armenian music for my great dancing skills (more like they were amazed the American was even attempting to dance haha). Afterwards, I went with the dancers and art school employees to the forest and went on a beautiful hike.  We picked fruit off the trees, stopped at a pond to feed fish, and of course danced into the night. Thank goodness I have the art school!

Me and Manik, my Armenian tutor, at the art school. Ignore the hat please =)

In other news, I’ve decided to live with my host family for the winter.  When I first came here I was convinced that I would want to live alone as soon as possible, but I’ve slowly changed my mind.  I’ve never lived alone before and I have NO idea how to heat a house in winter.  My family is excited that I’m staying so who knows if/when I will live on my own...

I'll speak Armenian if you speak English

I just finished the first week of school.  Our 12^th grade does not have a textbook or curriculum at all.  From what I can understand we will get to teach whatever we want.  We spent a good chunk of the first class just talking about America. The kids were asking me questions in Armenian.  The only question I was asked in English was if I had a Facebook profile. Sigh.  It’s nice to know that the students have access to a computer and internet, but it has not helped them improve their English.  They understand most of what I say, they just have can’t form their own sentences in English. Much like me with Armenian.  Outside of school, some of the children stop me on the street just to practice their English.  We have conversations in broken English and Armenian and quickly get to the point where we have exhausted all of our words. I like speaking with children the best because they don't care about my awful pronunciation or grammar.

In other news, my school has a projector! The teachers never use it, though probably because many of them do not how to use a computer. This is a great resource that I hope to use in the classroom.  Teachers here rarely use visual aids when teaching...  Right now I only teach 2 hours per day so the highlight of my week was definitely receiving a package from mom yesterday (it took about 3 weeks).   The postal system is strange here because there are no street names or house numbers.  My host mother told me to look in my room and the package was waiting for me on the table.  I have no idea if the post office called my host mom, but somehow my package arrived! Volunteers say if you send anything after November 1 it will take several months to arrive here because the postal service basically shuts down during the holidays.  If you feel like sending me an early Christmas present, I’m creating a wish list on a new tab in my blog =)

I had my first tutoring session and it went great.  Another teacher my age is tutoring me at the art school nearby.  The people who work at the art school are awesome so I’m hoping to make friends with all of them.  And they have one of the few indoor toilets in the entire village. We will be best friends by winter.  In a few hours I’m going back to the art school to learn traditional Armenian dances!

Remember how I said the President came to my area? Well here is an article about his visit if you are interested:

http://www.azatutyun.am/content/article/24318852.html

First Day of School

Sorry to everyone in Florida who has been suffering in the heat, but it has been so cold and rainy here! I had to use my sleeping bag as a comforter for a few nights.  The weather has finally gotten back to normal and is about high 70s in the afternoon.  As I walked along the river that was once the road to my house, I realized that I got lucky with my host family.  My host mother made us brave a thunderstorm on foot to go to the store so I would have oatmeal in the morning.  I’m still struggling with how much oil is in the food, but that is unlikely to change until I move out on my own. 

I finally made it to my school after a week of doing nothing at my site.  I met with my counterpart and a few other teachers.  It’s quite odd to sit in on a teacher’s meeting when you can’t understand what they are arguing about.  Turns out, the teachers were competing for the best class times and classrooms.  The class schedule wasn’t even finished until the day before school.  When I first went to my school I was told that the President of Armenia was coming.  The teacher’s didn’t know if he would really show up or not.  I went to school that day, but my counterpart said that there was no work for me to do and sent me home.  Guess who showed up at our school an hour later? That’s right, Mr. President himself.  I should have stayed... I need to work on being more direct with people.

September 1st, the first day of school, is a national holiday in Armenia.  I brought my camera to take pictures, but no one else had a camera and I didn’t want to be known as a tourist for the next 2 years.  The little boys were dressed in suits and the little girls wore adorable dresses.  Almost all students wore black and white outfits except for an older boy who defied conformity and wore an awesome pink shirt.  There are actually no classes on the first day of school.  After several speeches outside with accompanying pop/techno music and balloons, students went inside with their ‘homeroom’ teacher.   My counterpart introduced me to her class, and then sent me home for the rest of the day. Again.  I’m already a bit frustrated and classes haven’t even started yet.  It can only get better right?

The only good thing that happened on the first day of school was going blueberry picking with my host parents.  We took an ancient soviet-style dump truck up into the forest and braved the thorns for a solid 2 hours.  Great experience except that the thorns cut through clothing and now I have splinters in unusual places. I will have fun time explaining my purple hands tomorrow at school :)

I’ll give you an update next week about how English is really taught in an Armenian classroom, I’m anxious to find out!

P.S. Almost every day my host family eats sunflower seeds, right off of the sunflower itself:

The Slow Life

Update: I finally showered!! I worked up the courage to ask how to heat the water for a bath.  My host brother showed me, but I still don’t understand how to heat the water. When the water was heated I got in the tub and discovered a hidden, ancient-looking showerhead.  I actually took a semi-shower and it was wonderful. 

The highlight of my week was definitely on Saturday. The PC director traveled to my region and visited a few volunteers at our sites.  We went to my school, the art school and my house.  It was great showing him around my village.  Then we ate dinner at a married couple’s house in town and it was delicious. They have been volunteers for the past year and showed us around town. Even though no other volunteers live in my village, I’m lucky to be so close to a few other volunteers!   

Some random things about my host family:

My host brother listens to the same cd on repeat, a mix of Kelly Clarkson, Enya and Celine Dion.  I had a great time listening to My Heart Will Go On.  I can speak some Armenian with my host mom, but for some reason I just don’t understand my host father or host brother. I think he leaves for school in October in another city.

My host father works in a village about 30 minutes away where another volunteer lives.  I’m hoping to hitch rides with him to visit the other volunteer. He loves listening to music and his ringtone in Lady Gaga’s Edge of Glory.

My host mother said she would teach me how to knit, but she totally took over and it now knitting me a scarf. Then we went into town together yesterday to buy yarn for her to make me a sweater.  I paid 4000 dram for a possible green homemade sweater that I didn’t even ask for. Sigh.

Cultural differences aside, I actually really like my host family so far. Thank goodness because I don’t know anyone else in the village yet.  I've spent most days reading, eating and sleeping. Life is pretty slow here until school starts…   

Swearing-In and the Big Move

Wow, what a past few days.  I am now an official Peace Corps volunteer!  The ceremony was great and all of our families and current volunteers came.  Later that night my family invited about 20 people over and had a goodbye khorovats for me.  I stayed up past midnight just hanging out with my family for the last time. On Thursday we left early in the morning to gather in Nor Hajn to move to our new sites.  The families started crying first, closely followed by the volunteers and language teachers.  I held it together for a while, but there was no stopping the tears once they started.

 I rode on a marshrutni with 3 other volunteers to the north.  I had to tell the driver where my house was and thank goodness I remembered.   My host mother was waiting for me and we moved in my many, many bags.  Last time I was here I told her that I would speak much better Armenian in August.  Well, she called me out on that statement because she says I still don’t understand anything she says.  After a 15 minute talk I realized that she wanted me to pack a bag and spend the night at her mother’s house.  I called PC because I didn’t know if that was allowed or not.  They said the village she wanted to take me to was too close to the Azerbaijan border so I couldn’t go. Ever. Oh well.  I took a long nap and then ate dinner outside with my new host family.  Afterwards I stayed out talking with my host mother and eating sunflower seeds off of an actual sunflower. 

My room is nice, though I can hear the chickens and roosters 24/7 (whoever said they only make noise at dawn lied).  The light to my outhouse is in my parent’s bedroom so that will be interesting if I have to go in the middle of the night.  I have yet to conquer the bucket bath. Options: Ask my already busy mother to show me how to light the intimidating fire, wait a few more days until she asks me if I want a bath, or just forgo bathing altogether.  Yesterday I did absolutely nothing and I know I will be bored until school starts.  My schedule seems to be sleep in, read a book, take a nap, and watch a movie on my computer.  Today my family is going to a wedding and leaving me behind L On Saturday I get to go into a bigger town and have dinner with a few volunteers so at least I have something to look forward too….

Soo close

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 16^th 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!