August 21, 2009
So right now I am watching Pride and Prejudice, the A&E series with Colin Firth. Yay! I know it has been a while since I have written in my blog, and I apologize for that. Up until this last week, I have been super busy! As part of our stay in our PST villages, we had to complete a community project. And as part of our EE training, we had to teach environmental classes. We had a total of 9 classes with 6 being team teaching in English, 1 being independent teaching in English, and the last 2 were individual teaching in Armenian. That was fun!
EE Classes:
Teaching was a lot of fun. It made me realize again how much I enjoy teaching! The first six classes we rotated partners, so I taught with three other people. Because we will be co-teaching for the most part with our counterparts, it was good practice to plan and teach with someone else. Although it was a lot easier than it will be in the fall when school starts. For one thing, those classes were in English and we had translators. Another reason, the classes were only 45-minutes each. The individual English class went well, again because it was in English. The next two Armenian classes were very stressful because it was like scripting out 45 minutes of a lesson. I figured since the students had been learning about environmental problems for the past three weeks, that they would then take their knowledge and make environmental posters.
August 29, 2009
The loss of our little brother. Although I am writing about this about a month after it happened, it still saddens me. In our training village, there were eight trainees. One of them, who was the other half of Team Awesome, made the hard decision that PC and Armenia was not for him. I totally respect his decision and know that it was extremely tough on him. His decision affected me more than I thought it would. He was also the first from our group to make that decision and I think it surprised us all that it was him. I was very sad to see him go and you realize what a support network you create in this PC community. I know that whatever he is doing now, he is a rock star in it and I wish him nothing but the best. Miss you A Doo!!!
I think also affected me because you begin to think about your own service. The fact that someone was able to leave, opens the door for questioning why you are here and if this is really for you. This is a lot harder than people think. It also doesn’t help that we are in the second (and sometimes first) most depressing country in the world. That kind of statistic and feeling in the country can weigh on you. Especially where I am at right now in my service, I can feel that weighing down. I was talking to another volunteer yesterday about how PC Armenia might compare to other PC countries. And the point that they made was that a lot of the struggles that volunteers go through, perhaps more so than other places is mental. We don’t have the struggles (for the most part) of finding water, food, or shelter. For most of us, we have indoor plumbing, sanitary conditions, we don’t have the threat of crazy diseases. Besides the diarrhea disease that most people get, we don’t have malaria, crazy insects, worms, or other health hazards. We eat pretty well, we have water filters with access to water on a constant basis. So for the most part, the obstacles we have to overcome are mental. And that thought is kind of hard to deal with. It is something I know that I will think about and have to deal with as my time here progresses.
Trash “Clean- Up”
So as part of PST, we have to develop and implement a community project that focuses on the needs of the community. So our group decided to do a trash clean up. After talking with the mayor of the town, we decided to clean up around the gazebo, that we use as our mental health retreat and paint another gazebo in the town. There is a family that owns the one we use as our mental health retreat, so we decided to paint the other. What we found out was that gazebos are usually put up as a memorial. Our mental health one is a memorial for a couple that missed the turn on the road and their car went over the cliff. I think the one we painted has a similar story but we didn’t get that story. So mind you the gazebo that we were cleaning the trash up from is on a steep slope. This is where most of the village throws their trash. That is one big problem in Armenia; there is no trash collection. So most villagers either burn their trash or throw it in a central location. Some bigger cities have a USAID funded trash collection system.
Well to continue, we cleaned most of the gazebo area. About half way through we realized that this was incredibly dangerous because not only did we not have enough gloves for everyone to clean up, but we were also on an incredibly deep slope. So we cleaned up as much as we could and then packed it all into a truck the mayor hired to dispose of the trash. Later we found out the disposal place is just another piece of land down the road. It was kind of sad to see our hard work just thrown in another area. We were under the impression that it was going to go to a landfill that the USAID has made.
My Birthday!
So I turned 25 this year! The big quarter-of-the-century! Wow! My birthday happened the same time that we were ending PST. We were having a lot of different things going on, including our final language interviews. Our language interviews were on the 11th and I didn’t want to celebrate on the 10th because we wanted to study somewhat. We decided on celebrating on the 9th, our last Sunday in town. We had been telling our life stories and wanted to finish them before we left site. And I got funfetti cake from my mom and made it for my birthday. It was a gorgeous day, with a slight threat of rain. We went to a mountain/giant hill and spread out a blanket. All of the trainees from my village came out and we shared our stories. That was wonderful, and the cake was delicious. Then others from different villages came over to celebrate. We lounged out on top of the mountain and hung out the rest of the afternoon. Afterwards, we headed into Charentsevan for dinner and had a fun time there. The owner of the restaurant heard it was my birthday and gave me a free shot of vodka. It was a lot of fun and a very memorable birthday.
Graduation/ “Swearing In”/ The Death of Kekos- August 13, 2009
This was a ridiculously fun day!!! As part of the ceremony, we were asked to present something in a sort of appreciation to our host families who were present at the ceremony. Our village group “decided”/ were asked in a rhetorical type question to present a skit. Our skit was called the Death of Kekos.
Basically the skit is about a daughter that goes to get water. At the well, she takes a rest under a tree and dreams up having a husband and a child. But in the dream, the child, Kekos, likes to climb trees but falls and dies. She is so upset that all she kind of do is cry. The mother is waiting and decides to send the second eldest daughter. She goes and sees her sister crying and asks what happens. The eldest sister tells her about her son Kekos that died and the two sisters begin to cry. This happens with the third sister and the mother. Finally, the father wonders where his family is and goes to find them. He sees his family crying and asks what happened. They explain and he tells them that they will all go back to the house and have a funeral for the loss of her son. They will make bread and invite people over. That is the end of the play.
So, I was the eldest daughter that got to say a bunch of lines all in Armenian! Exciting. I can still remember my lines and probably will remember them for the rest of my life. It was super exhilarating and I only messed up on one line. Tateak and Papeak are very similar but one means grandma and the other is grandpa. I accidentally called the “papeak” a grandmother. Oops… But it turned out great and people really liked it.
But as for the ceremony, the host families were invited and most showed up. All of PC staff was there and the US Ambassador. The Country Director and the Ambassador gave a speech. Two of the trainees gave speeches in Armenian on behalf of the other trainees. That was crazy impressive! It was a really neat ceremony. We walked across stage like we were graduating and I got the official PC volunteer pin!
After the Swearing In ceremony, a bunch of other PCV came to the ceremony and we all went out to Bella Café to celebrate. It was a lot of fun and a last hurrah with everyone before we left our villages and moved to our permanent sites. It was really nice to celebrate with everyone and have a good time before we went to our houses to celebrate the last night with our families.
After the celebration, we hung out at my host family’s house and spent the last night hanging out.
Move Day!
Talk about a whirlwind of emotions! I was excited to be out and moving to my new site where I will spend the rest of my two years. At the same time, I was ridiculously sad to leave the bubble of PST and my friends. I was anxious because I was moving into the unknown. And I was anticipating boredom because that is what everyone says happens. After PST, things slow way down and you have to figure out how to keep yourself busy…
So after tears and farewells I made it to site. It was about a three hour taxi ride with all of my stuff, all of my site mate’s stuff and a dog. Fun trip! Once I got there, my family welcomed me with open arms and big smiles.
PS I absolutely LOVE my host family!
I will write more later about how site has been. Right now I am at an internet café and don’t have much time… So site has been okay. Everyone was right and things have slowed WAAAAAAY down… But school has just begun to start so hopefully things will pick up soon…
Love you ALL!!! Thanks for the comments and the birthday wishes! They have been much appreciated!
