27 September 2010

End of September

Well another month has came and has almost passed. Still have a few days though. This month has been great! Clubs have started and I love my students! They are so full of energy and enthusiasm! They have such a willingness to learn and deal with my struggling Armenian. My tenth form girls are so entertaining. They are so funny and I am so lucky to be working with them. This next year will be a lot of fun and it will be great to see how much they grow and learn!

The weather is changing now and it is weird that I am happy about it. Summer was great and I did not think it was that hot. But I am happy it is cooling down. Last winter, I realized that I am not the biggest fan of snow and cold. But I have come to realize that I really like fall. The leaves will begin to change color, although I really only get to see that when I visit other volunteer's sites. The weather is not so stifling. People are outside more and a bit more active than during the summer. They are also busy with canning and preparing for the winter ahead. These are some of the reasons I like fall. Although to be honest, I think the main reason may be because I get to wear scarves! Especially now that I have like 5 new scarves (from my vacation), with the changing weather I finally get to wear them! Exciting!

Although this last month has been quite entertaining: a new nephew, climbing Aragats, the start of clubs, and more, I am ready for October. October will be initiatives meeting, another green camp, Halloween, Fall Break, and hopefully a visit to the south. I have a feeling October will fly by, similar to my total time here.

22 September 2010

Aragats!

I climbed Aragats! All the way to the top! Of the Southern Point anyway. Almost 4000 meters high. We started at the lake and that is about half way up there, I think. Haven't really been able to find info on it.

Another volunteer's NGO, the YIC, organized the trip. We started in Gyumri and then drove to the lake. It is a Youth Organization that is Awesome! They are a great group of people; full of energy and fun! It started early and we got there around 11:00. We ate a little snack, played a get-to-know-you game and then headed up. There were a couple of groups climbing that day, September 21st, which is also Armenian Independence Day! It was really cool, there was a Scout group that climbed as well.

We started the hike at 11:30 and stopped periodically to catch our breath, allow people to catch up, and take pictures of the view. It is kind of funny, I was NOT prepared for this hike at all. It was a last minute decision and I didnt really understand the concept of higher altitude= cooler weather. And I only had flip-flops with me, so the other volunteer allowed me to borrow a pair of shoes. I also did not bring my camera, so no pictures. Sad. But it was a memory I will not forget.

It was such a fun day! It took a while to get up there, about 4 hours or so. A little longer than most people, but we were a slower group. It starts off pretty level with a slight incline. Then it turns kind of rocky but still is a slight incline. The closer to the top the steeper the incline, but it was never like we had to climb, we didnt need any special gear. Although, I could have used a jacket at some point. It gets cold up there! I guess you can leave Florida but Florida mentality can never leave you...

Climbing down was almost harder than going up. Its not that easy climbing down rocks that move. But we made it. Because I was wearing Amanda's shoes, which were a little small, I now have blisters on my feet. But it was so worth it. The view at the top was spectacular. The panorama was really cool, although it was a little hazy. The crater was nothing like I expected it and there wasnt that much ice/snow at the top but it was really cool.

All in all, an amazing day! One thing checked off of the Armenia Bucket List. I can now say that I have climbed the highest mountain in Armenia... Pretty, pretty, pretty cool. Here are 2 pictures that I stole from another volunteer:




09 September 2010

09/08/10

Good date.

He is adorable and I am ecstatic. And that is all I can say!

I miss home and I miss my family. C'est la vie.

06 September 2010

UF graduate in the Peace Corps killed in Lesotho

(This article is from the Gainesville Sun. This type of thing can happen anywhere, abroad and in America. My heart and thoughts are with his family, friends, and other volunteers in Lesotho.)

By Kimberly C. Moore
Staff writer

Published: Sunday, September 5, 2010 at 8:37 p.m.
Last Modified: Sunday, September 5, 2010 at 8:37 p.m.

The United States Peace Corps announced over the weekend that University of Florida graduate and Peace Corps volunteer Tom Maresco was shot and killed in an apparent robbery attempt in the small African nation of Lesotho on Friday night.

“Tom was an exceptional volunteer, leader, teacher and coach — he was an integral part of his host community where he shared his passion for teaching, music and sports,” said Peace Corps Director Aaron Williams. “We are deeply saddened by this tragic event, and I ask that you keep Tom’s family and our volunteers and staff in Lesotho in your thoughts and prayers.”

According to the Peace Corps, Maresco was from Port St. Lucie. He was a secondary education teacher in the village of Katse. He arrived in Lesotho for Peace Corps service in November 2009 and served as a science teacher in the nation that is entirely surrounded by South Africa. He was an active member of his local community of Katse and coached youth in a number of sports, including basketball and swimming. Maresco became his district’s representative on the Peace Corps Lesotho HIV/AIDS committee and was committed to developing innovative ways to address HIV awareness and prevention among young people. He was scheduled to complete his Peace Corps service in January 2012.

According to CNN, Maresco was attending a farewell function at the Maseru Sun Cabanas Hotel in the nation’s capital. He and a female friend had left the hotel and decided to return on foot, even though their vehicles were waiting outside the hotel.

“We think they were observed leaving the hotel on foot and when they were returning, (an) assailant was waiting outside the hotel,” Inspector Lekhotla Mojete, of the Lesotho police, told CNN. “The stranger started making demands of them, which they didn’t fully understand and (the assailant) then shot the deceased.”

He said the woman accompanying Maresco rushed back into the hotel to get help, but police were unable to find the gunman when they arrived on scene.

CNN also reported that a description of the attacker was provided to law enforcement officials by the woman. No arrests have been made yet and an autopsy was scheduled.

University of Florida spokesman Steve Orlando said Maresco graduated in May 2008 with a Bachelor of Science degree in integrated biology and a minor in classical studies.

“It’s always awful when something like this happens, but it’s especially sad when it happens to someone who’s trying to do something good in the world and clearly Thomas was,” Orlando said.

On his blog, http://tmaresco.blogspot.com/, Maresco talked about his excitement at seeing South African President Jacob Zuma in his village last month and eating lunch within 3 feet of him.

“It was a surreal feeling because I’m sure I wouldn’t have been able to get within 10 city blocks of President Obama,” Maresco wrote.

And in May, he wrote about coaching the kids in basketball.

“Playing with the kids is great and the exercise is an added bonus I suppose,” he wrote. “We make the most out of our practice facility, which is essentially a netball court. Think basketball without the dribbling and no backboards on the hoops. So my new pilgrimage has been to construct some new hoops for my Ballers, woot! I’ve made friends with the local welder who does work for the school and he has been great. ... He reminds me of my dad.”

Maresco added: “Everyday I feel more confident in the work I am achieving and the direction that my life is going in.”

Contact Moore at 374-5036 or Kimberly.moore@nytrng.com.


This article was found at:
http://www.gainesville.com/article/20100905/ARTICLES/100909709/-1/entertainment?p=1&tc=pg

Girls Leading Our World

GLOW girls leadership and empowerment project

www.globalgiving.org

Girls Leading Our World is a leadership program for young Armenian girls, ages 12-16 which includes residential summer school for 50 girls and a number of following up activities throughout the year.

If you are interested in donating, please go to the website above for more information.

03 September 2010

Baby Showers?

Just had an incredibly interesting conversation with my counterpart about Armenian cultures and traditions. I think I wrote on this blog before that I will be an aunt soon! I am so excited and cant believe it... it's almost unreal!

We were talking about what happens when a baby is born and the way that it is celebrated. She was telling me that Armenians tend to be superstitious and don't celebrate until after the baby is born. After the baby is born they have a party to celebrate. I didn't get all of the details, but I thought it was interesting. I was telling her about how we have baby showers before the baby is born, usually a month or so before they come along. I also mentioned that it usually is just women who attend this shower. She thought that it was a little odd that men don't participate in the celebration.

It got me thinking about gender and culture. It is interesting that at the Armenian baby 'shower,' families show up and it would kind of be the equivalent to a birthday party for the new baby. Where as in America, we celebrate before the baby is even born and then it is mostly the women... hmmm... I think we should transfer over to the Armenian way of celebrating the birth of a baby!

Just a random thought...

02 September 2010

Summer

So… it has been a while and I promised I would write, so here it is.


 

Green Camps

Green camp is an environmental leadership camp that allows children from different Armenian villages an opportunity to learn about the environment and develop their leadership skills. There were four day camps this summer in four different villages. I worked at two of the camps. They were awesome! The kids that attended the camps were from the village or surrounding villages. It is such a wonderful experience for them. There are not a lot of camp type programs for Armenian children to attend and summers are spent at their house or with relatives. In America, we are really fortunate to have so many different programs that kids can attend. Whether it is Scout camps, sports camps, music camps, summer school or other, our kids can stay pretty busy. Here it is not really the case, there are a limited number of camps. It was awesome being able to participate in some of them.

I also worked at an overnight camp and was able to bring 4 kids from my village to the camp. I also was fortunate enough to have my counterpart, Tamara, agree to help out at some of the camps with me! They would not have worked without her and I really appreciated her spirit and enthusiasm! We had a great time, even though some aspects of the camp were unnecessarily stressful, we had a great time! It will be something I never forget!

To learn more about this camp or to donate to the camps you can click on this link:

https://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=resources.donors.contribute.projDetail&projdesc=305-063

This is through a Peace Corps Partnership Program and depends on people like you to donate and support various projects.


 

New People, New People, New People!

A new group of about 55 people arrived in Armenia at the end of May, went through PST, and now are at their respective sites. It was such a weird experience going from the new kids to old kids. Right after my family left Armenia, I went to the A-18s site announcement ceremony. This is where they learn where they will be living for the next 2 years. Up to that point they have just been studying the language, learning sector specific information, and sitting through meetings about security, health, and PC policies. It was such a fun day because as 17s, we get to find out who our neighbors are and who will live near us for our next year. I, luckily now, have two neighbors! They live in the town east of me and I am excited!


 

Family! Friends! Turkey! And it's not Thanksgiving?!?

The best part of my summer was being able to take a vacation, travel around, but most importantly see my family!!! My mom and aunt met me in Turkey and spent two weeks traveling around! They came back to Armenia and spent almost a week seeing the different sites! It was such a wonderful experience being able to share a piece of my new life with them!

A few other volunteers and I went to Georgia to fly out of Tbilisi. We arrived in the morning and the flight was in the afternoon so we had a few hours to explore Tbilisi. We didn't do much exploring as much as we just went to a bath house, a few cafes, and a park to people watch. We took the afternoon flight to Istanbul, hectically met my friend Jake who flew in from Spain, and then hopped an overnight bus to Fethiye.

Before I met my mom and aunt in Istanbul, I went on a boat cruise through the Mediterranean… four days, three nights, sleeping on the dock under a blanket of stars. The cruise started in Fethiye and ended in Olympos. For the next two days, I kept feeling as though I was on a boat and rocking constantly… weird feeling. We spent the night in Olympos and then headed to Antalya the next day. Olympos was beautiful and a relaxed beach community. I really wish we could have stayed there longer; it was nice just hanging out. This vacation came at the best possible point during my service. It was the first time I had been out of Armenia and it had been a little more than a year.

After Olympos, we spent one night in Antalya. Antalya reminded me a lot of a Florida beach town, a relaxed atmosphere, interesting night life, and expansive. It was a lot more built up than I thought it would be but it was nice. We watched the US vs. England football match and met a couple of characters while we were out. The next day we had most of the morning to walk around before we had to catch our flight to Istanbul where I would be meeting my mom and aunt.

Because we flew in domestic and my mom and aunt flew in International, we had to meet them at the International arrival section. It was just like in the movies, or in Love Actually, where they show that montage of people meetings friends or families at the airport. We had to go through security to get into the international arrival section and I was worried we would miss them or it would take forever to locate them. One friend sat with the bags, another went to check the arrival schedule and I camped out with all of the people holding name cards. My plan was to remain calm and just walk up and hug them when I saw them. Or I was going to play a practical joke and walk up, say hi, and just shake hands. Then I saw them… I, embarrassingly, could not contain my excitement. I squealed and ran up to them, gave them a big hug, and may or may not have had tears in my eyes…

After making the introductions, we all headed to the hostel. The hostel was gorgeous and I would definitely recommend it for anyone. It is in a pretty sweet location, relaxing, and has really interesting people that work there. It is called Cheers Hostel and their website is: http://www.cheershostel.com/

For the next couple of days, we explored Istanbul, met up with other PCVs that were also on vacation, and shopped, ate baklava, shopped, ate baklava and shopped. PS I love scarves and Turkey is a horrible place to have that kind of addiction. I also did something horrible… I ate at McDonald's, Little Caesars' and drank at Starbucks. Please don't judge, but all of it was delicious. And now that I have had my McDonald's fix I can go another year or more…

After Istanbul, we took an overnight bus to Cappadocia and spent two days seeing the sights there. I usually am not a big fan of tour groups and buses but it was necessary to see all of the places we wanted to see in the area. We only had two full days there and one night. We stayed in an awesome cave hostel that was also really nice. While there we had some of the best food I have had in a while. They make this stew type dish in ceramic pots. It is incredibly flavorful and unique tasting! We had a great time there and relaxed a little after the hectic-ness of Istanbul.

We took the night bus back to Istanbul, had one more night in the hostel before flying back to Tbilisi. I was going to stay a couple of nights in Tbilisi with my family but it turned out to be better if I went back to Yerevan right away. I took my family to some of the sights in and around Yerevan, including the Cascades, Garni, Geghart, Khor Virap, Noravank, and Ichmiadzin (sp?). I took my mom to my village and introduced her to my wonderful counterpart Tamara and Tamara's family! It was really cool that my mom was able to spend time in my village, even though it was short and we weren't able to see everyone I wanted to…

During my mom and aunt's stay in Yerevan, the World Cup was playing. We developed a schedule that worked out well. Run around during the day, come back and watch a game, eat dinner during the 2 hour break, watch the last game until 1-2 in the am and then call it a night. Repeat on the next day! It was awesome! It was hard to say good-bye to my mom and aunt but it was amazing having them here! I had such a wonderful time and can't wait to see them again!


 

Mid-Service, that's right, HALF way mark…

Yeah, so I have been here a year, officially. And I, officially, have one year left. Yeah, so pretty much, I don't know where this last year went… Wait, what?!?! A YEAR! Oh my, this time thing is flying by… Our mid-service conference was pretty good. We were put up at a sweet hotel with sweet showers and nice, hard, beds. It was awesome. As tradition, we also played kickball and, of course, being 17s we kicked butt! Those poor 18s had no clue what happened or who we are. Last year, playing the 16s was fun but not really challenging. (Sorry guys, but it wasn't.) The 18s presented a slight challenge towards the end but we were never really scared. The 18s say we cheated and called a game too early, but all of those factors were beyond our control… we won, fair and square. But not to gloat too much, the purpose was to have fun… I know the 17s did! Ha!

But in all seriousness, it has been a year and it feels weird. People say that your 2nd year is totally different than your 1st and I know that will be the case. There are so many different factors going into my second year… no site mate, working at the culture house instead of school, projects, and grants set up… It definitely will be much busier this next year than it was last year. I feel I will blink and I will be writing about COS (close of service) conference. I can guarantee a freak-out session because then I will have to figure out my life for the next year anyways…


 

Job Description

This school year will be a lot different than it was last year. I will be starting working full time at the Cultural House in my village. I will be doing about 4-5 after school clubs. Most of them will be English teaching with EE topics woven in. I hope to have a creative writing club, an eco club, a volunteer club, and possibly 2 others. I really want to expand and have an adult English class but I am not sure how that will work. I also hope to write a grant to help renovate the cultural house.


 

After Peace Corps

With less than a year left, I am starting to think about what will happen next year. Who knows is the only answer I have for it… It is kind of stressful to think about the future and I am trying to live in the present. It is hard when all of your peers are applying to grad schools/ looking at jobs and I am just staring off into space. I know what I want to do: teach. I know where I want to teach: somewhere not in the US. I know when I want to start teaching: 2012/2013 school year. But between August 2011 and June-ish 2012, not a clue… I know I want to travel around: Turkey (again), India, Malaysia, Australia, Philippines, Thailand… For how long: longer than a month, less than a year. Ah! Growing up and making decisions is a lot harder than you would think… but at least I am fortunate enough to have these options open and family and friends that are supportive. Right?


 

So stay tuned to new posts… They should be coming a lot more often now that I have the internets!