Hey everyone, I have been talking about chainging blog sites and I finally have.  If you use my webpage then don't worry about it it has been updated but if you go here directly or are subscribed then you need to change.  The new address is:  http://briangilmer.com/wordpress

I am going to leave this site up since I could move the comments over and I want to leave this page so others can find the new one.

The new site will have some password protected entries, just send me an email and let me know you want access (I have already received a number of requests and the emails will go out shortly. 

Thanks for checking out my blog and I really do appreciate the comments you send me.

Brian

What a crazy few weeks I have had.  Before I get into the details of my life I have a couple administrative things to cover first.  Some of you know that my Website is having problems.  I had my hosting site move it from Windows based to Linux so I could add a new blog tool called Wordpress.  I mentioned earlier wanting to password my blog but I was unable to do it with the one I was currently using so I had to change me site to allow me to ass this new took.  I will be spending a lot of time in the near future putting my site back up on line and getting the new blog up and running with the password protection.  I will send out passwords to everyone who has asked and to everyone I know is reading it now. 

Now in the last entry I posted I mentioned that we were doing some teaching.  We did and I think it went well.  Josh and I created four lesson plans for an Intro to Computers class we were asked to teach.  We had between 5 and 7 students at each session and taught them the basics of windows, MS Word, the internet and some tools and utilities.  After our classes the two other IT guys taught website design and everything went well.  At the same time the four of us were also asked to work on a website for the Peace Corps Armenia.  We put together some ideas and got approval to move forward on that.  This will be an ongoing project for the next couple years for us and we will hand it off to others in the future to maintain.  Once we get it going and up on a site I will let everyone here know so you can take a look at it.  There will be some content for everyone to see and other content for current volunteers behind password protection.

In addition to teaching and the website we also had to finish up out community project which was to help tourism in our village by creating two pamphlets, one for tourists and one for tour operators.  We were pretty swamped during that time because we also had language classes and central days where we all attended lectures together.  As busy as we were was not nearly as bad as what the TEFL team had to do, they had to teach 14 classes of English to three different age groups, come up with lesson plans and create a teaching portfolio.  My hat goes off to that team and the others who had to teach so many classes. 

One really great thing that happened at a central day a couple weeks ago was a medical lecture on healthy eating.  It really wasn’t a lecture, some current volunteers from the A15 and A14 groups made us food using local ingredients.  It was great, we had lots of food that we were all missing and didn’t think we would get for a long time.  Unfortunately a few people ate too much or the food disagreed with them and they ended up with a bad case of Loots (Armenian for Diarrhea).  I enjoyed it a lot and didn’t really have any problems afterwards. 

Last Tuesday we hit another major milestone with our Language Proficiency Test.  This is the test given at the end out our training period.  We have to pass the test with at least a Novice High in order to swear in, in fact if we don’t they will still swear us in but make us get a tutor for 6 months and take the test again.  It was a bit stressful knowing this was coming up and having to take it but it went well.  I made mistakes but everyone did.  I scored a Novice High so I was happy.  I know others did better including at least one Intermediate High but I want striving for excellence, I was afraid I would fail it all together. 

Now a brief discussion of Politics.  Many of you may have heard about the issue with Georgia and Russia.  That issue was really a War, at least Georgia officially declared war on Russia.  It was a fast war as those things go.  Georgia got their asses kicked.  But the result was that the Peace Corps volunteers in Georgia were forced to high tail it out of the country.  As the nearest Peace Corps country they came here.  It happened so fast that many of them didn’t have any luggage with them and a number of them did not even have passports which caused some delays at the border.  All this enforced in our minds how important it is to keep a “Go Bag” ready, especially if there is diplomatic trouble brewing.  When I get to my new site later this week and unpack I will put together an emergency bag and set it somewhere handy.  I will probably need to add to it if the need to leave arises but it is good to have a head start just in case.  

All this means that by the time this gets posted I will have been sworn in as a Peace Corps Volunteer.  It should be a good ceremony, I hope to take pictures and put them up on the blog.  It has been an extremely difficult 10 weeks here.  In fact we lost a total of 5 people, or 10% of those we came with who decided this was not for them.  They are all missed and I am sure we will think about them tomorrow but our main focus will be on the ceremony and then getting ready to leave.  Everyone heads to their sites first thing on Friday.  They don’t want to give us any break before we head off to places unknown, or in my case the short drive to the city that has been our central location for 10 weeks.  For me the swearing in ceremony will be bitter sweet.  It means that PST will be over and we can get on with the jobs we signed up for, but it also means that I will not see many of my new friends for a few months. 

Well that is it.  More to come later. 

Cheers

Brian

OK, I finished last with the Site Visit.  I have a lot to tell since then and it might be a while before I can post this entry.  Just to let you know that I try to post these often but even when I go to the internet and try I am only successful one out of about 4 times.  I try to load up the page I use to post the entry and most of the time the connection at the internet place is to slow to load up the page so I just have to wait until next time and hope it is faster.  I am excited now when I can get a 15kb/second connection.  It is a far cry from my 6mb/second connection that I had in California.  I read that a new company is going to be offering connectivity soon and I am dying to get it set up as soon as I have my own place. 

The next topic of business is that I am going to start locking some of my blog entries.  They will be password protected, as soon as I figure out how to do that.  I want to limit the people that read them to close friends and family, plus a few others who may have an interest.  I am doing this so that I can post sensitive information without running the risk of people seeing it who shouldn't.  If you have a desire to read them just send me an email and I will give you the password.  I would ask that you not copy and forward the post to anyone, but you can print it out and take it to lunch with friends (Bonnie).  If I don’t know you well, and there are at least some people who are family of my A16 friends (more like a family now) then just write me an email and let me know who you are.  I am happy to let you read what I have to say as long as you promise to keep it confidential.  Don’t worry, the A16’s already know!

OK, enough of the house keeping stuff, onto more interesting topics.  The site visit was pretty interesting.  I still stop in at the NGO occasionally to say hello and try their internet connection (still pretty slow).  They told me they had an idea to start an IT technical school.  It sounds good but it is going to be a lot of work.  They need to get a grant and raise money on their own for computers, find teachers and space to set up a classroom, etc.  They are going to work with the Gyumri IT Center where a friend of mine is going for his 2 years of service.  I think they want me to teach classes, that is going to be an interesting conversation.  I guess I mentioned that I got put into the IT program with the Peace Corps.  I am not sure why, yes I am a techie geek but my real background is in business management.  Sure I do my own website and work on my own computers and networks at home, but just ask my sister at how good I am about helping others to do that kind of thing   Any way here I am in the thick of the IT stuff, it should be interesting to say the very least. 

Last weekend I went into Hrazden, the capital city of our Marz.  It is about twice the size of the city I will be living in but it is pretty close so I can get their easily.  It actually consists of 5 villages that the Soviets combined to make into a single city.  This means it is really spread out and has a lot of undeveloped space between the 5 centers.  The have a Cement factory and Hydro Thermal electricity plant in the city that pretty much dominates everything.  They also have a big supermarket called Star.  Ryan, Josh and I took at Marshuti from our village to Hrazden which wasn’t bad.  We actually got seats and it didn’t get that crowded.  For those that don’t know Marshuti’s are large vans that are the common transportation in Armenia.  They pack as many people possible in them and will stop anywhere along the way to pickup or drop off passengers. 

The market is as big as a Safeway back home but doesn’t have the same stuff.  It does have some good things.  We got there and shopped around a bit, I bought the most stuff and was quite happy.  Then we walked to the Marshuti stop where the ride begins.  Out van was already packed and standing room only.  The official capacity for the van is 13 in back, we started off with 20 and a lot of bags of flour, buckets of fruits, etc.  At the high point we probably reached 26 people.  I couldn’t move and stood hunched over and holding on for dear life as we went over roads that were in desperate need of repair when Stalin was still breathing.  I will say that I think the 3 Americans on the marshuti gave the other passengers an unexpected treat ?  I am sure they enjoyed watching us try to stay upright!.  We made it back in one piece but with a bit of back pain, and headed to Josh’s house to work on our practicum.  I and the three other IT guys will be doing two things, working on a website for the Peace Corps Armenia and teaching some computer classes to the local youth.  We had to come up with a lesson plan, which we did.  Josh and I will be teaching basic computer classes and Elliot and Ryan will teach web development.  That should be an interesting experience.  It starts Monday!

Yesterday we had central day which is where we all get together in Charentsavan and get combined lessons.  Yesterday we learned a little about the legal system then we had a session on the “Armenian Genocide”.  First we were told that official position of the current Administration.  We are not allowed to use the word “Genocide”.  Instead we should say “What the Armenians refer to as the Genocide”, so in the future I will use the term WTACG (What the Armenians Call Genocide) so as not to violate the official administration policy.  We were also show a video of a PBS show on WTACG that was pretty detailed and definitely in favor of calling it by the other name.  In the show we learned that it had been recognized by past Presidential administrations and the Turks had been condemned for it.  In fact three prominent Turks, the General of their army, the Admiral of their Navy and the head of their government (I think) had been tried in absentia and found guilty then sentenced to death.  All three had fled the country and were killed by assassins in the following years.  This led me to believe that at one point even Turkey admitted or acknowledged that WTACG had actually happened.  I found it very interesting that we would get a lecture on the political repercussions of using the term but then were show a video that definitely supported calling it something the current administration does not support.  I guess the political ties are strong enough with Turkey that no one wants to offend them.  They officially say that WTACG did not happen and it was a civil war with deaths on both sides.  If you get a chance and are interested try to find the PBS special and watch it.  The topic is still huge here and I have been asked about my opinion several times.  That was before I knew that I don’t officially have one so I guess I said the wrong thing ?

After that session, which was pretty interesting we had another session on Armenian History.  I am sure it would have been great but the room was hot and we were all really tired so I don’t remember much of anything that was said.  After that I went to my NGO to talk to them then had several beers with friends before heading home.  I have a lot more to say but it will be in the next entry.  Thanks for reading this blog.

I would really love to get mail from you if you find what I have to say interesting.  A few friends have written but I will encourage people I have not yet met to write me and let me know what they think.  Is there anything you want to know about Armenia, the Peace Corps, living here, etc.  Just ask and I will put it in a blog or send you an email.  There is a button on this page to write me comments.  If you don’t want them made public just let me know.

Cheers

Brian

My site visit was pretty uneventful.  As you already know by now I am going to be stationed in the same city that is the hub for our 11 week training.  We have been going into the city since the first day we were here so all of my group knows it pretty well.  I was hoping that by spending time with people who live there I would learn some hidden gems of the city, some things the Americans had not found but unfortunately it was not to be.  I asked just about everyone I met what there is to do in the city for fun and they all told me the same thing “Go to Yerevan”.  So by Peace Corps Policy I can go to Yerevan, which is only 30 kilometers away but I have to be back by midnight or it is considered an “Overnight” stay and we are only allowed 2 of those a month.  This wouldn’t be a really big issue for me except for the lack of privacy that a PCT/PCV has.  You live with a family for the first 7 months you are in the country.  The families are great but everyone feels the need to take care of you.  For some reason everyone thinks I need to eat more and they keep trying to feed me 5 times a day and when I do eat they try to get me to eat more than I want.  Now I know this is hospitality and I respect that but after several weeks of it it really does get annoying.  I have told my host family several times that I am not hungry and now I will let them put food on my place and just stop eating when I am full.  It bothers me to leave food just sitting there but it is the way to do it and keep them happy.  The other lack of privacy thing is that it is common to have windows in the bedroom doors in Armenia.  I have them in both my host houses and my friends all seem to have them as well.  They are usually etched glass so you can’t really see in but you can see movement through them and the lights from the halls will shine in brightly.

I guess it boils down to the fact that after living on your own for a while and by your own rules it is had to live with other people and other rules. 

Now let me tell you about my new assignment.  When Peace Corps Training is over and I get sworn in and more to my new site I will be working with an NGO (Non Government Organization) called The Resource Center.  It is a small NGO consisting of several volunteers and a couple of staff.  It is attached to a Kindergarten with 230 kids ranging in ages from 1 to 6.  While not really part of the kindergarten it has the same director and shares space in the same building.  I am learning about the projects which they have going, at the moment there is only one active but they have another in the late approval and funding process and two others in the early stages or application and funding requests.  My counterpart, who is also my host brother, is also teaching a computer class to some volunteers from the City and surrounding villages.  I sat in on the first class and understood most of what he said.  Bit, Byte, Kilobyte, etc are all the same.  I am looking forward to attending some more sessions and eventually teaching my own class in web design.  That should get interesting. 

My Armenian is coming along OK.  I wish I were faster with the language but it is not to be.  I am definitely going to be getting a tutor as soon as classes are over so I can continue my learning.  I think that speaking it everyday will also go a long way in making me more comfortable with it. 

I am coming home for Christmas.  I booked a flight (waiting for confirmation) and will be home for a very short 10 days in December.  

Not much else to say right now.  I hope everyone is doing well.  Miss you all

Brian


The 3 in the middle are my host family (Minus the kids) everyone else is extended family



Water Fight from Jur Or


The Church at Echmiatsen (spelling)


Inside the church



Inside the church in our Village

OK, My apologies that it has been a while since the update, lots of things going on to keep me busy and not a lot of internet connection.  I hope I can change that when I move out of my village and into the “city”.  

First off I may have mentioned that the rest of the Americans in my village decided to put me in charge of the 4th of July festivities.  It wasn’t a job I particularly wanted but so be it.  The Peace Corps wanted each village to have a celebration that was cross cultural and involved the people of our village.  In our case we decided to make it our families.  We received about $200 from the Peace Corps to buy food and anything else we needed (except alcohol and tobacco).  All of the Americans signed up to make something and our Armenian families also agreed to bring food and cook the meat we bought.  Originally we wanted to buy a goat and slaughter that for the Korovats but the people in the village said that goat was not good in hot weather so we ended up getting 10 kilos of pork and 12 kilos of chicken for them to cook.  When the 4th arrived I bought the meat in the city and went home to buy 45 eggs so I could make deviled eggs.  The recipe I had called for some things that I don’t think you can get in Armenia so I had to wing it.  I made a couple batches one normal and the other spicy.  I think the Americans liked them but I am not sure about the Armenians.  I know a few of them tried them but I think that they felt obligated since I made them.

We got to have Chocolate chip cookies, from a Better Crocker package no less.  They were like manna from heaven, amazingly good.  Scott made a really tasty salsa with tomatoes, onions, garlic, peppers and cilantro.  It came out really good and went well with the fried lavash that Josh made.  That was really good and we ate most of it before the Armenians got there.  I really have to make that myself and sprinkle sugar and cinnamon on it, I think it will come out really good.  We had a ton of food and of course it being the 4th of July we bought a bunch of beer with our own money.  By the time the party kicked off we were feeling good, then the vodka and cognac showed up.  I didn’t drink much but a number of people did and when the dancing started we all had a lot of fun.  I am not sure everyone felt so good the next morning but we had a good time that night. 

When I got home I found out that Rita, my host mother, had fallen earlier in the day and hurt her arm.  She had gone to the Hospital and had it in a sling.  She looked really unhappy but I don’t think it was broken because there was no cast.   The next day we went into town and attended a pretty dry lecture on Armenian Church architecture and the history of the scribes during medieval times.  The lecturer was an American but the lecture skimmed what I would have liked to hear and focused on things that didn’t interest me.  Afterwards I went to a party at another Americans house in a near by village.  We had a great meal and a lot of vodka.  Where I stayed pretty sober at the 4th of July party I didn’t on the 5th ?.  Between the vodka that everyone was drinking, the smoking (Cigarettes and cigars) and the dancing we had a great time.  There were about a dozen Americans at the party and the host family.  The family was having a great time and really liked my flavored cigars that I gave them.  We played American music and they played Armenia music, we danced to all of it.  Everyone was having a good time but my teacher, who is also my warden, called me and asked me and another guy from my village to come home we had to leave.  I wish we had stayed longer but that is life.

Sunday we had classes and my friend Sean walked from his village to mine.  We hung out a bit and I made a spaghetti dinner for the family.  Sean stayed and Gary game in for it so we had a lot of fun.

Monday we got to go into Yerevan to see the Peace Corps office and visit some NGO’s.  All the groups did different things and the CBD group split into 3 sub-sectors and went to different places.  I ended up in the IT sub-sector, not sure why but what ever.  I met some pretty interesting people and might be able to help them with some things they want to do in Silicon Valley.  Also there is a need for PayPal here so that might be something I can help with. 

On Tuesday we had a session in Charentsavan.  I won’t go into details on the central days, where all the volunteers attend the same sessions in Charentsavan, but we have to get mandatory information on Safety and Security and medical issues and that is what we get.  It is important information but it makes for a long day.  Afterwards we usually get together with friends for a beer and bitch session then head back to our villages. 

Wednesday after a short class we went to meet our soon to be host families.  After August 15th we move to our permanent locations and live with a new host family.  I met my new host brother who also works at my NGO and turns out will be my counterpart since the person who was supposed to be my counterpart had to go to Russia for a few months.  Arsen is a nice guy and we were able to communicate mostly in Armenian since he doesn’t speak much English.  It is a bit scary that I can now talk to people, although in a limited vocabulary, in Armenian.  We got a bit of help from our teachers who would translate when we needed it but we were mostly on our own.  The next day all of the Americans except for a few of us, had to get on busses at 8:30 to go to Yerevan to get on other busses to their sites for 4 days of site visits.  I got up late, chatted with the family, met my teacher for a lesson then caught a taxi into Charentsavan to meet my counterpart and the rest of the people at my NGO.  The all greeted me at the entrance and made introductions.  One of them spoke English and it turns out that she doesn’t work for the NGO but the kindergarten that it is attached to.  Yes the NGO is run by the same person that runs a 217 student Kindergarten.  The person speaking English is a teacher at the kindergarten.  It looks like I might be teaching English to some 5 and 6 year old children at some point.  After talking to the staff for a while and getting a tour of the facilities we all headed out to a restaurant for a couple beers and some food.  After that Arsen and I went back to his apartment to meet his parents.  His Mom was there when we got up to the apartment and is really nice.  His father was picking cherries and came back late that evening.  Everyone is really nice. 

OK, that pretty much brings you back up to date with my life.  I am at the NGO now, we are supposed to have internet but the server is having problems and we don’t seem to have it today.  I will keep trying but may end up heading over to the internet café later to post this blog. 

That is it for now.  Life goes on and on in the wonderful country of Armenia.  I am even getting used to everyone asking me if I am married and then asking why not.  I actually told the last person to talk to my last girlfriend.  ? 

Cheers my friends.  Miss you all and wish I could be there with you but still enjoying things here.

Brian

P.S. I almost forgot to mention that I was in an auto accident a few days before the 4th.  Ryan and I were in a taxi heading back to our village and we came around a corner and there was another car on our side of the road coming at us.  We tried to brake and the other car tried to swerve but to no avail, we hit them pretty hard and I would guess we totaled both cars.  Ours had damage on the driver’s front quarter panel and was leaking fluids.  Their car was pretty much caved in on the driver’s side and also leaking fluids.  They both ran afterwards but not well.  I doubt they would get very far.  The funny thing is that we watched the other guy, the one who was at fault, get out and yell and scream at the taxi driver.  Both Ryan and I were OK, though we had a bit of a headache later in the evening.  The whole time we waited on the side of the road, close to an hour, no police showed up.  Oh well

Hi Bonnie, I hope you are enjoying the blog and sharing it with everyone. 

I think I was going to talk about the flora and fauna in this post but I have much more interesting things to talk about.  Maybe I will come back to that topic later, but the short version is that there are plants growing wild along side the road and in people yards that you would not see in America. 

So what topic could be more fun than that?  Well I have two and I hope I have time to do them justice.  On Saturday we went into a city called Echmiadzin, it contains the holy seat of the Armenian Orthodox Church, their equivalent of the Vatican.  We were given a tour by a Holy Father who leads a church in Chicago but was called back here for a year.  The Armenian Orthodox church is small having lost about 90% of the priests in the genocide in 1915 and then having to survive under communism for 70 years but it seems to be coming back.  The tour was pretty incredible.  They have an amazing church and some beautiful artifacts.  Unfortunately most of the church and building are undergoing much needed renovation so we were not able to see everything.  We have been invited back in a few months to see the things we missed.  These include the Armenian alphabet made of gold and precious stones, the spear that killed Jesus (their claim), a piece of Noah’s Ark and many other treasures.  I will definitely have to make it back before leaving Armenia. 

On Sunday it was Jur Or (Water Day).  This is a religious holiday but got its start as a pagan holiday.  We were warned about it as the kids will soak anyone they see.  The morning started off mellow enough.  We had guest from Yerevan staying at our house over the weekend so I got up and went outside for coffee.  Ani, a university girl that speaks great English, came down to talk and translate for me.  We chatted a bit and I gave the kids some water balloons.  After coffee I went back to my room and I hear some small water fights.  I participated enough to toss water out of my window onto Ani and Lilo, my host sister-in-law, then went back to working on the computer.  Ani was kind enough to pour cold water down my back as I worked at my desk.  Of course I had to repay the debt and we ended up outside in a full scale war with the two of us, a couple boys (6 and 8), Ani’s older brother and s few helpful souls who would randomly pour buckets of water from the balcony.  My host brother stayed inside behind the door, only venturing out to toss an occasional bucket of water that had been warmed on the stove.  Given that the rest of us were using ice cold tap water, we were not to upset to get doused with the warm stuff.  

After a short but heated battle we tried a sneak attack on the neighbors but they caught us and dashed in their house.  I think a couple people pushed their way in and got a couple of them in the entry way but I don’t know for sure.  I headed back to our place and had some lunch.  Three friends from a nearby village walked to my place and were drenched by the roving bands of kids with buckets.  We all piled into my host brothers car and he drove us to another village where we were supposed to go to the hot springs with some other Peace Corps folks.  They ambushed us with lots of buckers and about 40 kids.  But the joke was on them as we all got attacked by the kids, two of us getting dragged away and put under a tap.  Needless to say we were all soaked to the bone by the time we got to the hot springs only to find it closed as they cleaned the building.  Now we had to venture back through the kids to get to Emily’s house.  What a nightmare, another soaking with cold dirty creek water.  Ugh.  Back at Emily’s we tried to dry out and play some card games.  I got a cab back with the other folks later that day.  It was an amazing day and I am really glad I ventured out.  Some other volunteers didn’t and I think they missed out on a real cultural experience, not to mention a good way to be part of the community. 

I am going to try to upload a few pictures including one of Ani and I fighting, another of my host family and the extended family from Yerevan and finally a few of the church at Echmiadzin, I hope you enjoy them.

Next week is going to be exciting for all of us.  We get to go into Yerevan and see the offices and a bit of the city, then we head out to visit the sites where we will be living for the next two years and we will meet and stay with our host families.  It is probably a bit more exciting for the others as I have been to my city many times ?  I am still looking forward to meeting my host family and the people in my NGO.  I wonder if they will make me walk to my town given that it is so near. 

As always I hope you enjoyed my random musings.  I enjoy writing them and I figure when I am old and senile I will have something to look back on and remember when….

Take care everyone!!!!

Brian


Water Day Fun


Host Family and extended family.

Bad Itch, sounds like a strange title but it does not refer to anything I caught while in country.  It is what “peace corps” means in Armenian.  Peace translates to something bad or negative.  Corps refers to an itch so saying “Peace Corps” in Armenia is saying “Bad Itch”.  I always knew I would annoy people but I never really thought of myself as a bad itch before. 

Ok so on to a more interesting topic. 
Well I got into town on Saturday, as you know if you read this blog.  I was able to get my computer on the network and download all the mail in my box as well as upload some mail that I had written.  I also found out I can use my cell phone as a modem but that I need to have that service activated.  I am trying to get that done soon so I can get my mail from home.  We will see if it happens.  Saturday was a pretty busy day, in addition to spending time in the internet I hung out with a few other A-16s catching up then went shopping to buy the ingredients for the spaghetti dinners I was going to make over the weekend.  I bought tomato paste, onions, garlic, butter, mushrooms, fresh ground beef and spaghetti.  When I got home I started cooking.  Ryan, from my village gave me a hand and we made up a pretty good dinner.  Gary from Charentsavan caught a cab out here and joined us.  There were many toasts at the dinner table and we ate a pretty filling meal.  When I tried to help with the dishes I was told “NO!” and that I should sit back down.  I guess I am only allowed to do so much. 

On Sunday I got up and did my laundry.  I must be a lightweight because while I was hand scrubbing my clothes in the basin I felt something on my finger.  When I looked at it I had a blister that tore open.  The other index finger also had a blister on it.  So much for scrubbing things really well.  I finished then hung the clothes in the back of the house under the roof because it looked like rain.  A bit after I finished my laundry I got a call from some other volunteers in a nearby village, they wanted to come see my village so I met their taxi on the road and walked with them to another guys house where we had some coffee then headed up to the shrine on the hill.  On the way we ran into a few other volunteers from yet another village and took them up there as well.  On the way it started to rain pretty hard so we sheltered in a store until it let up a bit.  Luckily we all had some rain gear.  When the rain let up we made our way up the hill to the shrine with an entourage of the village kids who found us quite interesting.  We hung out there for a while and took a lot of pictures then headed to the castle ruins where we explored around a while, took pictures and walked through the tunnel.  The kids tried to get us to pay to go through the tunnel but we laughed and said we weren’t going to pay.  It was a half hearted try at hustling some dram out of us.  From there we walked to the larger church in town and looked around there a while and chatted with the priest before breaking into smaller groups and heading our own ways. 

I went back to my house with a couple others to get the ingredients for the spaghetti I was going to cook at Ronnie’s house.  We got the stuff and chatted with my host family a bit then walked back to Ronnie’s where everyone was consolidating.  I had planned to cook for about 7 people but we ended up with about 14.  Luckily I had enough, barely, to feed everyone one.  I had Mark and Ronnie helping me in the kitchen wash and cut garlic, onion and mushrooms.  Then I got the meet browned and the sauce made.  Finally the spaghetti cooked.  It was a big job but it turned out great.  We sat down at the table without the Armenian women since they don’t eat with the men, at least not at a gathering.  The host father can really drink and kept filling our glasses with Vodka and making toasts.   We were all pretty good about limiting our intake and balanced everything with lots of food so no problems.  Ronnie’s host brother drove the folks from the other village home and the rest of us walked back to our places.  We tried to help with the dishes but were firmly told no.  I did hear that the women ate after we left and seemed to enjoy the food we made. 

The next couple days were pretty boring, just classes and some meeting to help us with our business project.  I got nominated to lead the 4th of July cross cultural even in our village so we are all working on that.  We should have about 60 people coming if all our families show up there.  We are going to make a bunch of different American dishes like deviled eggs, brownies, smores, etc and we are also going to get a goat to BBQ along with some other Armenian dishes.  We will also have games for the kids to play like a 3 legged race and maybe water balloon toss.  It should be a lot of fun.

On Tuesday afternoon I was walking home from Ronnie’s house when I got a call that our Emergency Action Plan was being activated.  It was a test but we were all required to consolidate at the Language and Cultural Facilitators house.  I turned around and headed there without going home so I didn’t pack the “go bag” with the essentials like food, water, med kit, clothes and passports.  I did have some stuff in my backpack and that was OK.  We were told it was a test so I did not stress over it very much.  We all ended up hanging out at our teacher’s house for a couple hours before walking home.  I did a lot of walking and was a bit wiped out when I got back. 

Hopefully I am going to post this at lunch on Wednesday the 25th.  After lunch we are all going to find out where out permanent sites are located, so where we will be living for the next 2 years.  It is a big day for us, once we find out we will probably meet some of the people living there now and go out to dinner with them to get to know our future site-mates.  I will post the location of my site when I get a chance but it could be a few days before I make it back on the internet.  I have no idea now where I will end up, but the rumors are circulating around.  I guess I will just wait and see.

UPDATE!!!!!  I am going to pretty much stay where I am.  My city is going to be CHARENTSAVAN!!!!!  More later

Now for the general things.  If anyone wants to send a care package it would be very welcome but absolutely not necessary.  If you want to send one please do so before the second week of July or it will not get to Charentsavan before we all leave for our next site.  Things you might consider sending: 
Peanut butter (never heard of it here)
Books (it will be a long winter)
Baked goods (anything sealed well)
Spices for cooking/baking (cinnamon, baking soda, brown sugar, cayenne powder)
Hot sauces like Chalula but not Tabasco
Sports bars (love ProBar)
Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups
Parmesan cheese
Spatula for mixing
Anything you want to send.  The address is:

Brian Gilmer
House of Culture
K. Demichyan Square
2501 Charentsavan
Armenia

This is just a personal wish list of things I can’t get here.  Please don’t feel obligated to send anything, I am doing really well and while I miss some things from home I will just enjoy them more when I come home at Christmas. 

Stay tuned next time when I talk about the flora and fauna of Armenia

Thanks for reading, as always I would enjoy your comments.  Miss you all.

Brian

Well as most of you may know I went into town on Saturday after school and spent some time on the internet.  I was able to read a bunch of my email, post a blog entry and put up some pictures as well as clear out some of my old mail and pay a number of my bills online.  I love the internet and miss it greatly in the village.  I have had dreams of the high speed internet connections I cancelled when I left the states.  Oh well so much for that.  I will still write the blog entries as I have time and post them when I can.  I apologize for their irregularity.

Saturday June 14th
Yesterday was interesting.  On Thursday at dinner Varushan, my host brother, told me that I would cook dinner the next day.  I am not sure if he was kidding but I took the opportunity.  I have been trying to help out but I keep being told “Che, Che” (No, no) so I took this as an opportunity to get into the kitchen and show that men could do some good cooking.  I asked my language teacher to help me shop and we bought some ground beef, onions, potatoes, peppers and a couple other things in the village.  She invited me to go to Charentsavan with her in the PC car and I accepted since I could get more things there.  I got some help from a friend buying a cheese that would melt, some mushrooms, butter, and some cakes for desert.  I got everything back and went to work.  The goal was quesadillas and French fries.  It was a lot of work but it came off pretty well.  In the mean time I don’t think my host sister-in-law had a lot of faith in me because she made Dolma (cabbage leaves stuffed with meat and rice).  My food came out really good, especially with sour cream on top of it.  The fries reminded me of In-n-Out fries, pretty tasty.  In addition to my host family the two language teachers came for dinner as well as one of the A-15’s who is helping teach some of our sessions.  We had a good chat, partly in English and partly in Armenian.  It was a great night.  People left around 10:00 and I had to quickly rush and get my homework done before getting a shower and going to bed. 

Today we had class until 1:30 then caught the local bus from our village to Charentsavan.  There was a cultural program that the Peace Corps arranged for us, but it was optional.  I had planned to attend but got caught up at the internet café then helped some friends get phones, SIM cards, etc.  By the time we were done we had missed half of it so we went to a bar to hang out.  We had a couple beers and talked about classes and just got caught up with each other.  It was a really relaxing and fun time.  I was having a good time so decided to stay a bit longer and missed the bus back to my village and had to get a cab instead.  It wasn’t that expensive so I really didn’t mind and I enjoyed the extra hour with everyone. 

On the ride back I tried, partially successfully, to talk to the cab driver.  When we got to my house he gave me his card and told me to call him the next time I needed a ride.  After dropping off my stuff I came back outside and had a nice conversation with my host sister-in-law, Liana.  I was actually able to say what I wanted to say, and even though pretty limited it felt pretty good.  We had a nice dinner, she made French fries again tonight and the kids loved them then we got ready and went over to Ryan’s host family’s house.  They were having a big party to welcome home their son who had been in the army and serving in the Karabagh region for the last two years.  This party was huge.  There were two different areas, one for the women and another for the men.  The table with the men was piled two levels high with food and there were vodka bottles every 3 feet.  There must have been about 50 guys sitting around the table and Terri, the one American girl at the party.  The Americans were sitting at one end of the table and when I got there Scott made room for me to sit down, little did I know he had an ulterior motive. 

When I sat the guy who had been next to Scott and was now next to me poured me a shot of vodka and started a toast.  For the next 45 minutes he kept trying to get me to do shot after shot with him and I politely but firmly refused.  I made an excuse and moved down to the beginning of the table where a couple friends were.  I sat down and looked over at a pile of alcohol.  What comes next is the quote of the week:

Brian:  I have never seen a 6 pack of vodka before
Scott:  That was a 12 pack!

We laughed for a good couple minutes then realized that it probably wasn’t the only 12 pack they had bought but it might be the only bottles left.  Everyone was quite lubricated.  None of the Americans were really drinking much, me included.  We just kept saying “We are really in Armenia and part of these families” It really was great how welcome they made all of us feel.  We certainly did not feel like outsiders, they made us part of the community and the families.  After a little while Terri’s host father called and she said she would head home.  Scott, Josh and I volunteered to walk her back to her place so after Scott got a new sweater and hat (His host mom insisted) we headed off.  It was pretty dark and we had to turn down the offer of a ride because we wanted to walk.  When we crossed the bridge her host dad was waiting for her so we walked with him a bit.  Scott and Josh headed back and I told him I was going to walk home.  He wanted to drive me but I said no I would walk and my host brother was going to be driving home soon and would pick me up if I was still walking. 

I headed off on the 1 mile walk back to my place.  After about 5 minutes a strange car pulled up next to me and opened the door.  The driver said get in and he would take me to Varushan’s house (my place).  I went ahead and got in and it wasn’t until I got out that I realized it was Terri’s host dad.  It was dark with we met and dark in the car.  You may say I am stupid for getting in to the car when I didn’t know the driver.  I maybe but he knew where I lived and everyone in this village has been nothing but friendly to all of us so I did feel safe. 

After getting home I got a few calls from friends and my host brother making sure I got home.  Then I rolled over and dropped off like a log. 

Sunday June 15th
I woke up around 9:00 AM, it felt great to sleep in.  Didn’t really hear anyone else up and about so I spent a little time on the computer then went down and had some breakfast.  After breakfast it was onto the Sunday morning task of washing my clothes.  First I wash them in a tub of warm water and soap.  After washing them there I put them in another tub of clean cold water with a hose running in it to rinse them.  When that tub gets full I take the clothes out, squeeze out the water and hang them on the line to dry.  I have been trying to conserve my clothes wearing then a couple times before washing them, but with some things still dirty from all the traveling I had a lot of things to wash so it took a while.  When I finally finished I had to head out to Zhanna and Hasmik’s house (“Zhanna U Hasmik-e Toona” in Armenian) where we were gathering to see the consolidation point, should there be any problems.  Zhanna’s mother had made some delicious pastries for us and we had lots of fresh fruits and coffee.  It was very pleasant. 

From their house we went for a walk to the two churches in town.  They are both built like citadels with walls 3 feet thick.  The bigger one is in town and there is a small one on a hill with a great view.  It was a bit of a hike but it was pretty nice.  We got some great pictures.  Then we hiked back down and to the store (Hanoot) for an ice cream before splitting up and heading home.  I walked home to find Liana doing her laundry in a washing machine set up outside!  I wonder what I need to do to use that?!?! 

Monday June 16th
Since I can’t get to an internet café to post this that often I guess I will just keep this entry running until I can, it make it easier to post when I do get there. 

So not much interesting special today.  In class we are learning to ask for and tell the time in Armenian (Hai-ren).  Some times it feels like I am back in kindergarten but we don’t get naps or graham crackers and milk.  We do get to eat the snacks our host families make for us during break and we share them with each other.  Today I had a bag of fresh white cherries (Spitak Giless) and others had cookies.  We pretty much all have at least one sandwich made of lavash filled with meat or cheese and greens.  As you can tell the food here is fresh and very healthy. 

I walked home after class and sat outside working on my homework and talking to Liana.  At about 3:30 we started hearing thunder and about 30 minutes later it started to rain.  It ended up pouring but by that time I was safely in my room reading a novel.  I don’t get much down time so I try to enjoy it when I can. 

This evening my host brother, Liana and the two kids are headed to see family in Hrazdan so it is just his mother and I.  I think Liana made me dinner before leaving, not that I really need to eat more.  I could certainly skip a meal without suffering any lasting problems ?  I guess I will eat a light meal and read a bit more.  I also need to practice my verbs and adjectives as I am worried I am not keeping up with the others in my class.  Welcome to my exciting new life in Armenia ?.

Friday June 20th
OK I was hoping to post this before now but the internet was so slow that I gave up after an hour and went and had a beer with friends.  In the café I went to the woman behind the counter started talking to me.  It seems she has a sister in my village and knows who I am.  Keep in mind we are in a bigger city many miles from where I live.  I knew everyone in the village knew me but now I know that the Americans are known all over the area.  It tells us how good of a behavior we need to be on at all times.    So now it is Friday night and it was a fun and exciting week.  We have had lots of classes and two days in the local city for classes and lectures with all the volunteers.  The lectures can be a bit dry and in the case of the sexual assault session a bit depressing but we get through them.  Don’t worry assault here is extremely rare and I know that we are going to look out for each other.  It was really good to see everyone and for those parents, friends and family of other volunteers reading this let me say everyone is doing really well.  We are a first rate group of people and I could not think of a group of volunteers I would rather be here with than the 46 other A16’s.  We are destined to do great things here and become great friends.

Ok so more of the details of the week.  The bad news is that my host mother has not been well.  She had been moving around slowly for a few days and not feeling well.  Last night there was a doctor here giving her an IV.  She is better today but is getting another IV tonight.  From my broken Armenian I gather it is not really serious, at least I hope it isn’t.  When I asked her how she felt today I was happy to hear her say “Mekeech Lav”  “Little good” which is better than the “Shot Vot” (very bad) she said yesterday morning. 

Now for the fun stuff.  I got invited to attend a korvats (BBQ) at Ronnie’s host family’s house today.  It was someone birthday, I am not sure whose but they asked me if I wanted to come and I said yes.  Ronnie had to go into the city for a project so I dragged Ryan along so I had another English speaker.  We got there and the BBQ was going full tilt.  There were a number of skewers with meat cooking over the hot ash (they burn wood down to cinders and cook over that).  Ryan tapped me on the shoulder and pointed out the head of a goat on the fence.  That was the meat they were cooking.  You don’t get any fresher than that.  In addition to the meat they cooked kartofeel (Potatoes) on skewers and had so much food on the table I was afraid it would collapse.  As a side note, for those of you that think I have a lot of food at my Barbeques I am learning many things here and just wait until I get back!!!  While cooking all the men stand around the grill and talk about the food, eat the meat and drink heavily.  Today is was Cognac.  Since I am not sure who is reading this blog I won’t go into details just let me say we drank responsibly but we also gained the respect of the other men who were drinking.  I am typing this blog a couple hours after leaving so if it is coherent then I guess I didn’t drink too much.

I am having a lot of fun and think I am making progress with my language.  I am also doing some other things like heading the 4th of July cross cultural event in my village and working on the community project we all need to do for our communities.  I am certainly not bored but I have time to talk to other people in the village and the other Americans here and we are having a blast.  I do miss everyone back home and hope you are all well. 

I hope you write me (even if I don’t know you)

Stay well

Brian

One final note of mourning.  I finally ran out of American toilet paper.  I took a roll from the hotel in Philadelphia when we left and was able to milk it along for over two weeks, treating each sheet like gold.  But it finally ran out and I am now using the best stuff I can find here.  Not quite as good but not the sand paper that they sell most everywhere.  So the next time you feel that nice soft white toilet paper think of all of us here and have a good laugh ?

 

The korvats at my host family



That is not a cigarette in my hand!  It happens to be a cuban cigar

Well here I am again.  I hope you enjoyed the last couple posts, it took me a while to get them up on the blog because we only get into the larger town once a week so it has to wait until then and when we can get to the internet cafй.  As you can imagine when we get into Charentsavan for classes they keep us pretty busy, get two 30 minute breaks and an hour for lunch but it is also the only time we all have together so we like to catch up with the other A-16 members that we haven’t seen all week.  We really have some great people in our group and we all get along really well.  I can’t say how impressed I am at the quality and friendliness of the people in our group and the other volunteers I have met. 

The bad news is that we found out we have lost another member of the A-16 team.  We didn’t get a lot of details but Cari, a TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) choose to terminate her service after a couple days with her host family.  Speculation was that the standard of living was not what she was ready for but that is purely speculation.  It was just sad to hear that she had left.  I think she would have been a great addition to the team.  Oh well, we are 48 strong and we will definitely have an affect on this country. 

School continues.  I am amazed at how much we have learned in just over a week.  The teachers are very patient and keep us moving along well.  They go over a lesson then move on and come back to it a day or two later to make sure we are learning it and retaining it.  We are almost done with the alphabet, just 10 letters left.  It has been hard and I still struggle with some letters because they look so much alike.  If you laugh at this take a look at the K, V and E in Armenian.  I also point out the kindergartners are taught the alphabet over a period of months, we are learning a bigger alphabet in a matter of days.  I keep thinking of the Far Side comic with the kid in class raising his hand and saying “Can I go home now, my brain is full”.  I feel that way at about 11:00 everyday.  In class today we went on a field trip to a Kanoot (Store) and had to ask the price of things and understand the reply.  It worked for me because I needed shaving cream which I got. 

On Tuesday we all met in Charentsavan, the largest city near our area.  In addition to a number of presentations on diversity, security and medical (diarrhea and other common ailments) we got the chat with each other and some of the volunteers from the last group in country.  It was really nice to see everyone again.  At lunch everyone scattered to the internet cafes where we all checked email and updated blogs.  I was also able to do a little shopping and get some house slippers and a couple rolls of softer toilet paper.  The stuff you get in the village is not so good.  Take a corrugated cardboard box and rip off the two sides of cardboard so you just have the wavy brown paper that is between them and you have the toilet paper they sell in the village but about 5 times thicker.  So I got a bit of the nicer stuff.  I also received the box that I had shipped to myself.  Unfortunately some of the chili oil had leaked and the inside was a bit of a mess.  I was able to recover everything but some of the Equal packets I had included.  So I have a couple novels, lots of curry, some pens and a couple jigsaw puzzles.  Actually the jigsaw puzzles were borrowed by a couple other people so I will do them later.  After classes the van brought us all back to our village.

Wednesday was an exciting and full day.  It started as usual with class at 9:00 but it ended early at noon and at 1:30 we were picked up and taken to another village to meet with our program group (CBD for me).  There we had a presentation from a manager from the Ministry of Economics about the Armenian economy for the last 17 years.  Then we talked about Armenia with the program director.  Three of us had to leave a little early to head to Yerevan.  We were invited to attend a conference call at the Peace Corps office on country specific web pages.  I am hoping we can design and implement a PC Armenia web page.  After the call we were driven back to the villages (no time to even use the bathroom at the office). 

The van dropped me off near the driveway to my home, as I walked up I saw a bunch of cars in the drive and a lot of smoke coming from the covered area before the house.  My host brother yelled to me to join them, them being about 6 guys cooking meat on skewers.  It was a “Korvats” or Armenian BBQ.  It turns out it was my host sister-in-laws birthday.  There were lots of guests in the house and outside.  The men were outside cooking the meat and drinking shots of vodka.  I dropped my things in my room and said hello to another A-16 who was here (she is living with my host brothers sister).  Then I went out and joined the mew who included my host brother, his brother from Yerevan, his father-in-law and a couple others who are related but I am not sure how.  They had cooked beef and were now cooking lamb.  It smelled great and they handed me a piece of beef to eat along with a shot of vodka.  There was a lot of pressure to drink so I joined them but kept it to a minimum.  I did a couple shots with them outside then we moved in and sat down to dinner where I did a couple more then switched to juice or small sips of champagne.  The party was huge.  The women had probably been cooking all day long and there was tons of food of all kinds.  The men sat at one end of the table and ate and drank lots of vodka (I counted about 5 empty bottles).  Another rA-16 came by and joined us and we talked with everyone. 

At one point I was grilled on why I was not married.  Then I was told that they would take care of me and help me find a wife.  This was followed by some suggestions which I had to tell them would not work (if you want more details write me but I can’t say here).  Throughout the evening I feel like I became a member of the family.  It was quite fun.  At about 11:00 PM some people left, including the other A-16s.  I made my exit to bed shortly there after, but the party went on into the night with lots of drinking and loud talking.  In the morning I found that many people had spent the night here.  The women were up and cleaning and making food but the men were still asleep.     I had a quick breakfast, feeling a bit guilty that they had made me eggs, tea, etc to eat so early after the party.  Then I walked to school, stopping to pick up another A-16 along the way

I know I probably left out a lot of details like giving my host sister-in-law a bracelet I brought from Thailand and all the kids running about but it was a pretty crazy evening.  I drank for the first time in Armenia and had fun but need to stop it from become a regular occurrence. 

That is it for now. Write when you can.  Life is going great and I am sure I will have many more adventures. 

Brian

The creek that runs through town


The A-16 group in my town missing Scott.


Scott (missing from last picture) standing at the ruins of the castle in our town.



Castle ruins in our town, I think they date to the 10th century



My language teacher Zhanna at a tunnel by the castle. 


That is it for now, I would love to get email, though I can't check it often.  Take care

Brian

Very good.  “Yes oorach em!” translates to “I am Happy”  isk Du?  Are you?  As you can tall I am slowly learning Armenian. But before we get into that let me pick up where I left off in the last installment of the “Life of Brian” (no royalties to Monty Python paid).

After a really long day capped with helping move over 100 pieces of heavy luggage we went to bed.  Didn’t sleep that well and all 7 of us upstairs were awake by about 7:00 AM.  Unfortunately the upstairs did not have hot water so the best we could do was a cold face wash until they got it fixed.  Breakfast was good, fresh hard boiled eggs, some kind of thin porridge and fresh bread (hots) and Lavash (think tortilla).  On the table was fresh apricot preserve that was great on the bread.  We also had tea and coffee.  The food was fresh and very tasty.  After breakfast we had a 2 hour session with the Country director and meeting the different PC People then we headed into Charensavan.  I kind of had an idea what to expect from my time in TnT and from rumors I had heard but we pulled up to the Cultural Center and walked in to be greeted by the 80 or so current volunteers.  They were all yelling and screaming and giving us high 5’s as we went up the stairs.  It was pretty cool, kind of like walking into the pasta dinner before a race. 

Once in we sat down and were treated to a top 10 list of things in Armenia.  It was pretty funny but I also think it is going to prove more true that humorous.  After the skits and some speeches welcoming us we got to mingle with the volunteers.  I finally got to meet Elizabeth, Dustin and Lindee who I had been emailing with for months.  I also got to meet Kyle and some of the others whose blogs I have been reading since finding out about Armenia.  Everyone seems really cool. 

After meeting everyone and a few more speeches we were let out to Charensavan.  We got to go to an internet cafй but unfortunately I could not log into any of my email accounts because the computers were not set up right.  I moved to another computer and got to get into my Yahoo mail but after answering one email from Debra it crashed and I did not have time to get back in before we had to leave.  These computers and internet connections are slow, and I do mean slow.  A dial up modem is faster.  I hope I can upload this when we get into town.  One bad thing happened in town, Barbara tripped on the sidewalk and took a pretty bad fall.  She hit the side of her face pretty hard.  We bought a Popsicle to put on it to ice it down and that seemed to help but by the next day her eye was swollen shut so the Peace Corps took her to Yerevan for the night and did an MRI and the works.  She looked a lot better when she got back. 

After the internet cafй and getting a SIM card for the Armenian cell phone system we headed back to our “Resort” (more of a camp) where we hung out by the pool (ice cold water) and chatted or played cards. 

The next day we had a full day of classes, lectures, etc.  We also found out what villages we were going to be housed in.  I can’t say the name of my village now because of Peace Corps safety policies, but it is small, about 700 families, and very scenic.  I am in a mixed group of TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) and CBD (Community and Business Development) which I am.  There are 2 other CBD guys and the other 5 are TEFL.  After the village assignments we had out first Language class.  The first couple classes by our instructors were to prepare us for living with a host family so instead of the alphabet we learned key words.  It was interesting but it is going to be a long and stressful process.  After a long day of classes we were given Medical Kits and half of us met with the doctors.  I was lucky, I had all my med records and immunizations records and did not need any shots.  They wanted to give ma a polio shot but I pulled out the form that said I had one a couple years ago so I got away pain free. 

The next day, Tuesday, was pretty much more of the same, a full day of lectures and language classes.  There was a two hour lecture that included skits by the current volunteers about life in the host families.  One skit was about being pressured to drink, we all laughed. 

Wednesday was the big day for us.  We had breakfast then got into out nicest clothes and loaded out bags into vans.  We got in another van and headed in to Charensavan.  Once there we had about an hour language class then we got to meet our host families.  All the A-16’s were all put in a room and village by village we went into the big room, took a piece of bread form a loaf held by a local girl in traditional dress, dipped it in a bowl of salt held my another local girl and ate it.  It was a welcome home kind of gesture.  Then I met my family, at least my host brother and his son.  My host mother, Rita was at home.  We shook hands and traded a couple phrases in Armenian and then we watched four dance numbers by the local girls dance group.  It was interesting but we were all pretty nervous and on edge.  After the dancing we picked up our water filters and got back in the van for the drive to the village. 

I was the first to get dropped off as we were the first house entering the village.  I got to meet Rita the host mom, Liana my host brothers wife and Ani their 8 year old girl.  I had already met Vashan and Hovo my host brother and his 6 year old son.  We sat outside and had coffee and lunch with Marilyn.  Marilyn’s host mom is the sister of Vashan so we ate together.  I gave them a box of See’s which they all seemed to like.  And we tried to talk, try being the operable word.  I was shown my room at the end of the hall on the second floor, and I unpacked my bags and got comfortable.  After that I got a tour of the property.  They have a number of chickens and have just hatched a bunch of chicks which are everywhere.  That seems to be the only animals on the property.  They have a garden where they grow their own vegetables and many trees which produce a variety of fruit.  Cherries are in season now and they go straight from the tree to our mouths.  In addition to the small toilet off the kitchen there is an outhouse out front with a cement floor and a hole with water constantly running into it from a pipe.  I am really lucky that we have running water 24 hours a day (some of my friends here don’t have that luxury) and we have hot water and a shower.  I did find out that we can’t flush toilet paper down the toilet, there is a basket next to it for that. 

Ronnie another A-16 is living in a house not to far away so I pick him up on the way to classes each morning.  When we get back to his place his host mom tries to feed us until we burst.  I guess now is a good time to explain the food situation and social norms.  The food here is amazing in that it is completely natural.  The egg I have in the morning comes right from the chicken (laid hours earlier).  All the vegetables and fruit we eat come off the trees in the yard.  I think they make their own cheese and they definitely make their own bread and lavash.  It all tastes great!  If you visit anyone they feel the need to feed you a full meal.  If I stop by Ronnie’s I get coffee followed by bowls of fresh fruit, Pirogue that his host mom makes from scratch, candies, etc.  You can’t get away with out having something or they feel bad.  This is not just an isolated case, every time I stop by to see one of my fellow volunteers the host mom lays out a full spread of food.  It is amazing.  Oh and the fruit drinks that the make (compote) are amazing, really flavorful and sweet.  I have had fig and cherry so far and love them. 

Now about the alcohol.  We all laughed at the skits but they were pretty right on.  As soon as I got to my new home my host brother offered me vodka and when I said no he offered me beer.  I politely said no and tried to explain I didn’t really drink (Ok, you can stop laughing).  I got the meaning across and he was fine with that.  I have been offered alcohol by the host father at every place I have been.  One of them even insisted to the point were he had the beer poured already and the glass in front of me, this after I refused vodka about 6 times.  The culture here really is a drinking culture for men and the pressure to drink is pretty strong but I have been able to resist it so far and intend to continue.  I think it is a slippery slope and once I start it will just be harder to say no.

The rest of the week has gone pretty well, we go to class from 9:00 to 1:30 each day except for Tuesdays where we all head into the main town for group classes and meeting with our specialties and Sundays which we have off.  Today being Sunday we had it off so I did my laundry by hand and hung it up to dry then met the other 7 volunteers in my village and the two teachers and we went for a hike.  There is an old castle on the hill that we hiked up to and explored.  It was pretty cool and not much left of it.  There were a couple guys up there trying to restore one of the buildings.  There were also some sheep grazing and some donkeys walking around grazing on weeds.  There was a tunnel on one corner that you could walk down and come out below.  It was steep and dirty so I didn’t go down it but some others did. 

That brings us to now.  I am typing this as Ani is looking through all my stuff and asking me about everything.  She just found my GPS receiver and is turning it on and off.  It doesn’t do anything but flash a blue light but she is fascinated by it.  She also likes the small Swiss army knives I brought and wants one but I am pretending I don’t understand her.  I don’t want to give her one unless her parents are OK with it, she is a bit young for a knife. 

That is it for now.  I would love to hear from you but understand that I may not be able to get it or respond for a while.  Hearing what is going on around the world and what is new with everyone would be great.  Living in a village I hear a little gossip but that is about it and I am not really interested that the guy down the road had too much to drink and fell asleep on the way home ?