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