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