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