This past Saturday was the graduation ceremony at my school. Here they call it the “last bell” and it is a very big deal although I guess graduation is a big deal anywhere. So across the country girls put on their white blouses and black skirts while boys put on their black suits and gigantic bootanears and prepared for the long awaited last day of school. In most schools across the country it is the eleventh form that graduates, kids around the age of 16. However, next year they are implementing a twelfth form to be more like schools of the west so for many volunteers it was their first and last bell. For me though it was the first of two because my students, for a reason I don’t understand, graduate from the ninth form and range in age from 13 to 18. It was a small group of kids that I have grown close to in the last year. They were the first group I worked with and I really enjoyed getting to know them. For their last bell ceremony all 11 stood on stage and sang songs, acted out skits, gave flowers to their teachers and danced. It was a little cheesy for my taste but the ceremony was still nice and I know meaningful to the students and the few mothers who attended. Two of the students in my class and coincidentally the oldest and brother and sister even talked on stage for the first time. I’ve talked to them before one on one but they never talk in class and certainly not on a stage with a big audience. But this time they did and the whole audience erupted in laughter, applause and said aprese which means good job in Armenian and is said a lot. In the west we would silently applaud these kids for overcoming their shyness and learning difficulties but definitely not laugh out loud, but here where you call a person out for being crazy to their face it is no big deal to laugh at the middle of their ceremony. Their mother too is a character. She sells candles at the local church and often greats me as a rich American who came to Artik to “make it rain” like you’ve seen in the average rap video. She gets up in the middle of the ceremony with her film camera (which always take me by surprise because when was the last time in America you saw a film camera) and stands in front of everybody to snap a picture first of the stage then of the school director sitting behind a table smoking a cigarette applauding his students. This got a lot of laughter from the audience, which while it was kinda humorous probably wasn’t the best response for this formal ceremony. After the ceremony I got a picture with the two kids I mentioned above. Varton the boy held a gigantic stuffed blue rabbit, his graduation gift and the typical graduation gift at that, and his sister with a huge bouquet of roses sprinkled with glitter. It was nice to be considered important by these two kids. Then I headed to the cafeteria for the graduation luncheon which only the graduating students and teachers are invited to so the parents wait outside. Now this is where it takes a turn from different to out right unlike anything you would experience in America unless you wanted to be CNN’s next big story for the day. And my friend Will will particularly appreciate this because I was jut talking about this sort of thing to him the other day (I call Will to voice my complaints and disgruntlements about things and share my experiences and good times too, he’s a good listener. Thanks Will). We sit down at the table and the corks start popping but not just for the teachers but for the students too who it becomes quickly obvious are pretty drunk judging from the way they poured those glasses (usually missing the cup but saturating the table cloth). Probably reading this from home it seems absolutely unacceptable and irresponsible but this is a very different society where alcohol isn’t drunk for its relaxing effect but for its role as the proper toasting mechanism and graduation certainly deserves a toast. After a long meal and many congratulatory toasts I headed for Verin Getashen for my friend Danny’s birthday.
Danny has become a great friend to me over the last year so I felt that it was important to spend his birthday with him. I was hoping to take the bus to Yerevan and then onto his village but for some reason no bus came and I ended up taking a taxi. Which for dollar to Kilometer amounts is pretty cheap but Peace Corps salary amounts is a luxury that I probably won’t do it again but it was worth getting out there to spend his birthday with him. The taxi driver wasn’t quite certain where it was and it ended up being quite a bit further then he was expecting which I don’t think he was too happy about but we made it and then the neighbors insisted he stay for dinner. Also while I was in Verin Getashen we made American style pizza with a lot of cheese and tomato sauce that Danny and I liked but his neighbors and host grandma didn’t seem to care for, but like any good friend they said it was good they would just rather save it for breakfast.
I went to Yerevan on Monday where I got to dub a cartoon into English. It was a cool experience but way harder then I expected and I now know that I’m not a very good actor so aprese Tom Cruise. The studio was neat though, I stood in a booth with headphones on and a microphone to my face and watched my character on the screen and I spoke when his mouth moved. I’ll even get my name in the credits. Funny enough I was actually the main role of David of Sasun and for much of the cartoon I am a naked little boy with correct anatomy. My speaking parts though are of an older David properly dressed and my friend Danny plays David’s uncle.
Now I’m back in Artik where the weather is beautiful and warm. I met a bunch of my neighbors sitting outside yesterday for the first time. They were all very nice and invited me over for dinner whenever and said that they would help me out however they could. Its always nice to have people help you out.
I also bought my plane ticket home. I don’t yet have an invitation hopefully I’ll be invited or else I’ve made an expensive error. Happy Birthday Michelle and Becky Duncan and Happy Memorial Day. I hope everybody is well.
