Today I made dirty rice from scratch and I think it was really good maybe a little too much pepper but still tasty.
Three times a week I go to my Armenian lesson and every time they make me dinner, so not wanting to feel like a mooch I always joke about washing the dishes or cooking dinner knowing I won’t ever actually have to do it. But I’ll be away from home this week and not wanting to waste the huge amount of dirty rice I’d made I brought it over to there house so they could taste Cajun food and prove that I a guy can actually cook. They all doloped a tiny amount on their plates and when each new person tried it I asked if they liked it. They all said yes but nobody went back for seconds and they all said it was too hot for them to handle, but I was still happy with my improving cooking skills and was glad that I’d have lunch and dinner for tomorrow. As I was getting ready to leave I went to get my pot of dirty rice excited to feel the weight of uneaten rice but to my surprise and disappointment I felt nothing. It was just a clean pot. Then they told me an Armenian proverb. Eat lunch by yourself, dinner with your friends and give your supper to the poor. Well, I would have loved another helping of the rice I had made but I was happy to have been able to share dinner with my friends and though they didn’t go back for seconds then I’m sure they will finish all of the rice I had made because this is a place where things don’t go to waste.
Since my writing a few weeks back about the teacher who stuck the pencil in the coil stove we’ve gotten a new “coffee maker” but I’ve noticed a few other things that might frighten a lawsuit conscious person. As days get warmer here in Armenia the need to trim trees becomes greater and this past week I noticed two boys scrambling up this tree to lop off dead branches with a pointed saw. They got to get out of class to do this but the way they teetered on thin branches and threw the saw to one another I wasn’t sure there would be another class in their future. Also, the other day on a bus ride we had a baby on board. Of course babies are cute anywhere but in Armenia everybody dotes on a little kid. So we’re driving down the road as fast as the old bus will take us around blind corners and big trucks carrying huge stones and the driver says pass the kid up here so here comes the baby crowd surfing the bus to the front where he sits next to the driver and the driver not wanting to seem rude, I guess, looks to the baby and starts talking not taking his eyes off of the kid but certainly taking his eyes off the road. Finally, on a last minute trip to Gyumri I had to take the early morning bus which would fit comfortably about 15 people, uncomfortably about 20 people and while I was on it there was at least 30 people, so bent in half with purses poking me in the face and the hood of my jacket getting caught in the sliding door more then once I endured the thirty minute ride to Gyumri but the good news is I found some fake Louis Vuitton socks on my trip and they look great with my fake Armani pants!
