Back to the Future.

I wasn’t alive in the 1950’s but I was an avid watcher of “Leave it to Beaver” before I left and other 1950 era television shows so I think I know a thing or two about what that era was like and if I was asked what Armenia is like in 2009 I would say its like America was in the 1950’s. For example in Armenia, if you’re fortunate enough to have a car then you only have one. The man is the bread winner and while many of the women do work they do so in the typical jobs held by women: teachers, nurses, operators and secretaries, and when the work day is over the misses prepare dinner for the family and clean the house. When you make a phone call you connect through the operator (my host mom is the town operator) to who your calling. And if you have a television then you probably have only one with just about seven to ten TV stations and on that certain night of the week everybody’s home to watch that particular show that everybody just loves. Now the shows are in color for the most part but life its self is still hovering in black and white. A lot of times people still focus their lives in a way that begs no question for what comes next: your born, if you’re a girl then as a little girl you start helping mom and grandma around the house while if you’re a boy you start helping dad and grandpa outside, after you graduate from school at the age of sixteen if you’re a girl you get married if you’re a boy you serve your two years in the army then get married. Then you have kids, your kids do the same as you did as a kid and you follow in your parents footsteps living in the house you grew up in (if you’re the oldest son) and take the expected as it comes. However, it would be unfair to lump this all into the experience of every person in this country. Not everybody lives out there life in such black and white frames. It would be hard to imagine hardly any woman in the United States submitting to a June Cleaver lifestyle in 2009. And similarly in this country times are changing and change here is coming from the inside out. Armenia is surrounded on two sides by formerly communist neighbors while to the East and South are more conservative Muslim societies (Iran because the government commands it and Turkey because the east is the more agrarian conservative portion of the country). All this means that there is no near by force bringing change but in the capital Yerevan there is the occasional radical hair do, new style or gay club to keep people looking towards the modern. The Diaspora also brings new ideas and change as it centers around the Los Angeles area (some popular questions I get are “are you from LA” “no” I say “I’m from Texas” “is that near LA” they say with a sigh of disappointment) and other major metropolitan areas of the world such as Paris and Beirut. So life isn’t quite as open as it is in the US but it is moving in that direction but it’ll be a while before Armenia moves to color.

It’s cold here. No surprise since its December. As I’m writing this there is snow falling outside my window and its getting pretty deep. I attempted walking today and nearly ate it a couple of times. School has been canceled for two weeks do to the growing “flu epidemic” as the vice principle put it. It’s getting close to Christmas but here it is celebrated more like a season then a day to look forward to. In fact the celebration doesn’t center on the day of Christmas (January 6 by the Armenian Apostolic calendar) but instead on the New Year when you go to all your friends houses for free food. I’m leaving in less then one month for India and Dubai on what is a much anticipated vacation. Hope all is well with you and Merry Christmas. Love, Me.

Thankful

It’s been a while since the last time I wrote and during that time quite a bit has happened. We had our annual all-vol conference in Yerevan and a workshop where we learned better methods for teaching our curriculums with the teacher assigned to teach that subject. We also got to celebrate Thanksgiving with actual turkeys (yes they have turkeys in Armenia, I was surprised too), and while I know its late happy Thanksgiving everybody and a merry Christmas. I haven’t seen many Christmas decorations but I did find an advent calendar “Bob der Baumeister” at a fancy liquor store. I think the store owner thought it was a fancy box of chocolates because I bought it in October and who knows how long it had been sitting on that shelf before I bought it.
During this holiday season and especially Thanksgiving I look upon what I am thankful for. So what am I thankful for? I’m thankful for new experiences for which this past year has been full of. Not quite a year ago I stood in the basketball stadium at my university ready to receive my diploma. Then a short time after that I was headed to Florida where I learned how to sail, got a good tan and had a lot of fun. Then I headed for Armenia. Looking out my window now I can see the incredible distance I’ve traveled in that year. Not just mile wise but societal, linguistically, familiar, historical, and so many other ways that separate me from East Texas, the Florida Keys, and the Caucuses. There are no palm trees here and while Tyler may be cold I doubt there is any snow sticking to the ground. I’m also thankful for my family not just my actual family but the community that bonds perfect strangers six months ago to be pretty surprisingly close now. And if it weren’t for that then this would all be a pretty difficult task. So I hope that in this holiday season everybody can look to the things that they are most thankful for.

Not so long ago.

This past weekend I was in Yerevan. What else is new? Back during training every week we had the opportunity to earn Lee Bucks (our directors name is Lee) and with them at the end of training we could use them to bid on things at an auction. Well, I bid on a dinner at one of the staff members houses. So this weekend I and my buddy Dave had the dinner that we bought. We ate pizza and played games and I had a brownie for the first time since leaving the states back in May. It was delicious, in fact all of the food was really good. Our hosts were former Peace Corps Volunteers in Benin, Africa just under a decade ago. Over dinner we all talked about our experiences in Peace Corps and them having been in Africa just ten years ago is completely different then my being in Armenia now. For one thing they were in Africa a completely different continent but what I thought was interesting was the differences in communication. For example I call my family once a week and spend about $1.50 doing it. They on the other hand had to first make a reservation to make a phone call then hope that the people they were calling would be home to answer. After what was probably a fuzzy line with a multiple second delay they were given a steep bill. Obviously it couldn’t have been done on a very regular basis. My friend Roni who’s mom was in Peace Corps told me that when her mom did her service she only got to call once a year on Christmas and that was it! I also can go to the internet everyday if I wanted to and I could even get internet put in my room. But I choose to be a little withdrawn from the modern world so I try to go only once or twice a week.

Today at my school the kids put on a play about the fall season and all its bounty. To dress up the stage they had a large fruit basket with a bottle of wine poking out. Can you imagine a play at elementary school with the set decorations consisting of wine bottles? Different cultures different ways of thinking I guess. Also today I was making myself a cup of coffee when I realized that the warmer I usually use was missing so I took it to the cafeteria to warm up. While there I met the cafeteria ladies for the first time and they were nice. Tomorrow I’m helping make lunch for the kids. Also while I was there one of the ladies read my fortune through cards they weren’t tarot cards I don’t know what they were but I had a good fortune for the most part. I even tried my hand at reading theirs. The funniest part came when one of the ladies said through a heavy but still understandable accent f**k you! A little taken aback I asked what she had said, she explained that she hears it on TV all the time but what does it mean she asked. I said it isn’t nice. I guess if you don’t know what it means then there is no reason to edit it on the TV. In fact in a lot of my travels I’ve heard such head wrenching words. What came to my mind was when I was in Russia on a mission trip and we put together a dance for the kids. As a Methodist missions group I’m not sure how the words would have been taken had they been translated into Russian, but that event still to this day makes me laugh.

A Game of Chicken

This past weekend was Halloween and though Halloween is a mostly American holiday we still celebrated it here in Armenia that is the Americans celebrated it. I went via taxi with three others from the capital city. The ride was supposed to be four hours but the weather was bad. First off Armenia is a mountains country after all it’s in the geographical region called the Caucuses as in the Caucus Mountains. Anyways the region we were going to was particularly mountainous and the weather system caused for this past weekend at least the clouds to rest in the areas and valleys between the mountains, so it made for some beautiful if not surreal scenery. As we continued to climb up one side and down the other the clouds turned into fog and laid a heavy layer over the road so much so that we were at times only crawling. Then the clocks turned back recently so it got dark quick and my friend Meghan who actually lives in the region we were headed to has told me more then one scary story about the treacherousness of these mountainous roads so I was constantly leaning into the mountain as if that would keep our car on the road better. It worked because lots of places along the road have little shrines set up marking the dead who didn’t lean into the mountain far enough and consequently went over the edge. So after five hours (remember this was supposed to take four) we got to Berd expecting to have only forty-five minutes left, but our taxi driver decided he was tired and told us to find another taxi. Luckily we were persistent and said if your gonna kick us out of your taxi then you have to find us a new one and pay for it with the amount we agreed on from Yerevan to Artsvaberd. He agreed and after a while we were on our way again. The whole time the fog, mountains and forest are making a better and better Halloween spooky scene then after climbing this dirt road with a lot of slamming the gas pedal to get the necessary momentum to get up the hills we stop. Now this is particularly scary because these cars before going forward again usually roll backwards a little bit which freaks me out! We get out to see that we have a flat tire. Luckily in the middle of no where after not seeing another car for a long time a car pulls up and the taxi driver and them seem to be friends. But this is sort of weird and random and it is Halloween and who’s gonna know what happened to us if we were to disappear out there in the middle of no where. Luckily only us passengers thought up that scheme and soon the tire was fixed and we were on our way again. Finally, after about six hours we get to our destination and find that the dirt roads are now mud but that’s okay because we’re just glad to be there. And we had a great Halloween party we even carved pumpkins. I carved a Texas flag and from where we were we could even see the Azeri border. On Sunday we had to return to Yerevan. We all loaded into a marchutni this time and after about an hour we found ourselves broke down on the side of the road. Luckily another marchutni came through and towed us up the hill and when we rolled down the other side we had enough momentum to get the bus started again. And our final feat was when we were driving down the highway about an hour out of Yerevan this car comes barreling out of no where and without paying any attention and with about a foot to spare nearly side swipes us. Thanks to Sarah in the back of the bus for screaming we all made it back safely. This last part of the story is where I get me title for this week from.

In Armenia it seems that if you have a car you are entitled to whatever you want to do on the road. If you want to smash the gas and fly down the road at a hundred miles an hour down the main road in the city center then do it, if an old lady with her toddler grandson are in the middle of crossing the street even in the rain and your light turns green and their still in your way then lay on the horn because you have a car and all they got is a cane. If someone is walking down the street and it just quit raining and the pot holes are filled with water don’t slow down to keep them from getting splashed in fact its more fun to hit the pot holes full speed (that’s good for the car) and soak the person who has the audacity to walk down the side of the street. So if you have a car apprese because you also hold the world in your very hands.

And the other day I had to turn a form into the Peace Corps office. Well I wasn’t in Yerevan so I had to use a fax machine and of course the one commercial fax isn’t working on the day I needed it. So after going a few places in search of a fax machine it was recommended that I go to the city hall office. I was a little hesitant considering I had never been there, I was going to have to explain my desire in broken Armenian and what person in their right mind actually goes to a office building they aren’t affiliated with and ask to use their fax machine? Well it paid off I got to use the fax and it was free plus the people there were really nice. So when in doubt just do what you got to do.

Shnorhavor Matt and Michelle. (If you don’t know what I’m talking about ask one of them.) And I guess I’ll be seeing everybody next year.

That’s all for this week, oh ya, its gotten really really cold here but I’m told this is nothing to what its gonna be. At least I have warm cloths I can tell they’re going to get a lot of use. Hadjo.

The Hermonie File

I’ve decided to start a new post that I will try to update every month. I’ve made a friend here in Artik who I think is rather remarkable. Her name is Hermonie and just about anytime she tells me a story about how times were during the Soviet days and especially the 1990’s Armenia I’m amazed that anybody can do it! Hermonie has befriended just about all of the former Peace Corps Volunteers who have come through the region where I live. And I figure that they would agree with me when I said that Hermonie isn’t your average woman. First of all Hermonie taught herself English by reading translated books and comparing them to the Armenian and English texts. So the other day she told me about the time when she was attending university in Yerevan and because times were hard she couldn’t afford to ride the bus, but still needing to get places she would grab onto the open doors when the bus took off and holding onto the open bus door she would get to her destination by dropping off the door right before the bus would stop. One time she even fell flat on her face trying to hop a free ride. She wasn’t the only person doing this during those days she told me. And these days I don’t see anybody doing that, but the 1990’s were a very tough time for Armenia and the whole Caucus region as well as all of the former USSR. So I can’t blame her for any of it I just find it interesting to listen to the tales of how she and so many others made it through that very difficult time.

So much to do and so much time to do it in.

So much to do and so much time to do it in.

Every week I feel like I’ve got more and more to do. A new person to meet with or a new place I have to be. It’s nice to be busy to an extent but its also nice to have some down time which I think I’m balancing pretty well. For the last few weekends I’ve been going to Yerevan for the day or the weekend. Its funny how metropolitan it seems there which it is but for all of the cities I’ve visited in the world it’s actually some what small (only about 1 million people). I don’t really like having to go so often but just about any business I have to take care of must be done by going to Yerevan.

Me and my buddy Danny are going to India in January so this weekend we finally got our plane tickets and our visa’s which was probably the easiest most relaxed bureaucratic process I’ve ever been through. We went into the Indian Embassy and the lady helping us said that we had come too early to apply, but because we came from so far away she let us apply anyways. Then we forgot to bring pictures so she called an embassy car to take us to a photo shop where we got pictures taken and then the photographer airbrushed us and took off any facial blemishes which I thought was hilarious and probably against the rules for a visa picture.

After that I had a meeting with UMCOR to see about securing some nutritious varieties of food for my school cafeteria. They were very helpful and nice, but when the meeting was over one of the ladies insisted on showing me her pictures from a recent trip to Jerusalem. They were nice pictures but a lot of them- at least I got a slice of birthday cake out of it.

This week we have a week of no school. So I’m using my vacation to watch the first season of West Wing which my new friend Ashley let me borrow. Ashley and I went to the same University, Baylor, and she is in Armenia as a Fulbright Scholar. By the way I love West Wing and when I get home I want a fast paced, caffeine charged job in the west wing.

I’ve gotten a lot of letters in the mail over the last few weeks which I really like, so if you wrote one don’t worry I’ve got one for you in the mail and coming soon. It’s started to get chilly here again so I’ll be pulling out the long handles again soon.

Love, Me

The Sand Lot

Two years ago this month I left on a trip that in no small part changed the way I look at things today. It was a trip that helped define what I wanted to do after I graduated from college and it was a deciding factor in me joining the Peace Corps. Looking back now its pretty crazy to think what you can do in just two years and where you’ll will end up two years down the road. In 2007 I was crisscrossing the Balkans with a class of thirteen students meeting, interviewing, and gaining a rare perspective on a conflict that had raged little more then a decade ago. It was a fascinating trip and it is now a very fond memory of mine which is why I choose to mark its anniversary every year.

I know that its been a long time since I’ve written in my blog. It isn’t from a lack of things worth writing about I guess its from a busy schedule. Although for those with a 9-5 job you might find my saying I’m “busy” a bit of an overstatement as in my complacency I’ve begun to think I’m busy. One thing we were told time and time again in PST was that the first few months were going to be slow and it would be difficult to stay busy and for that part even feel like we’re doing anything. But I wasn’t going to let that happen. I was going to go straight in with activities and lessons and great ideas, but what I have realized is that 17 years of Peace Corps experience in Armenia means that they know what their talking about and while we may want to be busy it is close to impossible. But it has been a good time to organize ideas and for me to start looking for resources and ways that I can get what I want done, done.

I have now been to Yerevan twice and experienced the capital of Armenia. Its funny because after being in a village and then a small town, Yerevan seems like this incredible metropolis offering any and everything a person could ever want. But Yerevan really isn’t that big of a city and after drinking a coffee at one of the outdoor cafes and visiting the market I’m usually at a loss for things to do, but still I feel like I’m in the middle of the hustle and bustle of all this excitement. However, it seems that every time I go to Yerevan the next day when I get back to site it snows. At first that was a bad thing because it was only September and I didn’t think it needed to be snowing yet, but now I realize its not as bad a thing because the three massive dogs at my host families house don’t bark when its that cold. I guess there trying to sleep in order to stay warm Otherwise if the weather is nice then they bark the entire night and I get little sleep. And the other day I happen to look over the balcony into the back yard and saw that it was full of bones even a cow scull so I guess their diet consists of eating every scrap of meat of the bones thrown in the back yard.

Last week I was certain the novelty of my being here had warn off and that the honeymoon phase of my arrival was gone. People seemed a little less eager to see me or a little less excited to hear me speak my broken Armenian. Then I started noticing these new looks which I’m not sure if there slap on the back, keep up the good work, your doing great kind of stares or what are you still doing here, why do you want to live here and why would you leave America for two years to do it kind of looks.

And this past weekend I went back to Solak my training village for the first time since August. It was nice to see the original host family and this time of the year it is a beautiful village with lots of orange and yellow foliage climbing up the mountains and cascading across the valleys. It was also nice to understand a lot more of what the family had to say and to get to share what I’ve been up to for the last few months.

Finally, I was talking to an Armenian friend of mine tonight. She was telling me about the Soviet days and the 1990’s when Armenia was in such a state that even the capital only had electricity for two hours a day and no running water. In Artik her mother would have to cook things over a fire but in order to get wood she would have to go under the cover of darkness to the nearby woods and cut down limbs and tree’s to gather enough wood be able to warm water and cook meals. Occasionally she would have to burn her own books something that was precious to her as it provided some of the only entertainment of course TV was non existent and all they had to get to the outside world was a small radio that broadcast the Voice of America.