Volume I Number 11: November 19, 2004
Armenian Journal Entry #26: Election Results! Adidas All The Way! Cows Feet Anyone?
Howdy,
The Decline by NOFX cuts through the television noise blaring from the other room. Sirosho is talking to herself from the bathroom, waiting for mom to help her out. Davit is laid out on the couch. We’re planning our upcoming trip to Yerevan while the fire slowly warms up the house. This evening the fire didn’t give us any ignition trouble, though it took well over an hour the other night. Wet wood just doesn’t burn very easily. All in all life is normal.
We’re sending email from Yerevan, where we are spending the next seven days, our longest visit yet. The first four days are training and conferences for Peace Corps. On Saturday, we have an Early Service Conference for A-12s (our group). We will spend time discussing how things are going, ways to improve our experience etc. On Sunday, we have Language Camp. There will be different workshops we will attend to help improve our Armenian language skills. On Monday, we will meet with the A-11s and have the All-Volunteer Conference. This will involve technical training workshops and discussions about safety and security and volunteer health. After the conference everyone is going to get together for a Thanksgiving dinner. This is an annual tradition that Peace Corps puts on for the volunteers. Despite the 22nd being our 1 year wedding anniversary, we are going to take part in the dinner and celebrate our anniversary the next evening. On Tuesday we are going to attend a Development Fair. Many organizations will be in attendance and Peace Corps volunteers will get a chance to network with various organizations to discuss future projects and make contacts. Once all of this is over we are going to spend the next few days in Yerevan to see the sites. We want to experience the many cultural sites located in and around Yerevan. There are museums, churches, art galleries, operas, symphonies, forest reserves and much more to visit.
Last weekend we took a trip to visit our host family from Dilijan. It felt like we were going back home. Our Armenian home, that is. We were anxious and excited to be taking this visit after being away for three months. This family has known us since our third day in Armenia and has helped to make our experience a wonderful one. They tried to call us quite a few times over the months but were unable to get through, as we later found out. We arrived on Saturday, in the early afternoon, in the center of Dilijan and began to make our 50 minute walk to the home. A few minutes into the walk, we heard a female breathing rather heavy and calling “Laura, Laura”. We turned around to see Leeleet, Karin, and Satik coming up the hill towards us. They were walking home from school since a marshutni (van) wasn’t available to take them home. We chatted and walked another 20 minutes before meeting up with Tigran, their father, as he was driving down the hill. The five of us piled into his very small truck cab and drove home. Upon entering the house, excited voices called out to us. Leanna, our host mom, and Tatik, our host grandmother, came over to greet us and we exchanged hugs and kisses. We were back home. We exchanged stories of what we’ve been doing for the last three months, showed pictures of Alaverdi, played many card games with the children, and relaxed. The family prepared our favorite ravioli dish for dinner and favorite French toast for breakfast. We were able to sleep in our room which was wonderful. More than anything, it was nice to have them treat us as if we were part of their family and show us all the love and warmth we had missed these past three months. We look forward to seeing them again for New Year’s Eve.
The one important reminder we really got out of the Dilijan visit was the need to learn the Armenian language. We really want to converse with the family and get to know them better. We want to continue our friendship with them long after we leave Armenia. They are a joy to be around and know that with an increase in our vocabulary we will find even more pleasure. The children are all learning English and, we hope, in the future will get an opportunity to visit America. Upon arriving back in Alaverdi on Sunday evening we set to work to making another 400 flash cards to study. With our wonderful tutoring sessions, we know that we will eventually grasp this language.
But, what happens in those tutoring sessions to make them so wonderful? We spend two nights a week at Gohar’s, our tutor, apartment. Monday and Thursday, from 7pm ñ 9pm are our tutoring days. Gohar doesn’t speak English so it forces us to speak and listen to Armenian. The sessions take place in her living/dining room. We have a Peace Corps tutorial that we are using to learn Armenian. After an hour and a half using the tutorial, we spend time just having conversation, eating apples and cake and/or cookies, and drinking coffee. Her two children, ages 5 and 14, sporadically pop their heads in during the sessions. The 14 year old understands some English so Gohar asks him to help with translation if we are stumped. The television is turned off when we arrive and comes back on when we are finished. We weren’t sure if we were going to enjoy these sessions because she didn’t speak any English, but they have proven to be beneficial. The other night we were invited to stay for dinner with her, the two children, and her husband. The husband is rarely around because he works five days a week for the border patrol and is not home during this time. This was a special occasion for everyone.
Is it us or just that the marshutnis (taxi bus) are not regularly maintained? On the last three trips from Yerevan back home, our marshutnis have broken down on the side of the road. When we take a marshutni from the city of Yerevan to our small town of Alaverdi, we only have three options, 9am, 3pm and 4pm. The first trip we knew we were in for trouble. Before we left Yerevan, the driver was pouring gallons of water on the engine and into the radiator. Since we were taking the 4 o’clock marshutni, we had no choice but to take a seat and hope for the best. Our trip involved many, many stops on the side of the road grabbing water from any source along the way. The second trip, about a month ago, involved the same marshutni and driver. We were an hour into the trip and bang, a strange noise came from underneath the marshutni. We pulled over and to see that the exhaust pipe had come apart. Luckily, we had just passed a mechanic shop. We spent the next hour there while the pipe was welded back into place. We were about an hour and a half late getting home and missed a dinner with some friends, as well as almost ended up in a major accident. Our driver was determined to make up for lost time, in the rain and on a dark, windy mountain road. He took a blind corner a bit close on the other side of the road and almost came head on with a semi-truck. We would have lost! It scared the crap out of us! The third ride, a few weeks ago, we had a new driver, marshutni, and took the 3 o’clock marshutni back home. We thought we were golden. No. Two hours into the trip, something with our tire goes wrong. We drove very slowly until we found a mechanic in a nearby town. We waited for an hour, while mechanic after mechanic poked their head underneath the marshutni to figure out the problem. An hour later the 4 o’clock marshutni came by to see if we needed help. Everyone climbed into this marshutni since parts were not being put back on our marshutni, but rather, more were being taken off. Again, our driver went for the gold in setting new speed records. This time we made our dinner and enjoyed a great Halloween with our friends in Alaverdi. We are keeping our fingers crossed for next drive from Yerevan.
We’re one step closer to rescuing the Eurasian Black Vulture. The Yerevan bird organization made a trip last week with a vulture expert and 3rd year biology student from Yerevan University. It just happens that no one was home when we went to visit the owners of the bird but contact information was left at their place of employment. The vulture expert was very pleased with this find. He was photographing, videotaping, examining, and playing with the vulture. Though the vulture is thin for his age, it is in pretty good health. The organization is going to pursue negotiations with the owners without having to pay, though, if they have to pay money, they can purchase it with ease. They don’t want to set a precedent that will allow others to think its okay to take wildlife and sell it for money. An option that isn’t being seriously considered, because we live in this town, is for the organization to just take it. As they mentioned to me before leaving “We have the resources to take the animal no matter what the owners say.” Hmmmm. We will see how this progresses. I have decided to let the organization handle this without me. Once the situation is settled, they are going to write up an article for a couple newspapers to let people know that situations like this cannot be tolerated in Armenia. I’m going to ensure my name is not mentioned, as well as Peace Corps.
A new host family has been located for us. We will make the official move to the home on November 28. The house is located on the outskirts of town and is actually a home and not an apartment. We will be living with a papik and tatik (grandfather and grandmother). Their home is two stories. We will occupy the top floor and they will live in the bottom floor. Since the top floor hasn’t been occupied for some time, it’s a wonderful arrangement for everyone. Our floor has two rooms and a nook. We will have our own outside stairs access, but no restroom or kitchen. We will have to go to the bottom floor for those facilities. The wood stove is located on the bottom floor so we will heat our floor with the electric heater. It will be furnished for us. A huge garden is located throughout the property. It keeps them busy, especially in the summer. A large cellar stores their canned goods and homemade vodka. They have a large wood pile to keep them warm all winter long. The best part is the views. The house is located about 20 feet from the edge of the canyon. Our view looks out into the canyon and the opposite mountains. Despite the copper factory standing out like a sore thumb it’s a great site to take in. The address is a bit different then the last one. There isn’t a house number but we are known at the post office so we will get our mail.
I had the opportunity to split some wood two weekends ago. The family just got their supply of wood for the winter and, with Davit still on the disability list, they were looking for some help to split the wood. I was eager to get my feet wet again after spending the last two winters in California splitting my fair share of wood. I arrived in the early afternoon to find Davit and two of his friends already beginning to work. I introduced myself to his friends and then they set me up with an axe and some wood. As I set the first piece up to split, all eyes were on me. I felt as if I was about to make or break their perception of me. Before taking a swing, I purposely hesitated and took a glance up at them thinking they would go about their business, but I wasn’t so fortunate. They wanted to see if the American could split wood. I took my first swing and the axe fell on the wood splitting it perfectly in two. They all smiled, gave a couple nods, and went back to splitting wood. I had set the tone and never had any problems with them showing me how to split wood properly. It was a great feeling of being accepted. I even got a few cookies later in the afternoon. A few times they commented on my strength and asked if I was a “sportsmen” (a term to mean an athlete or physically active person). I said yes, but if they only knew how badly my body was aching that evening after only 4 hours of chopping wood.
As the Armenian winter slowly creeps up on us and the days grow cooler and reach near freezing temperatures, my head is clinging to all the warmth it can obtain. No more shaving my head until winter has passed. So, with my hair reaching hippie length, well, at least an inch, a haircut was needed. I found the local barber a couple buildings up from ours on a Sunday morning. The barbershop is a small quaint 8íx15í room. The wood stove was going, as it was very crisp cool morning. I walked into the shop and smiled at the three men inside. One was the barber, another was having his haircut, and a third was sitting and talking with the other two. I recognized him from splitting wood together the other day. I sat down and waited my turn. The wallpaper was aged and peeling away from the wall, an Arnold Schwarzenegger poster (from the Commando movie) kept an eye on the room from above my head, while a few women posters filled the other walls. His tools of the trade were the same as those that you would see in America. Standard combs, clippers, and scissors were available. There was one chair situated in the middle of the room for customers to be served in. It didn’t swivel or go up and down. It just sat motionless while the barber worked around the customer.
I waited 10 minutes before taking my seat. By this time, the other two men had left, leaving just the barber and myself. After waiting for the barber to organize his equipment and sweep the floor I, in my broken Armenian, mentioned how I wanted my haircut. Before I could finish my sentence he said “I know how, I know how” and that was all we spoke. He went to work and I nervously watched. I kept thinking that at least I had my clippers at home in case it looked horrible. His clippers tugged at my hair as they trimmed, and his scissors could have been sharpened a little since it took quite a few passes for him to get all of the long pieces of hair left over from each cut. However, he took his time, checked all the angles, and patiently cut my hair to ensure a quality haircut. He spent a good 20 minutes with me and, in the end, I had the best service I have ever received by a barber. All of this for $1.
Nike who? This is one corner of the world that Nike does not exist. Armenia is all about Adidas. There isn’t a day that goes by that you find a man in his leisure Adidas sweats. Preferred hiking gear is an Adidas workout suit. The men lounge around the house in a pair of Adidas bottoms. The children use Adidas duffel bags for schoolbooks and exercise equipment. Soccer shoes are Adidas made. Adidas is just the way to go in Armenia.
******Note from Laura:
Living here in Armenia is either really good or really bad. On a scale of 1-10, Brett and I have decided most days can be categorized as ones or as tens. This same scale is also used in the classroom. The other day I taught a class during school that talked, maybe I should say, yelled, the entire 45 minutes and I just stood there and gradually got a bad headache. Often, I question my role in Armenia. I am trying to present a new way of teaching and a new way of thinking among teachers and students. At one point during this long, 45-minute class, I asked the students if they would like me to yell and hit them in order to get control. There was a resounding “YES!” but I just cannot discipline this way with a clear conscience. So instead, I watched about 30 students explode in this new freedom. I wonder how many unproductive, headache-inducing classes I will have to try to teach before they settle down and accept my teaching methods. I am hoping before my two years are up, I will be able to write you all and share positive results.
Now, here is a success story. I have been teaching a group of 9th grade students English twice a week since the school year began. There are only nine students and they all are at a beginning level in English even though they have had six years of English classes. When I first starting teaching I didn’t have the students attention and they could care less about learning English. There are three boys who made it their sole goal to surprise me every class. They would light matches, yell out the window, and start carving the desk with butter knives and a few other tricks. I was becoming frustrated because I wasn’t sure how to reach these nine students. I decided to have a day of games with candy prices. We played BINGO, Charades, and a few other simple letter and sight word games. For the first time all of the students participated. Then, the next lesson two of the three boys read a short dialog. It is encouraging to have the students participate in class and greet me in the hallway with a smile.
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One more Volunteer is heading back to the states. A family health crisis has called her back to the states. This brings our total to 86. The process of doing laundry is not complicated but rather time consuming. We are fortunate to have a washer at our disposal unlike others who use an agitator, which kind-of cleans but definitely doesn’t rinse. Because of the size of our washer, one load of clothes in the states is about three loads for us. The process for us involves separating clothes by color, and how much dirt or lint they produce. Socks are always last and pants are right before since they are usually always the dirtiest. Whites always go first. We wash the first load and then throw them in the spin cycle hole, next to the wash hole. The spin cycle always causes the machine to bounce. After a couple minutes of spinning we get our next load in. This proceeds for four loads. After the fourth load we drain the dirty water into a bucket and pour it into the toilet. Clean water is put back into the wash hole and the process is repeated. This is our rinse cycle so that any residual dirt is cleaned up. The pants usually dirty up the water in this cycle. After another spin in the spin cycle hole we hang ’em to dry. On a sunny day the drying time is 6 or 7 hours. On a damp, rainy day the dry time is well over 24 hours. We hang clothes all over our rooms and fire up the wood stove to decrease the dry time. We really miss our wash machine and dryer.
The election results are in and ‘ol GW won. We’re sure it’s no surprise to anyone how we feel about this. We found this election to be very interesting because we were able to view the process from outside our country. The Russian and Armenian news reported heavily on the election and, from what we could tell, reported fairly about both candidates. BBC news was full of election reports each time we tuned in. When the final results came in we didn’t speak with one Armenian who was happy that GW was reelected. The main concern people had with GW was the current Iraq war and the possibility of an Iran invasion, which borders directly to the south of Armenia. The BBC news reported widespread European disappointment with the results and even went on to say, “If the world could vote, then Kerry would have been president.î However, the world can’t vote for our president. Anyways, thank goodness that a president was determined a lot sooner than the last election.
Khash. The recipe calls for 4 calves hooves, 6 lamb tongues, salt and pepper, 2 garlic cloves, paprika,1 kg. calves tripe and one bottle of vodka. You had better double that order of vodka to get through this meal. All week our current host family had talked about this wonderful meal they were going to prepare for Saturday morning. OH YES, this is a breakfast meal. Most times it is served at 7am but on this occasion we were going to eat at 10am, after Davit got home from work. Our family insisted it was very delicious, especially with the large amounts of garlic they included in the recipe. We knew exactly what we would be eating and, though we thought twice about it, we concluded that this was just part of our Armenian experience.
Saturday morning arrived and preparations began. A neighbor had made the meal and everyone was going to eat at our home. The table was set, vodka bottles laid out, lots of bread placed around the table, and large bowls at each setting. Four other neighbors joined us at the table and the eating began. Actually, the prep work for eating began. The soup/broth with one large cow hoof lies in front of you. You set the cow hoof on a small plate for later. The soup can’t be eating plane. You pour in many spoons of a garlic, oil, and butter mix. Then, you break up large amounts of bread and fill your bowl. You mix everything up, do a toast with vodka, and eat away.
The first bite gets you instantly and you think your to yourself, “This isn’t very good. Let’s add some more of that garlic mix. Maybe a bit more bread.” Well, I grinned, smiled, gulped, and swallowed a lot of vodka to get it down. Laura didn’t entertain our hosts quite as much. She did about a shot of vodka and took no more then ten spoonfuls of soup. She tried… she really tried. But when she began gagging, she decided to stop eating the soup and move on to the hoof. It wasn’t exactly meat. I’m not sure if you can call it meat. It seemed to be cartilage and fat. We cut and tore off a piece, placed it in our lavash (flat bread) and chewed away and away and away, and didn’t really want to swallow it, because we were afraid it wasn’t going to stay down. We gulped and that was it. The hoof was worse then the soup itself. We do feel bad for not finishing our meal and we don’t think that our host family took offense to it.
In recounting this story with our Armenian friends, we are finding out that, actually, very few Armenians eat Khash. Our friends sure did get a kick out of us trying it.
We have included a recently received attachment from an Armenian environmental NGO. It’s the introduction portion for a soon to be released book about hiking and rock climbing in Armenia. The document outlines Armenian history, current politics, the natural environment and environmental issues. It’s one of the most current publications you will find about Armenian environment issues. Check it out if you get a chance.
We are sending some photos along for you to check out. Some are new, some old, some were scanned and some are digital. The photos will be in a separate email. If you have a small email account then you probably wonít get the photos. Here is a summary of what we are sending:
- Halloween Photos: This is from our small Halloween dinner with our Alaverdi friends.
- Art Museum Photos: These are photos of Armenian Art. We visited this Dilijan museum last August.
- Vanadzor Photos: These are of the Vanadzor, the 3rd largest city in Armenia. It’s the nearest big city to us.
- Golovino Hike Photos: These are an assortment of photos from a couple hikes last August with our host children and their friends.
- Random Photos: These are photos from the summer to now.
- Alaverdi Photos: These are scanned photos from the area we live in.
Thanks for reading another electronic correspondence. Thanksgiving is just around the corner. We hope that everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving. Does anyone want to send over a drum set or our two dogs? Six months has been just too long.
Still hanging in there with our heads up high and mouths full of hooves,
– Laura and Brett
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“The world is a beautiful book, but of little use to [people] who cannot read it.” – Carlo Goldoni
“The most important task, if we are to save the earth, is to educate.” – Peter Scott
“Too often we give children answers to remember rather than problems to solve.” – Roger Lewin