Tuesday, February 09, 2010
Last week we were at a “ski resort” learning how to write grants. They have a certain grant here that is only available through Peace Corps and needs a PCV in order to apply for it. Since I have never written a grant, I learnt a lot. We went up on Monday and the conference lasted until Friday morning. They broke us up into 7 groups, each group being led by a PCV and an interpreter for our counterparts. They were very long days, especially since I’m not used to sitting inside from 9to 5:30 every day. And I’m no sure I will ever write a grant while I’m here.
This resort is very nice and we were able to walk around the town at night. The last night we were there it snowed, and we found out the next morning it snowed in almost all of Armenia. Luckily I had planned on staying in the capital city of Yerevan for the weekend because the one road going south was closed. It did open on Saturday so people were able to get home then.
Unfortunately, two more of the group I trained with decided to go home. We all were, however, able to say goodbye to them in person. Victoria was in PC office on Monday when we arrived there, and Beth was there on Friday. I will miss them both, especially Beth who I had gotten to know a bit better than Victoria. They both gave the PC a good shot, 6 months at their sites, and realized that this was not for them. I admire them for at least trying it and being honest enough with themselves to make the decision to go home.
When I arrived home on Sunday, I found out that I didn’t have any water. My pipes froze, even though I had left the kitchen faucet running. So for the past two days, I have been melting ice on my wood-burning stove and then running it through my water filter. It’s a slow process, but at least there was the snow to melt so I wasn’t left completely without water. This is what I would call my first Peace Corps experience. Between my small school, wood-burning stove, and no water I keep thinking of the settlers in America who braved the frontier to help establish our country. I don’t know how they did it. I at least know that this is for a short period of time, and I keep reminding myself of that when things go wrong, or don’t go as I planned.
So I’m sitting here waiting for the snow to melt and for the water to get warm on my wood-burning stove so I can use it to wash out my clothes, by hand. Then I will put them on my drying rack in front of the stove to dry. Yet I’m also listening to music on my laptop. Talk about a mix of cultures!
It’s fairly easy here to be on a diet. Their normal plate size is our salad plate, so the portions are definitely smaller. And even if you back for seconds, it’s really only like our normal first portion. Of course during the winter no one looks like they’ve lost weight. We all wear multiple layers to keep warm. While I tend to stick with just 3 layers, some of the other volunteers wear up to 6 or 7 layers. They’ll really look like they lost weight come the spring!
Monday, February 22, 2010
The past two weeks seem to have just flown by. Having English club twice a week keeps me busy during the week and on the weekends it’s playing catch up with the housework. Two weekends ago I was snowed in up in my village. It had snowed during the week and then everything froze. The marshutnies were not coming up to the village and the taxis were only going half way up. Unfortunately it was another PC’s birthday, so I missed the celebrations. But it was nice for a change to just stay in my house, look out at the frozen landscape and keep warm by my stove. I got a lot of crocheting done and finished a book. I was also able to get a bit ahead with my lesson planning for my clubs and classes.
This past weekend I was once again up in Yerevan for a meeting for the volunteer initiative committee. There were a lot of other PC meetings going on as well so I got to see quite a few of the other volunteers, which is always nice. The down side is that the hostel was full and they were repairing the two upstairs bathrooms, so everyone had to use the downstairs one. I wound up taking my shower at midnight Saturday! The weather was incredibly warm, so it was nice to just walk around the city at night. Instead of going up on Saturday morning, Shannon and I went up Friday, so it was a bit more relaxing, and we came back down Sunday. The school faculty, especially my counterpart, are always happy to see me after my days off. I think they are afraid I’ll not come back one of these times.
Today I found out that my pen pal club received its first packet of letters from the Ukraine. Shannon picked up the package for me and I’ll get it this weekend. My students are still working on their first letters, but I hope to mail them on Saturday. It’s been a slow process getting this project off the ground, so I’m glad something has come of it. I only hope the students keep up their interest. I’m anxious to see how this goes.
The Armenian men take very good care of their cars. With the warm weather they are all out there washing their cars and trucks. On the drive up to my village we pass the local “car wash.” Actually there are two: one is a manmade lake they drive up to and bucket wash their cars. The other is a spring that runs down the side of the mountain and pools next to the road. They park next to it and use the water to wash their car.
Speaking of water, after my pipes unfroze I still could not use my shower. The water wasn’t going through the heater. Yesterday I finally saw the electrician (that’s what they call the plumber here) and asked him to look at it. After about a half hour, he discovered that the hose to the shower head was clogged, with dirt from the water. That’s how dirty the water is here and why we use a water filter for our drinking water. I’ll probably have to clear it out about every other month or so. I just won’t think about when I take a shower.