August 27, 2009
I’ve been at my site for almost 2 weeks now and I’m beginning to feel settled in. The first week or so was hard. This new host family is very nice, but also different from the one I lived with before. They are much quieter and have much less activity in the house. But they are very welcoming and have tried to make me feel at home.
Also, for the first time since arriving in Armenia, I really had nothing to do these last 2 weeks. There were no language classes or tech classes to study for. There were no central days or competencies to fill out. So I had a lot of time on my hands with little to do. Luckily there are other volunteers near here so we got together a few times. I also went down to the main town a few times to use the internet and do some shopping. There’s an American Corner here which has free internet usage. This is a place sponsored by the US Embassy and besides 2 computers, there’s a library with English language books, some magazines and movies. It’s also a place where we can hold meetings or clubs if we need to. And I’ve read about 4 books in the last two weeks, something I hadn’t been able to do since coming here.
I finally found a yarn shop in one of their “department stores.” These are really like flea markets, but are inside and there are two in Kapan. The yarn is from Turkey and pretty good, but there weren’t a lot of colors to choose from. Hopefully the woman understood me and is ordering some more skeins of the same two colors I bought. I started an afghan, since I’m sure I will need it in the winter. I’ve found that Anna and I, the host mother here, have talked more since I’ve started crocheting. She knits but is interested in what I’m making. They don’t make afghans here, since they have these horse blankets, which are very warm. I’m doing a wave pattern, since it was the only one I could remember off the top of my head. But anyway, it’s become a good way to initiate conversation, which is what I needed to do to help improve my language skills.
I’ve gone into the school a few times so far and have met most of the teachers. They are very welcoming, as is the school director. My counterpart, Taguhie, is a wonderful young woman and very easy to work with. We started to do some of the lesson plans yesterday and will do some more today. The school system here is very erratic. They are in the process of changing the books they use, but the teachers don’t know which grades will be affected until the books come, which they haven’t. They also had to make temporary registers for their classes, as the new registers also haven’t arrived yet. But I admire the commitment of these teachers and their enthusiasm for their students. Of course the school here is very small, some of the grades only have 2 students!
I have also arranged for a tutor for myself to help me continue to learn the language. She’s one of the teachers and doesn’t speak English. This should be interesting, but I’m hopeful that it will work well. Anna, the tutor, teaches first grade so is used to starting with beginners. We’ll start next week after both our schedules have been set.
I continue to be amazed by the women of Armenia. Anna, my host mother, works almost all day long around the house. On Saturday I helped her make lavash, the national bread here. Then in the afternoon we went blackberry picking. She will make jam, compote and wine from these. On Monday, she and her husband went to a farm and picked eggplant, peppers, and tomatoes all day and came back with kilos of each. She will can some of the tomatoes and will store the rest. There is no washing machine here, so she does the wash by hand, almost every day. In getting ready for winter, the women take the stuffing out of the mattress and blankets and wash it. This stuffing is mostly sheep’s wool. They rinse it in tubs and then lay it out on the ground, where they beat it with sticks and separate it to air it out and help it dry. Depending on how many beds there are in the house, this could take a week or two.
I have learned a lot so far and know there is much still for me to learn. I only hope that at the end of my service it somehow works out to be an even trade, that I have taught them as much as I have learned.