Little Notes

America was an amazing vacation! Seeing my family, my friends...what a wonderful pause in time to get to be there with them for Christmas and New Years. HOME was the most comfortable place in the world. It was all magic.

I have six months left of service to go.

It recently snowed at least a foot and a half in my town this week. The days are definitely getting longer though, which makes winter much more bearable.

Work has been good, this week the two other PCVs in my town and I are planning events for Peace Corps Week (March 1 through 7). I am doing a development fair at the university where representatives from NGOs, the municipality, and of course Peace Corps, will set up at tables. Students will have an opportunity to go around and talk with them about what kind of development projects they have done in the community, how they got involved in the field, etc. They will be able to network and establish contacts in the realm of "kazmakerputsyuns." Hopefully this can also spark the idea of volunteerism in the students.

Working still with translation of business plans into English (this is more than translation - it is really understanding poor translations and re-conveying their meanings in better English), but this time from the region of SHUSHI (from Nagorny-Karabakh territory).

Spent the afternoon handing out applications for the new group of new volunteers around town.

Basically I am just going through daily life now of what has turned into normalcy. Getting by without the things that would be nice to have has also become normal, and they are things you would never think about. I suppose it is strange that normal is now doing dishes and laundry and showering every morning as soon as the water comes on before it shuts off while giving myself pep talks, blow drying my hair in my reflection in the kitchen window because there is no outlet near my mirror in my apartment (that is a long story). Etc. Crafty. Mostly I have reached a whole new level of patience (although it does still break) but it takes quite a bit to reach my threshold.

So that is the general gist, I will try to stay more updated as my service is coming to a close.