Yesterday Morning At The Mayor's

The two volunteers in my town and I are planning two events for Peace Corps week, the first week of March.

I'm doing my Development Fair at the university that week.

The other event is short films in Armenian about history of Peace Corps and the program in Armenia. The entire Gavar community is invited (although I think we'll have a turnout of 40 to 50 people...shooting low). For this, we are also having a speaker talk about study abroad in the States, and we are talking about our own projects.

So we went to the mayor's office to ask to borrow his auditorium. The mayor and I are working together on the park, and he's been extremely generous with donations. So yesterday I asked about this auditorium as well as a projector, and he said "100%" (yes). Then he said, check with Karine, the admin assistant, if this really will be okay. So we sat down with Karine and maybe the maintenance man, Grigor, at the office, and they started telling me that the auditorium was really messy and would need to be cleaned up. I offered my services, and they said, no no.... so then they asked us if we wanted to go see it.

We went to check it out, and 2 more workers came with us, telling us the whole way they really wanted us to use this space. Opened the door, and there are wooden boards stored ALL OVER the front of this place. It really was dirty, but Karine really loves PCVs so she is ensuring that this will be cleaned out in time.

Then we went to have a little coffee with Karine and Grigor, and I reminded them about the park and told them I have put a down payment on the equipment. They got so excited, and Karine told me that Grigor had a duduk (like an oboe) ensemble of kids that he teaches elsewhere, and that those kids will come and play the opening of the park, and that they will invite every child in my community. Hahaha....how nice!

Then she asked if the ensemble can also play our Peace Corps week event, and I thought about it and said.... "in the opening, for three minutes." (this could be much longer than 3 minutes, but really I'm thinking she caught my drift...really, just three minutes.) "Three minutes. OK."

Interactions and excitement from the community members who see and understand what we are doing here are what makes me happy to be here.