Nico's Notes

The Maniacal Taxi Driver

2008-11-17T13:31:55Z

November 17 - Weekend was pretty uneventful. Went to Yerevan on Saturday for a daytrip. It turned into a really expensive endeavor, actually. Left around 11, went to the PC office, some stores, had a slice of pizza, checked out the dollar store and a grocery store in Yerevan that has Starbucks Iced Coffees and Frappuccinos for $6 a piece (first time I've seen Starbucks in Armenia). We are ready to leave and go home around 7:45. Take a marshutni up to our bus station - and there is a shared taxi system to get back to my site - typically a $5 ride. But unfortunately the last shared taxi left for the night. So we are standing around trying to figure out what to do - told PC we'd be back at site that night, and one taxi driver (not on the shared route) comes up to us and says he will take us back for 12,000 dram - that's about $20 a piece. We really have no choice, get in the car, wait to go, when two other guys get in and the driver says they are going to a town on the way to ours. We ask to make sure they are splitting the 12,000 ride with us - and of course they are not, so we basically paid most of the ride for them. ]]> On our way to the first town, the taxi broke down about seven times on the highway as we are going up hills. So he pulls over to the side, gets out of the car, opens the hood, does a little work, gets back in, and off we go. He says the gas tank is freezing. We drop the other two guys off. Driver tries to reconcile by stopping in the parking lot of a Star supermarket in this town and tells us to go shopping while he works on his car. We go in and pick up a few items, are at the check out counter, when he comes rushing in, arms raised, clapping his hands, saying "Hurry, hurry! Let's go!" So we are finally on the last stretch home, he gets on the phone and starts talking to whomever he is picking up next, and tells him he has all ready gone to our destination and he's on his way. His driving just gets crazy, in between random breakdowns as we are going up hills, and he tells us we can smoke and drink, do whatever we want in the back seat. I turn to my travel companion and I say, this guy is crazy, and she says, no - he's maniacal. And I find that 4 out of every 5 taxi drivers are probably in the maniacal category. That's as exciting as the weekend got. My presentation to the economics club about the state of American education systems versus Armenian education systems was a good experience. There were twenty students there (surprise!) and they were so polite (total opposite from marketing class) and attentively listened the whole session and mostly agreed with the things I had to say about the differences - and I stressed the idea that in the States, schools teach children how to think creatively, how to think "outside of the box," that individualism is praised, these skills are taught to be applied in real life situations, and that in these ways, individuals learn how to create and cultivate ideas, which in turn is how persons in the States come up with many innovations and see much success. So all in all, last week shaped up very well.

Russian Pop Ups & Macadamia Nuts

2008-11-12T16:19:06Z

November 12 - Happy Birthday Uncle Ted!!! I am trying to do a lot of my internet work before going to the internet café these days. Which means the USB drive is coming in awfully handy. I was originally frequenting School 5 for the internet, but the lady who runs the computer lab there appeared to be pocketing the money (long story, not going to tell it) and half of the time she wanted to leave early or the doors were locked. I decided to stop going to the school and go to the internet cafes. But they are extremely uncomfortable places to be. One of them is where all of the teenage boys go to play Grand Theft Auto on the network, so the internet is especially slow, and they are yelling at each other the whole time. The other internet café is not private and many times people look over my shoulder to see what I am doing. The computers there have messages in Russian constantly pop up, and I don't know what they say. So neither place is comfortable, and I try to get in and out as fast as I can. ]]> I am also coming down with the grip again. It flurried Sunday night, the 9th, and the snow only stuck around for about 12 hours. Now it's sunny and cloudless, a bit cold but not so bad if you are dressed very warmly. With the snow on the mountains across the way, it's very beautiful. Teresa is an interesting character, one of my favorite ladies at the university. She was telling me a couple of days ago while we were walking that she is happy Obama was elected - that a black man was elected to be president of America, because it will break a lot of stereotypes. Those were her exact words, and I was a bit surprised to hear them come out of her mouth. Despite Armenians being happy that Obama was elected, they do always make note that he is a sev mart. Anyway, I am helping her with an application to study abroad at a university in Greece. Last night I felt like the spokeswoman for the American Dental Association. Alita and I visited a few apartments to see if they wanted to buy any macadamia nuts that she was getting for a really good deal (two pounds for $6). The apartments are funny to visit now because typically, they have a large gas heater placed in the very center of the room which the whole family crowds around. The first apartment I went to, the family was busy eating chestnuts around their heater. They are a wacky crew, the mom is super aged and always pinches my cheeks really hard. She has three daughters who are in their twenties and not married. They started asking me about my white teeth (lately a common subject), so I tell them the normal - I brush my teeth two times every day, in the morning and in the night, sometimes even three. If you brush your teeth twice a day, you will not have tooth aches and your teeth will be white. So they just say, yeah, we brush our teeth in the morning (sometimes) and our neighbor who was also visiting made a note that he brushed his teeth only once one year. I don't know if they will actually start brushing their teeth more based on what I said and the results they see, but at least they have the information now that brushing your teeth keeps cavities away. One of the other apartments I visited yesterday was actually the apartment with the once-a-year tooth brusher - his name is David - and I visited because he asks me to come over for coffee at least twice a day. So I finally went over for coffee - this is the one who served the friends and family at his brother's army party, so I thought he might be a nice guy - and he inserted a DVD of an Armenian wedding video of one of the richest families of Armenia and started talking about how he wants to go to America with me. I am thinking I won't go back for coffee again. A nice guy, but I'm not interested in marrying. Haha.

Facebook Photos

2008-11-12T01:46:34Z

[Some photos that appeared on Facebook. -- Editor] Austin, John C., Nicole in Austin's kitchen. Willa, Nicole, Davor hiking in June

Deana of Latvia

2008-11-10T16:17:13Z

November 10 - Today I decided to change some of the ways I am approaching work. I started by bringing my laptop with me. So I set up shop in the corner and camp out for three to five hours. Since not much was going on today, I began working on a PowerPoint for a CV/resume building class that I am going to introduce to the employment center and the university's career center, and will hopefully use these outlets to organize training seminars on resume building. They are big on resumes here, and I've checked a few out, but they definitely need some lessons on how to sell themselves. Teresa, one of the girls I work with, came in and asked if I'd give a presentation to her economics club this Thursday, and she wants me to talk about the American education system (not exactly economics, but I can easily talk about that) and about Obama in relation to the economic crisis in America and how it will affect the international communities as well (not my forte but I am open to discussion with them...). She asked me to visit her friend today who was sick, another girl in my ladies' group, Deana. So I went to Deana's house. She was born in Latvia, and her family moved back to Armenia when she was 8 years old to be with the rest of her family, but then the rest of her family moved away around the same time - so now she is stuck here, and I am sure the transition from Riga to this town is a bit mind-blowing. She is the most passionate girl in my town that I've met so far about the gender issues and is giving domestic violence seminars for Caritas. She is also pining to go back to Latvia, as she hasn't returned since she moved, and is trying to get into a study abroad program there.

Toasting The Table

2008-11-10T01:34:16Z

November 9 - Visited PST family this weekend, and my visit coincided with seeing Mari, Elliott, Brian G. and Mickey. Friday night, had horovats at Misha and Gohar's (Elliott's host family) with Mari and Elliott. Misha and Gohar were celebrating Gohar's birthday and their wedding anniversary. It turned into a great dance party, and Misha and Gohar were hilarious. Mari stayed with me at Hripsime's Friday night and she headed out the next morning. Saturday was a great day. Woke up, hung out with the family. They are making some huge renovations to the house. Left over from the USSR era, there are these subtle radiator-looking devices attached to the walls in all buildings and houses. They are supposed to heat with gas, but once the USSR fell apart, these devices have become "lame ducks," let's just say. This weekend they were installing some kind of system and got these gas heaters to work again, and now the whole house is heated by them - way more efficient than the big tacky gas heaters that most families have in the middle of the living rooms. They also installed a huge water heater and now have heated running water in the house. Big ordeal, lots of celebrating. There was also a new table brought in, and we had a couple of toasts to that as well. Went on a nice walk with Elliott and caught up with Mickey in the afternoon. ]]> And it is so nice to be in the village over this apartment I live in, because there is actually a place to spend being active outdoors and not be harassed for being a woman. They still had raspberries, so Svetta and I picked raspberries and used a rake to shake apples out of their apple trees, gathered walnuts. The day was so sunny, though cold, but I so appreciated being outdoors in the fresh air. Then in the evening, I played with Gorr and Mane, and Mariam and Tyrone visited, so I gave them an i-pod shuffle my dad sent. They loved it. So does their dad and uncles, and they especially love the TLC which was uploaded onto it. This morning I woke up and left by 9 AM, was sent off with a 10 pound bag of apples and a couple of pounds of walnuts, and a little pumpkin which was grown on the farm, as well as the reminder that their house is my house. I love that family. This week will be my fourth meeting with my ladies' group. And the usual I've been working on - tutoring for the TOEFL exam (big English exam young adults must take that is accepted by most international universities, to prove skills for study abroad programs), holding the business English club at the university. Also will be visiting at least one or two NGOs in the town to see what I can potentially offer them. I will bring Arpine with me for translations, and I know she is also interested in visiting these places. My organization has great people, but they aren't really using me for business because I don't think they know how - they only ask for my services in helping them write and correct English translations for proposals... My counterpart is a sweetheart, but she is only 23 and doesn't have a clue what to do with me (which is good in a way because that has led to the initiation of the ladies' development group), and there is a bit of a communication barrier between us. Which is why I'm going to be visiting other places and have been working with youth at the university in English activities - easy fallback that keeps you busy, and I know these kids really love me. Plus just being with these youth can make huge differences in their lives in the future.

Fire To The Pipes

2008-11-06T01:23:49Z

November 5 - The Armenians are quite happy Obama was elected president. Weather has been amazing around here, with highs in the low to mid 50s. Alita says it will snow November 10, and she may be right. I went to two parties yesterday with Alita. The first was a birthday party in the nearest village, and then we got home and went across the hall of our apartment to an army party. This is a big ordeal; every male is required to serve for two years in the army in Armenia, and families have huge going away parties for these boys. This family has the tallest brothers I have met here so far, the younger one is 18 and will serve in Karabakh. Today he left, and they partied until three in the morning last night. It was a great time, after many shots of wine with Alita I danced with the brothers and their sister for about an hour and met some really nice grandmas and grandpas and the cutest kids. I was impressed by this family - the older brother was even serving at the party (always a noteworthy site). Today I signed the contract on my apartment, and have about 40 days left to go until freedom. The place is decked out with two beds, a pullout couch, they just put in a refrigerator, and I am paying for half of the installation of a gas heater out of my Peace Corps settling in allowance. While they were showing me the recent work they did to the place, a tile randomly fell off of the wall. Everybody pretended like nothing happened - that was funny. It's on the fourth floor and the foundation is totally falling apart, but it shouldn't be a problem in these 20 months. At least the walls have interesting decorations, and it does seem to be very sunny. There is a great sun room I'll sleep in in the summertime, and only two main rooms so heating shouldn't be too difficult. The toilet is furthest away from the heater, so as long as that does not freeze, every thing should be okay. Although, Alita was telling me that for two months every winter they do not have water because the pipes freeze and she has to put fire to the pipes under the kitchen sink to defreeze them.

Realities

2008-10-28T01:50:06Z

October 27 - I haven't mentioned my conversations with Alita and her friends about driving in the States. They often ask about whether or not I had a car back home - so I told them about my little red Honda Civic - and whether or not I knew how to drive. So I tell them about how my little sister is learning to drive right now, and that most every woman in America can drive. This fascinates them. I also told them that women in the States also smoke cigarettes (not that I'm trying to promote smoking amongst them), but then they made a joke that if a man saw Alita smoking a cigarette, she would be the center of gossip. That's a huge no-no for women around here. Sometimes I see a lady driving when I'm in Yerevan and that catches me off-guard. Anyway, I'm finding it really interesting how certain activities and gender roles around here cause women and men to view their town so differently from each other. Also, I had a conversation with Alita about the prices of goods here. Apparently, just in the past six months, most everything is increasing twofold. Gas is going up from 28 dram a unit to 36 dram a unit, and electricity is also increasing about ten dram a unit. The cost for a huge sack of flour was 3000 dram per sack and is now 6000 dram per sack. There are still no additional available jobs for the citizens and wages are not increasing either.

Kittens

2008-10-27T01:41:05Z

October 26 - My schedule is getting better! I'm beginning English tutoring this week - as a special request by two university kids I really like - for the standardized TOEFL exam which helps students get into study abroad programs at universities in the States, Greece, Italy, England, etc. This will also be my second week of the ladies' group I began. Last week, four girls showed - they all speak English pretty well, so communication was no problem - and we drew a huge community map of our town. It was really interesting, and totally distorted. They drew only one road, half-way, and said they liked this road because it's the one that leads out of town. They also marked that they dislike the government buildings in town, and they like the central fountain but they don't like the fact that it is not filled with water, ever. Tomorrow we're going to analyze the map and I'm going to try to encourage them to use this map to come up with creative project ideas that we can do together to improve the things they dislike, in some way or another. We'll see how that goes. In addition to this group, I'm also in the works of researching gender development in general, to develop my own program which I'm hoping to have a good draft of for the month of November so that I can begin really implementing it around February. My vague idea of this program is that it's going to be like a women's business organization that community business (and aspiring business) women can participate in to use as a resource for networking - to connect with other business women around the country (and perhaps to connect young women with internships in Yerevan), trainings and training materials - reference and training for management, marketing, communications, etc., empowerment - bring in successful business ladies from Yerevan, Gyumri, Vanadzor, and other major cities to talk with these women and develop a connection and show them that it is possible to create success in this environment. What else? Today was Jovic's birthday, so there was a big party at my house. It's been cloudy for five days straight, becoming considerably cooler, and I'm all ready wearing my long johns. Saved two kittens from the ruthless streets last week, one is two months old (black and white) and the other is three months old (tiger striped) and they stick together like two peas in a pod. All ready got them checked out at the vet, and they're mostly healthy. I'll keep one and my site mate will keep the other. Right now they're both at my mate's apartment but luckily I'm moving into my own in six weeks! All ready got the place picked out too, reminds me a lot of my old house, very colorful. The entrance way is green and has falling leaves painted on the ceiling. The bedroom and living room have colorful flowers painted on the walls, quaint kitchen - no refrigerator, but I can refrigerate my food 7 months out of the year on the balcony next to the kitchen - and there's a sun room too. Hopefully I will make it to the internet to post this soon. I heard a rumor that one of the phone companies is releasing a prepaid wireless card that you can use to go online from home in March for pretty cheap.

Great Package!

2008-10-15T03:29:29Z

October 14 - Had a very interesting birthday, to say the least. Woke up very early and went to Yerevan with Astrik and Arpine to turn in our completed grant. The weather was just perfect, and it seems as though we are actually having a little indian summer right now. Austin called to let me know I had a package at the post - just in time. Birthday package from the folks, got home 15 minutes before the office closed, so that was an extra special part of the day. Perfect timing! Great package! Then went on a nice walk in the fields with Austin; she and Kathryn came to my house, my host mom made us rice and chicken, and Austin brought over some delicious oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. Alita's daughter Arevik came over with her family and brought red roses and a beautiful vase, and we put one of those roman candle birthday candles in the cookies. Really, a great and pleasant day. I'm feeling very positive about this next year coming. Got a great batch of mail today too! A package from Rachel arrived (big surprise!!) and a letter from UT, both dated August 30 - they must have gotten stuck at a couple of post offices, who knows. Oh, and the weekend was good too - learned how to make home made bagels, Jewish style. I also met some beautiful and hilarious, quite adventurous, Latvian travelers. We spent Sunday hiking through a couple of surrounding villages with them. I think I may go to Rega on a vacation, apparently flights are super cheap! One strange thing did happen yesterday, and I am only sharing it because it is a very serious, completely frustrating reality that is not escaping my daily life in this service - the gender issue. So after we submitted our grant in Yerevan yesterday, we had a celebration lunch at a Lebanese restaurant. The day was just perfect, and this restaurant has outdoor seating, about six tables are set up. When we arrived, only one table was taken. So I asked Arpine and Astrik if we could sit outside to eat, and they said they would prefer to eat inside. So we sat down inside, it was quite smoky, and I told them I'd really like to sit in the fresh air and enjoy the day. But then the truth came out as to why they didn't want to sit outside - "It's not comfortable for us." "What do you mean?" "Well, there are two men sitting outside all ready." Serious?Mind you, we were in Yerevan, where from what I have understood, they have accepted gender differences - such is not supposed to be an issue. "Oh...In the States, women can sit outside whenever they want to. Don't you want to enjoy this beautiful day? It does not matter that men are outside! We are in Yerevan??" But obviously, I wasn't going to change their minds about this and could easily end up offending, so I prodded no further. One of the hardest parts about it was how accepting these girls were about it too. They don't indicate at all that they want a change. I guess they just cannot get out of this mentality, which is really sad because they are 22 and 23 years old and are supposed to be a part of the forward-thinking generation. These are also the same girls who informed me that if a woman eats at the restaurant here in town, she is considered a woman of "poor means." So anyway, due to these gender problems that are continuously appearing, I am going to definitely create my second project around gender development, empowerment of women in my community. Got work to do...

Three Talking Clouds and Missing Trees

2008-10-10T03:06:36Z

October 9, 2008 - Turning in first grant tomorrow! That was a monster project, glad to put it behind though - I'm very ready to begin focus on developing a community project with my counterparts, but it will be outside of my organization. I am realizing how lucky my placement has been. I have a great organization, working with very motivated and hard-working young women, and they are quite organized and have the nicest families. My site mates are energetic and easy to be with. My host family, despite the food situation and being a stand-in parent to the 11 year old boy, is very nice and pretty liberal for most Armenian families. However, I need to move due to privacy and health issues, etc. This does not in the least bit discount my friendship with these people, I have really grown to like them a lot. And, I did find an awesome little apartment that is reminiscent of my 100 year old house back home (!!!), with a tiny comfortable sun room, bright kitchen, cool tile, "falling autumn leaves" painted on the ceiling of the entrance way, and a window that actually faces a tall living tree. I plan to move into it December 15, and am also searching for a kitten. I am not really a cat lady, however, I'm going to deck my apartment out with living things - plants, a cat, etc. to make it more lively. This will be helpful in the dead of winter. I also figure that taking a kitten off of the street will help Armenia, even if it's just a baby step. The weather has been so great lately, very crisp and sunny, mountains surrounding us are covered in snow (seems to be the only area in the country that has received snow all ready - every where else I traveled last weekend was actually hot!). Last night saw the wildest thunderstorms across the lake - perfectly clear here - and oh how greatly visible the milky way is when the moon's not out! - there were three sets of clouds trapped behind the mountains that looked like they were talking to each other every three seconds with their lightening shows, and it went on for hours.]]> So anyway, this weekend will be nice - spending a day in the big city and turning in my overseas voting registration, working out the apartment details, and going on a hike to picnic on top of a mountain near the lake with Astrik. Currently slowly reading four books. I also purchased yarn and knitting needles, brought them home, and Alita taught me how to knit! I have been having great conversations with her. She asks me about the car I had back home and about driving. Women do not drive in Armenia, in fact, I have only seen two women sit in the front seat of a marshutni one time (a marshutni is a little van that crams about 15 to 20 people into the back and is the cheapest, most efficient form of travel between towns). Speaking of marshutnis, went to Gyumri with a couple of volunteers last weekend. Gyumri is the second largest city that was affected by a massive earthquake in 1987 - really cool place too, great architecture, lots of artisans there. The marshutni stop in Yerevan was insane. There were about 25 people waiting for it, and as soon as it pulled up, the door opened, and there was a literal tiny riot to get onto it. That is the most aggressive I have ever been, by far, to get onto public transportation. So once on, we weren't actually sitting, we waited for about 10 minutes before somebody moved over for us to sit, and then the driver put a little folding stool in the aisle, so I rode sharing this folding chair with Austin, Marisa sitting on a quarter of a seat. An interesting trip too - took us by Aragots, a beautiful mountain range that is white with snow most of the year that many extreme tourists will climb - and also noticed how there are absolutely zero trees outside of the villages and cities. Now it is only like this in the northwest, I understand - I have been to Vanadzor and the road is much more beautiful - and the south is supposed to be like a little oasis (haven't gone south yet). So about the lack of trees, before the 1990s, about 20% of Armenia was forested. In the 90s though, Armenia went through a great time period in which they had no power. In the winter homes couldn't be heated, and Armenians turned to the trees for heat. After which, only 4% of Armenia was forested, and now it has increased to only about 6%. This has caused a great problem for the climate, as trees provide moisture for the land. So now the climate is changing, and I am wondering if that is how my quite dry town's lack of fertility (only root veggies can grow - potatoes, carrots, beets) came to be. On the other hand, my summer time village is completely different, beautiful, fertile; and there are also several regions that grow grapes and produce lots of wine. It's really amazing how different Armenia's different climates are in zones that are so close to each other. Oh yeah, lastly - found a *great* huge flea market! Purchased a little guitar for 7000 dram (negotiated down 1000 dram but glad my language skills are good enough to negotiate), and am about to get another guitar as a gift from a fellow American - didn't know this when I bought the first one. The little guitar is actually pretty shoddy and I need a tuner (next thing to search for) but I think I will be able to get it to sound pretty good. The tuners aren't perfect, but I can still tune it if I'm patient. Anyway, this flea market is great - they had some really cool vintage electric guitars, for super cheap, boots, jewelry, etc., and I don't think that vintage items are very sought-after commodities here, so this was a great find. So in all, I have disappeared from the blog a bit, but it's for good reasons - been very busy and am finally feeling like I'm beginning to make a home, a solid lifestyle, and fit into my element here.

Crazy Birthday Candle

2008-10-05T17:18:51Z

Nicole has mentioned the crazy birthday candles in Armenia. Here is a video of one. Also, many new photos added (June Part 2 through August) in Photo Nico. -- Editor

Village Birthday

2008-09-30T17:04:59Z

September 30 - Over the weekend I visited my summer village, and it was like coming home. I stayed with the host family on our farm, which is still looking great - they said that it is my farm too! Now is the season of apples, walnuts, and pears, and there were so many beautiful apples right now. It rained the whole entire weekend, and the rain must have also brought the beginning of winter. When I returned to my site yesterday, it was about twenty degrees cooler, and many more mountains surrounding us are collecting quite a bit snow. The storm clouds are still sticking around, too, and one of my buddies in my marz said it is snowing at his site today. I wouldn't be surprised if it starts snowing here, too, within a couple of hours. So this weekend was the village birthday party, and we had a big horovats at the farm complete with a band - drum, clarinet, keys, singing, dancing. My host family bought a sheep that they sacrificed and barbequed, and Gor and Mane were baptized in the living room by a priest. The kids were especially cute, Gor was very talkative and excited I was back and apparently Mane had been asking where I've been. Got lots of photos.

Paris who?

2008-09-26T12:50:15Z

September 26 - English club yesterday, although we didn't speak about business at all. It was only the girls this time, and one of them is actively involved in the community - giving lectures on domestic violence to several villages around here. Anyway, she gave a lecture to one of the nearby villages this past weekend and was frustrated because every body in the village was very ignorant and wouldn't admit the problem - and this village is notorious for having the worst of this. So we ended up talking about issues hindering development in Armenia for a long time, particularly gender. Then they asked me what problems we have to worry about in the States. That put me on the spot a bit because sometimes I feel a little funny about explaining to them how much easier it is in the States than here. But in the conversation I did also find out that not one of these six ladies knows who Paris Hilton is. That's refreshing. Visited Arpine's house, which has been my most unique Armenian family experience so far. The mom works to support the family (dad can't find work) and they had all kinds of cool little vintage items throughout the house. Plus they didn't prepare the typical Armenian meal. Arpine made egg-cheese patties over the stove, pretty good, and a Georgian chicken recipe. Good family, good time. They also asked me who is better, Armenia or the U.S. I told them that they are too different to compare. Looking at apartments right now, have two months left with the host family which I would like to go a bit faster. They are also great people, but I do not feel independent at all, Alita is constantly trying to tell me about wearing socks or more clothes so I don't get sick (when it's not cold), asking me to eat bread/lavash/more meal/all kinds of things after I have literally just finished eating. Now I'm feeling very rebellious. And I don't know how many times "no" can go before she realizes I really don't want to eat that much? Visiting my old village this weekend for a huge village birthday party. It will be fun to go back and have a decent conversation in Armenian with this family for the first time, really... Plus I think there will be apples and other fall time fruits growing!

Carbon Monoxide UFO

2008-09-23T19:23:58Z

September 23 - Today my PC boss visited my house and dropped off two electric heaters and a smoke/carbon monoxide detector. Alita made me thoroughly clean my room. She made kufta, these huge softball sized boiled cow meatballs, for my boss. It's my town specialty. Normally Armenians prepare kufta for holidays, but here it is at least once or twice a week. Eaten with huge chunks of butter melted on top... as I am currently boycotting meat, I have not tried it. Anyway, Alita was fascinated by this carbon monoxide detector. She loved it. We did a sound test, and then I hung it on the wall and she stared at it like it was a UFO. She said they don't sell them in Armenia.

Sun Child

2008-09-15T18:40:15Z

September 15 - Had a good weekend. Went to Yerevan on Sunday to help with the Sun Child Festival. It was set up in a great, clean park, and the event was for about 500 children, aged 10 to 15. They were each provided with tiny, white desks and a full set of paints, and their task was to paint these tables for kindergartens in Armenian villages. Turned out to be a perfect day, and there were some great paintings, mostly of nature scenes - lakes, mountains, trees. The kids at my group of tables were good artists - notably, one of the girls did a great panda lounging on a tree branch, and another kid painted a swan with an arrow through its wing (maybe as an anti-hunting message?!) Today was a holiday, not sure for what. Alita went to the village, and I stayed home to rest (still sick), but I'm glad I didn't join her. She came back feeling awful and saying she'd been crying all day - and once again, she and the family went to the village graveyard. She said she'd been crying for "Trahmart," which is a literal translation for "the man." I suppose she was referring to her husband. So I made lentils for the family for dinner. Wednesday is going to be interesting because for the first time I'll be teaching this marketing class alone, with my counterpart who cannot translate (or really understand, for that matter) English. Before this class, my CBD mentor and his CP (great English speaker), Astrik and I were all doing this together, but they can't make it to this lesson and I'm guessing that's how most of the semester might turn out. Tomorrow will be a busy day of preparing for that and turning in an article about why litter detracts tourism from Sevan.