Women , Robots, and Autumn in Armenia................

POSTCARDS:  My summer English conversation group recently completed a project sponsored by Traveling Postcards, an international organization which gathers postcards from women in groups worldwide. Their theme is ART, Power, and Potential and through the interweaving of these 3 entities, women (and some men) are drawn together as they focus on others. The cards and messages of support from our group will be distributed to  other women suffering hardships such as domestic violence, trafficking, serious illness, homelessness, or other situations which victimize women.  Our group which consists mostly of university students and English teachers  wishing to practice conversational English, created handmade post cards with messages of hope, love and concern for these women we’ve never met yet with whom we feel a kinship. We even had a guest participant who is a university student in Russia and who uses impeccable English. It was a new experience for the young women and 1 young man to reach across boundaries of geography and ethnicity and to help others.  My wish is that this brief experience will light a fire within at least one of our group’s participants to work for change in the role of women in Armenia.  This might be an idea for a group you know. To learn more about the project go to  http://www.travelingpostcards.org  .

Post cards created by my English conversation group to be sent to women all over the world through Travelingpostcards.org 

                                                                                   

                                                                  

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WOMEN AND ELECTIONS : I just learned this week that 4 women are seeking city council seats in our small town of Dilijan, Armenia. That is noteworthy because women do not typically participate in elected volunteer positions in Armenia, especially in smaller towns. The women are all directors/principals of their organizations or schools. They are well educated, well known in town and well respected. These women will have many opponents---one report says 33, another 70. Although as Peace Corps volunteers we are not allowed to be involved in the political process, we can certainly be interested observers. The outcome of this election will be most intriguing and may set the stage for future involvement of women in how our town is run. May the best women----and men, win seats on our town’s advisory council. May they bring fair judgment, honesty, creativity and enthusiasm to those posts.  Special after-note:  the director of my college was the only woman elected to our town council.  Shnorhavor (congratulations!!)Tamaryzan. 

 Greta Tamaryzan, new Dilijan, Armenia town council member

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ENGLISH:  “Hi, Mrs. Judy. How are you?”  I am walking home and hear a child’s voice.  I respond with, “Hello, I am fine. How are you?” “My name is Aram”, replies the cute little 10 year-old boy as he rapidly pedals his bike by me.  This is a typical exchange of greetings Dave and I encounter every day. Children we’ve met at school, on the street, during summer activities, or elsewhere, want to practice their English, so a person identified as speaking English is often greeted by robot sounding questions learned by the children in school. This particular child, Aram, did not understand my question.( “How are you? “was answered with the child giving his name.) Most children know the correct response based upon what they’ve memorized. “I am fine, thank you”, is usually uttered in a robot tone of voice.  That is often the end of a conversation except for the smiles and giggles of an embarrassed child. The boy who spoke to me had met David and me during the summer and now knows we’ll talk with him. I hope we move past the robot stage, into a more relevant verbal exchange as time goes on.

                                                                     

Aram always speaks to us when we see him in our neighborhood 

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Autumn…..in ARMENIA:   We just bought 10 kilograms of fresh tomatoes and 2 kilograms of red bell peppers today. The lady down the street who sells fruits and vegetables at her home wanted to know what we were going to do with the purchases.  We tried to tell her that wewere planning to can the tomatoes and peppers for use in the winter, but we did not know the Armenian word for canning. That is where charades comes in handy----we acted out how to seal a jar with the Armenian tool used for that purpose. She understood and said, “shat lav” or very good.  I guess she was surprised that Amerikatsi’s would do such a thing. We learned last winter that many vegetables are plentiful if you wish to pay the winter prices or if you choose to eat only potatoes, onions, cabbage, beets and carrots.  Tomatoes and peppers are available but the selection is limited and costly during the winter, just as in other parts of the world.  We learned how to can tomatoes and peppers from our friend last fall so are doing it ourselves this year.   The neighborhood saleswoman weighed our bags with her small hand scale and gave us a price.  We spent less than 2000 Armenian drams for tomatoes and peppers, a fraction of what those items would cost during the winter if we chose to buy them. We also will can peaches next week before that season of tasty fruit is over.    Preparation for winter has caused a scurry of activity as women can, continue the process of drying seasonal fruits and herbs, and complete the laundering and line- drying of thick bedding needed during Armenia’s frigid winters. The harvesting of apples, pears, and plums also signals the beginning of vodka distillation. Thanks to a fine book sent by Kirby Riffel, we will go from a very modest 5 gallon distillery to a much more ambitious plan this year.   David and I are trying to get ready for winter and to use some of the knowledge we gained by living here last year. We hope we are as prepared as the ant in Aesop’s fable, The Ant and the Grasshopper. 

A few of the 31 jars of tomatoes we canned......yummy in winter time with chili, spaghetti, etc.

Kitchen tool every Armenian uses to seal jars after canning. Our neighbor lent us hers and was surprised that we'd even WANT to can!



Dave sealing canned peaches with Armenian  kitchen  tool. Armenian men do not usually help with canning or other kitchen chores. That fact was confirmed by  a student Judy tutors.





Dave putting jars into pot for boiling, just one of the steps in the home canning process



(Autumn pears waiting to be canned.)  Our neighbors bring us more pears than we can eat .....so they will be canned too!

We hope you enjoy your autumn, wherever you might be.
Judy and Dave



Armenian Musings and Random Thoughts

Students on first day at Dilijan State College, September, 1, 2012

Children entering local school on September 1, 2012

SCHOOL: All over Armenia summer ends with the First Bell assemblies and celebrations on September 1.Young children dress up in their best new clothes.  Older students are glad to see their friends while enduring the opening speeches of welcome from their teachers. In some schools, a toast of cognac indicates the beginning for the staff and faculty. In the case of my college, which is housed in an old run-down Soviet –style un-insulated building, the dust of late summer construction clings to the floors and walls and drifts into the air. It is pleasing to me in spite of the job not being quite finished, to find that a newly painted room is assigned to my counterpart and me for our English classroom. We’ve wanted this separate room where we can teach our students, store our materials and display visual aids related to the English language. We hear that we’ll get new desks, a new blackboard, new linoleum flooring, and a new computer complete with a headset for use with audio materials. This is music to my ears. I will (or “shall”, as in British English,) keep you posted on our new English room.

New English classroom, Dilijan State College: no flooring or furniture yet on  first day of school, September 1, 2012

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     DRIVING:     I miss having a car, or maybe it’s just the convenience of driving when and where I choose that I really miss. As a Peace Corps volunteer, we are not allowed to drive while in country and here in Dilijan, Armenia, we at least have reliable public transportation.  I still miss driving in a country where women do not usually drive except in larger towns and cities.  Recently, it took me 2 avtobus rides, 2 –hour and ½ marschutka rides and 2 short taxi rides to attend a Peer Support Network meeting and return home the same day. It is 102 KMs or about 63 miles in distance to Yerevan where the Peace Corps office is located. That’s not bad when some of our volunteers live as far away as 7-8 hours necessitating a 2 –night stay out of their site just to attend a meeting or tend a few items of business.  I still miss driving a car.

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Uncovered garbage cans in our neighborhood, visited by cows, cats and dogs

                                                                           

ARMENIAN DUMP DOGS:  The garbage dump puppies we saw as babies early in the spring are now gangly teen –aged dogs who still rummage in the neighborhood uncovered dumpster for food.  They compete with the cats and the neighborhood cows for sustenance. The puppies look amazingly robust and they are friendly, unlike other stray dogs or ones tied up with a mere 3 feet of rope from which they bark and guard their owner’s property. I wish we could take these puppies to our apartment but we must turn my head and try NOT to make friends with them. We do take them scraps when we have them. I fear for these dogs when winter comes.

                               Cat in bottom of garbage can, looking for food; dogs eat on the outside.....

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Kellianne (seated) 

KELLIANNE  and the VISITOR from AFRICA: A  black man, as he is called by locals, has been in our town this week. Persons of color are not often seen in Armenia and they are shunned and stared at .This man has a passport from Guinea and was supposedly sent to find work in Armenia by an international refugee organization. This plan has not worked out. The man is waiting without food, money or shelter until his scheduled appointment with an advocacy attorney in Yerevan in 3 weeks.  Kellianne, a young Peace Corps volunteer in Dilijan,  became involved when the man was put off of the local avtobus at her school because the bus driver knew someone there spoke English. The man spoke minimal English, but Kellianne spent several days trying to find resources for him. Amidst the stares and scoffing looks in a local café, she bought and shared a meal with him. Other than used clothing and the cash she, David and I gave him there was little success with her efforts. I accidently met the man on the avtobus as I was going to my tutoring session.  We spoke briefly and other riders on the avtobus appeared to be shocked at our verbal exchange, two foreigners speaking English together----an older female and “the black man”. The avtobus driver even looked at me as if to see whether I was offended by the man when he immediately showed me a small piece of paper.  This small scrap of paper with our Peace Corps site mate’s cell phone number was his lifeline because Kellianne  had responded compassionately to a human being  viewed by everyone else as totally different and unworthy of respect. No one else has even tried to help this displaced stranger from another country. How he ended up in Armenia is a convoluted, complex, circuitous, around-the- world journey which none of us understands. Everyone we speak with in this small town knows about “the black man”, but no one else has stepped up to the plate to help the uninvited visitor who is strikingly different from them.  It is another chapter in a Twilight Zone –like story which describes many of our experiences in Armenia.  Now we do not know the whereabouts of this man, but we hope he has gone to Yerevan where there might be a possibility of social service assistance.  May his lifeline eventually include someone who has the authority to guide him with as gracious a spirit as Peace Corps volunteer, Kellianne.                   

Judy

"F" is for Flower..........

    As an English teacher, words and their spelling take on a special meaning. The alphabet is also important, and to those who are learning our alphabet, no matter what their age, visual examples are part of how a letter is remembered.

    This summer I have worked with students at various levels of achievement in English. Most do not really know  the alphabet and  they struggle just as I do with their 39 letter Armenian alphabet.

    In my experience, the letter "F" stands for" FLOWER".  It is also the first letter of the word   "FORK" .
    The impact of these particular visuals is far less for my students than for me because this spring David and I , with the help of our friend and my team teacher, Christina, planted a FLOWER Garden at our apartment.  We scattered a collection of seeds which Christina and I had collected from various places, watered them well and waited.

Christina planting seeds in our new garden.

Watering of this garden must be done by hand since there is no  outdoor faucet available.

In a few weeks, we began to see tiny seedlings popping up in the bare soil where grape vines previously grew.  The need for water grew and continues through the summer. That has become David's job! Then came the tedious job of transplanting many of these babies into different areas of the garden because there were too many plants trying to grow too close together to thrive .
Here is where the FORK came in------it was my tool of choice and it worked fabulously!!

                                     

This is the FORK which transplanted hundreds to seedlings in our garden.


Soon, our flowers began to grow  in abandon, during the lengthy, sunny , warm days of our Armenian summer. This is a cottage garden and some of the flowers remain nameless to us and to our Armenian gardening friends. None the less, "F" signifies FLOWER and  FORK and now, FRIENDS. 

I will not forget the letter "F" in our alphabet and maybe my students won't either because of the MANY photos of flowers I make and show them.  

 

                       

 

Learning these words in the Armenian language is more difficult. There is not just one letter to begin these 3 words. In the transliterated form of Hayeren (Armenian language) ,  flower is tsaghik,  fork is patarrakagh, and friend is anker.

     I hope you have many flowers and friends in your life and a few forks, too!!!    Judy

Many of my blogs are serious, as I focus on real life happenings in Armenia. As Dave and I live and work here with the Peace Corps,  I realize that these writings may sound more negative than I intend even though there are definitely positives for us in this life we are leading.

I also realize that my blogs are lengthy, verbose, time-consuming to read, and often just too long to be blog entries.      So................this blog will only have photos with minimal text.  To follow are photos of a few people we've met and experiences we've had outside of our work but inside our goal of integrating and immersing ourselves into life in Armenia.

Family from Iran who we met in Yerevan as we walked down the street. The father spoke and taught English and invited us to visit in Iran.    We are not allowed to go to Iran while in Peace Corps service.

Finale for children's award-winning musical produced at the Dilijan Music College.

Peace Corps volunteers at July 4th celebration at U. S. Embassy in Yerevan, Armenia--complete with hamburgers and fireworks!

Gathering storm clouds in the Dilijan mountains

Lovely family we met in Dilijan then had dinner with in their Yerevan home, most hospitable and inviting family!

Petunias thrive in the climate of Armenia

. Not many children have bikes in our neighborhood but this boy let Dave ride his for a few minutes

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Judy with children waiting to see President of Armenia during his visit to Dilijan

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2 of our favorite Armenian neighbors



A few photos, very little text.....nice
change! These pictures are worth
thousands of words.  Enjoy!
Judy

Armenian woman who bakes and sells LAVASH (national bread of Armenia) right in our neighborhood.  It is yummy!\\

       

Don't Leave Home Without It....your Camera

Recently, I missed a great photo op----a cow lying quietly at the front door of the school where I went for an appointment. I was startled, but the cow appeared nonchalant as she rested in the warm Armenian sun, wide- eyed and chewing her cud . She looked at my friend and me as if to say, "welcome, and WHY are YOU here?" Then the smooth , brown bovine creature rose up and walked down the front steps of the school and left us to find our way without any help from her. She had checked us out and decided we were acceptable for her school and now she  moved on to another resting place.

My Armenian teacher friend and I were visiting the school to invite the English teachers to a workshop being planned for later in the summer. We'd taken a taxi and would eventually visit 4 schools who offered English to their students. Each school's principal and English teachers expressed interest in attending the 1-day workshop to be presented by my site mate and fellow Peace Corps volunteer, Kellianne Lauer plus 3 other volunteers. It will be part of our work aimed at sharing new teaching methods to English teachers in Armenia. We hope these teachers actually show up for the workshop.

Later that day I met David for coffee in the cafe near his office. We approached the counter and greeted the server .Before she could take our order, 3 teen-aged girls rushed in and in true Armenian fashion, pushed in front of us. They were laughing, talking, swishing their long shiny black hair like
ponies in an open field trying to keep flies off their backs. The server proceeded to take their orders as other girls with the same appearance joined them at the counter, pushing in front of Dave and me as if we were invisible. We have become accustomed to people breaking in to lines, but today it was too much.  The server knew us yet ignored us to wait on 6-7 girls who rudely sought her  immediate attention. If I had brought my camera, a revealing photo of Dave leaving the cafe without coffee would have been posted here.  Apsos!! (it's a pity).
                                         
                                 then......another non-camera day.........

We rode the marschutni (main source of transportation from one town/village to another) to Yerevan later in the week to attend a couple of Peace Corps meetings and appointments. I did not take my camera so missed taking photos of several vast fields of wildflowers so prolific and beautiful . in Armenia in late spring and early summer. Apsos, again.   I also missed taking a photo of a colorfully dressed older woman in the street in Yerevan.  She was dressed in red tights, brightly colored blouse and very high heels. She was carrying a hot pink umbrella to protect herself from the sun. The woman's hair was jet black with hints of white at crucial spots thus showing her true colors. She wore vivid red lipstick and the expected eye shadow of Armenian women in their attempt to be perpetually beautiful regardless of age or occasion. We watched as she greeted people on the street and they in turn spoke to her. Everyone smiled for their own reasons. I'm sure she would have welcomed a photo.  And she made us smile, too.

I need a new camera. The flash on mine has not functioned for months, however , Dave and I do have hundreds of decent images in spite of this defect. I promise myself every day to take the camera, but some days it is just too burdensome. Those days are usually ones in which great photo ops present themselves.  Now my new mantra  is, "don't leave home without it-----the camera".


(No photo for this blog, because I forgot the camera!)       Judy

June 4th Arrivals to Armenia: the Smith's 2011......Secretary of State Hillary Clinton 2012

                                                                         

Dave and my Peace Corps training group in the Vienna airport
awaiting plane to Armenia, June 4, 2011

      Today, June 4, 2012, is the 1 year anniversary for Dave and my arrival into Armenia.  We will never forget that overcast, drizzly early morning landing at the Yerevan, Armenia airport this time last year.    Our exhausted, excited, and extremely nervous group of fellow trainees received a huge welcome from the Peace Corps Armenia staff,  then we were taken immediately to busses waiting to whisk us away to the foot of Mt. Ararat, and the ruins of the Zvartnots Temple. There we saw our first sunrise in our new country.

    
      How could we forget the somber duduk music playing in the background or the hot coffee and delicious Armenian pastries served to us as the sun rose and shone on that special place?    And as Dave wrote in an earlier blog post, we had a fellow trainee amongst us whose name was Noah.  Now how special is that?????

                                                                             

                                                        Today, June 4, 2012, was also special and impressive.  Dave and I were in attendance at the U. S. Embassy in Yerevan, Armenia to meet and greet Secretary of State Hillary Clinton who was making an official visit to this country.  Only 20 Peace Corps volunteers were allowed to participate. We were chosen through a random drawing of those who expressed interest in the event.   Although Secretary of State Clinton’s speech for us and Embassy staff and their families, was brief, it was exciting just to be a part of such an event with all of its protocol.  A few volunteers even shook hands with Mrs. Clinton.  We appreciate U. S. Ambassador John Heffern for including representatives from the Peace Corps staff and volunteers at this event.  It was also gratifying to be amongst Americans as a group and to feel a part of the efforts to promote peace in this part of the world, as mentioned in Secretary of State Clinton’s remarks.

      So June is here and new feelings arise.   After spending 4 days last week assisting with the orientation of a new group of Peace Corps trainees, I feel their enthusiasm, their apprehension, their eagerness to get started with work in Armenia.  We were right there in the same mind-set a year ago as we began language classes and moved into our host family homes.  So much time, yet so little, has passed and there’s so much to tell these fresh new faces----many young and recently out of college while others are seasoned and filled with valuable experiences to share in Armenia.  My hope is that this new group will take it slowly and not become overwhelmed with the new culture and life being quickly thrown in their direction.  I hope they will absorb as much as they can each day and then go to their new homes and families and reflect upon what they have chosen to do with their lives, to relax, and to avoid frustration and over-concern with perfection.  I want to tell the new trainees so much yet do not want to ruin the unique experience each of them will have based upon their own perceptions of Armenia, the people they meet, and the training they receive. (Of course, there are tips along the way, i. e., be prepared to eat more than you’ve ever eaten in your lives because Armenians are very hospitable and view food as the way to be kind to others; always have toilet tissue with you because many facilities do not provide it; and make your preferences known regarding drinking coffee and vodka early on---before patterns are established.

     June… the month for brides, Father’s Day, and warm sunshine in the U. S. But, in Armenia, it will be the month for taking a deep breath, planning future projects, and figuring out how to make the best use of the time Dave and I have left in this Peace Corps service.  Before we know it, another year will have passed and we will awaken from our dream of serving in the Peace Corps and wonder where the 27 months has gone. Although there have been challenges and there will be future rough spots, we would not trade the experiences we’ve had for anything and only hope to have positively impacted a few Armenians along the way.

       Secretary of State Clinton’s call for continued work towards a peaceful world is just part of what Peace Corps volunteers strive to do during their service.  May we all reach that goal in our small part of Armenia, and in our own personal worlds, day by day.        Judy

         Dear readers, I apologize for not posting  more photos with this article because they definitely would add to its meaning, however, I  have experienced  great difficulty in getting images to post properly. Even with the help of the  young and technically expert fellow Peace Corps volunteers, it is not happening in a timely way.  I wanted you to have these thoughts and will try to post  additional photos later.  Hope you enjoy the text, at least!   Thanks, Judy

       

It's Just Armenia

For a moment today I forgot where I was. As I was riding the avtobus home from downtown Dilijan I glanced at a woman across the aisle and thought she was a colleague from work in Memphis, TN. When she turned her head I was abruptly slapped back into reality. She was not Michaelia but was, instead, a random bus rider with the same hair color and style but a woman I’d never seen before.

 What was I thinking??? I had just finished a session with my Armenian language tutor and then tutored a little boy in English myself.  Prior to that, I had spent one of those days at my college which seemed non-productive.  I was definitely in Armenia. Where else would a person see a huge pig and one of her babies gluttonously gobbling grass along the town’s sidewalk?  Does everyone see lonely cows slowly wandering in the street and horses led by frayed ropes passing by? Or what about the countless “watch dogs” that are attached to chains only long enough for them to pace in a small circle around their muddy ramshackled shelters, waiting to bark and snarl at the next passerby?                                      

 And even in this day of attention to environment there is litter everywhere, just as we saw in Niger, Africa.  Paper, plastic bags, cans, cigarette packages, cardboard boxes are all strewn along the streets and down the embankments leading to open drainage ditches. In fact, my English students had difficulty understanding the term “litter” and especially the words “litter bug”.    I am definitely in Armenia.   Here it is beginning to warm up and our mornings are now often clear and sunny. But true Armenians know to always carry an umbrella because brief rain showers are frequent and regular, especially in the month of May. I forgot my umbrella today.  Where is my head???

As I walk from the avtobus stop, up the steep hill to our street, a young boy is scurrying around a beautiful lilac bush, breaking off long branches covered with blooms.  Lilacs are beautiful this time of year. Their scent is noticed everywhere.  This particular large lilac bush is in someone’s yard, just close enough to the fence to be reached by the child.  I watch him as I get closer. He is careful to make the branches all the same length and discards to the ground any deteriorating leaves.  He looks around to see if anyone is watching and sees me approaching.   He looks away and begins to walk rapidly down the street.  I catch up with him and ask if the flowers are for his Mother, “Ha” he says (“yes”, in Armenian). He’s clutching the beautiful flowers tightly as if I’d snatch them away from him. He’s neatly dressed and his back pack has some kind of furry piece dangling off of it. A rabbit’s foot, maybe??? I do not have the language skills to say anything about his taking the flowers from someone else’s bush, but I wanted to.  Unfortunately, this is Armenia, and the practice is not unusual.  As the boy continued on towards his home I doubted if he even thought about what he’d done or if his Mother would wonder where he got the flowers.  At least he was thinking of his Mother.

                                                                  

  My mind is perturbed. It is another roller coaster ride in the day of a Peace Corps volunteer. However, a high had come earlier in today’s class where teenaged students responded positively after receiving dental care information and new toothbrushes, paste, and dental floss. Thoughtful friends and acquaintances and their dentists have sent me enough items to share with several hundred students and the idea is well received.  I owe a huge thanks to my retired nurse friends and others in Wilmington, NC, who are helping with this project. Together we are trying to make a difference in a few children’s lives. That is a high for sure.      

     I must think of each day with its inherent challenges and find a high to balance a low.  Today there’s another high---a cold Coca Cola waiting for me in our refrigerator. I do not allow myself to have sugary cokes very often. Today after teaching about dental health and demonstrating the effects of coke on a chicken bone, it seems a bit incongruous to have this treat.  This is Armenia though, and I’ll celebrate the ups as well as deal with the downs.  I’ll have the coke, brush my teeth, and hope the students remember to do the same!                                                                                                  Judy