Miamsyak Masin

My dear friend Naira came to me with an idea for women's month: A women's only exercise class. I was at her house late one evening at the beginning of the month when she told me that she was feeling the winter weight and suggested organizing a class for women only. I was so excited about her initiative that I could barely contain myself. Her idea is any community health educator's dream come true. To think, she suggested the class for community members our age! As we prepared for the class and began to imagine what exercises to start with I kept remembering my college cardio kickboxing class. I wished I had paid more attention. Despite coaching youth lacrosse before joining the Peace Corps I felt unprepared to teach exercises to unfit women. What if someone threw out her back?

Naira and I drafted a contract for our participants. It read:

Miamsjak Miasin (A month Together)
"Move a lot, live long"

I came here because I want to live a healthy life and I want to feel good. I will try my best to learn new exercises and adopt them into my everyday life. I will try everything. Over time, I will live a healthy lifestyle. Today it is very important for us to maintain our health. This is not only important for me, but for everyone. When we are together, we are strong. As much as I am able, I will help the other women here.

The first day, all four participants signed. I was disappointed with the turn out, especially considering we had made attractive announcements and hung them around the village. I later realized that our problem was that women in their 20s and 30s don't go out walking in the village. Many, in fact, rarely leave their homes. I decided that it wasn't fair to tell my host mom, age 63, that she wasn't allowed to participate, especially since we had so few women the first day anyway and she came too. It has been three weeks since we began and we've had 15 women participate. My host mom surprises us all with her amazing leg-lifting ability and everyone is feeling better, stronger and lighter. I received a "Pilates for Dummies" disk and we're using it to learn exercises and improve our breathing. I couldn't be more proud of our group's consistency and enthusiasm. We even started adding in "running Fridays"

Who wouldn't feel good when, at the end of a difficult exercise class, everyone gathers in a circle, hands together, to cheer: "Miamsjak Miasin!"

Village Bee

Today nearly sixty students participated in our village Spelling Bee. After nearly two months of practicing the students came to try their luck at spelling words from their textbooks. It was a fun experience for the students in our 7th-11th grades. The five winners below will be traveling to the National Bee in May.

The event was a nice opportunity for me to invite my Armenian language teacher and other PCVs to the village. We had four judges and numerous 'audience controllers' (as the students like to help one another out).

International Women's Day

Armenia is one of the countries worldwide that embraces International Women's Day on March 8th. Here, the holiday is most closely associated with how we in America celebrate Mother's Day. Children make cards, buy small gifts and flowers for the women in their lives-most importantly their mothers. I spent last week preparing the children for the holiday by providing every class with paper and colored pencils and asking students to decorate a mother's day thank you card. This worked well and every grade from 2nd to 9th participated. The act of making thank you cards is generally isolated to young children in Armenia, and it was a good exercise for 14 and 15 year olds to take some time to think of ways to say thank you to their mothers.

On Friday afternoon I decided I wanted to travel on the holiday. A group of girls were gathering south of my village and I wanted to celebrate the Armenian holiday with Americans. The decision was justified by the following conversation I had with my host mother on Friday afternoon:

Host mother: "Tomorrow is women's day-we're having a party."
Me: "You mean a BBQ?"
Host mother: "Yes, it will be big."
Me: "And who will set the table?"
Host mother: "Donara [my host sister]"
Me: "And who will cook the food?"
Host mother: "Donara"
Me: "And who will gather and wash the dishes?"
Host mother: "You and I will."
Me: "So really what you're saying is that the women are going to throw a party for themselves and then do all the work while the men sit and eat and toast to our holiday and health? I'm going to my friends house."

And so I did. I went down south and the five of us did girly things like get our eyebrows done (a 500 dram= $1.25 expense), eat cake and ice cream at a tea house, lay out in the sunshine and watch English movies. It was my ideal of a women's holiday-spent with women doing things that made us feel good.

On Monday morning I got to school and opened Yahoo! to find that internationally, women were doing things on Saturday that had a little more impact than getting my eyebrows plucked. There were interesting stories of tributes, rallies and celebrations. I was most struck by an article about Wajiha Huwaidar, a Saudi woman, driving her car in a remote area to mark the day. Appearently she posted her video on YouTube. Interestingly, there are very few women drivers in the regions of Armenia. In fact, it's pretty unique to see women driving in the cities. I'm constantly thankful for the freedoms of both law and culture that allow me live openly in our society.

International Peace Corps Week

The Armenia PC Public Relations committee has embraced International Peace Corps week as an opportunity to educate the American embassy and the Armenian public about our organization’s work in this country. Volunteers were given speaking points in Armenian and English and encouraged to organize community meetings to raise awareness.

As one of the volunteers expecting others to participate in this week’s festivities, I felt an obligation to organize my own ‘meeting’. I called together the leaders from my region’s Youth & Community Action Club to present background information on the PC, a personal testimony about my work at site and provide an open forum for questions and answers to my counterparts and the school director.

The Peace Corps is a source of great pride for my director and this village. As one of the first villages in the region to host a PCV in 2004, my director has always been admired among educational leaders for her proactive attitude and successful project writing skills. After the success of my small meeting on Tuesday, she took the initiative to attend the regional director’s board meeting on Thursday with the same speaking points, PC site application forms and a personal request to the Director of Education & Sport for an announcement to be made about applying for a PCV. She’s the best spokeswoman the organization could hope for.

While individual PCVs promoted the Peace Corps in the regions, in Yerevan opportunities were organized with the US Embassy to provide informal presentations, lunches and language lessons to staff. We were invited to sit in the cafeteria on Thursday and offer up conversation about our experiences in Armenia to both Americans and Armenians on break.

The hope is that more people will have a positive idea of the organization and apply for a volunteer to work in their office or school. Fifty new volunteers will arrive in June and the more sites willing to host them the better.

Trndez Holiday in the village

According to http://www.panorama.am/, on February 14th, the Armenian Apostolic Church celebrates the “Tiarndaradj” holiday 40 days after Jesus' birth. The word means to meet Jesus. According to Ararat Patriarchal Eparchy, the celebration starts the evening of February 13. After the ceremony people light candles in church and take the light to their homes. According to the public tradition, people make a fire from the candle light brought from church. This holiday expresses the divine love towards God.

In my village, however, there is no church and after yesterday's celebration there are quite a few cultural traditions left unexplained. Even though this is my second 'hopping over the fire' holiday here I haven't been able to find anyone in my extended host family who can explain the behaviors of February 13th.

The celebration is for newlyweds or newly engaged couples. If you happen to be fortunate to have one of these pairs in your family you have a fire to jump over and a party to attend. This year we had two in our family--both parties starting at 5 p.m.

Everyone arrived and a fire was lit in the street. The women gathered up beautifully wrapped bowls of baked grains and popcorn in addition to horovats and vodka. There's also a traditional dish called halva (although I think it's enjoyed in Russia too) that they carry out to the fire. Women surrounded the couple and everyone walked around the fire seven times. My friend Sargis told me that they walk around seven times in hopes of the bride having a boy and eight times for a girl. For the record, I can't imagine an Armenian couple walking around eight times. Regardless, the theory was quickly negated this morning when my host grandpa infomed me that the next step in the celebration process-of actually jumping over the fire- is what leads to fertility.

Seven times around (I later learned that this could be for seven days of the week...or maybe because 7 is a lucky number)...

Three times over...

After leaping over the fire three times a relative took one of the sticks and burnt a mark into the bottom of each of the couples pant legs.
Me: "Why is she burning their pants?"
Grandma: "To let all the bad things and illness come out."
Me: "Illness comes out of the bottom of our pants?"





The couple was handed a pair of candles and they lit each wick from the fire in the street. The candles were left burning for the duration of the party.

My host grandfather says that God looks down on earth and sees all the fires burning on this day and decides to change the weather. All the heat also helps of course. This is why it starts to get warmer after February 13th. Try telling that to my friends up in Gyumri who still have another solid three months of winter ahead of them.

After this we all went inside. Well, some of us. One of my favorite relatives decided she also wanted to jump over the fire three times. I'm not sure if she was wishing for fertility (she already has three kids my age) or just wanted to see if she could do it.




The party inside was just like any other party table with BBQ, dolma, fruits, candies, cold cuts, olives, cheese and lots of bread. We ate and toasted to: The couple, their grandparents, their parents, uncles, aunts, even me and my family. Each toast is followed by its own thank you toast. Needless to say there was a lot of vodka flowing.

After two parties I returned home and handed each of the four kids a piece chocolate. After all, isn't chocolate the most important aspect of Valentine's Day anyway?

Happy Valentines Day--I love you.

Sarah and the Bee

I've gone on a school-wide promotional tour this week trying to inspire the seventh through eleventh graders to participate in a local spelling bee in April.



I began my speeches quoting numbers from the film Spellbound. "Nine million students participated in local spelling bees in America in 2001," I say. "This is a great opportunity that we'd like to bring from American society to Armenia." I thought maybe the sheer amount- 9 million-would be motivational to students growing up in a country with a population of about three million.

I told them about the rules-the difference between saying the sounds of the letters and their names. "If you say: kuh ah tuh you will be sent out the door. If you say cat you'll get to sit down until we have a winner!" I explained the process and then broke into my tireless focus on goal setting. I asked what the goal of a local and eventual national spelling bee would be. Apparently I overemphasize the importance of setting long-term life goals because I enjoyed responses like: "To have a better life! To be better people! To be winners!"

It seemed petty when I simply admitted: "You'll know how to write down English words and read the words you write."

Climate changes

Yesterday afternoon at 3 p.m it was:
40 degrees Fahrenheit outside
79 degrees in my favorite chair next to the wood burner in the living room
23 degrees in my bedroom upstairs

I wanted to dance when I walked out of the freezing cold school and saw the snow melting away and the tops of the mountains to the East. My enthusiasm was quickly curbed with concern for our apricot harvest.

Whereas a year ago I never would have given a second thought to crops and frosts, (except when my mom used to lay bedsheets over our flowerbeds when the weather channel warned of an overnight freeze) I saw the detrimental effect one cold spell can have on an entire year's worth of planting, watering and tending. We're nervous for the trees this year.

Last spring in late April there was a freeze that killed half of the village's crops and left the other half (in the land that sits higher none of the trees were harmed) financially secure. No one wants another poor harvest- especially those families with orchards that sit low in the plain.

This morning I was brushing my teeth outside (because it was warmer than the frost-covered bathroom) when my host brother came in from tending the pigs. I commented that the rain was better than snow and he said that no, in fact, it was much more dangerous because if the rain enters the apricot blossoms and freezes overnight it could kill all of them. And here I was content in my own little world, trying to figure out if the village pipe system could have thawed enough to provide some laundry water.

Maybe mom will come over with bed sheets for 15 acres of apricot trees...

Project Design Management

The Project Design Management workshop teaches volunteers and their counterparts how to involve community members in moving from analysis of their site to planning and implementing projects. As one of the trainers for this year’s conference, I will be responsible for sessions on everything from asset and deficit identification to project design, action plan creation, budgets and evaluation and monitoring- a dream come true.

Training this week was a relief from the difficult village winter and allowed Alla and I to talk with some of the most active volunteers and their counterparts in the country. Inspired by my offer to extend for a third year and the project design review course, we discussed the possibilities of starting an NGO in the village, working on gender issues and planning two summer camps.

Quarterly reports are due at the end of the month and it seems that although this quarter was very much focused on my personal development (including marathon training, vacations and quality holiday celebrations with the host family) next quarter will be very busy. We’re planning to host a local spelling bee in the school and perhaps even a writing Olympics. There’s camp planning, a service learning project and Web site design.

Now if only the weather would warm up.

Future Leaders Exchange

The Future Leaders Exchange (FLEX) program was created by Congress to provide people of the countries of the former Soviet Union long-term exchanges. For 16 years secondary school students have traveled to the US for one year to live with an American host family and study in our high schools.

I was chosen to serve as a pre-departure orientation teacher for the 2008-2009 group. This summer I'll be able to teach approximately 50 young Armenians about American culture, US high schools, friends and family life.

For now, it's the training in April that I'm most excited about. Syd and I will travel to Moscow early to see the city and then work for four days with people from other caucus countries.

We can't wait to visit Red Square and see Grand Kremlin Palace and St. Basil's Cathedral. I'd really love to have tea in the Ostankino TV tower (the tallest in Europe) and it would be interesting take a boat tour and enjoy the museums and parks too. Who knows, we might even visit the Moscow Circus!

It's beginning to look a lot like New Years

Happy 2008! After setting off home made fireworks in the street at midnight we went inside and began to enjoy the traditional table, endless toasting and door-to-door congratulating. The New Years process begins at 12 a.m. and goes on until at least January 6th (Christmas day). After visiting more than 45 houses at my current site, I'll be making rounds to my PST host family within the next week.

These were beautiful and less intimidating than the fireworks that sounded like rockets being set off on our porch.

To your health, the health of your family, to a glad year and all the best.

The dish on your left is dolma (cabbage and grape leaf rolls), in the center on the top of the pig thigh is blinchik (fried crepe beef wraps). There's your standard vodka, juice, cold meat tray and salads.

Toast, drink, eat and repeat. Over and over. With everyone you know.

If they came to your house you're expected to go to theirs. The table will be nearly identical.

Christmas scenes from the village

Living the village life around the holidays always makes me feel like I'm living the Christmas story I only saw in picture books growing up. Although the Armenians celebrate on January 6th with not nearly the fanfare of Western society, I feel a closer connection to the nativity story here than at the store sales and zoo lights of America.

Our manger. Where the cattle are lowing.

The shepherd and his sheep.

International Volunteer Day

Shnor havor camavori orna. Congratulations on Volunteer day!
It's an exciting day to be a non-paid health teacher as today marks the one day when I can talk about what it means to volunteer and how volunteering has impacted my life.

On Monday an environmental education PC volunteer and I were invited to the H1 (television channel) studios in Yerevan. A popular talk show host was interested in our lives in Armenia and wanted to celebrate international volunteer day with some PCVs on his show '5th wheel'.

I knew it wouldn't be live so I wasn't worried about the interview until the host informed us that there would be no stopping, no question clarification opportunities, no take twos, and the entire program would be taped in Armenian.

With the lights glaring down on Rud and I we fielded questions about volunteerism in our lives, what our experience has been like in Armenia and why we're not married to Armenians yet.

When it was said and done I took a deep breath and began to critique the entire experience. Why had I confused the verbs for understand and relax? Why couldn't I recall the word for accommodate? Why do I insist on using flamboyant hand gestures while I speak? For the first time in a long time I remembered the fear of public speaking in Armenian. The last time I got up in front of a large group I mispronounced the word for Armenia itself. What could I possibly have said on camera?

We left the studio and the Director's executive assistant told us it was fantastic, that Rud spoke the region slang perfectly and people in the taping room thought I was cute. If I have no language skills going for me at least maybe people can be distracted by the over sized nervous smile I used throughout the interview.

The show airs today in the afternoon. The village is all a buzz and the teachers are already asking what time we're meeting at my house. Happy Volunteer Day...

Haykakan family weddings

When my host mother's (below) oldest grandson decided to get married he didn't wait for the traditional wedding. He 'kidnapped' his bride a few weeks ago which led to a hasty process of organizing a celebration last Friday. After returning from Thanksgiving with some other PCVs, I went right to work at the one thing I could contribute...writing with cotton on a carpet hung on the wall. No one is quite sure where this tradition came from, but at every wedding I've been present for there has been some sort of wish to the happy couple written on a carpet and displayed behind the newlyweds. I took it upon myself to create an artistic design in cotton as my wedding present.
The message says: Happiness and newlyweds. It was requested-along with the flowers at the top.

The wedding celebration on Friday wasn't the complete 11 a.m. to 3 a.m. event that I had expected. The party didn't begin until 4 p.m. and I escaped by 10. I left feeling great about my integration into the family and community as during one of the hundreds of toasts that are traditionally offered during the party my host father thanked me for being here, mentioned my work and congratulated my marathon achievement. It was nice to be remembered.

Even though I was proud of my early escape the night before I woke up Saturday morning to a call from my school director requesting my presence at a wedding of her nephew. I hadn't ever met her nephew or the bride, but that didn't make any difference to my director who insisted that since I was her daughter and it was a family affair I should be in attendance. I grudgingly went out in the sleet and slush, comforted by the fact that I wouldn't need to choose anything to wear because it's so cold no one takes their coat off anymore.

My director's son was the best man and 'apple keeper' (below left). His job was to make sure that no one stole the apple off the top of the sword he carried around all day. I tested him with my gloves, proving that it could be stolen despite the hundreds of deathly-sharp toothpicks he stuck in the core.

The bride was from a different village, and traditionally after bringing the groom from his house the whole party moves to retrieve the bride from hers. We dressed the bride and then sat down to a meal (almost identical to the meal we would have two hours later at the groom's house) where the elders of both villages introduced one another. Much to my surprise, I was introduced to the bride and her family: "This is our village's American, she works with our director in the school." I was caught off-guard and honored by the introduction. I saw it as my opportunity to turn to the bride, thank her for the party (which I hadn't been invited to) and welcome her to our village. According to Armenian customs she will move into her husband's parents house and I was happy to say that the village she is coming to is fantastic.

November developments

After Athens and our all volunteer conference at the beginning of November, I returned to the village to find exciting developments underway. In a village of 2,000, for example, there are two separate pharmacies being constructed (see photos below) and the kindergarten is being remodeled. One can't help but wonder why all of this work is being done in the cold but then again, in a community driven by summer harvests November/December may be the only downtime to get these projects done.

(above) Pharmacy number one. When I questioned the mayor about the decision to build a second pharmacy 100 meters down the street from the first, he told me that this one would sell shoes too. Shoes and drugs--I guess it's all about supply and demand.

(Above) This is the pharmacy that was finished first. Renovations were easy (a new coat of white paint) except for my single request to not harm the only land-line phone that I can access to call America. I considered this little concrete cell my connection to home and would often call loved ones from the empty room. When I went to check on the construction process I was happy to find the mayor and his son (who will own the pharmacy) relocating the phone from behind the counter to the open wall on the right side of the room. They promised I could call whenever need be and when I teased, 'Sure, during office hours' they told me I could get a copy of the key. I'm starting to get very spoiled in this village.

We do 26.2

Today Team PC Armenia finished the 25th annual Athens Classic Marathon.

Team Kyle/Sarah finished in under five hours. Please see his Web site at http://www.kgiffinarmenia.com/ for an interesting synopsis.

The Greens

The afterschool mentorship program elected it's first president and chose a name this week. I'm now the advisor of The Greens. I guess the name sounds a little better in Armenian, but it's not really important when we see how excited the kids are about the project as a whole. Every Monday we meet with the club (which we downsized from 55 kids in the 6th-11th grade to 25) and review the previous week's kindergarten visit and study a new lesson. Tuesday and Wednesdays are practice days and then Thursdays we go into the kindergarten to teach the 17 6-year-olds environmental topics. The past three weeks groups of 5 or 6 students have taught trees, bushes and forests and clean air lessons. Next week is animals.

I've actually been spending a lot of time in the kindergarten lately. I have a weekly English lesson where I teach things like "hello" and "bye bye", colors and classroom objects. Last week we practiced the song If You're Happy and You Know It with the hopes that the kids will be prepared for their fall assembly.

The kindergarten closes at the beginning of November because of the cold, but if things go well during the next month we'll be able to go back in April and continue work all summer.

Learning the parts of a tree

Drawing forests

Learning the importance of water and sunlight for plants

What do you do with an organizational communications degree?

You build playgrounds!

I didn't know what I signed up for when I arrived in Armenia more than a year ago but in February when Alla and I began surveying the community for project ideas it became clear that four years of studying situational analysis, research skills, group work and project management would culminate into playground construction. With only experience at Habitat for Humanity for guidance I rolled up my sleeves and gathered the villagers for every step of the process from the grant writing to the hole digging.

On September 20 the Secondary School hosted our grand opening of "Bari Lur". With representatives from the Peace Corps, mayor's office and marz center office, neighboring schools and even AED we celebrated the collaborative work of more than 50 community volunteers. It was a nice day.

Students at the school entrance holding bread and salt, wine and fresh fruit for our guests.

The students lined the school drive with balloons and signs. My favorite one read: "Thanke you!" The entrance was grand with nearly 400 kids screaming and clapping.

After speeches and the presentation of certificates of appreciation my school director (left) and PC Armenia director Lee Lacy cut the red ribbon.

We played mini futbol, basketball, sang and danced to celebrate.

I've got the blues

I got home from a parent meeting last night craving Kraft Macaroni & Cheese. Thanks to a generous care package I had the Kraft but the family didn't have any butter or milk. Being the resilient PCV that I've become I turned to Samvel and asked him to run next door to our vice-principal's store for a stick of butter. I went upstairs, changed my clothes and yelled for Sargis. Sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do...This was my night to learn how to milk a cow.

The box only called for 1/4 cup of 2 percent milk. Patiently, Sargis sat beside me and showed me the procedure. I milked for awhile but lost interest and asked if he wouldn't be willing to finish while I went inside to boil the water. The family had no idea what I was doing and the men sat in disbelief at my attempt.

Donara looked at the orange pasta on the box and questioned my ingredients: Milk, butter and pasta didn't seem like much to get so excited about. I explained that growing up this was the only thing I knew how to make (shamefully it is probably still the only thing I can't mess up) and that there was definitely a different taste when the macaroni is shaped like cartoon characters.

Nervously, I boiled my fresh milk and mixed in the package of powdered cheese. I didn't know if my anticipated meal was going to taste like cow or not but much to my delight it was 'shat hamove' very tasty.

If going out to milk the cow at 8 p.m. to make your mac & cheese isn't Peace Corps I don't know what is.

Environmental club creation

Alla and I decided to build off of the success of the summer Green Camp by creating an after school club/mentorship program. Ever since I arrived I had wanted to inspire some sort of Big Brothers/Big Sisters activity but I wasn't sure how it would work. After a year things have come together and our first meeting was held yesterday.

Fourty two students in the 6th -10th grades arrived after school to learn about our plan to volunteer in the village kindergarten. We obtained lesson plans from an environmental NGO and described what would be expected of club participants. The kids were enthusiastic and anxious for leadership positions. Twenty students nominated themselves for club president and vice president positions. Elections will be on Friday.

At the end of the meeting we passed around a sign-in sheet and I instructed the students to mark if they were interested in the fall or spring sessions. The room errupted in laughter and I turned to Alla in surprise. She said: 'You just commanded them to get engaged!' I laughed too and turned back to the students; telling them to 'mark' the correct box and later we'd get married. We all enjoyed the slip up...while I made a mental note to get back to my language studies.

First bell for the last time

Today was the first bell ceremony signaling the beginning of fall and the beginning of another school year. Excitement was high as all of the kids lined up in front of the school in their black and white. For some reason the event seemed hours shorter this year than last. Perhaps this is because it's not nearly as hot and I wasn't quite as scared of the whole situation. Knowing what to expect, and knowing this language makes every situation so much easier.

As I prepared my speech last night (a sign that I wasn't as nervous-last year I studied weeks in advance and practiced in front of the mirror for hours on end) I laughed at how little I knew exactly one year ago today. I remember writing the speech with the English teacher and warning her that the words she was using were far beyond my vocabulary. I remember standing on the stage and mispronouncing the word Hayastan (Armenia). I remember feeling uncomfortable in the outfit my host family dressed me in. This year, dressed in my own clothes, I got butterflies but only because I decided that at the end of my speech I'd do the unprecedented and chant the summer Green Camp song with the kids. It was a big hit.

I've organized materials for my counterpart in the classroom this year but I've found myself busy with projects outside the classroom too. I've agreed to teach English 30 minutes-1 hour each week in the kindergarten, we have the after-school big brother/big sister nature club we plan to start, the new playground ribbon-cutting event will take place on September 20th and I'll be traveling in September to Vanadzor to grade our YES program applications. We just finished a grant application to the Open Institute Society of Armenia for a European Exchange club that I'm praying will be successful because it will serve as a platform for introducing the concept of service learning in the classroom. We're also staying very busy with PC initiative work. Our first round of initiative meetings with the new A15s is this month.

Today was the first day of 'school' but we get to rest tomorrow because it's Sunday. The real fun begins on Monday. Labor day. Happy Autumn All!