What I did there
And good morning again. Oatmeal and tea and a "multi vitamin and mineral hi-potency tablet", courtesy P.C. It's the breakfast of champions. Plus a couple of ibuprofen because I tweaked my back this morning. So it goes.
You'll notice that in all of this ranting I've said NOTHING about my work. It's simply that I don't really have any yet. I'm assigned to a PolyClinic and a Maternity House, and I've toured both and am showing up at the PolyClinic regularly for a couple of hours a day. At the moment, however, there's really nothing for me to do once I'm there. The facilities are pretty impressive - by Armenian standards - x-rays, dentist, sonogram, isolettes, etc. Lots of staff - the PolyClinic has approx. 125, with 25 doctors, and the rest nurses or lab techs or other; I'm not sure about the Maternity House. Babies are swaddled here; they look like they're straight out of a medieval woodcut - weird little bundles with tiny heads sticking out, perfectly rigid. There's also a hospital and a children's PolyClinic here (I haven't been to either yet - it's only my second week here), and I've seen evidence of UMCOR, USAIDS and the World Food Programme, but am not sure how involved they are, or what exactly they're doing here. Remember, no medical staff in Armenia has been paid for a year - and often it seems like there's not much for them to do. They show up, sit down, and wait. Maybe a couple of people come in, maybe not. Records are kept in something like copybooks, handwritten with glued-in pages. What I'm actually "supposed" to be doing, god only knows - and I panicked about it bigtime my first week, until I unearthed some site survey forms that need to be filled in. A sense of purpose and a semblance of structure - thank ye gods and little fishes - though god only knows what I'll be doing when that's finished. Matt is working on an AIDS seminar for the end of this month, and I'm supposedly helping him (Matt & Mandy are the 2 other volunteers in Alaverdi - Mandy's currently en route to Greece with her mother, but Matt's been a great help. He even made me dinner that first night in town, which was a blessing), but so far I've done zilch. At this point I'm just trying to find my bearings and my way about town. For example, last night I went to visit one of my neighbors who had invited me over the night before. Somehow I ended up in the wrong building - but was still invited in to this random person's apartment, given coffee and cake and talked to. Watch the Amerikatski mangle your language! The one phrase I've thoroughly mastered is, "My Armenian in very bad now, but will be better later." The rest of the time it (my language) bears a frightening resemblance to David Sedaris' French the first year he was there. Now if I could only learn the Armenian for "bottleneck", I'd be all set.
Such is my life at present. O, and my computer's problem has been solved, though I don't currently have direct access to email, and won't while I am here. Burnt out power supply cord. Jim (my mother's boyfriend) sent me a new one and problem solved! Just think how outdated it'll all be once I get back to the States... and that's nothing new.
I could go on for days about the various details of life here (or about my cleaning), or about the giardia I'm pretty sure I've picked up, or about immersion heaters (an easy step to electrocution) and bucket baths - but, hey! I've got two years yet to bore you with the details of life in Armenia. Who knows? Eventually I may even find some work to do - and that will be a whole ‘nother story with its own peculiar set of details.
You'll notice that in all of this ranting I've said NOTHING about my work. It's simply that I don't really have any yet. I'm assigned to a PolyClinic and a Maternity House, and I've toured both and am showing up at the PolyClinic regularly for a couple of hours a day. At the moment, however, there's really nothing for me to do once I'm there. The facilities are pretty impressive - by Armenian standards - x-rays, dentist, sonogram, isolettes, etc. Lots of staff - the PolyClinic has approx. 125, with 25 doctors, and the rest nurses or lab techs or other; I'm not sure about the Maternity House. Babies are swaddled here; they look like they're straight out of a medieval woodcut - weird little bundles with tiny heads sticking out, perfectly rigid. There's also a hospital and a children's PolyClinic here (I haven't been to either yet - it's only my second week here), and I've seen evidence of UMCOR, USAIDS and the World Food Programme, but am not sure how involved they are, or what exactly they're doing here. Remember, no medical staff in Armenia has been paid for a year - and often it seems like there's not much for them to do. They show up, sit down, and wait. Maybe a couple of people come in, maybe not. Records are kept in something like copybooks, handwritten with glued-in pages. What I'm actually "supposed" to be doing, god only knows - and I panicked about it bigtime my first week, until I unearthed some site survey forms that need to be filled in. A sense of purpose and a semblance of structure - thank ye gods and little fishes - though god only knows what I'll be doing when that's finished. Matt is working on an AIDS seminar for the end of this month, and I'm supposedly helping him (Matt & Mandy are the 2 other volunteers in Alaverdi - Mandy's currently en route to Greece with her mother, but Matt's been a great help. He even made me dinner that first night in town, which was a blessing), but so far I've done zilch. At this point I'm just trying to find my bearings and my way about town. For example, last night I went to visit one of my neighbors who had invited me over the night before. Somehow I ended up in the wrong building - but was still invited in to this random person's apartment, given coffee and cake and talked to. Watch the Amerikatski mangle your language! The one phrase I've thoroughly mastered is, "My Armenian in very bad now, but will be better later." The rest of the time it (my language) bears a frightening resemblance to David Sedaris' French the first year he was there. Now if I could only learn the Armenian for "bottleneck", I'd be all set.
Such is my life at present. O, and my computer's problem has been solved, though I don't currently have direct access to email, and won't while I am here. Burnt out power supply cord. Jim (my mother's boyfriend) sent me a new one and problem solved! Just think how outdated it'll all be once I get back to the States... and that's nothing new.
I could go on for days about the various details of life here (or about my cleaning), or about the giardia I'm pretty sure I've picked up, or about immersion heaters (an easy step to electrocution) and bucket baths - but, hey! I've got two years yet to bore you with the details of life in Armenia. Who knows? Eventually I may even find some work to do - and that will be a whole ‘nother story with its own peculiar set of details.
posted by meg at 6:11 AM
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