World Wise
The Peace Corps World Wise program matches up interested volunteers and teachers in an attempt to help educate American children about life outside of our borders. I was paired up with a middle school class and was pretty faithful about sending them off a letter every month. Every now and again, the kids were assigned to write me back - I suspect when the teacher had a gap in his lesson plan and needed to fill it - and I would get a sheaf of letters from the little buggers and attempt to answer them all. One year they sent me a Christmas package - lots of toilet paper and (weirdly enough) bottled water.
Here, for your reading pleasure, is one of the earlier letters I sent off to them. It was November, and I hadn't gotten any messages from the teacher or students yet, so I was writing blindly, posting letters off into the void. The letters were all numbered, as mail sometimes disappears enroute, or arrives out of sequence:
11•2•00 (start)
Letter #3
Well, I'm still hoping I'll hear from you one day - and who knows? There may be a letter from you waiting in Yerevan even as I type, or somewhere in the postal system between here and there. Mail can take ever so much longer than you'd think. It will just be easier for me once we start some sort of dialogue going, rather than my simply posting letters off into the void, bumbling along and hoping you find something of interest or use. I do wonder at times. After all, it WAS a government agency that set this up - and between bureaucracy, computer errors, and the inevitable red tape ANYTHING is possible. For all I know at this point, you've long since moved to Istanbul, taken your students with you, and these letters are sitting in the dead letter office of your old school. Assuming it's still standing, that is.
As for me, I'm still here in Armenia, with no thought of leaving anytime soon. For Istanbul or any other destination. Most of the last month I've stayed right in Alaverdi except one trip into Yerevan - it's Armenia's capital - on the 20th of October for our Emergency Evacuation Drill. It's a sort of fire drill for Peace Corps Volunteers, to make sure all of us can get out of the country quickly if we need to. We actually had a bit of trouble getting out of town - there was a funeral going on and all the roads out of town were blocked off by cars with wreaths and pictures propped on their hoods - but once out of Alaverdi, everything went smoothly. Everyone else managed to make it in, despite various small problems, and we all stayed at the Erebuni Hotel for the weekend. The hotel's right in the center of town, with HOT running water - it's the lap of luxury, even if we had to spend most of our weekend attending various workshops. I did manage to get into the Peace Corps office Sunday (we went in Friday night), pick up some new books to read, and weigh myself before catching a marchutney back home. I got to see my first Armenian snow on the way - it's not here in town yet, but I'm sure it's coming, and there was a good four to six inches in the mountains when the marchutney went through.
Marchutnies (pronounced mar - shoot - knees) are one of the main forms of public transportation in Armenia - they're smallish minivans with extra seats added so that they can fit 12 or more people (depending on the length of the trip and the size of the passengers). On shorter trips it's definitely 'more', with the seats being at a premium and the rest of the people standing in awkward half crouched positions, bracing themselves as best they against seats or other passengers. If someone has a child or other fragile package another passenger will often hold it for them, and the floor fills with bags of vegetables or fruit. On the longer journeys, everyone gets a seat - but it may be small and you don't get much leg or wiggle room. The trip from here to Yerevan is about four hours (on good roads), and I'm usually a bit stiff by the time it's over.
There are also trains and buses, taxis for those who can afford them, streetcars in Yerevan, at least one cable car (it's here in town, going from Alaverdi to Sadahart many times a day. Sadahart's a little town on the steppe overlooking Alaverdi proper) - and many families have their own cars as well. I've used everything so far except for the streetcars in Yerevan - I don't have a car here myself, but my host family has one and they've given me rides. There are also horses, donkeys, and mules - ridden, led, or pulling carts - sharing the roads, along with cows, people, goats, and sheep. It can be pretty interesting - aside from all the various types of traffic, the roads themselves are often in poor shape, and it's standard practice to drive on the side of the road with the fewest potholes. No matter which side of the road it is. Headlights at night are apparently not mandatory, but killing the engine and coasting down hills may be. The rules of the road have been adapted to the circumstances here. Surprisingly enough, I have yet to see an accident - and I'm hoping it stays that way for the next two years - though I've heard about several, some of them bad. I think there are simply less cars on the roads, and probably fewer people driving fast. Also, cars are a lot more valuable to their owners here - people are more careful with them in general.
Meanwhile, back in Alaverdi, I voted - way ahead of most people. Because I'm all the way over here in Armenia, and mail takes so long to get from here to there and back again, my state sent out a ballot by mail early so that I could take part in the election. I got it, marked it, and sent it back the weekend I was in Yerevan. By the time you get this it will all be over and done with, and we'll be looking at a new President - and, assuming the mails came through, I'll have done my part towards making that choice. I think it's pretty cool that I can still vote, no matter where I am, and really important to take that opportunity. If you don't vote, you're letting other people decide how to run the country - a vote is your voice in government, and I want to make sure I'm heard all the way from Armenia.
We also had a Halloween party for the English classes at the Language Center (on the 31st, of course). Halloween doesn't exist here, which meant we had to explain everything, from why we wear costumes and masks to how to bob for apples. We had a piñata as well, and a version of 'Pin the Tail on the Donkey' called 'Pin the Head on the Cat', three jack-o-lanterns, bags of candy, and paper pumpkins to color. The bags of candy each had a toothbrush as well - a lot of the children here don't brush their teeth, and many adults don't have a lot of teeth as a result. It wouldn't be Halloween without candy, and too much of it at that, but toothbrushes are a good idea for afterwards. Everyone had a good time, and I should have some pictures from it sometime relatively soon.
There should be a couple of photos in with this letter, if all goes as planned, so you can see what I look like, and what Alaverdi looks like as well. I'm planning on taking the train tomorrow morning into Vanadzor - my host family lives in the nearby village of Shahumiyan, and I want to visit them. While I'm there I'll get some shopping done (Vanadzor is a much bigger town than Alaverdi, and the shuka there is bigger too. A lot more variety - things like European cheese! Box milk! Oatmeal! Chicken! Fancy teas! Italian pasta!), and get some reprints at the photo lab there. If there are photos with this you'll know I succeeded - right now I'm still trying to reach my host family to let them know I'm coming.
Which is proving more difficult than I had hoped. My phone isn't working right now, so I need to walk the 20 minutes to the Central Post Office to place a call - I tried last night, but no one was answering, so I'll try again today and hope to get through. I also need to work on my Armenian homework (I'm learning to read now! It's very exciting - though I'm still very slow. Soon I'll be able to decipher street signs and package labels… it's good to be reminded of the joys of literacy) - I have a lesson tonight after karate, and I really want to learn the language so I can talk to people a bit more. Right now, at this very minute, I need to take my vitamins and get going on my day - I'll write more later, after this weekend.
•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• 11• 7•00 •••••••••••••••••• Election Day!
No mail to speak of in Yerevan (I'm expecting a package from my mother, and keep hoping it will show up SOON), and one lone postcard here in Alaverdi - that took almost a month to get here - so I still have hope there's more in transit. Maybe next week, when we'll all be going to Yerevan for yet more training - well, the training will actually take place in Tsakhadzor, but we'll all be assembled in Yerevan before being shipped out by bus to Tsakhadzor. I'm hoping you have a good map of Armenia and can find at least some of these places on it. A lot of the names have changed in the last 10 years, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, so some cities may be hard to find but you should be able to find a few at least.
I spent the weekend in Vanadzor, went to the bank and the photo store, did some shopping, and spent time with my host family (in Shahumiyan), who are simply wonderful. I left loaded down with presents - Apples! Potatoes! Walnuts! Homemade apricot jam! Pots! Garlic & Onions! Sheets! Carrots! Beets! An extension cord! - and they kept asking if there was anything else they could do for me, or give me. Did I need anything? Was I warm enough? Was anyone bothering me? Did they need to come up to Alaverdi? Remember, I am 37 years old, and pretty well used to taking care of myself - but I must say, it's very pleasant to be watched over when you are in a strange country miles from your home. I went to Vanadzor with my friend and Armenian tutor, Nellie - she has friends and a great aunt in Vanadzor, and spent her time visiting them - and when we came back her brother and sister met us at the train, walked us back into town, and helped carry various packages. All those potatoes and apples get fairly heavy after a little while, and it was great to have the help - once again, I am amazed by the kindness and generosity, the trouble people take for the stranger in their country, the endless gifts of time and food and skills and strengths. Of course, there are also the people who try to cheat me in the market, the children who yell or throw things at me or mock my accent, the people who don't have the time or patience to decode my attempts at their language - and the kindness and warmth of my host family, my friends here, and strangers makes all the difference in the world. Something for me to remember.
A quick note about mail: Send all mail 'Via France'; the Yerevan address is slightly faster, but then we have to pick it up in Yerevan, so in general it works out even in the end; anything other than standard envelopes should definitely be sent to Yerevan (or it's likely to disappear en route); mail in general takes between 2 to 6 weeks in transit. Interesting note about mail in general - except for in some parts of Yerevan, there is no door to door delivery of mail. We go to the Post and pick it up ourselves - which means if you're expecting a letter, you need to keep going to the Post and checking to see if it's come yet.
Here, for your reading pleasure, is one of the earlier letters I sent off to them. It was November, and I hadn't gotten any messages from the teacher or students yet, so I was writing blindly, posting letters off into the void. The letters were all numbered, as mail sometimes disappears enroute, or arrives out of sequence:
11•2•00 (start)
Letter #3
Well, I'm still hoping I'll hear from you one day - and who knows? There may be a letter from you waiting in Yerevan even as I type, or somewhere in the postal system between here and there. Mail can take ever so much longer than you'd think. It will just be easier for me once we start some sort of dialogue going, rather than my simply posting letters off into the void, bumbling along and hoping you find something of interest or use. I do wonder at times. After all, it WAS a government agency that set this up - and between bureaucracy, computer errors, and the inevitable red tape ANYTHING is possible. For all I know at this point, you've long since moved to Istanbul, taken your students with you, and these letters are sitting in the dead letter office of your old school. Assuming it's still standing, that is.
As for me, I'm still here in Armenia, with no thought of leaving anytime soon. For Istanbul or any other destination. Most of the last month I've stayed right in Alaverdi except one trip into Yerevan - it's Armenia's capital - on the 20th of October for our Emergency Evacuation Drill. It's a sort of fire drill for Peace Corps Volunteers, to make sure all of us can get out of the country quickly if we need to. We actually had a bit of trouble getting out of town - there was a funeral going on and all the roads out of town were blocked off by cars with wreaths and pictures propped on their hoods - but once out of Alaverdi, everything went smoothly. Everyone else managed to make it in, despite various small problems, and we all stayed at the Erebuni Hotel for the weekend. The hotel's right in the center of town, with HOT running water - it's the lap of luxury, even if we had to spend most of our weekend attending various workshops. I did manage to get into the Peace Corps office Sunday (we went in Friday night), pick up some new books to read, and weigh myself before catching a marchutney back home. I got to see my first Armenian snow on the way - it's not here in town yet, but I'm sure it's coming, and there was a good four to six inches in the mountains when the marchutney went through.
Marchutnies (pronounced mar - shoot - knees) are one of the main forms of public transportation in Armenia - they're smallish minivans with extra seats added so that they can fit 12 or more people (depending on the length of the trip and the size of the passengers). On shorter trips it's definitely 'more', with the seats being at a premium and the rest of the people standing in awkward half crouched positions, bracing themselves as best they against seats or other passengers. If someone has a child or other fragile package another passenger will often hold it for them, and the floor fills with bags of vegetables or fruit. On the longer journeys, everyone gets a seat - but it may be small and you don't get much leg or wiggle room. The trip from here to Yerevan is about four hours (on good roads), and I'm usually a bit stiff by the time it's over.
There are also trains and buses, taxis for those who can afford them, streetcars in Yerevan, at least one cable car (it's here in town, going from Alaverdi to Sadahart many times a day. Sadahart's a little town on the steppe overlooking Alaverdi proper) - and many families have their own cars as well. I've used everything so far except for the streetcars in Yerevan - I don't have a car here myself, but my host family has one and they've given me rides. There are also horses, donkeys, and mules - ridden, led, or pulling carts - sharing the roads, along with cows, people, goats, and sheep. It can be pretty interesting - aside from all the various types of traffic, the roads themselves are often in poor shape, and it's standard practice to drive on the side of the road with the fewest potholes. No matter which side of the road it is. Headlights at night are apparently not mandatory, but killing the engine and coasting down hills may be. The rules of the road have been adapted to the circumstances here. Surprisingly enough, I have yet to see an accident - and I'm hoping it stays that way for the next two years - though I've heard about several, some of them bad. I think there are simply less cars on the roads, and probably fewer people driving fast. Also, cars are a lot more valuable to their owners here - people are more careful with them in general.
Meanwhile, back in Alaverdi, I voted - way ahead of most people. Because I'm all the way over here in Armenia, and mail takes so long to get from here to there and back again, my state sent out a ballot by mail early so that I could take part in the election. I got it, marked it, and sent it back the weekend I was in Yerevan. By the time you get this it will all be over and done with, and we'll be looking at a new President - and, assuming the mails came through, I'll have done my part towards making that choice. I think it's pretty cool that I can still vote, no matter where I am, and really important to take that opportunity. If you don't vote, you're letting other people decide how to run the country - a vote is your voice in government, and I want to make sure I'm heard all the way from Armenia.
We also had a Halloween party for the English classes at the Language Center (on the 31st, of course). Halloween doesn't exist here, which meant we had to explain everything, from why we wear costumes and masks to how to bob for apples. We had a piñata as well, and a version of 'Pin the Tail on the Donkey' called 'Pin the Head on the Cat', three jack-o-lanterns, bags of candy, and paper pumpkins to color. The bags of candy each had a toothbrush as well - a lot of the children here don't brush their teeth, and many adults don't have a lot of teeth as a result. It wouldn't be Halloween without candy, and too much of it at that, but toothbrushes are a good idea for afterwards. Everyone had a good time, and I should have some pictures from it sometime relatively soon.
There should be a couple of photos in with this letter, if all goes as planned, so you can see what I look like, and what Alaverdi looks like as well. I'm planning on taking the train tomorrow morning into Vanadzor - my host family lives in the nearby village of Shahumiyan, and I want to visit them. While I'm there I'll get some shopping done (Vanadzor is a much bigger town than Alaverdi, and the shuka there is bigger too. A lot more variety - things like European cheese! Box milk! Oatmeal! Chicken! Fancy teas! Italian pasta!), and get some reprints at the photo lab there. If there are photos with this you'll know I succeeded - right now I'm still trying to reach my host family to let them know I'm coming.
Which is proving more difficult than I had hoped. My phone isn't working right now, so I need to walk the 20 minutes to the Central Post Office to place a call - I tried last night, but no one was answering, so I'll try again today and hope to get through. I also need to work on my Armenian homework (I'm learning to read now! It's very exciting - though I'm still very slow. Soon I'll be able to decipher street signs and package labels… it's good to be reminded of the joys of literacy) - I have a lesson tonight after karate, and I really want to learn the language so I can talk to people a bit more. Right now, at this very minute, I need to take my vitamins and get going on my day - I'll write more later, after this weekend.
•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• 11• 7•00 •••••••••••••••••• Election Day!
No mail to speak of in Yerevan (I'm expecting a package from my mother, and keep hoping it will show up SOON), and one lone postcard here in Alaverdi - that took almost a month to get here - so I still have hope there's more in transit. Maybe next week, when we'll all be going to Yerevan for yet more training - well, the training will actually take place in Tsakhadzor, but we'll all be assembled in Yerevan before being shipped out by bus to Tsakhadzor. I'm hoping you have a good map of Armenia and can find at least some of these places on it. A lot of the names have changed in the last 10 years, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, so some cities may be hard to find but you should be able to find a few at least.
I spent the weekend in Vanadzor, went to the bank and the photo store, did some shopping, and spent time with my host family (in Shahumiyan), who are simply wonderful. I left loaded down with presents - Apples! Potatoes! Walnuts! Homemade apricot jam! Pots! Garlic & Onions! Sheets! Carrots! Beets! An extension cord! - and they kept asking if there was anything else they could do for me, or give me. Did I need anything? Was I warm enough? Was anyone bothering me? Did they need to come up to Alaverdi? Remember, I am 37 years old, and pretty well used to taking care of myself - but I must say, it's very pleasant to be watched over when you are in a strange country miles from your home. I went to Vanadzor with my friend and Armenian tutor, Nellie - she has friends and a great aunt in Vanadzor, and spent her time visiting them - and when we came back her brother and sister met us at the train, walked us back into town, and helped carry various packages. All those potatoes and apples get fairly heavy after a little while, and it was great to have the help - once again, I am amazed by the kindness and generosity, the trouble people take for the stranger in their country, the endless gifts of time and food and skills and strengths. Of course, there are also the people who try to cheat me in the market, the children who yell or throw things at me or mock my accent, the people who don't have the time or patience to decode my attempts at their language - and the kindness and warmth of my host family, my friends here, and strangers makes all the difference in the world. Something for me to remember.
A quick note about mail: Send all mail 'Via France'; the Yerevan address is slightly faster, but then we have to pick it up in Yerevan, so in general it works out even in the end; anything other than standard envelopes should definitely be sent to Yerevan (or it's likely to disappear en route); mail in general takes between 2 to 6 weeks in transit. Interesting note about mail in general - except for in some parts of Yerevan, there is no door to door delivery of mail. We go to the Post and pick it up ourselves - which means if you're expecting a letter, you need to keep going to the Post and checking to see if it's come yet.
posted by meg at 5:20 AM
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