Hello Babies,
Sorry for my extended delay in writings,
things have been quite hectic. Every time I sat down to write, I found it
difficult to gather my thoughts or decide upon the topic/ theme. I am going to
attempt to briefly summarize some of the goings on since my last post.
New House/ Neighbors:
I am absolutely loving being in my new
place (which I feel you are all aware of anyways…). One of the unexpected adjustments to
moving is managing relationships with my neighbors. At this
point, I have only gone for coffee with my neighbors directly across the
street. The brother and sister that live there are both of my students. The
boy, Tigran is in the 4th grade and while he’s not a great student
he is a very sweet little boy. His sister, Ophelia is in the 7th
grade and equally sweet. Their
enthusiasm to be close with me is pretty adorable, but sometimes can be
annoying. They come knocking at the door nearly everyday. I decided that to
balance things, I would agree to tutor them once a week – hoping that 40
minutes of my undivided attention would mean less house visits. This hasn’t
exactly been the case, but to a certain extent.
All of the other neighbors have expressed
interest in being guests at my house. Yet, the idea of strangers coming in and
going through my house and things, asking questions and expecting to be ‘guest
loved’ is not my cup of tea. One
of the challenges as a Peace Corps Volunteer is dealing with a lot of unwanted
attention. We are so accustomed to being more or less anonymous in America,
that having everyone in town know who you are – whether or not you have met
them- can at times be overwhelming. Anyone could enter (the bottom half)
Malishka, ask about the American girl living in the village, and be pointed in
the direction of my house. I hope
to one day meet more of my neighbors, but I am taking it one step at a
time. At the moment, I’m perfectly
content with the amount of neighbors I have met.
Poetry Contest:
The National Poetry Contest was held last
Sunday, May 5th. I can’t say exactly that it went off without a
hitch- but in general it was a success. I was lucky to have the priceless help
of my friends Phi and David the morning of the Contest. It is because of them
that I was able to get through that very long day. It was really cool seeing all of the kids recite their
poems. All of them did an amazing job, and while the two students from Malishka
did not place – it was a proud moment to watch them recite their poems. I have
a lot of plans next year on how to makeover the Contest and look forward to
implementing them with the help of current and new volunteers. A special thanks
also, to my site mate and friend Elisabeth for helping my kids get safely to
the capital in my absence.
My favorite part of this day was riding on
the bus home with my friend Phi and two students.
Softball:
Recently, the American Embassy softball
games have been opened up to the public.
Two weekends in a row I was able to attend and play in these games. The
first weekend, there were only a few volunteers, some other non-embassy people
and a group of Armenian men. The Armenians had never played softball/ baseball
before and it was pretty comical watching them learn how to play. It was like
watching a t-ball game, but all the players are grown men. Afterwards, the man
who organizes the games invited us back to his gorgeous home for my first
American style BBQ since living in Armenia. That whole day was perfect, with beautiful weather, good
company and good food. Hopefully I will get a chance to play again!
Birthday:
Two weekends ago I celebrated my 26th
birthday. This is the first time that I have celebrated a birthday outside of
the country, without my family. While there have been years I wasn’t with my
family day-of, we were always able to have dinner and cake a week before or
after. Luckily, my best friend Phi was gracious and kind enough to take a weeks
vacation from her site to stay with me throughout the week. I give her a lot of
credit for having patience with my birthday blues self. Throughout the week she
cooked, cleaned, made me breakfast in bed and gave massages! Woop, woop! It was
wonderful not to be alone on my birthday and I’m grateful is here with me in
Armenia. In total, I had four birthday celebrations.
