Enter

“You too, put your foot forward. If you do not wish to, then follow your fantasies. But if you prefer the secrets of the love of your soul you will sacrifice everything. You will lose what you consider to be valuable, but you will soon hear the sacramental word, ‘Enter’.” Catching the Thread Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee

This is a quote from a Sufism text that I downloaded before leaving. Every couple of days I will read a paragraph or two when I am waiting for gmail to load. I found this this quote to be so very apropos.

Tomorrow I will travel to Malishka, my permanent site. We found out where we were going on Monday and the last two days we had a counterpart conference. Our counterparts are Armenian teachers with varying experience and skills. My counterpart did not show up, but her friend came instead…Her friend, whom has no association with Peace Corps or my future project.

Anywho, I’ll be staying with my new host family for three nights and then am to travel back to Yerevan on my own! It’s about a two-hour trip via marshutni. Marshutni’s resemble kidnapper vans with seats in them. Have I talked about these before? I can’t remember, oh well. But yea, there are about 12 actual seats and will be packed with about 20 people. It’s ALWAYS an interesting ride, always. Whether it’s the snow cat* in the back, the loud Americans, teenage boys making fun, the women offering a sliver of a seat to an elderly woman, or the smelly armpit you could reach out and lick if you felt like it, there is always something entertaining happening. 

I will write a nice long post about my time down in Malishka when I return. Wish me luck!

*Snow Cat: An attractive Armenian man, exotic, nearly extinct and beautiful. I coined this term for all of my lady friends.