One Day In Akunk

This has been a super crazy week already and today was a really, really wonderful day. I awoke early and decided not to go running with Jesse, mainly because I wanted to do laundry and write before school. Also, I have been meaning to wake up early and spend the first hour of my day writing out in the garden with complete stillness. I finally honored this desire! It was such an awesome way to start my day.

I got up around 6:30 and rolled out of bed straight to the outhouse. I put the water on for the coffee and started doing the dishes from the night before. I can not, guiltlessly, use the kitchen without cleaning up. It’s so curious how when living at home the sentiment is not the same (sorry Mom). I clean up after myself, but am begrudging about doing it for others. In Armenia though, I would feel like a total shit head if I did not do everyone’s dishes in the am before they all wake. Also, there is typically around 25 flies floating around the kitchen area and I feel better about the flies if they have nothing to shit on.

After the dishes were done, the water was starting to boil so I added the finely ground coffee, turned the burner off and stirred. The sink and washer machine are streamlined from the same piping system (I’m probably using awful lingo here), so they cannot be used simultaneously. As my coffee cooled, I put my laundry in and turned the washer machine on. Afterwards, I grabbed my coffee, flannel, gurnal, and headed out to the garden. It was chilly this morning, but I was still able to get away with bare feet, yoga pants and said flannel.

The sun climbed over the mountain peaks as I mulled over the last two days. Writing about my eventful Sunday in Masis, where I drank 15 year old brandy with my host uncle and mother. I was examining how we view one another and the bonds I have began to form since being here. It’s almost been one month. So wild.  About an hour later, my h.mother came out and sat with me for a bit. Before breakfast, I hung my clothes out on the line to dry while my youngest host sister stood close by silently watching me.

After school, I walked over to my friend Phi’s house on the other side of town to deliver her packages (that lucky B!). She was not feeling so good today and skipped our afternoon TEFL session. I brought her her package because I knew there would be goodies in there, and I wanted some danggit! A couple of hours later I walked home and stopped to chat with the boy gang because Hasmik, a little girl whom speaks English pretty well, was with them and spoke out to me. I got all of their names, those little rats! Hopefully they will treat me less like a sideshow freak and more like a neighbor in the weeks to come. 

After dinner, I went out to the garden and plucked some fresh mint stalks for my nightly tea. My h.mother had started cooking something interesting and I told her I wanted to help. She let me, but not without much reprimanding at first. We were preparing food for the morning. It was basically mashed potatoes with different fresh herbs from her garden, with salt wrapped in dough. Grigor, my host father, must have smelled them from wherever the hell he was because he showed up out of nowhere and ate about 8 of them. 

And that, my friends, is one day in Akunk.

p.s. Send me a package full of unexpected extravagant treats and I will be indebted to you for years to come.