It’s only five days to Christmas, and there is very little sign in Gyumri that anything is happening. The shops are a little busier as people prepare for Nor Tare (New Year’s). Christmas here is celebrated on January 6th, the original Christian holiday. Somewhere along the line, the Pope moved the holiday back onto a pagan holiday (the 25th) that he was displeased with. While this country is very proud of its Christian heritage, there is very little participation in church services. Some people attribute this lack of participation to the Russian occupation and the suppression of religion, but the Russians left in 1992.
Nor Tare is a huge event that lasts six days. It is one huge long open house event. I have been invited to several people’s homes. Vast amounts of food are prepared to offer visiting guests. Families often go into debt to prepare for it. (According to volunteers who participated last year, you want to go to everyone’s house early, in the first day or two while the food is fresh, because by the sixth day of sitting out on the table, the food can get pretty dangerous!) So the big shuka (outdoor market) is crowded with foods not usually seen, like oranges, bananas, pineapples ($20), large fish (mostly pond trout), and meat that is easily identifiable as the head, legs, or other parts are still attached. (I’m expecting a full goat, sheep, or cow to be delivered to our house!)
For Christmas Day (a normal workday here), I’m headed to Kapan, which is nearly at the other end of the country, near Iran. (You can see this on my little map.) This involves a two hour van ride to Yerevan, and then a van/taxi ride to Kapan which is six to eight hours away depending on the weather, the roads, and the vehicle we end up in. One of our volunteers, Sue, offered to host Christmas for a small number of people, which has grown to about 25. So we all have to bring something (lemon bars) and we’ll have a chicken feast! And a white elephant gift exchange.
It’s been cold here; right now it is 31 degrees, which is relatively warm. There is snow on the ground. When it is actually snowing, it tends to be warmer. But I walk several miles a day, and walking in snow is a lot of work as I’m tensed up worrying about slipping on the underlying ice. Our water pipes froze so I went four days without bathing. Water is so hit or miss here.
My Christmas treat to myself was to have been a modem for my computer. At my office the Internet is not reliable, so I have a choice of free Internet at the American Corner, a USAID library, where there are two computers and a line-up to use them, and then we are limited to thirty minutes, or I can go to a dark smoky Internet café where I am usually the only female, and peek over men’s shoulders as they look at porn, or play games. Around November 12th, I first started to try and buy a modem. But the stores were out of them and told me to come back in three days, then seven days, then ten days, ten days, ten days, etc. Unfortunately there is little competition in this market so I could not go to several stores. Customer service is absolutely unheard of in this country. I received a call from VivaCell on Friday that I could buy a modem on Saturday. When I went to the store, they told me to come back on Monday. So maybe tomorrow …. Several people have speculated that the real problem is probably that the modems are held up in customs, the second most notoriously corrupt department of government here, after the tax department. Everyone complains about the bribes you have to pay to move anything through customs. (One of our volunteers and her fellow bus passengers, just got held up for five hours by Armenian customs at the Georgian border just north of here as she was returning from Turkey. They went through everyone’s belongings to see what they had purchased in Turkey that they could assess.) A modem here costs $53, which is more than half of what most people make in a month. Then you prepay for use by the megabyte.
I have been unsuccessfully looking for an apartment or small house within the Peace Corps living allowance. I will find something. This is not a market-based economy. When the Soviets were in control, people could not own real property. After the Soviets left, people were issued vouchers for the property they were living in. My host family, which lives close into central Gyumri, has a large home (mostly unused and run-down) and a large piece of property across the street where there is a decrepit house and fruit-bearing trees. Before leaving for Russia, other family members lived on the property. In the US, this family could not hold onto this property because of real-estate taxes, and because there would be a significant sale value for a piece of vacant property in the city center. But property seldom changes hands in Gyumri, and it is nearly impossible to attach a “value” to property. Many people who own property here (acquired with vouchers at the time the Soviets left), have just abandoned it and now live in Russia. So there are a lot of vacant apartments and homes. The problem is finding the owners or some way to rent the better properties. Property that is for sale is outrageously expensive. There is one large home for sale near here that is $80,000, or 33 times the average yearly wage. And mortgage loans are not available. People here do not like to rent to foreigners, will not rent out apartments that are “for sale” until they sell, and they will not fix up an apartment so that it looks “nice” to a potential buyer or renter. So almost all places that volunteers move into require some fixing, cleanup, etc. (The Peace Corps gives us money towards this expense.) I have two requirements for a place to live; heat and warm water. Unbelievably, many places have no heat, and most places do not have warm water.
One of our 70-year-old volunteer’s is moving into a very small one-room apartment on the fifth floor (no elevator!) that does not have heat. She will use Peace Corps’ supplied electric heaters, which are very expensive to operate. But to me the worst problem is that the electricity regularly goes out here. Gas is more reliable. So after looking at several places, and smelling the mold, seeing the water running down walls, looking at the crap that needs to be hauled out, etc., I’m holding out for a “livable” place.
I just returned from a walk about Gyumri and saw a sign of Christmas. The city is erecting a Christmas tree in the main plaza. The “branches” going on the tree are real. When this “tree” is finished, I will attach the “finished” picture.
(Christmas tree being assembled in Gyumri center.)At his time of year, it is painful not to be around family and friends, and especially my two daughters. Please know that I am thinking of you and wish a very warm Merry Christmas and Happy New Year’s to all of you!
(Laundry, stiff as a board, "drying" in the snow. After the sun came out, Emma brought it in!)(Picture of mountains to the southwest in
Turkey from the end of my street.)
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