July 19, 2009

Berev (Hi! In Armenian),

Today was a perfect day. It is Sunday and Water Day in Arzakhan village, which means that all boys between twelve and sixteen spent the day throwing water at cars, buses, people, cows, dogs, etc. The younger crowd doused their parents and friends. The amazing thing is that we had no water between ten and six, so the kids “stocked up” to take advantage of this yearly “pass” on throwing water. I was hiding out, but then decided to take some pictures, and four boys hit me from behind. Some adults, in the spirit of fun, dressed for their dousing. I was not one of them!

(Neighbor in tree picking cherries.)
It was a beautiful day; 85 degrees with a slight breeze. I spent an hour in the garden with my host mom and her daughter. There is an enclosed hen and rooster house (where the fresh eggs come from) and there were 20 little chicks loose in the garden. We have three kinds of cherry trees, walnut trees, several pear and apple trees, apricot and plum trees, and many others with names that I can’t catch with my limited Armenian. We also have green beans, strawberries, raspberries, cucumbers, and tomatoes, many different kinds of herbs, and rows and rows of potatoes. For dinner tonight we had a tomato, cucumber and herb salad, a hot dish that was peppers, eggplant, onion, tomatoes, and herbs, green beans with scrambled eggs mixed in, and homemade bread. Except for the bread, everything came from the garden.

(Canned juice apricots)
Early this morning my host grandma left the house with four gallon buckets of raspberries to sell at a market. This woman is 75 years old and rode a small bus to the market in the next large town. The raspberries here are delicious but about half the size of those in Washington, so it took her a long time to pick them. She was laughing when she arrived home because some kids had soaked her. Age has no privilege here on Water Day!

The past two weeks my family has been very busy canning juice, making jam, and drying cherries. Apples will not be ready for juicing for about a month while the apricots will be ready in a few weeks. A big treat here is walnut jam, which everyone says is a long process to can, but that it is delicious. Canning and drying is very important because in the wintertime imported fruits and vegetables are prohibitively expensive for the families. The volunteers who have been here a while all say that their biggest first year regret was not taking full advantage of the fresh food in the summer because winter food is very monotonous.

(David and I picking cherries.)
Early this afternoon the neighbors invited me over for a visit. The family lives in Yerevan most of the year, but tries to spend as much time as possible in Arzahkan in the summer because the temperature tends to be about 15 degrees lower. It was almost 100 degrees in Yerevan today. Few people have air-conditioning because they cannot afford it. The family is so interesting. The two older women are sisters. One of them worked in a candy factory developing candies. Her guest is a woman who worked for her who said that she was a great boss (“chef” in Armenian) and a “candy expert.” Of course, there was a big bowl of candy on the table, and fruit (apricots and cherries), and torte. Her daughter, who is about 35, is a filmmaker who graduated from a university in St. Petersburg, Russia. She had friends with her who had just finished helping her with a documentary about adoption in Armenia. She said that Armenians do not adopt children. It is not part of their culture. But after the earthquake of 1988 when thousands of children were orphaned, the Armenian diaspora (mostly Americans) adopted these orphans. Then I told her about Annie and Eileen and we had a very lively group discussion. Luckily several of these very educated Armenians spoke pretty good English. (I’m uncomfortable speaking Armenian when I don’t have the exact words I need. I loved hearing these women get the message across using “close” words.)

The filmmaker has a sister who is married to a Norwegian. Last September she visited her sister for the first time. (Usually her sister comes to Armenia.) The pictures she took of Norway and Sweden were some of the best travel pictures I have ever seen. She has that special filmmaker eye. Her son (14), who I adore and vice versa, attends a private school in Yerevan which her sister pays for. She is incredibly grateful for this gift as the schools here are so poor and uninspired. (With the average wage here around $280 per month, I’m sure the tuition is low by US standards.)

My host family wastes nothing. Everything is re-cycled or composted. Saran Wrap does not exist, and every plastic bag (of which there are not many) does double duty as food wrap. Napkins are not used and toilet paper is scarce. They also own just barely enough clothes to get by. Even the two year old has the bare necessities. They essentially have one good outfit and two others that they wear every other day. And they are well-dressed by American standards in that their clothes are stylish, and well-fitted. Clothes are hand-washed every week.

(Right outside my front door, sheep and cute cow.)
A few days ago when I came home from language class, there were five very dirty sheep on the front porch. They were nibbling some bushes near the porch. As a city girl, I just laughed, (and did not think to take a picture) as I thought about how ridiculous this scene was to me. Shortly the sheep saw me and scrambled off the porch. Then I went to get the house broom to sweep the porch, and promptly was scolded by my host grandma (in Armenian, but the tone told all) for using the house broom to sweep off sheep poop! I have so much to learn about rural life!

Peace,

Barbara

July 10, 2009

Hello All,

I am visiting Gyumri where I will be living for the next two years. I have spent two days walking around and visiting a few NGOs where I will be working.

Gyumri has not fully recovered from an earthquake in 1988. And it has been economically depressed since 1992 when the Soviet Union broke apart and Armenia became an independent country. Unofficially the unemployment in the area is around 70%. Only one of every five college graduates is able to find a job. At the time the Soviets left, many companies owned by the Soviet government or Soviet citizens closed, as those companies were manufacturing for the Russian market. These items included military arms, motors, cars, and building equipment.

It is difficult to walk around this city as sidewalks, where there are any, are in terrible condition. There are lots of obstacles, such as garbage, construction materials, and rubble left over from the earthquake. There are very few private cars, and in Armenia pedestrians seem to have no rights. I was careful to qualify that sentence because an Armenian attorney whom I’ve met says that Armenia actually has a very good set of laws on the books (including property laws) as a result of the attention of the World Bank, the European Economic Community, etc., but as a result of a corrupt judicial system, nothing is enforceable. Armenia has been rated one of the most corrupt countries in the world.

Armenia has very wealthy citizens. Forty families control 60% of the country’s wealth. The customs department and the taxing department are the most corrupt government organizations, which is largely to the benefit of these wealthy families who heavily influence the government through “support” for their favorite candidates, and bribes and paybacks. And the government controls the media, including print and television.

Armenia is the second largest benefactor of foreign aid per capita of any country in the world (after Israel). This astounds me. When I asked why, I was told that it is because of the Armenian diaspora, which is significantly larger than the population in Armenia itself. In the US alone there are more people of Armenian descent than in Armenia itself (concentrated in Glendale, Ca and New Jersey.) And the Armenian Community in the US heavily influences US aid and US foreign policy towards Armenia. For such a small country (3.4 million), the US Embassy in the capital of Yerevan has a staff of nearly 500 people. Currently the US Government and many European countries are withholding aid in that they are making it conditional on Armenian government reform. Armenian citizens and NGOs receive significant remittances from the Armenian diaspora. The country has been significantly affected by the worldwide recession, especially in the construction industry.

Back to Gyumri; I am at the home of Albert and Emma, who are around 70 and 68. They exist on a small government pension (around $100 per month) and remittances from their three sons who work in Russia, because they cannot find work here. Armenians in Russia are discriminated against and the only jobs available there are manual labor. Albert and Emma’s house is very modest, of stone block construction, and very old. We live on the second floor. On the first floor are an old, closed, and run-down lavash bakery, chicken coops, rabbit coops, and two parrots. I have been told, by the last volunteer who lived here, that one of these days we will eat rabbit! I have a very modest room that was probably last “fixed up” thirty years ago. The small bathroom is off the kitchen. We do not have a shower. Bathing involves heating a pot of water on the stove, and pouring water over myself in the non-functional tub. We do not have any water between 10 am and 4 pm. Emma is a wonderful cook, and today Albert brought me a big bouquet of flowers from their garden. They are thrilled to have me living with them. The Peace Corps will pay them $170 per month for the four months I am here.

(Host mom Emma, center)
I had intended to set up a blog about my service in Armenia but the Peace Corps has very strict rules about blogs. We cannot say anything about politics (criticism), or comment on culturally sensitive issues without having our comments reviewed by the Peace Corps staff before posting the comments. The really interesting things about Armenia are the culturally sensitive issues and the ramifications of the corrupt political system. The Peace Corps is concerned about people “Google-ing” blogs about Armenia. In last year’s political elections, they said that because media is controlled by the government, outside media sources had a difficult time getting information, and they were struggling to get interviews (not allowed) or blog comments from volunteers. The US Embassy can only say “No comment.” We are allowed to have a blog if it is password protected, though I’m not smart enough to figure out how to do that at this point. And the password has to be difficult enough so that the average Joe cannot figure it out, and we have to give the password to the Peace Corps staff. So I feel flummoxed.

I have had a wonderful time in Gyumri meeting current volunteers. Today we had a potluck at a volunteer’s home, in his wonderful garden. Hamburgers (the meat was specially ground), potato salad, coleslaw, eggplant salad, and watermelon were on the menu. The group was very funny as they were relating stories about current volunteers. The group that is leaving in two weeks is very giddy about their prospects. Many of them are spending their last two weeks visiting their two past host families, and other in-country friends. The southern crowd has donated all its winter clothing, and most of the group is burning or giving away the clothes they have worn out over the past two years. Many are donating items (kitchen) to new and current volunteers. (I am the recipient of an iron and hair dryer.) Some are shipping home things they’ve decided to keep, and then are headed off to travel more of the world. They are so happy that they “made it” to “close of service.”

Peace,
Barbara