Peace Corps Week

This past week was Peace Corps Week internationally. With that in mind my community of volunteers planned educational projects at four locations around Gyumri. The first was at an orphanage close to my house, which has about 80 residents from the ages of 4 – 18. I find the place incredibly stressful because of the aggressive behavior of some of the residents and the chaotic feel of it. But we have one volunteer who spends a lot of time there helping kids with their English lessons, and playing games, who as a result has really connected with the kids. As we were getting ready to leave one of the boys, about 16, came into the room we were in with a beer and a smoking a cigarette. In the few hours that we were there we never saw an adult who appeared to be in charge. Fortunately not too many kids showed up for our activities, because the ones who were there were a handful. A constant topic of discussion among us is the cheating that goes on at schools, and even in simple games there was an incredible amount of cheating (as there is in society in general in the way students pay for grades, people “pay” for jobs, police are paid off, etc.) So the struggle was to prevent students from “peeking” under their blindfolds, or preventing other students from “helping.”

(Elizabeth with a student. Typical ceiling fixture, even in my home.)

The second location was an afterschool program for at-risk low-income children, which includes counseling for the children and single parents, a hot meal (often the only one all day), English classes (which the moms are especially exited about because they cannot afford tutors), and job training for the moms. The Catholic Church donated the location, an ex-seminary. The facility is wonderful as is the staff. The program is funded by Caritas of Germany. These children were delightful. 

(Finished masks.

Amanda with decomposition group. 
Judy with students making masks. )

The third location was a school in a small town where a Peace Corps volunteer teaches environmental education classes. The school itself is in miserable condition. There is a terrible stench of urine as you walk in the door. There is no running water in the bathrooms. It is in desperate need of repair. The children and staff were great. We were invited to a children’s performance of spring speeches, songs and dances. It was unbelievably long for kids who were about eight to ten years. They had memorized material that must have taken months. But then the education system here is based on rote learning. After the performance we started our activities.



(Showing off masks.)

(Students on stage for music performance.)

The activities consisted of “Pin the Toothbrush on the Mouth”, making facemasks, which represented endangered species, a food pyramid chart where you tried to guess the healthy foods and their importance, and an activity about waste decomposition. We had a few planning meeting where we eliminated some ideas as being too difficult or too time consuming. We talked about hygiene but felt hampered by the fact that many kids do not have running water in their homes, many use outhouses, and most never see a dentist. So we had to be culturally sensitive to these conditions, which makes it difficult to talk about washing your hands before meals and after using the toilet, and brushing your teeth. Mentioning bathing at all was not possible. (Body odor is a huge problem in Armenia.)

Most of the kids cheated playing the pinning game by looking under the mask. When we “pushed “ their heads down a friend inevitably shouted out directions. The kids had no concept of a food pyramid, so that required a lot of explanation, in Armenian. (Sugar is a major health problem here. Candy and sweets take up 35% of every food store. Diabetes and heart disease are rampant. Tooth decay is prevalent, even in the youngest kids.) Recycling and waste management are nearly unheard of. There has just been a push by a US company here to start recycling so that is a difficult concept for kids to grasp. And in the endangered species activity, most kids at a table copied another child so there was very little originality. There are several endangered animals and fish here as a result of deforestation, water management errors, and pollution. One of the volunteers had his mom send over toothbrushes and toothpaste, so those were the prizes for all participants.

We have one more location to visit, in a rural village. I certainly learned a lot. If we could just tackle one of these issues and make a difference, there would be a major benefit to the country.