To add to my misery about processed meat that mainly comes from Russia, I was reading that when Australia culls its kangaroo herds and camel herds (that’s right) the Australians won’t eat the meat and so they send it to Russia for … processed meat! Now the European Union wants all meat products identified by source (Australia) and type (camel) so Russia most likely won’t be able to sell meat in Europe but they still will be able to in Armenia where there is almost no labeling on food products. I feel like a snob as I write this. I just want to know what I’m eating!
At the mid-service conference we had a language test (I did well), a physical exam (I’m in excellent health), and we got new water filters. The water filters are significant because there was a lot of discussion about water. My old one is really disgustingly dirty with lots of unidentifiable things in it. I now throw a capful of bleach in the water when I change it to keep the slime from growing. Ingesting bleach may kill me. Two of the volunteers were complaining about worms in their water filters. The water that comes out of my faucet is observably dirty. In spite of all this I have never heard stories of Armenians sick from the water.
After I moved into my new apartment, and spent too much time crowing about my water pump and access to water, my neighbor downstairs complained about the pump noise and cut the power cord to the pump. So my landlord moved the pump up to my kitchen where the noise and whine of the pump makes my teeth ache when I switch it on. Now I have water without the pump from 8 – 9 pm when the city turns it on, and I periodically have water with the pump when there is water “in the system.” I don’t really know what this last statement means. In Armenia 95% of those who study English at the university level are women. Armenian women know nothing about anything that has to do with “traditional” male fields, including household water pumps. So I need to find an English-speaking Armenian male who knows about water pumps. The task feels impossible. Right now I have a small tub full of soapy towels that I need to rinse out and hang before 8 pm tonight!
I have made many trips to the local hardware store with lists of things I need like two short screws, ten tiny screws, shelf paper, small piece of linoleum, paint, etc. Yesterday I needed two larger screws to hang a heavy mirror. (I am fortunate in that a friend sent me a selection of nails so I don’t have to deal with those.) Of course I did not study any of these words in language class so I need to study-up before I can go to the store. When I get there, the three men working there always jointly help me out as I realize that Armenian women never go to the hardware store and I’m an oddity. My Armenian amuses them. I know that “shelf paper” is not really made up of shelf and paper in Armenian.
Armenians never live alone. A male is not capable of taking care of himself. Some of our male volunteers don’t even have to do their own laundry because their Armenian host mothers know that they aren’t capable. (Just this last week one of our volunteers was commenting that she went over to her neighbor’s home to drop something off and the woman was spoon-feeding her two sons, eight and ten, because they “would not eat if she did not feed them.” If they were girls, she would let them go hungry.) It is very common to have three generations sharing a house. So every time I go to the store and ask for just two tomatoes, four potatoes, six carrots, etc., I have to explain that I live alone and can’t eat more. Then the sympathy starts: You live alone? Poor thing. (They don’t say this but I feel it.) So the two tomatoes, four small potatoes, and six carrots, which I bought yesterday for soup for 60 cents, left three women shaking their heads in concern for my singleness.
We received a group e-mail a few weeks ago about a used bus that a US government agency was giving away, did anyone want it? I immediately e-mailed back that I wanted it for the Shirak Regional Library, which serves five district libraries and 127 communities, as a book mobile. The library does not have a vehicle and they have to go by taxi to reach their regional branches. The PC told me that my idea for the bus was the best one they received. Someone at the Peace Corps suggested that I contact another NGO (Civilitas) which does library support about outfitting the bus, and then I found out that we have a new older volunteer with a masters in library science and lots of library experience. I e-mailed Civilitas which told me that the library had only received minimal funding because the director does not have a clear idea or plan about what he wants to improve. (This library is a miserable place and it serves thousands of people.) So I re-visited Gevorg, the library director, and told him about the bus. He was incredibly excited. Then I told him that I might be able to get additional help and funding for this project. He kissed and hugged me and ordered coffee. I talked about this project with the two volunteers remaining here and we decided that we would enroll the three new volunteers and make improving the library a group community project. I’m excited because this is a real need in this community.
So I’m in the fifth week of living in a fourth floor apartment. I go down and up at least three times a day and am getting stronger. I marvel at the three families on the fifth floor who all have small children to tote up and down. There are no buildings in Gyumri over five stories tall because there are no elevators or escalators and, under Soviet rules, buildings over five stories have to have elevators.
Gyumri has a lot of homeless dogs. During the day they are nearly invisible unless you go by the garbage collection spots where they go through all the garbage. At dusk they gather together and patrol the streets in packs. They don’t seem particularly threatening, but it is hard for me to relax around a pack of a dozen hungry dogs. Then we hear them barking and yelping, as if in pain, all night long. Some nights the cries are really disturbing. In Turkey all the dogs have tags in their ears. Woe to the dog who does not have one. I wish that Armenia would adopt that practice.
This picture was taken right outside my apartment door. Women open up their family's bed covers once a year and wash the wool inside, then stuff it back in and re-sew the seams. Right now the neighborhood is filled with scenes like this as the families get ready for winter. I have contemplated opening my bed cover and washing the wool. I continue to contemplate.
This is a typical apartment building in Yerevan. Families own their own apartments and they make (or do not maintain) changes without regard to esthetics or value. This building has vacant apartments on the top floor (probably the elevator does not work), at least one burned-out apartment, all different kinds of balconies, various painted facades, and various kinds of windows. It is beyond ugly.
This is my local garbage spot. The bins are emptied regularly but the area around them is not cleaned. There were several cats and dogs in this garbage. Note the dog on top. Gyumri dogs can perform unbelievable athletic feats to get food. 
Very good blog.
ReplyDelete