PDM Training, the best parts

This weekend we had what's called PDM (or Project Design and Management) training. Basically, it's training for PCVs and their counterparts to teach us how to effectively achieve goals we share together. It's also the final training required before we are allowed to apply for grants from the Peace Corps. 

My counterparts and I have been developing an idea for what I'm calling a "Mobile Auditory Language Lab"- essentially a netbook and a set of speakers- so that my counterparts can incorporate listening exercises into their lessons. It's been frustrating at times- my counterparts and I have very different backgrounds, so we approach working together and problem solving in very different ways, and sometimes it's difficult to understand where the other person is coming from. But it's also been really exciting as we develop this idea into a project that could help structure the rest of my service.

But by far the best part of PDM training- for me at least- was one specific area of the hotel (photo credit to PCV Crystal: thank you for documenting this awesome space).

I have been going through such garden withdrawal that when I first found the space, I nearly cried. there was a pile of soil on the ground and I shoved my hands into it. I went around identifying all the seedlings I could and guessing that the rest. More than any other single event in Armenia so far, this has highlighted for me how important gardening and growing my own food is to my happiness and well-being.

When we get back to Sisian, we're going to start house-hunting in earnest, and "has a garden" is now at the top of my requirements list. I'd take a house with no toilet before taking a house with no garden. (Sam may feel differently on this point). Our host family has been incredibly welcoming, but Sam and I need space of our own, and I need a garden.