I'm an early riser now.

While I'm living in this liminal space as a PCV, I've decided to try to instill some good habits in myself. So, this morning I got up early and went for a run. Here's what the outskirts of Sisian look like at 5:30 in the morning.

My Husband Loves Me

Sam had to go to Yerevan a few days ago, and I stayed behind with the dogs. When this happens, we make it a habit to call each other each evening to catch up on the day and say goodnight. On this particular trip, one of these conversations turned to the subject of Things Molly Was Missing, a list that started with "Sam" and ranged all the way from "Not Being Viewed as a Source of Income by Almost Everyone You Meet" to "Socially Acceptable Daytime Drinking at Brunch". Somewhere in there, I also mentioned avocados- the White Whale of produce here in Armenia.

A  day and a half later, Sam's home, and with him he's brought 4 avocados. So we make guacamole. It's delicious. Sometimes you just have to treat yourself (or your  significant other) to a really indulgent meal to get over that culture shock-y feeling that comes with living abroad.

Getting Ready for School

Well, summer's officially coming to a close here in Sisian. As students are getting ready to return to classes, parents (okay, moms) are working to clean the school up and get it ready for the First Bell Ceremony on September 1st. 

One interesting thing I learned during this process is that most of the classroom improvements are not financed by some sort of school-wide maintenance fund, but rather from contributions of individual parents for students who will have that classroom as their homeroom. Thus, today, in my school, some teachers were excitedly talking about the new wealthy student they have in their homeroom, and the improvements that such a student's family would mean for that teacher's working environment. One of the classrooms, which will be homeroom to a local military leader's child, had young soldiers making repairs to the floors and walls today. 

I found this whole system very strange. It seems especially odd that, in a country which still espouses so many communist social values, improvements to the school would be made in such a small, nepotistic fashion. On the other hand, when there aren't enough resources to go around, I suppose it's only natural to want to make sure that *your* offspring get as much as you can give them, even if it means that improvements aren't distributed equally among the classrooms, or even in some sort of triage-based system where the worst equipped classrooms get the improvements they need most. 

I tried asking my counterpart and the mothers who were working in her classroom today about this, but they didn't seems to understand why I was asking- to them, this seemed like a very logical system, and challenging it was frowned upon. So I didn't push. But it still doesn't sit well with me...

Armenian Honey

A quick an easy way to get into the good graces of any tatik (grandmother) you meet here is to extol the virtues of any traditional Armenian good or service- but in particular the Armenian food. Lavash? Best bread in the world. Dolma? Food of the Gods. Horovats? To die for. But please believe me when I say that I'm not trying to curry anyone's favor when I say that Armenian honey is perhaps one of the most delicious substances to ever bless this Earth. Maybe it's this mountain thyme that all the bees are feasting on, I don't know. Whatever it is, it's raised the bar on honey for me. I'm never going to be able to be content with those squeezy-bears from the supermarket again.

The Track to Zorats Qarer

Today, two of our fellow PCVs visited Sisian, and wanted to go out to see Zorats Qarer. Unfortunately, the Old Road out of town which leads to Zorats Qarer is being repaved- making it a really unpleasant walk (hot tar smoke, anyone?). However, Sam and I had a work around. Since we moved here, we've heard rumors of a trail leading from the town cemetery to Zorats Qarer. And during out walks outside of town with Muppet, we were pretty sure that we had stumbled on the beginning of this path. So, we decided to take a leap and strike out across the fields in search of Zorats Qarer together. While we took a wrong turn once or twice, we did make it in the end- and it was a really great walk, too. 

Walks with Muppet

Now that Muppet's healthy enough to play for hours at a time with Hazel, we've decided he's healthy enough to go on walks. It's not easy to teach a dog who's never been restrained before to politely walk on a leash- especially when he goes into fight-or-flight mode at the drop of a hat (or the appearance of another dog). But we're making slow and steady progress. When we get out of town, where there aren't cars, people, other dogs, etc to trip Muppet's fear-aggression responses, we get to see a whole different side of him- one that's relaxed and calm. I think that with work, we can get him to a place where he can always be like this.

World Food/World Peace - Day 2

Day 2 of our August "World Food/World Peace" event with Lisa was a study in the typical Armenian Khorovats party! It was an amazing day, tons of fun, and plenty tiring! It was also a day of gender divisions. The men are in charge of meat and fire. And the women... everything else.

Armenian Khorovats is also a very simple style of food. It relies on quality ingredients, good flavorful wood fire coals, and a bit of salt.

First things that goes on the coals are the veggies. Fresh summer tomatoes are in the picture, but we also had bell peppers and eggplant. No marinade, no spices. Just fresh veggies.

Next the ladies prep the veggies by removing the charred skins. Everything is still hot, so we're all burning our fingers a bit!

While the ladies finish prepping the veggies, salads, setting the table, etc, the pork goes on the grill. Martin insisted he and Molly pose like he's teaching her how to barbecue :)

Meat! It's bone-in loin chops and some nearby cuts. Before going over the coals, it's prepped simply with "the good salt" (sea salt). 

The traditional Armenian table is always set with bread, cheese, and a plate of greens (usually scallions, cilantro, parsley, and red basil). Bottles of water, soda, wine, vodka, or brandy are also common. In the summer, you always get the "summer salad" (bottom right), which is raw tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, with a little oil, salt, cilantro and/or basil, and sometimes raw onion. 

Besides meat, the only cooked dish is the roasted veggies. The mushy insides of eggplant, pepper and tomato are mixed together with a little bit of raw chopped onion and some cilantro.

The meat is done!

We had a really fun time preparing the meal with Martin and his family. Everything was delicious. And it was amazing to see Lisa teach English and Armenian songs to the kids - her energy and attitude are inspiring! All together, a very successful second day of "World Food/World Peace".

World Food/World Peace Day: Part 1

Today we had the absolute pleasure of hosting one of our favorite PCVs, Lisa, and throwing one of her fabulous World Food/World Peace parties. These gatherings are meant to bring people together to cook delicious food, exchange ideas, and generally have a good time socializing together. And so we had some of our awesome Sisiansi friends over to the house to cook pizza with Lisa, followed by a family-style meal with great conversation about the similarities and differences between America, Armenia, and our two cultures. Tomorrow, we'll continue in the World Food/World Peace tradition with a party at the house of our friend Martin, a taxi driver who has offered to teach us how to cook Armenian Horovats (Barbeque). 

My Dollar-Fifty Dog Beds

They don't sell dog beds in Sisian. And if they did, we couldn't afford them. What we can afford is 6 grain sacks and several rolls of trash bags. Sew the grain sacks into a case, fluff & crumple the trash bags into something resembling pillow stuffing, and viola! Dog beds for about a $1.50 each. 

Making A Gate

Now that we have the  dogs to manage, we're working on some home improvement projects. Namely: a gate to keep them off of the stairs and the front porch. We're hoping our landlady won't notice...

 or at least won't be upset. 

Lizards eat Moths

My adventures in amateur wildlife photography continue today with this little treasure: an anole eating a moth. These little lizards are all over Sisian, and their presence is always something of a surprise for me. I just don't expect lizards to live in a place with the harsh winters we see here. On the other hand, winter is a pretty distant memory these days, so maybe I should just learn to roll with it.

Hoopoe

There's a type of bird here called the Hoopoe, and it's pretty wild. I'm not much of a wildlife photographer, so you should really Google this bird for yourself and find some decent pictures of it- but in case you're not into that sort of thing, here's the photos I have been able to catch of this little beastie.

They're... fixing?... the roads

We have a new addition to our neighborhood: large piles of rubble placed at regular intervals along the dirt and gravel roads. They're tearing up road and putting new pavement down in another section of town, and it looks like they're going to use the detritus to fill in the potholes and river-channels that form in the dirt roads in our section of town. This'll be an interesting process to watch.

Puppy Playtime

Muppet continues to astound us with his recovery. We're absolutely thrilled with how well he and Hazel play together, though. It's doing her a world of good to play with another dog after all these months of only socializing with humans. 

Climbing Ishkhanasar

And so we continue with the incredible experiences: today a group of us climbed Ishkhanasar, the mountain just to the east of Sisian. I think that I'll let the photos speak for themselves on this one- except to say that this was another high point of PC service for me. 

Collecting Flowers for the Women's Resource Center

Today was a great day. The flowers that Women's Resource Center in town uses to dye their yarn yellow are in season, and so today my host family, our new site mate Kate, and I all headed out to the fields to collect the flower in question

We started bright and early, all of us piling into an old Soviet-era Uaz, and drove outside out town and a few score meters higher in elevation, where the flowers were blooming beautifully.   

Wildflowers are enormously abundant in the alpine meadows surrounding Sisian, but today we were interested in one flower in particular. This flower, to be precise:

And for the next few hours, we all wandered around and picked flowers into collection bags.

Occasionally, some of the party decided to knock off for a quick nap in the sun.

About the time we finished with flower collecting in the early afternoon, we were joined in the meadow by a flock of sheep. It amused me to be picking  flowers that we were later going to use to dye wool with the sheep right there.

It was a phenomenal day. I had so much fun. Definitely a high point of PC service so far.