Envoy Staff Are The Best

There was a glitch with the internet in Yerevan today, which meant that the staff at the Envoy couldn't access their records for who was staying the night and who was checking out that day. This meant that they mistakenly stripped my bed and tossed out a half-empty water bottle that I had left on the bedside table.

All of this was no big deal- when I got back to the Envoy in the afternoon and saw that my bed had been stripped, I just went to the front desk, let them know that I would be staying for another night, and they got right on putting fresh sheets on the bed. I didn't even think about the water bottle- it wasn't a Nalgene or anything, just a disposable plastic water bottle that I had bought for a few hundred dram (less than a dollar) at the convenience store around the corner so that I'd have something to drink if  I got thirsty in the middle of the night.

But when I went to bed this evening, I found this on the shelf by my bed. Not only is it a replacement, but it's the same exact brand and bottle type that I had bought the day before.

And that's why the Envoy staff are the best. I could stay in any number of places when I go to Yerevan, but the staff at the Envoy know my name. They know who I'm married to. They take care of us, and for that we'll always book our stay with them.

Dinner With Friends

I was fortunate enough to be in Yerevan for a Peace Corps meeting this weekend- fortunate because a friend of our was having a birthday party! We got a great big group of volunteers together and went out to one of our favorite restaurants in Yerevan: Karma. I'm pretty sure this is the only Indian food restaurant in Armenia. But even better than the amazing food was the amazing company. It was so great to hang out with all these fantastic people:

Yerevan Skyline

Heading back to Sisian soon- but first, here's a picture from the top terraced patio garden of the AirBnB we've been staying in for the past week. 

Sam's New Best Friend

The pet store we go to in Yerevan is called Kakadu, and appropriately, they have a cockatoo mascot. He loves Sam- as soon as we walked into the store, he wanted to climb on Sam's shoulder, and was very upset when Sam had to make him go back to his perch when it was time to leave.

Lauren's Birthday

We had an amazing party in the basement of the Envoy to celebrate Lauren's birthday today. She took a trip to Japan over the summer, and brought back the makings for pho noodles, which was AMAZING. Unfortunately, due to an oversite on my part, she's not in the picture because she was still in the kitchen dishing out the delicious food. But still, it was a fun evening.

Dogs in Yerevan

This week, we have fall vacation at school, which- for Sam and me- means bringing the dogs to Yerevan to get spayed and neutered.

Getting the dogs to Yerevan was a little tricky, but managable. We had earlier found a taxi driver who's mini-SUV- type vehicle had back seats which folded down into the floor. Combining that maneuver with pushing the middle seats as far forward as they could go, made room in the back for Muppet's massive crate. Hazel's crate sat next to me in the middle seats, while Sam and our driver, Vahagn, sat up front. It meant that we had to rent out the entire taxi, but we were able to get both  dogs up to the city in just one trip. The dogs took the travel relatively well. They were most definitely car sick the entire time (and puked pretty regularly for the entire 5 hour journey), but otherwise were pretty chill, without any whining or barking. 

Once in Yerevan, we realized that the AirBnB we rented for the week was absolutely perfect for our purposes. It was secluded from the street with a small covered porch and sunken garden, perfect for keeping the dogs and their crates, it convenient to public transportation, and it was literally a 5 minute walk from the vet's office and a  2 minute walk from a small park. We couldn't have found a better place to stay with the  dogs for their surgeries if we had designed it from scratch. 

So, while we're here, we've been working on training the 'place' command. Today, I got both dogs to stay on their dog beds (which I made 2 days ago by cutting up the cheapest puffy blanket we could find in Sisian and sewing the cut ends up) while I sat and read my book. I think it's a good start to their training. 

My New Favorite Graffiti

I found this during my last trip to Yerevan. Roughly translated, it says "Some people are gay. Get over it".

GCNF dinner

And so my week in Yerevan with GCNF is coming to a close. I'll miss the sense of professionalism and productivity. We celebrated the last night of the conference with a dinner at one of the most beautiful event venues I've seen in country. It was a blast. At the same time- I've been away from Sisian and Sam for a whole week: it'll be really nice to just be home for a while after this.

GCNF School Visit Day

Today was School Visit Day at the GCNF. I traveled with participants to the village of Vedi, where the school director had arranged for us to watch- and even 'help'- the school children plant peach trees which, in years to come, would augment the school meals served to students there.

The day was so typically Armenian that I felt like all the participants finally got a view of the 'real' Armenia outside of the capital city. We were greeted with a song and dance processional:

This children were all still wearing their First Bell Ceremony Black-and-Whites (fancy clothes, usually reserved for the first few weeks of the school year), but that didn't stop all the boys from lining up in the field to plan these peach trees.

I'm not sure how much actual help we were...

But in the end, one way or another, the peach trees got planted.

Afterwards, we were treated to a tour of the school's cafeteria facilities:

We got to see the students eating their lunches- and were even treated to a school meal ourselves. 

The kitchen facilities were gorgeous- I need to find out how to help School #4 get a kitchen space like this. 

GCNF Workshop

Today was a day focused on small group workshops at the GCNF- the discussions were amazing. It was humbling to listen to the points and opinions of individuals who had committed their lives and professional careers to improving the health and well-being of children across the globe. 

GCNF

Today I find myself in sunny Yerevan, volunteering as note-taker at the Global Child Nutrition Conference. Seriously, the GCNF is amazing. It consists of delegations from all over the world, with representatives from Armenia to Zimbabwe all in attendance. During the conference, the participants discuss ways to create nutritious school meal programs in their countries to better promote school attendance and healthy growth in children. In Armenia, where approximately 1 in 5 children suffers from malnutrition-related stunted growth, school meals are an important part of national development. 

The conference itself is being held at the Marriott in Republic Square. The view is amazing, and really showcases the most impressive urban center in Armenia.

For the past few days, I've mostly been working to help participants check in and get registered for the conference, but today we had the opening ceremony, and I got a taste of what the next week will hold for me.

And while most of that taste involves me frantically typing away, trying furiously to get through the often-times confusing simultaneous translations. But, it also involves amazing conversations and small group work,  for which I'm really excited to be a fly-on-the-wall.

Of course, I was super excited to see that my family's favorite international aid organizations, Mary's Meals, had a representative at the Forum. And, I'd be remiss if I didn't direct you to my cousin's beautiful movies detailing the great work that Mary's Meals does, Child 31 and Generation Hope

I'm really excited for the next week. The GCNF is an amazing organization, and I already know that being allowed to volunteer at this forum is going to be one of the highlights of PC service for me.

Aaaand: Back in Yerevan

Really, all I want to do is relax and integrate back in Sisian, but we keep getting pulled away. this time, we had to get Hazel's first set of vaccinations, and the nearest small animal vet is in the capital. So, on our first 4th of July away from home, we traveled back to Yerevan and got our puppy her Puppy Passport. Only in Armenia will you find a yellow dog called "apricot" in color. 

Yerevan

So, and unexpected trip to Yerevan turned into the Yerevan Trip Part Forever when a last minute meeting scheduled for Saturday got pushed to today got pushed to Thursday. So, I'll be here for a solid week before running back home in time to pack for Border to Border which starts in just SEVEN DAYS! Aaaand: I'm sick. :( So, let's see if I can make it through the madness that is the last week of May...

They have Donuts in Yerevan

Sam has discovered a donut shop in Yerevan. The donuts aren't fresh or even particularly good- basic Dunkin Donut quality, really. But they are very American, and sometimes a taste of home is really all that's necessary to make your day.

Two Days Later, in Yerevan

So, it's been a really intense past few days. Concerns about our own security, the safety of our friends and neighbors, and about Armenia in general loom large in my mind.  A ceasefire agreement has been reached, but we don't know how long it will hold. On my way to Yerevan today, I saw several tanks and at least 5 military vehicles with heavy artillery in tow driving towards NK. 

But to step back from that, I'd like to remind you of a photo I took and posted 2 days ago after a surprise snowstorm covered Sisian in a thick icy blanket:

Now, two days later (has it really only been 2 days,  although it seems like a lot longer than that), here's a quick photo I snapped while walking to the PC office in Yerevan. (Please forgive my finger in the corner of the picture).

I have a hard time wrapping my head around the degree to which the elevation change really affects the climate. I'm so used to having climate be a function of latitude that it blows my mind that two places, only 120 miles apart, can have such extreme climate differences. If I were driving south from Providence, 120 miles wouldn't even get me out of Connecticut- and there's no where in Connecticut that would look like Yerevan does while Rhode Island looks like Sisian did 2 days ago. And yet, because one of those 120 miles is vertical, Sisian is an ice fortress while Yerevan is covered in tulips. (Really, it's not even a vertical mile- Yerevan itself is about 1,000 meters above sea level, so the elevation change between Yerevan and Sisian is only about 600 meters above Yerevan- about 1/3 of a mile). I guess that's just another way in which the fundamental nature of life is dramatically different here than back home...

Sam gets a haircut

Well, we're in Yerevan again for the weekend: I had training events on Thursday night and all day yesterday, but Sam came up to the city yesterday afternoon, and we took today to get some errands done that you just can't accomplish in Sisian. We got ourselves a big bag of broccoli from our favorite fruit khanoot (fruit stand) and Sam bought his guitar! We also trialed a hair dressers so that Sam can look sharp in a month when we go back to the US for a wedding. I think this may be the most relaxed he's looked in months. 

It's odd: it feels like we're always coming up to Yerevan for some sort of training event, but apparently we're here far less than other volunteers for whom the travel isn't nearly as arduous. There are also volunteers with much longer/more unpleasant journeys than ours, but some of them still manage to make their way to the capital more frequently than we do. I think a large part of it is that we're a couple, and so staying at site isn't nearly as lonely for us as it is for other volunteers. While it's nice that we're saving a ton of money by not going traveling to Yerevan when there is no training (PC reimburses travel expenses when you're there for training events), it also means we miss out a lot on the group social scene which is too bad, because we really like the other volunteers here. Hopefully, when we find independent housing, we'll be able to invite other volunteers to stay with us and that will help.

Yellow Tomatoes!!!

PDM training ended on Sunday. Because I have a committee meeting here in Yerevan tomorrow (Thursday) morning, I decided to just stay in the city this week. I could have gone back to site with Sam on Sunday, but it would have meant a 5 hour taxi ride back, followed by no work on Monday (I don't teach any classes on Mondays) and 1.5 hours of work on Tuesday (I only have two 45 minute lessons on Tuesday with my counterpart), then a 5 hour marshutney ride on Wednesday to be back here in Yerevan on Thursday morning. Much easier to just stay here- more productive too: this way, instead of travel and interruptions, I can continue to work on the ideas that my counterparts and I started to develop during PDM training. 

Now, unfortunately, I can't afford to eat out at restaurants in Yerevan every night for a full week. So instead I've been going to the market to buy food that I can cook in the Envoy's kitchen. This means I've been eating pasta and broccoli with lemon juice cooked in actual olive oil all week- it's been amazing. I've missed broccoli so so SO much- for some reason, it's completely unavailable outside of Yerevan.

I was going to the market to stock up on broccoli again today (I'm here until Friday, and I can't get enough broccoli. It's the new love of my life) and I saw something that I've never seen in Armenia before: Yellow Tomatoes. 

I didn't buy them (red tomatoes are available in Sisian, and I'm completely hung up on broccoli right now- besides, it's winter: none of the tomatoes are very good this time of year), but I was really surprised to see them there. 

Hanging out at the PC HQ

There is a cat at the Peace Corps office in Yerevan who, despite being universally regarded as a complete nuisance- absolutely loves to hang out with the volunteers. I think it mostly has to do with the Volunteer Resource Room being warm, and occasionally having food in it. He's a super playful cat, though, and I spend the better part of an afternoon today making him chase the end of a piece of string. Good times. 

My Birthday!

Today was my 29th birthday, and even though we didn't do any of the things that we would have done back in the US, it was still a pretty good day.

We started things off right by having breakfast at the Green Bean Cafe- one of the few restaurants in Armenia that is non-smoking. I had a hot chocolate that was so thick I had to eat it with a spoon! Essentially, I had a steaming mug of chocolate soup for breakfast. It was great.

After tat we had to find a tailor to alter the suit we bought for Sam yesterday. We purchased one of the less expensive suits available, but it meant that the store from which we bought it didn't offer tailoring services, so we had to find them for ourselves.

A quick Google search brought us to the Armenian version of the Yellow Pages, which recommended a tailor shop called Jean Jacques. They didn't have a website, so we called the phone number to see if they could help us.

We were a little surprised with the woman on the other end of the line didn't speak English. Although most Armenians aren't English speakers, in the capital city, it's very common for retail shop personnel to speak at least some rough English phrases. But the fact that this woman didn't speak our language turned out not to  be a problem. She was very kind and patient with our broken Armenian, and she was happy to speak slowly and repeat herself or use alternate phrasing to ensure that we were able to understand her.

These things may sound basic to someone from America where many of us deal with non-native English speakers on a daily basis, but in a country where you almost never encounter a non-native speaker trying to communicate in your language, these skills are relatively rare.

It turned out that the women at Jean Jacques were happy to alter Sam's suit, and they could fit it for him today. So, we set off to the far side of the city where Google Maps told us the tailor shop was located.

When we got off the metro in the neighborhood to which we were headed, it made a lot more sense that the woman didn't speak English. We were waaay outside the touristy area the center of the city. And although the tailor shop was roughly where Google thought it would be, the entrance (and only signage) was around the back of the building between a block of residential apartments and a children's playground, so it took us a while to find it.

But find it we did, and the women were super good at their jobs. They fit Sam in about 10 minutes- including some subtle alterations in the shoulders of the jacket (not an easy thing to do), and only charged us 6,000 dram (about $12US) for the whole thing, which they told us would be due when we picked the jacket up the next time we were in Yerevan. They even gave me the address and phone number of the store where they buy all their sewing machines. It was a really nice interaction.

Since the address they gave us for the sewing machine shop was close by, we stopped in on our way home. I was able to price a few machines, and know that generally I'll need a budget of about 100,000 dram ($200US) if I want to buy a sewing machine. It'd be a big purchase, so I'd have to save up for it, but I think that it might be worth it in the long run- especially if I invest in one of the Bernette models, which would be useful back home as well as in country... But I won't be making any sewing machine purchases until after we move into our own house, so that's a decision for another day.

For now, it's enough that we were able to get Sam's suit tailored and locate a sewing machine shop, and get some more general knowledge about the availability and pricing of machines in this country. We've also accomplished this same task with guitars for Sam over the last couple of days. We've been cooking for ourselves, keeping our own schedule, and generally feeling pretty independent. It's been a good week.

A little extended vacation

Well, this is an interesting turn of events. Yesterday was supposed to be our first day back at school from winter vacation. But, the day before yesterday, we officially learned that they've decided to cancel school this week and start the term on January 18 instead. Apparently we're in the midst of a minor swine flu epidemic. 

Given that we still hadn't found Sam a suit, or looked for sewing machines for me, we decided to rent an apartment in Yerevan for a few days to give us some time to ourselves, and to accomplish our errands in the city.

I'll also admit that the semblance of a normal life- living in our own apartment, with out own kitchen, and own laundry machine, and keeping our own schedule- is really, really refreshing. It's like I can really relax for more than an hour or two at a time for the first time since arriving in country.