Monday, October 20, 2008

Armenian fingernails






























This is the art work I received yesterday.   Armenian women like designs on their nails and they are quite creative about it.   I'm having fun with this. 

Sunday, October 19, 2008

Harvest Festival


In early October,  I visited a good friend in a beautiful little village (name of person and village withheld to protect privacy) to celebrate their harvest festival with about 30 other volunteers.   This is a picture of the village. 










Here is what happens at a harvest festival.   Various neighborhoods in the village get together and make a table with a variety of food, arranged in very interesting designs.   Plus the food is delicious.   Each table has to provide a person dressed like a vegetable and some entertainment (usually singing although one very little girl performed an astonishing belly dance routine).    We had an American table filled w/ some typical dishes - potato salad, hummus, pasta salad, lemonade, apple pies, pumpkin pies, and everybody's favorite: brownies.   


Local officials go around to each table, eat some of the food and judge the table on several categories. 



A sample of the elaborate decorations. 














Of course, it being Armenia, there is dancing.  













Me and another volunteer.   If you look closely, you can see the American Flag tattoo (temporary) on my cheek. 
This being a village, my friend's house, while possessing a spectacular view, was somewhat limited in amenities.  

The food for the festival was prepared on a stove w/ two burners that worked.   The stove was not in the kitchen.   It was in a separate outbuilding (called the summer kitchen but it looks more like a garage).    The refrigerator and stand alone oven were in the kitchen.   There is no running water or water at all at the house.   It all had to be brought in from a nearby reservoir/well.   

The bathroom accomodations were extremely limited (outhouse w/ no seat).   Fortunately, my friend took pity on me and my knees and put me up at the mayor's house for the night.   He has a more western indoor bathroom.  Whew!   

After the festival,  the PC guys and a few women played a touch football game on a village field - complete w/ cow observers.   You can see alot of the football pictures and more pics of the festival on my dropshots site (www.dropshots.com/elizpou).   

Then we all came back to my friends house for chili and cornbread.    Quite a challenge to prepare the latter as we could not heat up water to wash the dishes we needed for dinner  and cook the cornbread at the same time.   The power kept shutting off when we tried that.  Nevertheless, it all worked out and everyone was fed.    Most of the crowd stayed at my friend's house, sleeping in about any place they could find.   A few others went to a nearby volunteer's town and stayed with him.   I was thrilled to be at the mayor's house with only 2 other people in my bedroom.   

Village life is quite a contrast to city life.     I have alot more creature comforts in my homely apartment and there were several moments over the weekend when I thought how nice it would be to have a separate house with a big yard and gorgeous mountains all around me.     Then I remembered the outhouse.  

The next day, 3 vols and I went to the closest big city which also has a dollar store (the items in the dollar store cost about $3), a chain (3 stores in the whole country) that reminds me of odd lot and dollar stores back home.   Many of the items come from US and appeal to American shoppers - like big jars of yellow mustard which is unobtainable anywhere else.    I bought two and some aluminum foil, another item not readily available. 

October is very nice in Gyumri.   The days are crisp in the morning, mostly sunny and warm in the afternoons.   The trees are turning and people are busy canning for the winter.   Celery has appeared in the shooka and should be hear for another couple of weeks at least.   I'm eating chicken salad, potato salad, bean soup  and everything else I can think of that likes celery.    It seems strange that something as ubiquitous as celery is not a staple here.  People don't really use it that much.   Its available for a few weeks in the fall and a few weeks in the spring.   Its picked at a young stage so the stalks never get as full as the ones we are used to.   

The heirloom tomatoes at Albert and Emmas house are about gone.  The nights are in the 30s and tomatoes don't like that.   Great while they lasted. 

My friend Patti and I are busy planning the Thanksgiving dinner for all volunteers held at a conf. in Yerevan in late November.     Its interesting trying to figure out the logistics of dinner for 100 people that has to be prepared in the hotel dining room while hotel staff are preparing breakfast and lunch the same day.   Another logistical challenge is figuring out where to get things like brown sugar, sweet potatoes and pie ingredients (pie is not common here).   The American Embassy has some things in its commissary.   We are not allowed to go there but Peace Corps staff can and are right now buying up canned pumpkin, cornmeal and other important ingredients for the meal.    Patti and I have divided up the work by allocating specific dishes to interested volunteers (one person is Captain of Turkeys, another Captain of Pies, another Salad Queen..... you get the picture).     

In addition to all of this extra curricular activity,  I've been busy with several assignments.    More about those in a later post (we're waiting to hear if we got a certain grant).    I've started a school exchange program with a 4th grade class in Asheville and some 4th and 5th form students who attend a local childcare center.   So far, the children have drawn pictures which I scanned and sent to Asheville.   They have just sent 20 letters from the Asheville students to the Armenian students.   The Asheville letters were typed in computers by the students.   Ours have no access to such modern equipment.   I'm working with a center employee who will translate the English letters to Armenian and reverse the process when the Armenian students prepare their replies.    This week I'm going with the students on a "field trip" around the city with my camera in hand taking pics of everything they would like to show the Ashevillians.   

Next post will show my new manicure.   Armenian women like designs on their nails and I have gone native in this aspect of my dress.   Don't expect to see me wearing those 3 inch pointy toed heels.