Friday, January 2, 2009

Once again, I've taken way too long to add to the journal.

Spent a wonderful two weeks in the US including a week in Key West w/ family and friends.


This is a view of the grounds of my fave KW hotel from our room.


















The front balcony of the room. Relaxing w/ good friends.











Here are two examples of Christmas in Key West. Note the tattoos on the "Santa" in the Christmas parade.




















I had only a day and one night in Asheville, a couple of days in Durham and finished the trip in NY, including a visit to Zabars where I loaded up on foodstuffs not available in Armenia.

When I returned to Gyumri, I acquired a kitten (temporarily babysitting for a friend on vacation) who is a constant reminder that cats get everywhere. Here is Dustin playing w/ her.



The last two weeks of December whizzed by. An invitation to a few Armenian friends to experience an American Christmas dinner turned into dinner for 20 in my apartment. The most I had ever hosted there was 11 and that was tight. We ended up with 5 Armenians, the Gyumri volunteers and 6 other guests. I cooked a turkey and made cornbread stuffing and gravy. Others contributed salads, casseroles and desserts.

I borrowed forks and knives from another vol to get the requisite amount, and by washing the plates, cups and silverware a couple of times each, we managed to have enough containers to meet all needs. The fact that nothing matched was irrelevant.

We had a gift exchange called dirty Santa. Everyone brings a wrapped present and each person draws a number. In order, you pick a present or take the present someone else has chosen. If you take someone else's gift, they get to go back to the pile and pick another. And so forth. Lots of laughter. Ultimately a pleasant event. I still don't know how we got so many people in my tiny space.

I gave my final exam for my business English course and told the school I would not repeat the course next semester. Too few students and not enough interest in the class. I ate lunch w/ the director and discussed some alternatives. I may try to set up a short course in entrepreneurship or team activities for the two month interim before classes resume.

While I was in Asheville, I visited the school involved in our exchange program (4th graders) and met with the children. They were a delight. The difference in what is available to students in the US vs. students in Armenia was quite apparant. This class had elaborate computer equipment, very nice infrastructure and lots of supplies. The students decided they wanted so send some supplies to their Armenian counterparts.

They should arrive in a few weeks. I'm looking forward to presenting them to the Center where the Armenian students go. I'm also talking w/ the director at the Center about setting up a computer lab for the students. We'll get involved with that after the holidays.

I'm sure I wrote about this last year. The last weeks of December are a busy time for Armenians, especially the women, shopping, cooking, cleaning, cooking, baking, cooking for their big Nor Taree celebration on Jan 1. Each family prepares big tables full of food and the first week in January is busy w/ everyone visiting everyone else, eating the same food in different houses.

This year, two friends and I decided we wanted to spend Nor Taree in Yerevan and took off on December 30 to treat ourselves to my favorite b & b. We will be here til the morning of the 3rd, when we take off for a couple of days in Gyumri with one or two others who will all crash at my apartment. Since virtually all stores are closed from Jan 1 - Jan 7, I've already bought most of the food. I'll get a few perishables in Yerevan to add to the mix.

Unlike the US, New Years is not a go out to public place and eat dinner, dance and drink event. It is much more family oriented, tho w/ plenty of eating, dancing and drinking. We had a hard time finding a restaurant that was open New Year's Eve. We ended up being the only ones (6 of us) in what is normally a very popular and crowded restaurant.

The main square in Yerevan was festively decorated - bright, lots of neon. However, for a city of 1.5 million, the crowd at midnight was pretty sparse. I doubt there were more than a couple hundred people at most. Some mild fireworks preceded by pop singers and that was it for the celebration. Here are pics of the main square with Patti and Mimi braving the snow in the one below.


It snowed most of the 3oth and 31st, blanketing the city and making everything look like winter wonderland. There were NO restaurants open yesterday, so we visited one of the grocery stores and snacked all day. We're basically taking it easy, naps, books, walks, etc.

Today should be more of the same. This is a quiet time of the year for volunteers as the people we work with are all involved in family acitiives. For those vols who live in villages, they usually visit several families during the first week of January to participate in the celebration. The bulk of the visiting ends after Jan 6, which is their Christmas day. The Armenian Santas I've seen are not fat, don't pad their Santa suits and do not say "ho, ho, ho." In fact, one of the vols who was Santa for his school received many stares when he showed up plumped out nad ho ho hoing. Maybe fat Santa is an American phenomenon.

Caritas is closed until the 7th. I'll go in that day and then on the 8th leave for Yerevan to spend 5 days interviewing candidates for grad school scholarships to the US (the "Muskie" program). I read nearly 80 applications for MBA school before I left for vacation. A few of the people in our Gyumri English club applied under different programs (education, media/communications, international affairs, public policy, etc). There are usually a few hundred apps for 15 positions. I would love to see this program raised another exponent - 150 scholarships instead of 15 - as everyone I have met who experience a year in the US education system (similar progreams exisit for high school and college students) comes back w/ a much broader view of the world and greater knowledge of what could be instead of just what is.

Winter is likely to be busy with Caritas beginning the planning for their big grant implementation and hopefully, some additional work at the exchange student's center and maybe a couple of business class opportunities that are starting to evolve. Busy days and cocooning nights and weekends as we hunker down to manage the cold.

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