About to become a volunteer again
Trip Start
Jan 15, 2005
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Trip End
Apr 27, 2006
I am getting ready to move again. I had all my village people over to my house on Tuesday and we cooked pizza and soup for my Amma my host mother. Then, in proper Armenian fashion, we made toasts to each other. I had told Amma the day before that I would miss her when I moved to Dilijan. She said that Dilijan is so close, I will be back often. In fact, she and I already have plans to go to the shuka in a month or so, so she can help me buy some winter clothes. And then she also wants to take me to see the local church. But, on Tuesday when I toasted her and told her how much I appreciated her help during this pst (through a translator I told her this) she got teary-eyed. It was incredible. Today, when I get home, I am going to bake one last cake with Mary my sister in law. I did all my laundry and everything is hanging outside. Hopefully, it will be dry by tomorrow so that I can pack it up. I move all my things to site on Sunday but I don't swear in until Monday. Peace corps is driving all four of us to our site in Dilijan with our things!! Remember the last time I moved to site? I had to scramble to find a taxi to take me to where we were all meeting and then PC took us to the train station and we had to load all our stuff onto the train and hope our counterparts were at the other end? And this time, PC is giving me door-to-door service! Holy Cow!! At dinner last night Amma said, "Remember when you arrived and all you could say about your work was Teacher che?" She said the word teacher in English and the che means no. So, I am not a teacher. "And now you can say that you will be living for two years in Dilijan and working at the Dilijan Medical College in the library! You are able to speak!" I have come a long way. I feel like I am in the right country. Will I make the whole two years? I dunno. Right now I wanna make it through the first six months. I will be living with this next host family for six months. sigh. It will be okay. Oh, after swearing-in, the A-12's (the group of volunteers who have been here for a year) are throwing us a party at the Peace Corps office in Yerevan and then taking us out on the town. It's great to be in a small country so that we can do that sort of thing. OH! small tragedy!! Everything is okay now but, yesterday I lost my water bottle. I have carried that water bottle around with me for 7 months now!! I was so upset!! I even dreamed about my water bottle last night. But, I found it again. But, if at all possible, I would love to have another Nalgene water bottle sent so if I really do lose this one, I will still have a water bottle. OH! and a flashlight that takes double A batteries would be great too. The smaller batteries are easier to find in this country. I took a picture of how I have been doing laundry here. We don't have washing machine but we do have an agitator which is this cynlidar thing that is about up to my hip. You put hot water into it and some detergent and then you put your whites into it and turn it on. 7 minutes later, the cycle is done and you take everything out, ring it out and throw it into a tub of hot water to rinse it out, splash it around some to get the soap out, ring it out again and hang outside. Then you put another load in. You go from whites to darks because you use the same water for all the clothes. Yup, by the time it is all done, you can't see the bottom. But, it is faster than handwashing which can take two days to do. With this, I can get all my clothes done in 1 hour. True, I don't have many clothes. Okay, That's it for now. I don't know when I will be writing in this again. I hear there is internet in Dilijan but, I don't know how reliable it is. But, Vanadzor is only about 1 hour away so... Take care everyone!! Laura PS: Real letters would be fantastic!! If you need my address, email me and I will get the address to you. True, it might be a while until I can check email. Patience is a great thing.
