Site Announcement!!

Today was the most exciting day since I received my invitation to serve in Armenia in May. We received our permanent site placements via a giant map of Armenia. Mid-November, I'll move to Jermuk, a resort town in South-Eastern Armenia. The population is about 8,000 people (all Community & Youth Development volunteers are in larger towns/cities). It's in the mountains, at about 6,500 feet and is known for the healing properties of the mineral water there. All around Armenia, people call mineral water "Jermuk" because the brand of bottled water is so popular. AND there are 3 ski hills! I think it's so funny that when I was placed in Armenia, my dad told me there was skiing here. I kind of dismissed it, thinking that there was no way I'd be skiing in Armenia. Then, I was placed in one of the ski resort areas. The famous Armenian writer William Saroyan said that Armenia is paradise and its highest crown is Jermuk. I am thrilled! It will be very cold in the winter (just when I arrive) and "perfect" in the summer. A lot different from Santa Barbara winters but I think similar to Mammoth, so I think I'll be ok.

I will be working with an organization called Jermuk Youth Center, a nascent NGO (what we call non-profits in the states are referred to as NGOs here) working to improve opportunities for youth involvement in civil society and the community. My counterpart (whom I will meet next week) is an energetic young woman, the only employee of the NGO. It's still pretty broad right now, but it seems like it will offer lots of opportunities for growth and engagement. I love the idea of working with someone passionate about their cause and helping build an organization's capacity as well as impact through organizational planning and project/program implementation!

The closest American volunteer will be about 40 minutes away by taxi. I will visit the site next week and then will have more to share about it. The next two years of my life have been mostly unknown to me since I turned in my Peace Corps application last August. Finally, I know where I will live and (generally) what I will be doing -- I feel so relieved and excited for this next step!

Is this how life has always been?

I've been living here for about a month. In some ways, it's been such a short amount of time. But in a big way, it's hard to imagine a life in which I drive a car, watch Henry run around with other dogs at Hendry's Beach, and eat avocados. Days here are very much the same, one blending into the next.

After simple breakfast with tea made by my sleepy host mom or sister, I walk to the mayor's office with my Peace Corps neighbor, Donald, down the dusty roads. We usually walk past young children on their way to school with their mothers -- the older students leave a bit earlier than we do -- saying hello to them all. My four classmates and I struggle and laugh and learn through language class all morning. Through our frustration, we consistently remind ourselves that though Armenian is very challenging, at least we're not learning English!

Donald and I walk home for lunchtime. We usually stick together because our host families are really all one big family and if one comes home without the other, we have to try to explain the missing one's whereabouts. On our walks, sometimes people will come speak to us for one reason or another. They try to speak English or Russian to us (Russian is the most common second language here, and is also associated with blondes), or invite us in for coffee (we have yet to accept an invitation because we're usually kind of in a hurry), or for other reasons we don't understand because they're speaking more Armenian than I know. On my walk today, a sweet, hunched-over old woman with many gold teeth stopped me and pulled my hair out of my face. She said a lot I didn't understand, but I caught that she said I was pretty and she patted my hip and said "lav" (good). As I walked away she called, "Goodbye Katy". I've met her a few times but never given her my name. I guess I'm kind of famous in my village, as are all of us Amerikatsis.

In the afternoons, we have training for our Community & Youth Development (CYD) jobs. This has been interesting and varied -- from panels of current volunteers and Armenian NGO representatives to lectures on the Armenian economy and geopolitics to practicum in which we are working with a local NGO.

There are a dozen or so children who live near me. Starting recently, they have made my evening walk home one of the most heartwarming parts of the day. They all either run to greet me with hugs, jostling to hold my hand, or yell "hello Katy, how are you?" from their front porches. They tell me lots of things I have absolutely no comprehension of, but they don't seem to mind my vague or non-existent responses much.

After dinner, I sit outside with my host family on a big cement pipe in front of the house. My host family is almost all women and girls, who come and go, sometimes bringing out coffee or taan (a drink made out of yogurt, water, and salt that is supposed to help you sleep) or sunflower seeds. Often, some of the many kids along the street will bring out a half-flat soccer ball and we'll play dodgeball (Armenian rules). I was never a big fan of the game in school, but here, it's one of my most favorite things. We shriek with joy when someone catches the ball, collectively groan when the ball goes into the gutter/sewer and has to be dried off, yell "Afto!" when a car approaches and "Kov!" to pause the game while a pair of cows goes by, trailing their chains and stakes home from the fields. A 7-year-old boy who lives across the street loves to hold my hand much of the time, which usually means I get out, but they quickly find a way for me to join the game again.

When the game finally dissolves, I usually go in to study, and then go to bed, ready to do it all again tomorrow.

I'm in Armenia!

I know it's a cliche thing to say, but it's been a whirlwind few weeks. The weeks leading up to my departure were more full of love than I can ever express -- thank you a million times over to everyone for your kind, sweet messages of love and support, for the gifts, for the hugs, for the memories. It was truly the best send off I could have ever received; certainly warmer and more heartfelt than I could ever have dreamed!

On Sunday, August 24 I boarded a plane at the Santa Barbara airport with an overweight suitcase and a backpack headed for Washington, D.C. Monday was an all-day orientation with my new colleagues to acquaint us with Peace Corps expectations, policies, mission, and goals. There are 38 of us total: 25 TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) and 13 CYD (Community and Youth Development). My assignment is CYD. Tuesday, we left from Dulles airport and arrived in Vienna, Austria nine hours later. We left the airport for our 14 hour layover just after the sun had come up. Some new friends and I explored the beautiful, old city -- complete with coffee in the city square near St. Peter's Cathedral -- before returning to the airport hotel for a nap and a shower. We boarded our final flight at around 10:30 p.m. and arrived excited, nervous, and exhausted in Yerevan about 3:30 a.m.

As we boarded the bus with Armenian Peace Corps staff, we groaned to hear that we had a full day ahead of us. But the bus took us to watch the sunrise as we ate cake, drank coffee, and explored the ruins of the Zvarnots temple. Wow! The 6th century ruins, the enthusiasm and kindness of the Peace Corps staff, and the realization that we were finally, actually, in Armenia energized us in an incredible way. The faint outline of Mt. Ararat to the west added to the excitement.

We spent the following few days at Park Resort in Aghveran, a vacation spot for people who live in Yerevan about 45 minutes outside of the city. We learned about Peace Corps expectations and policies for our service, health, safety and security. We got to know each other better, began language training, and learned a bit more about our assignments.

If it didn't feel quite real before, it became real on Sunday when we left Aghervan to move in with our PST (Pre-Service Training) host families, with whom we will live for the next eleven weeks. We are in eight different adjacent villages all close to the larger town of Artashat. We have begun and will continue to do language and technical training in these villages until we receive our permanent assignment and move to different host families elsewhere in the country in November.

The journey has been exhausting and I have been nervous throughout, but above all I am exhilarated and thrilled. The food is delicious -- different in some ways from what we eat in the U.S., but there are similarities and it is all good. So many fresh peaches and watermelon! It is hot and dusty right now, but we're told it will cool off in about two weeks. It reminds me a lot of the climate of the Central Valley of California, where there is a big Armenian population, so I suppose it's fitting. My host family is very nice. I have a host mom whose husband and son are both away in Russia working. Her son's wife lives here too, as does a cousin. Next door is a grandmother and sister, I think, with several young girls, who are all here at the house often. They are all very kind to me despite my lack of Armenian language skills and are helping me learn. In the meantime, we smile at each other a lot.

I like learning Armenian -- it's a huge challenge and I'm just trying to retain enough each day to build on. In Armenian, "Yes" means "I", so I have been trying to practice not exclaiming about myself when I finally understand what someone is trying to tell me. It will be a long process! The CYD assignment is still very broad. We will begin learning more about development in Armenia in the coming weeks, and then our actual assignments in October. The more I learn about it and the "entrepreneurial spirit" that's expected, the more excited I am.

Thanks for being part of the beginning of this journey -- I'll write more as I can. See you later! Tseytustun!

Vienna

St. Peter's Cathedral in Vienna

Vienna from the Cathedral Tower

Zvarnots Temple Ruins in the Early Morning

Mt. Ararat through the haze

Yerevan 

Our group with the American Ambassador to Armenia

The Agyepat Mayor's Office, where I have my lessons/training each day 

"Throwing off the bowlines"

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw of the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover."    -Mark Twain

I applied for the Peace Corps on August 8, 2013. August 8, 2014 will be my last day in the Development Office at Crane Country Day School and on August 24 I will board a plane at Santa Barbara Airport for Washington, D.C. to begin my Peace Corps journey.

I'll spend Monday "staging" for my service and the next day, with my new Peace Corps colleagues, head to Yerevan, Armenia. I'll spend the following three months doing Pre-Service Training (PST) -- language training in Eastern Armenian and technical training specific to my assignment. After that, I'll be sworn in as a Peace Corps volunteer. I'll spend the next two years in Armenia in a town to which I'll be assigned during my training.

My assignment is called Community and Youth Development (CYD); from what I can tell, the job is very broad. Basically, I think I'll be working with organizations in the country to help them be more effective for those they serve and also be working with youth on personal and/or professional development skills.

I'm at once over-the-moon thrilled and terrifically nervous about this new chapter in my life. Now that I actually have a flight booked it's sunk in that this change is "really real". I'm leaving an incredible community of loved ones behind, not to mention a great job and consistent ocean views. I'm certainly sad to know that I won't see these friends' smiles as regularly! But joining the Peace Corps has been my goal since I learned about it in high school. New experiences always invigorate me, and I think this will top the list. I am looking forward to living life in a way I never have before and connecting with people whose backgrounds are very different from mine. I'm excited for the adventure and personal growth that travel always offers its participants. I'm hoping to help people -- both in my assignment and also just by being an American in Armenia.

Most people with whom I've talked about my plans don't know much about Armenia. I didn't when the Peace Corps invited me to serve there. I've started this blog to share my experiences. Much of it is a way to keep in touch, but also I hope that it does foster connections between my American friends and people in Armenia by showing what life is like there. I'm excited to share my adventures with you!