Once again, getting the pics in the right order is almost impossible in blogger. Sorry for the lack of chronology.

Dog in village where new fish farm will be located. Yes that is a partially buried goat he is eating.

The fish hatchery where we bought the first 5000 fish is located near Gyumri in the middle of nowhere.

Some of the fish being scooped up.

Sergei (the business owner) testing the water temp at the pond in his village and on top of the dam.

Another picture of the fish hatchery - really, in the middle of

nowhere.

Putting the hatchery fish into the container that transported them to the village.

Sergei showing some of the materials he will use to fence the pond in once the ground unthaws.

putting the new fish into the pond.

Carnival in village schools. 

Making masks. 

Teachers playing jump rope before the carnival starts.  Note they are jumping w/ coats and HIGH HEELS!

After several heats of 3-legged races, the kids tried wheelbarrow races. 

Kids eating chocolate chip cookies. 

Dancing at Surb Sarkis.

How could it be two months since I last posted?  I say this every time.  Maybe I've internalized my day to day life so much that everything seems routine.   That said, here are a couple of highlights from the last two months.   Pics will be in the next blog entry. 

- Surb Sarkis - I was invited to celebrate the Armenian equivalent of Valentine's Day - dinner with a large group of Armenians at my favorite restaurant, the fish farm.   I've written about the fish farm before  and included a couple of pics.   I went with another vol who was visiting Gyumri.   As we walked from my house to the fish farm, we were navigating down a somewhat slippery hill when a man on a white horse galloped full speed up the hill past us.   That was a new experience and has relevance to the evening's eventsOnce we arrived at the fish farm, we were led to a  private room  containing a very long table filled w/ at least 30 people.   Fortunately some friends from Caritas were there so  I could converse beyond my simple Armenian.     We had entertainment:   a very good dancer demonstrating traditional Armenian dances and wore what looked like vintage costumes.   She was exceptionally graceful and the dances were fascinating to watch.   If I can get my hands on a video,  I'll attach it.  Musicians played (two duduks which sounded so much better playing traditional music than they do when shrilling out bad pop), poems were recited and of course, many long winded toasts offered.  My two favorite rituals of the evening: -  a plate of soft crackers were laid out every few feet.   They are extremely salty.   An unmarried girl  is supposed to eat one, avoid drinking water and if her dreams include someone bringing her water, that is who she will marry. 

- all the guest were given small cups full of flour.   We trouped outside (its about 20 degrees) and everyone found a spot on the stone pathway to empty their flour cups.   My colleagues told me to remember where I left mine.    Then, according to old tradition, the "hero" rides to the location and if his horse steps in your flour and leaves a horseshoe print, you will have good luck in romance.    Sure enough,  the man on the white horse, now wearing a cape and a crown galloped down the hill and onto the stone paths.   He deftly managed to get his horse to plant his feet all over the path so most people has a horseshoe print in their flour.    If I looked at the right place,   my flour had a horseshoe also.   

The food was typical Armenian fare with the wonderful addition of the fish farms khorovats trout - yum.      

I am now so used to walking to and from the fish farm down and then up the slippery hill, across the rope that blocks the hill from cars (it would be wildly dangerous for a car to attempt the hill) and around a few deteriorating houses to my apartment building that it seems completely natural, not like an adventure in a strange land.    Have I gone native?    I doubt it, tho I must admit I am very used to meetings starting considerably later than the time scheduled and schedules themselves being quite flexible and prone to last minute arrangements.   It no longer makes me crazy, maybe a little anxious until I remember where I am and relax into the culture. 

Another high point of the last two months:  the actual beginning of my business incubation project- developed with Caritas -  that was funded through a Peace Corps grant (primarily by one big donation).    The goal of the project is to spark economic development in a rural village north of Gyumri (and act as a pilot for future economic development activities).    After reviewing business plans made during some Caritas training, we selected a proposed fish farm for the first business.   The unique thing about this grant is that our agreement with the business owner is that within the first year to 18 months, he regrants most of the funds he receives back to Caritas so another business can be funded.    This way, we are not simply handing out money (a method which does not produce sustainable results).   The business owner has to contribute part of the business costs himself and then must give back the funds he receives to support new efforts.    Having some skin in the game creates a stronger desire to succeed and makes it more likely that the grant money will be returned.   

The start of this business has taken much longer than I expected.   By the time the funds arrived from the Peace Corps (this is called a partnership grant - the terms are posted on the Peace Corps site and individuals can contribute to any number of projects listed on the site),  winter was on its way  - the village is at a higher altitude than Gyumri and is considerably colder.    So construction of the ponds quickly became problematic.    Finally, the business owner was able to secure access to an existing pond in the village so we could start growing the fish.   He will build the actual fish ponds on his land when the ground thaws in the spring.    Meanwhile he has been acquiring materials so he will be ready to go when the weather permits.    

So two weeks ago, Zhanna, Gurgan (Caritas employees) and I accompanied Sergei (the business owner) to a fish hatchery to buy the first 5000 fish.    The hatchery is in the middle of nowhere and I really mean nowhere.    The fish were loaded into a plastic tank in the back of a van Gergei borrowed, driven to his village and deposited in the temporary pond.    The water comes from a fresh spring and flows thru at a rate that prevents it from freezing no matter how cold it gets in the village.    Look at the pics of the process in the next blog. 

Another event that was fun for the Gyumri vols - Peace Corps week.   We were asked by administration to find activities that informed others about Peace Corps and encouraged volunteerism in Armenia.   We set up a program where the attendees heard from Peace Corps and Armenian volunteers about their experiences.  Ho hum.   The real fun was two carnivals we held in volunteer villages in the Gyumri area.    The carnival consisted of game stations with each one symbolizing a characteristic of a good volunteer.   Of course, the real point for the children was the games themselves.    We also made chocolate chip cookies with children at a local orphanage.    Again,  see pics in later blog entries. 

Last catch up item.   I've started the networking and other prep process to begin looking for  short term international consulting opportunities for when I leave late summer.     I'm spending much time on web sites of international development organizations and reordering my resume to include the Peace Corps experience and de-Americanize my resume so it is acceptable to European organizations.    I didn't realize how vocabulary can peg your nationality (for example, EEO is strictly an US concept;  fair employment practices is the more internationally understandable expression).   

Ok, we're caught up for now.    Look for pics. 

Patti, Mimi, Rebecca and Staci stayed at my house. The others came for dinner one of the nights.

Patti is in the foreground in this picture.

Everyone helps w/ dishwashing.

I still had the kitten at this point. Some people like her more than others. Rebecca is in the chair w the cat on her shoulder. That kitten is an amazing leaper, frequently treating a human as a tree and climbing up our legs to land on our shoulders.

We began a 1500 piece puzzle. Patti and Staci getting started.

Dustin and Jason helping out.

Jay fell asleep w/ the kitten on his lap. She is a great purrer.

She wasnt permitted on the kitchen table but she didnt recognize that rule.

Here's the puzzle after most everyone had gone home.

Dustin finally finished it while I was in Yerevan. I wouldn't begin to attempt one of these by myself.

Dear Readers,

I never believed I would be saying the words written above. I am filled with peaceful thoughts as I ride to Yerevan thru a snowcovered landscape. Everything is so white and pristine-looking. I do miss the cow traffic jams - they are safely tucked away in barns, eating hay til spring comes - and walking in Yerevan and parts of Gyumri is an icy nightmare.

I've acquired the right kind of keep warm garments so I can walk outside for a good bit feeling the cold on my face and keeping my hands, feet, head and body warm. Pretty comfortable. Plus, I have the added advantage of living in an apartment where I have fairly reliable heat. The temp in my apartment ranges from 60 - 64 degrees which is very comfortable for me. If I get chilly in shirt sleeves, a sweater solves the problem.

Another factor in my pleasure at winter is that this winter is considerably milder than the last one. We've had several days with highs in the low 30s which did not occur at all last winter. We haven't had as much snow as I would like in Gyumri. I like having at least an inch or two on the ground at all times with new deposits every few days. That keeps alot of the ice at bay and makes it easier to walk with yaktraks. Love!!! my yaktraks.

It was snowing this morning as I walked to work. Very pleasant.

I spent most of the 2nd week in January in Yerevan interviewing potential Muskie candidates (grad school in the US for a masters degree) - 56 over the course of 5 days. A panel of 4 conducted the actual interview. The program administrator managed logistics, took notes and facilitated the ranking process. The other interviewers included a US Embassy official, a professor from the only internationally recognized university in Armenia and a former Muskie fellow. We had some lively discussions with wide ranging opinions, yet finally managed to agree on a ranking of all 56. Now the top people in that group will take the GREs and TOEFL tests, and those results will be forwarded to Washington, along w/ the interviewers' and readers' scores and the interviewers' ranking for the final selection. Overall, I was very impressed with the quality of the applicants and amazed at the self-determination many of them have demonstrated to achieve their current status.

I think I mentioned the big EU grant Caritas received. We start planning for it this week. Because its a 3 year program, we've set aside 6 months for a detailed planning process so we can get the right information and training to the right people and so that the 3 partners and Caritas are all on the same page.

The school supplies from the Asheville 4th graders arrived. I took them to the center where our exchange students spend their non-school hours during the day. After some discussion w/ staff there, we agreed that every child who wrote a letter to the Asheville children would get their own pen and pencil. The remainder of the pens, pencils, markers, erasers, sharpeners, etc. will be kept at the center and available for use by the children on a daily basis.

Next post will be some pics from the post New Year's weekend at my apartment.

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.

Lots has been going on the past several weeks. Here's a highlight - my colleague Patti and I were in charge of preparing Thanksgiving dinner for 110 volunteers and staff at our fall conference the week before Thanksgiving.

This pic is Patti, Katheryn and I at a calm part of the process.

We decided to spread out the labor and found several people to be in charge of various portions of the dinner. Katheryn was Sweet Potato Queen. Lindee was Queen of Pies. Dustin was King of cauliflower casserole. Brian was Director of Turkeys. You get the point.

Here are Dustin, Mimi, Austin and Patti working on the Cauliflower casserole.

Here are two of the members of the pie team, Heather and Elizabeth. Elizabeth had worked in a bakery and turned out beautiful crusts very quickly. Heather made fillings for lemon and chocolate pies, topped w/ meringue.

The results of their efforts - some of the 16 pies they made.

this is the hotel kitchen we had to work in. Interesting seeing how an Armenian hotel kitchen is equipped. Only two ovens. Fortunately they were big enough for us to get two turkeys in each. We cooked 6 big turkeys (35 K) for the event.

Here are Eloise and Mimi putting together plates of crudities for the tables. They remained virtually untouched as the hordes dove into turkey, dressing, gravy, etc.

Of course, Thanksgiving dinner was not the only thing that happened in the last 6 weeks.

Now I'm on a two week vacation which I will write about in another post.

And work went on during the last 6 weeks. The Armenians were very excited about US election results, very happy to hear about the outcome.

I found out during this time that a grant I had worked on w/ Caritas had been awarded. Its a big EU grant and will support a 3 year project impacting 15 villages in a 3 marz region and will involve 3 additional NGOs in the planning and execution. This will be a major focus for the my next several months. More about it later.

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. 

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.   

This is an old Russian church near the center where my exchange student class resides. 

This is my exchange class after the first "lesson".   I asked them to draw pictures of something they would like their counterparts in Asheville to see.   Most of them drew pictures of their school.   They wrote their names in English and Armenian.   

Future classes will give them opportunities to write to the students in Asheville.   We may also take a couple of field trips around Gyumri to see various buildings, etc. 

This is Gyumri's big park.   I like to sit on the benches and read on a warm afternoon.   Obviously I'm not the only one who favors this pastime.

Riding to Yerevan:  more often than not,  I take route taxis (4 passengers plus driver).   Unless it is too hot and I can't get air (Armenians believe air blowing on you is unhealthy and causes a variety of ailments),  the trip has a couple of enjoyable features: - cow traffic jams.    On every trip there is at least one required stop to let a herd of cows finish  crossing the street.   Cows take their time.   Frequently they are herded by a man on donkey or horseback.   They use sticks to keep the cows behaving themselves and moving forward.   Its anachronistic to watch this parade unfold on  a serious paved highway with cars coming in both directions (no one seems to mind the wait).  

- bare landscape.   We pass a few villages seen at a distance.   Most of the scenery is sun-scorched brown hills and lots and lots of rocks.   No McDonalds beckons.   No gated communities.   No billboards.   Its very soothing to see miles and miles of very little.     I think I will miss this absence of human intervention on main roads when I get back home.   

Tomatoes -   I planted a few heirloom tomato seeds this winter (from Appalachian Seed Company) and late spring tranferred the seedlings to Albert, my former host "dad".     They actually grew up and produced fruit.  I've been eating yummy yellow and red cherries,  a german pink/yellow (German Johnson) and waiting for the cherokee purples to get fully ripe.    I like to make short visits to Emma and Albert.   I bring puzzles to Albert, sit with Emma for awhile and usually take home some ripe lavash.    

2nd year - all the things we heard about 2nd year are coming true.  The assignments are getting better, I'm feeling more a part of things and its nice to be the experienced one instead of the novice.    I know how to get around in Yerevan,  I can ride the subway,  I know where the good grocery stores are and can get to at least three places where I stay, usually w/ Patti and Mimi.   

Thanksgiving - Patti and I are in charge of the big thanksgiving dinner this year.  I just finished putting together a menu and list of ingredients - how much butter do you need to make dinner for 120 or so.    Patti is reviewing the lists.   We've decided to parse out the various parts of the meal to make our lives easier and to give those who help some actual discretion along with responsibility.    So far, we have a Captain of Pies, a Captain of Turkeys,  a chief procurement person and a Captain of Salads.    We need a few more section captains and we'll have the key staff in place.   Each "captain" will be responsible for recruiting their team members.   Sounds very organized and under control but I'm sure when the actual event occurs,  chaos will reign (we only have one evening and 1 day to get everything ready and we have to work around the hotel kitchen meal service).   

Now I have to develop some activities for my young kids English club (I do the club w/ Dustin and Lindee and they have visitors from US this week and wont be there) tonite and the adult English club tomorrow. 

Enough for now.  

Beach off of the ramparts (looks like an ancient wall that may have been a fortress). 

view of my hotel from the pool.   My room it on the upper flooor - closed shutters on the right.   We can see the mediterranean from the window. 

Picasso museum on te ramparts at the mediterranean. 

Andrea and I stopped here to stick our feet in the sea so we can say we  were in the mediterannean. 

This is the open market.   Such an array of herbs, olives, vegetables, cheese, sausage.   Oh my.   My suitcase will be considerably heavier when I leave. 

  These are pics from Marmashen, a medieval church/monastery near Gyumri.   My friend Mimi and I visited this summer.   As you can see, its a lovely setting.   Hard to imagine how life was when these structures were built in the late 900s to 1100s a.d.   

The pics below are of a camp I visited to help my organization work on a grant proposal.   Caritas sponsors a camp for disabled children every summer.    My Caritas colleagues and I came up a day before the camp opened to set things up and work on this proposal.   The pic on the left shows one of the dorm buildings on the campsite.   The pic on the right is the group bathrooms - actually very nice - flush toilets and running water all day - not all that common in camp sites around the country.   

I'm writing these blog updates from my room in Antibes, France where I am ending a 5 day vacation.    I'll put some of the pics from here in the next post.    Because of the way  the blogger software works,  its easier to add pics then write.   

So one more blog then I'm through for awhile.   

I'll be sending a fairly detailed email to several of you to describe a very exciting village business project I'm working on.   I've avoided asking friends and colleagues for funds to help out w/ the many needy situations I've encounter.   I wanted to wait until a really exciting opportunity occurred and I think I've found it.   Since this blog is more of a travelogue,   I'll send the info separately.   However, if anyone is intriqued by this teaser and wants to find out more,  email me and I'll give you details.   

Thanks for all your patience waiting for me to start writing again.   I'd love to hear from you. 

Elizabeth

Dear Faithful readers,  

I 'm surprised at how long its been since I last posted.   This has been a whirlwind of a summer.   Here are a few highlights:

- new vols have come, completed pre-service training and been sworn in.    I visited the training site a few times for presentations.   The most popular was the cooking day when several of us made a big array of dishes for the new vols.   I made satay salad (really yummy), humus, salsa and lavash chips.   Other dishes included egg rolls, pad thai, date bars and choc chip cookies.   The newbies were wowed.   After nearly two months of Armenian food only, they were really happy to experience some variety and glad to find out that its all doable w/ local ingredients. 

- the old vols have left.   I find I miss the friends I made, especially the Gyumri vols.    One of them (Scott) announced in July that he was engaged and would get married as soon as he left service in August.    Here are scott, brian and Dominic on the day Scott told us about the engagement.   That's scott on the left with glasses.   

Fourth of July party at Brian's place.   Another good bye dinner at my friend Anahit's house.   That's her baby in the swing and her husband w/ the beard. 

- went to a Green camp in July.   This was a group of 40 kids led by Armenian and Peace Corps counselors - one week day camp w/ a focus on environmental issues.   My friend Patti and I cooked for the counselors every night.    

Here are all the kids after they had cleaned up trash at a local park.   

I have more news and more pics which I will  add to another post. 

I have been remiss about posting lately. You'll see a few pictures here. You can see others at www.dropshots.com/elizpou

Now I need to describe this past weekend, a series of delightful experiences. Friday, a group of vols gathered at the one place where we have outdoor space and had a breakfast for dinner party. Everyone brought appropriate dishes like pancakes, eggs, cinnamon rolls. I made ham biscuits and fruit smoothies. A fun dining experience. I highly recommend it.

Saturday, one of my fellow vols came to Gyumri to conduct interviews of local teens for a two week international camp led by Peace Corps volunteers. I joined her for the interviews that afternoon - a great opportunity to glimpse Armenian teenage thoughts and opinions. Ate lunch at a local Georgian restaurant (lots of melted cheese) with the vols who were interviewing as well as two Armenians who are working with the camp. I continue to be impressed at how well the Armenians who speak English do it.

Afterwards, a nice walk to the shooka for some fresh veggies (strawberries are in season now and lovely - eggplants are here as well as fresh lettuce and assorted herbs), a quick visit to the park and then home to cook up a few things for dinner. My visiting friend and I had a pleasant quiet evening working a hard jigsaw puzzle. I have to remember that just because I love VanGogh's paintings doesnt mean that it will be a joy to assemble a puzzle of a VanGogh. I would have appreciated more straight lines and clear colors. Maybe Mondrian.

Sunday, I went on an "art tour" sponsored by a local hotel and a woman from Yerevan. The other tourists were an older couple visiting their daughter and her friend. The daughter is a fullbright scholar studying in Armenia and her friend is doing some graduate research here. Two local Gyumritzis guided us. One of them took us on a walking tour in the old district. While I was quite familiar with the streets, I heard several good stories about the history behind some of the beautiful buildings. Gyumri was a well known center for the arts from the late 1800s until the earthquake in 1988 which destroyed the city and the heart of the art scene.

This pic illustrates a classic jerry-rigged electrical system.

(Some of the pics here are going to be out of order as rearranging things is quite a challenge with this particular software).

Then we visited a local sculptor at his studio. The piece he is showing here is his effort to show the beauty he sees in women who are not considered classic beauties (read: thin). The other pic shows some of the instruments in his studio.

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/__nV37J4j_-c/SDw-Vo0NT6I/AAAAAAAAARo/8xB5nUG3w_M/s1600-h/P5242306.jpg (This might show you a pic of one of the buildings on the tour - or not).

Another pic of the artist with one of his pieces. The artist was very generous with his time and answered all our questions about his process. In addition to his conversation about passing on the beauty of ordinary women, he talked about another series of pieces that are parts of armour - without a knight inside. The idea is that the trappings may be there, but there are no more knights. Alluding to the loss of virtue and civility in modern days.

Then we went to one of my favorite places for lunch, the fish farm. As you can see, the setting is bucolic and the day was perfect for outdoor dining.

The pools are where the fish are raised, fed by flowing natural springs on the property. They have sturgeon (good caviar), rainbow and golden trouts (my favorite). They grill the fish and serve with traditional Armenian side dishes. Lots of fresh herbs now that spring is here and lavash they make in their own ovens.

After lunch we watched the horse and colt as some locals tried to interest their children on getting on top of the horse. A couple of them did and they were taken on short walks around the property, fathers close by. The path you see in the background leads to my apartment. I'm only about a 10 minute walk from the fish farm.

The pic below is looking down at the fish farm from the walk to my place. The scary dog is on a chain. He lunges at everyone who passes. Thank heavens the chain holds.

This out of order picture shows some of the knights I mentioned earlier.

I took many more pics on Sunday than I can show here. Go to the dropshots site to see more.

The new volunteers arrive in a few days. Its getting exciting to think about meeting them. Its nice being on this side of the learning curve. They will be the ones asking all the dumb questions for us to answer.

The spring weather, while rainy on several days, has been great. Several shirtsleeve days. Long periods of daylight - nearly 10 pm before it gets dark.

making lavash in a village. Once the dough rises, the ladies on the right roll it out thin, the lady over the hole which is a VERY hot brick oven puts the lavash in the oven and takes it out, fully cooked in about two minutes.

view of Mount Aragats from the Manookyan bridge

cemetary in Echmiadsin, site of old Armenian church complex that was the seat of Christianity for the country.

road repair in Gyumri

more road repair

Pruning trees in Gyumri - can you hear them crying?

There are many more pics on my dropshots site (www.dropshots.com/elizpou

  Sorry I havent written since Istanbul.   Spring-induced torpor.   Spring actually started in March this year (late March, but March).   Today the temp was in the low 70s.   Mostly it is in high 50s-60s.    Cold at night.   My favorite season.    Green is starting to appear on trees and bulb flowers are peeking out of the ground.     I'm trying to start some tomato seeds to grow some heirlooms over here. We'll see.   They are at the two leaf stage now and I have no access to good growing medium or fertilizer of any kind.   I'll poke around in the hardwareish stores near the shooka this weekend and see if I can't find something to give these sprouts a chance.    A couple of stories:   1.  A friend at Caritas invited me to Easter dinner with her family.   I came early and sat with her in the kitchen watching her and her mother in law cook.  Kind of strange for me to be a spectator in a kitchen.   That's not the normal order of things.    Lots of hardboiled eggs for the table, dyed with natural dyes so a little more quiet than what you see in the US.   They actually eat the eggs here, not hide them in the grass.   Some of the other traditional dishes included boiled rice with raisins (no other seasonings that I could discern), baked fish, various cooked greens w/ yoghurt on top, another green called aveluk which can be quite tasty cooked with garlic.  Sort of a bitter green like collards or chickory.     An easter dinner tradition is to click eggs with another person and try to break theirs and keep yours whole.   I tried a couple of times.   The 5 year old daughter beat me.   Of course, she used a trick egg.  There is apparently technique to this, but it is not yet a recognized sport.   Look for egg cracking at the olympics one of these days.   2.  Roads   I'll definitely have to include some pics here.   Those of you who saw The In-Laws   -   the original version with Alan Arkin and Peter Falk understand the reference in the title of this blog.   The rest of you should rent this movie immediately and prepare to laugh out loud.     Road repair is underway on the main street near my house.   Its done very differently from the US.   First,  a few crews dig out all the holes that need to be patched and configure the edges into a rectangle.   The holes are 6 to 8" deep.   Then, they leave....for weeks now.   There are no orange cones or anything else to mark these holes so every car riding down the street swings back and forth  in a snakelike pattern with very little attention paid to which side of the road you are on, just aiming for the  part where there are no holes.     There must be 50 holes in less than a mile and some of them are 4 feet across.  No consistent pattern exists.    In the daytime you can see most of them and twist out of the way.  I'm sure at night the number of broken axles increases dramatically.     3.   Pics for this part too.   I have a few examples of how Armenians prune trees.   What I learned at master gardner class about never, never topping off seems to be the opposite of what occurs here.   I'm not going to describe them here.   I'll take a few pics to illustrate and post them in the next couple of days.     Most of the volunteers in the June class have been selected and they are busy emailing those of us on a group Armenia PC list and asking all the questions I asked last year.   Its nice to be on the other side of the queries about what to bring, what to leave, what's it like and how about that language.     I've heard there are 13 vols in the 50+ group.   Let's hope more of them  stay than in my group (6 out of 10 are still here).    

You're probably tired of hearing about Istanbul. Just a few last notes. We did get to the Dolmabache Palace. It was opulent beyond belief. Versailles on the Bosphorus, with more furniture. My recollection of Versailles is that many of the rooms were empty. This place is still furnished as it was when the Sultans lived there.

Here is a pic of me with one of the guards at the Bosphorus gate. Here is the gate that faces the street. We were moved through the required tour (it would be dangerous to let tourist roam through such valuable items by themselves) so fast there was no time for pictures. I'm sure you can find some on the internet if you are really interested.

We made it to the Hagia Sophia - another splendid creation - full of beautiful mosaics as well as the ubiquitous Isnik tiles.

We continued to hunt for restaurants that had fish.

Here's one display.

We also ate under this bridge one day with the fishermen above dropping lines right outside the restaurant windows. One of my favorites was the grand bazaar. 4000 shops under one roof with many more in the alleys outside the main building. It is sheer luck alone that I made it out of there with only 3 shirts and a copper coffee set. I nearly succumbed to the extremely good knock off designer bags. I still think about the red Prada knock off I walked away from. Its hard to walk away in this country. Every store and restaurant has a roper standing outside entreating you to come in. They follow you down the street ---"lady, lady wont you come and see my store, no obligation, come in, please...." The only way to deal with this is to treat it as their accepted cultural behavior, say no thank you, walk on or make a joke and leave. Doesn't matter if they are still talking when you walk away. Its a special challenge walking down a street of restaurants, most of which are offering the same thing and all insisting on you coming into their place.

We also walked around neighborhoods where real people lived. I like this shot of the house that's seen better days with the crisp white dresses fluttering outside. This is a park that is just like any other park except the women are all wearing scarfs.

Patti and I are hanging around the last few hours before our plane. Time for one more meal. Today was the perfect day climate-wise. Temp had to be in the mid-60s, sunny with only a slight breeze. Perfect for the last tour of the spice bazaar.

Back to Armenia and winter.

This palace is the dolmabache, where Ataturk spent some time after Turkey became a republic. One of the Sultans built this place. It looks glorious from the outside. We are going to try to get there but our things to do list keeps getting longer, not shorter. We have decided one more visit to Istanbul is a must while we are in Armenia.

This is Ataturk's yacht.

Not all boats are that glamorous.

This is an old fortress. I think it started in the Roman times and after the turks took over, was rebuilt to defend Istanbul in one of the many wars that were happening in the 15th and 16th centuries. This is the narrowest part of the Bosphorus.

After the river trip, our guide took us to the spice bazaar. Again, pictures can't capture the size, bustle, energy of this place. A huge covered area filled with spice vendors and about everything else, all wanting your attention. We had a big advantage when our guide took us to her favorite place. The owners spoke English, were very friendly and patient, had us taste many of the their wares and fed us apple tea and sweets while we were buying like it was the last shopping trip of our lives. What a place. This guy was a real sweetie. "here, miss, look at this... taste this... etc." After we filled out bags, we left them in the store to pick up later and wandered around the bazaar for a couple more hours, continuing to be amazed at the variety of products available, particularly after the paucity of even basic on Armenia. We are continuing to eat well, and have kept our promise to have fish at every meal. We have broken that promise in favor of some kebabs. We do eat fish at least once a day.

The next day took us to Topkopi palace. We spent several hours gawking at the spendor in which the sultans lived. The jewels alone present an unimaginable opulence. The kitchen serving dishes were giant ming dynasty blue and white platters and exquisite celadon porcelain. Pots for cooking for 400 of your closest and dearest friends. And again, those beautiful, beautiful tiles.I'll include a couple of pictures of some of the tiles in the various rooms. I'll leave more on the dropshots website so dont forget to look there (www.dropshops.com/elizpou).

In the evening, we went to a big train station where we saw whirling dervishes. It is a religious service for them so we werent sure whether we should be clapping or not. You'll have to look pics up on the internet. We didn't think cameras would be allowed so didnt bring them. They were mesmerizing, graceful and neither of could figure out why they didnt throw up or fall down when they stopped whirling. The exhibition lasted about an hour. The first half hour sufi (their sect) musicians played. Then 5 men came out wearing long black cloaks with full white robes underneath. Their hats are about 15 " tall boiled wool stovepipes. They look like the coneheads except they were flat instead of pointed on top. After what seemed like some prayers and other ritual movements (lots of bows and walking around with their hands crossed over their chests), they started turning --- and turning--- and turning, their arms unfolded and stretched out above shoulder height, their heads tilted to the right, circling the floor and spinning for as long as 10 minutes at a time. They would stop, fold their arms, do a few more bows and ritual movements, (all the while the music is continuing), then unfold and start again. Yesterday, we walked across one of the bridges between old and new Europe and spent most of the day wandering around the main pedestrian street. Its a beautiful area, full of gorgeous 18th century 3 and 4 story buildings, interspersed with some pretty ordinary modern office and apartment buildings. The pedestrian street is loaded with every kind of shop you can imagine. The side streets lead you down narrow passages also chock full of retail opportunities. This is a picture of a second hand book store. Notice the "working" cat in the box outside the store. Cats in Istanbul seem to have a pretty decent life. Here's one we saw in an area of fish stores. The fish looked very fresh so we stopped in that block and gorged on fried mussels and anchovies. I've not had anchovies except in the can. These fresh ones were about 3 to 4 inches long, fried whole and eaten bones, head, tail and all. Yum.

Last night, we were tired from our day of walking and decided to eat close by the hotel. After looking at several places (Istanbul is full of choices), we settled on one that looked very Turkish. Lots of rugs and water pipes. The people in it were youngish and looked to me like 1969. Must have been children or grandchildren of hippies. Smoking tobacco (I think) from giant water pipes, drinking beer and talking. I forgot my combo dining/event motto (never order Chinese food in a restaurant that features punk bands, even if it is named Madame Wongs) so our dinner was not up to par of the other meals.

Its raining this morning. Cant decide between the grand bazaar and Hagia Sophia. Another post later.

Here I am in Istanbul. I've just finished the third day. Patti and I left Yerevan at 3:30 in the morning Wednesday morning. No easy flight opportunities out of Armenia. Our country director did us a wonderful favor. Because of political rallies, travel to Yerevan was prohibited so we needed special permission and would have been confined to the peace corps office until time to leave for the airport. The director invited us to her house, where we had a lovely dinner, great conversation and a peace corps driver to take us to the airport. Other than the hour, a very painless travel experience. Istanbul has 3 areas divided by water. The Bosporus runs to the Black Sea and divides the city into Europe and Asia. The European side is divided into old and new. Our hotel in Istanbul is in the old section, about a 10 minute walk to the blue mosque, hagia sophia and Topkopi palace and a 15 minute walk in the other direction to the spice bazaar. It is a modest place with a modern bathroom, three twin beds (one for our suitcases) and a small TV with BBC. In fact, I'm watching the news now. I don't think I'm missing too much. The city is full of the contrasts you would expect in a place inhabited by Greeks, Romans, Arabs and Turks over the centuries – 14 million people in Istanbul alone. Old vs. new is one of the contrasts – very modern buildings adjacent to majestic structures several centuries old. Here's a pic of a cemetary on an active city street with modern shoe stores across the street.

We took a little rest after we arrived at our hotel, then started acting like tourists. First was a 6th century cistern built by Justinian – 336 doric, ionic and corinthian columns apparently constructed from ruining buildings, each 9 meters tall. Its an erie sight. Two special treats – throughtout the cistern, little tables with old hats and jewelry. And two Medusa heads supporting columns in one corner. One of the heads is upside down, the other sideways. If y ou look at the attached pic carefully, you can see the carved snakes in her hair.

Next was the Blue Mosque. Pictures really don't tell the story of how beautiful the tiles are.

As we walked around the neighborhood, we were solicited by every vendor on the street wanting to show us his wares. "Come in, come in, come to my store, let me show you my beautiful..........". After three days, we are much better at saying no thank you and moving on while they are still talking. However, on the first day, we ended up looking inside many more shops than we wanted. Patti and I were lured in there, then involved for over an hour seeing dozens of rugs, drinking apple tea and learning that the man in the pic has a father who has a carpet store in Charlotte, NC of all places. This pic shows me perilously close to buying $4000 worth of rugs – beautiful but not exactly in a retiree's budget.

When we finally escaped from the rug store, we wandered around the neighborhood awhile, enchanted with the people, the architecture, the ambiance, the warm weather, etc. We stopped at a charming place for our first Istanbul meal, and in keeping with our pledge to eat fish every day, ordered a plate of mezes (wonderful little appetizer dishes – think tapas) and grilled calamari. Like eating manna. The next day found us taking a ½ day cruise on the Bosphorus. We were a group of two, so it was essentially a private tour. Our guide first took up on top of one of the 7 hills of Istanbul, giving us details that included the romantic story of its name (Pierre Loti, an adventurer in the 19th century who ended up spending most of his time in Istanbul in a star-crossed relationship with a married woman). We walked around a perfectly sited outdoor cafe, overlooking the Bosphorus and a hillside graveyard, also perfectly sited so the departed will have good views of the river. Then we mounted a boat and motored up the Bosporus around the Golden Horn and then back, seeing sights on both European shores and the Asian side. Amazing to think about a city bridging two continents. Here are some of the things we saw: I loved the contrast of the modern bridge and the 19th century mosque. I'll post the next several pics and dialog tonite. Right now, Patti and I are going to walk across a bridge that will take us from old Europe to new Europe where we will spend most of the day exploring that part of the city.

Its been awhile since I've posted here. A good part of my daily interest seems focused on weather. How cold will it be today. I have weather.com added to my google home page so when I turn on my computer, I will have my answers. We had about a foot of snow yesterday and the highs for the next 10 days will be in the low 20s except for one day when we climb all the way to 26 degrees F. I have finally acquired enough cold weather equipment so I can go out in this weather without being cold. It requires special gloves, my ugg boots, yak trax, one to two scarfs, a hat, earmuffs and my down llbean coat. Plus layers underneath. Unless the wind is blowing, I can walk comfortably. Yesterday I had to go out in the falling snow which somehow always managed to be blowing in my face regardless of the direction in which I was walking. It snowed enough that the roads leading out of the city were closed.

I thought you all might enjoy this story:

Stranger in a Strange Land

It began with keys. I lost the key to my apartment through a hole in my pants pocket and had to go to the next door neighbor to retrieve the spare she keeps. I wanted to make several copies so I can leave a key with one of the volunteers and if possible, some safe place outside my apartment so if another one disappears, I will be able to get inside. Gyumri is the 2nd largest city in the country, with lots of apartments and houses, all of which have doors and locks so I assumed I could find someone who could make keys here. So off I went. The main square is supposed to have a key place. I went to the photo shop in the square and asked in my very bad Armenian where I could get a key made. One of the clerks walked me to the door and pointed up the street but said something followed by "pak eh" which means closed. Apparantly that shop has been closed for awhile. I asked if he knew "oorish khanut" (another store) where I could get a key made. He said "bazaar" near the avtokayan (bus station). So I trek down there. The temps are in the teens during this adventure so by trek I really mean trek.

I visited several of the hardware (sort of) stores near the avtokayan and asked about keys. Those that understood me would say ch'ka (not here) and point me in another direction. After about 4 of these conversations, I went to see my language teacher whose shop is close by. She said there is not place that makes keys in Gyumri, I will have to go to Yerevan. Oh. Fortunately, I would be in Yerevan for a meeting in a couple of days – that weekend. After my meetings in Yerevan, where temps were also in the teens, I set out again looking for keys. This is a city of 1.5 million so you know there have to be key shops. As I was on a street with alot of stores, I kept following the street until I saw what looked like a number of hardware-type stores. Initially, no luck. In one, a customer who spoke English interpreted what the clerk was saying to me – "we don't make keys here" and when I asked where a key place was, he told me to walk down the street about 200 meters and I would see the shop with a key sign above it. I did that. No shop that I could see. I thought maybe I wasnt looking in the right place, walked into another store and tried to explain myself again. This time, the clerk just stared at me, not understanding what I was saying and making no effort to attempt to understand. A woman in the store, a customer, looked at me, crooked her finger to have me follow her, and left the store. I thought this nice lady will walk me to the store which is bound to be nearby.

The woman looked to be middle-aged, dressed somewhat shabbily and with no English whatsoever. After we walk a block or so she turned down another street and once again, beckons. She keeps walking. Turns another corner. Keeps walking. I discover her name (ahsana) and tell her mine but don't really have any more conversation in my vocabulary. We keep walking. I remember the word for "far" and ask how far. She says very close and keeps walking. We walk for about 20 minutes, in an area completely unfamiliar to me and quite far away for the area to which I had initially been directed. I become uneasy. We keep walking. Finally, I spot a kisok with a big key above it. At last. The kiosk was empty and she goes to a nearby store, comes back and says 10 minutes. I tell her thank you for taking me and assume she will leave. No. She stays and proceeds to show me pics of her family and tell me things I don't understand. I tell her what I can about my family and why I'm in the country. The key man finally shows up, looks at the key and says 25 minutes (to make 4 keys). I sigh, agree and tell her thank you once more, assuming that now, she will leave. No. She insists I come with her again. I say no thank you but that is not accepted. Since she has gone out of her way to help me, I feel like I must go. We cross the street, weave through an alley and come to a tall apartment building. We ascend several floors in an rusty, halting elevator to an apartment which apparently belongs to a friend of one of her friends. At least that is what I can gather from what she says. While they clearly were not expecting her or me, in typical Armenian fashion, they insist I sit down and begin preparing food even though I say several times no thank you, I have eaten already. I take a cup of tea to be polite and several people gather around the kitchen table. One young woman speaks a little English (she says she is an English tutor but doesn't seems to have had contact with native speakers as she has a hard time understanding me or speaking English herself). The other speak among themselves in Armenian and occasionally ask me a question which I occasionally understand. I give them a Peace Corps business card in Armenian. The food sits on the table untouched by all of us. Ahsana puts food on my plate (another Armenian habit) like I am a child. I don't know whether they are waiting for me to eat something before they eat something – custom? Courtesy? The result is no one gets fed. After about 30 awkward minutes, I say I have to leave, I have a friend waiting. Despite my protestations, Ahsana accompanies me back to the key vendor and waits for me to pay, then takes me to the corner where we get a taxi. While it is an example of the graciousness of the Armenians for this stranger to go out of her way to help me, I felt extremely awkward and helpless during the entire process. It is so frustrating to have such limited language ability. I am determined to improve this situation. The key hunt would have been considerably shorter and may even have ended in Gyumri (I can't believe there is no place to get a key made here) if I were more facile with my Armenian. Even if I can come up with the right words, I don't understand the responses I receive. I'm not so sure I grok Armenia yet.

On another subject, this last weekend was most enjoyable. I had 8 people for dinner on Satuday night – at the request of one of the volunteers from Charlotte, who was missing down home food, I made fried chicken, with rice, gravy and cole slaw. The guests were so happy, they washed dishes. Nine people in the apartment is quite cozy, but not cramped. At least everyone had a seat, tho not necessarily at the dining room table. On Sunday, my counterpart invited me and others to her apartment for lunch. It was all Armenian and some of the best dishes I have eaten here. The main course was a kind of tomato frittata, accompanied by chicken skewers wrapped in pastry and roasted vegetables (the latter from a jar, but very tasty – local company). The international group included two Austrians who were visiting Caritas, my counterpart Zhanna, two Armenians and another volunteer. Delicious food and good company. What could be better. I have a pic of the fried chicken gathering, but that will have to wait for a later post. BTW, I have put many of my Armenia pics on my dropshots site. That is www.dropshots.com/elizpou. Take a look.

Its been awhile since I've posted here. A good part of my daily interest seems focused on weather. How cold will it be today. I have weather.com added to my google home page so when I turn on my computer, I will have my answers. We had about a foot of snow yesterday and the highs for the next 10 days will be in the low 20s except for one day when we climb all the way to 26 degrees F. I have finally acquired enough cold weather equipment so I can go out in this weather without being cold. It requires special gloves, my ugg boots, yak trax, one to two scarfs, a hat, earmuffs and my down llbean coat. Plus layers underneath. Unless the wind is blowing, I can walk comfortably. Yesterday I had to go out in the falling snow which somehow always managed to be blowing in my face regardless of the direction in which I was walking. It snowed enough that the roads leading out of the city were closed.

I thought you all might enjoy this story: Stranger in a Strange Land It began with keys. I lost the key to my apartment through a hole in my pants pocket and had to go to the next door neighbor to retrieve the spare she keeps. I wanted to make several copies so I can leave a key with one of the volunteers and if possible, some safe place outside my apartment so if another one disappears, I will be able to get inside. Gyumri is the 2nd largest city in the country, with lots of apartments and houses, all of which have doors and locks so I assumed I could find someone who could make keys here. So off I went. The main square is supposed to have a key place. I went to the photo shop in the square and asked in my very bad Armenian where I could get a key made. One of the clerks walked me to the door and pointed up the street but said something followed by "pak eh" which means closed. Apparantly that shop has been closed for awhile. I asked if he knew "oorish khanut" (another store) where I could get a key made. He said "bazaar" near the avtokayan (bus station). So I trek down there. The temps are in the teens during this adventure so by trek I really mean trek. I visited several of the hardware (sort of) stores near the avtokayan and asked about keys. Those that understood me would say ch'ka (not here) and point me in another direction. After about 4 of these conversations, I went to see my language teacher whose shop is close by. She said there is not place that makes keys in Gyumri, I will have to go to Yerevan. Oh. Fortunately, I would be in Yerevan for a meeting in a couple of days – that weekend. After my meetings in Yerevan, where temps were also in the teens, I set out again looking for keys. This is a city of 1.5 million so you know there have to be key shops. As I was on a street with alot of stores, I kept following the street until I saw what looked like a number of hardware-type stores. Initially, no luck. In one, a customer who spoke English interpreted what the clerk was saying to me – "we don't make keys here" and when I asked where a key place was, he told me to walk down the street about 200 meters and I would see the shop with a key sign above it. I did that. No shop that I could see. I thought maybe I wasnt looking in the right place, walked into another store and tried to explain myself again. This time, the clerk just stared at me, not understanding what I was saying and making no effort to attempt to understand. A woman in the store, a customer, looked at me, crooked her finger to have me follow her, and left the store. I thought this nice lady will walk me to the store which is bound to be nearby. The woman looked to be middle-aged, dressed somewhat shabbily and with no English whatsoever. After we walk a block or so she turned down another street and once again, beckons. She keeps walking. Turns another corner. Keeps walking. I discover her name (ahsana) and tell her mine but don't really have any more conversation in my vocabulary. We keep walking. I remember the word for "far" and ask how far. She says very close and keeps walking. We walk for about 20 minutes, in an area completely unfamiliar to me and quite far away for the area to which I had initially been directed. I become uneasy. We keep walking. Finally, I spot a kisok with a big key above it. At last. The kiosk was empty and she goes to a nearby store, comes back and says 10 minutes. I tell her thank you for taking me and assume she will leave. No. She stays and proceeds to show me pics of her family and tell me things I don't understand. I tell her what I can about my family and why I'm in the country. The key man finally shows up, looks at the key and says 25 minutes (to make 4 keys). I sigh, agree and tell her thank you once more, assuming that now, she will leave. No. She insists I come with her again. I say no thank you but that is not accepted. Since she has gone out of her way to help me, I feel like I must go. We cross the street, weave through an alley and come to a tall apartment building. We ascend several floors in an rusty, halting elevator to an apartment which apparently belongs to a friend of one of her friends. At least that is what I can gather from what she says. While they clearly were not expecting her or me, in typical Armenian fashion, they insist I sit down and begin preparing food even though I say several times no thank you, I have eaten already. I take a cup of tea to be polite and several people gather around the kitchen table. One young woman speaks a little English (she says she is an English tutor but doesn't seems to have had contact with native speakers as she has a hard time understanding me or speaking English herself). The other speak among themselves in Armenian and occasionally ask me a question which I occasionally understand. I give them a Peace Corps business card in Armenian. The food sits on the table untouched by all of us. Ahsana puts food on my plate (another Armenian habit) like I am a child. I don't know whether they are waiting for me to eat something before they eat something – custom? Courtesy? The result is no one gets fed. After about 30 awkward minutes, I say I have to leave, I have a friend waiting. Despite my protestations, Ahsana accompanies me back to the key vendor and waits for me to pay, then takes me to the corner where we get a taxi. While it is an example of the graciousness of the Armenians for this stranger to go out of her way to help me, I felt extremely awkward and helpless during the entire process. It is so frustrating to have such limited language ability. I am determined to improve this situation. The key hunt would have been considerably shorter and may even have ended in Gyumri (I can't believe there is no place to get a key made here) if I were more facile with my Armenian. Even if I can come up with the right words, I don't understand the responses I receive. On another subject, this last weekend was most enjoyable. I had 8 people for dinner on Satuday night – at the request of one of the volunteers from Charlotte, who was missing down home food, I made fried chicken, with rice, gravy and cole slaw. The guests were so happy, they washed dishes. Nine people in the apartment is quite cozy, but not cramped. At least everyone had a seat, tho not necessarily at the dining room table. On Sunday, my counterpart invited me and others to her apartment for lunch. It was all Armenian and some of the best dishes I have eaten here. The main course was a kind of tomato frittata, accompanied by chicken skewers wrapped in pastry and roasted vegetables (the latter from a jar, but very tasty – local company). The international group included two Austrians who were visiting Caritas, my counterpart Zhanna, two Armenians and another volunteer. Delicious food and good company. What could be better. I have a pic of the fried chicken gathering, but that will have to wait for a later post. BTW, I have put many of my Armenia pics on my dropshots site. That is www.dropshots.com/elizpou. Take a look.

At last, I have an internet connection and blogger is working. These are only a few of the pics I have. Let me know if you want to see anything else. This is a pic of a chorale and christmas pagent a friend and I saw before Christmas. It was charming and a most enjoyable collection of music from classical pieces to gospel. The pagent included a number of children playing the different roles. The angel who represented God's voice to Mary lip synced to a booming male voice.

Here are the Christmas decorations at my apt. The fancy looking tree is a music tree about 10" high sent by my sister who also sent the Charlie Brown tree.

I painted a Christmas tree on my gold fingernails. The reality looked better than any picture I could get.

I also decorated my toes in Christmas colors.

I spent Christmas day and two days after w/ two age appropriate vols in a very nice B and B in Yerevan. We had a wonderful time, catching up with each other's lives, eating some nice meals, looking at various stores. I discovered Yerevan has several nice tea shops and at least two of them had good varieties so I won't need to beg and plead for merchandise from the states. The B & B supports an art school in a region that was destroyed in the 89 earthquake. The school students craft very nice pottery. I bought three pieces and plan to get more every time I return to Yerevan.

On the way back to Gyumri, I stopped in the big produce market in Yerevan, bought some house gifts for the various places I was going to visit for Nor Taree and some treats (lettuce, mushrooms, and a few other hard to find items).

On the 31st, I headed out to Shahumyan to spend Nor Taree w/ Sveta, Grigor, family and Phyllis, the vol who stayed there last year. Sveta is recovering from bunion surgery on both feet. I won't describe the process in detail but here are two small factoids – she was given only a local anesthetic for a 5 hour procedure and saw the doctor drinking vodka throughout the surgery.

Here is a pic of the only heating source in the house in Shahumyan, a very inefficient wood stove. You could see your breath in every room. My sleeping bag saved me or I would not have been able to stay two nights. It reminded me of my grandfather's house, heated by only a pot bellied stove in the living room – boy, were those upstairs bedrooms cold.

Here are a few pics of the Nor Taree table.

The family had been cooking for several days and were putting dishes out on the table when I arrived at about 4 pm. We had a khorovats (specially for me) about 4:30 in the room w/ the stove. Dishes continued to get assembled and put out in the living room throughout the evening. We ate in that room at midnight and toasted the new year, our friends and families. Once food is set out, it stays on the table until it is eaten, through the 6 day New Years celebration. I worried about freshness initially. Fortunately, the living room (as well as the rest of the house) stayed about the temp of a refrigerator so I don't think I subjected myself to anything harmful. I did decline the three day old dolma for breakfast on the 2nd morning.

People come in at random beginning on the morning of the 1st. Usually relatives, some neighbors. There are no set dining times. Whenever someone comes in, the family goes to the table again. Toasts are an essential part of the process. The guests may stay a few minutes or a couple of hours. The idea is to make sure there is always a clean plate available for whoever comes in.

Edmund, the son who lives at home, will be getting engaged to his girlfriend, Anahit (see pic) in February and married this summer. They've been going out with each other in a serious way for about a year. After they get married, they will both live at the farm (tradition is that son's wife lives with his family and the mother-in-law (in this case, Sveta) is the authority figure for the new wife.

this is me acting like an Armenian woman putting on makeup in front of everyone using the one mirror in the house. Public annointing of oneself is typical in most Armenian households.

Grigor has acquired some guinea hens. Those of you who have been to my house know of my fondness for guinea hens.

Here's a pic of the farm in winter. It's so different from the same scene in the middle of the summer (see some of the August entries for comparison).

Phyllis came back to Gyumri with me on the 2nd. We tried to go shopping on the 2nd, 3rd and 4th, when she left to return to Sevan, her site, but except for a couple of small food khanoots (stores), everything was closed.

On the 2nd, we visited Emma and Albert – similar table set up of course and stayed to eat a few things and participate in several toasts.

We also visited my across the street neighbor for a few minutes – here is a pic of her, her husband, and Phyllis. More toasts.

My favorite day was the 3rd, when I visited 2 houses of friends at Caritas. Their tables were still full of food and guests continued to pop in and out at both places. The pace was slower than the first two days and we had some nice conversation time. More toasts. In one of the houses, I received the first pressure to put vodka or wine in my toasting glass. The husband of my friend told me it was bad luck not to put alcohol in the glass. Since he was the first person to tell me that, I decided that since nothing bad has happened in the last 7 months of non-alcoholic toasts, I could survive on juice and prevailed. The younger vols, especially the men, receive huge pressure to drink and the vodka (especially homemade hootch) is as strong as grain alcohol. Fortunately, my gray hair is a real asset. No one is going to bully a tatik (grandmother).

During the day 3 visits, I enjoyed a few dishes I had never tasted – both Georgian – one a sour plum sauce, delicious w/ pork (yes, I ate pork that had been sitting out for three days and I'm here to tell the tale) and a chicken dish that looked a bit like pudding and was full of wonderful spices. I also ate a piece of fish – dont know how long that had been on the table.

That was the end of my visiting. Yesterday, after Phyllis left, I checked in with the other Gyumri vols and ended up having them all come over last night for chili and jigsaw puzzle. There were 8 of us altogether and everyone seemed to find a place to sit and a bowl for the chili – it turns out I have exactly 7 big spoons so one of us ate w/ a small one – it didn't change the flavor at all. None of the plates and bowls match and that didn't change the taste either.

Today is a bit of a relaxing day. I'm going to try to find an internet cafe and send this entry, then get my hair cut, then wander over to another vol's house for a bit. Update - one day later - now at internet cafe.

Time for a public thank you to all my friends and family who have sent boxes. I received several in the last few weeks, each with fabulous contents, from new puzzles to exotic foodstuffs. It is always a high point to get that slip from the mailman that means a new package has arrived. And I love being able to make a dinner for friends that contains ingredients we cannot get here – a little touch of home to chase away the blues. Thank you, thank you, thank you Bobbe, Tom, Joey, Michael, Wayne, Bob, Maureen, Susan, Anne, Claire, Janet, Melissa, Larry and Susanne!!!!!!! Several others have sent emails saying something is in the mail so I look forward to more slips of paper from the mailman when the post office reopens (they closed from the 31st to the 7th).

Love, Elizabeth Lynne

Merry Christmas and happy new year to all!!!

I've had several requests to describe Christmas and New Years celebrations in Armenia and what I did during that time. As usual I have some pics to help.

Here are the Christmas decorations at my apt. The fancy looking tree is a music tree about 10" high sent by my sister who also sent the Charlie Brown tree.

RATS - blogger is not allowing me to upload the pics and the internet is so slow I cant get dropshots to load at all. So I'm not completing this post until I get better response. Maybe Monday.

December 22, 2007 Last Sunday, I saw my first Armenian wedding. Emma's daughter's son. Once again Emma and Susanne and other women in the family have spent hours and hours baking to prepare for the feast following the wedding. I did not attend the big dinner at a local restaurant that followed the wedding. I understand over 200 people came and it was quite the event. Here's the part I saw. After a pre-ceremony activity at the bride's house, the party arrived in numerous cars and the ubiquitous limo at the main square. The old church bustled with activity. While a few of us were waiting for the wedding party (they were over an hour late), two weddings happened and I'm sure there were earlier ones. Once the cars arrived and family unfolded themselves, everyone trooped into the church. See pic. Little Armine had a special dress for the occasion. At least in this wedding, no bevy of bridesmaids accompanied the couple.

Little Albert and a little girl I didn't know preceded the bride and groom with candles.

The church is quite old and similar to European churches of a certain age had no seating.

You can see in the pics the sanctuary was smoky with incense, a big part Armenian Apostolic services.

Guests gathered on each side of a roped off aisle. The service was brief.

Towards the end, the bride and groom were given crowns and as part of the ritual, bowed their heads toward each other til they touched. This symbolizes the couple of king and queen of the family and a new generation. The touching of the heads represents unity.

There is no kiss at the end of the ceremony. After, the guests go up to the nave and greet the bride and groom.

As they leave the church, they are each handed a dove. They have the two doves "kiss" and then release them. That is Susanne (Armine's mom) holding the bride's bouquet for her.

After the church ceremony, everyone piles in the cars and drives around

the square 3 times, honking furiously. Then, on to the groom's house. Typically, newlyweds live with the husband's family, sometimes for years. Before they enter the house, lavash is put on their shoulders (staff of life) and the groom's mother gives them a taste of honey (sweetness in their life). As they cross the threshhold, they each step on a plate (chasing the devil away). After some toasting at the groom's house, people change clothes and go the the restaurant. I'm now sorry I missed this part of the celebration as I left right after the wedding ceremony. Lesson: never say no to an opportunity for a cultural experience.

Meanwhile, schnor havor surb tsnund (Merry Christmas, lit: congratulations on holy birth)

Ok, the pics didn't upload to where they were supposed to. The first one on the left if the bedroom, then the living room. The kitchen is lower right.

Here's some pics of the new place:

kitchen bedroom living room

The people in the shot are the vols who helped make the job so easy.

December 14, 2007 Didnt post the Dec 8 blog so thought I would add a bit. Pics will come later.

I moved in a couple of days early. It is a nice feeling, like being a grown up again. Last night I cooked dinner for a vol, then another dropped in later. It is so comforting to be able to ask anyone to visit me and to be able to have a drop in. Not to mention going to the bathroom with the door open. Little luxuries. Last night it snowed briskly for awhile. Around 9 pm, we heard loud noises and looked out the window which faces a little gathering area (basically a patch of dirt edged in concrete) . We saw a couple of dozen people, mostly young, some very young, taking advantage of the snow – snowmen, snowballs were the main elements of the fun. It felt very neighborhoody. More about the place w/ a few pics later. December 8, 2007 – Today is Armine the granddaughter's birthday. Once again, the classic Armenian feast has occurred. As I write this, the living room is the scene of a huge table, over 20 people seated and eating. The table has room for about 20 with no extra space. As new people arrive, and there seems to be a constant flow, space is created, an extra chair is found, dirty plates are removed and clean ones added. Emma and Susanne (grandmother and Armine's mom) have each had about 10 minutes at the table, in two minute increments, spending most of their time seeing that new food finds a place on the table and old food and empty plates go away. As is standard, the majority of the guests are adults. The only children are relatives. The habit of inviting friends to birthday parties does not seem to be an Armenian custom. Susanne was up until 3 am this morning making a beautiful cake, complete w/ white swans and lovely blue icing flowers. I'm taking a break from the dinner. As soon as the men finish, all who smoke light up so I tend to excuse myself at that point. There is so much noise and confusion, I'm not missed. One of the best illustrations of the Armenian's almost obsessive adherence to their own traditions is the celebration meal. It is always the same no matter whose house you visit. Dolma may be prepared a little better in one than another, but it is still dolma. Khorovats are still khorovats. The difference in the side dishes between winter and summer is that summer always includes tomatoes and cucumbers and in winter, the sides are grated beet salad w/ lots of onion and garlic and mayo and grated carrot salad made the same way. Its a reflection of what is available at the shooka. God forbid someone should decide to make some lasagna or a pot roast or do something with a potato other than fry or mash (in oil and with butter, respectively). No dark greens darken their tables. I've seen spinach a few times in the shooka. It has never appeared at a celebration dinner. While first farms are active here, I've been served fish once since I've been in Armenia. This same scene with the same participants and the same food will be repeated continually during Nor Taree, their 6 day New Years celebration. As the women at my NGO explained, Armenian women cook for days and days preparing an even bigger feast than other celebrations. No expense is spared and people will go without food the rest of the winter to put on this elaborate show for relatives and friends. The women at the NGO describe this as a huge strain on them. I am sure you will never hear a complaint from the stay at home wives. Its a very 50s mentality in that sense. Many women here see no discrimination in the very strict role assignment here. That's just the way its supposed to be – its not discrimination. The New Years Eve and New Years Day meals are for closest family, then over the next few days, they start rotating to each other's houses (first the older relatives host younger, then vice versa, same food, different locations,. And when I say same food, I mean same food. What isnt finished on day 1 sits in a cupboard overnight and is served on days 2-6 as long as it lasts. I am intriqued to find out how this works. Continuous traveling as well as continuous preparation and continuous serving and cleaning is required. So how do you travel and entertain at your table at the same time? I'll find out as I'm committed to go to Sveta's in Shahumyan for New Years Eve and the next day. If I don't spend the night, I'm sure I'll be stricken from the family bible. Then, when I get back to Gyumri, I'll have to drop in at Emmas and I'm sure there will be plenty of other invitations. Tomorrow I move to my new apartment. I've been bringing a few bags over every day for the last couple of days and tomorrow the vols will come help me with the big move. Logistics are a challenge. I wish you could have seen me two days ago strugging w/ my wheelie bag, a bag on top of that one, a backpack and another bag on each shoulder, through 3" of newly fallen (and falling) snow, making the trek from Emma's to the new place. Here is something I learned: wheelie bags become snow scoops when the snow is fresh. Ditto when the snow has turned to slush. Its interesting trying to get the hang new living quarters when you don't know how anything works. This apartment has "central heat" (not like we know it in the US). But there is no thermostat or easy method. There is some kind of water/gas/electric combo housed in a unit the directions for which were included but unfortunately in Russian. The owners have left for Russia and the woman next door speaks no English and is not sure how it works herself. Because there is a water tank in the cellar that must be filled during the two or three hours a day when we get water from the city, there are an elaborate system of valves, some of which much be open when the pump is turned off and closed when it is on and another of which has to remain partially open at all times. I think I screwed it up this morning and opened when I should have closed and basically drained the water tank so there was no water when I wanted to take my first hot shower in Gyumri. I think I have now fixed it so tomorrow, when the water comes, it will go into instead of out of the tank. Of course there is no way to tell. I finally figured out how to start the radiators heating (from the same Russian-direction appliance that controls hot water as well as heat). Just had to interrupt this narrative to rejoin the festivities for birthday cake and singing. I will try to upload a photo or two so you can see for yourself. My handy little camera takes mini movies. I'll turn the pics and movies into a CD for Robert, the father, when he rejoins the family next week. I'm sure he will want to see his little girl turning 10. The need for heads of family to earn their livings outside Armenia is one of the tragedies of this country. The economic "recovery" touted in all the reports about Armenia really refers to a very small portion of the country, a few lucky individuals and quite a few profiteers. The rest struggle, from extremely primitive conditions in the villages to getting along with the help of remittances from abroad. I've heard as many as half of the Gyumri families depend on people outside the country for their support. Keep your fingers crossed that I'll get my first hot shower in Gyumri in the next few days. Now, I've finished editing the pics and showing them to the family. Its very satisfying to watch their smiles as they see their "kino".

Dear readers,

I think I have a place to live now. One of the vols heard about this apartment and told me. The owners are moving to Russia for a couple of years. I went to see it Thursday and while it is quite small, I am taking it. It is about a 5 minute walk from where I live now. It puts me farther away from Caritas and the other ngo for which I work, but not too far. Still walkable. The apartment is on the first floor in a big plain building (think homely white box) - looks like about 5 stories – in an area with several other big buildings. Off the main street , but still accessible. Close by post office where I pay my utility bills

The picture above should give you an idea of the basic layout.

Notes about the apartment:

- entry way has a small hall tree with drawers

- for the safety nuts: the front door is heavy metal (steel?) and has a triple dead bolt as well as a peephole and the windows have bars

-bedroom is not fully enclosed. There is a curtain between a double door sized opening and the "living room". Bedroom has a bookcase/storage unit along the wall opposite the bed. There is a wardrobe beside the bed.

-there are windows all along the living room wall

-.there is a TV on the cattycornered item, which is a small bookcase. The TV will probably not be turned on except to show movies from my computer (its new enough to have jack inputs). I've seen enough bad soap operas to completely satisfy any TV urges for the rest of my stay here.

- the sofa folds out to a twin bed.

- here's the good stuff:

§ the house has a brand new water and heating system, central heat via gas hot water radiators w/ good control mechanism. 24/7 hot water in kitchen and bath from big tank in cellar. The city water comes on about 3 hours a day in the morning. While Emma has a tank, she doesn't have a water heater, thus the bucket baths. This place will provide luxurious showers and the astonishing ability to have hot water in the kitchen.

§ The burners and oven all work (a rarity).

§ The refrig is new and while small, has a separate freezer compartment.

§ The cabinets and counters are all new.

§ The most amazing feature of all _ I HAVE A WASHING MACHINE!!!!

The owners are leaving most of their furniture including linens for the bed and dishes, pots, pans, etc. I'll still have to buy some but not as much as many places would require.

My sisters will love this next part: In the cellar where the water tank lies (and its really a cellar – maybe 5' ceilings) there are shelves w/ canning equipment and at least 100 glass jars!

It is a very small space. However, I am so excited about the amenities. Stove that works. Hot water all the time. A very non-peace corps experience and while I should be embarrassed at all this convenience, I'm willing to live with a bit of shame in order to avail myself of hot showers whenever I want. And I can't begin to tell you what a good deal the washing machine is.

We had our first snow today (Saturday). Only a light fall – about 2" at most. More is predicted tomorrow. I realized I was not in the US when I slid on several of the sidewalks. They are not sanded or salted here and there is no requirement for shop owners to maintain the areas in front of their shops. Clearly not enough lawyers here.

The cars on the road slid about as much as I did. The snow on the road packs down immediately and is as slick as grease. There may be some big snow removal equipment but I haven't seen it. Maybe we need more snow action before it appears.

Another difference from the US is that the tires on most of the cars and all of the marshutnis are old and balding. The marshutni tire maintenance method seems to consist of driving til there is a blowout, then replacing it with a spare tire in similar condition and driving to a roadside stand (shop would be a great euphemism) where the blown tire is patched and becomes the new spare. The passengers watch this process with resignation and calm. The operative word is "vochinch" which means something like "oh, well" or "what can you do".

People here will "vochinch" at any opportunity. Food is cold or the wrong order – "vochinch". Power goes out three days in a row – "vochinch". The oven in your stove doesn't work – "vochinch". The social security clerk who is supposed to give you your pitifully small check expects a 1000 dram "gratuity" to provide you with that to which you are entitled – "vochinch". I understand the Armenia airline has vochinched an unsettling noise while the plane was in the air. I dont think you should "vochinch" an airplane. That's about one too many "vochinches" for me. Again, where are all the lawyers when we need them? Obviously labbying in Yerevan for the tobacco companies. (Armenian men have the highest rate of smokers outside Asia – 62%). Cigarettes are barely taxed even though this government is in great need of revenue and proposed new taxes are defeated as if this were North Carolina. 1 out of 3 male deaths are attributed to smoking related diseases and that percentage is increasing. How did I get on this topic from talking about my apartment and snow. Oh, well. Vochinch.

The latest from your correspondent:

My dropshots site (www.dropshops.com/elizpou) has some more photos – a few from life around the house and a few that poorly illustrate the extremely mountainous journey to Kapan. More about that later.

As you can see from the pics, Albert metz (large Albert – the grandson is Albert pokr, small Albert) loves the jigsaw puzzles. A new one came in a box from home this week. I showed it to Albert, he snatched it from my hands and had the table set up, the box opened and all the pieces out before I finished going thru the box. He will sit for hours working the puzzle. It reminds me of earlier Christmasses when either mother or my sister Bobbe would sit for hours over a holiday-time puzzle. I would drop by and put in one piece so I could say I helped. Now, they have become a favorite winter evening pastime in Asheville. I lure friends over with an offer of soup and then entice them to the puzzle table. But enough about Asheville. Let’s hear about Armenia.

I took my first road trip last week. I was invited to a roundtable conference hosted by a women’s business NGO in Kapan, a city of about 30,000 in the southern part of Armenia. It’s a 7 hour trip by Marshutni from Yerevan, so I went to Yerevan the night before to give myself a break in the travel schedule. I spent the night in Yerevan at the Envoy Hostel. My first experience in a hostel. This one is used to Peace Corps volunteers and gives us a special rate. 5000 dram per night (about $15).

The place is very clean and there is 24/7 hot water in the showers. The rooms each have 2 bunk beds, a 4-unit locker and nothing else. They give you sheets when you register. You make your own bed. I don’t think you get a whole lot of choice of roommate, tho they try to keep PC vols together. Since I was there in the middle of a week, the place was not full at all. I had one roomie, an older vol whom I’ve wanted to get to know for awhile. It was a nice experience. Because she has already been here a year, she helped orient me to the place. One shower each for men and women. I’m sure it’s a zoo when the place is full (usually when there is a big PC event going on) but this time I had no problem getting to the bathroom and shower when I wanted. If you want a towel, its 500 dr. extra and worth it. The employees are very nice and very helpful, not always true in Armenian service establishments.

The bus trip was 7 hours as advertised, not counting the 45 minutes I spent at the station waiting for the marshutni to fill. Marshutnis here don’t depart on a set schedule. They take off when every seat is occupied. Interesting concept – based on pleasing the operators with little regard for the convenience of customers. Can you imagine the riots if busses in the US started this practice?

We stopped at a “rest stop” for about 20 min in the middle of the trip. The trip goes thru country which looks very much like the Arizona/Utah mountains. 49 switchbacks going and coming. Up the mountain. Down the mountain. Repeat. The pics in drop shots are not a good representation as I took them while the marshutni was moving and it was very bumpy.

I stayed with another volunteer – my age again – in her very nice apartment on the 8th level on a big complex (no elevators). We went to an Armenian dinner party one night and fixed Indian food for other vols the next night. Penny (the vol I stayed with) has a beautiful cat, still a kitten. She is taking it home w/ her. It made me realize how long I have been pet-free. I don’t like that state. I may not be able to resist acquiring a pet when I have my own place.

Speaking of which, no real news on that front. My lead candidate is still the overly expensive one that is very convenient. It is small so that means it will be cozy. If I can get my program manager from the PC to come up here and convince the landlady to reduce her price, I don’t mind paying a modest premium on top of the PC allowance. And it needs to be modest or it will cause trouble for future volunteers. An alternative is staying at Emma’s and working out a different arrangement for food and entertaining.

I miss cooking. Last week I practically begged a vol I was working with to let me cook dinner for him at his place. By the time we ate, there were 4 of us and plain ol roasted chicken tasted just fine. Tomorrow I have a few vols coming over. I found lettuce in the shooka today and am making pasta puttanesca and Caesar salad. Emma and entourage will be dining elsewhere tomorrow so I have the run of the kitchen.

Starting Friday, I’m attending All-Vol, a PC conference, the title of which explains everything. All 80+ of us will be there. Several agenda items, including an all day language camp and a development day that gives us the opportunity to meet and exchange cards with most of the big development orgs in the country. Good networking. The big event is a Thanksgiving dinner on Sunday for us and the PC staff. I’m tapped to make cornbread stuffing so will be spending lots of time in the hotel kitchen. This is held in a Yerevan hotel – another multiple roommate “opportunity”. Should be fun. One night will include dinner at the country director’s house. She is hosting 3 separate dinners in order to accommodate all of us – Indian, Italian and Mexican nights. I’ve signed up for Indian night. On another night some of us over 50s are going to the only sushi restaurant in Armenia. Fingers crossed. I’m thankful for my hard to upset stomach. It may get put to the test.

One of the Gyumri vols is in Yerevan right now buying an ersatz washing machine – not one like we know. This one is sort of manual with some kind of power-boosted wringer. We still have to hang the clothes up, but at least there can be a little better agitation than rubbing the clothes by hand. 4 of us are splitting the cost. We think it will cost about 40,000 dram, ($120 more or less). I’ll definitely have to post pics of this operation.

Readers, I love to hear from you. Let me know what you would like to know or see.

Dear Readers,

Rather than torture myself more with trying to upload pics in the near future, I've put lots of Armenia pics at www.dropshots.com/elizpou. There are even a couple of videos of the grandchildren dancing to Elvis. There is also a video of the lavash making process in September. The bulk of the pics are in October. Please let me know if you have any problems finding the pics above or navigating that website. It should be a piece of cake.

Halloween party update. It was cold and raining that evening and I decided I would much rather wash my hair than go to a party. I guess my age is showing.

PS for those who want to email me, use my gmail address (elizpou@gmail.com). AOL continues to be less than friendly. Sometimes attachments dont open. Sometimes the mail itself won't open.

Elizabeth

I have several more pictures to upload but blogger is behaving badly. I've been trying to upload this blog update for about 7 days now. All of a sudden, I was able to put pics on and just as suddenly, the uploader stopped working. It has disappeared this post already one time when I tried to publish. I think I'll publish what I have now and send the rest of the pics another day.

Tonite is Halloween and I'm going to a party at one of the other vol's house. I'm going as a gyumri tateek (grandmother). I borrowed a navy blue and white print dress from Emma. This dress or one like it is worn by most older women in Gyumri. I don't know why. Maybe a pic of me in costume will be forthcoming.

October 22, 2007

The fall weather in Gyumri has been beautiful, those crisp autumn days we all love, almost no rain during the last few weeks. Cold mornings and nights, warm days. Confusing clothing choices. A box with two sweaters arrived last week, just in the nick of time. It also included a jigsaw puzzle. What a great treat it has become. It happens that Albert, my 70+ year old host “father” is a bit of a jigsaw nut and the 10 year old granddaughter, Armine, is quite good at matching pieces. I’ve learned the Russian work for “perfect”. If any of you readers have an extra jigsaw puzzle you don’t mind donating to Armenia, I’d love to have it.

:ast week I conducted a focus group in a village near Gyumri.

What follows are several thousand words of pictures:

Here’s the approach to the village. Yes, it had snowed about 3” the night before (not in town).

Here’s the group of villagers I met with. The man in the leather jacket on the end is the mayor.

Cow traffic jam. I love getting caught in one of these.

Scene leaving the village. The black things are cows.

I'm sorry you are not going to get to see the rest of the pics. I'll try blogger again in a few days and see if it is more cooperative.