The Close of Pre-Service Training

Two of my host sisters at our brother-in-law's birthday dinner

The view at Lake Sevan makes me miss the San Diego beaches.

one of the church compounds at Lake Sevan

so captivating...this reminds me of Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea 

this is the famous 800 year old walnut tree.
people are suppose to crawl through it three times to make
their wish come true

Inside the 800 year old wishing tree

Honey baby Joy Jan making pancakes for Sunday Brunch!

My contribution towards this meal was my baking powder
and chocolate peanut butter I brought from home!

My host nephew's invention...kick bowling with water bottles.

This kid is amazing...he took me to the fields filled with  sunflowers and a cool stream.
 If I ever had a kid...it would be this one...
picking flowers and playing royalty with wreaths we make from vines and etc.

Ms. Phi! And yes...I drew these abysmal drawings for action verbs

Celebrating the end of our language assessment and portfolio presentations at the fish restaurant

Happy Birthday Debra. Prime number, prime year!!

I love the abundance of fruits during the summer time.

Learning culinary vocabulary in our language class!

Our astronomy lesson for Model School

Body parts

Hard at work video editing at the news station

Armenia News Anchor PHOEBE CHONGCHUA!!

One of our classes for model school...isn't our class nice and fancy?

Givor hard at work preparing the chicken horovats

Somethings are just universal...the men are responsible for the grilling here in Armenia too.

Local musician at Lake Sevan

Month two down. 25 months to go.

This room has crazy acoustics

Geghard

I love you Mother Earth

Armene before going out :) 

Where to begin? Maybe I’ll start with some of my favorite Armenian words. The verb to play is an all time favorite. The transliteration is KHHAGHAL. The Kh- and Gh- sounds come from the back of your throat. Why it is my favorite is self explanatory if you tried to say it. My affinity for the word bag (PAYOOSACK) has grown exponentially. It would randomly pop into my head at odd times, such as when I’m brushing my teeth in the morning. I think it is the way I emphasize the P and S that makes it particularly ridiculous. Lately the word SKEEZEBEATS AND SKEEZEBOOM has climbed the charts in popularity. They mean from the beginning/at the beginning of time. I’m an oddball, I know.

                Summer has been in full swing in Armenia. Folks are preparing for the winter by jarring fruits, making jam, drying apricots, stocking up in bales of hay for the animals, and so on. I helped my host mom pick what seemed like thousands of cherries from our garden. We then went though them taking the stems off. Wash the cherries a few times, and we took the pits out with bobby pins. The cherries are then cooked with an obscene amount of sugar. Voila, jam is made and preserved.

                I became somewhat restless with our routine…so I asked my host sister to take a serendipitous trip with me to Yerevan. It was wonderful to wander the streets, eat, drink, relish the sights, and people watch. As we were riding the bus back to our village at the end of the day, and the sun was setting over the picturesque horizon, a wave of emotions came crashing down on me. This is going to be my home for the next two years. Fear and excitement of the unknown is the perfect combination to satiate my desires for adventure, personal, and professional growth. How did I get this lucky to have this life-changing opportunity? Shits is cray cray.

                We are lucky to have a few restaurants in Akunq. One of which is this fancy fish restaurant. Two other volunteers and I had dinner there. The fish was so fresh. Awesome company, conversation, food, drinks, and location I could not have asked for more. I need to come back again. Writing about the fish is making me hungry.

                The weather is extremely different from that of San Diego’s. One minute it’s cool and balmy and the next thing you know thunder is heard in the background shortly followed by pouring rain. One of my favorite memories is when we were sitting in a café and the wind picks up. I think I was smacked in the face several times by some tree limbs on my way to the water closet due to the raging wind. I ran outside to the road to get a better view. And because of the wind storm the clouds blown in were magnificent with the sun in the backdrop. I got carried away taking a buttload of photos. In the moment, I felt so liberated and exhilarated. I guess it doesn’t take much for me to get excited and happy J

                On July 14^th, we had a cultural field trip through the Peace Corps. We went to the Temple of Garni and Church of Geghard. It’s mind boggling how old these monuments are. It makes me wonder about its own story, the people that have been through there and their own stories about their lives. Armenia is saturated with history. I can’t wait to learn more in our cross-cultural sessions.

                The 15^th was a holiday called Vardavar. This is the holiday where people throw water on each other all day long. It was a pagan holiday, but ever since Christianity was adopted on the national level, the holiday has morphed. From what I’ve gathered, people throw water on each other to wish prosperity and other good intentions. My sister threw some on me while I was having lunch…I thought I was safe from the douse because I was inside of the house, sitting on their sofa…oh how I was wrong.

                My friend Terrance I and are team teaching together for model school for the next two weeks. We make a fabulous team. The first two days went really well. We got constructive criticism for our next classes. I am enjoying teaching more than I’ve expected. I have so much fun with it.

                I know I’ve been rambling…so I should end this soon. I am learning to appreciate family so much more now…having observed the family dynamic here. It’s beautiful. Having grown up in a broken home…I’m getting more excited to mend current relationships and at the thought of having my own family somewhere down the road.

                I’ve volunteered to sing with the choir for the Swearing-In Ceremony. It’s an Armenian hymn. I miss singing so this is going to be a wonderful opportunity. I’ll keep y’all posted soon enough. Miss everyone back at home.

Cheers,

Phi

P.S….. Guess What? ;)

Week 5 of 116

“The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenges and controversy.” Martin Luther King, Jr.

This last week has felt like a month in itself. We had our community project on Sunday. We interacted with the children in our training villages and towards the end we were able to give small gifts and prizes to the children. It was a glorious success. Thanks for everyone’s participation! Monday, I found out my permanent site for the next 2 years. I’ll be in the Armavir Region in a village called Karakert. It is West central of Armenia (supposedly, we can see parts of Turkey from our village). Tuesday and Wednesday we had mock language interviews. At the end of training we have a language assessment and this determines our status as volunteers. Thursday and Friday we attended our Counterpart Conference. This was an interesting experience. Apparently, Armenians are do not hesitate to answer their phones during these sessions and workshops. Furthermore, they would have these ridiculously loud ringtones. My counterpart is pretty young. She is 32 years old and has one son who is 11 years old. She’s been teaching for 12 years or so. Then for Saturday, Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday, we visited our new villages. I am so incredibly blessed to have a current peace corps volunteer at my site. Our village is pretty big, population size is approximately 5,000 ppl, but these are all estimations. We have two schools. One is being renovated this summer by COAF and the other was renovated a few years ago. I’m really excited to have a relatively new school. Also, we have a community center. I really want to have a foreign film club with community members…but we will have to see what the community wants to have first. My new host family is very young. My host mom is 26 years old. We have a one and three year old girls. We have an outhouse near the garden. Water is scarce in Karakert. Drinking water is delivered on a big truck daily. Water for around the house use is stored in huge containers..but I noticed that my host family is very careful about the amount of water they use. The family owns an apricot orchard and I took advantaged of this and ate so many apricots! Yum. Going back to Akunk, I am determined to make the best out of the time we have left here. A few of the volunteers and language teachers are going out to a local restaurant in the village to celebrate America’s Independence Day today. I miss all of you at home. Remember to send me letters! My address is on the right! I’ve gots to go to practice some yoga. Toodles for now!

<3

Phi Fi Fo Fum