CHRISTMAS WEEKEND IN TSAGHKADZOR

Tsaghkadzor is an old Russian ski/athletic/olympic training resort town in Armenia. It is about ten minutes north of Hrazdan via taxi up in the mountains. Fourteen Peace Corps volunteers joined me there for the weekend after American Christmas. Armenian Christmas is celebrated January 6th.  We stayed at The Writers' Hotel. It is an old Russian hotel where writers would congregate and/or spend solitary time to write.  My friend Susan Spano and I were the only 'older' volunteers, both of us being over 60. The rest were 'the kids' as we call them. .. the 20 somethings. We had a Christmas dinner together at the hotel on Saturday evening and a gift exchange.

The Writers' Hotel front view. For whatever reasons we

could not figure out, the entrance is in the back.

 

Sculpture - I believe of the Russian writer/poet Pushkin,

Armenian writer Charens, but not sure.

 

Looking out the back of the hotel. Relief work of about

20 Russian writers embedded in the surrounding enclosure walls.

 

Sculpture in the front of the hotel.

 

Kecharis Monastary in Tsaghkadzor from

seventh century.  There are regular Aremanian

Apolistic services here on Sundays, memorial candle lighting

places inside the chapels and weddings take

place here frequently.  One never walks out of a chapel

with their back to the alter, so we  always walk out 

of the doors backwards facing the alter.

 

Another view of Kecharis Monastary..

 

Susan in front of the Obelli brothers sculptures. They

were famous Russian/Armenian intellectuals:   scientist, writer

and medical doctor. There is a museum in Tsaghkadzor

which we visited with their writings, medical instruments,

photos etc... and furniture. They had a home in Tsaghkadzor.

 

Me at our favorite café in Tsaghkadzor at the Kecharis Hotel.

There one can get an Americano, espresso, a latte and almost a real

western/American breakfast of an omlette (the omlette comes

 on top of a piece of lavash - traditional Armenian flatbread) or waffles :-)  Yay!!! 

 

 

Me and a stray cat at the ski lift restaurant area in

Tsaghkadzor.  There are few if any indoor pets

outside of Yerevan and stray animals just

 fend for themselves. Dogs, cats, puppies, kittens

are in the streets. I take any extra food from my home

 to them every day.

 

Christmas never really did feel like real Christmas here. But, I received so many cards, and the packages are still coming in the mail.  Each one has meant so much to me and makes me feel close to home. Actual Christmas day I went to school as it was not a holiday here. We had Christmas carnivals in school and I played jingle bells on my violin many many times while the kids sang it in Armenian.  I do have a string of white lights and some Christmas ornaments hanging in my room. My sister Kathleen sent me candles for my windows that came two days ago.  I have virtually the only Christmas decorated windows in these thousands of apartments in Hrazdan. Ruzan tells me they all know it is the Amercan's apartment windows with the white lights and candles. There is a Christmas tree and other decorations in the downtown area and tonight they will have a New Years Eve celebration there at midnight....

 

 

The above represents solely my own thoughts and opinions and in no way represents the United States government or Peace Corps.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



AT HOME IN HRAZDAN ARMENIA

So, what is life like at home in Hrazdan Armenia?  I will give you a picture journey of my life here.

I live in a 'host family' home/apartment in Hrazdan.  Living with me is Ruzan and her mother Anahite. Ruzan is 27, a university graduate and teaches English to students and Peace Corps volunteers. She was one of our Pre Service Training Armenian language teachers and was what we call a Language Cultural Facilitator. She was not mine specifically, but I knew her and she was with all of us every Central Day in training.  Her mother, Anahite is 56. Her husband died about 15 years ago.  Anahite speaks very little English so we communicate in Armenian and look words up in the dictionary and/or Ruzan can translate if she is home.
                                                                             

Anahite and Ruzan  . .

                           

Hrazdan is a city of 53,000 people.  However, there are no public restaurants or cafes here.  People just do not have the money to eat out. Most of the people live in Soviet era built apartments of 35 to 40 years ago. The apartments were built to house the workers at the cement and power plants here in the city. If one was a good worker, they were given an apartment.  That is how my host family got their apartment. Anahite is a pharmacist and still works seven days a week, eight hours a day.. Yes, I mean seven days a week. If she wants a day off  or part of a day off for a special something she must request it.



This is the outside doorway to my apartment building.

My building . . . .. I am on the seventh floor.

                                                                             

This is the apartment building across from mine.
Notice the clothes hanging outside. There are no
clothes dryers and not everyone has a washing machine.

 

The outside of the apartments and the hallways and stairways are not kept up well but the inside of my apartment is lovely with decorated ceilings and lovely Armenian rugs. 

                                                                               

Our tiny Kitchen. We eat meals at the little table

but there is a dining table in the living room that

we used for Thanksgiving.

 

Our living room on Thanksgiving Day

with Peace Corps volunteers having dinner . . .

 

The kids as I call them - young Peace Corps volunteers

all snuggled up on my bed after Thanksgiving dinner . . .

Andrea, Hannah, Bryan and Stacey.  They are all in their

early 20s.

 

Desk area in my room . ...

 

This is the little grocery store next to my doorway.

There are these little khanutes as we call them. 

 They are everywhere. They sell basic food staples

and sundries for everyday living . . . some clothing

and always cheap slippers. No-one EVER wears shoes

in the house.

 

This is the sculpture/monument in the town square of the section

of Hrazdan where I live called Ricom. Beautiful sculpture abounds in every

corner of Armenia. More to come on that.

 

Incredibly beautiful sculpture of a woman

out in Hrazdan Lake. I will send a close-up

of her in the next blog. She is absolutely

 beautiful and ethereal.

 

Shooka/outside market around the corner from my

apartment building.

 

 

Shooka woman . . . .

 

 

This is the meat section of the shooka (outdoor

market) around the corner from my building. These

shookas are everywhere in every city,

town and village on every corner.

 

This is the man that owns the meat section of the shooka.

 

This is the outside of my school. Notice the old Russian

car. It is the only car ever parked there as there is only

one teacher that owns a car. This school was built in the Soviet

era. There are no working lights in the entire building.

 

This is the 6th grade classroom.  The only supplies for

the children are their books and a copy book for writing.

Please send me small/medium sized stickers that I put

in their copy books for homework done. They love them and

get so excited just to get a little sticker. Homework has increased by

50 percent in some classrooms with my stickers...

 

This is a hallway.  The schools are kept very clean

inside and have many cleaning ladies around.

 

This is a students' display of Christmas things made

from totally recycled things.  However, there is no

recycling in Armenia that I have seen or experienced.

  

This is my counterpart teacher. She speaks Armenian

and English. Her name is Karine. She is 54 years old and

has been a teacher for 30 years.  She speaks English very well.

 

I teach four days a week with Karine for 4-5 classes each day grades three through eight.  I am beginning to focus more on music with my fiddle/violin and kamanche.  I  like to go to music classes with the music teacher, Hasmik.  She cannot speak a word of English but we communicate through music. She is a pianist and a teacher.  I am still a very novice English teacher and the  music comes so much easier and more naturally for me. We sing, dance and I teach the kids songs in English - this week Twinkle Twinkle Little Star for the first graders. I will accompany them on the kamanche so I can sing with them and play at the same time.

 

Disclaimer:  The above in no way reflects or represents the opinions of the Peace Corps or United States Government and is solely my own writing and reflections.

 

 



 



 

 

 

PRE-SERVICE TRAINING (PST) COMPLETED !!!!

      We left Washington DC on August 26th after our first day of training on the afternoon of August 25th.

Me at the airport in DC with all of my

PC luggage.  Some volunteers took luggage

in their bags for those who were over weight (in luggage).

I was OK. My daughter Katy helped me pack and weigh

everything in Boston the day before we left :-)

 

Early morning at 5:30 a.m., sunrise in Yerevan on

August 28th in Zvartnots VII Century Temple.  I am

the second on the left in the first row. I played my violin/fiddle

here for the first time in Armenia at sunrise as we explored this

archeological site.

 

     Our pre-service training is now completed.  It started on the day of our arrival, August 28th and ended on November 18th with a ceremony in Yerevan, the capital of Armenia.  The training was long and arduous.  It was eight hours a day and six days a week, Monday through Saturday. 

     We spent the first four days after arrival at a post-Soviet resort just north of Yerevan.  Here we had basically semi western accommodations.  Resort meaning a small hotel room and a cafeteria style place to eat. The food was western/Armenian.  We were all so exhausted after the two days of travel with no sleep and had trouble staying awake through all of the training sessions there which were eight hours a day. We were placed in small clusters of five to seven which we would remain in for the duration of training for our language and cultural training.  Twenty-five of us are TEFL/Teaching English as a Foreign Language volunteers and thirteen of us are CYD/Community Youth Development volunteers.

     After the four days at the resort we moved to our host family homes near Artashot Armenia where we would stay for the next eleven weeks. My village was called Berkanush.
My host family was with an artistic musical family. Arev (54) and Surik (58) and their remaining daughter at home - Mariam (22).  Arev has been a stay at home mom but is a pharmacist, Surik a sculptor and artist and Mariam a law student at Yerevan University.

Outside kitchen in back of house where all cooking

is done April through mid November.

   

View of back yard, garden, fruit trees and old wine

cask which was used to store wine in years gone by.

 

Canning tomatoes outside over gas burner.  Can

see laundry hanging.  No clothes driers in Armenia.

 

Arev with canned vegetables for winter.

This is an Armenian tradition.  She canned

seemed hundreds of jars.

 

Mariam and Arev at the metro in Yerevan

on our first trip to Yerevan together.

 

Surik at work in back of house. He makes

signs for most of the stores in Artashat, sculpts

grave stones and sculptures for the town. He also

plays jazz trumpet and loves Louis Armstrong.

 

Family dinner at Arev and Surik's daughter and

son-in-law's home in Yerevan.  I am holding the

new German Shepard puppy standing between Mariam

and Arev.

 

PC took us on field trips during our training. This is

the temple at Garni built in I A.D.

 

This is Geghard Monastery IV-XIII Centuries A.D.

 

Our language classroom in the Mayor's House or

town hall.  Hasmik is our teacher. She teaches at

a university in Yerevan when not at PST with us. 

studied four hours a day, six days a week for 12 weeks.

Looks like kindergarten, doesn't it?  We now have the

language of 3 year olds  . . ..

 

Friday nights all summer in Yerevan there is

Armenian folk dancing in Republic Square at

the fountains. PC took us one night and we all

danced with the Armenian young people. It was

magical.

 

This is site announcement day when we heard where

we would be placed in Armenia. I am on the far left

with the blue jacket around my waist. However, I am not

going to that village. I am now in the city of Hrazdan in

the middle of Armenia.

 

We had an American baby shower for Satanik, our other

language instructor.  She is in the pink scarf.  Normally

here there is no celebration until 40 days after a baby's

birth so this shower at 8 months pregnant was very

unusual for the Armenian PC staff.  Two other volunteers

in this picture with me.

 

Me on last day with host family in Berkanush

out back with our cat Maggie. I believe I am

the first person to ever hold Maggie. Pets here are

only outside and not a part of the family like our pets.

I loved Maggie. Maggie is a he, five years old and not

neutered. But he is oh so loving and loved being held

and petted.  I miss him.

 

Arev and Surik at my swearing-in

ceremony in Yerevan.  We all became

a family.  I will visit them often as they

are only about 70 miles away.  Christmas

and birthdays are coming up . . . .

 

 

     And so I made it through PST. Some volunteers say it is the most difficult time of PC service.  I can now speak enough Armenian to make myself understood wherever I go.  I know the cultural norms.  I know our safety and security plan . . .  we had a consolidation drill.  I have had my share of GI upset, fear, loneliness and thoughts of returning home to the United States.  But, I am still here and starting now in Hrazdan on my real Peace Corps service teaching English in School # 14 in Hrazdan, grades 3-8. 

 

     As instructed by PC I must conclude with:  The above is solely the thoughts and opinions of Lorrie Wilkes and in no way represents the Peace Corps or United States Government.

 

 

     

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



 

 

 

      

ON THE WAY TO ARMENIA

     I am backing up a bit as I did not in the previous post have pictures downloaded from my camera.  After spending one night in a hotel in Washington DC my Peace Corps group flew to Vienna Austria. We had a twelve hour layover there after arriving at 8:00 a.m. Austria time. It was an exhausting overnight flight where I sat next to a group of Russian children, ages 10-13 or close thereto, who played video games all night and thus I had no sleep.  But, upon arriving in Vienna Ian was there to meet me at the airport.  We spent a most wonderful day together. 

Ian and me in Vienna.  It was very cold that day and I am wearing Ian's scarf.

     This is my very first trip across the ocean to Europe or anywhere outside of the United States so it was a momentous occasion for me. We walked for miles, took a bus tour of the city and visited a few beautiful cathedrals. 

A market place in Vienna

 

Cathedral in Vienna

 

     I had to be back at the airport at about 7 p.m. and I was exhausted. We went to my hotel room in Vienna, slept showered and went to the airport for dinner.  Ian left me there and took an overnight train back to Berlin.  It was hard to leave him. I hadn't seen him since Christmas.

 

 

Evening in the airport getting dinner - Vienna

 

     It was a three hour flight to Yerevan from Vienna. We would arrive about 3 a.m.