But I'm here because I have a few (although insignificant) things to say. The first is that, yesterday marked my 3rd day in country. This is hard to believe on many levels. Most days it feels like I have been here 10 years! But on others it feels like I've been here 3 weeks. Never does it actually feel like the real time. So... 3 months it is. Below are the highlights of the past 3 months!
I say "I hope I never get serious about quitting" because I think about quitting non-seriously all the time. Sometimes it is because I'm getting attacked by gigantic bugs every minute of every day, sometimes its because its 90 degrees and there is no air conditioning, and sometimes it is because being pointed at and stared at really sucks sometimes! But those moments are fleeting. I'm actually getting used to the bugs. I have 2 spiders in my windowsill that help with this. Their names are Clarice and Ronald and they keep my room relatively bug free. (This may be a sign I'm passing into the crazy side of Peace Corps Service) The weather can't last forever and it gave me an excuse to buy a ridiculously expensive but beautiful fan. Ladies, nothing makes you feel more ladylike than a hand held fan! (As Lissa so hilariously demonstrates below)
Also when I was downtown I got flagged down by one of the store owners. They often do this just to chat. They'll ask me why I am here, who I am, ect. This store owner, I had never talked to before so I walked in prepared to give the whole "My name is Emily, I am a Peace Corps Volunteer. I work here and will live here for 2 years" speech but instead she leads me to one of the isles and asks me to get something for her off a top shelf. I'm at least 7-9 inches taller than the average Armenian and have only met 1 man so far that was even close to my height. My host mom is considered tall here and she only comes up to my ear lobes. Its an odd feeling being a giant...
Speaking of my host mom, all is well at home. I'm having so much fun with them and every day we laugh uncontrollably about random things. Today it was an " I told you so" speech. She told me yesterday that if I didn't wear my slippers, I'd get sick. Did I wear the slippers? No. Did I get sick? Yes. A few days ago it was a conversation over dinner. Every meal I tell them what we are eating and we practice sentences like "We are eating watermelon" and "I am drinking coffee. I like coffee." It is simple but we both love it and the kids are learning so fast! They're very quick to tell ME that I am not pronouncing English words properly! (And they're right!"
Well a few days ago we were eating Green Beans and Eggs, a staple here in Armenia. So I told them that we were eating beans that are green with eggs. We had done eggs before and had recently gone over colors so they kept playing with the word bean. Bean. Bean. Bean. Bean. They kept saying it until my mom started laughing. She pointed to the plate and said "Bean?? Really?" Yes.... Then she said something very quickly to Carin and they all started laughing. I asked what was so funny about beans and my host dad began to explain... "We like a TV show called Mr. Bean..."
One things I've noticed during my time here is that I certainly have an agenda but there is a right and wrong way to push it. One things that is really difficult to take here is the place of women. I can't do anything about it, but sometimes opportunities present themselves to plant seeds of "It doesn't have to be like this." I was invited to a dinner party on Friday and one of the girls was talking about her boyfriend and how he doesn't like how he bosses her around and doesn't let her do things. She asked me what I thought and despite knowing exactly what I thought of him I just said,
"Well do you like the way things are?"
"Not really. I don't like him telling me what I can and cannot do"
"Why are you with him?"
"I don't know. Are men in America like that?"
"Some of them are. But what they want is just as important as what we want."
"Really? How does that work?"
"Well, my boyfriend didn't want me to come here and he told me that he didn't want me to go. But I wanted to and it was important to me. So I listened to him and his concerns and tried to be sensitive to his wishes but he couldn't stop me from coming. What I want is important too."
She took a long breath and said, "Huh."
I never told her what to do. Or what was right or wrong. I let her lead the conversation and ask the questions. Because it was non-confrontational, she listened. Hopefully she really heard. I didn't realize what had happened until I was walking home but it made me happy. Some of that PST training stuck!
This upcoming weeks shows a lot of work (I'll talk more about what I actually do next week) and more travel planning. I've been trying to plan an Olympics trip to Russia in February and said numerous times that the stars would have to align for this to be possible. Well, it appears that the stars are indeed aligning and this trip may actually happen. The money will start being invested this week and hopefully we'll move full steam ahead!