February 20, 2013

I got my Valentine’s Day gift today! KooKoo, my bunny! Now I didn’t realize that “kookoo” could mean “crazy” til after I turned my “Armenian brain” off and turned my “English brain” on, but I swear it’s a cute name for Armenians.

I was eating corn while my student was describing the bunny to me via Facebook and he kept telling me the bunny was yellow, and as I was eating corn, aka “koo-koo-roos” in Armenian, VOILA! “KooKoo” it was to be named! Cute, right? … ?

KooKoo’s Tale

Day 1.

Hey, kiddo! Welcome to your new family! ~ KooKoo came with an older friend, Lulu, but I just didn’t have enough space and time to take care of the both of them. But they both had a blast with my COAF (Children of Armenia Foundation) class and our lesson for the day was about animals and how awesome they are :) :) :)

Look at how many friends KooKoo came with! Thanks Narek for KooKoo and thanks Argishti for bringing LuLu for the day so KooKoo wasn’t lonely.

I bring KooKoo home in a shoebox with one of my old skirts for comfort and without any hesitation he starts to chow down on the greens I brought for him. He’s a little piggy! Eats any chance he gets haha.

My host sisters first time actually holding a bunny. Props for her courage! She was scared KooKoo would pee or poo on her, but good thing there were no accidents there! BUT, an hour later our cousin Minas comes over and takes a liking towards KooKoo, picks him up and puts him on his lap… it took one second, “PISSSSS” right on his lap! We all told him it was good luck, which apparently Armenians really do believe, and I told him that it was because KooKoo especially liked him.

KooKoo sprawls out his legs on my belly and we take a nap together next to the wood (sheep poop) burner where it’s warm. Later that night I let him sleep in his box in my room and man was it a tough night! I woke up to thumbs and skitter-skatter at 2am, 4am, 5am, and 6am… it was like having a new puppy at home! I kept waking up thinking he somehow jumped out of his box and was jumping about everywhere. End of Day One.

Day 2.

KooKoo meets two more of his cousins, Manya and Marine! Just like everyone else who had seen him the other day, they’ve never seen a rabbit like him before, with his color and eyes and ear size… he’s a special one. A real special rabbit. They all say he’s probably from the wild and different from the usual ones bred at home. He’s my little gift from God cause He knew I needed something fluffy to keep me company and that with all this unfriendliness towards animals I’ve been witnessing lately, a sweet harmless bunny could help me somehow display love and affection towards animals and help that practice spread to my neighbors and community.

KooKoo gets a free box! I asked the market lady if she had a box to spare and she asked me what it was for, “what’s it for? You going to store clothes in it or something?” Sure, that would’ve been a normal response. Nothing new. But then I go and give her a shocker, I whisper, “no, it’s for my new bunny.” Let me tell you, this is so much more hilarious if you knew their culture and if you heard this conversation in Armenian! Haha. She looks at me with huge eyes and just smiles and giggles.

An hour later, we go back to the store and I ask her for the biggest diapers she has. She says, “for the bunny?!” with the strangest look on her face… “yup, for my bunny.” She pulls out these huge granny diapers, 300 drams a piece, my host sister looks at the size of these diapers and says, “what kind of baby wears this big of a diaper?!” She was dead serious. HAHAHAHA. We all had a good laugh then left. On our way home my host sister tells me that the people in the store thought it strange I was spending money for an animal because you would never “waste” money on an animal in the villages. I hadn’t realized! But COOL, I made someone in my village think about me and my actions towards caring for this animal. Let others think I’m strange for caring so much about a bunny, if it’ll make them notice and think about how much love I have for a “useless” animal… hey, at least it’ll make them think.

House made! Sign up. Umbrella up. Water bowl, tunnel tubes, bed, pee pad, and cuddly companion!

KooKoo pees on his diaper! TWICE! But I don’t know if that’s just coincidence or I got a one-of-a-kind bunny that’s complete genius.

He got his first slice of apple today and absolutely loved it. Devoured it.

I get peed on when I was trying to comfort KooKoo after my host sister gave him a scare… and man does rabbit pee smell awful!

IT’S A BOY! KooKoo’s a boy! It’s official! I kept saying “he/his/him” without actually knowing if he was a he or a she, but today my host grandfather took a long look and concluded KooKoo was indeed a boy.

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February 15, 2013:  I say Football now!

My host brother made it to a football/soccer league in Yerevan! That’s a big deal here. Once you get into one of these type of teams you can eventually be recruited into an actual team like Barcelona or Real Madrid (which are the top 2 famous teams here in Armenia). For many Armenian boys here, becoming a soccer player is like a dream, a way out of their villages, a way to the top and the riches… their “ticket out.” Reminds me of the movie “Hoop Dreams” where many African-Americans look towards basketball as their one-way ticket to riches and fame and a life outside of where they’re from. My host brother lived and breathed soccer… it was all he could think about day and night: school, soccer practice, soccer with friends, home, soccer game on the computer, YouTube clips of soccer, Facebook pictures of famous soccer players, and then a soccer game on TV. If there was extra time in-between somewhere he would kick a ball around in his room.

Now that he’s on this team he has to go out to the capital city every day after school for practice. Yerevan City is a two hour drive out from our village.

2 hours there + 2 hour practice + 2 hours back = SACRIFICE.

Boys from villages out of the capital city really have to change their whole lifestyle. Families have to figure out how to get their sons out of the village and into the city in order to not waste time and money going back and forth every day. There’s no way the whole family can pick-up-and-go because of family ties in the villages and/or farms, and especially the high-expenses of living in the capital so instead the boys have to move out on their own, live with an extended family member who’s willing to help out or somehow rent a room, if they can afford it… it’s a big move for these small village families, but it’s a move they’re willing to make for the smallest chance that their son will make it to a Barcelona or become a Christiano Ronaldo (or David Beckham for those who don’t know the first).

I realized this type of chance seems a lot more plausible to these families than the chance of education being able to take them high places. Not to say everyone is this way, but even from a cultural view the difference is so apparent. Growing up all I could think of was school, homework, test, school, homework, test, and then a project here and there. This was what everyone was doing, there was competition in school, and we had to get our A+. Again, like I said, not everyone is this way in America, but there’s a huge difference of what is “norm” or “expected” in America and in Armenia.

America: Go to school, listen to your teacher, get good grades, pass your exams, do your homework, read “To Kill A Mockingbird” for English class, and make your Solar System for science.

Armenia: Go to school, listen to your teacher, grades don’t matter cause you’ll pass the class anyway, bad grades reflect worse on the teacher than on the students, no real exams, homework is more or less optional, go home and help the family on the farm.

Now don’t go thinking it’s all like this, but can you see the difference?