Border 2 Border 2013 - Armenia

JUNE 2013



Hey guys! Sorry it's been so long since I've posted! School was ending, people were graduating, my parents from America came to visit, I was preparing for Border2Border Project 2013, and I've just been waiting for the perfect time to come and update properly! What is Border2Border? Well let me tell you! It took ALL of the month of June and I JUST returned TODAY after a month of not being home! Here's a little "quicky" about Border2Border...

• The Border2Border (“B2B”) is a project that couples local action with increased national awareness about children’s health and environmental friendliness. 
• In 20 days, two groups of six Peace Corps Volunteers walked the entire length of Armenia, one group leaving from the northern border with Georgia and the other from the southern border with Iran.

• Along the way, the B2B teams taught children and community members about simple but important lessons about health and environmental friendliness. We taught about Hygiene, Smoking, Alcohol, Respect, Environment, and Nutrition. Each hiker was assigned one topic and our jobs were to become EXPERTS on our topics, both in English and Armenian, in order to be able to answer any questions people may have and be detailed about what we would be teaching.
• After each group walked over 250 km, the groups met in a town towards the center of Armenia named Yeghegnadzor for a celebration!

The North Team, which is the team I was on, started from the Georgian border in a villaged named Dzoramut, and headed south towards Yeghegnadzor. The southern team started from the Iranian border and headed north. Three weeks later, we all met in the middle!

In detail, here's the northern team’s route:        

Day 1 – June 7: Kick-Off Teaching in Dzoramut + Dzoramut to Tashir (8.9 km)
Day 2 – June 8: Teaching Day in Tashir + Tashir to Stepanavan (16.2 km)
Day 3 – June 9: Teaching Day in Stepanavan + Stepanavan to Gyulagarak (10 km)
Day 4 – June 10: Gyulagarak to Vanadzor (25.5 km)
Day 5 – June 11: Teaching Day in Vanadzor (0 km)
Day 6 - June 12: Vanadzor to Margahovit (20.1 km)
Day 7 - June 13: Margahovit to Dilijan (17.1 km)
Day 8 - June 14: Teaching Day in Dilijan + Dilijan to Semyonovka (12.5 km)
Day 9 - June 15: Teaching Day in Semyonovka + Semyonovka to Tsovagyugh (5.2 km)
Day 10 - June 16: Teaching Day in Tsovagyugh + Tsovagyugh to Sevan (14 km)
Day 11 - June 17: Teaching Day in Sevan (0 km)
Day 12 - June 18: Rest Day in Sevan (0 km)
Day 13 - June 19: Sevan to Lchashen + Teaching Day in Lchashen (4.2 km)
Day 14 - June 20: Lchashen to Lchap (16.4 km)
Day 15 - June 21: Lchap to Gavar (16.2 km)
Day 16 - June 22: Teaching Day in Gavar + Gavar to Yeranos (17.1 km)
Day 17 - June 23: Yeranos to Verin Getashen (17.1 km)
Day 18 - June 24: Teaching Day in Verin Getashen + Getashen to Nshkhark (18.1 km)
Day 19 - June 25: Nshkhark to Shatin (30.7 km)
Day 20 – June 26: Shatin to Yeghegnadzor (12.7 km)
Day 21 – June 27: Final Teaching Day in Yeghegnadzor + Celebrations!

Total Distance = 276 km        Total Children Taught = 479

In Gavar we were able to coordinate with World Vision and had many kids show-up! It may have been gloomy and raining outside but we had a BLAST inside and no way could weather stop us!

During our 20 day journey I was appointed the Northern Border2Border Teams Ambassador! At first I was nominated as the “Field Reporter" because I was in charge of our team blog, but because of my above average skills at passing out brochures and promoting our Border2Border team and mission, I was officially named as Ambassador Andrea! Woohoo! 

VISIT OUR B2B BLOG! http://walkacrossarmenia.wordpress.com/

<--- Stopping at a gas station to get some water I was swamped by men asking about our group and what we were doing. Passed out brochures to all of them and explained as much as I could why we "crazy Americans" (as they would say) were walking half-way across Armenia!

Here's what I wrote for the B2B blog two weeks ago... thought I would share with you here how I felt and what I was experiencing during the project...

I can’t believe we are almost half-way in and yet I feel like we’ve only just begun. I’ve only gotten one blister, a little sunburnt, and a few bug-bites so far, but I imagined myself being so much more damaged than that by this point! Being on this trip has given me the opportunity to see Armenia on a whole different level and has made me realize that I HAVE TO BACKPACK MORE OFTEN! As a kid I never enjoyed camping or hiking and never really understood the beauty of nature, but now I can’t wait to go back home to my family and friends and explore all kinds of new places with them (and slightly show-off what I’ve learned on this trip as well, hehe)!  

 

But the best part of this journey is my team. The connections I’ve been making with my teammates and the way we work together has been so uplifting and encouraging. Coming into this I was a little nervous thinking I wouldn’t be as fit as the rest and that the 20-days might go by really slowly, but I was so wrong! First day in and we already had nick-names for each other, started picking at each other’s quirks, and teaching and learning from each other about everything, such as what to do when you’re bit by a snake or how to dig a poop-hole! I felt comfortable and knew that even if I were the one walking last in the back, they would never leave me alone and continuously encourage me to keep going.   

I have so much more to say but I’m just having so much fun that I don’t have time to write more for all of you! Until next time!

As you can see, I had an amazing team and it made all the difference. Here are some pictures of our adventure, the beauty, and the once-in-a-lifetime experience I was so lucky to be a part of...

Last day at home and on my way to meet the B2B North Team for our 20-day treck across Armenia! Thanks mom and dad for the awesome backpack that probably saved my life!

First day all together, first day all wearing our B2B shirts, first picture together, and ...

FIRST DAY WALKING!! Day 1 of 20.  Yay! B2B 2013 North Team!

(Left to Right: Adam, Jessica, David, Chris, Elisabeth, Me! Andrea)

What do you think? Is there a difference from Day 1 and Day 20 pictures? We definitely smell different! HAHA!

Last day of Border2Border! Sweaty, tired, excited, happy, exhausted, ahhhhhhh!!! ALL KINDS OF EMOTIONS! We ended as a team just as we started. Like a family we DID IT! YEE!! Day 20 of 20. B2B 2013 North Team finishes! LAST DAY OF WALKING.

My walking partner Liz and I trying to run away from the storm chasing us from behind. Look how green and gorgeous the hills are behind us!! And the sweet small village we're leaving.  

Lunches on the fields with horses, cows, sheep, and tons of ants! Haha. We were always happy with whatever  food we could find, wherever we could sit to eat, and in any weather that came our way!

This time we got stuck in the midst of a thunderstorm, once again! Couldn't run from it this time! But by then we were used to it and actually quite comfortable with wet socks and shoes, soaked underwear, and drenched hair!

Taking a little short-cut through the mountain rather than taking the road. Hot and thirsty but still doing great! Look at how GREEN everything is!

There were days where we had to hide in an abandoned house from the thunder & lightning and hail threatening us... 

There were other days where we challenged "Mother Armenia's Weather," made daisy crowns, and rolled around in the beautiful green hills all around us. 

My lesson was on SMOKING. How it's harmful for your health and the people around you. 

We had the children make flower planters out of plastic bottles in order to show them how they can be environmentally friendly and re-use every day normal things such as bottles. 

No matter what situation we were in during those 20 days, we found a way to make the best of it. For example you ask?!?! Such as this picture above... we were walking through a thunderstorm looking for a place to set-up camp, realized we needed to find somewhere safer to camp, found these old "domiks," Armenian word for "cabins," set-up tents inside these domiks because they were so dirty and filled with creepy-crawlies and possible mice, scavenged for some lavash, cheese, and veggies to eat, put some music on and rewarded ourselves with a jar of peanut butter we were carrying around for a day just like that, and BAM! we had a story we would tell for the REST OF OUR LIVES with smiles on our faces!

Catching-Up!!

APRIL

Armenia celebrates April Fool’s Day! I never really enjoyed this holiday back in America but for some reason I was all hyped-up to play tricks with my host brother and sister, and also see how they might do this day differently than from back at home. Well, do they??? NOPE! I guess people all around the world like to play similar types of tricks on each other HAHAHA I have no idea why I thought it’d be any different!

TRICKS PLAYED ON ME =

1. My host grandfather comes into the kitchen while I’m eating breakfast and tells me someone’s waiting for me outside. I quickly put my food down and walk out the front door… no one’s there, but I keep looking, went to the backyard, opened the garage, EVERYWHERE! Confused, I walk back inside and there’s my host grandfather sitting on the couch just laughing at me! I HAD NO IDEA! He says “I got you,” in Armenian and I honestly was confused for a good minute there. Mind you, this is early in the morning, I hadn’t realized it was April Fool’s Day yet, and on top of all of that… this is my host GRANDFATHER! Who would’ve thought he’d be playing a trick on me?!?! HAHA.
2. My host sister and I were sitting at the table; she was doing her homework while I was working on lesson plans. She sees my weekly schedule I had neatly written and organized, asks me if she can see it, and of course I say “ha” without even looking up... a minute later I notice her studying it really hard so I look up and as soon as she catches my eye, she rips the paper in one swift motion right in half! My eyes and jaw drop while she’s sitting there laughing ridiculously! Little did I realize she switched papers and my schedule was sitting neatly right on the table. I admit… SHE GOT ME GOOD!

TRICKS I PLAYED ON OTHERS =

1. When the whole family was in the living room watching TV like we do every night, I took a red pen and put a little color on my left hand as if I were bleeding. Sitting there calmly I would touch it and pretend as if it were sore and hurting. I knew someone would notice and say something without me making a big deal out of it. As I predicted, a minute later my host mother asks what’s wrong and notices the “blood.” I tell her while I was playing with the puppy outside, we got a little rough and he accidentally bit a little too hard. The whole family turns to me and tells me to go wash my hand, my host grandfather tells me that he told me to be careful, and my host sister runs to the cabin to find a band-aid… I stood up all happy and big-smile-faced and said “GOT YOU ALL!”
2. Unfortunately that was the only trick I did all day. It wasn’t the only one I attempted though! Haha. I’m pretty terrible at tricking others and I can’t ever lie with a straight face. So yes, that was the only successful trick I pulled all day haha.  

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My-New-Friend-Mary Story!

A two-hour bus ride early in the morning on an unpaved road is never really fun and I always look forward to listening to my music and reading a good book for those two hours cause it always seems like the perfect time to do so. So when the girl sitting next to me takes out her English book and it’s pretty apparent that she wants to speak with me, you can imagine the battle that was going on in my head… to say hi or not to say hi. After a good five-minutes, I come to the conclusion that I can’t disappoint this girl next to me, that maybe something cool will come from this, and that I have to get out of my comfort zone and do what I came to do here:

“HELLO, are you studying English?”

We ended up talking for an hour in fluent English, exchanged phone numbers, and promised to meet up for coffee next week! She even paid for my bus ride and said that I couldn’t refuse because she’s been waiting to meet me for the past 10 months and was just so happy to have finally met me. These… THESE are the kinds of things that make my service here so worth it. Can you imagine how I felt?!?! ONE, like a celebrity haha! TWO, like a dufus for even thinking that for a second I didn’t want to put my headphones and book down to talk with her. THREE, like WOW, I can’t believe this just happened and I can’t wait to become good friends with her. She’s a few years older than me, is an English tutor in my village, speaks fluent English, and is just the sweetest most calm and understanding person I’ve met here so far. YAY ME! I HAVE A NEW GIRLFRIEND! SO EXCITING!!!

She even came to the National Poetry Competition with me in Yerevan with my students and we had a blast! It was good to have her for support and she gave a lot of good advice to my students. We met one more time in the bus and talked for another hour, again! I’ll be going to her house for coffee this weekend and will meet her family. What a fancy little WONDERFUL friendship this will be! 

                                                                                                                                            So blessed.

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Regional Poetry Competition. Brought my students to their first poetry competition and even though only two of them advanced to the national competition, we all came back to my new apartment to celebrate! We made pizza and oatmeal raisin cookies together. They brought me a big teddy bear as a house-warming gift and the way they hid it from me and presented me with it was so heart-warming. It made my day and my smile bigger than it has ever been in a really long time. But you know what made all the hard work and preparing worth it all?? Yes, the teddy bear was awesome and the time we spent together in my apartment was BEYOND-WORDS-GREAT FUN, but the one thing that hit me hard was afterwards… I was walking my students back home and right before we parted ways, my eldest student, Lika tells me that today is a day she would never forget for the rest of her life and she’s so grateful. I can still picture where we were and how she told me. Now I won’t ever forget that day and that moment for the rest of my life.

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MARCH

First of all, I want to say THANKS FOR ALL THE COMPLIMENTS! I’ve been getting a lot of complaints in person, on Facebook, and in email that I haven’t been updating my blog lately… what a compliment! I’ve been so busy that I’ve been writing bullets and notes EVERYWHERE about things I have to write on my blog and I guess they’ve just been adding up and I haven’t had the time to just sit and get it all out there for you all. I promise I will be better about it! I appreciate all the encouragement and support from everyone here in Armenia and back home in America. I never considered myself as an interesting writer but I really do enjoy writing this blog and it brings me so much pleasure knowing others are reading it AND telling me to write more! Thanks again everyone. Truly appreciate it.

 

SOOOO since I’ve been terrible these past few months. I will write about ALL the highlights and update you all on all the great exciting FANTASTIC things that have been happening!

I made trashcans for my school in January because I started noticing all the wrappers and bottles everywhere inside and outside of the school. Finally realized that they are really being used and I’m going to have to make some more! COAF (Children of Armenia Foundation) donated 4 trash bins after I notified them of my idea, then I bought some white paint and spray cans, cut out some stencils, and made an art piece out of them! I figured that if the trashcans were pretty and not the normal small bucket in the corner of the room where no one notices, then the students would be more willing to use them. Brought them to my school, explained my reasoning to all the teachers and any of the students that asked or were curious, and waited to see how the outcome would be. Now it is March, so about 2 months have passed and I am proud to say THEY ARE USEFUL! The janitors clean them out every day, students know where the big trashcans Teacher Andrea painted are located, and they’re big and bold and hard to miss so you can’t just throw your trash around everywhere like you please! Yay clean school. Yay happy kids!

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March is my birthday month! Happy birthday to me! I turned 24 this year and MAN! It is different from 23! I am THAT much closer to 25, which just makes me think mid-twenties… which scares me! Haha.

For my birthday, I got sweet gifts from my parents back at home and awesome treats from my friends missing me in the States. The most personal “hit-you-in-the-heart” gifts I got was from my friend Meghan. She wrote me 24 things about me for my 24^th birthday: compliments, quirks, talents, skills, and gifts that she knows about me as if we’ve been friends since Day 1 in this world. Never thought I’d be so lucky to have a friend like her with me here to get through it all, good and bad.

Went back to my PST host family for my birthday day and they prepared everything for me! A special cake they ordered for me from a bakery a few days ago, all the sweets and pastries I love, home-made pizza and salads, dolma, and balloons and flowers! All this work for ME!?!?! I was so touched to see how much work and time they put in for my birthday… as if I really truly were their daughter. I’M SO LOVED!

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LAST MARCH NOTE! I met a famous Armenian comedian/actor on the street in Yerevan! They call him Hovo and we spoke in Armenian and English together for about 10 minutes! He said jokes, we laughed, and took a quick picture! Such a sweet man :) 

I've seen like all of his movies (Armenian comedy films) and I was obviously so happy to meet him! Even more glad that I knew him and saw his stuff before I actually met him! Real funny (REALLY SHORT!) dude!! haha <3 

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?