This morning I took a half hour or so to meditate on all the
things I have to be grateful for and trust me there were a lot!!! I could list hundreds,
but this Thanksgiving I am most thankful for my Armenian friends. When I first
came to Armenia I quickly bonded with a group of Peace Corps volunteers
figuring that throughout the next two years they would be the people that I
turned to. All during training we were inseparable, going to the nearest town
to watch football games and drink beers, and calling each other when we were
stuck in the village, and that is almost how we felt, that we were stuck in
places when we were not with our American friends.
When I first got to my site, I was the only American for
thirty minutes around. I would walk through the streets of Spitak trying to
smile at people and make friends, basically to be ignored. I remember hating
Spitak, thinking I would never make friends here, and leaving my site the first
chance I got to see my American friends. I bonded with my host brother a lot,
but could barely talk to him, and other than that I didn’t know anyone other
than my counterpart who could speak English. I would often have tea and cookies
or fruit at a neighbor’s house or a fellow teacher, but it never felt as if
they were my friends, it felt more like I was being interviewed and was on
stage, everyone just staring at me, and me doing my best to speak intelligible Armenian.
I would like to say that this quickly passed and soon I made some good friends,
but it isn’t the case. It isn’t until the beginning of last summer that I
finally began to make some true Armenian friends here. I think living in my own
apartment really speed up the process because I was forced to do everything on
my own which often meant that I needed help and had to find people to help me.
This has resulted in me actually trying to talk to people instead of shying
away from them because my language skills were so horrible. Soon I became
friends with my neighbors, and store owners and random people in the street who
would offer to help me when they thought I looked lost.
I also became facebook friends with many of the people in
Spitak who speak English, and in this way they send me encouragement and also
help me when they see that I am in distress. If I need apricot jam, and write
on facebook that I am looking for it, they all rush to help me find it. If the
water is not working and I have no idea why, I merely have to write to them and
ask what is going on, whereas before I was stuck trying to walk around my
apartment complex hoping a neighbor would come out and talk to me so that I
could ask what the matter was…
The biggest surprise for me is that throughout my service,
it hasn’t been that core group of Peace Corps volunteers that I have come to
depend on for emotional support, it has been the Armenian friends that I have
made in Spitak and in Yerevan. Now when I want to get away for a weekend and
get out of Spitak, I run to my closest group of friends in Yerevan who happen
to be Armenians, not Americans. I never thought this would happen, and I don’t
think it is the case with most Peace Corps volunteers. But for me it really hit
me when I was discussing my plans to go home for a short two week vacation. My
best friend here in Spitak wanted to know how I was getting to the airport. I
told him I would take the marshutka and then take a taxi. He immediately wanted
to know everything about my flight and told me there was no way he would let me
go to the airport alone, so he took me, but best of all he was waiting for me
when I got off the plane to bring me back home. I can’t tell you how loved and
cared for that made me feel!! So for me I can truly say the people I love most
here in Armenia are Armenians, and I am so blessed to have made so many
fantastic friends, who I will remain friends with for the rest of my life. This thanksgiving I give thanks to God for all
of the amazing people he has put in my life here in Armenia, because I know
without them, this would never have become my home!
But that isn’t to say that I don’t equally love my American
friends!!! I re-read this post and I want to make it clear, my American,
European, and wherever else friends are just as amazing, and have also clearly
been a huge support to me throughout this journey, but for whatever reason, I
just felt the most thankful to my Armenian friends today, maybe because it has
taken me by surprise how much I have come to love them, need them and turn to
them, though our cultures are very different!!
And now I am off to spend the rest of Thanksgiving having a small feast with my best Armenian friend from Spitak! A first Thanksgiving for them!!! =)
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