Amoora

I have so much to write about and yet I am just not ready yet. So I thought I’d post some pictures introducing you to new people in my life in Spitak.
So first an introduction to my cat Amoora. This cat use to kind of wander around outside. No one paid much attention to her. I would throw her some bread every once in a while because she looked hungry but that was it.
Well one day I was sitting outside and my family asked me why I looked sad. I told them that I wasn’t sad but I missed Alapars a little bit. Why they asked a little bit offended. I told them about the kids I played with and my shoonik who I loved!
Later in the day I was sitting in my room reading and my mom comes in with a little kid and his big brother. She was laughing and carrying him awkwardly in her arms. She literally brought in a small child off the street to keep me happy! The kid was really shy but super cute and it put a smile on my face. I taught him how to give high fives.
Later as I was chatting online with my mom and my sister my little brother comes in with the cat and hands her to me with the biggest smile on his face. I take the cat trying to appear happy, and smile and say thanks for catching him for me. Then he leaves the cat with me, I put it on the floor and let it hang out for a bit. It jumps up onto my bed. I pick it up and start to take it outside. No no no they tell me. It’s our cat now, she can sleep inside. We will call her Amoora after the Russian lake, and you can play with her whenever you want.
So I have a cat now, even though I hate cats, but at least sometimes when there is no one to talk English too at home, she listens, for awhile, until she starts crying about her own problems!

My First Armenian Date

Yesterday as I was sitting in the living room reading my host mom came to me and said put your pretty cloths on, we will go to a party for my nephew. They asked for you to come, so do your hair and get ready. So I went and threw on some jeans, not really all that excited, but hoping at least to get a little meat to eat. My host father came to pick us up and when I got in the car he explained to me, You will meet my nephew who is home from the army on holiday. He is a very good boy, a lot better than his brother here who is slow (his brother was sitting in the front seat of the car, they always call him dumb or slow in front of him). He speaks English very well, you will like him, he is a good looking boy. Ok I say back not really knowing what you are suppose to say to that. You will marry an Armenian boy, you are a good girl, very pretty, you will be married in a year. Hahaha no I will not. I don’t want to. You will, you will.
We drive about 15 minutes away to a part of Spitak they call Glendale. No joke, after the earthquake different parts of the world donated money to rebuild and each little sub part of town is named after the people who donated the money. As we arrive at our destination there is a group of five boys standing outside, I get out of the car and they all stare at me. My family give the boys hugs and introduce me to them and we go inside. This is my good nephew Gor, my host dad says. Hello he says to me. Hi I say. My name is Gor what is your name? Alyssa I answer. She he speaks very well my host dad says with a huge smile on his facing that is telling me I should like his nephew.
My Tatik calls to me and tells me to sit near her. She tells me what a good boy Gor is, and looks at him on the other side of the room where he is sitting surrounded by the other men at the party. They are obviously very happy to have him home and have a lot to say to him. As we sit, more and more people begin to arrive. They are all excited to meet me but really don’t have much to say. One girl in particular asks Gor how to tell me something. I forgot he answers. Time goes by, maybe two hours and the room is full of people all talking loudly and much too fast for me to understand. After awhile I stop trying to, and start playing cell phone games, yes that is how bored I was. So much for this cousin who speaks English I thought.
We are then called to eat dinner. There are three different tables, two in the kitchen and one in the living room. I am told to sit at the one in the living room, so of course I do. I soon start to notice that everyone else that sits at the table is a young male, with Gor sitting directly across from me. I have two twins to my right who look like stereotypical Russian gymnst, one is even wearing a tight tank top and they both have bowl cuts. Finally my host dad sits beside me, the last to fill the table making me the only girl. He fills my cup with vodka, and I politely tell him I do not like it, so he fills my other cup with wine. The men then start talking and for an hour I am sitting at a table in a tornado of sounds and words that I do not understand. The only thing I know is that as they are talking they are all staring at me. Every time I look up I meet Gors eyes and feel so awkward. He smiles at me as I sit helplessly not knowing anything that is going on. Occassionaly I hear the boys ask Gor to translate something for me, I forgot how to, he says. Four hours have past since I arrived; I am beyond exhaustion and beyond the point of caring what these people are talking or laughing at. One by one the boys get up after they are finished eating and leave the table. The women come in and begin to clear the table. I try to help. Nesti (sit) I am told. I look up and Gor is the only boy sitting at the table still. The table is cleared; people are still talking only they are sitting at the back of the room. About twenty of them. I take out my phone game again and start to play as chocolate and wine is set in between Gor and I.
I feel his eyes on me, but I try to ignore it, when all of a sudden I hear, do you think we are all crazy. I look up and he is smiling at me. No I say, everyone is nice. I sometimes think we are all a bit crazy. How do you like it here? I like it. Come on tell me the truth. I honestly like it. You speak English? Yes didn’t they tell you that? Yes I answer thinking to myself well why the hell did you sit here for four hours and not say a word of English to me. We quickly fall into conversation, talking about Armenian, his time in the Army, the book I am reading about Azerbijan and Armenian conflict, my language classes, and other things I don’t remember. He speaks English almost perfectly. Do you have a boyfriend he asks, my cheeks turn bright red, no I answer. That is not right he says, you should. I turn even redder. Tell me what you know in Armenian he says. I begin to think of something to say when all of a sudden I notice it is silent. I look to the back of the room and realize we have an audience. I want to crawl in a hole and get away from all of these eyes. No I say, they are all staring at me. He says something in Armenian and the room bursts into laughter. Now I just want to die. They are laughing at me, not you he says. They are just wondering what we are talking about, because they don’t understand a word. We fall into conversation again.
People begin to leave all coming up to our table kissing him and winking at me. It’s so awkward. His mom comes over to the table, bringing with her a box. She puts it on the table. He takes a bunch of letters and certificates out. He explains to me that the previous volunteer in Spitak a few years back helped him with his English. He did very well, just because he thought it was fun. He won a few composition competitions and corresponded with a number of kids back in America. He kept every letter from them. He even wrote to them when he went away to University and kept in touch with them. And before he went to the army they all sent him good luck letters. He explained to me how much it meant to him. He told me he was invited by a program to study in America, and how the volunteer had gone back to America and found a program where he could study finance and English at NYU. He was accepted to the program, but had to go to the Army. He tells me how important his country is to him and how no matter what he would never have deserted his obligation to protect it. He tells me that he is not sure what he is going to do when he gets back from the army in 10 months. He asks me if I want to do programs with him when he gets back. I ask if he wants to do any of the programs, his face turns red for the first time (he is a pretty confident guy) I do if you do he says. All of a sudden I realize we are not talking about English anymore, I am pretty sure by programs he meant something else. I don’t answer because I am so confused. When I get back I will call you and if you want to, if we want to, we can hang out together. I laugh, face red not knowing what to say, and my family in the back laughs with us. They say its time to go so I walk outside and get into the car, trying to escape as fast as I can.
But then Gors mom comes out and opens my door and grabs my hand. I want you to stay she says. My son wants to talk some more. So my whole family piled back into the living room and Gor and I continued to talk, only each of us feeling a little embarrassed now. More chocolates are brought out. I guess the family decided our date portion was over at this point, and they moved closer to join us. They put on a dvd of family pictures and Gor tells me about each picture, and who everyone is. It’s a dvd of family weddings, awkward! He tells me, I hope very much that before you leave you will get to see an Aremenian wedding, my family has beautiful weddings. Yes they are very beautiful I say. She would like an Armenian wedding he says to his family in Armenian. Che I say out loud and they all laugh. His brother grabs the camera and takes a few pictures of Gor and I. I do not pose, I feel way too awkward. Finally its almost 2 in the morning and we leave. Gor and his mom walk us to the door. We will see you again the mom tells me. You are a very good girl, we like you a lot and are happy you are here. I smile genuinely happy to have been there this night. Thank you for everything I say and hug her. I look at Gor, he smiles and I wave goodbye. I will see you soon he says….

When I get home, my cheeks are red, and as I fall into bed I still have a huge smile on my face. I am pretty sure I was just tricked into having my first Armenian date, and all and all I actually think it was kinda fun!

The love of my life in Armenia

I have fallen in love in Spitak. Yes you heard that right, I am in love. With whom you may ask, well unfortunately it’s not a who, but a what. This thing that I am in love with is sweet and spicy and almost tastes close to a maple syrup except it has almost a chi taste to it. I am talking about Popok maraba. Popoke maraba is green walnut jam. Walnuts are picked, boiled and then canned in delicious syrup. I have seriously never loved something as much as I love this. The nuts look like huge olives and are soft and easily cut able with a fork. I spread the juice on my bread in the morning and eat the walnuts whole (it feels so wrong to call them a nut, I hate nuts, but these are more like a fruit). I also poor the juice in my tea and it almost tastes like a chi latte! So yummy. I use it in my yogurt, and sometimes I just drink it whole, gross I know but I don’t care, love is blind =) My family does not really eat sweets, so popoke maraba is all I have to soothe my sweet tooth!
http://www.harvestsongventures.com/buy-preserves/large-preserves/fresh-walnut.html
I found a company in New York that sells this jam. I am not saying it will be anything like the maraba I eat, but I really think you should try it. I promise you there is nothing like it in America, and as far as I am concerned there is nothing more Armenian. Just disregard what it says about pairing it with fancy shmancy blue cheese or frog or whatever, a nice fresh piece of bread is all you need!!!

Life drifts by and once again I wait for it to begin

So I’ve been in Spitak for a few days now and even though for the most part I have nothing to do at all, I have a lot to talk about. Firstly School does not start until September, so for the rest of this month it is up to me to entertain myself. I am not allowed to leave my site, and I have no site mates. Also unlike most who have no site-mates I do not have an extended site that I am allowed to go to, because Spitak has a bank. So it’s BORING! But to be honest it is nice to be bored after three crazy months, including my last few weeks in America. So basically every morning I wake up, talk to my family on facebook, read the news, read a little bit of the bible and then go eat breakfast with the family, if you can call what I eat breakfast (more on that later). Then I either go for a walk or go into the living room and read. Right now I am reading Black Garden, a book about the war between Armenia and Azerbaijan. I study random words that I hear my family say throughout the day to ingrain them in my memory. I talk on the phone a lot. I eat lunch, read some more, go running or hiking in the evening, come home and hang out with my family as my host mom prepares dinner. Eat again and then sit outside on our porch with my new kitten and talk to the family as best I can. Then I come back talk some more on facebook and write a bit. Pretty boring but also pretty nice.
There may be a few things you are wondering about my new town. So below I will give a description.

1. The Food- Even though I don’t want to, I have to say the food situation in Spitak kind of sucks. I am not saying that I never get good food, because on occasion my host mom makes very delicious soups, shat hamove (very delicious) but I’d say mostly the food is not very appetizing. For the most part I eat potatoes, tomatoes, peppers and bread. For breakfast I drink tea, and usually eat a piece of bread with Popok Maraba (more about this later). Needless to say, it isn’t very filling. For lunch so far we have tomatoes, cheese, and mashed potatoes every day. And dinner ranges from eggs and tomatoes to boiled potatoes and eggplant. The way I see it, this is a good wake up call for me. This is how people all over the world eat, every day. I have not had meat since I got here, I don’t think my family can afford it. I am hungry all the time, vegetables are not really filling. But this is what I signed up for. I signed up to live in a community and live as they do. It is so different from my Alapars village where we were all fed so well. Every morning I had oatmeal, creeps, leftovers from the night before, cakes and sandwiches to choose from. It is a real learning experience for me, but I do miss dolma and khorovots a lot!!

2. My family- Everyone is great! They are really caring and so nice. One mild exception my Tatik is a bit crazy. The first day was really hard for me cause the old bat kept calling me fat. She kept telling me I gained weight since she saw me last. At first I really let it hurt my feelings, but I had to really think about it culturally. Armenians never say you gained weight as a bad thing, they consider it a good thing, it means you eat well and are healthy. They have no idea how sensitive Americans are to weight, and how much of a terrible struggle it is for young girls to deal with their weight. I couldn’t take it too seriously because a day or two later she said that she didn’t want me to run anymore because I was getting too skinny and my family back home would think they were not feeding me! HA.
Other than that my family has been so awesome. I was feeling really homesick for Alapars and my host dad asked me why. I told him that I missed all the children I use to play with and my dog. A few hours later I was in my room and my host mom called to me. I walked out and there were three neighborhood children in the living room. She literally went into the neighborhood and dragged them to my house so that I would have kids to make me happy. It was so sweet! Later I was in my room talking to my mom and my sister on facebook and my host brother comes into my room and hands me a kitten. The cat is a bit dirty and smelly, so I am not really sure what he wants me to do with it. I pet it for awhile and then go to take it back outside, as I figure it’s a stray. My host dad runs up to me and tells me no no no. Katoo mena. Ko katoo. The cat stays, he’s your cat. They grabbed a stray off the street so that I would have a replacement for my shoon. It was really cute. They let the cat sleep in the bathroom that night. I had heard that Armenians hate animals in the house, and for the most part that is what I saw, but my family loves animals and this little baby kitten is now part of our home. She eats dinner with us and watches tv with them at night. I would never have the courage to tell my family I hate cats and think the little guy smells. I actually think my papik loves the cat the most. He always sneaks it food and chases it down if it tries to leave, he is so cute with it!!
3. The town- Spitak is no Alapars that is for sure. Spitak is big and there are a lot of people here. In Alapars I knew all my neighbors and most of the kids, people talked to me and were nice. Spitak is not the same. For the most part people ignore me. I wanted to explore my second day here so I went into the city center to find my bank. My family offered to go with me, but I wanted to do it alone. Big mistake. I tried to smile at people and be nice but they all just stared blankly back at me. When I couldn't find the bank, I stopped people walking by to ask them if they knew where it was. 7 out of the 8 people I asked looked at me and turned the other way without saying anything. It was horrible and after an thirty minutes I wanted to cry, but I didn't instead I went shopping. As I was shopping people followed me as if I was going to steal something, but no one ever offered to help me find anything. Even the young girls that stood behind me watching me struggle to make out the difference between shampoo and conditioner (everything is in Russian, not even Armenian) would not talk to me. It’s like they were fascinated with me but didn't want to get too close. Needless to say it was tough. I wanted to explore more and see what kind of clothes were in the stores and what the restaurants offered but I didn't have the energy for it. I think it will just take them some time to realize that I am here to stay and am now their neighbor, hopefully soon they will accept me.

Life is going to be a bit of a struggle here until I am accepted. It’s hard to be the only American here, and to only have my counterpart to hang out with, I will post a blog about her when I get a picture. I know I have some tough times ahead of me, but I can’t wait until the day I am invited to tea by a neighbor, or one of my neighborhood children follow me home. I know that I just need patience; it’s only been a few days. But it’s hard; I have so many ideas for this place. I want to work with the YMCA, and do women’s workshops, English sessions, Volleyball camps and maybe even tournaments in my second year with other YMCA’s. I want to start a volunteering group at my school that will reward my students for their volunteer hours with an American movie day, once a month. I want to have a club for my best English students that will teach them to use the computer via social networking sites that I will begin for my class, and hopefully correspond with a class in the United States with. I want to work with the cultural center and have creative writing story nights. I want to use some of my PR skills and work with some local NGOs. I want to do a camp here. I want, I want I want, but first I need to get integrated into my community. I know I need to give it time and I actually am very positive that it will happen, and I can’t wait for that, it’s just hard to be as shy as I am and to get rejected the first time you try….

Praise GOD!

Dear Loyal blog readers, if I have any loyal blog readers, I have an announcement to make! Are you ready? This is super exciting news. I Alyssa Schlange, Peace Corps Volunteer Armenia, took a shower today!! Yes you heard me, a shower! Like a real shower, with get this, hot water!!!! For the first time in three months I took a shower.
Ok you may think that I am joking about the amazingness of this occurrence, but this is no joke. Today was the best day of my life because I got to sit under running hot water, ok not hot but kind of warm water. For the first time since I have been here I didn’t have to sit in a tub and poor warm water over myself and try not to freeze. I couldn’t believe my fortune in life, to have a shower that not only uses warm water but that also works! Many volunteers here have had a shower the whole time; I have not, so I consider myself blessed by God right now.
As soon as I stepped into the tub and felt the water on top of my head I couldn’t help but to smile. You have no idea how good hot water pouring down over your head feels. I just wanted to stand there forever! But I couldn’t, I understand how much it costs them to use a water heater so once I was able to snap myself out of my amazed state, I showered, yup showered!!! For a brief 8-10 minutes I felt like I was back home, I felt like I wasn’t living in a transitional country. Life is wonderful, I am so thankful for what I have and praise God for all the tiny wonderful things that he gives to me daily. I never thought the happiest day of my life would be due to something so small, but here I am hours later still smiling because in a few days from now, I will get to shower AGAIN!

PST or PTS...

Pre-Service Training is almost over! In two days I will become an official Peace Corps Volunteer and move to Site. There is a large part of me that is excited and ready to begin my two years in Armenian. I am ready to work in my school, where I will know my students and be able to start accessing my community so that I can decide what it is that I can do to make a difference in it. It’s no secret to most that my PST has been pretty tough on me. I came to country with a dislocated jaw, thinking things couldn’t get much worse. The truth is they can and they did. From problems back home that seem un-bearable to problems with my heart that lead to a few weeks of me feeling pretty awful, my strength has been tested. I have been homesick, sick of home, and physically sick. There are nights when I have gone home and cried for hours and nights where I just stayed up looking at the wall, not having any tears left to cry. But no matter what I got through it, and though I may have thought about going home, the truth is I don’t really have anywhere to go, so I know I need to be tough, and PST has prepared me for it. I am ready to move on and stop worrying about what is going on back home, and start making a life for myself here in my community. I am so ready to be region neighbors with Ashley, I know we are going to have so much fun, I am so lucky to have her as a best friend!
What I am not ready for, is to leave my family. I am so comfortable in my house. I love my family. I can go and sit with them when I want to be social, but it is also perfectly ok for me to stay in my room and study and talk to my family. They give me space to do whatever I want to, but are always close by if I need to talk or hang out, or learn to cook something! Before coming to Armenian I was most concerned about living with a host family, but this experience has been perfect. Tonight as I was sitting on the couch with my sister, helping her set up an email account and sign up for information about study abroad programs and scholarships, she looked at me with big sad eyes and said she will really miss me. The truth is I will really miss her too! I loved having a sister here who I can talk to. Not just because she speaks English, but because she always wants to help me or know what is going on. The other night I stayed up pretty late just to watch a movie with her. She loves American movies, and books. I let her read any of my books that she likes, and gave her a couple to keep here in Alapars that I have not read yet, so that I will have to come back to get them.
Tonight when I got home, I walked around the village to spend some time with, and ultimately say goodbye to some of the villagers that I have spent time here with. Mainly the kids and the dogs. I didn’t even have to seek anyone out. As soon as I turned the corner my lil Andrenik came running to me. Grabbed me by the hand and lead me toward his house. Soon after Mena grabbed my other hand and I had a full escort. I was guided to a little house shared by three families and asked to tea. For once I accepted. I told them that I was leaving in two days and they said they would miss me. The mom told me that her kids love me and would be sad. We talked for awhile, they asked how old I was, and for once I replied honestly 26. It just feels so old here, they expect you to be married so young and I don’t want them to think anything is wrong with me. We took some pictures, the kids love having their picture taken, and I showed them some pictures of my dogs back home. They laughed. They think it’s silly that I love their dog so much. Eventually I got some courage up and asked them if I could take Shoonik out of her cage and walk her. They said yes. It was a very bittersweet moment for me. I will miss this little village so much. Believe it or not, I think of it as home. I feel like the people here, the adults that is, have just started to warm up to me. They have watched me hang out with their kids and animals for a few months now, and have just started to try to talk to me, and now I am leaving. When I walked home I felt so sad, and was surprised to find a few tears in my eyes. Even though I will see the kids before I leave again, it felt like the last time I will get to play with them and hang out.
When all is said in done, I have to leave, it is time. You have to keep moving on, I am learning that change is a good thing and can often bring about unexpected happiness. I have already had an amazing experience and I have yet to even begin my two years of service. I am so happy and lucky to be here serving Armenia, and serving my country and serving my God.

Free Shoonik

So you all know about Shoonik, the dog I have come to love here in Alapars. She follows me around everywhere I go, nipping at my feet and jumping up my cloths leaving her paw prints behind. She is filthy and stupid and oh so loveable. I adore Shoonik! Well one day last week Shoonik stopped following me. I walked by her house and she was nowhere to be found. I came out from class and she was no longer sitting on the porch steps waiting for me. A few days past, and she hadn’t even come to visit me at my house. I thought it strange, and wondered what had happened to her. I had made a plan to go and ask the family what had happened to her.
One day as I was walking home Shooniks owners, not her family because only I am her family, but the people who own her came up to me, well the kids did. Shooik, Shoonik is a bad dog they told me. No I responded she is a good dog, I love her. The little girl looks up at me, well shoonik is chained up she tells me. What do you mean I ask, not really understanding. She starts talking so fast that I do not understand. I tell her I am confused and she starts speaking quickly again. Knowing that I still do not understand she takes her finger and swipes it across her throat. The motion for dead. I freeze what do You mean I ask. She does it again. I flip out and tell her no, and she shakes her head yes. I walk away and tell her I can’t talk I am very sad.
By the next day I have devised a plan to free shoonik. I decide I am going to go to the ATM and get some of my American money out and offer it to these people for shooniks life. Unfortunatly for me it doesn’t work. I walk home feeling defeated and helpless. As I walk by the house I try not to look at the kids, I don’t want to talk to them, they are going to kill my dog. They grab me anyways and take me into their yard. They show me what seems to be a chicken coop and out walks shoonik chained on a 5foot chain. She looked so sad but at least she was still alive. I tell the kids its mean to chain her up and I don’t like it. They try again to tell me what happened. The little boy runs away and comes back with a baby chick. Juicy ate one of these he says. Ooooh. So you are not killing shoonik? No. Oooooooh. So Shoonik just ate a baby chicken so this is her punishment. Yes. Ooooooooooh. So when will you let Shoonik go free again? We won’t, she will live like this now. Nooo, wait, you mean she is always going to be on this tiny chain stuck here? Yes. ALWAYS? Yes. My heart starts to beat fast, I pick the dog up and hug her and walk away crying. My poor happy puppy being punished for something I know was not her fault. The kids taunt her and sick the baby chicks in her face. I know she didn’t do it on purpose.
But you have to understand one thing. This chick was the family’s livelihood. She would have laid eggs that they could have ate for years to come. She would have had more hens who they could sell for the much needed money. This chick was not a pet to them, she was their survival. Now they only have two chicks left. Shoonik has to be controlled they say. I still feel horrible. I want to free her, but she’d prolly become a street dog, or even worse, would come back to the house anyways and punished even worse for running away.
I have decided the only thing I can try to do is to educate them. I went over yesterday and showed the kids that her leash was twisted up and choking the dogs. I showed them that she needs water that is nearby. Then I asked if I could take her with me for a walk, I was granted permission so I took her collar off and let her run around. She followed me wherever I went. Even if she took off to chase a bird she came back promptly. She was so happy running and frolicking. Could you imagine being kept in a box for a week not able to run and stretch your legs out.? So sad. Today I will do it again, maybe this time the family will go with me. Maybe I can teach them to give her a free hour every day where she can be lose and run around. I just hope that when I leave it doesn’t get worse for the poor little thing. I am going to miss her so much! Who knows maybe in 4 months from now I will move to a dog friendly place and I can come back and get her.
All I know is Shoonik should be free! FREE SHOONIK! =)