Hodgepodge

So, no government shutdown. Our jobs as Peace Corps volunteers would have continued anyway. Actually, all of the staff at Peace Corps overseas posts would have continued as well – everyone is considered essential. Recruitment and placement would have been on hold though, and many of the staff at Peace Corps headquarters would have been furloughed. This is what would have happened - http://www.peacecorpsconnect.org/2011/04/peace-corps-prepares-for-shutdown/.
About a third of the people at the U.S. Embassy here would have been furloughed; I wonder how that compares to embassies around the world. Anyway, it’s good that they came to an agreement.

I always like looking at the money in various countries and learning about the people and places depicted on them. Here, most of the people featured on the money are writers and artists – I think that says something positive about the value that society here places on them. The reverse on the bills depicts scenes of old Yerevan and other cities in Armenia. The street names (post-Soviet) are also those of writers and artists, with a big street named after the architect who laid out Yerevan and another for the person who developed the Armenian alphabet.

A new Peace Corps Response volunteer started this week. Her orientation schedule differed from ours based on our feedback – they listen and respond here! We went to dinner with her a couple of times this week, and I am sure we’ll see more of her. But I am glad I arrived at the same time as others – in both Armenia and in the Philippines. It’s nice to have a built-in support group.

We had a warden workshop this week, discussing safety and security in various scenarios – for example, what if all the communications go down, or what if the Peace Corps office is destroyed. Our warden group consists of the five PCRVs and five PCVs whose sites are nearby; getting us together gave us the opportunity to know each other but also the responsibility for one another. Each country I have been in handles its warden system and its safety and security drills differently. Each country has real possibilities for activating the Emergency Action Plan, too. Cited at our meeting were the recent coup in Kyrgyzstan – PCVs were consolidated. The ones near the heaviest unrest never returned to their sites – some were relocated within the country and some just went home. And I’ve mentioned earlier that the Georgia PCVs came here in 2008 following the conflict there – I think I said they were here for a few weeks but I learned it was actually a couple of months. That’s a long time to be on hold. Decks of cards and reading materials will go into any emergency bag I pack! At the meeting we were also formally introduced to our Region Manager – several Peace Corps countries are adding this regional support layer, which covers everything other than programming. He seems nice, and he has already been very helpful!

This morning I paid for the planting of a tree, in honor of Earth Day, through www.sunchild.am; paying for it via text message allows me to track my tree. Armenia has lots of microclimates so there are many places where trees just don’t grow – but deforestation is also a big issue here, so Armenia needs trees! I invite you to go to the web site and plant one as well, via paypal.

Last, for today – I wrote an article that appeared in the Princeton Alumni Weekly in December; I accepted my position here right around the time that that issue was going to press, so the fact that I was coming was included in my bio. This week was the deadline for a column in which the picture of the Ambassador and me was going to appear. The new class secretary sent it to me for review – and I had just changed to my new job assignment, so was able to include that breaking news. Timing is everything - twice!