Some Good News

The beginning of last week had more than its share of drama, but maybe I hit the low point of my service and it will be all uphill from here. I’ll talk about the drama some other time; better to focus on the positive!

All right, so I got bumped from the list for the Ambassador’s reception; I told Peace Corps staff I wanted to meet her at some point, and they told me they’d look into it (of course, I have ways to contact her on my own, but I thought it best to go through channels). They told me that she recognized my name immediately and that she was surprised I was here and that I could contact her directly. And I thought – of course she knows my name; in certain Princeton circles, I’m important. And it struck me how unimportant and anonymous I’ve felt – if not in Morocco, then certainly since I’ve been back. I don’t know how important it is to me to feel important, but it was nice to feel that way for a moment! I’ll email her this coming week.

Other things – I was relieved to find they do indeed have a Laughing Cow-type cheese, it’s just called something else. And I received a New Yorker magazine! I think it’s been two weeks already, and another has not come yet, but getting even one is a joy. I took the Metro a couple of times recently – there’s just one line, running southeast to northwest, but I was impressed! I have always been a subway fan. The stations were grand, the escalators perhaps a tad too fast, the trains frequent and clean and the system not crowded. And it costs only 50 drams a ride! I also finally had an occasion to use an ATM, and I have found that most of them have English as an option, which was nice to see.

And the reason to use the ATM? To pay cash for my repaired computer! Last week they had told me that Europe was out of stock on displays – so “about a week” had turned into a month and then into what seemed to be never. I came up with Plan B – buy an external hard drive and have my Macbook hard drive copied to it, and borrow Brian’s dying spare computer for the time being. That seemed only a temporary solution, though, so I initiated Plan C – asking a PCV whom I’d heard was going home for vacation to carry my computer, send it to Martha to get fixed, get it back from her, and bring it back to Armenia. He replied instantly and enthusiastically that he would do so. And the Universe, seeing Plan B in motion and Plan C get started, sent my display to the Apple affiliate store – they called the next day, I brought the computer over, and I picked it up that evening!

Most of last week was spent preparing for two craft fairs, one held yesterday (another weekend day worked… I am racking up the comp days!) and one today. International Women’s Day is tomorrow, and it’s a big gift-giving holiday. We sorted through the inventory, placed some rush orders for additional product, worked on a marketing piece to go on the tables, and tagged and priced just about everything we had. The fairs were well-attended; we sold a fair amount of product and made some good contacts. We were particularly pleased that a product line we had come up with – taking existing crocheted heart magnets, key chains, “anti-stress” squeezies and the like but making them in the colors of the Armenian flag – was extremely popular. I was also pleased that I could quote most of the prices in Armenian (I don’t have all the numbers memorized, but I have most of them now!) and answer a few other questions. I’m tired, though, and glad to have a holiday tomorrow! It really has been non-stop since I got here.