So, How's Work Been So Far?

My first day in the MCA-Armenia office was last Wednesday. Yes, OSCE convinced me to go to Goris after all; writeup to come. It was fine with MCA-Armenia; they were catching up from the events with the President and the Prime Minister. Actually, it’s still a stressful time; the MCC CEO is coming from Washington next week. Then things should calm down a bit. But in the meantime, there’ve been some things I could help with.

April 20 was the kickoff of ten days of tree planting. For every tree that was cut during construction, MCA-Armenia had pledged to plant a new one, and they chose the ten days around Earth Day to do it, two communities per day. I was sent to write up a small piece for the MCA-Armenia web site. And I was invited to plant a tree – a Peace Corps dream come true! I had asked environment volunteers in both Morocco and the Philippines to invite me if there was ever a tree-planting, and somehow it had never worked out. It finally did here! A pine, in front of the village hall. And then I watched 40 schoolchildren plant oak and ash trees near the school and cultural center. It was great. Coincidentally, I had donated money to the tree-planting partner organization when I saw a sign for it in Artbridge. You can too! www.sunchild.am. Armenia needs trees! Also read http://www.sunchild.org:8080/index.php?id=17&no_cache=1&L=0&tx_ttnews[tt_news]=217&cHash=da5fd59d940c3938bd555cf996ee153c to find out what happens to the two tons of flowers that people left at the Genocide Memorial on Sunday. Two tons!

On Earth Day itself, we went to a tree nursery; again, I wrote up a small piece for the web site. Here we learned about saplings and rootstock that had been given to this nursery; when the fruit sold well at market, nearby farmers ordered it and the nursery is propagating them. So from a few trees, many farmers will now be able to plant high-value trees and berries of their own. It did give me some pause – an example of one of the successes is the Fuji apple. Does that mean that the world is going to be one Fuji apple? What about local varieties and variations in the gene pool, plants that are adapted to their very specific environment? That’s a debate for another day – in the meantime, the farmers’ income will rise and that is the objective of the program. We were supposed to plant more trees that day, but it rained all morning and was quite muddy. We still walked around the nursery – so on Earth Day I got lots and lots of earth on my shoes!

I went to yet another event this week, this one in preparation for an article about how the program has impacted policy – new legislation will make things easier for the Water User Associations and the farmers. I was there just for the opening sessions of a two-day conference. It was all in Armenian and there wasn’t a translation so I didn’t understand much, but at least I have some background and a visual and can write the article when I get more information. The conference was near Charentsavan, where I went my first week; it looks beautiful now that the mountains are green!

I was supposed to go to the final tree-planting event yesterday, but there was a transport issue; it was fine to have a full day in the office. In addition to the events, I’ve been asked to do other writing – summarizing CVs into bios, wordsmithing fact sheets. I enjoy the writing and editing. I also think the program is very interesting – there are many components to it, and seeing things come to fruition is rewarding, even though I haven’t been in on it from the start. I did some background reading about the gender component and next week will interview one of the consultants (and from there, some of the female farmers) for the gender article; I’m also enjoying the reading. I still feel stressed, but it’s more because everyone else is stressed than because of my own workload. We’ll see what it’s like after the CEO visit. Busy as they are, everyone has taken the time to welcome me and thank me. I might have been thanked more times in the past week than in my entire corporate career! Well, maybe a slight exaggeration, but every time I get thanked I realize I’m not used to it. So this assignment is a definite improvement.

I don’t have my own space, but I was put in a conference room that is rarely used; last week I shared with a visitor from MCC in Washington (the third one I have met in three weeks – there are only 300 MCC employees and I have met one percent of them!); he was pleasant company. I don’t like carrying my computer back and forth – it’s heavy, and it means adjusting my routine so I can go home and put it down before going back out. I haven’t found all the lunch places yet, but at least there are a few places where I can go for a little walk, get something quick, and get back. There’s filtered water there, which I very much appreciate. And in “my” conference room, there’s a window I can open. All in all, off to a good start.