Goings On About Town

One of the projects that my counterpart mentioned to me was English-speaking practice with some of the staff at MCA-Armenia. I have so far avoided teaching English in my Peace Corps assignments because I have never been taught how to teach English. I pride myself on my writing, grammar and spelling, but that’s different. My tutor had admired my ability in linguistics, but again, that’s different. When I was in Indonesia, I met someone who mentioned that there are always jobs for English teachers, and when I said I have never been taught to teach English, he said, “you speak English, you breathe; you can teach English.” I don’t know about that.

Anyway, I decided that rather than avoid it this time, I would embrace it – but also enlist help. Jeanne knows how to teach English, and she has time on Thursday afternoons, so today she came to the MCA-Armenia office to do a needs assessment. Some people want speaking practice, some listening practice, some writing practice – but most want a class after 6:00 pm. I don’t know if we’re going to be able to accommodate that – we’ll discuss amongst ourselves.

On Tuesday I went to the dentist for my second filling (I cancelled last week’s appointment because of my virus). While waiting for the anesthesia to take hold, he mentioned the weather and how he was looking forward to the end of the rain. I asked if it was always like this and he said he didn’t grow up here. I asked where he was from and he said Baghdad. His grandparents, genocide survivors, moved to Iraq, where there is a large Armenian community (it makes sense, if they’re in Syria, Lebanon, Iran and elsewhere, but nobody had mentioned one in Iraq before). There are several Armenian churches there, and Saddam allowed them to practice and learn freely; the dentist learned not only Armenian but also Arabic and English, which was taught as a second language there. For many years medical personnel were not allowed to leave the country, but in 2007 things got so bad that he and his family managed to leave. Would he ever go back? Maybe to sell the house, but not to live, even though as a dentist he could make a ton of money there. “We don’t belong there,” he said, “Here, we’re in the majority.” Interesting conversation – and the filling went well, too.

Tuesday night, I went to the house of the Embassy Economic Officer – the person who had been a PCV in Azrou at the turn of the century. She and her family are nice – and they live well. And they cooked a great dinner. It was good to hear about her life (I’m still in the Foreign Service Officer application process), but more, she wanted to see my pictures of Azrou. I hadn’t looked at them in a while, and viewing them brought back waves of emotion. I loved my life there! Looking back was also a reminder to chill out a little bit more here – I have let work stress and some negativity (some from PCVs, some from Armenians, some about Peace Corps, some about Armenia, but nothing in particular – more of a general malaise) affect me. My time here is limited and, though I have been appreciating it, it was a wake-up call to spend more time appreciating it!

In other news, the water was out at my homestay for 24 hours this week; this has happened a couple of times before, and I guess it will happen more now that summer is coming (or here?). I have never taken the hot showers for granted – those I have always appreciated – but I am all the more grateful for one if I skip showering for a day or two.

In still other news, the New York Times web site (which I can peruse stress-free now that I’ve paid for a subscription – last month I was anxious about my 20-article limit) had an article about the Azeri Eurovision winner. The article included a map on which Naxcivan, an autonomous republic (separate from the rest of the country, on the western side of southern Armenia) was mislabeled Nagorno-Karabakh (which is an autonomous republic on the eastern side!). I look forward to seeing the correction in the Corrections section.

And more packages arrived today – postmarked February 17 and March 11! Febreze (for which I was desperate early on; now I avoid smoky places for the most part), Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups (the item every PCV seems to crave), and Girl Scout cookies! Popular… I’m gonna be pop-you-oo-lar…. Plus, a shout-out to Rise Up Coffee, who will ship a free sample to any PCV currently serving!

No, the picture has nothing to do with the post – it’s left over from the trip to Khor Virap. But I liked it.