Hitting the Ground Running here in Stepanavan

Hitting the Ground Running here in Step'Anavan

  
    It seems like a lot has happened since arriving here in Stapanavan in November.  A lot of that may be because we started just before a busy Holiday Season and there was a lot to do to get familiar with my work here in Stepanavan.  I started out taking a lot of time to get familiar with World Vision and all of their programs.  It is a good program with a lot of things going on and plenty of people to get to know but still my heart and the place that needs my help the most is Full Life NGO.  Their program has been in a slow season due to one of my Counterparts Satenic having been a Armenian Instructor for the Peace Corps Volunteer Teachers Pres-Service Training and now she is on Maternity Leave after having a baby.  My other English Speaking Counterpart was hit by a car in Vanadzor and still in recovery so I have found myself struggling with less people comfortable  speaking English with me.  We have learned to work through that somewhat and my Director Suren has had to practice his English a lot more and we have worked through translations.  
          We are in the process of applying for Grants for our summer Camp Programs and to help us to keep our Program Funded as well as to keep us growing.  Our After School Program shut down for the Holidays but will not start until we secure more funding.  Some of our Staff are home not only for the Holidays but have also gone on Volunteer Status until we increase our funding.  Most of that is because like everything here in Armenia NGO's funding are not constant like in America but is dependent on Grant Funding that is limited in their budget and runs out at a certain date.  We are now working working on getting a Democracy Commission Small Grants request in by Jan. 15th and a EaPTC Support Programme - Territorial Cooperation Programme Armenia – Georgia Grant  application in by Feb. 3rd that would help expand our program through establishing partnerships with NGO's in Southern Georgia to promote programs for People with Disabilities in our areas.  This may include some Advocacy Development meetings, some cooperative programs between the two countries like promoting Special Olympics Competition between the Areas, and hopefully would utilize our Inclusive Summer Camp program for training meetings as well as to provide some Summer Camp funding for individuals within Southern Georgia to come to our camp.  I have already found some Peace Corps Volunteers from Georgia interested in participating in an International Camp for People from our two Countries.  

    Although as a World Vision Child Sponsor in the Democratic Republic of Congo made my interest in the work of World Vision very interesting to me.  I have gained some experience with World Vision as to how they do provide Support for Families and Child Protective Services for their children they support with a system of Social Workers working with the Village Nurses in all of the Communities that they work in. Although I am interested in some of the Community Development Work that they do I find myself invited to participate within the Social Workers Weekly Meetings and asked to share information about Case Management work back in America.  Since the Social Services funding systems are much different in America and World Vision is already a leader in providing Social Services support to the Children they support I want to get their input on some of the issues they are struggling with in their communities and help them with finding their own local resources as well as to apply Social Work Principals from other settings to their situations.  That may be my biggest challenge since most of them do not speak English and I would need to seek to translate anything I say or written material to Armenian to share with them.  

      I have found that there are reasons why they did not seek a Peace Corps Volunteer this year.  They have been going through a restructuring program this year so many people are changing their positions and having their job descriptions changed.  The last Peace Corps Volunteer Couple were involved in starting a number of English Clubs at World Vision.  Now all five of those English Clubs fall on Maureen our last remaining Peace Corps Volunteer Teacher here until I decide what type of groups I want to be involved in.  I have enjoyed attending the English Clubs which usually take place about the time I am leaving Full Life NGO around 6 pm and usually I am leaving too late to make it or I am hungry and anxious to get home to eat by then.  I do find that I don't have the Lesson Planning Training that makes for an effective English Club Class so I need to learn a lot from Maureen before she leaves to be able to maintain any of her English Clubs.  I have also not had any Armenian Tutoring since coming to Stepanavan so trying to Teach more advanced English to people when I am still struggling to learn Armenian is not that easy.  I did take over one short class that Maureen was requested to start for adults at the Evangelical Church.  It was something I could do because I was trying to teach them the same introductory words that I was trying to learn in Armenian.  But I am afraid I need some more advanced refresher classes with a Tutor and some Lesson Planning work to be able to teach that class.       

       What I am hoping to do is start some more Inclusive English Armenian Activities at Full Life NGO which would be more Handicapped Accessible than the Upstairs Meeting Room at World Vision.  We have a full Computer Lab of up to 5 Computers at Full Life NGO that I would love to use to encourage Computer training for Armenian and English Speaking Armenians with or without disabilities.  I would need to be able to get some Armenians involved who could speak some English to partner with me so that they could translate some basic Computer instructions for me and help to teach the class.  We do have a woman who is a soldier at our local Military Base who volunteers teaching a handicapped individual to use Computer Software and I would love to have help to get her involved in helping train more people to use the computer as an Occupational Tool.  Within our After School Program we ended up dividing our large group in half and I would take half of the group to work on computer activities while she did Art Therapy with the other half then switch in the middle of the time.  The only thing I found is that my kids were more knowledgeable than I was as to how to get online to their favorite Game Sites while I was trying to find Educational programs for them to do.  That has given me the goal of trying to promote the use of computers as Educational Tools rather than Toys which I may try to include in our Democracy Commission small Grants proposal for our Summer Camp Program.                   Another Group I would like to start is a English and Armenian Speaking Movie Discussion Group.  I would like to find some English Movies that I could put Russian Subtitles on but I am sure like my host family people here would rather watch a Russian Dubbed Movie with English Subtitles.  I am planning to have my daughter ship a box to me that will include all of my Movie Collection that I copied before leaving and didn't have room to bring along.  I will probably do like everyone else and copy them to my hard drive.  But since I have filled up the 1 T Hard Drive on my Lap Top and on my External Hard Drive I will be having my Daughter pick up and ship a 3 T External Hard Drive for me so I can clean up my hard drives and back things up on my External Hard Drive.  After paying off my Digital Camera since arriving I also ordered online a new Cannon Digital Camcorder with 32 Gig of on board hard drive and a 64 Gig Flash Card so that I can start doing some serious Video Taping now that I will get started with the Peace Corps Public Relations Committee.  My 20 Megapixel Sony Camera does take fairly good videos but I believe I could make smaller Video Files to post online with a Camcorder.  For those of you who check out my Videos I post on Facebook with my Phone or Camera you can expect to see Video's coming from me especially since my camera came with WIFI accessibility and a WIFI turn table.  I may be able to set the camera in position and control it remotely with my I Pad or Phone to make better videos  and maybe even some nice nature photography where I can even get in the shot.  

     One of the things that has made the time go quickly is that despite the withdrawl all of us felt after leaving our Pre-Service Training Groups and being scattered to the four winds in Armenia we have had some holiday time to regroup and establish some new relationships with the Peace Corps Volunteers in our own areas.  After being in Stepanavan for less than two weeks all of our local Peace Corps Volunteers joined together to celebrate Thanksgiving in Vanadzor.  Since a Thanksgiving Celebration is a somewhat foreign concept here in Armenia even though there are some Harvest Festivals around local communities.  Most of them are more Wine or Potato Harvest Festival similar to our October Festivals in America.  But we did have some Peace Corps Volunteers find a Farmer willing to butcher a Turkey for us since we can't find them in a Grocery Store Freezer and none of us wanted that job.  We had great PCV Family Gatherings around Armenia that we invited some of our Armenian Friends to that helped to put us in the Thanksgiving mood.  

But after three more weeks we were ready to get together again for an early Christmas Celebration.  It was an opportunity for most of us to discover the Envoy Hostel in Yerevan which has become the home away from home for most Peace Corps Volunteers wanting to escape their rural setting and run around the big city.  I personally have found a hotel in Vanadzor to be a more practical get away since I don't know any PCV's with their own apartments that I can stay with yet when I want to get out of town.  Our Christmas Party was just the beginning of our long Christmas Holiday here in Armenia.  First I needed to work on deciding what online Gift Cards I needed to send home to my Children and Grand Children. Then I ended up shopping for Presents for fellow Peace Corps Volunteers and Host Family here in Armenia.  Christmas seemed to be a little bit of a let down here in Armenia since no one celebrated it on Dec. 25th even though the Evangelical Church did have their Christmas Program and Shoe Box Gift Distribution before then with volunteers that came from America.  But Maureen and I did take Christmas Day off to join Ina in her school to share the Christmas Story in Videos with Ina's English Class.  I did get to call family back home but of course I have to get used to us being 10 hours ahead of everyone so I am usually sleeping during the evenings when everyone is home from work.  So Holidays and Weekends tend to be the time to find people home in the afternoon before I go to bed.  Little did I know that in Armenia the Christmas Season starts in full swing the day before New Years.  Of course unless you are a part of a local host family you definitely feel left out of the Christmas Celebration unless you have gained a lot of close Armenian Friends who like to celebrate the season American style or who invite you to their family homes.  Like our Christmas has been commercialized and separated from the Spiritual Celebration of Christmas so the Armenian Christmas tends to down play Christmas Day but it does emphasis home gatherings of family and friends starting on New Years Eve and lasting through Christmas Day.  World Vision and Full Life NGO had all of their Christmas Parties the week before New Years complete with Santa and Gift Giving.  Santa's Helpers can come in all shapes and sizes as with our Full Life NGO party and everyone one looks forward to Santa coming to all the Children on New Years Day even though my host family did open their presents from me Christmas Eve Day since I put them under the tree American Style.  The kids here were anxious to open them since their presents are not put out until New Years morning after Santa Comes.   New Years Eve Parties are much more of a family gathering even though during the Evening and at Midnight there is a lot of Fire Works that individual families shoot off.  I chose to stay in Stepanavan thinking that I would enjoy more of a community celebration in the big city and I didn't expect to have anyone to visit with except for Ina in the small village of Kurtan where my Host family was going at 10 pm New Years Eve.  But I found things pretty quiet on the streets New Years Eve with no place open, everyone had gone home to their family gatherings, a few youth running around with a few in Santa Costumes, and the Fireworks being shot off were scattered all over the City.  I guess Kurtan did have more Fireworks than the year before and since it was a small town it was probably easier to see.  Next year I may choose to follow the example of some older Peace Corps Volunteers who have no host families and go to Yerevan to create their own New Years Eve Celebration.

Check out our Full Life NGO Christmas Party at this Link.

The New Years Celebration starts on New Years Eve Day with preparation for a whole week of gatherings with family and friends.  The Tables are laid out with food and set for a constant flow of family and friends for the next six days.  The visitors are offered a wide variety of food, fruit, and deserts to eat and always includes toasts to everyone for a great New Year.  This takes place all day long from after 10 am till 10 pm with popular families like my host father who is a Youth Pastor trying to figure out when they are going to visit other Families and Friends while being prepared to welcome guests into their own home.   All NGO's like World Vision and Full Life are closed down until the Kids go back to School on Jan. 12th and the main activity is visiting or entertaining Family and friends until Christmas Day.  I found myself not leaving the house for three days coming out to say hello to the new guests and since I don't know most of their family and friends going back to my room most of the time getting online since I couldn't understand most of the conversation and there was rarely much English spoken to me.  It was still a very interesting experience with plenty of food available.  I enjoyed the times when friends from Church came over and I shared in the toasts and conversation.

The culmination of the Festivities was the Christmas Celebration for those who went to Church.  I was invited by the Apostolic Priest friend of mine to their Christmas Eve Service at 5 pm at the Apostolic Church.  It was standing room only and ended two hours later with a Candle Lighting Ceremony where people lit their candles and then took the lit candles home with them.  Next year I will have to come prepared as some did with a candle holder to keep the flame from going out and protect your hands from the wax.

The Christmas Lights on the Stepanavan Town Square were very pretty on the way home and I enjoyed some Christmas Eve dinner with some fellow Bee Keeper Friends who were visiting from a neighboring town.

Christmas Day Worship included some old Armenian Hymns along with Silent Night and Familiar Armenian and American Songs.

Our Christmas Day Church gathering included a Church Leadership Family Dinner complete with toasts to the New Year and some Armenian Dancing before we were through.

I have enjoyed my Christmas, New Years, and Christmas Celebrations Armenian Style.  I am not sure that I will enjoy it quite as much when I am living it in an apartment on my own.  I may have to do like other Peace Corps Volunteers and organize their own gatherings to celebrate the holidays.  Most of our CYD Peace Corps Group choose to return to their Pre-Service Training Village in Aygapat and Aygazard and created their own family gatherings there.  That isn't always an option but here in Armenia New Years and Christmas is a time to gather with Family and Friends to bring in the New Year and to Celebrate the Birth of Jesus.  Now although January 7th is officially a Memorial Day Holiday when people go back to the Cemeteries to visit the grave of family who have passed on before them, Peace Corps Volunteers are having some Committee Meetings in Yerevan before returning home, and the Teachers will be going to some Teacher Training before their Schools start on Monday.  So the big Holiday Break is over and it is now time to go back to work.  So now I better finish this long Blog and get back to working on my Grant Writing before our deadlines in the next few weeks.  I have passed the last week enjoying listening to Armenian and American Christian Christmas Music online through Streema Radio.  It has been a good Holiday Season and it is time to go back to work.