Rain, Rain, and More Rain

There's something very comforting about listening to the rain beating against the rooftops, especially when you are warm and snuggled beneath a blanket. Add a good book and a cup of tea, and sitting close to someone you love, and it's just about perfect! With those criteria all checked off, today was pretty much perfect. It's been raining for two days now, and two more are expected. The first of many as we head into fall and then winter. Our street is now a river of sand and mud and walking to school is pretty treacherous. We live on a small but pretty steep hill, and it's all downhill to our schools. The town did add some gravel to our road earlier this fall, but much of that has now washed down the hill with the heavy rains. I haven't ventured out in this storm as I have been sick with yet another bad cold (2nd one in just inside a month). Not sure where these colds are coming from. Could be we are trading it back and forth, could be from the kids at school, or could be just different viruses here that we haven't adjusted to. Know knows.

Our school schedules have been revised again. This seems to be a pretty constant event at both of our schools. There is a handwritten schedule that you must check every afternoon to see which classes you will teach the next day. My work schedule is now down to 16 classes a week, and Fred teaches about the same. In the next month or so we will start our after-school English clubs. Still lots of work to do in deciding how many clubs and which students we will teach. And then there are at least two adult English classes in town that we will participate in. Lots to do for sure.

Last weekend we went to Yerevan for the weekend to have meetings with other volunteers about the various Peace Corps Initiatives here in Armenia. There are a lot of them. The V2 initiative is geared toward increasing voluneerism in the country, and there is a PR initiative focused on promoting Peace Corps and celebrating the 50th anniversary next year. There also is an IT initiative that works to increase IT skills (community and schools), an Environmental initiative (green camps and the like in the summer), an HIV-AIDS initiative, and one that deals with youth programs (summer camps for girls and also for boys). There are so many opportunities and it's hard to choose which program to get involved in. But involved we shall get in something before next spring.

Yerevan was lovely and it was nice to experience the city with Fred. We stayed at one of the local hostels and ours was filled with other volunteers. One of the guests was a really nice young guy from Mill Valley, CA who is traveling around the region before ending up in Israel for a few months of study (he is a student at Swarthmore in Pennsylvania). It was good to talk to someone who knew where we had lived and could appreciate some of the things we hold so dear about Marin County. We also got to hang out with lots of other volunteers, which is always fun and very entertaining.

This has been the week for PC volunteers to be in car accidents it seems. While there are driving rules in the country, they are mostly ignored. And people seem to drive as fast as they possibly can regardless of road and weather conditions. One volunteer was riding in a taxi that was in a rear-end collision. She is sore, but mostly ok. The other was in a taxi when a big truck cut in front of them for no apparent reason and they slid partially under the truck. The volunteer sitting in the front seat fortunately was wearing a seatbelt. The pictures make you wonder how he survived, but he did, with only minor cuts and bruises. One of his passengers wasn't quite as fortunate and now has many stitches across her forehead. Very sorry for all concerned. We are told in our safety classes to wear seatbelts, and now I know why. As winter approaches, we also will be checking the condition of tires on the vehicles in which we ride. And also whether they have seat belts, as many cars do not.

So we are staying in Noyemberyan for the next few months, although we may be tempted to visit other parts of the country during our fall break. We are well for the most part, and continually adjusting to new things. One of these days we will be settled, at least we hope so. Language classes continue, and we are moving at glacial speed toward fluency. That's all for now.