End of the Year Update

Hi everyone. Thanks for reading our blog! It's hard to believe that we have been here for 7 months now. The time has gone very quickly, at least most of the time. We spent Christmas with 27 other Peace Corps Volunteers (PCVs) in a town near Lake Sevan. We were spread around the 4 apartments of the PCVs who live there, sleeping on the floor in sleeping bags. It couldn't have been more fun! We ate incredibly good food (home-made egg rolls, meatballs, cheese, fruit, chicken with dressing, beet salad, and yummy desserts), went for walks, slept late and really enjoyed our time. For some of us, it was the first time to be away from our families. It was just so nice being with other Americans to celebrate this very special holiday. The weather was quite cold (well below freezing), which made it feel very much like Christmas.



We came home for two days and then set out for a small vacation in Tbilisi, Georgia. It's only 70 km from here, but not the easiest place to get to. Our neighbor was kind enough to give us a ride, but we had to wait in a long line of cars for more than 2 hours because the computers were down and couldn't read any passports. Very frustrating to say the least. There are 4 different checkpoints, 2 on the Armenian side (to check passports and visas) and 2 on the Georgian side (to check visas and passports). And both sides stamp your passports. Finally, we made it to Tbilisi. It has the feel of a big European city, but is very easy to get around in. We stayed at a "homestay" (people rent out rooms in their homes), and they advertised 24-hour hot water and heated rooms. Well, not exactly. There was indeed hot water for showers, but the bathroom was around 40 degrees. We passed. And our room, while quite large, was impossible to heat. We slept with our clothes on and barely managed to stay warm. But that was the only downside.



We absolutely loved Tbilisi. It is a very walkable city, but also had a good subway system. Our homestay was very near a subway stop, so it cost about a quarter to get downtown to the sites. There is a beautiful old town, with cobblestone streets and unique architecture that makes it look somewhat like the French Quarter in New Orleans.






And the Georgian cuisine is fantastic. We ate grilled eggplant and roasted tomatoes, an excellent beef soup, and several different kinds of dumplings (called khingali). Although there was a McDonalds's, we avoided the golden arches. Some of the PCVs we met lived there, but we ate local food where we could. We also found some excellent cafes with good tea and coffee. Not to mention the local hachipuri (sort of an inside out pizza with yummy cheese on the inside).

As far as sights, there is a beautiful fortress on the hill that offers incredible views of Tbilisi. We climbed up there one day, and wandered through the botanical gardens too. We spent much of our time wandering around the old town, and went to the sulfur baths where for $20 we got a private room with a dressing room (complete with couches, sink, and bathroom) and a bathing room with a very hot sunken tub, a marble slab to cool off on, and a shower. We haven't been that relaxed in quite a while.








Our second night there we ran into 10 other PCVs from Armenia. That was a lot of fun and we all ate dinner together at a pretty good Thai place. Best we've had so far. We also met two volunteers who are serving in Azerbaijan. It was really interesting talking to them about how their host country nationals view Armenia, and vice versa. As you can imagine, both countries see the same events quite differently. At our homestay, we also met a guy from Turkey. Again, it was really interesting to talk about how his country sees Armenia, and some of the issues faced by both countries.



There are lots of amazing things about Tbilisi, but perhaps the best thing we saw is the Christmas decorations. Truly beautiful and over-the-top lights everywhere. There is one main street (Rustavelli) with lights both overhead and on all the buildings. Every square also was decorated. We never saw Yerevan when it was all decked out, but it's hard to imagine how anything could be better than Tbilisi. Too bad we couldn't stay for New Years! But maybe next year.

We are now getting ready for New Year's here--Nor Tari. It it the biggest holiday so far, and people spend days cooking sweets, salads, dolmas, and a variety of other things. We will go to Fred's counterpart's home at 11:30 tonight to ring in the new year. Our neighbor just brought us a chicken to eat (freshly killed and plucked, thank you very much), and I was over there watching her make dolmas. Now I will go upstairs to see what our other neighbors are making, and then it's time to do a little cooking of our own. I will attempt to make some sort of blonde brownie thing that requires baking powder. Alas, there is no baking powder anywhere within 200 km of our town. So, it will be another experiment. Hopefully this one will turn out ok!

The Nor Tari tradition is still a bit of a mystery. It seems that today and this evening is for family, and starting tomorrow and for the next week (thru January 6) is a full scale party where everyone visits everyone else. We will report back in our next blog.

This has been a year full of changes and adjustments and more changes. We look forward with much anticipation to what the next year will bring. Until the next blog, we wish everyone a very happy New Year.

Some Things to Love About Armenia

On any given day, there are lots of things we could point to as being difficult in this country. But perhaps the better way to look at it is to focus on the things we love. With that attitude, everything seems to look just a little bit brighter. So, for example, we could complain because we don't have hot water at all. The better way to state this is to say how grateful we are that we have water every few days and can fill up our bottles, buckets and bathtub. It is with this attitude in mind that I write this update.

I love that I have the opportunity to experience something new every few days. I love that the marshutni driver can effortlessly pass five cars (I counted) going into a blind curve while talking on his cell phone and having a conversation with the person in the back row. I love that the version of winter we are having right now has temperatures hovering in the 50s during the day. I love that on our visit to our first host family this weekend they welcomed us with open arms. I love that the neighbors in our apartment building actually notice when we are gone and seem to miss us. I love that so far we are the only people in town who have put up Christmas lights on their balcony for everyone in town to see, should they be looking. I love that I no longer want to yell out in panic when someone is tailgating so closely that I can read the very small print on the back of the car in front of me. I love that I can listen to music on my iPhone rather than succumb to panic because I am not driving. I love the challenges we face in just living here.

We do have it better than most. We have a pretty nice 2-room apartment. We are in good health, and have access to good health care if we are not. We are warm, and we have food in the cupboards. We are supported by a whole staff of Peace Corps professionals who go out of their way to make sure our needs are met. We generally like our jobs and the people with whom we work. We love the kids in our town. Actually, we love all the kids here. And we truly love the people. They are a continuing source of inspiration on so many levels.

So this weekend we went "home" to visit our first host family. I had forgotten how much I loved the simplicity of life in a small (750 people) village. Much like the old TV show "Cheers", it was nice to go back where everybody in fact knew our name, not just our business. Our host family recently suffered a terrible loss--our host dad's brother was killed by a hit-and-run driver in Yerevan. The driver has not been found, nor is he likely to be. Apparently this happens pretty regularly in Yerevan, and is a reminder to be very careful crossing the street. Last week two people were killed in separate incidents across from the Peace Corps office, on a street we regularly cross. Sort of like dodge ball, but with cars and much more serious results if you don't judge things exactly right.

So it is an incredibly sad time for the family, and we are so grateful we could be there to spend time with them. In the midst of their grief, they were happy to have us come stay with them. They prepared a feast in our honor, and we got to sit and watch some of the video from their oldest daughter's recent wedding. And we all paused when that favorite uncle was in one of the pictures, to remark on how much we loved him, and how much he loved life.

We left our first host family for the trip back to our current home and it was a quick trip. But how nice to be asked why we had to leave to early, and when we could come back. Our first marshutni ride was quite an adventure--mostly because everyone wanted to know about the Americans (Amerikatsi) on the bus. Why did we leave the U.S. to come to Armenia, when most Armenians want to go to the U.S.? We even had a mini-English lesson with one of the passengers. After a while, they were satisfied that we were in our right minds, and they really seemed to appreciate that we loved their village, their country, and their people, and could communicate (sort of) in their language. The driver didn't even charge us for the ride, as acknowledgment of the relationship with our host family. Pretty unheard of in the U.S. I think.

The rest of our trip home was pretty uneventful, and we are now back working on preparing tests for our 10th and 11th grade students. We are back to school tomorrow. Then school is out for two weeks for the New Year ("nor tari") holidays. We plan to celebrate Christmas with some other volunteers, which will definitely be a lot of fun. Although we will both miss being with our families and friends.

To all of you back home (in the U.S. and Europe) reading this, we wish you the best of holiday seasons. We will celebrate here without you, but you will be close to us in our hearts.

Thanksgiving in Armenia

Thanks to the hard work of a number of fellow volunteers, we had an amazing Thanksgiving dinner in Yerevan last week. All the volunteers got together for meetings and socializing, and Monday night we celebrated Thanksgiving together. Added bonus was staying in a hotel with hot, running water and a view of Mt. Ararat (smog permitting).

[Fred's photo caption: one view from our hotel room; in the other direction we overlooked the presidential residence and the Hrazdan River Gorge.]

I got to be on the pie committee, and we made 25 pies in just over 4 hours--apple, lemon meringue, pumpkin and walnut (excellent substitute for pecan by the way). Other volunteers brined the turkeys, cut up bread for stuffing, boiled sweet potatoes, carrots and potatoes, and all the rest that made up our yummy dinner. Dinner was turkey, gravy, dressing, mashed potatoes, pumpkin souffle, roasted sweet potatoes with brown sugar glaze, and green been casserole. We also had "sweet" butter for the bread that was made with butter, brown sugar and cinnamon.

[Fred's photo caption: volunteers eating turkey, or as it's called here, Indian chicken.]

[Fred: More volunteers - the other side of the room.]

The evening was capped off with a volunteer talent show, and some of our PCVs are pretty darned talented. I particularly liked Joel's Brittany Spears sing-along! Evenings were full of optional activities like knitting, photography, media sharing, movie night and games. Lots of fun just sitting around with other volunteers talking about what they've been doing and what they're planning. So while things are difficult in many areas of our lives, this was one chance for PCVs to be very thankful for what we have--our families back home, and our Peace Corps family here in Armenia.

Being in Yerevan allowed us the opportunity to go shopping for things we can't get here, including an amazing nut, dried fruit and spice shukah (market) where things are sold by the kilogram (nuts and fruit), or glass (large or small). We were able to buy some good curry powder, ground ginger and flax seed, none of which we can get locally. We also found soy sauce (Russian for around $2 v. the Kikkoman at $15 for a small bottle) and a few other goodies. Still searching for Q-tips instead of generics. And we also got flue shots, and had dental appointments and the like.

[Fred's photo caption: Plastic Christmas trees for sale outside Rossia, a big market and bus station in Yerevan. Most Christmas decorations we saw for sale in Yerevan were, fortunately, at the other extreme of the tacky-vs-sophisticated spectrum.]

But it's nice to be home after being gone for a week. We arrived around 5:30 last night, and neighbors came out of their doors to welcome us home, invite us for dinner and tea. There's a lot to be said for our community here. We're back at school tomorrow, and it will be good to be back in our regular routines. Still not terribly cold here, although it's pretty drizzly and gray. Our trip back on the minibus (marshutni) yesterday was through pea-soup fog at just about the same time as the herds of sheep, cows and goats were heading home. Very interesting how our driver didn't brake much and still managed to miss every single animal.

Speaking of animals, winter is particularly difficult for all the homeless dogs and cats. How I wish there was a local shelter, but there just isn't. It's heartbreaking at times to see the animals and how they have to live. Some will make it through the winter, others will not. Unfortunately we don't have the resources to address the issue. With unemployment at over 50% (or so it seems), there are more important things to do here. Like teach English! So for tonight, I will start working on lessons for tomorrow.

Hike-O-Rama

Today was the first day in a few without fog or an excessive amount of smoke. So after a delicious breakfast of french toast with peanut butter and syrup (not maple, unfortunately, because we can't get it, but it was good enough), we set out on a hike to the place where Fred's 8th graders had taken him last weekend. The pictures speak for themselves. We walked an hour and a half into the hills to the west of our town, on dirt roads, through fields of cows, to the top of a mountain.

This is one of about 10 baby pigs that were out on the trail with their mother, older sister and we think father. We didn't get close enough to find out.

This man lives up on the hill and we passed by his house on our way to and from home. He very kindly invited us to sit with him as we hiked along the mud road. He was delightful, and so welcoming, as all Armenians seem to be.

This bus ain't goin' nowhere! There are thousands of these all over the country.

We brought a tripod and took this picture looking out over the valley. What a beautiful spot! And a nice looking couple to boot!

Cows.

Cows behind a fence.

Home sweet home, on the way back to town. Not our home however.

A view of central Noyemberyan with the schools and most of the apartment buildings. The red structure in the upper left is a memorial to the "Great Patriotic War." You'll have to google that to see what we are talking about.

November in Armenia

We have been incredibly fortunate with the weather in November -- so far! The days have been sunny and warm, and the nights mostly warm enough that we have only had to turn on the heater a few times. Having spent the past few winters in New England, we are used to layering as the temperatures are certain to start dropping soon. Hopefully we can keep our heating costs within our budget. We also hear stories of people having to melt snow to get water, and we hope that those are stories from the past, and not stories from our future! Our wonderful neighbor helped us buy and install a gas heater this week. One of the things we continue to be amazed by is the warmth and generosity of the people in our town. Whatever we need, or whatever questions we have, there is always someone offering to help us in one way or another. Living in our building, and in the community in general, is like being part of a big family. Quite comforting when our own families are so far away.

This week I started two English clubs in my school. One group is 13-15 year olds (mixed boys and girls), and the other is 14-15 year olds (all girls). There are, as you can imagine, some striking differences between the two clubs. It's a bit of a challenge to teach only in English, so I have to speak very slowly and clearly. And use a dictionary when all else fails. The kids are wonderfully forgiving, and most are very eager to learn. When asked about interests though, most spoke about friends and family (one of the boys was brave enough to say he was interested in beautiful girls). I was surprised that travel wasn't on anyone's list. Much different than what I would find in the states I think. The clubs will be a lot of fun and an opportunity to teach in a non-traditional environment. I expect we will all learn together, and I hope I can make it enjoyable for them. Fred will be starting his clubs soon, and we both expect to be teaching English some in the community to both adults and children.

I looked at the calendar today and realized that Thanksgiving is only a week away. This is the first year in a while that we won't be spending it either with my sister and brother and their families or with close friends. Thanksgiving obviously is not a holiday in Armenia, so I think that makes it somewhat easier. I do see turkeys around, but am told they won't be eaten until the big holiday here--New Years. And even then, we don't have things like stuffing, cranberry sauce, squash, or green bean casserole! But the reality of going through the upcoming holiday season without our families and close friends is difficult to contemplate. So I am taking the approach that I will think of it tomorrow . . . maybe. Fred's mom was going to come visit us at Christmas, but she has decided not to travel. I think that's a good idea, especially as travel is really difficult here in the winter when the roads are icy. We have talked about visiting other volunteers, and also of going to Tbilisi, Georgia for a few days. I think that being away from our family and friends may be a little easier if we have plans ourselves.

I have to say that the letters, e-mails and care packages sent my family and friends have been awesome. Thank you one and all. While we do our best to just eat the local food, there are times when peanut butter on some bread, or macaroni and cheese, go a long way toward making our lives comfortable. We are so very grateful that people have taken the time, and spent the money, to send us packages.

So as we approach the holidays, and Thanksgiving in particular, we want to wish each of you who reads our blog a wonderful holiday. We are thankful for the opportunity to be here in Armenia, and we are very, very thankful for each of you. Your love, support and friendship are making these two years fly by. Most of the time anyway.

Vanadzor, Ijevan, Berd and Noyember in November

We've got nothing dramatic to tell. Life is quiet but a little busy, for reasons I can't quite understand. Maybe we shouldn't have signed up for that unlimited internet access. But maybe it's a good thing: I can upload pictures to this blog without too many worries about the charges. So here goes.


Here's Susan at a market in Vanadzor, city of markets, a couple of weeks ago. Here we're in an area where mostly clothes are sold.

A view of downtown Ijevan from Andy & Nicole's home. Ijevan is the capital of our region, Tavush.

This is the square at the heart of Berd, another town in Tavush. We visited David Boggs and participated in a teacher training workshop.

Home again in the Noy: this is a view west from a street a couple of blocks uphill from our apartment building. It's still mostly green here.

That's all, folks.

Mshkavank

Today was a great day. David Coe, a Peace Corps volunteer who has been in Noy for a year but is moving to a different site in a week, took Danelle, Susan and me on a hike to Mshkavank (Mishkvank?), an abandoned monastery up in the forests above town. It was foggy, it drizzled, it was muddy: everything you can ask for in a great hike.

The main event - what David called the fun route - was climbing up a steep gully of slippery mud and slippery wet leaves, maybe 200-300 meters in distance. It took us more than an hour. It wasn't just that you couldn't find a foothold in the mud or that it was so steep you could almost touch the ground without leaning into the slope; there was nothing to grab onto either. That old Bushwhacker hike leader in me came out again - slave driver and helping hand at the same time - but everyone survived.

After the gully it got just a little easier - it wasn't as muddy, but it remained steep. I did not mention the Blair Witch movie once.

Once at the top of the ridge David led us to a so-called road, barely discernible under the leaves and not much to drive on under the best of conditions.

But it led to the vank, which was maybe the best one I've seen in Armenia. It could be that the circumstances of the visit and the isolated location of the building, with a thicket of thorny bushes surrounding it, made the place seem extra mysterious.

The monastery is about two kilometers from town as the crow flies, but in more than four hours of hiking we saw one person - a man leading a donkey that was pulling a couple of small felled tree trunks out of the forest. It just didn't seem like the time and place to whip out a camera and take a picture of the bewildered guy.

The road home was easier, except for the mud. There were times we were sliding more than we were walking.

We made it home just before dark. There was barely enough light to see whether we managed to scrape most of the mud off our boots. Dinner was Annie's Shells - gourmet macaroni & cheese - straight from a recent care package. I think we'll sleep well tonight.

Moving Day and Other Events

We have now moved into our own apartment in town. We are very happy to be out on our own, but very sad to have to leave our wonderful host mom. I could go on for pages and pages about her, but I won't--at least not now. So our apartment is a one bedroom on the third floor of a soviet-era 5-story walk-up. We have a pretty big living room, a kitchen, enclosed balcony and bathroom. All our stuff is here (took two car trips and numerous foot trips) and we are slowly getting unpacked. The view from the balcony is pretty nice too.

One of our biggest challenges so far (aside from the usual lack of water issue) has been food. We have been so spoiled with our host mom doing all the cooking and shopping that we really didn't know what to do our first night here. Which store to go to? Where do we buy vegetables, meat, etc.? It's been a learning experience for sure. Tonight I made lentil soup for dinner with meltable cheese on top. The soup had carrots and onions in it, and some really nice spices thanks to our dear friend Deborah in San Francisco. We've been making oatmeal for breakfast and then just snacking when we come home for lunch. Thankfully Peace Corps gives us a wonderful cookbook. My challenge is getting American recipes out of my head and substituting Armenian ingredients. But again, the cookbook is invaluable because it lists the availability of ingredients by month. So for vegetables, we are quickly coming upon the season where the only things we can get are cabbage, potatoes, beets, carrots and onions. I am craving "green" food, but have to wait until spring when asparagus comes into season. In the U.S. you really do get so used to being able to buy anything you want at any time of year. Not so in Armenia.

So I was teaching a class the other day and another teacher walked in and asked four of the boys to leave the class for some reason or other. When class was over I was walking to the teacher's lounge and came across the boys from class (and a group of other boys) watching a classmate assemble and disassemble an army rifle. It was a timed contest too! Later in the afternoon, that same rifle was sitting in the teacher's lounge. This is probably very usual in schools here, but it was a bit alarming to me. Does this kind of thing happen in the states? It sure didn't at any school I went to, but then it's been a while since I was in school.

And speaking of school, we are about to start after school English clubs. The other volunteers have been really great sharing ideas and helpful hints. My school director wants the clubs open to all students, and it's going to be interesting to see how many students express an interest. I've asked them to write me a paragraph about why they want to be in the club, and then I'll conduct interviews with those who submit and narrow down the group after that. Lots to do for sure.

Next week is a vacation week and schools are closed, at least for the students. Teachers still have to go in, but we have the week off. We're hoping to travel to some other places next week and see a bit of the country before winter sets in and travel becomes difficult (ice, snow, etc.). But more about that in another post.

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.

Pictures

I've posted some pictures on a different page, mostly just from around town. Didn't want to clutter up this blog.

All of them were taken with an aging iPhone, so the quality isn't the best.

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School Daze

We are now into the fourth week of school and life is beginning to settle into a routine. Both of us have a full workload of about 20 classes a week, including Saturday classes. School here currently is six days a week, although there are rumors it may change to a five-day week in the next few years. We are teaching everything from third grade to eleventh grade. Most of the instructions to students are in Armenian, so there are daily challenges to understand what is being said. Both of us love our schools, our counterparts (the other English teachers), and especially the students.

We have encouraged the students we teach to talk to us when we are out and about in town, so everywhere we go there is usually a chorus of "hello" and "how are you". Each class begins with "good morning/afternoon children", to which the students reply "good morning/afternoon teacher. How are you?" We then say "I am fine. How are you?" The students then say "I am fine thank you." And then they sit down and class begins.

On Sunday afternoon we went with a group of Fred's 8th graders on a short hike to a small church outside of town. We were gone for 3 1/2 hours and the kids could have stayed longer. We played soccer (football), had sack races, ate some food, and even spoke a little English. The kids had a blast, and so did we. We can't say enough wonderful things about the children. They are amazing in every way and we love being around them.

This weekend we will head to a meeting with our counterparts where we will learn some techniques for team teaching. It's a pretty new idea for many teachers, and we are looking forward to getting some practical knowledge to use in our classes. It also will be nice to be away and to stay in a real hotel for two nights. And of course to see the other TEFL volunteers who are scattered around the country. Some of our fellow teachers are as much as 14 hours away from us by public transit. The closest are still two hours away, so we haven't done much visiting yet. We have a one week break at the end of October and hopefully the weather will be nice enough that we can go see some sights in the southern part of the country.

We continue with Armenian lessons three times a week and little by little we are learning how to speak, read and write. Sometimes the progress feels very slow, but at least it's progress. Okay, back to school for the last class of the day.

Traveling and Hostel Stays in Armenia

I have finally gotten the chance to experience the challenges of public transit in Armenia. On Thursday, I rode on my first marshutni (mini-van) from our village to the Capital. Fortunately I had one of the local people help me buy a ticket and I was able to get the front seat by the window. The roads between here and the capital are very windy with lots of switchbacks. Not so good for someone like me who gets carsick even when I drive. But our trip there was smooth and fast with only a hint of nausea on the way. We actually get incredibly close to Azerbaijan on the road, and can see the Armenian and Azerbaijan army bunkers with soldiers at the ready. But that's another story.

So having successfully gotten to Yerevan, I managed to find a metro station (yes, I asked where it was in Armenian) and met some other volunteers near Republic Square. We walked to the hostel were the volunteers stay when they come to town. Here's a plug for the Envoy Hostel if you're ever in Yerevan. For 5500 dram a night (about US $15), you get clean sheets, a bed, blanket, pillow, hot shower, bathrooms with toilets that flush, and breakfast. Quite a deal.

I was never in a dorm in college, and now I know what I missed (there are both good and bad to this, but only the good is reported here). In our room, we filled the 8 bunks with both men and women ranging in age from 20s to 60s. It actually was a lot of fun laying around in PJs and talking until late in the evening. And I have to say that the showers at this place are unbelievably good--especially when you come from a village with little or no water. It was awesome.

So Saturday morning I had to figure out how to get home. I could have taken the easy way out and called someone to make arrangements for me, but I figured now was as good a time as ever to see what I could do on my own. I found a bus stop and got on a bus to go to the main bus station to buy my ticket. Having located the bus station, the next challenge was to find a place to buy tickets. First, I had to remember the Armenian word for ticket! Somehow, it all came together and I bought a ticket for the 2:30 bus back to Noyemberyan.

Then I had to get back to the hostel--easier said than done. The bus numbers going TO the city and different from those coming FROM the city. So, another chance to practice my Armenian. And of course every bus going where I wanted to go was completely overcrowded. 20+ people in a space meant for 10. I finally managed to get on a bus going in what I hoped was the right direction. Much to my surprise, I wound up reasonably close to where I intended to go and only had about a 10 minute walk back to the hostel.

One of the great things about meeting up with other volunteers, especially those who have been here for a while, is that they know where things are--like good breakfasts, coffee, shopping, etc. Several of us went out for french toast, bacon and REAL maple syrup. It was awesome!

Ok, so now for my trip home. I am now an old hand at getting to and from the bus station. So, I got back on another bus and arrived in time to get on the marshutni heading home. It was pretty full, but I managed to get a seat right behind the driver with a space next to me for my bags. That stoke of luck was not to last. A woman flagged us down and took up not only her seat next to me, but half of mine as well. Not to mention that it was incredibly hot and she must have come from a place with no water like me. For the next four hours I was crammed into a very small space with little or no ventilation. People here are afraid of having a breeze on them as they are convinced they will get sick (they may actually be right in some of this). Add to this all the curvy roads, and I was not a happy camper! Plus, we actually had to stop so two of the passengers could get out and drink beer!!

The trip home took a very, very long 4 hours (compared to 3 going down). We drove through rain, dense fog, and wind. I have to say that I was glad to arrive in one piece. With no air coming in, I was really, really carsick by the time we got here. Also, the drivers seem to pay little attention to the double lines in the middle of the road, and on highways with 4 lanes they drive wherever they want--passing on the left, right, into the breakdown lane, whatever. I loved passing trucks on curves in the fog when you couldn't see in front of you 10 feet. And if there had been a cow in the road (not an unusual proposition by any means), I don't even want to think what would have happened.

So we are going to Yerevan again on Wednesday. Now, the big question . . . do we take a taxi or a marshutni? Tune in next week for the next exciting installment of Travel in Armenia. . .

About water

In a country where water supply as a norm is intermittent, unreliable and of poor quality, our town is infamous for having it even worse. During the five weeks we've been here, we've had running water for a few minutes or a couple of hours only every four to eight days: the cisterns, barrels and buckets in our apartment do run dry. Some apartments in the neighborhood get less, and not everyone has cisterns, barrels and buckets like our Hamest does.

When there's running water, it's an event: we fill the buckets and cisterns, wash the dishes, go to the bathroom, shower, do some laundry — quickly, because we don't know for how long it will keep flowing. People who live higher up in the building don't get as much, apparently.

Even the spring water that's kept in bottles in the kitchen for drinking and cooking has run low at times, but that supply is readily replenished by a car trip a couple of kilometers out of town to some roadside spring up in the hills. Luckily Hamest has a car. And somehow everyone manages, although it isn't always easy. I hear it can be worse. In the winter people melt snow. In case you wonder, Susan and I drink no water that comes from the city supply, and we always run the spring water through the Peace Corps filters. Armenians don't really drink water, except when they use it to make coffee.

Still, the lack of water affects a lot of things: how fast you walk (not fast), when you stick your head outside the house (not during the hot hours), when you wash your dishes (all at once), how often you go to the bathroom (less often, unless you have an outhouse or don't have to flush for some other reason), whether you exercise (duh), etc. And you don't want to leave your home empty in the evenings lest the water comes on and there's no one there to fill everything up.

School, a mountain

I've now had three days of school.

The picture below is from the opening ceremony of the school year, showing some of the students interspersed with a couple of teachers and parents. Mostly we stood and waited.

This is not like any other job I've had. It's not even close to teaching at the Boston Academy of English, which is where Susan and I got our TEFL certifications. I work with three teachers, including my counterpart, Aghun, whom I'm very grateful for. Having had a couple of volunteers before, she knows what she's doing. I will teach kids from nine years old to 17, absolute beginner to fairly advanced - sometimes in the same class. My focus is conversation, but I help where I can.

One area of opportunity here is that the slow students are abandoned: teachers apparently see no point in making an effort to bring the slow students to a level where they can even follow what's going on in the class. There are reasons why students give up on many classes: they can pick the topics that will get them into university, and they don't see the need to study the other subjects. The slow students are still moved up every year, so there's a huge disparity in abilities in the same classroom.

I know I can't convey what the full experience is like, but I can at least list some of the ingredients, so here goes: the smell of burning trash coming in from the school yard; the oppressive heat of the sun entering in our south-facing room through the plastic sheets that cover the windows because winter will return one day; the once-an-hour rush of children in black dress shoes, neat black slacks or skirts and crisp white shirts; their sense of wonder at this foreign entity in their midst (me); the teachers' room next door full of matronly ladies with long flowery dresses (my coworkers); the barrel of water in the men's room, for flushing the squat toilets; the unfamiliar teaching methods employed by most teachers here; the recycled, outdated, unimaginative text books that are full of cute briticisms and other, less endearing errors; the tired wooden floors, the walls, the old desks...

This picture is from the English classroom. We're fortunate to have one: as far as I can understand, teachers in Armenia usually go from one room to the next. I will eventually take pictures of the students too, but for now I don't want to act like I'm there to see the exotic natives.

Last Sunday our host family took us on a trip way up in the mountains above town: the area looks almost inhabited, covered in forests and small fields, but there are little groups of low shacks here and there that are summer homes to families that come up with their cattle. Some apparently live there all year. Hamest, our home mother, used to live there in the summers as a child. Everyone has a dog, and these are herding dogs, not city dogs, so their temperament is different. Some look like wolves - and there are wolves up there. Hamest's father told us there are bears too in some areas, although I'm not sure there are all that many left. The landscape is incredibly beautiful, with ridge after mountain ridge covered in forest and pasture. It's much wilder-looking than anything in Western Europe. We saw no other roads than the dirt bump ride we were on, and the map doesn't show any either.

We went to the top of a mountain called Mets Gogdagh: it's not that high by Caucasus standards, only 2,000m (6,000 feet), like Lake Tahoe. But the 360-degree view was incredible. At the very top, there was a little stone circle around some carved stones with crosses on them, sort of like a little church without walls; we walked three times around the stones and then lit candles. Hamest's mother in law sacrificed a chicken from her own shack and stuck the feet and head between some rocks. The picture shows Mher (Hamest's younger son, who studies in Yerevan) and Robert (a nephew of Hamest who is in on of my classes). The car in the background is a Lada Niva 4-wheel drive - proof that the Soviet Union could produce some capable, sturdy technology.

From there we went to a spring/picnic area and had khorovats (fatty pork barbecued on the embers of a wood fire) for a few hours. A stray dog came by, but nothing else happened. As always at these places, there was spring water gushing out of a tap nearby. On our way home we visited a family Hamest and her father know and greeted them and their cows. Life for these people is truly reduced to its essentials: Americans on a camping trip live far better than they do. Well, at least the Americans have more STUFF, for better and worse!

Baboulia

Today we went to a memorial event for Hamest's grandmother ("baboulia"), who died a year ago. They hold these events every anniversary after someone has died, it seems. About 60-70 people, almost all relatives, showed up at the grave - somewhat like a small monument - in a graveyard at the top of a desolate hill overlooking a beautiful valley about 20km from here, under an intense sun. There was no religious ceremony, but the brother of the deceased held a short emotional speech and then one by one everyone took a pinch of what I assume was salt from a bowl and dropped it in a small fire of twigs and grass.

After the usual waiting around, we all drove to the late grandmother's home, in a village called Ayrum. To get to the house - or neighborhood, actually - we had to cross a railroad yard with several tracks: on the other side were a cluster of buildings in which (we were told) 10 families live. Susan and I got a small tour of the grandmother's house and were introduced to various relatives: we've now been introduced to so many people that it's difficult to keep track of everyone. If I can remember that I've met them before I'm happy.

And then we all ate, all 60-70 of us: one table with just men, another with women, and then a third with a mix - which is of course were we ended up. The youngest women did all the serving. A good time was had under the vines. We met some interesting people. The picture is of Hamest and a niece of hers, Lorena, who speaks good English. Top right you can see one of the kids watching a Soviet-era locomotive go by.

Then it was back to the apartment, where David watches movies. I've seen Godzilla (the newest one, yawn), all of Clint's spaghetti westerns (gotta love'm), 'From Paris with Love' (Travolta in a French "action" movie), various Jurassic Park movies (yes, they're all the same), a Quentin Tarantino movie about a shootout between a Mexican drug lord and his brother (now that's action!), and I forget what else. All of it dubbed in Russian, which keeps everything extra interesting.

Our park

It's the kind of park every town should have: one that people use. This picture was taken just after the sun had set, but the park remains as crowded until at least midnight. It's truly wonderful. And safe. Kids, old people, ice cream eaters, mothers, but mostly teens, of course. The strongest thing I've seen anyone consume is ice cream (that would be us). Of course, everyone knows everyone else here, so there's a fair amount of gossip. They're all aware that we're the American volunteers in town, and there have been about a dozen before us over the years, so we don't get too many stares or too many people coming up to us to practice their English.

Hot days

This is Noyemberyan in the evening, looking southeast. We live just outside the picture to the left, but the roofs of our schools are visible beyond the two houses in the foreground.

We get up late and then spend most of our daytime hours indoors, where it's cooler, at least in front of the fan. In the evenings we somehow tend to end up in the park eating ice cream. Not that we don't have things to do, but it's nice to take it slow after our rather intense 10 weeks of pre-service training.

Home sweet home, Noyemberyan

Long ago when I was still living in San Francisco, I believe in the mid-1980s, I had this dream: I was moving through the southern parts of the city - some neighborhood I didn't know that well - when suddenly I realized I had travelled quite far and ended up in Armenia. I was approaching the top of a hill, and on the sun-drenched slope in front of and below me were houses scattered on both sides of the street. The atmosphere was calm but also a little eerie. At the time I had no idea why I would dream of Armenia: it was still a rather obscure Soviet Republic, and my mind's choice of destination seemed entirely random.  Few other dreams have been as vivid or stayed with me nearly as long, but I also didn't dwell much on what this particular dream might have meant.

Yet those images from my long-ago sleep returned vividly to my mind when we first rounded the bend in the highway that brings the town into view. There are some minor differences between what I saw in my 1980s sleep and the reality of Noyemberyan, but the similarities are overwhelming. The whole dream was drenched in a sepia tone, and the sun was setting in front of me, whereas in reality the sun was merely moving toward evening on my left, and the light was a bit hard, with deep shadows and grey metal roofs.

I want to add one note: much as we wanted to come to Armenia once we had applied to the Peace Corps in spring 2009 and started to talk about where we'd want to end up, I never once thought of the dream, and our deliberations seemed far removed from any sentimental motives. Susan didn't know about this dream, and if anything she wanted to come here more than I did. It wasn't until half-way through training, when we found out where our site placement was back in early July, that my dream popped up again in my head. The long and short of it is that I can't make too much out of this, yet I am happy that by all appearances one small dream of mine seems to have come true.

We Are Peace Corps Volunteers!

After 10 long weeks of pre-service training, we were officially sworn in by the U.S. Ambassador to Armenia on Thursday, August 5. We had one last horovats (barbeque) with our wonderful host family and some other volunteers who had lived in our village last year. Then we packed up our belongings for the trip to our permanent site in Noyemberyan, Armenia. Friday morning all 55 volunteers met for one last time in Charentsavan. We loaded up all our backpacks, suitcases, bags and boxes, which somehow had managed to nearly double in size in 10 weeks, and drove off in a variety of taxis, cars and vans. Some faced a 9+ hour drive, others only 30 minutes. We dropped off two volunteers in Sevan, one volunteer and two currently serving volunteers in Ichevan, and the remaining three of us in Noyemberyan.

Our original host family changed when our host mom fell and broke both her legs. We can only imagine how difficult that is for the family as the mom did all the cooking and was an integral part of the family cheese-making business. Hopefully we will be able to visit her at home once she is out of the hospital. They are a wonderful family, and we thought it best not to add to their daily routing by having to take care of two more people.

We now are living in another apartment with a woman who lost her husband to the war in 1991. She has two grown sons who live in Yerevan. She is the librarian at our schools, so all the kids in the town know her. She speaks some English, but we’re trying to get her to speak only Armenian so our language skills will continue to improve. Our living quarters are modest and water is going to be a constant challenge.

Last night we drove up into the hills to a spring and filled all available bottles with water. We still have to filter it through our Peace Corps water filter, but the water is cold and fresh. And a luxury for most people. Our new host mom also took us to meet her mother-in-law. She is a widow and speaks only Russian and Armenian. Her first question to me was “how old are you” and both she and our host mom refused to believe I am 61. They are my new best friends for sure. Our host mom regularly goes to her house to help her, and she has a wonderful garden with beets, peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers and grapes. Everything here is organic, mostly I think because fertilizer is so expensive.

When we stopped at the bank to get money last night we met some girls who will be starting at university in Yerevan in the fall. They were so excited to find someone to speak English with, and we were delighted to speak with them. It has been a while since there were volunteers here to work in the schools, and now there are two. We expect to be very, very busy both with teaching and then with English clubs after school. Our challenge is going to be not to take on too much as there is much to do here.

School will not start until September 1, and the teachers don’t go back to work until the 17^th or 18^th of August. We have a little bit of downtime, and plan to use it getting to know our town and the people in it. We are not allowed to leave our site for the first month, so we will have lots of time to get settled.

And now, the journey begins. We will be here for two years. Although we get 24 days of vacation each year, we hope to spend as much time getting to know Armenia and its people. As part of our Peace Corps duties, we will be preparing a travel book for volunteers and their families. We will be working with other volunteers to put together a book of places to go with information on how to get there, where to stay, what to do, costs, food, etc. It should be lots of fun. Tblisi, Georgia is only an hour or so away by taxi, so that is definitely on our list. And the churches around here are amazing both architecturally and historically.

We also will be organizing a hike for other volunteers in our region as soon as all of us can travel. Getting together with other volunteers is going to be especially important, especially once it starts getting cold and dark. We are hoping for another mild winter so we can travel. If not, there are four of us here in Noyemberyan and we can get together for dinners, movies, or whatever. I plan on sharing some of the peanut butter we have stashed away, and getting one volunteer’s recipe for pancakes. Now if we only had some real maple syrup!

We will write more soon. Thanks for reading our blog. Send us e-mails too. We love hearing from family and friends.

Coke, candy ice cream

One strange phenomenon among us volunteers is that many people who didn't eat or drink much sweet stuff back in the US are now regular consumers of things like candy, ice cream and Coke. Although it's not particularly good (it's all made by one local company), candy is everywhere, and ice cream is ridiculously cheap - about 25 US cents - so that explains a lot. But one woman has developed a curious habit of eating a Bounty bar every day even though she never - never - ate them at home. Don't know why she didn't pick Mars bars, the other US candy bar available here. Other volunteers are like me and drink Coke regularly even though we never used to touch it. Most eat much more ice cream than before. Oh well. The big question is, is there protein in ice cream, or is it mostly just fat?

Armenia Life, School, Phone, Host Family

I have seen farmers bailing hay in the states, but the way it is often done here is nothing short of amazing. Not to mention incredibly hard work. It starts with "mowing" the field, which in our village is all done by hand with scythes. Backbreaking work to put it mildly. Once that is done, the hay is moved into piles by hand using pitchforks. Also backbreaking work. The final step in the process is to lift the piles (again by hand with pitchforks) into a bailer that is pulled by a tractor. The neatly bailed hay then falls onto the field, and is picked up by hand and put onto a truck. The big truck, usually waaaaaay overloaded, then takes the hay to whatever barn or house where it is being stored. It's amazing to watch it happen.

The people--all of them--work incredibly hard here. There is no such thing as a day off for anyone. Only the male children seem to be exempt from much of the daily routine. The gender roles here are quite different from what we are used to. Like America, men do the barbeques (horovats) and take care of much of the yard stuff (watering and pruning, but generally not gardening). But the women do just about everything else. All the cooking, cleaning, washing, dishes, etc. In the house, it's interesting to watch our host brother recoil when asked to pick up a dish, much less wash one. But somehow it all works, and we have gotten quite used to life here.

We are winding down our training and have just over a week to go. We have one more week of language classes and this week have been teaching school in something called "model school". It is designed to give us a little preview into what it's like to teach in Armenian schools. The only difference is that these kids are pretty much hand-picked and really WANT to be in school, which is a far cry from what we will actually deal with when we get to our sites. So far, we have taught a small class of adorable 9-10 year olds and a very large class of 13-14 year olds. What a difference a few years makes!

We are doing something called "team teaching" where one person takes one part of the lesson, and another takes a second part. In reality, we have a very strict curriculum that we must follow, and few of the teachers have used interactive or communicative activities in their classes. So we will have lots of challenges coming up.

Among the volunteers, there is something called the Volunteer Advisory Committee (VAC) which includes representatives from each of the sectors (TEFL, Community Business Development, Community Health Education and Environmental Education). There is one rep for each sector, and each volunteer class. Our class is called A-18 because we are the 18th group to be in Armenia. The long story is that I will be serving as the VAC rep for the A-18 TEFL group. I am excited as it is an opportunity to work with other sectors and with Peace Corps staff. I will find out more at our first meeting on August 4.

Hard to believe we will be living in a new part of the country in less than two weeks. I am sad to leave our little village and the peaceful country life we have here. Even more sad to leave our host family, who has been nothing short of wonderful to us these past two months. We truly feel like part of the family, part of the neighborhood, and part of the village.

Fred writes . . .

We're now on our second week of teaching kids. The hardest part is the lesson planning: we teach in teams of two, so every night I've been getting together with another volunteer to plan our lesson for the next day. It takes us about three hours - way too much - mostly because we both think too much.

Otherwise things are going fairly well. I now have my new cell phone (+374 9889 1961). If you call (please do!) keep in mind that we're GMT +4; that's three hours ahead of Western Europe, nine hours ahead of the US East Coast, and on the opposite side of the planet from the West Coast. Evenings between 8pm and 22pm work best.

Host Family News

We just found out that our new host mom fell and broke both her legs. While the family was willing to host us, we felt it best not to add to what they will have to do over the next few weeks and months. Our new host mom is going to be bedridden for weeks, if not months. Peace Corps is going to start looking tomorrow to try and find us a new host family to live with starting on August 6. We will keep you posted.

Our new host family at their private picnic area

A New Day, A New Town

We are visiting our new host village and family this weekend. Lots of adjustments. Not sure what I was expecting, but this place is pretty nice (though in a charming, soviet-era kind of way). We will be living in a 2-br apartment with a mother, father (both our age) and their 31-year old son. All are cheesemakers and also make yogurt (matsune) for the local town here. As I sit here by the window looking out, the hills (mountains, really) are covered with trees and the slopes are dotted with cinderblock houses with their tin roofs. There are chickens but I have yet to see a cow. The diet is completely different here from what we're used to, and so far its a really nice change. Our host mom is diabetic, so we actually have fruit to eat (we had almost zero fruit in our last village). And the home made matsune is really good for your digestion and keeps nasty bugs away. We also are really lucky in that we have water 24-7. The rest of our town of 5000+ does not. There is a 2,000 gallon tank over their cheese factory and a hose that runs from it to our apartment (about 50 yards away). So we have water. Another nice change.

We are here for four days to get a feel for the place and to meet the teachers at the schools with whom we will be working. Our meeting is tomorrow, and we head back to our first village on Tuesday. The road to get here is beautiful, but all switchbacks once you get off the main highway from Yerevan. It took us about 3 hours to get here, which I understand really isn't too bad.

So our town here is about 8 times the size of the last one. There are many stores to choose from, and even two banks with ATM machines. Quite luxurious. We have good bakeries and even some ok clothing stores. There is another volunteer living here who took us on a tour, and there will be four of us in total in this village.

It's really hot here (95-100) with not much relief in sight. Fortunately that is very unusual. I expect milder winters here, but we will get some snow. There is a military base nearby (we can see Azerbaijan from our bedroom window), so housing is very tight. Not sure how long we will live with this host family, but until mid-December at least.

We went up into the mountains today to get away from the heat. The family has built this amazing covered picnic area on a creek. It has a barbeque (horovats) oven and running spring water. It felt like air conditioning when we got out of the hot car. The spring water was ice cold, although we didn't drink it. Perhaps when we have our Peace Corps water filters with us, but not until. We spent the day in the shade, ate amazing grilled vegetables (eggplant, tomatoes, peppers), grilled beef, port and chicken, bread, cheese, and drinks. Then we all played cards, went for a short hike, and just generally enjoyed ourselves.

Now it's back to the heat of the town. Just wanted to give you the flavor of the place. We are really enjoying getting to know this new family. They laugh and have fun and are very social, which suits us just fine.

The sun has now set and hopefully there will be a little breeze to cool things off. One absolutely amazing thing though is the swallows. They nest under the eaves at the school and there literally are hundreds of them in the air at any one time. They streak by the building in groups with their high pitched chirps. It's like miniature jet fighters the way they bank and turn. Quite a sight. We are waiting for the world cup to start, and another volunteer is heading over to watch the game. We have most of our extended family here too.

Fourth of July - Armenia Style

The trainees in our village (now down to 7) cooked up a barbeque for our host families to celebrate the 4th of July. We had hamburgers, hot dogs, potato salad, cole slaw, roasted potatoes, etc. We also had a water baloon fight (need to bring more next year), pin the tail on the donkey, soccer, and sparklers. Our host families all brought yummy desserts, and we were treated with the sight of a really big snake as we ate our dinner. Then there was dancing! The last guests left just before midnight!

Today we are back to school and getting ready to visit our new host families and villages/towns this coming weekend. We will be living in a town of about 6,500 people--Noyemberyan--near the Georgia/Azerbaijan border. We understand that we can get to Tblisi in about an hour by taxi, or a few hours by bus (or marshrutka, which is like a mini van). We are looking forward to finding out more about our new site, meeting the English teachers we will work with, and meeting our new host family. The town is supposed to have warmer winters, but we shall see. That also means hot summers--like over 100 degrees. The heat will be a bit of a challenge, and we are wondering what we will do with our zero degree sleeping bags.

Today (Monday) it is back to school--language classes in the morning and technical sessions in the afternoon. Fred and I will be teaching a class to teachers this Thursday on "interactive grammar techniques" (grammar games, except that we have to disguise it). We are busy trying to learn something about the topic so we can teach two 45-minute classes.

Peace Corps training continues to be challenging. Different personalities, different needs, different language, different everything! This week was the first time I felt like it just wasn't manageable. Luckily neither of us feels that way at the same time. Having another person to share this all with is really, really good. So I am very grateful for that.

Will update the blog after (or maybe during) our site visit. We are supposed to have 3G coverage, and we hear rumors that wireless may even be an option. As we now struggle with very low upload/download speeds, THAT would be a real miracle.

We miss our home, our families, our friends, and much of what we so took for granted about life in America. But we are adjusting . . . one day at a time. We are loving Armenia, the people we meet, and especially the children, all of whom are magical. So far, we seem to be handling all the various challenges we are given. Hard to believe we have just over 4 weeks left of training. Our scheduled swearing-in day is August 5! Just 30 days away . . .