Just looked at our last post and realized it was nearly 3 months ago! How did THAT happen? We've been posting on Facebook I think instead of writing here. It is now officially "spring" here in our part of Armenia. The snow is slowly melting, and quickly being replaced with mud. Lots of it. Parts of our routes to our schools are paved, and others are a treacherous mix of puddles and really gooey mud. Which of course gets on our shoes, socks, pants, etc. You get the idea. But it does mean that the weather is getting warmer, for which we are very grateful.
We were in Spain over Christmas with Fred's mom and sister, which was a really lovely break from the winter cold. Spain was sunny and warm and beautiful. Barcelona is one of the places we might like to live, so part of our reason for going was to check it out and see a bit of the country. We toured Barcelona for 4 days and then drove down past Alicante. It was great. While there, I learned that I had to go to Bangkok on Peace Corps business. That 10-day trip started only a few days after getting back from Spain, so I missed the first two weeks of school. Bangkok was quite a change from Armenia, not only culture-wise, but also temperature-wise. But I got to meet some other Peace Corps volunteers, hang out, and eat Thai food every day. Not a bad way to spend 10 days.
So it is now March and we are about to have our "spring" school break. I have a countdown on my computer which tells me two things . . . first, it's only 20 more days until I am back in Massachusetts (only for 8 days). I'm heading home to bring things we won't be needing during our last few months here (books, winter clothes, etc.). Second, and more importantly, we have only 153 days until our Peace Corps service is over. In some ways it feels like we've just arrived, and in other ways that we've been here forever. In fact, we have been here for nearly 2 years. Hard to believe.
When we think about leaving, we both have very mixed emotions. While we are anxious to see where the next chapter of our lives will take us, we are finally getting comfortable with where we live, the language, customs, and all that is entailed in living in a developing country. Most of all, we hate to think of leaving the community we have built up here--especially the children. We have been in our classes for nearly two years, have learned most of the student's names, been invited to many homes, celebrated birthdays, special events, and so loved the joy that the laughter of a child brings. There is not a place in town where we don't hear echos of "Hello Mrs. Susan" or "Hello Mr. Linden"!! It is beyond sad to think about leaving these precious children.
We toy with the idea of staying for a 3rd year, but we are both ready to come home. Or we will be when August 3 rolls around. Until then, we will try to enjoy every opportunity that comes our way.
Right now, at least for me, that opportunity is to try and appreciate the four roosters who live beneath our bedroom window. This morning is was just before 3 a.m. when they started, and the noise was enough to make sleep (at least for me) impossible. I'm wondering how they feel about soup.
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Hi Fred!
ReplyDeleteThe winter clothes that you are going to bring back to USA, probably they and similar stuff probably by now are infected by what its called bed-bugs, those tiny insects that suck human blood. Those red-bugs are common in the Caucasus and Central Asia, they infect the furniture, specially the bedding, and it is impossible to get ride of them once infected and you have to throw the whole bedding furniture and clothes away. Those red-bugs are also infecting most hotel bedrooms in New York city brought about by tourists from abroad. While there you probably noticed red stings in your flesh, specially in the summer, and those sting are from those very tiny red-bugs. They are not harmful and do not cause disease or spread disease like the mosquitoes do, but they are very much annoyance when it comes to stings on the skin and it is very hard to get rid.
Good morning how are you?
ReplyDeleteMy name is Emilio, I am a Spanish boy and I live in a town near to Madrid. I am a very interested person in knowing things so different as the culture, the way of life of the inhabitants of our planet, the fauna, the flora, and the landscapes of all the countries of the world etc. in summary, I am a person that enjoys travelling, learning and respecting people's diversity from all over the world.
I would love to travel and meet in person all the aspects above mentioned, but unfortunately as this is very expensive and my purchasing power is quite small, so I devised a way to travel with the imagination in every corner of our planet. A few years ago I started a collection of used stamps because trough them, you can see pictures about fauna, flora, monuments, landscapes etc. from all the countries. As every day is more and more difficult to get stamps, some years ago I started a new collection in order to get traditional letters addressed to me in which my goal was to get at least 1 letter from each country in the world. This modest goal is feasible to reach in the most part of countries, but unfortunately it’s impossible to achieve in other various territories for several reasons, either because they are countries at war, either because they are countries with extreme poverty or because for whatever reason the postal system is not functioning properly.
For all this I would ask you one small favour:
Would you be so kind as to send me a letter by traditional mail from Armenia? I understand perfectly that you think that your blog is not the appropriate place to ask this, and even, is very probably that you ignore my letter, but I would call your attention to the difficulty involved in getting a letter from that country, and also I don’t know anyone neither where to write in Armenia in order to increase my collection. a letter for me is like a little souvenir, like if I have had visited that territory with my imagination and at same time, the arrival of the letters from a country is a sign of peace and normality and an original way to promote a country in the world. My postal address is the following one:
Emilio Fernandez Esteban
Calle Valencia, 39
28903 Getafe (Madrid)
Spain
If you wish, you can visit my blog www.cartasenmibuzon.blogspot.com where you can see the pictures of all the letters that I have received from whole World.
Finally I would like to thank the attention given to this letter, and whether you can help me or not, I send my best wishes for peace, health and happiness for you, your family and all your dear beings.
Yours faithfully
Emilio Fernandez