Swearing In!

Swearing In…

Finally, Finally we are volunteers! I guess that most people can’t imagine possibly counting down the days until they could work for free….and I guess I couldn’t really either, but man its gotta be better than all the training involved to actually get to the point where one can work for free.. Who knew??!! Its funny but swearing in was so anticipated and then it came and went and that was that. I knew that no matter how much we were looking forward to moving to our permanent sites the fact that we would be separated would be a major change…And yes now I can say that week 1 of no Americans has led to some boredom. I can’t believe I ever would be saying that I miss having Americans around as I tend to be a little bit more enthralled by diverse characters, but there is just no one to bounce all my impressions off of. And that means expensive phone bills trying to reach people in the far off villages of Armenia…and somehow a text message doesn’t yield the same gratification as verbal contact does.
I am currently on day 6 of a new sense of freedom, although in many ways the rules have gotten more stringent, and I have slept, slept, and slept some more. I am settling in and waiting for school to start on September 1st. Until then I need to study, facing a school full of kids is a terrifying thought with limited Armenian. Although I will mention that I did surprisingly well on my Language Proficiency Exam, scored well above the novice high requirement and had one of the higher marks of our group of 50. That being said, I have a long way to go…
The other day I had to take public transportation back to our village and let me mention that they pack these Marshutni’s FULL….and then let more people on…its kind of a painful experience. IT unbelievably hot, it doesn’t smell great as one could imagine what that must be like with 25 people all crammed into a van and sweating profusely. And no matter how many times I have traveled around different countries or how much language I have it never fails to be nerve wracking the first time around. By the time I got home I was shaking; as after the Marshutni ride I had to try and figure out why the cab driver was alternating between driving recklessly fast and then painstakingly slow, and hoping I had the correct change so I wouldn’t get ripped off. It seems simple when they have a meter, and they charge by distance and not by travel time, but somehow there always seems to be a malfunction, and skewed prices. *sigh*
If there were ever any doubts about the positive impact we can have in Armenia, the farewell party from the 30 kids we taught during our teaching practicum, was enough to cause goose bumps. Their kind and heartfelt words about how much they were going to miss us and how much they enjoyed “their” Americans was a reminder of why we came and what we are here to do. To top off the bouquets of homegrown flowers and thank-you cards, the sight of our host families with tears flowing as we were loading our luggage into the truck was something none of us will ever forget. The ability to grow so close to a community of people in such a short 10 week time, makes the possibilities of a 2 year stay seem endless; the hearts of the people is where the space for peace-building begins. After all Armenia’s finest attribute are its people, even IF we don’t always understand them 