Sunday, December 2nd, 2007
Hi everyone,
I’m coming off a great couple of weeks and have a lot to update you all on. On November 16th, I checked into the Hrazdan Hotel in Yerevan for the annual All Volunteer Conference. It’s a time for us to review our first three months on site, get updated and refreshed on admin-, program-, and work-related information. We also group share information, have sector training, language training, guest speakers and then, on the final day, a Development Fair where representatives of international, and national, developmental organizations are present to talk about their activities, programs and opportunities for collaboration, etc.
I have to say, the only thing I did on that first day was take an hour-long shower and revel in a comfortable bed set in a warm room. Bliss. The next day we started up early, and I co-facilitated an opening session with our Associate Country Director, Jason, on surviving the first three months. We talked about our CORE competencies, reviewed some material from this summer’s Pre-Service Training and then talked about our experiences on site. It was a really interesting session, especially in terms of finding out about some of the activities of other volunteers on-site.
That first day was pretty busy. That night a bunch of us went out on the town and got a little more familiar with Yerevan. The next day was Language Camp, where we got refreshed on the Armenian Language, self-assessing our progress. That night myself, Andrea and Corey (two other CBD Volunteers) went out to visit our old LCF (Language and Cultural Facilitator) from PST (Pre-Service Training). I’m getting good with acronyms, by the way. Her place is in a suburb of Yerevan. Her family prepared a fantastic dinner for us, after which we hung out, sung and chatted a bit. Here’s a clip of Lusine (our old LCF) and her sister (who’s a professional singer) giving us a traditional Armenian duet:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hS7oxHQU0Bg
Another LCF from a different village was present with his family, too. His daughter likes to play with cigarettes – yeah, I’m being serious. Here’s a clip of what happens when you take her daddy’s cigarettes away from her:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z81_F2iP-eg
So that night was great. After the dinner, we went back to the hotel, and just rotated from room party to room party.
Next day we had more PC-related stuff, after which we got ready for our big (early) Thanksgiving meal. The US Government finances the meal for us and I have to tell you: IT WAS AMAZING. The government may pay for it, but the volunteers have to prepare it, and they did a bang-up job: turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, dressing, corn, green beans, cole slaw, cranberry sauce, apple sauce, fresh rolls, and on and on.
That night it was my birthday, which was great. I got a pretty amazing take, believe it or not. I had another volunteer stitch me a beanie, I got a hand-carved pipe, cologne, a bottle of booze, and a couple of CDs. That night I took it easy; I needed some recoup from the previous two nights. The next day was the Development Fair. That was a really productive opportunity to network. I met some people representing various organizations that I was already incommunicado with, as well as some new ones. The most promising outcome for me was meeting Dr. S. Aslanyan, who works at the University of International Relations. She works mainly in women’s advocacy here in-country, and through speaking with her, broke upon Lusine M.’s idea (my counterpart) for creating a professional and career development center, for plugging in promising youth (especially women) into relevant positions. This country is really into the “good ol’boy” system of farming out good jobs and professional development opportunities to friends and relatives. This center would help not only empower youth and women with skills that they could utilize in pursuing their various career interests, but also in providing some professional networking facilitation in knowing about relevant opportunities for these same youth and women. In effect, we’re thinking it will have a head-hunting capacity. We’re still developing the organizational plan, but Lusine and I will be setting a meeting with Dr. Aslanyan to figure out a time to meet. We really would need the backing of an established NGO to get the funding necessary to start a project like this, and Dr. Aslanyan is the director of just such an organization with a great running history of successful project implementation and management. So anyway, it’s an exciting development.
Made some other good contacts, which I’ll spare you – suffice it to say, it was a great time.
The next weekend, I had a meeting with our Country Director, along with three other volunteers, to explore ways the Peace Corps Caucusas countries might facilitate better collaboration between various volunteers under their respective programs, in addressing issues together that have an overall commonality. The outcome was the four of us will be developing a schematic and vision statement for our idea, and then gauging a level of interest from the other two Caucus countries (Peace Corps posts). I’ll let you know what comes of it all.
And then tonight, I have a dinner meeting again with the Country Director and a couple of other volunteers with the acting director of USAID, as well as a few of their program managers, and the director of the Millennium Challenge Account for Armenia. We’ll be discussing development in-country. I’ll update you all on what comes of the meeting.
And I’m also just starting to teach a business class at the Sevan State College – I’ll have a translator and be teaching general business concepts. I’ve had one class, and am looking forward to getting back into the fray on Monday. I’m hoping I’ll have the chance to meet some bright kids through this experience.
Anyway, that’s it for now guys.
-Dietrich