(The following is an email I wrote home on September 8, 2003)
Hey everyone,
I�m really bored because I am held up in my apartment with what we call Lutsem (diarrhea). I went over to the other volunteer�s house this morning to tell them that I wasn�t going to be able to go hiking with them and then to the store to get some stuff, but other than that I am pretty much stuck here near the toilet. I have had this for about 6 days now.Yesterday I was more solid until last night. Oh well, I guess I am getting what I deserve since I was one of only 5 of our group who didn�t get it during training.
Well, there really isn�t much new news with me so I think I will just try to describe my new home a little. I know that some of you may think that this is just like any other country because of how I have described my experience thus far. But you have to trust me that it is definitely a third-world country. I just now gave up on trying to make a phone call to a friend in a nearby village. I tried to get a line out for about 30 minutes. Sometimes it has taken me as long as 50 minutes of dialing before I can get a line out (if at all), and then I still usually am not able to get through to the person I want to call. I have been trying to call my friend Phil who live is a town called Vayk all week now. The other day I decided I would count how many tries it took until I got a line out. In over 130 tries I got a line out 3 times but each time when I dialed the number a recording came on saying it was the wrong number, when I know for a fact that it is the right number.
Next, this town has internet access at one of the schools that is funded by Project Harmony. There are 6 computers with access but as I have mentioned the connection is very slow. But a slow connection would be ok right now because the internet has been down for a week. I went in there last night and everyone was just playing video games (even the director of the school).
Now for water and electricity. Yesterday I came home from my office and found out that I had no electricity and no water. This is something I am now used to and it really doesn�t bother me that much, unless I need to wash my clothes or do dishes or something like that. The water was off from 2:00 yesterday afternoon until 8:00 this morning, and then went back off at about noon. The electricity is off and on and very unpredictable, but the water is something I am starting to be able to predict. The worst part of no water is the toilet, especially when diarrhea rears it�s ugly head. Not being able to flush for hours, but having to go all the time, gets a little tricky. One of the first things I learned in this country is to have big buckets to fill with water when it is on.
I am grateful that my �refrigerator� (it is the size of a small ice box you would have in a dorm room) finally works. The man finally came to fix it and I am amazed of how happy it made me. However, this is somewhat of a mixed blessing because the things sounds like a Mac Truck in my kitchen. I got down the other day and tried to stabilize the motor a little better which worked, because it used to sound like a locomotive. When working on it I saw the information sticker that was dated 1967. Nothing ever gets thrown away here (this can be proven by seeing how many cars are over 25 years old). I can now fix big meals and save the leftovers. This may sound a little inane, but it is a lot different for me to have to prepare all my meals from scratch. The whole process takes a very long time. You can�t just go and buy meals and pop them in the microwave or oven. Canned food doesn�t exist here except peas and corn that comes from Russia and is very expensive compared to fresh stuff. Also, trying to figure out what to make is a task in itself. I have proclaimed myself as a semi-vegetarian by default now. Most of what I end up cooking is fresh vegetables, pastas, and bread (I don�t actually cook bread b/c it is so cheap and I have neighbors who always give me some when they are making it) because it is so easy. Now that I have a refrigerator I may be buying more meat. The meat situation here is much different than in the States. Going to the supermarket and buying a package of ground beef was something I really took for granted. Now I have to go to a small store where there is usually a dead carcass hanging right outside the front door and ask for meat. They will bring out a big hunk of meat/bones/fat and chop it on a dirty cutting board with a not so clean ax. And if you ask for a kilo most of it will be bones and fat. They don�t just cut it up real nice and pretty for you. As for the taste, it tastes nothing like the beef in the States. I am already dreaming of my next Prime Beef New York Strip steak from Outback or somewhere similar. We had beef horavots (grilled) at our party after swearing in. It was something I had been looking forward to because we usually only have lamb or pork, but it was horrible. The taste is just not the same. The same is true for the chickens. Here they just roam around and eat trash and stuff. Chicken is usually tough and has a weird taste. But those of you who really know me should know that I am not complaining about this because I can eat just about anything.
Not having a washing machine or a laundry-mat nearby is also something that takes a little adjusting too. I have learned already to not let the laundry pile up because a few pieces a day is about all I can handle. The water here is so cold that you can�t stand to keep you hand in it for very long which makes the rinse cycle a very difficult task. I bought some of those rubber gloves that I always saw my mom using to wash the dishes when I was younger, but it is still too cold after awhile. I can only imagine how bad it is going to be in the winter. And wringing the clothes out is a daunting task. I hope at the end of two years that my forearms and hands will be as strong as some of the moms and tatiks that live here.
I do, however, have a television. It is not what you think of when I say television though. I don�t have a box that plugs into the wall and sits in my living room at which I can sit and be entertained in front of. What I do have is a small dining area right off my kitchen that looks out to the backside of my apartments and onto other apartment buildings. I can sit on a small couch and rest my head on my crossed arms as I look out towards the mountains and other apartment buildings. I have coined the phrase �Armenian Small Town Television� because there are always at least a dozen, if not more, people in other apartments staring right back at me. We just sit and look at each other, and whatever is going on in the alleys and streets below us. And then, every once in a while we get prime time TV. But this isn�t when the new episode of �Friends� or �Survivor� comes on, but instead when I am hanging my laundry to dry on the line outside these windows. I think the ladies actually go and call neighbors to watch. They are amazed that a man can do something like that and I often find them laughing at me.
Yesterday I realized that I had been sitting at my window staring off into the distance. I was looking at the mountains, but mainly the other apartment buildings. These building all look the same. They were built during the communist rule and from the outside look like something straight out of the ghetto. I actually think they look worse than the �projects� that you see in the movies and on TV shows. Most people would take a look at these and feel sorry for the people who have to live there. I can�t remember, but I too might have had those feelings when I first arrived in this country. I mention this for the sake of expressing my true opinion of this place. As Ralph Waldo Emerson put it, �To the dull mind all nature is leaden. To the enlightened mind the whole world sparkles and burns.� I think some thoughts that I wrote down a few years ago that I recently found also brings light to my situation, �I want to become less materialistic and realize that to not only survive, but to actually �live�, I am NOT dependent on technology and all the luxuries of today�s modern society. This is how I will truly become rich.�
As I was staring at these unsightly buildings, reflecting on my time here so far, and thinking about my time to come, I remember thinking to myself, �Wow!!! This place is really beautiful! I am lucky to be here!�
