25/6/2014
My trip to
Armenia has been a welcome break, despite the excessive amount of dental
appointments.
Before my
journey West, I had two days in Kathmandu.
I partook of good food, did some PC work at the PC office and spent a
ridiculous amount of money on a new battery for my laptop (it turns out that it
was not swelling because of the humidity, but because it was faulty-something
that, were I in America, would have been replaced for free, but in Nepal cost
me nearly an entire month’s salary to replace-Ughhhh).
After forking
over a fortune for a new battery I left the mall, only to hear the most
pathetic, soft mewling sound. I looked
down into the gutter and saw a tiny, wet, dirty black kitten. After questioning a couple of men, nearby, I
ascertained that the kitten had a sibling, which I also scooped up, and their
mother was nowhere to be found. I
realized, immediately, that I could not leave them there, so I jumped in a cab
to return to the PC office.
As if I could be
more disappointed with PC and the people that work for it, the sight of two
orphaned kittens elicited only disdain from the PC staff. One staff member said that he could think of
“literally a million other things that you could have done with them, besides bringing
them to the Peace Corps office.” Jesus Christ-what a caring person! I have never, in my life, been around people
who cared so little about helpless creatures.
Nepalis, in general, do not like cats, so none of the Nepali staff would
take them, either. I was on the verge of
crying for hours, so heartbroken and disappointed. I very much believe that you can tell what
kind of a person someone is by the way they treat animals-I guess my suspicions
about those people are correct. After
some research, I found an animal rescue place in KTM. Unfortunately, they could not come pick the
kittens up, nor could they house them for more than a week. With 90 minutes until I had to leave for the
airport, I hopped in a cab to drop the kittens of, because, what was the alternative?
Putting them back on the street? After a
comedy of errors with a box of kittens in my lap, I made it to the KAT rescue center
(please look them up and donate-they do invaluable work for the many, many
abandoned animals in KTM). The man there
was very kind, and I donated some money to keep the kittens alive and housed
until I returned from Armenia. Despite
my many, many pleas, no one has adopted them in the two weeks that I have been
in Armenia. I guess that means that I’m
taking two kittens back to my site, with me…
I was excited to
be on a plane-the cleanest place I’d been in 9 months! The trip was fine, with
the exception of:
-A 10-hour lay
over in the New Delhi airport. Not
helped by the fact that they only have free Wi-Fi for 45 minutes.
-Sitting behind
a row of seats with THREE INFANTS who collectively cried 75% of the flight from
Delhi to Moscow.
I arrived in
Yerevan after 24 hours of travel. I even
had a driver with a sign waiting for me!
Armenia is beautiful-it kinda looks like that stretch of road between
Helena and Great Falls-arid, rolling hills, red cliffs and sagebrush. I was driven to the PC office and met the
very nice and organized staff-such a change from PC Nepal. The PCMO gave me a folder with maps,
vocabulary, information on museums and a schedule for my trip-so helpful! I was then driven to the hostel. In general, I hate hostels, but for 10 of the
13 nights there, I was in a room by myself, so it wasn’t too bad.
The first few
days, I didn’t do much-I was sore from the wisdom tooth extraction and intimidated
by a country where I not only didn’t understand the language, but couldn’t even
read the signs!
Things that I
did do:
-A night walking
tour of the city.
-Drinks at a bar
with a nice German guy that I met. We
had a reserved table to hear an amazing Armenian woman sing great Blues.
- An all-day
tour of famous Armenian churches, followed by a wine tasting (the wine was
terrible, but it was still a fun day).
-Visits to the
Ancient Manuscript Museum, History Museum, Art Museum and various wanderings
around the city.
-A large,
delicious, expensive Mexican meal, complete with guacamole.
-Donuts,
Cinnamon rolls and German sausage (served with corn, olives and
mayonnaise-yuck!)
-A few hours
spent with PC Armenia volunteers-wandering, eating, drinking, and watching the
fountains in the main square.
-Pizza with
ketchup instead of sauce.
-Dinner with a
girl from The Netherlands and a horrible Armenian guy that she met on Couch
Surfing.
The dentist was
terrible-although I didn’t have a single panic attack, so I’m very proud of
myself.
Things went
fairly smoothly, except for the inevitable mess-up by PC Nepal, which PC
Armenia fixed immediately and didn’t blame me for-a miracle!
Being here has
been a wonderful break from Nepal-it’s a beautiful, very European city (although
I feel very under-dressed compared to the women of Armenia). There are hot showers, toilets with toilet
paper, good food, beautiful things to see, fast Internet. It is going to be very hard to go back,
especially to monsoon season. I am,
however, dying to see Danny.
My plan for the
first week that I’m back is to do project plans for all the projects I will be
starting in the next year-I’m hoping that will make me feel more motivated,
although it’s exhausting just thinking about going back.
In bowel
news: I had a real (read: not just held
up to the light from a window) stool sample done while I was here. The lab found nothing wrong, which is
actually more troubling because it means that my IBS has started acting up,
again. Since I can’t really control my
diet at site, I’m dreading going back to the days of diarrhea 8 times daily.
I’ll spend today
doing last minute computer things, shopping for bring-backs, going to the
sculpture garden and having a glass of famous Armenian cognac.
When I return to
KTM on Friday morning, I will try to see a couple of NGOs. I may have to stay in town until Monday to
have more meetings and discuss applications for my GAD committee-exciting,
although I’d rather just go back to site right away.
I feel so lucky
to have gotten this break, and to have gotten to Skype with some of you-such a
treat to see your lovely faces! I hope
to have my first visitor at the end of September, so that’s something to look
forward to!
I love and miss
all of you,
Xoxox
Zoop
