Jody's Letters from the Road

PREFACE:  This blog will not include but one of the pictures that I mention.  My friend Narine, for whom this story exists because of her and her amazing family's kindness and generosity, asked me to let my words describe the day.  She felt the readers imagination should be able to picture the events.  I think she just disagreed with how beautiful some of the pictures of her and her family really were because of the cold weather effects on their faces.  So I honor her request and leave you to imagine. I received a message from my counterpart at work, Narine, that I was being invited to have Khorovats at her family’s house to celebrate her birthday.   Since originally, we were going to go to the mountains, I decided to ask if I could bring my guitar.    I had wanted to play a Bob Marley and A Cat Stevens’ song for her.   She told me that would be great, that maybe I could play by this special place as candles were lit.   I w...

I am in my PST (Pre-Service Training) in Armenia.  Mornings are spent in language classes at the school in Ayntap with two amazing teachers, Anna Sahakyan and Arus Khcheyan.  After lunch, we depart from Ayntap school and go to the Cultural Center in Nor Harbert.  There we are learning about Armenian history, culture and current political situation.  We are led by Stepan Shoyan and Artak Aloyan. This is to prepare us for our work as Community-Youth Development (CYD) volunteers.  There are guest speakers from U.S. government agencies and various Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) from Armenia. Every morning my host "Mom", Olga, insists that I sit down while she prepares coffee. It is strong coffee served in what we call demitasse cups.  She brings out boiled eggs and bread or pastries and insists that I eat. I joke that the first three Armenian words I truly understand are Aree (Come here),  Nesteer (sit down), Keer (eat). Those are of course phoneti...

1. August 12, 2018: Okay today, on another adventure with  Hasmik Azibekyan , as we were making one of the last turns in to town, her car made a loud noise and skidded . You can see the front wheel. One of the bolts to the tie road had shaken loose from its nut and the wheel collapsed partially. Too many potholes in the roads. I got out and saw immediately the problem. Hasmik called for help and I walked a little way up the road and found the bolt but not the lock nut. In a few minutes, the  ever-powerful Hasmik had eight guys there jacking up the front of the car and replacing the missing nut, one was glad I had found the bolt. Thirty minutes later, we were on our way. We were so lucky that it shook loose so close to town. What if Ani and Hasmik had been somewhere way out on a road? The roads in Armenia need serious repair. My favorite part of this adventure was noticing there were eight guys watching while one guy tightened up the bolts. 2. August 11, 2018...