Jody's Letters from the Road

  I came to Armenia from the United States with our flag of thirteen red and white stripes with fifty white stars on a field of dark blue.   The thirteen stripes represent the original thirteen colors and each star represents a current state. The colors have been explained to be mean red for valor, white for innocence and blue for justice.   At first there was a stripe added for each state, but it was decided in 1818 to maintain the thirteen stripes and only add stars for new states.   Many Americans do not know that the flag of the Star-Spangled Banner had fifteen stripes and fifteen stars.   It is sad that so many Americans do not know there are three verses to the national anthem. We could learn a little about purity of patriotism from the people I am meeting in Armenia. The Armenian flag is so simple and beautiful.   A blue strip bound on top by a red stripe with an orange stripe (I have had it explained to me that the color is apricot) on the bot...

Business Meeting  06/17/2018 This has been a very interesting weekend. I spent part of the day at work on Saturday by accident.  I was playing my guitar in the city park across from the office when I looked up and Ani was calling to me to come over to the office.  I was ready for a break and they offered coffee, a very normal activity for guests in Armenia.  I went upstairs and set my guitar in the conference room and moved to the kitchen.  We had coffee and laughed about what a curiosity I was playing my guitar and wearing a cowboy hat in the city park.  I asked if Ani had seen me through the window when she told me that her husband was a policeman and had called her to let her know I was in the park and she told me that all the police were making sure I was safe.  This was comforting and disturbing at the same time.  The team teased me that everyone in town (it is a small place) was starting to know who the American was and that I worked here...

Sounds of Silence June 23, 2018 For most of my life, I have lived near air force installations and listened to the buzz of planes in the skies above.  I remember the sonic booms of the super sonic bombers from Barksdale Air Force Base as a child.  Our house would shake from the boom of the plane passing overhead breaking the sound barrier. Eventually, environmental concerns outlawed this practice but I remember it so vividly.  A few years later, I moved to Texas where I lived right by Carswell Air Force Base.  Planes were always in the air.  I remember one particular incident where  I was walking my dogs on a field near my apartment and a formation of fighters flew so low and fast overhead that my Cocker Spaniels lay down in the field. Then I moved to Colorado and lived near Buckley Air National Guard as well as the flight path to DIA and the smaller Centennial airports. Even when I visit my brother in Texas, he lives on the flight path to Dallas Ft. Wo...

Guitars and War Memorials As I have told some of you before, I have visited many war memorials over the years.  If I can, I have played a few songs on my guitar about remembrance and hope in these hallowed places.  I feel like, even as unaccomplished a guitarist and singer as I may be, these men and women whose lives were taken with all their hopes and dreams deserve to have someone stop and say I love you and miss you and not be just be engrossed by the statuary. Today I went to three memorials in my little town in Armenia.  Two were war memorials and the third was a memorial marking the day and time of the earthquake that devastated Armenia in 1988.  I did not have my guitar with me when I visited the Earthquake and World War II memorials but I intend to return before I leave.   This is on the top of a very high hill on the outskirts of town.  It is a memorial to those from my little town who died in World War II  fighting against the N...

Thank You RFK Today, I need to go a little off the current happy postings about my Peace Corps life I Armenia. Yes, everything is fine, and I am very happy with my decision to be here.   It is about the decision to be here that I need to write a few words, so please forgive me if I sound like I am proselytizing. On June 5, 2018, the fiftieth anniversary of the day Robert F. Kennedy was shot, his daughter, Kerry Kennedy, published a book on how her father had influenced some specific people in America.   The preface was so touching because she continually refers to “Daddy”.   Many men are fathers, but you must earn being a daddy.   The title of the book is Ripples of Hope . The title comes from a speech that he gave in South Africa on June 6, 1966 to the National Union of South African Students at the University of Capetown.   It was the University’s “Day of Reaffirmation of Academic and Human Freedom”. It was a period when few United States leaders challen...

The First Nice Day in my New Town June 5, 2018 First, I believe I need to clarify the title of this note.  The town where I have moved to do my Peace Corps work for the next two years is beautiful.  The townspeople, my host family, and the incredible team who have welcomed me to their organization have been warm and friendly and patient with my lack of Armenian language. The problem has been the weather, which if my brother is correct, is all my fault.  Every time I visit Texas with my bicycles, it rains.  They have been in droughts when I show up with my bicycles and it rains.  So, I come to my village and it rains and rains.  My organization team told me this is unusual so, of course, I realize it is all my fault.  Hopefully it will not rain every day for the next two years, although this week's forecast is not very good.              My morning view from the front porch.          ...

We were at a meeting in Yerevan to meet our partners in our Peace Corps projects.  I think, because of my age, I stood out in the crowded coffee break area.  Several of the Armenian partners introduced themselves to me as I talked with my partner, Narene.  A lady closer to my age came over who knew Narene and had worked in the same town and introduced herself as Emma. Emma told me that she had worked with everyone at the NGO where I will be engaged for the next year.  I was very flattered when she told me she had heard about me and my background.  She told me she now teaches English at a college relatively close to where I will be living.  Emma asked me if I would be willing to come visit her college class and deliver a lecture in English about my teaching, union, and political work.  I could not say no. At the next coffee break, I found Emma and offered her my phone number.  As we talked, she told me two things about her past that made me fee...