Culture shock in the region...

Kaja and I have now been 1 week in Tavush region in the north of Armenia. We are going to stay here for a month to strengthen the youth organization outside the capital.

So far, we have met a lot of kind and open youth in the town of Ijevan who are eager to work with us and discuss with us (despite the fact that most of them do not speak English….). But only after a couple of hours with tea and chit chatting, mind you… Slowly, slowly, but firmly we have developed a couple of groups to cooperate with for the coming weeks.

During this first week, we dropped by several schools to ask if we could visit classes to inform and have activities about sexual health and hiv/aids. All the 4 schools were positive, and next week is full booked with some 8 class visits during 5 days. I am really looking forward to it! I had a mini seminar with some of the activities about the Active Choice program on Thursday, and I think the group liked it, and learned from it. We also plan to have a sport tournament against aids in the schools; that could be fun!

The region has a lot of trees, but they are not green yet, and the mountains and hills are covered by massive fog, typical for this rain season… hope to see the sun soon, cause it makes me a bit sad… But there are lots of funny pigs everywhere, also in the streets, and I will try to get some pictures of them…

Two Peace Corps volunteers also work in Ijevan: Justin works with computers, he wants to help handicapped children use computers, and Rud works with agriculture, trying to get funding to buy a green house in town. And he is also an excellent cook and story teller.

And as always, we have been at Armenian homes eating Armenian food and drinking Armenian wine… this time also with karaoke! With volunteer Sasha performing in Russian, accompanied with Sami people in the music video! (The first pic...)

PS: This week end we are in Yerevan, going to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day tonight.

Happy Paddy’s day all of you!