Noyemberyan H.A.S. heat (& canned foods & cookies)

canning the hone (cornelian cherry)

Nodar Fever

my family is so addicted to oatmeal cookies they jitter.

me & my host fam, and David my sitemate...

This Tuesday-Saturday I was at a conference in Tsaghkadzor, a really beautiful sports center area a couple hours away. It's too bad we didn't have much time to spend wandering during the day around the town, though we did have plenty of opportunity to take ridiculously long hot showers, eat at a buffet, and drink MacCoffee. (and of course hold PG dance parties and hang on the balconies at night, but NOT play Settlers, haha)

But really why we were there... we worked on counterpart relationships, and developed our own real project plans and ideas. There were four groups of PCV/CPs, and the second day every group voted on one project to develop for a presentation at the end of the conference. It was a collaborative effort and not our full ending product b/c later it will have to be re-evaluated, but I found it really useful to go through each of the steps... especially since my & my counterparts project was voted as our example in our group. I had a counterpart from the Bridge of Hope and the Kindergarten there. We had one joint project idea to educate and train Noyemberyan about safe heating, create new collaboration between organizations, and actually install gas heating systems in K-1 and B.O.H. We named it "Noyemberyan H.A.S. heat" (Noyemberyan Healthy and Safe Heat).

I took a short grant writing class before, and it's good to now have put ideas into the thought processes and forms about the actually plan instead of just ideas about researching. In the end, our amazingly smart group of 11 (5 PCV, 6 Armenian counterparts) came up with well thought out meat, three beautiful posters, and a truly epic presentation by Mr. Alex Lord and Nune. I think I saw a single tear rolling down our teacher's cheek, but the translator asked me to look away and cough.

All the 4 groups presentations were judged by a triad of higher-ups from Armenia, USAID, and the EU. In end, our idea was #2... though any of the groups could have been placed anywhere in my opinion, they were all really great.

A successful week! Alot of thought-process/organizational work finished on the potential future project plan and learning how to play ultimate frisbee with the counterparts will provide for some interesting times later on...

So, this is where we will continue up here in Noyemberyan... working on this same idea now that I'm back. It might take a little while, I've been busy enough with my family canning food, making cookies, and pretending to be a rockstar with the giant jazz guitar that only has 3 strings... until I remember to buy some in Yerevan and maybe an amp. (as you can see from above) I plan to make the shank tremble.