woodcarving... so far

sketch for what I'm working on now! ^

practice piece ^

my first steps in Armenian woodcarving:)

dancin, catchin stars

Everything about the Art School in Koghb inspires me:) The picture is from an event they held this past week. For 3 days they hosted a traditional Armenian dancing group to teach the local children(/local Americans) the dances. The ladies I've met at the school are some of the most free-spirited and talented people I've ever met.

other inspiration (cheesy delight):

"Catch Your Star"
Catch the star that holds your destiny-
the one that forever twinkles in your heart
Take advantage of precious opportunities
while they still sparkle before you
Believe that your goal is attainable
Commit yourself to it
Though barriers may stand in your way
remember... your destiny is hiding behind them
Accept that not everyone will approve of your choices
Have faith in your judgment
Take pride in your accomplishments
They are steppingstones to your dreams
Don't let your mistakes discourage you
Value your capabilities and talents
for they are what make you truly unique
The greatest gifts in life are not purchased
but acquired through hard work and determination
Find the star that twinkles in your heart
You are capable of making your dreams come true
Give your hopes everything you've got
You will catch the star
that holds your destiny.
-Shannon M. Lester

Kirovakan and Alaverdi

:) in Kirovakan

Alaverdi- a mosaic face on the hill. I think it's Hovannes Tumanyan!

It's too bad Peace Corps Volunteers can't be placed in Alaverdi (well it's good they can't because of the copper mining and arsenic dump)... but the surrounding areas are very beautiful and everyone I met was nice. I only spent a couple hours in Alaverdi waiting for a taxi to come get me because there is no public transportation from Kirovakan to Noyemberyan on Sundays. I saw the cable cars running, ate a really good meal at a restaurant for 1000 AMD (about $2.50), and watched kids playing on the large sports fields.

My bus trip was so long going from site to Kirovakan on Saturday I had to resort to playing with my camera. I thought this guy's shirt was funny to look at on the 3 1/2 hours I spent sitting behind him. On a good day, it should have been almost 2 hours. It says "Never confuse fashion with personal style expression". Sir, I agree. But which one are you trying to accomplish?

Check out the (very basic) webpage called "Give a Squat" I made for the Kindergarten's Bathroom Renovation project here: https://sites.google.com/site/giveasquat/

Goris Leadership Camp Arts & Crafts

This is a picture of Austin, the brains and brawn behind the Goris Leadership Camp, stapling in the final row of soda-bottle-patio-lights on our bookshelf.

As an activity at the Goris Leadership Camp last week, within just (4) 2-hour lessons children created artwork to decorate a "leadership bookshelf" which would remain at the school as testament to the camp.

Materials needed to decorate the entire bookshelf:

2 strings of Christmas lights, 15 soda bottles, scissors, markers, glitter, glue, paper, ribbon, printing paper, transfer paper, box cutters, stencil paper/cardstock, cut 8x10 cardboard lengths, pencils, masking tape, paint, paintbrushes, paint thinner, play-doh, craft wire

Day 1- Patio Lights

We decorated Jermuk sparkling water bottles with markers, glitter, glue, paper, and ribbon to make the patio lights from this link: click here .

(During working time we compiled a list of the children's heroes. Later, we found the heroes' pictures online, uploaded them to picnik.com and edited the pictures with the "posterize" 2- color tool. For the next day we had these pictures printed out)

Day 2- Stenciling

Children were given their black & white pictures of their heroes, and instructed on whether they will be cutting out all the black areas of the photo or all the white areas (based on which I thought would make a better stencil).

Transfer paper was sandwiched, black side down, underneath the top layer printed photo and the bottom layer of the cardstock. Children traced all the black (or white areas, depending on the photo) with a pencil- the image of only these areas was transferred through to the cardstock.

Students taped the cardstock to a section of cardboard and were given small boxcutters to carefully cut the areas out which they traced.

example of student's artwork: Charents

Day 3- Painting on the Stencils & Origami

Student artworks were chosen, arranged, and carefully taped onto pieces of the disassembled shelving before the children arrived.

Katie's origami flower lesson took place while pairs of students were chose to leave the origami to paint stencils. Students each chose a color of paint, and painted over the stencil as a team (whether they had cut that stencil out the day before or not, due to the unequal number of finished stencils and present children). We started painting from inner-most images and worked our way to the furthest towards the edges. When children finished painting the stenciled image they were led to a different activity by Michael to keep traffic away from the working area. The cardstock stencils were not removed from the shelving after being painted, they were left ontop to dry.

My example I showed the class: Martiros Saryan

Day 4- Superhero Day
Students were given ample amounts of play-doh to create their own superheroes. At the end of the lesson, students from teams gave short presentations about what superhero qualities and strengths their sculpture had and why they thought those were important traits.
Two of the camp's counselors had superheroes made of them- Alex and Austin :)

(Meanwhile, cardstock stencils were carefully removed from the shelving. Pools of paint which had gathered underneath wrong areas in some of the stencils were worked off with paint thinner and box cutters.) Other parts of the shelving were painted, and we prepared for construction of the bookshelf the next day.

Day 5- Bookshelf Unveil

On the final day of camp students conducted civil service projects in their community. During their final activities, I was inside the school with a couple handy Armenian counterparts and free PCV teachers assembling the bookshelf. After it was put together, the Christmas lights were strung through and the patio lights were wired into place, then stapled onto the shelf. Play-doh superhero sculptures were moved and placed onto the shelves.

When children entered the building for the final slideshow and announcements they saw the finished product! Pictures of Tumanyan, Charents, Shiraz, Cher, Saryan, Arshile Gorky, Britney Spears, Michael Jackson, Justin Bieber, Tyra Banks, Inna, Demi Lovato, Salena Gomez, Sirusho, Enrique, Putin, Pitbull, and more were stenciled onto the shelf blinking with decorated patio lights and play-doh superheroes!

cinnamon peach jam fail, woodcarving

i worked on a cinnamon peach jam this week. this was my first time canning without experienced help, so i think 50% success rate is alright! i only had 2 jars worth, and while sealing the first i was a little too forceful with tightening and.... fail! the other is cooling & waiting for me- i'm hoping the lid doesn't pop up and down!


this is a little woodcarving a guy at Koghb's Art Camp made for me when i learning the basics from my new teacher, Artur. i've took a couple stateside woodcarving/woodworking classes in my time but Armenians really seem to have a specific, direct way in which they teach and expect a student to learn. i'm sort of used to "anything goes", and find its a bit refreshing to learn a process from step 1. everyone seems to think its funny i plan to make a stone hotchcar before i leave, because women usually do not carve. the kid who carved my name above was carving in stone and i was carving little X like nautical stars like the two above but in a row and much deeper... should have took a picture of what i did, but there will be better things in the future!

Bathroom Remodeling & Sanitation Education Project

Please help Noyemberyan's Kindergarten #1 update their bathrooms!
Would you want your 2-4 year old using the facility pictured above?

Click on the link below to get more information about our project and how you can help (donations are also tax deductible and all recorded donors will receive a thank you letter from a Kindergarten student!):

https://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=donate.contribute.projDetail&projdesc=305-076

June 30th English Recital

(From our June 30th English recital)
we did:
Head, Shoulders, Knees, & Toes
the ABC's
& we read the Very Hungry Caterpillar then colored the paper butterflies:)

This event is my most favorite accomplishment to date!!

July 4th week

believe it- this video is from July 5th in Lake Sevan! huge hail, and a vague rainbow.

i spent most of this week enjoying the previously beautiful weather at Lake Sevan with many of the other Peace Corps Volunteers:) most places were closed down on Monday and Tuesday because Armenian Constitution Day is July 5th, and the new group of volunteers found out their sites on Wednesday- so i had most of the week off of regular work. the 3 new volunteers coming to my town & the surrounding villages are very nice and i'm excited for them!

i had a real good time with my friends this week- even wandered around a childrens' art museum in Yerevan before coming home again (Somehow we were a day too early to see the Surrealist exhibition going on at the National Gallery). the Childrens' Aesthetic Museum had an exhibit of childrens' artwork from 120 different countries- i definitely recommend it! (Though the drawing from Iraq will haunt me...)

little flowers

at K1 last week we started growing various types of American flowers in little cups- and already some are almost ready to be replanted in bigger containers! depending on the growth and the weather, we will either plant them around the Kindergarten or send them home with the kids (most are perennial).
i thought it was probably too late in the year to do this project though we did it anyway, but it seems like it's going to be OK!:)

sevan

this weekend i went to Sevan to celebrate the coming of summer weather with my buds Kathryn, Maggie & Hayley:) i am so sunburned- AGHGH

total lunar eclipse

last night i watched the lunar eclipse while i was chatting on skype with Ashley & baby David, & took some pictures throughout the process... this is what i took put all together!:)

if i had photoshop & wasn't using a netbook i think i'd make a lot of these kinds of pictures...

kitties & strawberry jam

this is a picture of Lisa's cat with her kittlings- the lilun in the middle is my favorite- i named him Steve (there is a facial expression that accompanies his name) and i want to adopt him... i know i can't- there are too many reasons why that is a bad idea... :/

this weekend i also made & canned strawberry jam for the first time:)

it turned out so good i'm trying to find more strawberries to buy and make more this week!

Kindergarten #2

Here are some pictures of the all the kids at K2 doing an exercise routine & the K2 playground

Love these kids:) Since graduation, not as many of the older kinders are coming... but the teachers have a lot more free time for me to give my silly English lessons.

We're still mostly doing the alphabet on keyboards... but...!!... one of the older groups and I are planning a little English recital for the end of June. It will be a short line dance to a country music song, a presentation of "Head Shoulders Knees and Toes" and "the ABC's", plus they will all introduce themselves in English to the rest of the kindergarten. Pretty much sums up what I've done here in the last few months:) Exciting!

what i did today

i spent my morning making this big tree with apples, kind of like "the Giving Tree"...
someday if i can get my hands on a copy of it, i'll try to translate that book and read it to the kids!
all the apples will have pictures of my youngest students at K#1 on them and it will be hung up and hopefully used again next year. not as exciting as the birthday cake poster- but i had a good time listening to the band "fun." and watercoloring paper that's not meant for it:)

after making this then bringing it down to the kindergarten #1, i made my rounds throughout noyemberyan and finally had a meeting with the head of the environmental/forestry NGO called "Verelk". it's funny, by now you might think i'd have met just about everyone and met with every organization in this town-- but i've been meeting new people weekly who have great ideas for projects... apparently, i can't say no. (and i wouldn't want to- this people have had really good ideas and even plans of how to do it)

so, with today being the last day of school for a lot of the kids- i see many peace corps volunteers getting ready for their break of class routine and getting geared up to do summer camps and the "Border to Border" initiative- me, i think summer is going to be my busiest time right here. with 3 youth english clubs starting next week and the kindergartens being open during the summer, a new womens NGO starting up, and possibly a grant... it'll be a really needed vacation when my moms come to visit this july!

here is a link of a travel resource i found online for the "Marz" i am in- Tavush. 72 pages of interesting places, pictures, and facts about the region i'm living in=

http://www.tacentral.com/tavush/TAVUSH_Region_compress.pdf

goodnight moon

little by little i've been translating childrens books for the kindergarten...
with this book, we are learning the word "goodnight". i read the book in Armenian all except the word "goodnight" which comes up 20 or so times, i said that in English.

rainy day

i should be packing...
instead i made this (kind of) elaborate birthday calendar for kindergarten #1, with the help of some james taylor & procrastination. sometimes i like rainy days;)

English Poetry Recitation

The Noyemberyan Regional Poetry Recitation Competition took place on Sunday, April 3rd! Students in 6th-11th grades memorized english poems by famous greats then recited them aloud to PCV judges! This contest is organized by volunteers and happens all over Armenia every year. Judging was based on memorization, dictation, and interpretation. Winners from each grade in regional competitions move on to the national competition in Hrazdan.

(Though I only lent my handwriting and a little time to this effort) I'm glad we do things like this.!

Mr. Blue

At Kindergarten #1, this is my English shelf. Though lessons are short, (and few and far between)- in the month of March we have learned about a couple places in the US. New York, California, and Washington DC. On the shelf there are little picture booklets of New York City that I made before I came. The stuffed bear has an American flag on him, he is my counterpart, "Mr. Blue"! Tomorrow I am expanding my work, and starting to also teach at the other Kindergarten, Kindergarten #2!

water

Twice a week, usually Mondays and Wednesdays (and if there has been a lot of rain Sundays sometimes too) around 6-7PM I hear something that sounds like demon snakes coming from the bathroom. I've had a couple friends not understand what I meant when I said "when the water comes.." so here is a better explanation.

The only times that water comes out of the faucet in the town are scheduled by the local municipality. A "water schedule". They turn the water on and residents must be ready in their house to collect the water in water drums, buckets, (a cistern if you are lucky), sinks, and bathtubs. Often times, families fill up the bathtub and use that water to flush the toilet throughout the week. Seeing as bathing is usually a 1-2x/week occasion, this causes no major problem. The wealthier areas of town and the villages surrounding have water more frequently.

I still panic (but am joyful) when I hear the hissing noise- because I remember not having water at all for the first summer month I lived in Noyemberyan or the many times during those 7 months my family would run out. It was certainly harder to live with a family because of the water issue.... when the water got too low to bucket-flush the toilet, things got tense. I stopped bucket bathing for months so that I could wash my clothes instead; going to the bath-house with my sitemates as an alternative. During training I had a hot shower with almost constant running water and it seems most everyone I know in other parts of the country have running water now at their permanent sites. My advice to newcoming PCVs- never live on the top floor of an apartment building (the water won't reach your floor as often plus it will be impossible to heat). I'm so grateful that my new apartment is NOT on the top floor!!

The sound of water coming here is followed by the sound of me running around for the next hour with buckets to fill my water barrel and bins, water the plants, rince out my handwashed laundry, and wash only the dirtiest dishes...

A couple years ago a Doctors without Borders family lived here and installed a hot water heater but took it with them when they left. What I wonder is if they waited in the house until Mondays and Wednesdays around 7 to shower, or if they had a cistern that they took with them too? hmm. Why would one move a cistern?...

coffee cups/womens day

Reading coffee cups is a tradition in Armenia- the coffee is boiled with sugar and water in a little pot called a jazzve and poured into small shot-glass size cups. Usually there is thick coffee that remains at the bottom of each shot-coffee cup, and it is poured onto the small coffee plate away from your body to sit and dry after you are done drinking. Later, someone else at the table will read into the images formed by the coffee. Then, the drinker sticks a finger into the thickest gathering of coffee and the reading is adapted and continued! This is something my family loves to do.

one of the neighborhood school-pigs

View from my new porch

Womens' Day celebration @ Tatiks! Womens' Day (Kon-onts Or) is celebrated on the 8th of March, even schools are closed to celebrate!

moving out

Yesterday I moved into my own apartment!

Instead of posting pictures of the new place (because there are boxes everywhere), I decided to put up a couple pictures of my host family & old place. It's been about 9 months since I've been living with host families- 7 months with Gohar, Nodar, and the boys. I had a good time, but I'm ready to have a little extra space! I am already comfortable in my new place and I hear my brother Aren has claimed my own room, and I am happy for him too!

Harut, Gohar, Aren!

Me & my little brothers!

Harut & his fish! (I had a difficult time getting those fish for him, riding in a taxi with a plastic cellophane baggie from Sevan...) He has named 2 of them "Beeline" because they have stripes, 2 "Orange" because they are orange, and 2 "ArmenTel" after the phone businesses.

Last look at my room!

The Armenian Jesus poster in my old room, I wanted to keep it...

My new apartment is in the same building that I already was living in, so I have great neighbors! Right now I'm taking a break from unpacking and watching the cartoon "American Dad" in Armenian on the tv here... strange that they would watch that. I've been alternating between Iranian cartoons, American cartoons in Armenian, and BBC World News just to have some noise in the house. I hadn't missed having a tv for the last 10 months until I turned this one on and couldn't figure out how to change the language to English.

My first meal I made myself what my friends back home call "cracker tunes"- a packet of tunafish from a package from home with crushed Ritz-like crackers, pickles, pepper, and mayo. I had been waiting to eat that for almost 3 months! I have the beginnings of a well-stocked cabinet thanks to all you guys that sent me packages for Christmas! (And my host mother who has already come by a couple times to bring bean soup, pickled tomatoes, ramen noodles, and some sort of dried braided greens...)

Once I am all settled-in, I'll put up some pictures of my apartment. I think you'll be surprised, it's very nice! (The Ritz)

dear spring,

please come soon!
love, nelle

mudpuddle inkblots

a giant footprint. or exclamation mark!

a giraffe & its calf walking downhill->

a little snowy house with smokestack

the bow of a ship & it's reflection seen from water level

A mushroom

A dolphin flipping out of the water (still feeling bad about buying golfish after watching the Cove)

Louisianna