More April Showers

It rains just about every day here in Dilijan, nothing that I didn't expect. I was warned by any and all before I moved here that Dilijan was warm, but rainy. Today, was a perfect example of typical Dilijan Spring weather. It started out warm and beautiful, turned amazingly sunny mid-afternoon, and by the time I was leaving work at 5, it was dumping buckets of rain during a thunderstorm. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely enjoyed the storm, sat on the porch reading through the whole thing. How did I stay warm? With my Red Sox blanket, that arrived today in my package from Mum and Dad, along with a number of wonderful things!

Well, the school year is winding down, and everyone is busy getting ready for the craziness that will be this summer. Why crazy? I will be particpating in at least 5 week long camps. Yes, you read that right. You are probably thinking, is she crazy? Maybe I have, but at least I will stay busy. Unlike most volunteers, Summer is probably the hardest for me to be away from home. Who cares if I am missing out on blankets of snow and intense Nor Easters during the winter, Dilijan has a much milder climate. It is the Summer, when I am here in this lovely landlocked country, that home (ie days at the beach) really call out to me. My theory, if I am insanely busy, I won't have time to think about home!

The camps this year will be GLOW and ELC (Green Camps). I am a counselor at the GLOW camps, which I have written about before, and am the PCV Project Coordinator for the ELC (Green Camps). Basically, myself, along with 2 other amazing PCVs are arranging and planning everything for the newly developed Environmental Leadership Camps. The other 4 camps will be those. I am truly looking forward to them though, they are going to be a fantastic time, and I feel like the program Green Tavush and us came up with is a solid one. OH, and if anyone knows a church or diaspora group looking to become a sponsor for an amazingly fantastic environmental leadership camp in Armenia, please please please give them my information. :)

Well, today was EARTH DAY. You would think it would be a big deal for an EE Volunteer, but not so much. I had planned a big, Dilijan-wide scavenger hunt for the Sunchild and Artschool kids, but it became evident in the few days leading up that the art school was not planning on participating. Bummer. I was banking on the regular 15 to 20 Sunchild kids, but apparently another group was playing a movie downtown, and most of the kids went to that instead. I don't really blame them, I kept the activities a secret, but man, when only 4 kids show up it kind of sucks. Those 4 had a blast with it anyway though, and were very very happy that I decided to give them 5 STARS for coming and participating. Yes, I am not above bribery! The stars are still working like a charm if you haven't noticed. The closest kid is at 15 (they need 20) and he normally gets one or two minuses during a normal class. I give it till the middle of next week before they make it. I am planning on either bringing in some American candy for them (thanks again Mum for the awesome package) or baking them MnM cookies. We will see what kind of mood I am in.

Holy Moly, I almost forgot to tell you all about last weekend. It was simply amazing. There was a International Hockey tournament happening in Yerevan, and a solid 25 volunteers (including 4 from Georgia) took over Yerevan from Friday to Sunday night! The hockey games were fantastic, a lot more fans came out then expected, and the atmosphere was unbelievable. The first game was South Africa (Hello Boys!) vs North Korea. Sadly, North Korea won. The second game was Mongolia vs Armenia, and boy, did the crowd get loud and rowdy (ok, so the rowdy part was mostly the Americans, oops)..but Armenia smothered the Mongolians 17 or 19 to zero, I can't really remember. It is best if you don't ask why.

While the hockey games were a great, 'wow this is almost like we are back home' experience, it was mostly spending the time with such a large group of volunteers that was fun. We spent lots of time sitting at outdoor cafes and just catching up with one another. I forget how lonely it gets here sometimes until I have a weekend with a bunch of people. That kind of event is always worth the time to get into Yerevan!

Well, I have to scour the internet for some good leadership activities...and finish up stuff for tomorrow's classes. It is off to Martuni, then Karenis, then Yerevan for the weekend...so no work will get done then. :)