Well, it is 11pm on Wednesday night here in Armenia, and at this time tomorrow I will be at Zvartnots International Airport, waiting patiently (or probably not so patiently) for my flight to Dubai to depart! From Dubai, we (2 other PCVs and I) will fly from Dubai, to Cairo Egypt...spend 2 weeks traveling around Egypt...and then a couple of days in Dubai before heading back to home, sweet, home (Armenia that is). Why the sudden love for this place that I live?? Because, Summer, yes Summer!, is finally rearing her pretty little head...and I am one excited little sun baby!
As for our time in Egypt..we are going to cheap route, mostly, but will be spending 2 or three days in Cairo, Alexandria (beach..what?!?), Luxor (pyramids), and Answar (big ol' damn that I never remember the name of). I am mostly excited for Alexandria and Luxor. Plus visiting the Qatar (City of the Dead) and Egypt Museum in Cairo. Dubai will be equally astounding, but in a different, modern sort of way. I am dragging the other volunteers to the Atlantis aquarium (I NEED some marine life)and we are also going to get our good food (ie fish and chips) and shopping on. Yes, a mall, or many of them actually are on our list of things to do. We will probably have mild panic attacks when we go inside and experience the overwhelming massiveness, but my excitement for a new pair of jeans and some shoes will for sure get me over that right quick.
Back to Armenia though, the country has been treating me well in the last few weeks. In case you didn't hear my shouts of excitement last week, our Environmental Leadership Grant was APPROVED!!!!! I jumped up and down, and probably scared the crap out of my host family (they don't really do that here). I was incredibly, incredibly happy and relieved, it was a huge weight off my shoulders. We are now well on track to implement 5 camps in 4 different villages/towns this Summer...with 40 kids and 10 counselors at each camp. Oh baby, I am stoked! We have been working on the new curriculum (Team Building, Leadership, and Project Management) and have finalized the English versions...we are now working on the translations...which should be done well before the first camp starts the last week of June. We also had our Counselor Training already. Which was quite a success. All of the Armenian counselors showed up this year, which was a 100% increase from last years training! Also had about 20 PCVs staying in on house. It was actually the house of the Green Tavush (our partner NGO) Director's house. We horavats. It was an AMAZING night..and everyone was ready to go the next morning despite the appearance of some homemade nicknamed the 'nuclear bomb'. Good, good times. And an experience the Armenians won't forget for quite some time!
Well..I am off to do some last minute packing, and to work on my arguments for convincing the marshutka driver to let me, and my large suitcase, on board. Wish me luck, and be on the lookout for pictures!
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