Yeghegnadzor Media Center

I wanted to say thank you to all of you who donated to my PCPP grant to buy equipment for the Yeghegnadzor Media Center! The grant was fully funded a few weeks ago and the money was just released, so I will be purchasing a computer, cameras, video camera and audio recording equipment soon!

Also, my counterpart and I have been meeting with the new governor of our region and we are fairly certain we will be getting a furnished room in the marzpet building with internet access and a budget to travel around to the villages to gather news. We have also been trying to secure money to hire a journalist from Yerevan to come to teach regular lessons.

The next step is to make an announcement and call for applicants. We are hoping to start with 10 - 15 people and then expand to our surrounding communities after the initial trainings.

Thank you again to all of you who have donated and made this project possible, I can't wait to get started!!

Sue Fullam

Ms. Sue Fullam, Peace Corps Volunteer in Vachagan, Armenia, a small village just up the mountain from Kapan. Vachagan is a village of about 500 people and Sue teaches English there at the school. The school itself holds about 35 students. Vachagan is one of the last villages on the way up the slopes of Mount Khustup, the second tallest mountain in Armenia. The village landscape is so steep most houses are comfortable nested into the hillsides and there are shared garden spaces located in smaller, flatter ravines.

So, dad tried to get me a Niva

Myrtle Beach Sun News
Aug 22 2010

Dodgy car should stay put in Armenia

Dear Tom and Ray: I just returned from visiting my daughter, who is a Peace Corps volunteer, in Yeghegnadzor, Armenia. Now, my daughter is an adventuresome gal, and she's become infatuated with the Lada Niva. It's a very small but particularly utilitarian 4-wheel-drive SUV. She's decided that to reward her for her service to humanity, I should procure one for her upon her return to the U.S. She's scheduled to come home about a year from now, which gives me some time to research this and find a viable reason for telling her it can't be done.

She would like for me to make contact with one of her Armenian friends, have him find and buy the vehicle on her behalf and ship it to the U.S. My alternative plan is for her to purchase the auto in Armenia, drive it across Europe and ship it across the pond once she reaches the Atlantic. Here's my question: What would I need to do to the Niva to have it pass U.S. import standards? Please help me out, guys. I'll have hell to pay if she's not greeted with the car, or at
least a convincing reason for my not having been successful. - Chuck

TOM: Well, your daughter obviously has bonded with the people of Armenia. That's wonderful. And she clearly wants to take a piece of her experience there home with her - she wants a keepsake.

RAY: But it would be easier, and cheaper, if she just married an Armenian and brought him home, Chuck. Because there's no way you're ever going to get a Lada approved for road use in the United States.

TOM: If a vehicle doesn't meet U.S. safety and environmental standards (and trust us, Chuck, this one doesn't), the U.S. Department of Transportation requires you to either upgrade it and make it comply, or destroy it. Guess which you're going to be forced to pick?

RAY: Unless you're the kind of guy who makes nuclear reactors out of balsawood in his spare time on weekends, you're not going to be able to upgrade this thing to meet U.S. code. Even car companies have a hard time doing it. For an individual, it's almost impossible.

TOM: Trust us, a wedding's going to be cheaper, Chuck.

Car Talk is a national column distributed by King Features Syndicate, Inc. Got a question about cars? Ask at the Car Talk website at www.cartalk.com or write to Car Talk Plaza, Box 3500 Harvard Square, Cambridge, MA 02238.

http://www.thesunnews.com/2010/08/22/1644435/dodgy-car-should-stay-put-in-armenia.html

Daily routine

This scene happens every day just as the sun is tucking itself to sleep behind the mountain in Yeghegnadzor. The cows that have spent the day up in the mountains or down in the river valley grazing for the day then head back home to be milked. I was amazed seeing this process for the first time. Families hire the shepard to take the cows out in the morning and tend to them all day. As the cows are headed home, they know exactly where their homes are located and turn down their respective driveways.

Charentsavan

I ended up by myself the other night in the apartments that Peace Corps rented for volunteers helping out with sessions during Pre Service Training. I was to help with the bird watching trip to Lake Sevan the next day, and all the other volunteers were asked to leave the apartments as our Mid Service Conference would start the next day.

Of course, assuming there would be other people there, I brought no book, my Ipod had died on the drive there and I had run out of money on my phone.

Needless to say, I had to find some way to occupy myself, so I took some photos from the balcony of the apartment, bought a bottle of wine, Viva Cell card and called America.