Products need to be challenged and valued to make an impact

I’ve long leaned toward the service business model over the product business model.  This is not only because in shooting for excellence one can’t help but think the chances of building the next most brilliant Facebook or Twitter application are much lower than the chances of successfully taking an organization to the next level of sophistication, but also because it is a much different dynamic of creativity when building something with a service business model than with a product model.

In the service model, you’re involving more people (the client) in the process of building a product that meets the needs of a sector of the public, and not just any sector but a sector that the client has already built a relationship with.

… thus, as a business, you shooting for satisfying one group of people’s needs, the client, and rather than aiming at the public market and trying to meet their needs

…resulting in a lower risk of success if you’re basing success on the happiness of the people you’re serving.

Because of this nature, I believe it’s wise to interview the client as much as their interviewing you, so that you’re smartly making moves through the public market, and building up a community around your brand.  With this in mind, you could shrewdly position yourself market to have the luxury of being very selective of the type of people you bring in as clients, to be an arm of your team for whatever the length of the business relationship.

In business a product is always produced, as, there must involve a result or deliverable at the end which must be worth the money invested, both from the client or from internal R&D alike.  But the important part is the structure surrounding that product.

Barack Obama’s campaign for presidency hired Blue Digital Media to put the online social networking strategy.   Obama’s campaign group had already decided that social networking would be at the center of their campaign.  The product, my.barackobama.org, allowed the public to donate money online, download, print and distribute flyers online, receive a list of the closest neighbors and phone numbers, write letters, organize a house party… all online.  This armed the public with what they needed to get involved and take action in the campaign at their own discretion.  The reason why Obama’s social networking campaign strategy worked is because the product was supported by thought-through technical infrastructure, budgetary priority and a team of web professionals to carry the project through to success.  But another very important part is that the leaders of the campaign, or the client, valued and believed in this product.

McCain only saw the value of the online social media campaign mid-way through his campaign, after Barack Obama had clearly illustrated success.  At that point he tried to catch up, with online apps that threw errors with too  much traffic and by enlisting his daughters to publish innovative blog posts, but he couldn’t possibly because it was not a valued core to his campaign from the beginning.

Blue Digital Media provided a service for a client, Barack Obama’s campaign group, and together they created a product that hit records and made waves because of how much both sides of the team, client and service provider, believed in what they were doing.

Apple is credited with making a brilliant move when the ipod was launched, but really the launch of the digital music player itself wasn’t a success in isolation.  At the time of the first ipod, around the year 2000, other companies had launched their own versions, just as good and just as new.  But what really took the ipod to the next level was the integration of the ipod with itunes, podcasts, videos, etc – leveraging the product with a strong support of services to get the most out of your digital music player.

The quality of the product itself can never be ignored nor compromised, but the business model surrounding that product must be just as strong to challenge the quality of the product, so that both the business model and product are working hand-in-hand to make an impact in the marketplace and society surrounding it.

What I’m Thankful For…

It’s really special to be home just in time for Thanksgiving.  I woke up this morning thinking more this year than others, how appreciative I am of so many aspects of my life.  These aspects are illuminated more clearly for me this year.

I am thankful for the amenities at home that feel like luxuries – flush carpet, fluffy towels, queen sized beds, and lots and lots of space!   This house gives me so much privacy compared to in Armenia.  The culture is different, and both cultures function well.  Ask me that 1 year ago, and I’d say I had NO privacy at home.  It’s amazing how your perspective changes.

I’m thankful for the liberation of driving!  For the ease with which you get trained and receive your driver’s license in the States.  But most importantly, for being able to blast good music and sing at the top of my lungs, while driving on the highway!

And most importantly, I’m thankful for waking up to my mom, dad, brother and sister this morning and for having them in my life for 26 years.  I’m thankful for the people who became my family in Armenia.  For how they took me in like their own sister, daughter, best friend, niece, cousin, neighbor.  I’m thankful for the beautiful relationships that can be cultivated in this world, which takes personal effort, and requires a relatively healthy environment to do so within.  I’m thankful for the freedom to build these relationships and to build a life for ourselves.  Because I know that other people have not had this freedom, others currently do not have this freedom and others have been oppressed from this freedom in countless different ways.  Other people who lived on this same land that we sit on today.   There are a lot of horrible things that happen in this world and are happening now.  Within this, we are all entitled to joy, peace and happiness as a basic human right.

I wish you joy, peace and happiness this Thanksgiving!

Things I missed

Smiling, friendly Mid-Westerners

Talked with the lady sitting next to me the whole ride back from Chicago to Detroit – Londoners look shocked when I say hello to them, Armenian’s stare when someone new enters their eco-system.  The joking going on between the airport attendants, they joked with me and with themselves – “next time I see you, I expect you to be a little less heavy, ok??”  joking about my luggage weight.

People who speak like me!

I don’t have to repeat myself 2 or 3 times (as Londoners don’t understand American English on first attempt), nor do I have to speak slowly and with basic sentences.  Ahhh

Cinnabon & Christmas music

The smells of sweet sweet cinamon and frosting with Silent Night playing in the background…

Fluffy towels, queen beds & a fridge full of leftovers

Towels aren’t crunchy!  And my bed is big, and my mom has our fridge stuffed!

My computer + reliable internet

Listening to NPR News.  24 inch iMac that is bigger than my TV.

 

Why Vatche and Levon are good men…

So here are Levon and Vatche, my most amazing hosts in London.  Mandy comes hopping into their ever-busy lives, and they are so kind to take the time to lay out a tube map for me, set up the cot, leave out a fresh towel, and give me the tour of the kitchen being sure to insist that nothing is off-limits – eat whatever, make yourself at home, feel free and comfortable here -

But.  What I’m not sure they realized is that I have stuff from living in another country.  A lot of stuff.  So much stuff that even when I hide it behind the couch, look what happens to the stuff

And I can’t help but think that wearing the same stuff for 7 months straight, and then finding yourself on Oxford Street in London, is a temptation that nearly any human would not be able to resist…  Yes, I will be going home with all my stuff + a bit of new London stuff.

My only saving grace is that Levon and Vatche are too busy to notice…  cross your fingers.

Morning Thoughts – provoked by my current plethora of books, travel and documentaries

I watched a really effective documentary film last night, here in London, on one Lithuanian family’s experience during the rise of the Soviet Union and spread of Communism.  It was told from the voice of a little girl, telling the story of her grandparents and mom’s family.  The story was simple and clear and straightforward, and it captured audiences educated and uneducated about these events, because it takes one who knows nothing from the ground up, and leaves room for people who have their own experiences to fill in the gaps.  It was like reading a really good book.

The family was exiled to Siberia and forced to change jobs and work as lumberjacks.  It illustrated how the Communist government looked at human being’s as tools, and tried to create a machine out of society.  The individual person’s background experience wasn’t taken into account during the move and change of jobs.  The family’s past earnings and work wasn’t respected when their land was taken away from them and they were forced to move.  And their centuries of culture wasn’t respected when they were punished if heard speaking the Lithuanian language at schools or in public in their new “home” in Siberia.

It’s interesting because for the families who already do labor work for a living, and live in a small community where you’re dependent on your neighbors, Communism makes sense on one level.  For instance, the family that I lived with in the village of Armenia, they described how Communism worked within their community.  For them, they could work an 8 hour day during that time, and life was less stressful.  Now their dependent on themselves to produce, market and sell their own goods.  They farm for eggplants, and carry them in their car to the neighboring village to sell the eggplants.  They wake up at 7am to milk the cows, prepare food in the kitchen, clean outside, and they sit down for coffees and social time in pulses throughout the day, and they continue to work through sunset outside and in the house until they go to bed.  The shift-over from Communism to some form of Capitalism was a painful transition for these families.

So there are many angles.  But, I woke this morning being very thankful that in my life I’ve had the luxury of making decisions for myself or as a family, versus having a government make decisions for me.  That is in my daily routine and choice of work, way of making a living, choice of education, etc.  On that note, I’m reading the book, “The History of the United States” by Howard Zinn right now and there are some very ugly situations and phenomenons that occurred in our past, and are occurring now… Let us take our happy moments and cherish them!

Globe-Trotting on my way home… news from London

Plane Ride

I read TJ’s note when I sat down on the plane and started crying, out of happiness of all the people I’ve been lucky enough to call close friends now.   Normally I don’t let myself cry but I couldn’t help it with all the amazing people and memories flooding my thoughts on the plane.  Her note opened up the flood gates and I spent nearly half of the 6 hour plane ride in and out of tears. I stuck my ipod on repeat on a great Armenian song from the Expressia CD, and just let all the memories come through my head. Music is so wonderful how it has so much movement.  This song pulsed through slow and fast thoughts that were running through my head, making me smile one minute and cry the next…

London, my initial impressions

I am enjoying my days here in London, it feels really good to be back here.  It’s been 6 years, and this time is feeling familiar and comfortable.  Things in the city are pretty smooth, functional, calm.   Lots of people are going about their business and moving quick but not in a panic or rush.  The streets in general are quieter than I’m used to in Yerevan – no shouting and honking. People talk pretty calmly and quietly, they’re demeanor in general is a bit reserved.  But then couples are a bit more free and open with affection than in the States, like a toned down version of Europe. So, it’s neat, I’m glad my eyes are opened enough to this that I can notice these things, it’s not all *brand* new to me!

Friends in the City

My hosts here are fantastic. Vatche is working on his physics PhD here, fully funded, and I’ve understand only half of what he says when he spins into his elasticity and eigen values discussions with me… it’s a rewind back to my days in the math department, but the difference is that the work he’s doing is practical, ;) Levon is working at City Bank as an investment planner for emerging economies. He hears a lot of different languages at work, both with his colleagues and clients.   He’s described his work as having one “right” way to do it, and another “real way”, as is the case everywhere I suppose. But in his case, he should know economic factors such as how much of the profit of a dairy farm comes from the milk, and how much from the cheese. It’s near impossible to get that information even when you’re lucky to have direct communication with the business owners. So, there’s a lot of guesswork, and it sounds to me a lot of being good at your job comes from experience. He’s 3-4 months into the job, 2 internships deep, and works from 9am – midnight generally each day, so I’d say he’s doing all he can to get the experience he needs.

As you can tell, these two are very smart. It’s refreshing, I love meeting smart people. That is once I get over the aww and shock of listening to them initially.

I’ve met up with my friends Holly and Luis from grad school, and they will have me over for dinner tonight.  They’re doing great, Luis got a job here in no time and Holly has started her PhD school. Luis got a job before they found an affordable apartment. With their budget they were being shown quite a bit of public housing options and had to adjust their expectations quite a bit to be able to find something that works right for them. They’re now settled in a flat-share in zone 3 of London, living with a land lady and her 17 year old daughter. They’re paying cash, similar to my living arrangement in Yerevan with TJ.  The situation is working out nicely for them for the time being.

We went to the Tate Modern yesterday together, all afternoon, after a brunch. That was a great museum. Some strange stuff, (i.e. video of naked Cuban artist pouring blood on her body and tolling around in white feathers to demonstrate her humanity as part human, part bird…) and some really cool stuff (Andy Warhol’s Marilyn Monroe images, models built by the same designer of the “Bean” in downtown Chicago, etc.)  The museum, in general, does a great job of describing the different forms of art – impressionism, surrealism, form, cubism, etc.  And more than that, they give great context and insight into the time period of the type of work – the political fabric of that period, philosophy emerging, emotions, war time or peace, different political regimes and it’s effects such as the USSR, or German Nazi movement.  It’s amazing how art reflects the experience and emotions of people and what they’re going through at the time.  No one lives in a vacuum, and art is a form of communication of one’s life experiences and emotions.  It was interesting reading about the dream state, the idea of chance, and then reality.  How “chance” is somewhere between dream and reality.  And then tying in the ideas of the philosophy of forms, metaphysics, etc.  I think it’s fascinating how everything connects and impacts other things in life.

Then I’ve been trying to spend time with Vatche and Lev this weekend since they’ve repeatedly said how they’re rarely home M-F, so I wanted to take advantage of the time when I do see them.  Last night we stayed in and laughed and joked and had tea, ate peanuts and around 1:30am Vatche decided to cook pasta, while I put my sleeping kit on, mask over eyes, and hit the sack…

Unfortunately I didn’t get to see Talene. We had some sort of miscommunication, her last day was Sunday, not Saturday. So, I was calling her several times Saturday night, and carrying around the swim stuff with me, while I was out to a great Indian meal with Vatche and Levon and their friends. And, although we actually had “more time” to get together, with one extra day, it still didn’t work out. She arrived in London from Cambridge at 9pm last night and I was all-intentioned to meet her at her flat that night. I cancelled dinner plans with H&L, and came home to pick up the swim stuff. Levon then got home and we started talking, me knowing it’d probably be about 5 days before I see my roommate again, time passed and I had my coat on and shoes on and was ready to walk out the door for the 50 minute trek to her house, but then the internet started working, so I had to check email expecting something from H&L. Then it became 10:40, and my options were – 1. go meet Talene, help pack, leave out so as not to bother her roommate who’s got a paper due in the morning, and take midnight trains back – totalling in a 2+ hour transport trek, 2. go meet Talene, help pack, sleep on her couch and wake up at 5am with her and her roommate, and make the trek back to my house, or 3. stay in and video chat with Talene when she returns to LA. I had to make the most practical choice, seeing as how I had continuous yawning occurring, and Talene was great about it, very understanding. I am bummed I didn’t get to see her. But I also realize London is no Yerevan, so things require a bit more planning…

See you soon!

I am trying to pick up a London accent while here, it is “litra-y stimulating”.

I do look forward to seeing you straight away.  ;)

Whoa, it’s mid-October already…

Ok, I have neglected my blog for long enough.  I’m really sorry about that, really.  Mostly sorry to myself because so much has happened in the last 2 months and I haven’t been able to process it by writing about it and sharing it…  I could blame it on the sporatic access to the internet, busy-ness resulting in not enough sleep, or a thousand other things… but I’d rather just *start* somewhere, anywhere, and begin writing about some of the things I’ve been doing and thinking.  It’s better than nothing, I’ll just take one thing at a time…

A really special excursion yesterday

Yesterday we ended a 12 hour excursion with a trip to the Observatory to look at the stars at night.  It was sooo clear and soo pretty.   We saw Jupiter, the largest planet, Vega Star, and a galactic cloud through the telescope.  But the most amazing thing was just looking up to see the entire sky FULL of stars.  Some had really strong refraction of light, that it literally looked like it was twinkling, others were clustered together and looked like they were so close to each other, but so far away from us.  The galactic cloud reminded me of what a particle looks like in your blood when you look under a microscope.  Isn’t it amazing that some of the largest things and smallest things in life have similar patterns/shapes/fractals?!

Another highlight was climbing the Ambert fortress and looking out over the vast gorges of the Aragatz mountain slopes.  Thank goodness we were told to bring warm clothes with us, and thank goodness we layered up.  The afternoon started with short sleeved sunny weather, when we were escorted around one of the Armenia Tree Project nursuries by easily the most passionate agricultural connosiuers I’ve ever met in my life, only a short time after that, we found ourselves eating lunch on a field looking out over Ararat and other gorgeous valleys, definitely sweater weather, and shortly after that, around sunset, we found ourselves climbing up the ancient stone pathways of the Ambert fortress, burried in the slopes of the Aragatz mountainside - who’s roads are usually blocked off this time of year due to snow – definitely down jacket weather.  Even within a few hours, in the same day, you’re exposed to a variety of climates here. 

While we were waiting for the school children to get their chance at the telescope, Sevan’s 3 daughters - 10, 8 and 7 years old, were experts at making the time go by quickly.  They taught me a lot of new games – what are those games called when two people do the patty-cake hand clap thing?? Anyway, they taught me a ton of those games.  Then one of my favorites was this other game where you’re 5-ish people and you hold hands in a circle.  One person starts and touches one foot to the person’s next to him/her. Then that person has to move his/her foot that was touched to touch one of the feet of the person next to him/her, and it continues.  But your foot that wasn’t touched, you have to keep it in the same spot. So, basicly everyone ends up in a giant pretzel, like twister but without the board. It’s really fun. I was the one who fell first, lol.

The weather here has been gorgeous lately. The last 2-3 weeks, it’s been beautiful.  It was definitely colder in April and May when I first arrived than it is now, mid-October.  Fruits and vegetables are still abundant, I’m really surprised – pomegranates, persimmons, grapes, pumpkins are in season now.

Graduation and Guests

My friend and roommate, TJ, had her family in town this past week.  She’s graduating with her MBA from the American University of Armenia.  Her mom, dad, sister and nephew were staying with us.  So, it was a full house – 6 people – very normal for here.  And guests always stay with you.  There’s no reason, no such thing as them staying in a hotel.  Hotel’s are for tourists.  TJ’s nephew was the cutest thing ever, he’s 15 months old. He has these soft curls, huge warm eyes, and he’s cuddly as ever.  He touches everything.  He falls constantly.  He just started walking 3 weeks ago.  He loved the washing machine because it was just his height.  I looked up at one point to see his little butt sticking out, his head buried in the washing machine.  His mom says if anything ever goes missing at home, the first place she looks is the washing machine!  Unsurprisingly, he got sick though, he caught the flu and was having a hard time breathing at night.  I was soooo worried about him – I got glimpses of what it must feel like to be a mother.  I can’t even wrap my head around the amount of energy it must take to do that.  

Tj’s sister is SO kind. She’s 33, she’s very beautiful.  Her parents are great, there’s a peacefulness about the whole family.  Everyone’s comfortable in their own skin, a family of adults, everyone participating in their own way.  Her dad, he loves to work with his hands.  Somehow within the week that he stayed there, he fixed our sink in the kitchen from dripping, installed a new toilet, got our bathroom door to close properly, and probably fixed a few other things in between that I didn’t catch. 

The volunteer group currently is great.  I really feel like I have close friends here, and there’s little drama, which is super nice.  Talene’s great of course, we were basicly married for a while, especially while in mourning when we lost Amy Hunter to Philli.  Shahan’s back from Boston, basicly the most natural integration into society every – I swear he is a part OF Armenia.  Then there’s Tracy, my new friend, she’s from Maine. Tracy reminds me so much of Amy, my sister Amy. She talks like her, thinks like her, even moves her mouth in the same way sometimes. It’s really crazy.  I feel like I’m hanging out with sister at times.

Armenia’s Charm

In terms of my time here, I have less than a month left of time.  It’s crazy to think about the people who came for only 2 months.  I had a night of insomnia the night before my 2 month mark – thinking of all that I have left to do, people I want to see, reasons I came here for, etc.  Since then, I feel my time has been unwinding little by little.  I feel I’m enjoying every minute, at the same time I can’t help but begin to mentally prepare for the next steps personally and professionally - being in Michigan for the holidays, job arrangements, plans for continuing Armenian language classes in the States, buying gifts for people, business ideas, educational ideas, etc.  

I’ve planned a small stay-over in London on my way home.  I’ll visit with grad school friends there, do a bit of hostelling or couch-surfing.  I will also visit Cambridge and Oxford, as I didn’t get to see those places during the semester that I lived there in 2003. 

I think and hope that this is just the beginning of my ties here to Armenia. There’s a charm here that’s different than in the States. Things are more simple infrastructure-wise - nothing’s at the level sophistication that the US has, like government paperwork, water systems, anything.  Food preparation, agriculture, grocery shopping – these things are more simple.  Things are more complex socially, because so many different dynamics because all communication is face-to-face. 

The language works with the amount of personal interactions that people have socially.  There’s so much more emotion built into the language, creating expressions that just don’t exist in English.  There’s so much more to say on this, it’s a whole other blog post, but to describe briefly I’ll give an example.  “Tsavet tanem” means “Let me take your pain”, and it is used for anything from “You are driving in the wrong direction, let me take your pain, but you need to turn around and back-track” to little kids running through the park and using it in the midst of the games they’re playing.  It makes me see English in a different light – as a functional, business language.  English has a gracefulness about it, in that you can say things several different ways, politely, directly, implying something, etc.   There are different styles and ways to use the English language to protect you from hurting the person you’re talking to.  Everyone’s sensitive, in any culture, because we’re all human.  In Armenian, there’s emotional understanding expressions used for comforting, and there’s a cultural norm to argue, react, shout etc.  In English, there’s ways to prevent reaction, by saying something indirectly, or using euphemisms, etc.   

Anyway, this all results in a difference in relationships. I respect that it’s very different here from the States.  I notice I’m very different, and I have a very different mentality. Everyone does from the diaspora, people who lived in Canada, the US, France, England, Lebanon, Iran, Russia – everyone is a product of where they grew up. It’s really fascinating.

Bottom line is that I want to continue to go back and forth between the US and Armenia in my adult life.  But right now, I’m just taking one day at a time.

“When we read we begin with ABC. When we sing, we begin with do re mi.” When we browse we begin with HTTP.

flowers

I wrote a post for the Armenia Volunteer Corp blog yesterday, and figured I’d share it on here as well.  Enjoy! 

After I finished Grad School, in 2006, I made my first trip to Armenia with my 3rd cousin who is one of the few people in my family who speaks the Armenian language.   We were the first ones in three generations to come back to the country.  I fell in love with so many things here during that trip, and I made a few promises to myself at the same time.   I fell in love with the way that people are connected to nature and the weather, the passion that the community has for the arts, the way that everything from the colors of a dance costume to a tombstone has meaning, and the drive of the local Armenian youth that I saw.   I met countless people who speak 3+ languages, talented musicians, people hustling and ecstatic to meet me and get to know me and show me around.  This is not what you’ll find in the average U.S. city.

The 2 biggest promises I made to myself during that initial trip was to a.  come back to Armenia and volunteer, and b. learn the language so that I can speak to locals and connect with my culture one-on-one, on their own turf.  So I worked for 3 years and saved.  Now, with my stuff stacked in boxes in my parents garage, I’m living, learning and growing each day here in Armenia.  Six  months into my stay, I can easily say that this experience has been richer than I ever could have imagined it would be.

In between jumping off waterfalls, hiking through mind-blowingly beautiful gorges, asking questions to the Minister of Economy, stumbling through conversations in Armenian with local families, store attendants,  and taxi drivers, I manage to find time to dedicate 30 hours to my volunteer placement.  I quickly realized that going to work is very different here than in the States.  It’s a transfer between one form of family to the next – people care about you.  We eat lunch together around a picnic table everyday, and coffee breaks are doses of time dedicated to joking or catching up with the people around you.  This is even reflected in the vocabulary – “unkutyun” is the word for “organization or company”, and it literally translates to “friendship”, “gords-unkerner” means “co-workers” but literally translates to “work friends”.

Finding a good fit for a volunteer placement was very important to me since I’m at an early point in my professional career.  I had been working in web design for 5 years and don’t want to put the brakes on this.   At the same time, I aspire to turn my career toward an international direction… it is very important to me not to stay cooped up in the U.S. for my adult life.   So, after a bit of pro-active networking and researching, I found a perfect fit for myself with TUMO.  TUMO is an educational organization, aimed at teaching technology and art to high school students in Armenia.   TUMO embraces innovative ways of teaching and learning, and will offer a learning environment that will nurture creativity and teamwork in the student body – two things that are not available in Armenia’s current education system, still a carcass of the Soviet Era.

Armenia-001-166Web development education is taught differently at every education institution.  Just in the last 2 years, a movement to standardize the education of web development in the field has begun.  I’m involved in this movement now, in an environment so close to my heart – working to benefit Armenian kids – in Armenia!   I’m taking a brand new curriculum framework being worked on now by the movers and shakers of the web design field, and adapting it to meet the needs and vision of TUMO.   I’ve defined the skills that the students will need to learn, how those skills group together to accomplish learning goals, and I’m writing a collection of activities to teach specific skills to the student body.    Many students here will not have been exposed to computers before, and their English language skills may not be strong.   So we’re using a lot of images and visuals to teach the skills, and basic concepts to teach terminology.   We’ve visited schools and had students come in to test the activities.  I’ve gotten the chance to be a part of this innovative education project from the beginning and I’m so lucky for that.

Technology is a sector with a lot of potential in Armenia because Armenia is not rich with natural resources like other countries, so it is key to tap into the creativity of it’s people.   TUMO is investing in society’s people right now, it’s intellectual capital.   TUMO will give students the opportunity to get hands-on with technology and art, leaving them with a portfolio of work to have as their own.  Students who are inclined to continue on and compete in the digital design world will have a strong base to do so.  Others will have these skills under their belt to add value to any organization that they’re working in – be it to work on their website, produce video work to spread information, work on presentation or marketing animations, etc.  The bottom line is, my work has meaning, both for me and for students and for society.

I have to agree with what one of my fellow volunteers said when I showed him all the things we’re working on – “This is the type of work that you simply can’t find in the U.S.”   I whole-heartedly agree.  Armenia’s current social fabric offers an opportunity for a massive innovative endeavor such as TUMO.   The energy of the young high school students here are just going to eat this up.  And the actualization of this vision can thrive in the social fabric of Armenia in a way that it never could in the U.S.

Needless to say, after being here for this extended period, I’ve made more goals for myself.  My life ahead has a growing list of “to-do’s” with a flexible itinerary.  I can’t wait to drive down these new roads I’ve discovered.

Greece. Wow.

Greece-001-330Greece was phenomenal.  We went to Athens for 4 days, Santorini for 3 and Rhodos for 3.  Ancient history is embedded all throughout Greece in the buildings, excavations, stories, etc.  We saw the posts where the Rhodos 8th wonder of the world stood, and heard the story and saw the rendition of the statue elsewhere.  It fell a while back and because it was made of bronze the people stole pieces of it and there are not enough remains left to reconstruct it from it’s original material.

The new Acropolis museum opened just this summer.  Pieces from the ancient city that were found during the construction of the metro in 2004 were on display.  There’s a glass floor where you can walk over the stone walls of the ancient ruin remains and look down into the old city.  The architecture, cleaning methods for the stone historical pieces, and excavations was the information that the museum mostly highlighted.  There’s no audio tours or tour guides yet, so the historical setting/context isn’t there unless you walk around with someone who knows it for themselves.  This is likely why entrance costs only 1 Euro at this time.  The architect is Swiss.

Greece-001-327Santorini is like walking through a postcard.  Everything is perfect.  Rhodos, you can see more of the real life aspects, villages, locals, etc, scattered among the heaven-like beachfronts and ancient acropolis’ and gorgeous nature there.  I stayed at friend’s families places the whole time, so this is why I was able to go financially, not having to pay for accommodations.  Greece will suck up your money faster than you can blink an eye if you let it.  12 Euro for a launchair and umbrella, 6 Euro for a coffee, 3 Euro for a bus ride, the cheapest thing I saw was 1.20 Euro for a gyro on the street.

I came to understand 2 important concepts in Greek Culture.

  1. The importance of “rest time”.  I fought that concept in the beginning, wanting to optimize on every minute of the day and night, but then after deciding to try this thing they call “rest”, I fell asleep within seconds of lying down for a nap at 4pm in the afternoon, rightfully, the hottest time of the day, and I never questioned it again.
  2. The reason why local Greeks never order Greek food in the restaurants.  I got to taste the home-cooked meals a time or two and saw how the flavors completely blow anything in the restaurants out of the water. Greece-001-183

One of my favorite things we did there was swimming to the middle of a bay in the Aegean and doggy-paddling 360 degrees over and over to see the views of the beaches from afar, the rock cliffs creating the bay, the boats docked and the endless sea.  It was amazing.  My other favorite part was taking yoga shots everywhere we went.  We only got stopped once by the guards at the Acropolis in Athens telling us to take “normal pictures only”.  :)

Inside a family in Shushi

P1040026I saw a peaceful happiness in the Kharabaghtsi family that we stayed with.  The mother she woke up in the morning and worked hard, without complaining.  They weren’t supposed to have us as guests, it was their first time hosting volunteers from Birthright, and they accepted on the spot, when we were there at 11pm figuring out where we  were going to stay because the woman who was supposed to host our group wasn’t answering her phone.  To help, Saro, the war hero/police officer of the town who was hosting other of our volunteers, gave our “dad’s” the number of this family, and they accepted and welcomed us into their home at the very last minute.

One morning, Maria was pulling the feathers out of a turkey at 8am when I got up to go to the bathroom and get started with our day.  This was a sacrifice for her son who’d just gotten back from the army within the past month.  They’ve done one other sacrifice, and will do another bigger sacrifice later this month.  They cook the meat and then give it away to the first 7 neighbors they see as a gift.  They keep the worst parts of the animal for themselves to eat.

The table was always set when we woke up.  Maria would stay up late, wake up early, go to work at the hospital as a hashvapah (accountant) and she got little sleep.  She had a headache on Sunday, when we got home from the hike, and I gave her a massage.  She said I had completely cured her.  She said I did such a good job, that I must have done this before. Her head and neck were sooo tiny.  Her frame reminded me of dad’s sister’s body type.  Strong in mind, her body has no extra fat on it, her hands and arms and legs, they’re indicative of a woman who’s worked hard her whole life and found pleasure in it.  Talene, Tsoler and I couldn’t help but respect her, and we said to one another that we could see ourselves in her and hoped that had we been a product of her circumstances, that we’d be like her.

The girls I stayed with, their personalities felt like sisters to me.  Talene, I found out is a scorpio, so this is why we became comfortable with one another seemingly immediately.  She’s traveled abroad so much that she feels settled in everywhere she goes.  The world is her oyster, .  Tsoler is a complete sweetheart and she is happy to be here and comfortable with the differences, with the people, with the culture here, she’s taking it in, enjoying herself and not judging anyone, and teasing people along the way in a soft, loving way that ties the group together.  Our personaliites blended really well, among the three of us and our family for the time we were there.

P1040146We shared the bathroom like sisters.  There was one point where I knew these girls were my kind of girls.  They had both taken a shower the first day, I didn’t because I was comfortable and there was no need.  So the other volunteers are all comparing their bathroom facilities, and Talene and Tsoler are both describing how great ours are.  There’s a shower head, there’s a system with levels of heat, they loved it so much that the others got jealous.  When it came time for me to take my shower, I went downstairs and outside to the hut with the shower.  It was functional, it was all anyone needed.  Inside there’s the water system that’s the newest thing in there, the walls are cemented together haphazardly, the floor is uneven and broken with two or three types of cement, tile or crates, there’s flies around it, the door is a wooden door with a rickety slide lock.  There was nothing fancy about it, and nothing wrong with it.  I felt just as refreshed, if not more, from that shower than from one at a Marriot hotel.  But these girls were raving about it.  I thought that was awesome.  This is when I knew I was not with complainers, I was with girls who understood and appreciated the way people lived here in Shushi.  It made me smile.

This layer of society is about comparable to my host family in Yerevan.   Both families have just as much money as they need to get by.  There’s not usually more to spend on little luxuries.   Maria in Shushi seemed to never stop working and her family speaks calmly, intelligently.   Nairi her son is going to school to be a dentist, away from home in Yerevan, but he’s home for the summer.  He wants to come back to Shushi after his studies because it’s so beautiful and he loves it here.  Mara in Yerevan takes care of everything in the home, she’s going through the mourn of losing her husband and she takes responsibility to push the kids to study.

The difference that stands out to me between the families at this level in Yerevan and the families at this level in Shushi is this – in Shushi, they know life is hard but they want to live here, they love the mountains, they’re proud of the land, especially after the recent war, and feel happy to work hard and live on this land.  The families in Yereven, they know that life here is more difficult than life in the diaspora and they want more.   They have an idea of they luxuries of living in Europe or the UK or the US.  They seem to think that the US = wealth, they have friends who’ve moved to Los, family members who’ve lived in Georgia, Russia, etc.  They have friends who’ve lived in France where their socialist government helps families who’ve lost either the husband or the wife, they’ve seen another system that works seemingly better than the system here.  There’s a corrupt government in power now in Yerevan, and everyone knows it but doesn’t feel empowered to change it, so there’s a lot of complaining and carelessness.

It makes sense, the situations and personalities of people are all different.  Everyone will react in a slightly different way, and will have their own individual opinion.