direction!!

so, I haven't posted in a while. To be honest, its because, well, I've been gone so long. I just don't love you guys anymore. I no longer feel the need to keep you updated. So...good luck with that. Have a nice life and all!

J/K. J/K. lolsies.

No, but, forserious. Just been busy and lazy and not too much has really changed. And I just can't put down my freaking book in the evening, which is super sad, because once its done...sigh. No more books. Not here, anyways. Not sci fi. (whimper).

Sorry guys. I'm in a silly mood today. All that Armenian coffee (pronounced 'koo-feh').

Alright, alright. So really. What have I been up to? Well, for starters, we went for khash with the UNHCR crew this weekend. Khash is a meal eaten in the winter and its very singularly Armenian. It was fun. To fully explain, out of laziness and due to the boredom that comes from repeating myself, I'm going to cut and paste from the email I send to Caity regarding the khash experience:

khash is basically a VERY fatty broth of beef parts. whatever isn't used in everything else. it comes with a couple of bones in it. pull out the bones, add salt and lots of garlic, to taste. and then you start crushing up these big slices of dried flatbreat, into the soup, until its almost gel-like in consistency. its supposed to taste extremely garlic-y. you eat this with a big soup spoon, even though its almost a solid once you break up enough lavash (armenian flatbread) into it. you have to eat it quick, while its still hot. and it basically tastes like a liquid form of garlic bread, which isn't too bad. but its extremely heavy. so you wash it down with numerous toasts of vodka. if you are with a group of armenians (probably the only way to consume khash), you will find that the toasts are very emotional, reverential and long-winded. the first shot of vodka is rough (at 11am!!!), but the second one goes down easier and the third, with a half-belly-full of khash, is smooth as the dickens. we sat and drank and toasted and smoked and ate and drank some more for a few hours. it was fun. we toasted to UNHCR staff of days gone by, people who had more recently moved on, toasted to the international staff who come and give their time and effort to helping Armenia become a better country. we toasted to good friends. and culture. friends all over the world. i made a toast at one point, a little drunk and none-too-articulate, to the pleasure of having been welcomed into this wonderful culture, to new experiences and new friends.

Khash extravaganza, 2010 with the UNHCR staff!

That's the PG13 version of the story. We had a good time, though.

On another note, I was starting to get kind of antsy in my placement, feeling like I didn't have alot of direction. The director has been out on leave since before we got here (we haven't been told why, exactly) and our supervisor left 2 weeks ago for maternity leave. So my intern-ness got kind of dumped on another staff, who already has shit-tons on his plate. That translated to me kind of drifting for a week or so, kind of reading up, looking at different reports, kind of getting a sense on what is going on in the country in general but not really getting into the specifics of my work plan.

Well that changed yesterday. In looking at reports, it seemed that there were 2 core quality of life issues to be addressed in the refugee community here. One is quality of housing and the second is employment and livelihood. I met with A. yesterday and we talked about my plan and potential projects. I told him I wanted to work somewhere in the realm of income production/ livelihoods and employment. Told him there seem to be two core aspects of this, employment trainings/ vocational classes and then micro-finance loans for entrepreneurs. We talked a while. He couldn't really tell me what was already out there and I was talking about trying to build new collaborations with new institutions, etc. and then a light kind of went off over A.'s head and he was like "I know what we need! UNDP (United Nations Development Programme), UNIDO (United Nations Industrial Development Organization), the Republic of Armenia State Employment Services, The Center for Migration Services, various Banks, the IOM (International Organization for Migration)...all these organizations and offices have done different things, yeah? They all know about some of the things going on in Armenia. But no one knows all of it. There's no one place to go to". And with that, we laid a plan for me to map out all the potential services available to a refugee in Armenia looking for an income. That's job-placement services. Micro-lending banks. Training programs. Schools. Armenian-language classes. All of it. I'm going to figure out all of this stuff, organize it and produce some kind of a deliverable, a handout or leaflet or booklet of all of this information, to give to refugees, to help them help themselves find a sustainable livelihood here in Armenia! Now that I say it like that, it almost sounds overwhelming, but it feels so good to have direction, to know what I gotta do. This week and beyond.

I still have some bigger ideas I want to play with. I would really like to get some more non-profit-oriented micro-finance lending going on here. There are micro-loans to be had, but the interest rates seem to be high. Micro loans are small loans to self-employed individuals, to start a business or take it to the next level. For example, one Iraqi-Armenian refugee got a loan for like $500 and used it to start a potato chip making business in his garage. No kiddin. Farmers can get loans to buy more livestock. Stuff like that. And there needs to be more of it. With fair interest rates, this is like a grassroots stimulation of an economy and thats the way it needs to happen here. There is no Borders or Walmart yet, thank God and there isn't any McDonalds, praise Jebus. But there are a hell of a lot of family-run, small businesses. And that is what micro-lending does. Go to kiva.org if you want to learn more.

On a side note, I found a blog by this American guy who came to Armenia a few months ago and is doing field work with an MFI (Micro-finance Institution). Basically, he sounds like he's kind of a case worker for small loans, where he goes out to whatever village and checkes up on farmer Brown, who borrowed a couple of hundred bucks. Makes sure everything is going ok. I really want to get in tough with this guy. He sounds like he can teach me alot and maybe help me fill out this map of mine. Problem is, I can't find his email anywhere, so I have to post on his blog, I guess, which feels kind of stalker-y. Ironic that I post this on my blog, for my stalkers to read. Heh heh.

Thats about it for now. We got a couple of inches of snow twice in the past week and a half. Its so nice to come out and see this sheet of fresh snow covering everything and coming down silently. The whole city goes quiet. You don't even hear snowplows in the distance because they don't plow their streets.