Deciding to write this blurb was definitely nerve-wracking. We have so many amazing students and alumni doing great, indeed exceptional, things at Middlebury that I really doubted my decision to join the US Peace Corps at the age of 47 could be truly newsworthy. But that’s what I’ve been doing over the past year. After just over twenty years working in public relations and public affairs in the Czech Republic, I decided to turn my life upside down. I wanted to see if some of the skills I had acquired working in the NGO, and later the private, sector in Prague could be put to good use helping others.
So somewhere around the start of 2018 I applied to join the Peace Corps in Armenia. That whole process of completing the application, doing the Skype interviews, getting medical clearance and taking online language courses in Eastern Armenian now seems like the distant past. In fact, it all wrapped up just over a year ago.
Having been in Armenia for almost a year now, there are so many emotions and thoughts that cross my mind. First, I can say yes the experience so far has met, and even exceeded, my expectations. I am amazed on a daily basis how much joy the smallest of interactions with the residents of my town, Vanadzor, bring. They are so kind when I make efforts to speak to them in their language, and they are patient when letting me try to find words. I love to see them smile when they realize how much effort we, as volunteers, put into learning to converse. They laugh when I tell them “No Russian. I can understand some Russian, but we are in Armenia, so let’s speak Armenian.” However, there are times when Russian does bridge gaps: I don’t speak Russian per se, but some words are similar enough to Czech, which I’ve been speaking daily for over 25 years. At times, that Czech-Russian-Armenian bridge is a godsend.
When it comes to work, my service with Peace Dialogue NGO in northern Armenia has been a blessing. I have a wonderful team of colleagues, and our daily interactions have shown me many times that we have so much to teach each other. The slower pace of life in the southern Caucasus region has allowed me to take stock of what I’ve been doing for the past two decades of my adult life. Having jumped out of the rat race for a couple of years, I can more clearly see that I do have something to offer my local peers. In just over 9 months, we’ve had many a debate about organizational structuring and planning HR decisions; we’ve worked our way through numerous trouble-shooting sessions for grant applications and chats on how to plan purposeful funding searches; and we’ve learned the immense value of learning to delegate project tasks and to take time to listen and reflect on each others’ discussion inputs.
Our program leader here often reminds us of his perspective on how we should view our Peace Corps service. He is always reminding us of the mantra “you are planting the seeds of a tree under whose shade you may never sit”. Yet, even if it has perhaps become cliché to many of us, the saying does have some validity.
All the wonderful individuals, I have met, taught and worked with so far in Armenia have gifted me with wealth and happiness I never could have obtained otherwise. I sincerely doubt any spiritual retreat or spontaneous purchase of a luxury item could have filled my heart the way seeing Ema and Eva perform at their dance recitals did. Or the way seeing Lilit reap so many academic awards for her hard work studying did.
My time in Armenia has been a slow walk to self-fulfillment and contentedness. Each day brings a new, yet touching, measure of success. Perhaps Agnesa has translated her favorite Armenian song into English for our evening language class; or maybe Armine has brought me a jar of fresh apricot jam made from the tasty fruits of her backyard garden. Or it may be that the potato salesman at the outdoor markets recognizes me during my weekend shopping and offers me potatoes from his “high quality” stash.
It’s hard to say what actually brought me to the Peace Corps. But I feel that it was, in part, Middlebury-inspired. One thing I remember from my graduation on that sunny May day is that I didn’t feel the ceremony to be an ending. I was scared and confused, but I wasn’t sad. I felt that Middlebury was about to be a beginning to a lifetime of learning. So, for now, my classroom is Armenia.
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