One thing I knew I had to do while we were in Yerevan was stop by the Peace Corps office. I’m a member of a Peace Corps Armenia “reunion” group on Facebook, and the social media manager for Peace Corps Armenia had asked me to stop in while we were in town. I was happy to oblige, since it was a chance to show Bill the office, as well as another part of town.
Our appointment to visit was at 11:00 AM, so we made sure we didn’t sleep in until 9. It was a little cloudy and drizzly on that Tuesday morning, but the temperature was still sort of warm, especially for November. Nevertheless, I was determined to wear something kind of slimming, because I knew there would be pictures taken. 😉
After breakfast, we set off for the Peace Corps office. For some reason, it seemed further away from Republic Square than I remembered it to be. I used to walk straight down Nalbandyan Street and, once I got to the end, hang a right and walk for about fifteen minutes or so. But as we were heading down the street, I decided to turn right much sooner, which took us through some less familiar neighborhoods. It’s pretty hard for me to get lost in Yerevan, though, because I know the city is basically a big grid, and there are a series of different streets that run into each other and form a circle… or maybe an oval.
We ended up on Sayat Nova Avenue, which is not the street I usually took when I lived in Yerevan. I remember looking up at seeing what was obviously a toy store that ripped off Toys ‘R Us. They even had a giraffe mascot! As soon as my confusion cleared and we got reoriented, we were preparing to cross the street to Charents Street, which is where the Peace Corps office has been for the last 30 years or so. I looked up and noticed an obvious American man with a boy with him. I heard him speaking to the child and said to Bill, “There’s one of our fellow Americans.” I actually didn’t see very many Americans at all in Yerevan, although obviously there are more there now than there were when I lived there.
At last, we reached the Peace Corps office…. but how it had changed! First of all, there’s a guard station now. In my day, the office had a front yard and maybe a gate that you could open to walk in or out on your own. There was no guard station, and no need to sign in or out, or wear a badge. But now, you have to sign in and wear a badge. I think there was also a metal detector. It was just like visiting the US Embassy, when it was located on Marshall Bagramyan Avenue (it has since moved– more on that in a later post). Stepan came to meet us, and we walked inside…
When I was a Volunteer, walking into the Peace Corps office was kind of like walking into someone’s house. There was a lobby, and a secretary named Lola sat at a desk there. To the left, there were French doors, and that was where the country director’s office was. On the far wall, at least during my first year, there were mailboxes for the Volunteers, and a couch and phone. A stairway led to the offices upstairs. Our mailboxes were eventually moved up there. There was a bathroom at the bottom of the steps, and during my second year, there was a hallway that led to the very small office for the Peace Corps Medical Officer, who was American. An Armenian doctor named Dr. Anna was the assistant PCMO. She was also my landlady for a year.
In 2023, the whole building looks completely different. There’s fluorescent lighting, and the foyer has a desk next to a graphic display that looks influenced by the Internet. The upstairs consists of many offices. It looked like everyone had their own space, complete with a door that could be closed, and the odd beanbag chair.
I met the staff, who were very friendly and gracious, and I told them a bit about my time as a Volunteer during the literal “dark ages”, when the energy crisis was happening. I admitted freely that I had a difficult time, and I wondered if I’d made a difference. And then I told everyone that now I knew that I HAD made a difference.
I met the country director, a delightful Aussie named Joanne who is a graduate of American University’s School of International Service program. I am not an AU alum, but my husband Bill is, and he majored in International Relations nine years earlier than Joanne did. Everyone was so kind, attentive, and patient, as I went off about how things were, and how they appear to be today.
I also met the security director, who had one of the kindest faces I think I’ve ever seen, outside of Bill’s. He showed me where today’s Volunteers are serving. Sadly, because of the conflict with Azerbaijan and other concerns, such as environmental pollution and proximity to Metsamor (the nuclear power plant that reopened in 1996), Volunteers are more limited in where they can serve today. But then, right now, there are only 17 Volunteers. The group that is working now is the first to come back after the pandemic. The security director gave me a big, warm, sincere hug, and thanked me for my service. It made my heart swell. What a nice man!
I enjoyed meeting Hermine, the social media director. She was so sweet, as she saw me struggle with my purse, overloaded with assorted junk and too many electronics. She held it for me while I toured the rest of the office. It was at about this time that we learned that the American man we passed was none other than Mike Johnson, who had been a Volunteer in the group that came after mine. He ended up serving in Ukraine after a few months in Armenia, due to an unfortunate New Year’s Eve incident. Now he’s back in Armenia, working with the Peace Corps. We didn’t recognize each other. I did remember him, but I doubt he’d remember me.
I was extremely impressed by the medical facility, which has an actual “sick bay”, complete with a hospital bed, an in house lab, and a proper exam room. It’s a huge upgrade from what we had when I was a Volunteer. Naira, the Peace Corps doctor, was there; we met her at the airport when we arrived. She was telling me all about what they have now, and we were talking about how we both have master’s degrees in public health. She said Dr. Anna still occasionally works at the office, when they need a back up doctor. There is also an assistant doctor who wasn’t there when I visited. The whole medical staff is Armenian.
Then I got to see the Volunteer lounge. WOW! It’s in a separate building, and there’s a very nice library of books, a television complete with Netflix, and a shower! They also have lockers and computers for the Volunteers to use. In my day, we did have a library, located next to what was then the medical office. I remember one of my colleagues spent her final summer in Yerevan organizing it.
After the tour and introductions, I was invited to put my handprints on the side of the building where the lounge is. Stepan said it was his idea to put up a mural, and now any returned Volunteers who visit are encouraged to leave their mark on the building. At this point, there are only a few handprints. I’m honored that mine are among them. There was also a very nice social media post shared about my visit… And I’m quite pleased that I don’t look like Ziggy in the photos!
After we visited the Peace Corps office, Stepan suggested that we go across the street to have lunch at the very same restaurant where he met Ashot, the guy who gave us pastries the day before! So off we went, and Stepan joked about crossing the street the “safe” way, as opposed to the Armenian way. By this, he meant we’d use the underpass, rather than taking our lives in our hands and dashing across the street like maniacs. Once again, I’m pleased to report that underpass was in fairly decent condition.
The restaurant we visited was called Charentsi 28, and it had really good food. I had falafel, while Bill had shawarma and Stepan had chicken skewers. They were lucky enough to have Armenia’s yummy “tapakats kartophil” (fried potatoes). It’s probably a good thing I never learned the secret of making those… We finished with coffee and delicious orange cake, which we split among us.
Stepan had some things he had to do in the afternoon, so we bid each other adieu. He was going to call a cab for us, because it was sprinkling a bit, but we said it was okay to walk. I wanted to show Bill more of the city, and walking back to our hotel from the Peace Corps office offered a perfect opportunity to do that. So after a quick hug and a goodbye, Bill and I headed down Charents Street, which eventually turned into Koryun Street.
We passed Yerevan State University, which I used to walk by all the time back in the day. Little did we know that there would be a fatal explosion at Yerevan State University just a few days later. One person died, and three were injured when a fire broke out in room and caused the explosion, which the fire department later explained was caused by fluctuations in power voltages. The four people who were involved were all administrative employees at the university.
We passed the area where my host family lived. There was a lot of traffic, or I would have taken Bill across the street to have a closer look. Behind the archway, there were buildings, and my host family, who were fairly well off for the time, lived in an apartment with two stories. I lost touch with them, which is too bad. I liked my host dad. He was warm and funny, and could sing. He worked as an architect at the airport. His wife was an ear, nose, and throat doctor, although I remember that when I got diarrhea, she misunderstood my issues and thought I needed a tampon. 😀
I showed Bill Nalbandyan Street, and explained that if he were to walk down that street, he would eventually end up at Republic Square. Then I turned to the right and showed Bill the now disused funicular (cable car), which transported people from Koryun Street to the Nork district, in the hills of Yerevan, from 1967 until 2004. I remember taking that cable car once, when I attended a dental conference with the school nurse where I taught English. That was a project sponsored by one of my colleagues, who had gotten a grant from Colgate to promote oral health in Yerevan. But in 2004, there was a fatal accident when one of the cables snapped; five people died. So now, it’s basically abandoned and decaying.
We continued walking, and I pointed out where there used to be a store called Paradise. It was quite western for the mid 1990s, which doesn’t mean much. It offered what were probably considered luxury foods and beverages in those days. It’s gone now. We also went through an underpass that I used to walk through twice every day before and after our training at the Polytechnic. And we passed a bunch of kiosks… the kind that used to be all over Yerevan. I smelled something wonderful… frying piroshkis and ponchiks. I used to live on them. Ponchiks are basically like doughnuts, filled with glaze. And piroshkis were filled with mashed potatoes. SIGH… we were too from lunch full to partake. Maybe if and when we go back to Yerevan… I wish I’d gotten photos with “smellivision”.
Soon we were passing the Polytechnic, which has changed a bit since I went there for training. Back in 1995, the building was all tufa colored. Now, for some reason, they’ve painted it white. I thought it looked better before… although those cloverleafs will forever be distinctive. Right next to the Polytechnic is the Matenadaran museum, which I had been thinking maybe we’d visit. We never had the chance.
After we turned onto Mashtots Avenue, we took a short rest on a bench, then turned right onto Isahakian Street, where I used to teach business English to Armenian employees at Save the Children. I don’t think Save the Children is still working in Yerevan, but I do remember the building. There also used to be a cafe there that looked kind of like a ship. They have since revamped it and, again, drained the artificial lake that was kept full for boys wanting to swim back in the 90s.
We cut past the Yeritasardakan Metro Station, walked a ways down Teryan Street, where I showed Bill where a guy named Gerard used to have a gourmet store and a restaurant called the Chicken Coop. Then we made our way to Abovian Street, and, from there, walked back to our hotel. We were pretty tired after several miles of walking, and it was kind of dark and gloomy outside. Time for some wine.
We stopped at the AlcoHall store near Paris Hotel Yerevan and bought a couple of nice bottles of Armenian wine, including one that came from Artsakh. Bill wondered what would become of the winery that had produced this bottle we were going to enjoy… The Armenians who ran it were run out of Artsakh. Maybe we should have held onto it longer.
We decided to enjoy wine and light snacks, while we watched Armenian TV. I believe we ran across a movie from the 70s that involved an Armenian man trying to win over a woman from Russia… or maybe one of the other former Soviet republics. We also watched a more recent show made in Armenia, while I updated the Peace Corps reunion group about our day.
I wrote that I told the Peace Corps staff about how there had been 32 Trainees in my group, but one of them chose not to swear in. Instead, she married her host brother. As far as I can tell, they’re still married and living in Michigan, where she’s from. I remember that particular trainee had given me a hard time in training, but then later came around after she heard me sing. The reason I remember this is because when we were doing our education practicum, she was teaching her students the song “New York, New York”, and she asked me to help her out with it, since she couldn’t sing. I’m not sure how much help I was, since I was singing with Frank Sinatra, and it wasn’t the best key for me. But I gave it my best shot.
One of my former colleagues had completely forgotten about Shannon, the Trainee who hadn’t sworn in. She thought she was the only woman who had married an Armenian. This led to her sharing the group photo of our A-3 group, in which our entire group was pictured.
Well, that about does it for today’s post. I may be back with another later… or maybe I won’t. I’ve got “eli gortz” to attend to… 😉
