How to Take a Vacation in Peace Corps Without Using Vacation Days

Gone! For two whole weeks, I have been away from my icy little town at the end of a road that no one goes down accidentally. It’s not on the way to anywhere except here (which, incidentally, makes it hard for people to justify coming to visit me. They can never say, “Well, I’ll stop by for a night on my way to _______,” because it’s never going to be on their way.)

No worries! I just mentioned that I was gone for two weeks, right? I was out visiting other people in other towns. My thinking: If I can’t bring them to me, I’ll go to them. Not only that; I will find work-related reasons to go, so I won’t be taking away any of my vacation days.

Time Out: This is what ice does on a wheel.

(* Time out. Peace Corps is funny like this sometimes, so I will explain: I gain 2 days of vacation per month, and it’s not too restricted how I use them, since I am a “Community Development Volunteer” (CBD) and not strictly a “teacher,” as the “TEFL” volunteers are. (They are only supposed to take vacations during school breaks.) However, as I understand it, when I leave my site on a weekday, if I am still in country, it can be counted as vacation, if I don’t have a good reason for being gone. (When I leave the country, even if it’s on a weekend, every day will be counted as vacation. But we’ll get to that later, once I actually cross international borders.) But, since CBD’s are encouraged to network, share skills, and help other volunteers and organizations, I was able to travel, see more of Armenia, and visit my friends, and classify it as “work.” Not bad, eh? * Time in.)

So, Gonzo I went, with my (co-graphic-design-IT-Volunteer-”I-want-to-leave-my-site,-too”) friend, Brian.

Sheep on the hillside...

Our first night, we met up with a legendary figure in Yerevan: Tim Straight. He is the country director of the Norwegian Refugee Council in Armenia, the honorary consul of Norway and Finland, and a Knight of the First Class of the Royal Norwegian Order of Merit.

More importantly and relevant to this story, he is also the founder of Homeland Handicrafts and has helped the Berd Women’s Resource Center Foundation get off the ground with their Berd Bears. He has also recently started working on a project in my town, as well as one in Brian’s. So I imagine I’ll be talking about him more in the future.

Tim lives near the Cascade, so of course Brian decided we have to run up it. The Cascade is 500 steps. I think that’s all the information you need.

Brian ran all 500 steps of the Cascade, twice. I was a little less agile than him, but I made it to the top.

I was sore for a week–the entire time we were in (sunny, warm) Berd–so, of course I didn’t get any work done; it was hard enough just to sit quietly on the bed and moan about my sore glutes. *

Somehow, though, we managed to see some beautiful sights in and around Berd, including in Chin Chin, another town in which Tim has a new project. The picnic area he brought us to reminded me of Sleeping Giant Provincial Park in Thunder Bay, Canada, with its sheer cliffs and gorgeous views.

Dramatic Valley View from Chin Chin, Armenia

It was a beautiful spring-like day at the top of the cliffs in Chin Chin.

After Berd, Brian and I put on a three day workshop for “Peace Dialogue,” Matt’s NGO (another volunteer’s Non-Governmental Organization). It was all about graphic design, photo editing using Photoshop, and designing for print using Photoshop and InDesign. I enjoyed it tremendously, because the participants were all really eager to learn, inquisitive, and full of energy; and I was able to teach in English, making me realize exactly how hard it has been at the college, teaching exclusively in Armenian!

At the workshop, I would demonstrate something on the projector, then Brian and I would go around the room, helping everyone. In this case, I was demonstrating how to design a business card. Mine has all the information you need: I am Awesome.

Also, there are four other volunteers in Matt’s city and a couple extra visitors while we were there, so we had some great American-style meals and lots of English conversation, which is always healthy for the USA-starved soul.

For the final leg of our journey, almost a month after we left her at Christmas, Brian and I rejoined our friend Kim, to help out at her NGO.

Kim and I treated ourselves to ice cream. Who says you can't have ice cream when there's snow on the ground? It's almost more fun...

I think I mentioned before that I have become the unofficial “web guru” among the A-19s. That means that every organization that is clamoring for a website asks their volunteer to help them, and that volunteer contacts me. Fortunately, I have decided to embrace this and expand my web knowledge for the sake of helping others.

Youth Initiative Center (YIC) wanted website advice and help, so I put on a three hour workshop to teach them everything I could in that amount of time. With a room crowded with 20-somethings (who again understood English quite well), we covered:

• Important things to keep in mind about websites to make them more effective
• Ways that websites work in conjunction with social media
• The steps involved in creating a new site

Again, there was a ton of interest and participation, which always makes a body feel good, when speaking to an audience. Sometime in the future, we can expect to see them with a completely new website. At least, that is our hope.

I had one final meeting before coming home; this one was in Yerevan, and was in regards to the Peace Corps Armenia website. Yes, we are hoping to see some changes there, too, and I will be helping out with that. Embracing my web guru side, as I said…

And, we’ve come full circle. I am back in my icy little town, and it is colder than I remembered, and my room is colder than I remembered, and my heater warms me up less than I remembered.

Fortunately, to help ease the blow, I had two care packages (with tights, warm socks, a hooded sweatshirt and more!) and a letter awaiting my return. So thanks, mom and dad and kids and cousin Tina for all the Christmas presents, and Theresa and crew for the Alaska items, and my friend Tricia for the Christmas card!

Two care packages in one day! One contained all wrapped presents, including some things for my host mom.

Awaiting my next IT call….

* Note for anyone reading this too literally: of course I actually got some work done! I just said that for dramatic effect. Sometimes you can be too honest and completely ruin a good story!