Volunteering Experience in Armenia, part I

Since I am mentioned in some blogs now, especially in context with Armenia and volunteerism (see Armyouth, OneWorld Multimedia and Life as I see it) I feel like telling something about my Armenian volunteering experience (which i will do more in future. Impossible to tell everything in the same post).

How did I get the idea of going to Armenia?
As I told in a previous post I came to Armenia with support of the European Voluntary Service (EVS) of the European Commission. The first time I heard about EVS was in 2004. I subscribed myself to a sending organization and from then on received information about vacancies in projects all over Europe. In january 2005 I received the vacancy for a project in Yerevan, Armenia, at BEM Youth Progressive Action Center. Within 10 minutes (and this is really true) I applied for this vacancy, because it sounded so interesting. I didnt know anything about Armenia (later I had to dissillusionise quite a few Armenians that almost all were so proud that people abroad finally seemed to know about their Armenia, to really choose to come here. I had to admit over and over again I didnt even know where Armenia was before coming.
I also didnt know much about the project, but this was the interesting and challenging project I had been waiting for, I just knew it. Within some days I got a phonecall from Falkor I.C.Y.. This organization was responsible for writing the project and receiving the grant. After two interviews they decided that it was me and Marieke, another Dutch volunteer that were selected for the project in Armenia.

So, with a complete blank mind, some expectations, a bit of knowledge from the travelguide I had been reading, Marieke and I arrived at Zvartnots Yerevan Airport: Armenia. What was to be expected?

I can't really call it a 'great shock', because you are prepared in a way, but arriving in a country where you can't read the signs (Armenian has a unique and quite difficult alphabet), don't understand what the people are saying (most of them don't speak English), where you don't know anyone and everything looks like a documentary one sometimes sees about former soviet countries, or even war-zones like former Yugoslavia, I can say that at the moment of arrival I thought it a big challenge to stay there for the coming 6 months. This length of time felt an enourmous amount of time and made me panic a bit.

Now being back I can say my time in Armenia was over too soon and it is funny to overthink my reaction at that time with the knowledge I now have about Armenia and Armenians. Or at least my experience with it.

Armenians. What an interesting, complex, proud, hurt, suspicious, hospitable, inscrutable people they are. These words come to my mind when I think about the Armenian people.

It is significant that my first idea about Armenians, in my first few weeks, was different from the idea I had when i left the country. It is also significant that it took me a few months even to really get a picture about 'the Armenian'. People, walking in the streets, don't display their emotions, they don't smile, they don't cry, they keep everything to themselves. I had expected emotion display to be a very important part of the Armenian life, as I had seen in southern European countries, like Spain and Italy. Whether this is a typical Armenian thing or that it is influenced by their Soviet history, I dont know. My interpretation is that during the Soviet time it was hard to really trust people around you and that it was best to not show anything that might give something away about yourself. This distrust still seems an important part of the Armenian society, as since Soviet times corruption is still an important feauture of Armenian society. Besides this there might also be no reason to laugh a lot, in these harsh times where everyone has to take care of themselves in order to survive.

This first sight influenced my first impression about Armenians and Armenia and I even thought I would maybe never feel at home here. This was a wrong conclusion.
I got to know more people around me: the BEM-volunteers, colleagues and friends outside BEM, the people you meet in the streets, the people in the regions. I found out that Armenians might look distanced from the outside, they are very welcoming and hospitable, even to strangers. But especially when you are inside the 'network of friends' you are regarded and treated like family. This is a very important feature of Armenia: everything seems to work inside the 'network'. If you need help, support or any other need, there is no way you are alone. I find it hard to really describe it. Armenia felt like one big family, where relations between people are very important for a lot of things: support, but also access to jobs, companies etc. . This can both regarded as negative and positive. Knowing the right people (and having the right amount of money) is sometimes more important than skills for jobs, which is especially bad in case of government positions. Also tight ties between family and friends can lead to social control over familymembers, and especially girls seem to have troubles with it, by not having the freedom that boys have. But this is something important I might talk about in a later post.

Armenians are also proud of their history, their ancient culture. This proud seems to be increased by the present conflicts with neighbours Azerbaijan and Turkey. Conflicts that are both caused by the strong indentity of the Armenians, as well as resulting in a stronger selfconscience, whereby Armenians feel they should be proud and should fight for their right to be Armenian, for their right to have a nation. I found it very intersting to observe Armenians in their fight for preserving their heritage and the reasons for it and the hurt feeling combining this proud. There is a strange combination of a 'victim-role' and a 'we-are-great role' (Armenians seem to have invented everything on this planet if you believe the stories), as the former is definitely influencing the latter.

I found it funny when Myrthe, a Dutch girl living in Armenia, pointed me out that there is an interesting mix of European and Middle-Eastern influences. And ever since she told me that I was convinced about it. Both in minds as in appearance: Almost all men are dressing conservatively; pointy shoes, white or black coloured clothes and short haired. All the same way. Women are the same in winter, but in summer it's all bright colours. (The same for every season: High heels. Horror!)

This mix of different influences in history and present from East, West, South and North, the family tradition, the conflicts with neighbours, it all leads to a very complex mind of the Armenian. And is therefor very hard to understand and describe