Sunday Recap With SunChild Rebecca

Rebecca Kandilian
USA

It has already been a couple of days since I’ve been back in Yerevan and I’m just starting to acclimatize to the life off the green bus. Life in some ways has become a bit uninteresting and slow as I’ve been accustomed to going to at least 2 villages a day, meeting a wide array of people and laughing a ton. At one point, my coworker Satenik and I laughed for three minutes non-stop—a result of identical sense of humor and tiredness. Heck, life is too short so why not laugh through it right? Easy thing to say now but there were plenty of days and instances on the bus where even the silliest and funniest occurrence would not have made any of us crack a smile. Having lived in Yerevan for a bit one might start to forget the absolute horrible conditions that almost the entire Armenia is in. I went, I saw and I have since not been able to sleep well.

I would now like to write a bit about a place that, in retrospect, left a mark on us--not in a good way I must say. Debetavan--The last village hugging the Georgian border. 20 kids and 3 teachers. No visitors for the past three years. Kids with just as much depth and understanding as any other kid but far from having the tools to receive the best possible education. After spending some time with the kids, we sat down with the teacher and had a little chat. I started to look away as I did not want to distort my ‘tough’ image. The kids had 40 year old bowling pins that they played with. The teacher had told them that those things are a part of a game and she would do an exercise where the kids close their eyes and imagine playing. Right then and there, my mind wanders off to a lot of kids back home that so often have so much yet complain about insignificant things like not having the right brand of shoes. Life is truly not fair. Then, I feel blessed and lucky to have lived in conditions better than those of the Debetavan kids. But, I still cant get over the fact that these kids are just as worthy of a decent education as any other.

To end on a good note, I hope to put a proposal together that will make the kindergarten more than a just a house with a bunch of kids. But, a place where children learn the first lessons about life, reading, writing and decision making. FPWC cannot do this without the help of other organizations or donors. I must now invite anyone and everyone interested in helping out in anyway to email me at Rebecca@sunchild.org.

I just started doing my laundry today and tonight I will stuff my backpack and hop on the green bus to go to the Lori region tomorrow morning. I leave without much expectation to safeguard myself from disappointments...

Sunday Recap With SunChild Rebecca

Rebecca Kandilian
USA

No more itching—Check!

Out of Yerevan and onto the Green Bus—No Check.

Punctuality—Negative Check!

Punctuality is next to Godliness to me. I genuinely get happy and almost euphoric, especially nowadays, when someone is on time. Prior to coming to Armenia, I knew that time was a bit of an issue as there are a lot of challenges-- It’s a developing country etc etc. But, I didn’t know it was an utter epidemic. For the past week, for all of my appointments, the 9 has been 11-12 and 12 2-3. Whereas my 9 is 8:50, my 12 is 11:50 and so on. I don’t mean to boast about myself. No, that is not my intention but why say 9 when you know, realistically, you can’t make it before 11? This train of lack of punctuality, among other things, has put me in a bit of a sour mood. I wish I didn’t care about it and I wish it didn’t affect me but I can’t help it. So, the million dollar question at work and out has been “what’s wrong with Reb?” What do I say? But, you always have this charming smile they follow. But, we all have our off days I say in my head. Ok, now that I have vented, I shall stop here with my rant and get onto the more exciting stuff.

This week, in between editing texts, I went to Tilijan (an hour and a half away from Yerevan). For all those who have some appreciation of the natural world, this is the place to visit. It’s almost like walking through a picture book of beautiful sceneries—very calm, quiet and green! There, I visited the local eco-club. Eco-clubs are established all over Armenia by SunChild and serve as a supplemental place where children and young adults gather to learn English, environmental issues, film making and journalism. These children take an oath to become the stewards of their country’s natural world and strive to raise awareness for nature protection in their communities. One of their yearly projects is the production of a short film that focuses on an environmental issue. So, when I went to Dilijan on Wednesday, the children and I went around town and got some footage for their short film on mud slides. Although I only knew one of the kids from that eco-club, we quickly become acquainted and spent the day hiking around, picking fruits and getting some footage for their film. These films are later screened at many international film festivals and one from another region (Garni/Goght region) was recently chosen as a finalist for the Panda Award at ScreenWild Festival in UK (very impressive).

Thanks for reading…once again, I hope to be on the Green Bus by the time I write next Sunday but I never know.

Sunday Recap with SunChild Rebecca

Rebecca Kandilian
USA

First and foremost, I must apologize for posting this a bit later than I intended—totally uncharacteristic of me. Only in extreme/unusual situations do I fall short when it comes to making deadlines, promises appointments etc. I must also mention that I have not slept much these past couple of days—here comes another apology for the possibility of not making sense at times. Sitting in the office, next to my overstuffed backpack, wearing my now-faded jeans and Nike shoes filled with dirt with a red bump on every two-inches of by arms and legs (compliments of the mosquitoes and flies) I will try to sum up the interesting/fun/challenging/unforgettable four days I spent out in the wilderness in a region called “Urtsadzor” (Urdz= Thyme , Dzor= Gorge).

What was I doing there? In short, I was helping out with a SunChild project which involved filming a reality TV show where kids spend a weekend out in the wild trying to survive (very similar to the show “survivior”). Over the four days, I was surrounded by three things. First, the breathtaking beauty of Urtsadzor, the thyme filled gorges, rivers, ancient churches etc. Second, a film crew made of a dozen personnel filming every move as these six incredible kids spend an unforgettable three days in the wild hiking through gorges, churches, fortresses and Khosrove reserve all located in Urtsadzor.

The project, among other things, was organized with the goal of introducing the children to the beauty of the nature that their country has and to encourage them to preserve and cherish its existence. These six kids were selected from various eco-clubs, an establishment by SunChild where children gather and learn about different environmental issues and discuses solutions and their part in preserving the natural habitat of Armenia, located in different regions. On the very first day, before the start of their journey, each child was given a task: healer, archaeologist, pathfinder, cook etc. Each day the children equipped with an Ipad (how cool is that?) and a GPS went along from a starting point to their final camp site. Along the way, by following signs were places, riddles given, hints and clues provided that tested them both physically and mentally.

I suppose I shall thank the gal at our office for not being able to go at the last minute and my eager beaver-ness for agreeing to jump right into it. Being a bit of a nerd, I used my studying skills to learn and memorize all of the trails and activities with their minute details in a couple of hours. I also did not know much of the crew members or the kids—I had only been working in the office for 3 days. But, we leaned on our inherent commonality; I was Armenian just like them. But, I later learned, through our chats in between filming, we had much more in common than just that. And the kids, uhhhh the kids, what a joy to be around! Unfortunately, I did not have the chance to speak with them until last night after we finished filming but we instantly ‘clicked’ as they stormed me with millions of questions and asked me to write their names in Armenian to test if I REALLY knew how to write. It also did not take them long to divide up the clothes I was wearing (a dirty jeans and a t-shirt) amongst themselves—apparently they liked the things I wear. I promised to give it all to them after my 9 weeks of stay--I do need my belt and pants for the next couple of weeks!

Thanks for reading…I will be doing a really fun project for the remainder of my stay and will write all about it in my next entry.

P.S. The injured foot is as good as new—I have now gained a much deeper appreciation for my feet.