Three more days, and then I'll be back in Armenia. And this time I don't know when (if ;-) ) I'll return to Holland. That feels so good! People around me keep saying it's such a big step, but to be honest, for me it doesn't feel like that. It feels like the most logical choice at this point in my life. Maybe the 'big step'-idea still has to kick in.
My moving to Armenia is the result of random a meeting in Moscow almost ten years ago. I had spent the summer working as a volunteer in Russia and on my way back I was staying in Moscow for a week. I stayed in a hostel and my roommates were a group of Spanish and English on their way back home from Armenia. It turned out they had also spent their summer volunteering, so we obviously had something to talk about. They had all these enthousiastic stories to tell! I decided to keep Armenia in mind and it did get stuck there! The next few summers I couldn't go for various reasons. But I finally did go to Armenia and spent a month volunteering in Spitak. After that I kept coming back and back and back and back and....
This past week I spent a lot of my time either with friends or relatives, some of us already dubbed it my "farewell-tour" across Holland....lol. It was especially fun seeing my aunt and uncle again. The one thing I am sorry about, is that I am going to miss the surprise party that my aunt is organising for my uncle on Friday, because he'll be retiring from work.
This weekend I attended the annual-meeting-plus-party of SIW, a Dutch organisation for which I have worked as a volunteer for the last two years or so. They send out Dutch volunteers for long-term stays (of up to a year) or short-term (mostly summer) projects and they host foreign volunteers at summer-projects in The Netherlands (and yes, SIW does have a web-site at www.siw.nl). My work for SIW is one of the things I am going to miss most, selecting and preparing Dutch volunteers for their long-term or short-term stays abroad and promoting volunteering abroad.
One small part of my job was being the organisation's source of information about Armenia and preparing volunteers going to Armenia, telling them about the country, people, about what to expect and what not to expect, generally trying to fill in the many blanks they had, because for all of them it was their first time to Armenia (btw, none of them were (diaspora-)Armenians). Even though there are only a few volunteers going to Armenia each year, it was always fun to do and it was great seeing people get all excited the more they learned about their destination. Some of them have become friends as well (Thanks, Thijs, for your kind words about flowers and watering them. I hope I'll be able to live up to that :-) ).
Okay, so much for now. I have to get back to my preparations. Slowly, my apartment is turning into a mess, because I am throwing everything I want to take with me on a big pile in my living-room. There is some system to be found in it, though, but I am the only one aware of it....
My next blog will probably be from Spitak, because that's where I'll spend the first week or so, catching up with my friends there, before starting work in Yerevan. I can't wait!
My moving to Armenia is the result of random a meeting in Moscow almost ten years ago. I had spent the summer working as a volunteer in Russia and on my way back I was staying in Moscow for a week. I stayed in a hostel and my roommates were a group of Spanish and English on their way back home from Armenia. It turned out they had also spent their summer volunteering, so we obviously had something to talk about. They had all these enthousiastic stories to tell! I decided to keep Armenia in mind and it did get stuck there! The next few summers I couldn't go for various reasons. But I finally did go to Armenia and spent a month volunteering in Spitak. After that I kept coming back and back and back and back and....
This past week I spent a lot of my time either with friends or relatives, some of us already dubbed it my "farewell-tour" across Holland....lol. It was especially fun seeing my aunt and uncle again. The one thing I am sorry about, is that I am going to miss the surprise party that my aunt is organising for my uncle on Friday, because he'll be retiring from work.
This weekend I attended the annual-meeting-plus-party of SIW, a Dutch organisation for which I have worked as a volunteer for the last two years or so. They send out Dutch volunteers for long-term stays (of up to a year) or short-term (mostly summer) projects and they host foreign volunteers at summer-projects in The Netherlands (and yes, SIW does have a web-site at www.siw.nl). My work for SIW is one of the things I am going to miss most, selecting and preparing Dutch volunteers for their long-term or short-term stays abroad and promoting volunteering abroad.
One small part of my job was being the organisation's source of information about Armenia and preparing volunteers going to Armenia, telling them about the country, people, about what to expect and what not to expect, generally trying to fill in the many blanks they had, because for all of them it was their first time to Armenia (btw, none of them were (diaspora-)Armenians). Even though there are only a few volunteers going to Armenia each year, it was always fun to do and it was great seeing people get all excited the more they learned about their destination. Some of them have become friends as well (Thanks, Thijs, for your kind words about flowers and watering them. I hope I'll be able to live up to that :-) ).
Okay, so much for now. I have to get back to my preparations. Slowly, my apartment is turning into a mess, because I am throwing everything I want to take with me on a big pile in my living-room. There is some system to be found in it, though, but I am the only one aware of it....
My next blog will probably be from Spitak, because that's where I'll spend the first week or so, catching up with my friends there, before starting work in Yerevan. I can't wait!
posted by Myrthe at 5:41 PM
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