STEWART BREWSTER OF LOS GATOS IS LIVING IN ARMENIA AS A PEACE CORPS VOLUNTEER
San Jose Mercury Times
April 23 2012
I’m freezing, adjust the thermostat; I’m bored, drive to the mall;
I’m hungry, I order some take-out; my roof leaks, so I call the
building manager.
These are simple problems to remedy in Los Gatos, but I guarantee my
self-reliant neighbors in Armenia take little for granted. In rural
Armenia, there is no central heating, no mall and no ordering out.
Water through frozen pipes does not flow, and if your roof leaks,
grab a ladder and call a limber relative.
Ten months ago, at age 63 old after 41 years in the insurance
business, I retired, said good-bye to my family, friends and Los Gatos
neighbors and flew off to start an adventure serving as a community
development Peace Corps volunteer in a remote Armenian mountain town
at a 6,800-foot elevation.
Landlocked Armenia sits in the South Caucus region between the Black
Sea and the Caspian Sea. Armenia is the size of Maryland, and has less
than 3 million people. Armenia takes pride in being the first sovereign
country to adopt Christianity (in 301 AD). Armenia’s 2,600-year-old
culture is rich in art, literature and dance. For centuries, goods
heading west from Asia traveled the famous Silk Road not far from
my town.
Skill at “shakmat” (chess) has long been a source of national pride,
with Armenia winning the 2011 World Team Chess Championship, edging
out China and Ukraine. Its star player, Levon Aronian, is now ranked
second in the world. Chess is a mandatory class in the Armenian
schools, and in village squares men pass the time huddled over boards.
Armenia today is about 10 percent the size it was at its zenith in the
first century, when it controlled land from the Mediterranean Sea to
the Caspian Sea. From Yerevan, the Armenian capital, volcanic Mount
Ararat is clearly visible as it rises to its snow-peaked majestic
16,854 foot height. Mount Ararat, sacred to Armenians, is considered
the landing place of Noah’s Ark. Scores of businesses use its name,
including the famous “Ararat Cognac” favored by Winston Churchill.
However, Mount Ararat is also a source of great frustration for
Armenians as it is now within the borders of Turkey.
With a modern capital and 98 percent literacy, Armenia is considered a
developed country. However, the per capital income is only 10 percent
of the U.S., with 36 percent living below the poverty level. After
the breakup of the USSR in 1991, Armenia gained independence and
is gradually shifting its ideology from Soviet-style autocracy to a
“democratic-like” parliamentary republic. The 70-year Soviet reign,
with its welfare system, became an institutional crutch and change to
a market-based economy has been painful. Older Armenians wistfully
reflect on fond Soviet memories when jobs were guaranteed, even if
freedom of expression was not. While older Americans might muse about
simpler days of old, our steady 235 years of democratic self-government
is reassuring.
My town of 4,600 residents is relatively vibrant because of its
mountain water bottling companies and its reputation as a beautiful
holiday destination drawing visitors to its hot mineral springs.
During Soviet times, the community was a popular vacation spot for
Russian elite. In 1985, the population was double its current size,
with 25,000 tourists each year. After 1991, tourism dramatically fell
off, the town shrank by half and the local airport closed.
Sadly, political clouds hang over Armenia. My community closely follows
the long-standing dispute with Azerbaijan, only 14 miles away, and
sniper shootings are common here. A heavily fought three-year war over
the break-away ethnic Armenian enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh, situated
within Azerbaijan, ended in 1994 with a tenuous cease fire–36,000
died in the hot war, including 26 men from my town. I often walk
by the town’s Karabakh War Memorial, where the young heroes’ faces,
etched into granite, stare out with a solemn countenance. To the west,
the Armenian-Turkish border has been closed for 20 years as Turkey is
politically aligned with Azerbaijan. This leaves landlocked Armenia
with two open borders, Georgia to the north and Iran to the south,
resulting in higher costs and limited goods.
In modern times, Armenia has had two periods of independence, from
1919, when the Ottoman Empire of which it was a part, broke up, until
1921 when it joined the USSR. Then, with the breakup of the USSR in
1991, Armenia was suddenly an independent republic, but with little
experience with democratic institutions. In the void, groups rushed
in to dominate key commodities, resulting today in monopolies that
control much of the commercial trade.
All Armenian males must serve a mandatory two-year stint in the army
when they turn 18, leading most male students, by the time they’re in
high school, to focus more on their service, not their studies. Not
surprisingly, Armenian universities are 70 percent female. Families
hold extravagant parties as army recruits depart their hometowns;
army life is not only dangerous, but living conditions are notoriously
harsh.
Much of Armenia’s energy focuses on formal recognition of the
Armenian Genocide as the 100-year anniversary approaches in 2015. The
genocide is well documented with firsthand accounts of the systematic
removal and killing of millions of Armenians, Greeks and Kurds from
eastern Turkey, as well as Ottoman Turkey’s organized confiscation of
personal and Armenian Church property. Besides demanding world-wide
condemnation of Ottoman Turkey, Armenia’s ruling party, supported by
the diaspora, is resolute in seeking reparations and return of all
Armenian territorial land unilaterally confiscated by Turkey just
after WWI. Importantly, Armenia seeks return of sacred Mount Ararat.
Both the Karabakh war and the genocide issue drain national energy
from other important quality-of-life needs. Recently, concern has
heightened about its southern neighbor, Iran, as well as the long-term
impact of the Arab Spring on the region. While in Los Gatos we are
concerned about the war in Afghanistan and terrorism in general,
this pales next to Armenia’s collective worries.
One million Armenians have migrated in the last 10 years, seeking
jobs and opportunity elsewhere–Russia, former Eastern Bloc countries
and the U.S. California has 450,000 Armenian diaspora, many in the
Bay Area. Worldwide, 7 million diaspora send money to relatives,
bolstering the economy. This brain-drain is a serious problem, and
my Peace Corps mission is, in part, to embed confidence to stay.
With the stark economic collapse following independence, Armenia’s
middle class contracted. The oligarchs desire to keep the status quo,
while the patient poor live day-to-day living frugally in typically
cold, decaying Soviet-style apartment buildings. Rural unemployment
exceeds 30 percent, with the average rural family living on $190
per month.
Part of my mission is to promote civic capacity–a challenge where
apathy is rampant and to be optimistic is to tempt fate. There is
wide distrust of all things government. After hearing suggestions for
more civic involvement, a respected town member advised me twice, “The
people are not ready for democracy or any type of civic involvement,
so don’t try.” However, 17- to 25-year-olds are showing signs of
energized activism, particularly on environmental issues.
I lived with a hardworking host family my first 10 weeks in town,
living in their Soviet-era apartment. Wives clearly run households
while men are in charge outside, huddled in small groups debating the
daily issues. One day I noticed my host dad (many years my junior)
rubbing his jaw because of a toothache. I gave him ibuprofen from
my Peace Corps medical kit and encouraged a dental visit. The next
day, when he smiled, his front tooth was gone. Sadly, he could not
rationalize dental excessive repair costs over other family needs.
My Armenian neighbors are all jacks-of-all-trades, skilled in making
do. Little of value is discarded. If repairing an item proves
difficult, then a relative or a friend will succeed in repairing
cars, plumbing, electrical, walls, sewing–you name it. Common are
homemade snow shovels, just a broom handle and a plywood base. Value
is stretched, whether it is twice soaking tea bags or again using
soda bottles for raw milk delivery or bottling homemade wine.
American-style restaurants are few outside of cities; restaurant food
cannot be as healthy or tasty as Armenian women can cook at home. Why
waste money?
Subsistence farm plots surround every village, cultivated with care
for maximum yield. Armenians are good farmers and take pride in the
variety of vegetables and fruit they grow. Every male dreams of owning
a car, and if so lucky, will spend many hours under the hood to keep
it running.
In Los Gatos, with Safeway, Whole Foods, Nob Hill, Lunardi’s and Trader
Joe’s, we have an abundant choice. In contrast, rural Armenians have
few shopping choices, and the price of commodities is surprisingly
uniform in Khanuts, or stores.
The cost of staples, relative to income, is much higher here. Meat
is served twice a week, if the family is fortunate. Cheese, often
homemade, is a main protein staple. Breads or “hats” and the famous
Armenian clay-oven baked unleavened flat bread “lavash” are offered in
abundance at meals. Armenians have reverence for bread, their symbol
of life. It would be culturally shameful to discard stale bread in
the trash; rather stale bread is fed to birds to continue the cycle
of life.
We can learn much from Armenia. Loyalty and familial support is
paramount; young married couples start off living with the husband’s
parents, grandmothers take care of grandchildren, allowing the mother
to work or look for work. Sometimes, the greatest threat to misbehaving
children is to threaten to tell their “tatiks,” or grandmothers.
Serious crime is almost nonexistent in rural Armenia because shame to
the family is a greater punishment than anything the criminal justice
system could hand out. I have never felt safer than I do living in
my mountain town. I now rarely count my change. Politeness abounds
with particular sensitivity to the old, as seats are automatically
surrendered to the elderly in a public van, or “marshrutni.” Students
stand up when teachers enter their classroom. Armenians cherish their
children and make sure their sons and daughters are dressed in freshly
ironed clothes for school each morning.
Armenians truly take pride in believing they are the most hospitable
people on Earth. My experience living in both a rural town and a
village bears this out. Strangers are treated as honored guests almost
to a painful level, with precious food heaped on the plate. They
are proud of their beautiful mountainous country and often ask me to
agree that Armenia must be prettier than California.
As I said up front, the Peace Corps is not for everyone. I am the only
native English speaker in my town. Volunteers must accept hand-washing
clothes, bucket baths, not driving cars (prohibited by Peace Corps
rules), no English newspapers, no American coffee, little heat,
treacherous winter ice, few sidewalks, different food, no sports or
watchable TV (unless one is fluent in Armenian or Russian), walking
and more walking, and perhaps the toughest adjustment, being alone
more than any other time in your life.
The Peace Corps is highly supportive and methodically prepares each
volunteer. Volunteers know they will eventually return to their cushy
American life, their family, friends, communities and most importantly,
opportunities.
Armenia needs a helping hand. The modest amount of taxpayer money
spent on the Peace Corps is vitally important at a time when Armenia
is walking a political tightrope in this unstable region.
Sometimes we need to pause to appreciate our supportive infrastructure,
highly invested civil capacity and developments such as our new Los
Gatos library and police building.
But Armenians demonstrate important values as well–faithfulness
to their ancient culture and history, strong family loyalty,
trustworthiness, resourceful self-reliance and their magnificent
love of children. As for material things, Armenians take pride in
their version of the old saying, “Use it up, wear it out, make do or
do without.”
http://www.mercurynews.com/los-gatos/ci_20464268/stewart-brewster-los-gatos-is-living-armenia-peace