Adventures in Armenia

Բարի գալուստ Հայաստան! Greetings from Armenia! After a long travel- a rutiera ride to Buchuresti, a 4 hour wait in the airport beginning at 3am, a flight to Paris, a 4 hour wait there, and a 4 1/2 hour flight to Armenia, we arrived!  We stayed with a host Armenian and were welcomed at 10 at night with a traditional Armenian snack and wine.  After some lovely conversation in English (and of course a bit of Russian with Svetlana, my Moldovan counterpart), we fell fast asleep.  

We had a lovely day in the capital city, Yereven.  In the morning, I met with two PCVs that lead the GLOW (Girls Leading Our World) initiative in Armenia.  They had a lot of good ideas that I hope to take back to Moldova.  We met at this coffeeshop called the Green Bean, which felt like any coffeeshop at home in the U.S. (or Moldova friends, think the Tucano of Yereven).  After a great discussion with the PCVs here, we took a walking tour of the city center guided by our kind, new Armenian friends, Armen and Narek.  The sun was out and the weather not all too cold.  We had the requisite shaurma, which was delicious and filling.  We walked by the opera house, Swan lake, the cascade steps, Republican Square, and more.  We sat at a cafe for quite a while, talking about Armenia, the U.S., and Moldova and all types of subjects, my favorites being music; social habits, differences, and similarities in our countries; and the many things that brought us laughter.  We ended with a traditional Armenian dinner, which was delicious and filling.

Republican Square, Yereven

Since Monday, I have been in a little ski resort town an hour outside of Yereven.  The sun finally came out today to display the glistening icicles shining outside our conference room window.  The reason I'm in Armenia is to attend a training course called, "Best Practices for Inclusive Growth", sponsored primarily by the European Commision's Youth in Action Program.  Over 20 participants are here representing 11 countries.  So far, through non-formal education techniques, we've gotten to know one another; discussed the benefits, problems, and qualities related to volunteerism; role played the effects of discrimination of certain groups of society; and also had an inter-cultural evening.  

I feel so lucky to be here and I'm already learning a lot from the training, mostly through informal dialogue with other participants.  I'm learning a lot about all these respective countries represented (Greece, Croatia, Slovakia, Romania, Italy, Spain, Georgia, Ukraine, Turkey, Armenia, and Moldova) and their economic/political/social situations.  I'm also learning about attitudes of Europeans about volunteering, which is really interesting to me.  I find one of the greatest challenges I see in Moldova and particularly within my town is that individuals lack the inspiration, initiative, knowledge, and drive for volunteering and serving their community.  Youth, in particular, think it's crazy for me to come here for two years and only on a volunteer basis.  "Why?", they ask.  So as we discuss the motivations for volunteering or lack thereof during this training, it gives me some perspective.

Presentation on getting to know each other and the town and country

In a small group today, we were asked to brainstorm the qualities of a volunteer.  Already, three groups had written their responses, and initially my group saw no new adjectives to add.  But there was one quality that I thought was missing, which was a "humble attitude toward service."  I introduced the group to the idea of Servant Leadership, which I described as the type of natural leader that leads first and foremost through humble service to others.  Regardless of the type of service, one will be learning and growing and helping meet the needs of people/organization/company (as leaders should do) as they are focused on serving them in that manner.  Robert Greenleaf in his 1970 essay, The Servant as Leader, said, "The servant-leader is servant first... It begins with the natural feeling that one want to serve, to serve first."   I haven't read the essay, but I'm curious and skeptical about this comment.  I'm actually quite a selfish person.  Sometimes, I don't naturally feel the desire to serve. Not my community, not my roommate, not my host family, not anyone but myself. However, I have learned and have relearned the idea that giving of yourself to others (your gifts, time, skills, positive attitude) will be given back to you at least 100% and usually double or triple fold what you gave in some way (personal growth, satisfaction, new friends, new life lessons, etc).  Also, I've learned about and now believe wholeheartedly in the idea of leadership being best when it's done with a servant's heart.  These lessons were discovered through experiences through organizations such as FFA or the Nebraska Human Resources Institute, in combination with my Christian faith and values.

Bringing it back to my question of motivating Moldovan's to serve their community, I'm not so sure that individuals in my town have a natural feeling that they want to serve members of their community who aren't in their tight-knit circle of family and friends.  Certainly they care deeply for their loved ones and wish to serve in that way, but when it comes to a larger community service event, people are not so willing to volunteer.  Some say it's due to how, during Soviet times, they were forced unwillingly to participate in community events.  As I've mentioned in past posts, they were told what to do and how to think in some ways, and they were not inspired by personal motivation or discovery.  Secondly, after the break-up of the Soviet Union and the fallback in the economy of Moldova as well as political dissension in the last 20 years, many Moldovan's have quite a negative attitude toward their country's future.  I'm casting wide brush strokes, but it's evident that their past has had large effects on their attitudes toward volunteering and service to their community.

As I enjoy my time in Armenia with 20 new friends from all over, I ponder answers to questions like the one above.  Hopefully, through conversation and activities, I'll find at least more context to set me in the right direction toward answers.