Marmarashen Host Family

I was very blessed to be placed with the family that I was. They are honestly some of the best people that I know and welcomed me with open arms. I have truly felt part of the family as a daughter and big sister.

Prior to moving in with our PST (Pre-Service Training) families, we weren't aware of who we would be living with for the next 10 weeks. It was our last day in the hotel and we were sitting in language class when our LCF's wrote some names on the board. They thought it'd be a fun activity for each of us to guess who our host family would be. I remember looking at the board and reading the different names. One name stood out to me because I thought it sounded pretty: "Մարինե" (Mareene), so naturally I put my name next to hers. The others followed suit and soon we had all matched ourselves to a host family. Little did we know at the time that we had all guessed correctly.

All of us volunteers were divided between 3 villages (Marmarashen, Hovtashen, and Normag) and taken to our training villages to meet our new families. Meeting our host families was quite the event. Those of us going to Marmarashen loaded up in a van with all of our suitcases and were dropped off at the school. There we were met by the community members who performed a small welcoming celebration for us with a band and ceremonial bread. We were then introduced to our host families and loaded into their cars to be taken to our new homes.

It's kind of an intimidating thing to live with new people who you don't know anything about, even more so when you don't have the language skills to communicate with them. However, I was quickly put at ease when I realized how excited the family was to have me and really desired for me to feel welcome.

Mehak my host dad works seasonally in the mountains as a cook for one of the mining companies. He is a quiet and reserved man, but he is so thoughtful. Mareene my host mom is the vice director at the local base school. She is so sweet and is always checking to make sure that I am comfortable. I also have two younger brothers Hrant (age 15) and Gevorg (age 9). Both boys are very energetic and love to play games. To be honest I love to play games with them! I've taught them several American games ("Uno", "Mancala", "Go-Fish" (which they like to call Marvel), "Perpetual Commotion", and "Taco, Cat, Goat, Cheese, Pizza"). Teaching the games was definitely difficult but between my limited knowledge of Armenian, google translate, and A LOT of hand gestures we were able to figure it out together. Some of my favorite moments with my host family were playing games with my brothers. Whether it was new card games, basketball, soccer, or ping-pong, I loved it all. Mareene is also the sweetest and took the time to teach me how to make several Armenian dishes. Not to toot my own horn, but she says my Dolma is the best and I am ready to marry a good Armenian man and settle down here. So if you know any, send them my way...just kidding. Mareene really is great though. She taught me to make Dolma, Borscht, Khorovats, Pelmini, Baklava, and several different cakes. I even had the opportunity to teach her how to make one of my favorite Southern meals: Biscuits and Gravy. It wasn't a big hit with everyone in the house, but it made me happy and Mareene was excited to try some American food.

I am grateful to have been placed with the Danielyan family. They made my first few months in Armenia fantastic and the transition easier. I would highly recommend any future volunteer to be engaged with the family. Be willing to share your culture and be willing to learn and adopt some of their culture. Don't get stuck on the differences, but find ways to DIVE in and enjoy the new experiences.

Some of my favorite memories with the family not already mentioned include: (not in any specific order)

1. Watching Gevorg play Chess at one of his competitions. (He is a chess champion and I felt proud to say that he was my little brother). Haha, the looks I got from the older ladies. They looked so confused trying to figure out the connection between me as an American being related to this little Armenian boy.

2. Meeting Grandma for the first time at her birthday party and being asked to sing her happy birthday in English...then awkwardly forgetting her name. Luckily my family is great and joined in for that part. Plus I can't forget the dancing that followed after all the toasts...Turns out dancing in Armenia isn't that hard, you just have to twist your arms in the air to the rhythm.

3. Coming back from site visits and having my family surprise me with a welcome home party including whistles, balloons, signs, and cake.

4. Sitting around the dining table doing H.W., then having the whole family join in to help me with it. They would correct my pronunciation and laugh saying it's "kh" not "hh". To me, it all sounded the same. Then I would give them a word in English to say that was also difficult. They would be good sports about it afterward when they saw how difficult it is to learn a language. Mehak would always be on the couch listening in and occasionally chiming in with input.

5. Baking with Mareene. She always boosted my confidence telling me that I made it the best and that all the men would be lining up at my door. Haha she was just being nice. To be honest she did most of the work and I was there for the journey. But I really did enjoy spending that time with her, singing and dancing while we cooked.

6. One night I came home very late not realizing that it had gotten so late. As I walked up Mehak was waiting outside for me on the street. I felt so guilty for being late and making them worry. I was positive they were going to be upset with me, but when I reached Mehak he just gave me the biggest smile and said "Hello, I'm glad you're home." When I got inside Mareene gave me the biggest hug and told me she was glad I was safe. They were so forgiving and I could feel their genuine love for me.

7. Mareene holding my hand as we cross the street. It was cute the first few times, but as an adult, this one was a little harder to swallow. It made me feel like a child again, but she genuinely was concerned for her American daughter and didn't want anything bad to happen to me. I learned to appreciate her for paying attention to even the smallest details and learned to be okay with holding hands.

8. Drawing pictures with my cousin Sona. She is a little artist and loves to paint and draw. She has gifted me with a few of her paintings. One of my favorite times with her though was when we decided to do portraits of each other. She put so much work into her drawing of me and unfortunately, mine fell very flat. We had a good laugh about it though and hopefully, my picture has been burnt.

9. Becoming a little more fluent in Armenian so that I could tell my family about my daily routine/plans and even ask them about theirs. I got in the habit of asking my family "ինչ ես առել այսօ՞ր" (what did you do today?). It's fun when you can communicate through words rather than grunts and hand gestures.

10. Playing "duck hunting" with Hrant, Gevorg, Sona, and Harut. It's like dodgeball except you stand in the middle as the "duck" and try to avoid balls being thrown at you from either side. Also, I'd include playing hide and seek with Hrant and Gevorg. One of my turns I hid laying down in the tall grass inside the orchard. I don't think either of the boys expected me to hide there. If you know me, you know I love to laugh, and I have a LOUD laugh. It was so hard holding back my laughter as Hrant and Gevorg walked around the yard yelling "Laura where are you". After a while, I decided to come out of my hiding spot...otherwise, I don't think they ever would have found me.

11. The night Mareene and I sat down and almost had an entire conversation via google translate. She told me how I was the daughter she always wanted and was so glad that I came to live with them. Also the night they told me they don't want me to leave and that they wouldn't have another volunteer after me, because they loved me too much. I hope they reconsider though and open up to another volunteer because that volunteer would be so lucky to be part of their family. They just have to remember that I'm their favorite American child.

The contents of this website are mine personally and do not reflect any position of the United States government or the Peace Corps.