Nov 18, 20236 min read

Vanadzor Host Family

My experience with host families in Armenia has been exceptional! My first in Marmarashen and then again my second in Vanadzor. I had the privilege with my second family to live with the amazing Simonyan family. They too welcomed me with open arms and made me feel part of the family.

Prior to moving in with my permanent site host family, PC gave us a folder with a little background information about our host families. I saw their names, where they lived, who was in the family, and a brief description of them. In the description, part of it read that I would have a little brother that was "so cute" and a new pet turtle named 'Jenny'. I knew after reading that, that I would get along just fine with my new family.

I first met my new family briefly during site visits. I came for about 5 days and had the opportunity to get to know them a little. As I drove up to the apartment I was nervous and didn't know what to expect. Tamara Jan, my host mom met me downstairs, gave me a hug, and welcomed me. She took me upstairs and introduced me to her husband Samvel and son Niko. Niko was a little shy at first and took some convincing before he was ready to open up and talk/play with me. But when he did, it was hard to get him to stop. Haha, he is a ball of energy and so much fun! They made me feel so comfortable and at ease that it was natural to live with them.

Samvel and Tamara are in their 30s, so it felt more like they were siblings rather than parents and 5-year-old Niko made me feel like a fun aunt. Samvel worked a side job as a musician and would travel occasionally to Yerevan to work different gigs. It was fun to hear him practice playing the guitar in the apartment and talk with me about music. Tamara worked as a translator (of French, English, Farsi, and Armenian), online, at her church, and sometimes for tour/church groups. It was so nice being able to speak with Tamara in English so she could understand me and we were able to have some great deep conversations. She was also great when I wanted to practice my Armenian by helping me understand and correct my mistakes. Little Niko was a hoot! We would often draw together for hours (he is a real artist) and play different games. I'm still so impressed with his English! He's only 5, is self-taught in English, and is practically fluent. I wish I had his language ability!

I am grateful for the time I had to live with the Simonyan family! They let me have some of the independence that I craved, really took great care of me, and helped me integrate into the community. Due to outside factors, I had to leave my host family and move out a little sooner than originally anticipated, but they were so helpful with the whole process and I am extremely grateful! They actually recently moved to Canada which they had been working towards for a long time. I hope to be able to stay in contact with them and will consider them lifelong friends.

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

Playing hide-and-seek with Niko. I took it to a new level and found places to hide in our small apartment that he had never thought to hide in before. It was always so hard to hold my breath and not laugh when he would walk right past me and not see me.
Drawing with Niko. I mentioned it briefly earlier, but Niko is an amazing artist and he is only 5 years old. We would often sit together (him at his desk and me on the floor next to him) and choose something from online to draw and then compare. Some of our more repeated drawings were of monkeys (because they are my favorite animal), and other various zoo animals. Niko is the biggest fan of Marvel and would also draw each of the characters. His attention to detail and ability to add depth and contrast to his pictures is amazing. Where I would draw blobs he had drawn actual profiles.
Niko was always so excited to introduce me to everyone as his friend who lived with him. Sometimes I would stand out on the balcony with Tamara and we would look down at Niko playing with the other children. At some point, he would look up and notice us and would immediately point me out to all of his friends and say I was his friend. It always made me smile.
One day Tamara had to run an errand so she asked me to watch Niko for a few hours while she was gone. I had previously told Niko about American cookies and how I would teach him to make them sometime. This seemed like a good opportunity to do it. We set all the bowls on the floor so he could reach them and made the cookies sitting criss-cross-apple sauce style. He was so excited to crack eggs, mix the ingredients, and chop up chocolate chip pieces. Watching his excitement made me excited, plus you can't go wrong when making chocolate chip cookies...especially the copycat of the 'Crumble Cookies' version. Needless to say, the cookies were a huge hit by everyone in the house and were gone pretty fast.
Still not sure how I got food poisoning, but it's common enough during the PC experience. One lucky night I found myself a victim of the sickness and woke up several times having to puke...sorry if that's TMI. One of the times Tamara heard me and woke up to check on me. She was kind enough to make me some ginger tea and bring me a cold wet towel for my head. It was a rough 24+ hour period but Tamara was my rock and made it a lot easier by checking in on me and bringing me different supplies that I needed. She was the mom I needed in that moment when mine was so far away.
So funny story my family was related to another family that is also hosting a Volunteer named Tenzin in the village of Dzoragyugh. Tamara my 'host mom' is the daughter of Loretta, Tenzin's 'host mom'...so technically Tenzin is my uncle... Because of this relationship, I would often spend time with Tenzin's family when they were visiting Vanadzor and one time I went with Tamara to Dzoragyugh to visit Tenzin and his family. Let me just say Dzoragyugh is one of the most beautiful places I have EVER seen. It is a small village at the edge of a cliff and it has some of the most amazing views. Definitely worth a trip out there! You can even stay at Tenzin's house because they rent the rooms downstairs to guests. Okay...so maybe not a funny story, but it's at least interesting.
Tamara and Samvel really came in clutch for me when I had to move out last minute due to issues with their landlord. Tamara helped me by calling and setting up appointments for me to visit the different apartments I showed her on list.am. Samvel helped me when I needed someone to go with me to these appointments partly due to language barriers and also so they wouldn't try to upcharge the 'American girl'. I was the first in my cohort to move and got special permission to do so, because of the circumstances. It was very stressful but Tamara and Samvel made it less stressful for me.
After moving out Tamara and Samvel were still sweet enough to check in on me from time to time. One of the times, I offered to make them dinner at my apartment and was finally able to host them after they had hosted me for so long. They were my first official guests so I treated them to one of my favorite meals from back home- Loaded potato soup and salad. They were gracious enough to try it. Tamara often likes cooking with different flavors so she enjoyed the meal. Poor Niko though, was not a fan so he munched on the salad and bread that was on the table. Haha, I guess I should have planned a little better for the palette of a 5-year-old. Samvel said he liked it, but I'm still not sure...either way they were grateful and we had a good time together. After moving in I hung some of the drawings that Niko made for me on a special wall, he was excited to see them on display and made me a new drawing to add to the collection before he left.