3rd to 24th of June 2022.
Unfortunately, my volunteer work in Armenia is the worst one I have ever had until now. But looking back now, I wish I had done something different, to try and make it better, more enjoyable. But… we are always learning, right?
On my first morning (not with my Workaway Host, but his brother-in-law, H.), I am told I must come with him and a friend to his apricot’s fields, to help them out. I think it will be alright, but I should have clarified with him about the hours we would spend there before leaving the house. He tells me we will stay there the whole day. Could I tell him “no”, that this is not the Workaway agreement? After all he is doing me a favor and I am not staying with him through Workaway. But that was not my fault after all, but my host’s fault.
We spend the whole day, under the sun, in an apricot field in the middle of the desert. They don’t really know what they are doing (we are supposed to get the watering system working with pipes), what just makes the day even longer and useless. When we go back home, after 10 o’clock in the night, I am dying. I have a shower; we eat something, and I go to bed.
H. and his wife tell me I should come with the girls to his parents’ house in the village. The two of them have a group of German tourists they will take up to the volcano. They just forget to tell me that the drive to the village is almost 3 hours and that we will stay there for 4 days and not 3. They even say that, when I come back, if T. does not have a place for me yet, I can stay with them. If T. does not have a place for me? What the hell is that?
In the village things are OK. I kind of have some time for myself but it is just weird not having a proper schedule. I help H.’s mother with some stuff and in the garden. She is lovely! She buys us ice cream and makes popcorn, plus bakes some delicious cakes. H.’s father is a very quiet man but also pleasant.
I take E. (the youngest girl) for little walks every day and I like talking with her elder sister N. (who is in her teens). And the view around here are gorgeous!
At the returning day, we come back very late at night, only for H. to tell me that next morning, very early, we are going back to the apricots field. What? Again, I should have refused, but I don’t.
This second day in the fields is even worse! We work a lot but there is still so much to do, and I am dying. When my migraine, starts I tell them I am stopping, and I go waiting in the car. It is 6 in the evening already, and we are here since 9 in the morning. I don’t know if they dislike that or what, but I felt as they were exploring me, using of my good faith to take advantage of me. That’s wrong man, just wrong.
Next morning, T. and his whole family come to H.’s house. It is when I realize that, if wasn’t for the whole apricot fields stuff, I would be way better off here than with T.’s family. And that is just the tip of the iceberg.
T. has not been honest with me since the beginning. He has some level of autism and so his two sons, but the children require a bit more of a special care, while T. is fine by himself, of course. I feel trapped by him keeping this from me. It is a very important information which he should share with the volunteers considering come to his place. I also meet his wife, A., and their baby girl Tso, they are both very nice and Tso is a lovely and adorable baby girl!
We go to their apartment in Yerevan, where I will be sleeping in the living room. Supposedly, tomorrow morning I will go to their guest house in the village, where I should be doing my volunteer work since the beginning. But next morning they change the plans again and tell me that in the evening we will all go for a bit of sightseen.
The places we visit are actually very nice and were in my list of places to see. They are the Temple of Garni, Symphony of Stones and Charents Arch.
Next morning, they make me take the bus to the village. And I must take from a busy spot, so it is full of people. I arrive at the guest house all by myself, to find T.’s parents who cannot speak English. Great! Normally I am OK with that. Uncountable times I take lifts with people who cannot speak English. But I am to work here! I need valuable information of what to do, where to find things, etc. It becomes just one more thing to “the list” of problems.
T.’s mother is a nice lady, but his father is just not! He is rude and the type of man I want to keep distance. For three days my duty is to clean up circles around the fruit trees. The place is not looking that good and not suitable for a guest house. At least not for tourists. When I arrive, the bathroom is super dirty.
The food is nice, but Armenians eat only cucumber and tomato for vegetables. Seriously. And they eat lavash (Armenian flat bread) with absolutely everything and with every meal. It is delicious and I love it but with everything?
After 3 days T. comes with his family, and they take me to Yerevan again. He tells me I will come with him next day to a mountain area, where we will be marking trails for 2 days. Well, at least that is what he tells me: we will spend two nights there marking trails during the day.
The trip is long and halfway through his young son, who came with us, starts getting sick and throw up all over the car. When we get to the place, I have mixture feelings. Normally, I would probably love the place: it is a kind of hostel, in the middle of the nature, with a river running by, so you can always hear the water, and there is a couple of owls living on it. But I guess that because of everything that has happened to me since I arrived in Armenia, I simply cannot enjoy it.
What supposed to be only 5 hours per day of work it turns out to be the whole day. We left Yerevan around 9 a.m.; we got to the place after noon; quickly ate something and went to do the trail marks, and come back around 7 p.m. The trail itself is nice, with some beautiful views sometimes, but you cannot really enjoy because they are in a rush, walking super-fast and as robots, without feelings of appreciation for the nature. By the end of the day, I am dead, but I still must cook for everybody because Armenian men do not know how to cook or how to do anything! It is kind of their tradition. And being the only woman, I must cook.
Next day is horrible! Tigran does not tell me anything about this trail and it is all the way uphill. We are climbing a mountain and he is running ahead of us, as we were all used to this, as he is, doing that for life. He is irresponsible, incompetent and has absolutely no idea of what Workaway is about it. There is another volunteer girl with us, and she starts to feel bad at some point. It is an awful day and again I am exhausted when we come back.
We are living next day but Tigran forgot to tell us that we have one last trail to make it. I tell him I am not coming. The level of disrespect of this man is unthinkable.
Back to Yerevan, they tell me I should take the next few days off. No… stop it! (sarcasm)
I still will do need to bring Tso to and from the kindergarten because T. is going somewhere (luckily) and A. goes to work. The boys are also not here.
I do get some rest and do basically nothing for the next 5 days. It is easy going with A. and even though I am not used to take babies to the kindergarten, Tso is a lovely baby girl, and I cannot complain about her at all. We create a sister bond between us. That is how she calls me: sister.
I leave on Friday, after precisely three weeks. The last few days were fine but when I look at everything that happened, everything I passed through in this last three weeks, it makes me angry the lack of responsibility, respect and care by T.’s part. I cannot believe I allowed myself to be so unhappy and stressed for three whole weeks. I was ready to leave feedback to him on Workaway, telling people that they are not suitable to be on Workaway, when I saw that their profile was removed by the Workaway team. Justice!