A Wonderful Decision

To be honest, I didn’t know what I was getting myself into by signing up for Youth Corps. There was a lot holding me back and I thought that if I came, my mind would be pre-occupied and reeling with all the problems back home. I remember hugging my mom at the airport and asking her to take me back home with her. I know now that it would have been the biggest mistake of my life had I not gone to Armenia.

AYF Youth Corps is truly a life changing opportunity. The kids at Camp are not only learning something new, but we are learning from them as well. As a group, we walk to Camp every morning to find over 200 kids waiting for us. Even though it’s not easy to handle them, seeing those kids’ faces light up as we walk by makes it all worth it. We couldn’t get any of this done without our handy-dandy whistles because I already lost my voice on the second day of Camp.

A typical day in Gyumri (apologies in advance for the inside jokes)… Arek hitting us with pillows to wake us up; walking to the store because Lori wants fruit; ending Camp with all of us sitting on the stairs listening to Levon and Sareen complain about how hungry they are; having Vahe invite us to Deegeen Lilig’s party every night; begging Taleen Y to take naps with me but ending up gossiping instead; voting off Asbed first during every mafia game we play even though we know it’s either Talin S or Arin; trying to hack the house’s wi-fi (Haik Avakyan) password; talking in a British accent because of Angela; and knocking out until we do it all over again.

The bond we’ve built within our group is unbreakable and I can’t wait to continue these next four weeks.

From Gyumri,
Ani Karayan

P.S. Cheers Christine!