Mervin is a Youth and Community Development Volunteer with Peace Corps. As he approaches the halfway point of his service, I wanted to reach out to him to discuss how his service has been so far, and what his country is like (Here’s a hint: Kim Kardashian).
Originally from English speaking, South American country of Guyana, Mervin first heard about Peace Corps while completing graduate school at NYU. He had a professor who talked about his own service during the early 1980s. “His experience fueled me to research everything relating to Peace Corps and its impact to the developing world,” Mervin says. Despite this enthusiasm, he still ignored his call to join the Peace Corps (“the Olympics of Volunteerism”) for years. After applying twice, and turning down both invitations to serve, he decided to apply one last time because he felt he “would be able to serve individuals that are in need in a different capacity.” He filled out the application and offered to serve anywhere (a decision he looks back on as “a bit ballsy”), got his invitation and departed to join the 2018-2020 cohort. “Third time’s the charm, as the saying goes.”
When people think about Peace Corps, they often envision heat. Usually Africa and sometimes Latin America or Asia, but Mervin ended up in Armenia. I know personally, I wouldn’t have wanted to serve in a place where I would still have to deal with snow. However, plenty of volunteers brave the cold. Almost a thousand of the 7,367 current Peace Corps volunteers serving in the world are in Eastern European countries. Mervin is one of them. He serves in the small (roughly “the size of Delaware—everyone’s favorite state to drive straight through”) European country of Armenia. It is a country that’s been plagued by border conflicts and a 1988 earthquake that left many cities in rubble. Interestingly, Mervin’s partner organization, World Vision Armenia, came to the country in response to the earthquake. World Vision Armenia “is a Christian, child-focused and community-based organization, dedicated to working with children, families and communities to overcome poverty and injustice.” Mervin does a variety of projects with them that focus on teaching English and youth development. He starts his day with the adorably named ‘English Tea with Merv’ where he lets his coworkers practice English through conversation over tea. Afterwords, he spends the rest of the work day planning programs for his youth groups, summer camps, entrepreneurship workshops and figuring out how to best meet community needs. During the summer months, he’s required to travel to outlying communities to teach English, and even though this results in “very long days,” Mervin is completely committed to the cause.
Armenia is a highly homogeneous country where 95% of the population is ethnically Armenian, and 95% identifying as Christian. As such, Volunteers of color in Armenia and LGBTQ+ volunteers will stand out. Mervin told me about times he has used uncomfortable experiences as teaching moments. “I’ve had to explain that doing the slant eye to replicate an Asian person isn’t nice” he said, “as a black man here many are curious and are amazed when I inform them I actually live in New York and not Africa.” He also deals with “stares, laughter, finger pointing, requests for selfies, and questions that usually relate to which part of Africa are you or your family’s from” all of which he cannot stand. Armenians “pride themselves on being very hospitable people, but many aren’t aware of some of the actions/views can be perceived negatively,” he says. Although, “most of this is usually explained in the form of curiosity or lack of exposure to new or other ethnicities,” it can still be very difficult to navigate at times. However, Mervin is able to manage the situation by “being mindful that assholes exist everywhere and not everyone will like you” (advice he says also helps him deal with racial microaggression in the states). He focuses too on the importance of self-care and self-love saying “just make sure you love yourself and everything else will only impact you for a moment.”
And for the food? Well, Mervin’s picky and plant-based so he usually cooks for himself. I was personally offended when Mervin told me about how he’s been given pizza made with ketchup and mayonnaise: “prior to knowing this I took a huge bite and aborted swallowing right after.” On the other hand though, “making pretty good moonshine and wine is normal in the villages” so it hasn’t been all bad. He says the moonshine is surprisingly smooth considering the alcohol by volume can be up to 70% and, perhaps most surprisingly, it is not laced with chemicals. The real hidden gem though, he says, is the great tasting homemade wine that gets poured into two liter plastic bottles and sold for $4.
Mervin is happy overall to be where he is and tries keep an open mind to new experiences. “Armenia is different. It’s not good or bad. Just different. This helps from being judgmental or disrespectful. It is a chapter that I am present and thankful for. Have never done anything like this in the past so it has been a remarkable time within my life.” He has about year left of Peace Corps, and he’ll spend much of it sharing coffee and cake with community members (a common Armenian pastime), sipping moonshine during khorovats (Armenian for barbeques) and avoiding the mayo pizza.
If you’re thinking about Peace Corps, Mervin highly recommends considering it with a few caveats, you must be “willing or yearning to create change within an environment that differs from what” you’re used to in your daily life. If so, he also mentions other intangible benefits “such as learning a new language, culture, living in hardship, and discovering new strength within yourself. Who doesn’t enjoy a good struggle to be reminded of the beauty they’ve overlooked?”
FYI – Kim Kardashian isn’t the only one with a name like that – almost every Armenian last name ends in “-yan” (often also spelled “-ian”).
Dominique Does 