I met with BR volunteers today. They came all the way from Yerevan to come visit me here before the end of my journey. It was great meeting them all young and bright eyed. Many of the volunteers recently arrived here in Armenia, and many of them came here for the same reason I came to Armenia, to better understand myself, to answer some of the questions I had about my own destiny. There were people from all over the world, many from America but all from Russia, Argentina, Greece, and some weird kid from an Arabic country, I think he was Palestinian. We had much to talk about, but it was really me who did most of the talking. I didn’t prepare a speech, I winged it. I told them my story, about what it was like to volunteer, how I started working here, where I worked. Reflecting back on it all, I realized how much I had accomplished and felt as though they really looked up to me. As an example of what each person can do in Armenia, about how they should see this developing country, and how real, applicable opportunities are here. I know that many of them would love to do the same thing as me, to leave everything behind and go travel.
In fact, they wanted to walk with me on the last ten kilometers. To be honest, I really wanted them to come as well because I thought that they could help me carry the trees that I was planning to plant at the border. These trees added another eight kilos to my backpack weight, a significant amount considering that my backpack only weights eight to nine kilos, that means I am doubling the weight. I could totally picture them each, with big smiles on their faces taking the trees with them to the border.
I’m glad to be finishing soon, tomorrow if everything goes as planned. I’m tired, I feel weak, I don’t really want to continue. Tomorrow I will wake up early, and should hike to the next village by 8AM, way too early for the crew, most of them don’t get up before 10. Once I reach that village, I must help the locals plant a cross at the top of the mountain, a symbol of something, of belonging, but definitely not something that I want to do. Hopefully the process won’t take too long.