Word of the Day

WORD OF THE DAY 

Each day meaningful words were added to this list.  Often we would discuss the word of the day and team members would select words that fit with the day's activities.  It was difficult to choose just one word a day so I would often add several and frequently had to guess at the spelling relying on phonetic spelling to guide pronunciation rather than accuracy.  A rainy day inside the domik receiving language lessons from Naira and the boys allowed us to add a significant number of words to this list and to our growing vocabulary. 

Pedicure = toe refreshment

Padraste: we're ready

Verchatsene: we're finished

Dooile Leshark = bucket line

Ingher = friend

Vardaquin = pink

Gagarch = poppy

Vart = rose

Hogh = dirt

Skul = school

Achig = girl

Get = river

Dooster = daughter

Maireek/mama = mother

Avalush = see you later

Aghves = fox

Cove = cow

Hoki = soul/spirit

Beton = cement

Badinka = boots (in Russian)

Voznie = hedgehog

Leeka = full

Dartak = empty

Kyle/Gayle = wolf

Shoot -Shoot = fast/faster

Lav = good

Shatlav = best/ very good

Dune = house

Che = no

Voch = no

Hah = yes

IO = yes

Havanetsie = I like it

Eench Areshez = what is the cost

Auntsrev = rain

Tsegh = mud

Hav = chicken

Kar = stone

Khoomb = team

Dooile = bucket

Barkavatshel = prosper

Parev = Hello

Eight White Feathers

The Museum of Armenian Genocide ; Tsitsernakaberd Park, Yerevan, Armenia.

We visited this memorial and museum on May 28, 2011.  Thoughts about this visit have been rambling around in my head trying to organize themselves and I'm finally ready to let them out.  I was feeling very honored to have a chance to visit this memorial and I was feeling a little personal stress about how to properly and privately honor, bless and recognize my own ancestors.  I knew I was going to lay a carnation down at the flame site but I wanted to do something more - Rewind to my final night of packing... I was racing around the house doing last minute "everythings" and I finally figured it out - I'd bring eight feathers - white ones if I had them.  I'm a feather collector - they hold special meaning for me. And why eight? I love the number, eight is also infinity turned on its side, it's the number of my birth month, it's auspicious in many cultures and religions...it also honors pairs of grandparents, parents, generations on both sides of the families - there are way more than eight - but there are eight immediate ones - the ideas about "eight" could go on forever I didn't think about  it much just knew..." Eight".   And white - well, there are the ideas about white and spirit, ancestors, purity and honor that fit well with my thoughts.  I was also feeling a bit smug because as everyone knows - feathers are almost weightless so I would not be adding much to my 50 lb luggage weight limit by adding in a few feathers.   So feathers were also "practical".  Checking feather inventory... I did in fact have eight white feathers ... just eight to be exact - hooray! and then kind of weird that I had just enough.   I carried the feathers protected in a zip lock baggie in my money belt the entire trip.  They went everywhere I did. 

I have to admit that I was caught off guard at the power of place and the emotional response I had when I visited.  Walking up the steps to the entrance I looked up and thought, "whoa".  and  "whoa".  Words that I jotted into my journal were words like:  silent, vast, somber, powerful, permanent, peaceful, a little angry, kind of lonely, but only a little and only kind of- there was an interesting connection that occurred visually and energetically. It was also kind of scarey -this big, huge quiet and gray place. It was intimidating but I also felt like I belonged.  It was kind of welcoming and inviting yet it also was full of warnings and sharp angles- this big, huge, quiet place.  And other words I jotted down were:  gray, black, well balanced, classy, amazingly clean, at peace, subtle and loud.  Contradictions of thoughts, emotions and literally of place. Contradictions or "perfect balance".  I think I experienced "perfect balance". Not neutrality...balance.  No judgement or attempts to convince.  Just the "facts jack" - come to your own conclusions. 



The site is enormous and gigantic and amazingly powerful.  It wasn't particularly crowded.  It was in fact a beautiful day.  On one side, there stands a wall with the names of villages carved at the top.   Noona, Cynthia's cousin who lives in Armenia, was with our group that day and she was a great translator.  As I stood there, I began to find that I was searching for some sort of personal connection.  I asked her if she could help me find where on the wall that listed all the villages, was the name Sepastia/ Sivas.  The name of the area where both my grandparents were from.  The names of the areas that were devastated during the genocide were carved into the stone and they were carved in the Armenian language so I was at a bit of a disadvantage.  "Sure" said Noona and we walked over to the sidewalk that ran parallel to the names and she began reading... almost in time to our footsteps...  "Bitlis"..... "Habousi"....  "Erzurum"....  "Sepastia"... "Shatakh"... "Van"...  words echoing like reading the list of those who died at a memorial service yet I was also excited that she helped me find what I was looking for...  - and there were so many names , in fact too many of them.  You think of the human beings involved - it's overwhelming.  Each name that Noona read represented thousands upon thousands of people.   I realized right then and there the value of these memorial places and the value of a monument -  Places like this help preserve memory - and not just memory, they channel emotion, power, compassion and gentleness.  They connect on certain levels with certain people.  People who need  something to be recognized in an important way.   Noona spoke each name very respectfully and with honor.  There were a lot more names that what I've listed... each one kind of landing like a thud on my heart  as she read them out loud.  I'm sure what I've listed are out of order and spelled wrong but I was speechless and overcome with the powerful emotion of sadness and gladness - there it is again perfect balance.  I asked if she would take my picture.  I felt proud and disrespectful at the same time.  There it is again Awkward contradictions.  Contradictions - even in my own emotions and thoughts.  Yet, here it was etched in stone: the truth.  THE TRUTH.  Publicly recognized and significant AND  listed among the long list of other villages  .. Sepastia...  my family's place - its tap root - the foundation place, the legacy that lives on in our DNA whether we want it to or admit it does - the name of the place they came from, we came from  - important enough to be included.   I often get to wondering what it might be like to actually stand in Sepastia - but that's a trip for another time.

I walked over to the eternal flame site with my white carnation in hand and eight white feathers in my zip lock baggie.  I stood silently next to others in my group who had set their flowers down and were busy in their own thoughts.  I placed my carnation along with the eight white feathers on the side of the eternal flame on the cement- I sent blessings into the air and watched as a couple of the feathers I had just laid down on the cement kind of blew around catching on the stalks of the other flowers that had been laid down and tumbling here and there.  "Darn" I thought - should I retrieve them? Should I put them back before they flutter into the flame and burn up?  But I decided to let things go - and let them be.  As I stood there, two feathers seemed to have minds of their own - they took flight and floated gently up and up and up.  "Oh no", I could barely look - I could barely watch, it was painful - here were the feathers I carried with me this entire time, and no sooner had I laid them down maybe two minutes before were now headed right for the flames...  but suddenly they picked up speed and floated up, up, up and out of the circular opening at the very top of the eternal flame monument, escaping the flames and out into the open, perfectly clear and perfectly blue sky.



###

Boot Mystery Solved!

Since I returned from my trip I've received a lot of comments about my hiking boot "problem".  I did email Asolo and sent them photos  - they were very responsive and kind.   My how time flies! My boots are more than 15 years old - (a very good return on investment I might add).  And, if I had brought them home with me I could have even re-constituted them but alas ... they're living in Vanadzor Armenia somewhere. 

I wanted to share the response I received.


Dear Beth,

Thank you for the pictures.  You have the AFX 530 model from about 15+ years ago.  At this point in time it is normal and expected for the rubber materials to start to show their age on a boot this old.  An unfortunate fact is that even when footwear is not being worn ( all brands not just Asolo ), it does continue to age, and rubber molded compounds along with adhesives will dry out after several years and become brittle -  this is called hydrolysis or “ dry rot” .  While they are no longer under warranty, they can be repaired for much less cost than a new pair.

The good news is that you can have them resoled by www.davepagecobbler.com  who specializes in hiking boots.  I can also send you new insoles and laces for them - I will just need your size and address.  Then the boots will be like new for many more years of hiking.

Thank you,

Lisa Erling

Customer Service Manager

877-888-8533 X104

www.asolo.com

More on the Armenian Nose

Okay, so I have found out more about the Armenian nose:

The wise Armenian women who have shared their stories with us claim the following and
I enjoyed hearing their stories and listening to their giggles as they shared with us the following:

The larger the nose the kinder the person! 
You can tell how kind a person is by the size of their nose.
Armenians have large noses because they are some of the kindest people on earth!
Armenians are mountain people and need a large nose to warm the air before it enters their lungs otherwise they would always be sick with things like asthma and such  -

Enjoy!

Tulips and Toes

For once, healthy airplane food!

Veronica from Poland helped me choose the color: 
It's called "color so hot it berns" (spelling is correct)

Am in Amsterdam now after a 4 1/2 hour flight from Yerevan heading home - Our flight departed at 6:00 a.m. this morning meaning that we ended up departing for the airport at 3:45 a.m. this morning (ugg).  It was Republic Day in Armenia - and because Yerevan is the capital city - fireworks, car horns, music, concerts until all hours of the night filled my dreams.  In preparation for the upcoming 9 1/2 hour flight and "readjust" we ( me and Kathleen my traveling companion and fellow team member and all around great pal) headed to one of the wonderful spa's they have here in the airport for an "express pedicure" - We have a 5 1/2 hour layover here in tulip country - Everything is designed in the shape of tulips - and they have fresh bouquets of tulips everywhere!   Because the spa was so busy they asked us if we would MIND SITTING IN THE MASSAGE CHAIRS until our appointment - (What as gift!)  We spent an hour getting swallowed and pounded on by a wonderful mechanical chair that literally helped re-align my spine and work out many of the bucket line knots in my shoulders.  What a special treat!  Needless to say, I'm clean and glowing from the knees down but otherwise feel in need of a shower...

Sitting in THE CHAIR in the spa!

More to catch up on later, my time at the kiosk is running low.  Thanks to all of you who have been sending emails and reading about my adventures.

Country Mouse City Mouse

Country

Yerevan

Thursday morning; final breakfast at our hotel: honey, hard boiled eggs, bread and peas.  We bumped along the pot holes in the streets of Vanadzor - Melik and other drivers on the road do a great job navigating around each bump. Where pot holes are concerned, all rules of the road no longer exhsit - you are allowed to drive wherever you want to avoid them, including 2 inches away from the next car, 1 inch away from the next car - sideways in the road (I don't know how they do it),  in the middle of the road, on the opposite side of the road, you can even weave very quickly back and forth and pause on the sidewalk if need be.  It's very interesting and makes me glad that I'm not the one behind the wheel.

We were headed to Lake Sevan about one hour away.  Lake Sevan is the first and most famous national park in Armenia.  It was designated a national park in 1978 and is one of the largest freshwater alpine lakes in the world.  In Europe only Lake Geneva is larger.  Lake Sevan covers about 4% of the country (close to the forest cover).  It is almost 2,000 meters above sea level.  We arrived just in time for a light rain - that didn't daunt us as we climbed more than 200 steps to the Sevanavank monastery.  Ancient ruins, amazing views. The site of the monastery used to be located on an Island in Lake Sevan  - at some point under Soviet rule, the Soviets decided it would be a good idea to drain Lake Sevan to 1/5 of it's original size so that they could farm the land. The plan was started but protests by the people stopped the draining project - but the island became a peninsula instead. It is a very popular vacation spot and people from Yerevan drive up for picnics and beach and swimming during the hot summers.   

Lake Sevan

After Lake Sevan, we continued our drive to Yerevan.  Along the way we stopped and collected Obsidian - along the side of the road! Veins of it run through this region from ancient volcanos it sparkles in the sunlight as you drive by - large streaks of it on the mountains and along the sides of the road - I've never seen anything like it!

Collecting Obsidian

We arrived in Yerevan - quite an adjustment after spending time in the village countryside - similar to spending time in Apalachia and driving to New York City. Yerevan, the capital city has a population of 1.2 million and is a bustling modern metropolis - electronic billboards similar to NYC  - fashion on every corner - the best shoe watching ever!  We visited the museum Matendaran;  a research, restoration and repository for ancient manuscrips.  We had a brief tour given by a guide who spoke English (faster than I could listen) and we learned a lot about Mesrop Mashtot - the man who invented the Armenian alphabet. We looked at early 7 and 8th century math books that discussed geometry, a round world and multiplication tables. Parchment was used (lamb skin), lapiz, gold leaf, cochineal beetle (crushed for a red color) were used.  Garlic mixed with gum arabic was used as a glue.  A very interesting afternoon.

Outside the Matendaran

We have packed away our work pants, cement stained t-shirts and work boots and are adapting to our new role as tourists in the big city of Yerevan.

Armenian coffee

Armenian coffee recipe:

Finely ground/powdered coffee
1 tsp coffee
1/2 tsp sugar
1 cup water
Bring to boil 1 or 2x's

Sometimes you can add milk and boil it again.
Drink from teeny tiny cup and enjoy!

Verchatsene: We are finished!

Naira and Vrez

Wednesday afternoon we completed the concrete work and cleaned up early for the banquet that our family put on for us.  They served lamb two ways, grilled - BBQ style and boiled. There were many people at the banquet besides our team and our immediate family - friends, neighbors and extended family members so it was a real celebration. After our meal, we posed for and took many photographs - group shots, family shots, team shots.  We departed feeling great about our work, providing a home for this family that will completely change and impact the trajectory of this family's life - for generations to come.  The house is being built to last - with the intention of being passed on from one generation to another. 

Construction team with family and friends

It will be given to one of the boys when he marries and has children and the tradition will carry on - this house is family path; family journey; tradition.   The footprints we made in the foundation of the house while forming our bucket line, the laughter that echoed through the roofless structure and the empowerment, strength and humanitarism we grew through working together are now embedded in their home - Hoki - spirit, heart - very cool.

Naira, Vrez, Samson, Vahe, Vahan

 We boarded the van, and Artag and the middle brother (who's name has escaped me at the moment  because we met him just once during our build - he is working on a bridge construction in a nearby valley so he wasn't around much) - they rode the van back to Vanadzor with us and Ross and Mitchell and Noona went out for coffee with them and spent the afternoon with them.

The strength of our Fuller Housing Team!

After cleaning up, packing up, we had a bit of spare time. Kathleen and I went to the marketplace and walked through the food market area in search of spices - we walked past booths of women selling cheeses, fresh fruits, vegetables, fish, crabs, something that looked like crayfish -probably were, coffee vendors - and we found the spice woman! We pointed, she scooped different spices onto a scale and then into a plastic baggie- they use a variety of pepper here in their dishes - one is a sweet red pepper.

The evening was spent celebrating our work with the Vanadzor Fuller Housing team: Melik, Tativik and Jivan. We had another banquet with many toasts.  The team dined on rabbit, some sort of flattened beef, amazing roasted potatoes and a variety of salads and breads - for dessert: ice cream and Armenian coffees. We all received plaques to hang above our doors at home that say "Bless this House" in Armenian.  Arriving back at the hotel, we tumbled into bed with sounds of cement mixers and celebration in our heads.

Tatavik

Our fancy banquet

The Banquet

Pavlik & Marguerite

cement work

Yesterday we worked on the bucket line all-day. It was very sunny and hot - we almost exceeded our bucket fill from the first day, but because we took a long break to see the milking again, we didn't make it.  We did move 6,900 buckets and completed the floor of another room.  We also moved two buckets of milk! 

goat and sheep milk

All of us are sporting sunburns - despite the liberal application of sunscreen.
We dined in a Fuller house with a family who had moved in one year ago.  They had lived in their domik for 20 years prior to moving in.  A mother, two daughters - the husband works during the summer in Russia on construction and sends money back to the family.  She prepared a huge meal for us of fish and many salads that were delicious. We provided the funding to purchase the supplies for the meal.  The roasted potatoes were amazing as was the preparation of the fish.  She shared many stories about living in her new home and about her family - it made us all feel very proud to be working as a member of the Fuller housing team.
As a side note, we learned that there is no such thing as a mortgage here so a family must provide all of the funding for a house upfront - they must pay for it all at once.  Fuller Center, provides the families with loans that they then pay back into a fund. From that fund, another family is able to purchase a house and so on and so on.  A house that we're building costs $10,500.  Other apartments and houses can cost even less.

completing the roof

I'm sitting in the domik right now (internet and cell phone service is everywhere) typing on Tatavik's computer so now I must go back to join the cement line. The family is giving us a banquet today - they have just returned from slaughtering a lamb and are making us a huge feast.

Lamb on the BBQ

Hello from Tatevik

I am a volunteer and program coordinator of Fuller Center for Housing, Armenia, Vanadzor office. Today is the last day with my first team of 2011 in our region; the last working day. We have been working on the house construction of a needy family in the village of Yeghegnut.
My goal is that people knew more about the housing need in Armenia and came to help to illuminate the poverty housing in our country. Let this be a call for all diasporan Armenians to assist their country through Fuller Center for Housing. There are 35.000 homeless families in our country. 20% of population in Lori region is homeless. Most of the homeless people live in the temporary sheltors, which are called domiks, which do not have any human conditions to live. They live in 18 sq. m. domik, which doesn't have a bathroom and toilet is an outhouse. They don't have a running watter in the house, either.


My family consists of a husband, Arshaluis, a son, Argishti, and a daughter Anna.  We live in Vanadzor in a condominium building in the center of town.  We were born in Vanadzor and attended teacher's training institute in Vanadzor.  I became interested in Fuller and was a volunteer for Habitat and then became a host coordinator for Habitat for four years.  When Fuller was developed I started working for them as a program and host coordinator of Lori Region for three years.  My husband teaches History, Human Rights, Law Armenian legislation and history of economy at the European Institute in Vanadzor. My mother cooks for the teams when they are here.

 

Pink Poppies and Sheep Milk

Monday morning, May 23 - back to work. We enjoyed a breakfast of hard boiled eggs, peas with cilantro, bread and apricot jam. The milk was still in good shape so I enjoyed some in my freeze dried coffee :).  We boarded the van and started off on our work day.  As we drove through Vanadzor we watched the merchants setting out their wares to sell, bakeries delivering bread in wooden crate boxes, meats being hung out on hooks, coffee beans, potatoes, onions, tomatoes, even watermelon.  All the wares add color to an otherwise colorless cityscape - which is mostly gray or tones of pink tufa stone that are subdued. Color is found in friendships, family and relationships - in the people not really in their buildings.

There has been so much rain that the river is running very high and fast. We took a different route through the mountains to our village today because of the soft mud on the steep roads. We arrived safely and in good time.  We unloaded, soon a truck drove up and we unloaded concrete block - about 60 of them - that will be used to build the inside bathroom wall.   After unloading the block, we formed our well oiled bucket line and began to fill in the floors. We work well together and it's amazing how many piles of soil and rocks we've moved effectively together.  Sometimes practicing our alphabet out loud, sometimes zoning out to the rhythm of the "right hand empty left hand full" momentum.  We had a few water breaks, watched the sky as we listened to thunder and watched the black clouds roll in - the rain held off until 5:00 p.m. the end of our day.

For lunch today we had the best cabbage type rolls ( they looked like dolmas but were cabbage leaves) - vegetarian and ones with meat - they were amazing - we ate and ate and ate.  I asked for the recipe - we'll see if I can recreate them. 

After lunch, I stepped out of the bucket line and asked the grandmother and her sister in law if I could go with them to milk the animals (I didn't know what kind) - I just knew the disappeared in the afternoon with two steel buckets and appeared with them full of milk. I wanted to see, they excitedly agreed but were concerned for me because it was about 20 minute walk to the barn - no problem (even though my new shoes are a little on the small size). We set off on a well worn path through the wood and out onto the side of a mountain. Margarite, grandmother, chattered to me the entire way in Armenian - I understood a little and we pantomimed - she picked some Chai for me - it's lemon thyme. She said it's good to lower blood pressure, helps you sleep and is good in tea.  They also pick and eat another green that is called Eescote it has a thin stalk that you pick and peel and tastes kind of like a mild radish - they pickle it and serve it cooked.  The Armenian men on the work site would just wander into the grass and pick some and eat it at random times of the day.  I carried my boquet of thyme along the path and was amazed at the expanse of space.  We soon arrived at the barn - goats and sheep - I've never seen anyone milk a goat or sheep. The shepherd was waiting for us they let out two sheep at a time and the grandmothers sitting on very low stools would milk them from behind as the shepherd held the heads of the sheep. After a few minutes of milking they'd let the sheep go and start on another. Over and over until their buckets were filled. I took a lot of photos and it was cute because they would pose as they were doing the milking and were very proud and excited to share this with me.  I took some short videos of them too - I love my camera!  They went through the entire herd and all of a sudden the sheep were baaing like mad.  Margerite yelled at me to get my camera ready which I did - Vahan had run down the bottom of the barn and all of a sudden... like a school of fish about thirty little lambs ran out of the barn in a single line baaing and ran to the herd - running around until each one had found their mother and they all started nursing.

We walked back the mountainous path to the house - me with my bouquet - they with their full pails of frothy milk. I'm not sure what they do with it from there but I do know they make their own cheese and yogurt -

We worked on filling the floors in all day and moved 5,223 buckets according to Jim. The temperature dropped, the rain rolled in and we jumped on the van at 5:00, with our sore muscles, and avoided the downpour.  We went back to the hotel, cleaned up and then walked to a nearby theater and enjoyed a children's dance performance - traditional and modern dances in full costume. Tatavik's daughter is one of the dancers. The kids were amazing - all ages even into the later teenage years.  They pulled us all up on stage for the final dance and laughed at us as we tried to do the handkerchief dance  - kick kick, little step pattern that was way too complicated to mimic - two hops and repeat.  Arms in the air, wrist flicks left right left... they giggled and practiced their english on us. One little boy asked me, "Do you speak English?"  "Yes" I replied.  "Oh good" he said and ran away shyly. We ate dinner at a Georgian restaurant and explored their food - they use a lot of walnuts in their dishes eggplant wrapped walnut pate, calf tongue (no I did not), a variety of salads one with crab, one with ham, one with chicken, harissa (traditional wheat dish kind of like oatmeal), and vegetable lasagna and Armenian wine.  It was past 10:00 when they finished bringing our food - speed is not of importance most of the time - the pace is much different. Needless to say, we are bringing a lot of our dinner to the worksite tomorrow.  Leftovers are typically not taken with after a meal but in this case, we were done eating at about 8:30 p.m. and Tatavik worked her magic and let us bring it with us.

So back to the rain and the title of my blog tonight.  The rain and intermittent sunshine has brought out the flowers - lilacs are beginning to bloom, yellow buttercups and something fluffy are everywhere, daisies are starting to bloom, peonies, the fruit trees covered in white snowy flowers, red poppies dot the hillsides, and today I saw the most amazing thing... pink poppies - beautiful petite flowers - a whole hillside full! They are a bright yet soft pink with dark purple on the inside - I've never seen a pink poppy like this before and I immediately thought of my mother and smiled  - she's Armenian,  a poppy lover to the heart and she would love everything on this trip.  Wild pink poppies and little lambs  - what a sight!

Souls and BBQ

Sunday May 22.
We had a late breakfast 9:00 a.m. of bread and apricot jam, Nescafe coffee - with a new container of milk, a raw salad and a cooked green salad - it was a slim breakfast day that left us all wanting an egg of some sort - some thought hard boiled, some thought scrambled - in any event we were eggless.


We boarded the van to attend part of an Armenian church service.   The women all had scarves as the women cover their hair when they enter the church.  The bishop who had participated in the house blessing ceremony a few days before was in attendance at the church service.  Services can last 3 hours or more and people come and go throughout the entire service. We entered at 11:00, lit candles for family members and friends and sent special blessings into the incense infused air. There were very few pews in the large church - we stood in the back behind the pews with most of the crowd.  The choir was above and behind us hidden from view but their voices filled the space beautifully - angelic music, gorgeous music, music that fed the soul and it was a beautiful experience.

As planned, after spending about 40 minutes in the church service, we stopped for about 15 minutes to rush to a boot store and others went shopping in a silver store and an icon store.  The first boot store we went to was unfortunately closed, and after much discussion about me wearing my one and only other pair of shoes: my Keen clogs - I convinced them no - it wouldn't work and that I did need some shoes and no someone else couldn't buy them for me and bring them to my hotel becuase I'd have to try them on to make sure they fit... the discussion went on and on until we decided to trek across to another market - quickly - to see if this other boot store / shoe store was open.  We did and what sights we passed  - sellers of fresh coffee beans, meat hanging from hooks, fresh vegetable displays, we arrived at the shoe store and it was open.  In we went, and I looked around and couldn't figure out which were mens and which were womens - when I asked I was told - "whatever you want them to be".  So I picked out a few shoes that might do - none were really hiking boot style but nonetheless I was looking for something that could withstand the mud.  Something with a good sole. I asked for 7 1/2 size (37) - nope didn't have that size.  No not that one either, no ... so I quickly figured out the system... which shoe do you have in a 71/2? They brought me one that was made in Italy, black (extra points !) and had a thick sole - perfect. I tried them on - they fit well enough for three days - they were mine for 9,900 dram (about$19).

We drove through the Pushkin Pass to the Bushkie area to go hiking to the Hnevank Monastery.  We drove through villages that were so picturesque I wished we could have stopped to walk through the streets taking photos - but we were headed to the mountain and had no time to dally.  We passed Armenian boys standing in groups eating sunflower seeds (it's the thing to do), men herding their cows down the middle of the streets, women in their fields planting potatoes - we're in the potato region, fruit trees blooming, ancient buildings made of stones, old fences leaninig this way and that... and again I saw a giant pig - just one.  We drove higher and higher and the views were amazing - rocky cliffs, river below, caves, green forests... Basalt rock formations.  We arrived at our destination and began our hike to the monastery - the ruins of a monastery that is - being restored since 2006.  Originally built in the 7th century.  I have pictures - it's gorgeous and when it's completed will be even more beautiful.  We explored and hiked, took photos, watched cows go by and arrived at our picnic site just in time to experience another torrential rain storm - complete with thunder in the mountains it echoes wonderfully.  Many spent time preparing our bbq in the picnic shelter , others waited out the rain on the van.   The sun came out, we enjoyed our shishkabobs, lentils (for the vegetarians in the group, grilled eggplant salad, Armenian coffee and russian candies for dessert.  We played games, watched a herder go by with his cows who were very curious about our group, the cutest dog/puppy ever arrived with the cows and managed to "cute" its way to some shishkabobs and other treats.
We drove home through more postcard scenes and arrived at the hotel. I walked in the rain to the internet cafe where I sit now recounting an amazing day. I kept thinking to myself today, I can't believe I'm standing in the mountains of Armenia having a picnic watching cows go by! I can't believe it!   It fills my very sole - soul (Hoki) with happiness.

Cement and Soles

National Salad

I must apologize in advance for my spelling errors - there is spell check on this computer but, it's in Armenian and I can't read what it says so please bear with me. 

Saturday May 21 was a full work day. We woke early, ate a breakfast of bread, apricot jam, national salad which is sort of like cooked spinach with some cooked egg and cilantro mixed in, and a hard boiled egg. The coffee here is either Nescafe freeze dried or Armenian coffee - it is hard to find a latte or even really a mug of coffee so we suffer through adding boiling water to the freeze dried crystals in our mug.  Oh well, it grows on you. The hotel purchased a container of milk especially for our group - but  it's grown old and chunky so we've all been avoiding using it which adds to the hotel staff's confusion about our request for milk "why do they want it if they don't use it?" And we can't seem to explain that we need a new one. 

Cafe Jazzve

 I forgot to mention in my earlier posts that my hiking boot was sort of falling apart - the sole was coming off around the toe area.  My good Asolo Hiking boots - the boots that I have been using to walk the dogs through all sorts of weather were beginning to fail me - between Melik taking my left shoe home to glue and the wonders of duck tape - I was faring pretty well.

Well, today, Saturday we would begin cement work.  Because it was Saturday, the family was home all day and the boys; Sampson especially, were very excited to get to spend the entire day with us. The only modern tool we have on our worksite is a portable cement mixer - powered by a very thin cord spliced together to reach the work site - and propped up with a small tree to keep it off the ground. The scaffolding is an amazing design of platforms propped up with the trunks of small trees and the forms for the cement are hand built with pieces of wood, strings with rocks serve as plumb bobs to keep things level and straight and the workmanship of the men using these tools is amazingly accurate.  We volunteers keep both of our feet on the ground - the higher ground work is done by the men in the family.

Three shovels of sand, a few shovels full of rocks, two pails of cement, one pail of water and away we went... over and over we mixed batch after batch and passed them to the workers who were pouring the cement "caps?" we're not sure what to call them - along the tops of all the walls that will hold the roof on.  It was slow work so we had a chance to practice our Armenian words; "Dardak" -empty "Leeka" - full we'd say as we passed the bucket along. We practiced our numbers and learned the word for cement "Beton".  I spied a giant pig in the valley below and I mean giant - it was out all by itself rooting around and walking along a well worn path.  Chickens, goats and cows, birds.  It was a peaceful morning - using new muscles and watching our backs we had found our rhythm.


Suddenly, it began to rain lightly, then moderately, then thunder, then... downpour. We scrambled for cover, pulling our rain jackets out of our backpacks. The temperature dropped (good thing for Merino wool)! Rivers of water, mud, we moved into the domik with our family - perhaps it was divine intervention - we had time to have a real language lesson with Naira, the mom, and Margerite the grandmother who helped us tremendously with pronunciation - Naira is a math teach and can read and write english but just not speak it very well - we used my notebook and were soon engrossed in learning new words and pronunciation . I showed them a photo of Alika holding Olive our hedgehog and Naira says, "oh, a voznie" -- like she sees hedgehogs all the time! They loved seeing our dogs and snow and photos of my family.  The boys were playing games with Ross and Mitchell - we were all sharing photos and laughing and building something stronger than a home - we were building common ground.

After coffee and ice cream - vanilla -  (which was really quite good) - and I'm not certain how it stayed frozen because the family does not have refrigeration the sun came out - it was time to work.  We were almost done with the cement work and really wanted to complete it before we left for the day.  We slogged through the mud to the house and began again -"Bucket Line Ganal (go)"... "Leeka" "Dardak"... and on we went until suddenly we had finished. It was 5:00 p.m. we had moved 1,522 buckets according to our official team counter, Jim (761 filled with cement, 761 empties).

Slogging through the mud to board the van, the sole of my shoe finally gave way and came off.  Flopping to the bus I climbed on and wondered what to do - hiking boots are scarce if not impossible to find, when would we have time to find them - stores close before we get back from our work day... We decided that we would shop for Badinkas (boots or shoes with necks in Armenian) for me on Sunday - we would have a few minutes to do so inbetween attending a church service and preparing for our hiking day. 

Hosed off, our team cleaned up and went to dinner - at a restaurant that had lo and behold ... lattes!  And food:  fantastic pancakes which are sort of like crepes filled with either cooked vegetables and cheeses or cooked meats and cheeses, fish salad, a "meat salad" which was like a ceasar, and vegetable soup that was similar to borscht with potatoes, beets, shaved carrots.

We were informed that our team had completed the work plan for our six construction days in three so we were way ahead of schedule. We are proud of that fact as that means the liklihood of our family moving into their new home before winter is much better.

Keys and Trees

Domiks along the river

This morning we toured the domik villages in the inter-city of Vanadzor and along the river. There are hundreds.   We met a woman named Noona who lived in her domik with her three boys Hachick (18) , Armen (20) and Artur(12) for 21 years. Their water source is down the block and they share an outhouse with the other families in the domik area.  She  was a wonderful person to meet - she earns her living in the market buying and selling vegetables, she was amazingly smart, resourceful, loving and courageous.  Her husband and gone to Russia to work and send money but never returned - she found out later he had perished in  2001 of liver problems.  She and two of her boys (one is in the Armenian army - required for all boys at age 18 for 2 years) will soon be moving into a Fuller Housing apartment.  

Tatavik and Noona

Shopping - for one hour. Meg went to town purchasing two pairs of shoes, a dress and a sweater - SHOES they're everywhere and most of them are BLACK! Even here, in Armenia, women have more than one pair of black shoes! The clothing is mostly black so you know who was very much at home needless to say I did not make any additions to my wardrobe... yet.   Black is the dominate color of clothing, unless you're under age 8 - then you wear every color of the rainbow all at the same time - color color color.   After about age 8 the landcape changes and ... black is the new black!  We were successful in our bartering and had a ball.  

After the domik tour and shopping -we participated in a special key and blessing ceremony - the tv stations were there - it was quite the scene. It was a big to do - The dedication and house blessing ceremony was to award the keys to 15 families.  The homes were built in an area where a newly built community building has been constructed and has neighborhoods of houses built through the Fuller Housing project with partnership of the City of Vanadzor and ARDA. The homes are constructed with new technology of Lazarian World Homes (with styrofoam blocks).  The Mayor of Vanadzor, the Arch Bishop, Steve Lazarian, Stan Lazarian, Ashot - President of Fuller Center for Housing Armenia and our own Cynthia Erickson - team leader all spoke of the importance of these projects.  It's humbling to be a part of all of this.   

Certificate, keys and bible at ceremony

After the speeches, we toured the new homes, witnessed the blessings of the homes (each one was blessed by a priest), enjoyed local Armenian Brandy and fruit and chocolate with the families moving in.

Margahovit "Little Switzerland"

We then boarded the van and headed out to tour the Armenian Tree Project in Margahovit, the third largest village in Armenia - located north of Vanadzor - they are planting millions of trees each year to re-build and sustain Armenia's forests.  While the natural gas lines run to the villages, the prices are so high that villages often don't use it and resort to using wood to heat their homes in the winter. Wood is also one of the largest exports - demand is depleting the forests.  Currently Armenia has less than 7% forestation.   We walked through the nursery and looked at the native trees they are growing; Ash, oak, pine, wild apricot, wild apple, wild pear trees - all native trees to Armenia. Trees grow very slow especially in high altitude. They grow all their trees from seeds from their own trees - gathering them from the forests each year.  They are building an education center and will be teaching local youth about forestry and hope to begin training and certification. We saw the Hrant Dink memorial forest - 16 hectares (32 acres) of newly planted trees.

baby trees

Returning home, I was dropped at the Vanadzor art museum with Connie and we walked through a very delapidated but well cared for art museum.  It was a mix of local artists work as well as some older work that was saved during the earthquake.

A day filled with blessings and keys - keys to the past and to the future.

Buckets of Rain and Songs of Hope

heading for lunch in the domik

The results of our bucket line - it's almost full!

Thursday morning, pouring rain, pouring rain - rain coats and Fuller Center baseball hats on our heads we loaded up the van and headed to the worksite. We stopped on the way to pick up a tarp.  Muddy mountain roads, high rivers, low hanging fog in the valley. Greens looked greener. 

Bucket line under the tarp

Our tarp over the house skeleton provided a sheltered area for our bucket line.  Frequent coffee breaks, team humor and the passion to accomplish our mission to fill in the floors, fueled our efforts.  Twelve team members and 5 family members joined in and despite the mud that swallowed our boots, 6,722 buckets later we had accomplished our day's goal.

We dined in the domik today with the family for lunch - all of us squeezed into a tiny space to sit at a lavishly decorated table filled with amazing home cooked food.  On our breaks Armenian coffee, cakes and breads are filling in the calories we burn on the bucket line. 

Saturday we return to the home to begin concrete work.

Pottery vessels made by children

After returning to the hotel to clean up we visited an Armenian day program for children - ORRAN. Highlights of their mission:  1. To divert children from the streets and engage them in academic, cultural and extra-curricular activities.  2. Fight the concept of beggar children as the principal breadwinners for their family  3. Help families in "crisis" 4. Prevent the spread of destitution and begging among Armenia's children and the elderly.

We met all 50 children who are currently being served. They were beautiful, eager to meet and speak with us. The program provides transportation, well balanced meals, medical and dental care, psychological and social services, classes for them to learn skills and talents and overall builds their confidence.   The kids sang us songs, asked us questions after we had introduced ourselves to the classrooms and showed us their artwork. They make beautiful paintings, pottery and wood carvings.    Most families served earn less than $100 per month, many don't have an income and government assistance provides about $30/month.There is tremendous dedication to the children served.

ORRAN School for Children

After the children were taken home, we enjoyed a meal with the staff and had a chance to practice our Armenian and they their English. We found out they have a flourishing Junior Achievement program (who knew it would be in Vanadzor). 

Amenia as a country is very dedicated to its children - they are revered and cherished. Education is a priority. Literacy is extremely high. There is love. There is hope.