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| The Team, our first night in Yerevan standing in Republic Square |
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| New house left; domik right |
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| Gorgeous mountains |
We have arrived in Yerevan Armenia. There are nine Americans on our team; eight are from Minnesota and one from Maryland: Cynthia (our team leader), Kathleen, Connie, Meg, Mitchell, Ross, Gwen, Jim and Me. Three members of our team are from Armenia and work for Fuller Housing based out of Yerevan: Melik, Tatevik, and Jivan.
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| chicken coop |
We visited their domik today as the house we're building with them is being built right next door.
One small wood stove heats the entire structure - the walls are about 1/8" - 1/4" inch thick metal with patches of tin, cardboard and old vinyl billboards -they have placed wood on the floor but there are spaces between the wood slats where you can see the metal. Their roof consists of pieces of metal, vinyl billboard and wood scraps.
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| Stove in domik |
They do have electricity, including a tv, stove but no refrigeration. Carpets hang on some of the walls. I'll try to post photos - It's clean, tidy and well kept. Resources and materials are just lacking to make any improvements. Tools and building materials are hard to come by so they use what they have.
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| Outhouse |
Their domik has no running water and they have a very rustic outhouse. They have all kinds of animals on their farm - chickens, cows, sheep, goats, farm dogs. They have a large garden, make their own cheeses, yogurt, process their own meats etc. We enjoyed their yogurt and cheese and brought our own team lunch in and shared with the family members.
Today, we formed a line and passed 7,348 buckets (3,674 filled with sand, rocks and dirt) - into the home. The home is made from Armenian Tuva stone - very solid and well insulated. We're putting in fill before we put a concrete floor on top. Most likely we'll be doing this for three more days. Thanks to team member Jim for keeping a tally of our work. The family and Armenian team members are working with us, so we are learning Armenian words and they are learning English words.
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| Bucket Line |
Our team enjoyed a wonderful meal in Vanadzor this evening: trout, a variety of Armenian salads, the ever present cheeses and bread - Lavosh
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| Making Lavosh |
is the flatbread that is out of this world and another more chewy and loftier bread that I do not have a name for. YUM.
Time for muscle cream and bed.
