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!
