This is Norik. He owns a khanut (store) not too far from my house. Henni met him in the village Hermon a while ago, he is a German teacher there. We went to interview him as we wanted to include him in the (now failed) expanded version of our photo exhibit. "I'm not a proud man" he said when I was trying to take his photograph. He is currently working on a novel and read a few passages for us.
This is the service in Noravank. There were women and children standing to the sides of the priests singing. I'm always taken with the way singing sounds in churches here.
This is one of the two churches at Noravank. The graves on the floor are of previous priests, they are meant to be walked on to show their humbleness.
This little girl did not want to stand and listen to the service. Her mom was so embarrassed at the way she was acting. I knelt down next to her and we started talking.
The light in the churches here is perfect.
Henni, our friend Karine and me.
Again, the ladies all gussied up for the holiday.
This is Karine's nephew, Gorik. Him and his brother, Davo, are in one of the photos from our photo exhibition with their grandmother, Tamara. I came to their house to eat an Easter meal. Their food is always so delicious!
I was helping keep Gorik entertained while the women were preparing the food.
How can you resist such a face!
The table was beautifully decorated with dyed eggs, wheat grass and greens. We had fresh "banjar" vegetables picked from the mountains, home made wine, beet salad, and my new favorite thing ever, "chamichov pilaf" which is rice with dried fruits baked in a lavash crust.
We walked around everywhere in the city and got a pretty good grasp of the metro system. All the signs in the metro stations are in the Georgian alphabet (see Armenian alphabet thrown against the wall) and neither of us bothered to learn it before we came. Luckily, Chris is really good a gesturing. You should have seen him tell the waitress he wanted water with gas!
This is me and Chris. He's quite a character and I laughed a lot on this trip. We also got soaking wet more than a few times while walking in torrential downpours.
This is the coolest church sitting on a cliff above the river that runs through the middle of the city. There are churches just about every block and all the Georgians cross themselves when they pass by, even the taxi drivers while speeding down the narrow streets full of pedestrians.
Along the Tbilisi skyline you can see Mother Georgia. She has a twin that lives in Yerevan, Mother Armenia. Mother Georgia is holding a sword and a goblet of wine. Ohhh.... is Georgian wine good!
This is Sayat Nova's grave outside of the Armenian church. Sayat Nova is a very famous Armenian writer. After taking a few photos we walked into the church and greeted those inside in Armenian. They didn't think much at first and then we started up a conversation with them in Armenian. They were so impressed that these Americans in Georgia were speaking their mother tongue. We stayed for a while, lit some candles and went on our way.
There was about a 2 hour break in the rain yesterday so I took a little stroll up in the fields behind my house. It is impossibly green here right now. Its amazing how quickly it has changed! I was looking through photos from less than a month ago and the blossoms were just beginning to bud on the trees here.
I had not yet had a chance to explore this side of the city. I moved in during the winter and because there are a lot or construction projects on this side of town, it was super muddy. In this area there are also a lot of abandonded buildings. Maybe this was a greenhouse?
This is a little section of town that I had never noticed before. It has its own separate road from Yegh that comes in at the top of the hill from the road to Yerevan. This is looking down to the Arpa river, where the pointy bridge is. The broken landscape here looks impressive in every season!
A perfect little patch of light shining down on a few cows and the lone herder.
I went to visit my host mother, Ruzan, at her store today. She works at a place that is for the most part a butcher shop, but they also sell other food items and until recently were also selling gold jewelry. I once and a while stop by her store as it is on the way to the aftogayan where I catch mashrutkas to Yerevan. I came in and sat down while her and she boss, Armen, were grinding meat. I offered to put on some coffee for the three of us. While I was waiting for the little plita to heat up our teeny tiny cups of coffee, fresh meat was delivered to the store. I've never been too excited about buying meat in this country as you may see from the above photo. It usually sits around all day like this, sometimes on a piece of cardboard. Then, when you order it they chop it up on a large wooden block with an axe. My uncle is a butcher and I know how cutting meat is an art to be perfected. But here, you have to be careful when you eat meat because there are always shards of bone embedded in the flesh. Also, they aren't too concerned with sanitizing like we would with raw meat in America. They just wipe up the surface with a wet towel (no soap or bleach) and resume cutting on the same surface all day long, day after day.
This is an electric plita. Every store you walk into will have one of these hidden somewhere so the shop keepers can refuel with coffee periodically throughout the day.
Our mismatched cups and saucers waiting to be filled with the most tasty slow-cooked Armenian coffee. Armen was telling me that his coffee is so much tastier because it is prepared over low heat very slowly. mmm hmmm.
Later in the evening I returned home and told the events of my day to my landlady, Heriknaz. Their home is just a few meters from my front door. Its nice to be so close to a family, and also very amusing. Heriknaz is from the village Getap and, like many Armenians, has only traveled to a few places within the country. She is a very simple minded woman, but is always curious about what crazy American things I am up to at all times. He has asked me before if, when I had a horse, did I milk it? And, if I knew how to count Armenian money. 700 dram, do you know what 70o dram is?
This is taken from the ridge next to my new house. Lately there have been some beautiful low laying clouds covering the mountains and it has been raining like crazy. The semi-desert scrub has suddenly come to life and the mountains around here are just stunning covered in green! Click on the image to see it bigger.
This is a half-abandoned factory near my house.
Mud-puddle dodging. A fine art in these parts.
My teeny tiny neighbor Heriknaz. She sits on the steps and watches her husband, Samvel, remodel the structure by my house. By the end of the summer, there will be three more rooms, just like mine, that will house university students. Always a construction project going on here...
SunChild had all the clubs from the regions gather at Tsitsernakaberd in Yerevan (genocide memorial and museum) this weekend to help recycle all the flowers that had been left there after the genocide remeberance day.
We plucked the petals off the flowers and laid them out on long strips of canvas in front of the memorial.
It was quite a beautiful and collective effort.
There were about 3-4 tons of flowers that had been placed there. Usually, every year the flowers are just thrown in the landfill. So SunChild suggested we have the children pluck off the petals and separate the plastic from the greens. We then collected all the stems and leaves and put them in a large compost pile. We were there all day and hardly even got half-way through the pile.
It was a great idea, but a huge effort!
The pastor said, Armenia may be small but our problems are large and we must all work together to solve them.
Paige and the photos. We were just a little excited to get the show on the road.
And here is me and the photos. All snazzed up!
The amazing Miss Henni, the organizer of the show.
The "We-are-women-hear-us-roar" crew.
Paige talking about some photos with Lee Lacy, Peace Corps Armenia Country Director, and Armen , PC Environmental Education Program Manager.
Sona and me. Sona showed up early to the exhibit, as she rode the marsrutka to get there. She was in the building before we showed up. We found her in the gallery reading her story and looking at her photos with tears in her eyes. This really cemented our feelings that this exhibition was a big deal and something Armenian women would never think to organize for themselves about themselves.
We had many guests from the Yeghegnadzor community. This man is from the governor's office. He said he was very impressed with all the women in the exhibit and he recognized almost everyone's faces. He even told some stories about some of the women he knew.
Anahit looking at her photos surrounded by some of her classmates.
Paige and Knarik. Knarik took the early mashrutka from Yelpin to Yeghegnadzor, about a 35 minute drive.
Knarik and her sister-in-law, Aygestan. Aygestan and her family were Paige's second host family in Vayk. Both women are featured in the exhibition.
Henni thanking our guests and explaining the premise of the project. About 50 people were crammed into the little gallery, but everyone was enjoying themselves. We baked American cookies and crackers with a goat cheese dip and served champagne to toast the women. Henni collected information from UN and Amnesty International's websites and had students from the university write up data and essays about the state of the women in Armenia. Many guests told us that they were happy to see the data, as it reminded them of why women are important and how they have been ignored.
Henni and Sona. Many of the women in the exhibition are from the village Getap, where Henni has a family that she visits several times a week. In Getap Henni has become a celebrity. Sona and her family are one of the many families Henni has become close with.
Meester Jon, Peace Corps volunteer, my site mate. The one and only.
My marz-mates. These are my Americans, and they will all be leaving me in August. Bah ho.
Some girls from my Eco Club.
The after party at my apartment.
