A Saturday Walk!

September 11, 2010 - Saturday
We went for a little walk around the neighborhood today. Near here is what they call an outdoor Bazaar. It had a lot of fresh vegetables, fruit, meats etc. We were admiring the wonderful strawberries, raspberries and blackberries, which all looked perfect. Then we wandered upon the “PIG HEADS” all lined up in a row, so tomorrow we are going to have pig head stew! (Just kidding, we couldn’t decide between the non refrigerated whole chickens covered with flies or the various fly covered beef that a guy was cutting up with an ax) hehe

OH HOW I WISH I HAD PICTURES OF ALL THE ABOVE!  MAYBE ONE DAY I WILL GET BRAVE AND ASK TO TAKE SOME....
After the Bazaar we walked to a grocery store that we were told had peanut butter in it. It was a pretty big store but we couldn’t find any peanut butter. They say if you find something you want in Armenia, buy it right then because you might never find it again.

This is an Armenia style wheelchair access! I don't think the picture shows you just how steep this is. It is scary!

Even scarier is the new construction.  I hope there is never an earthquake here....

LastMonday we took off by ourselves to an unknown part of the city and found the cutest Noah’s Ark. Notice Mt Ararat (Masis & Sais) on the side. We were quite proud of ourselves for wandering around independently.

Then you open it up and of course there is Elder and Sister Noah and some of their animals!!  I showed, Kate, Knox and Hans these on Skype and they loved them....

Tonight was certainly the highlight of the week. We visited with Armen, Nina and their son Rawland. A very nice family. It is so rare for a husband, wife and children to be in the church.  Most of the members are women and we really need Priesthood holders here.  We went to their apartment and they invited us back. They are less active and I know they felt the Spirit tonight. I forgot to take their picture, but I will next time. We went with the Elders and they gave a lesson about the family and the temple and of course interpreted for us.

Genocide Museum

We went to the Genocide Museum with the Pincocks and Petersons.

This was a very interesting, solemn place.  I'm so glad to learn about it.

From Wikipedia: The Armenian Genocide – also known as the Armenian Holocaust refers to the deliberate and systematic destruction of the Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire during and just after World War I. It was implemented through wholesale massacres & deportations and, with the deportations consisting of forced marches under conditions designed to lead to the death of the deportees. The total number of resulting Armenian deaths is generally held to have been between one and one and a half million.

It was a systematic, organized manner in which the killings were carried out to eliminate the Armenians, and it is the second most-studied case of genocide after the Holocaust.

The starting date of the genocide is conventionally held to be April 24, 1915, the day that Ottoman authorities arrested some 250 Armenian intellectuals and community leaders in Constantinople. Thereafter, the Ottoman military uprooted Armenians from their homes and forced them to march for hundreds of miles, depriving them of food and water, to the desert of what is now Syria. Massacres were indiscriminate of age or gender, with rape and other sexual abuse commonplace.

The Republic of Turkey, the successor state of the Ottoman Empire, denies the word genocide is an accurate description of the events recent years, it has faced repeated calls to accept the events as genocide. To date, twenty countries have officially recognized the events of the period as genocide, and most genocide scholars and historians accept this view.

This is an eternal flame, with fresh flowers around it.  The museum is actually underground and the monument is above it.  There are beautiful trees planted in a garden which were donated by famous Armenians and others, throughout the world

Taxi RIDE & Our Apartment

The Craziest Ride Ever

This wasn't the taxi we took the ride in, but here is the story!

Thursday Bob and I had to go to some government office and get a work permit. Felix our Visa clerk took us. Or rather he got a taxi for us to take. It was the craziest ride we have ever experienced. The wheels were so out of alignment that our whole bodies were shaking. Literally our shoulders were swinging back and forth. We just kept laughing and smiling. I had to hold on to the handle that was above my door, so my flabby arm was shaking like a bowl full of jelly. I am again so grateful that there are millions of members every day praying for the safety of the missionaries. There would be no way we could all survive this craziness.

The driver took us down a cobblestone, or I should say a cobbleboulder road. It was so steep, I thought the car was going to do a back flip. Then the driver was hilarious. He kept getting mad at every little thing, hitting the steering wheel, making weird noises, and swinging his arms around.

I just had to try hanging out my clothes on this ancient clothes line.  Mine are the towels/rags up high.

View from inside.

My new kitchen and NEW Washer, only takes 2+ hours for one load.

Russian Microwave! This is interestinig, I burned my popcorn and had to hang it on my nifty clothesline outside. The kitchen curtains are new and cozy looking. (not shown)

A tired missionary in our bedroom.

Living Room

Armenia has very few real pianos, but of all things our apartment has a very nice one - Sister Jones is VERY happy!

Over all it will be good. We will have to get used to the big city street noise, urine smelling alleys and garbage strewn streets. The bedroom closets all have locks on them. You have to unlock them every time you open them otherwise they just swing open. I live in a world of keys.
The apartment is only 64 steps up and 64 steps down. (Mehk, yerkoo, yerek, chores, heeng, vehts, yot, oot, eena, dahs...)  I count the steps in Armenian, but I can only get to 10, then I start over... 


 The kitchen curtains are new and cozy looking. There is a nice grocery store (SAS) really really close by. Walking distance to work! Great!

Kyiv Ukraine Temple Dedication and Cultural Celebration

From the ldsnewsroom:

"The Church’s first temple in the former Soviet Union was dedicated 29 August 2010 in Kyiv, Ukraine, by Church President Thomas S. Monson.
The Kyiv Ukraine Temple, which was dedicated in three sessions Sunday, is the Church’s 134th operating temple worldwide and will serve approximately 31,000 Church members living in nine European countries." (One of them is Armenia)

The Dedication was broadcast to our chapel.  I bought some flowers and decorated a table trying to bring a physical templelike atmosphere.  It looked nice.  After the first session, someone stole my flowers.  (A different culture here!)  Aside from that, it really was a wonderful experience.

The night before we sent 20 dancers to the Culture Celebration.  The kids had been practicing for months, and it really was the highlight of the evening to see them dance. The Cultural Event was Broadcast to the church as well. Performers retold the rich cultural history of the region through song and dance.

I know and have talked to several of these kids, so it was even more fun to watch.

 

Vanadzor & Alaverdi

We traveled to Vanadzor and Alaverdi a couple of weeks ago.  This is in Northern Armenia, near the Georgia boarder.  We got to see some beautiful country and meet more great people.  This is a cabbage field.

The road to Vanadzor
  It is about a three hour drive. Beautiful country, but Ohhhh the roads, windy and rough. Lots of switch backs as we got closer to Alaverdi. Already some of their leaves were turning autumn colors. It is a higher elevation located a long a river. Alaverdi actually produced 40% of all of the copper for the Soviet Union back when Armenia was part of the Soviet block. The copper plant is still running, but only at about 10%, which is probably a good thing, because there is no EPA and the emissions are terrible. The Elders say that in the winter you can actually taste copper in your mouth when the pollution is bad. President does not leave Elders here for very long periods of time, so they won’t develop breathing problems.

Nearly to Alaverdi

Neat looking church along the way.

Looks like home - Nevada Power???

Front of Church - Small but just a few years old. Alaverdi Branch

AND this is the view out the back of the church!  Beautiful!

The Elders live up this hill and ride the tram everyday.  Soooo Elder Jones & I did also, just for fun???  We only went one way.  Pres & Sister C. drove up the hill and picked us up.  I'm pretty sure no one had inspected the safety of this thing EVER..

View from the top

Back in Vanadzor.  We came upon the Joseph Smith Monument! We don't know who he really is, but don't you think it looks like Joseph Smith?

We got to see President C. in prime Missionary mode. He saw a guy on the street when we first got to the church in Vandazor and he stopped and shook his hand. When we came back through about six hours later he saw the same guy headed the opposite direction. President grabbed a missionary and started talking to him and the next thing you know he is headed off with the Elders to teach this guy. It was already 7:30 at night and we had a two hour drive ahead of us. Anyway the guys wife wasn’t home so the Elders made an appointment to go back to their home later.
What a great example.