Alphabet, Ambred, Aragats, & Picnic - Part 2

This is the Ambred Fortress with a church nearby. I read where it was built in the 4th Century. We hiked around it. 

 

As I looked at the depth of the walls and the different towers, it made me think of the descriptions in the Book of Mormon that tell of the walls the Nephities built to defend their cities.

This is some of the beautiful flowers fields we passed as we then drove on up to Mt Aragats.

It didn't take long until we were driving through this....

Yes, we passed a few cars. We had a whopping ¼” clearance between the wall on one side and cars on the other side..

 The boys of course got a little wet, playing in the snow.

 We stayed dry. 

There was a resort and a lake at the top.  The lake was frozen over and a lot of the buildings were DEEP in snow. 

We walked down this pathway to find the lake, we ended up at a restaurant.

Sargis put our names in the snow for our picture.

Yummy lunch, Խորոված խոզի (barbeque pork) from a little fire we built, լավաշ (lavash), tomatoes and cucumbers.  I made a fruit salad and brownies, to add an American touch.

 Then we kicked the Spiderman Ball around. 

to be continued......
 

Alphabet, Ambred, Aragats, & Picnic - Part 1

A Saturday with the Ayvazyan Family.

This is where we were headed - Mt. Aragats 13,435' high.

We stopped at the Alphabet

and had our picture taken by the "Ja" for Jones

and "Ba" for Sister Barbie

and said hello to "Mashtots" who invented the Alphabet.

This lady was gathering Armenian Greens to eat, that grow wild.

 When Margarite asked if I could take her picture she took off her outer scarf so she would look nicer.

 She told us to be careful walking through the grass, because there were snakes.  Margarite said the snakes are poisonous. I pretended I wasn't scared.... and I wasn't.

I did see this little feller....he matched the grass perfectly.

To be continued.......

Joel's Kindergarten Graduation

We got to go to Kindergarten Graduation. 

This is Joel & his teacher. The children are leaving the alphabet behind, so they had a program with singing, dancing and acting.  It was so fun.  

This is a mural in the foyer of the school. Note on the mural Mt. Ararat,  a couple of Apostalic Priests, Mesrop Mashtots, who is the father of the Armenian  alphabet and perhaps his student? 

Walking into this school was like walking into a 1950's school building. Very old and a lot of concrete, but tidy and clean on the inside. The children do not have their own desks, they have tables.  They bring their own paper, pens, lunch and other school supplies. 

This is the stage,

and this is Mashtots with the alphabet.

Joel's hat is part of the alphabet.

 These Armenian children are all so adorable, I just wanted to hug everyone of them.



This is տատի (GRANDMA) and little brother Benjamin watching the program. 

Elder Jones & Benjamin were best buds.

I kept watching the pianist.  She didn’t look at her music much.  So I zoomed in on the music and there were NO notes.  Just words.  I think she is very gifted, maybe she plays by ear?

I was told that in the schools, women are the teachers and the men are directors (administrators).  Joel’s Dad was the only father that was there.  Father’s do not participate in school functions. Men rarely even pick up their children from school. If they ever do come, they stand outside the gate of the school. 

They sang,

  

And they danced...

  

Great job kids!  I couldn't quit smiling.

THE FAMILY

Thanks for inviting us, and it wasn't even Grandparents Day...

Mother's Day!

Mother’s Day in the USA, celebrated in Armenia by me!  I got these beautiful flowers.

And I gave these flowers to the Sisters in our Branch.

....and this made me laugh and laugh. 

I wasn't going to include this, because it is embarssing, like I blushed and everything, which I almost never do, BUT here's my journal entry for all the world to see...

May 10, 2011

Yesterday about 20 missionaries were all scheduled to Skype their Mother’s for Mother’s Day, starting at 6:40 am. I thought they would be done by the time I arrived, as they were using my computer, plus three more we had set up in the office.
Bob got to the office about 30 minutes before me. When I arrived, Elder P. met me at the front door, with a bow and a smile and then I walked into cheers, clapping, and Happy Mother’s Day shouts, from 20 Elders. The Elder’s were saying things like, you are awesome, thanks for all you do etc. I was so embarrassed. I hope I said thank you. I kind of hurried into the next room where President Carter was coming out to see what was going on.

It was all so very nice of them. (I had sent muffins with Elder Jones earlier to give to the missionaries, that may have had something to do with the cheering).

The View!

Can you imagine every morning (on clear days) having this as your view when you walk to work?  Many mornings I get to contemplate the arrival of Noah to Mt Ararat, about 4000 years ago.

It is awesome!