putting up the start banner
Joyce decorating Evelyn's race number.
They're off like a dirty shirt.
Evelyn on the home stretch.
Dinner after the race with peace corps volunteers.
The bottles of pop are a VERY sweet liquid, almost like syrup.
We ate matsun (yogurt), gnachi (greens), fried noodles, rice, lavash, panir (cheese),
and all the usual Armenian fare.
These dolls are crocheted by women in Talin and are now being sold to earn money.
This is their only income.
Berd's Bears are also being crocheted by women of Armenia for income.
Tim Straight, sitting with us, the consulate of Norway and Finland is here in Armenia helping promote the women's resource centers to help. (He was knighted by the king of Norway in 2005.) One of the bears "ran" the race and had his own race number (51.)
Women's resource center in Vardenis where they make clothes, hot pads, pot holders, baby blankets.
They also teach the young girls to sew.
working on a baby blanket
Joyce will be selling these items at her store this summer in Lac La Belle.
If they are a good seller, she will stock up before Evelyn comes home next year.
Most cows are untethered and people watch out for them on the roads because it would be terrible to hit someone's livelihood. We saw many many herds of cows throughout the whole of Armenia tended by 1 or 2 cow herders. The same with sheep. We saw many flocks with shepherds. It was a beautiful sight.
There are water pipes all over Armenia above ground. Water is running out of ditches, fountains running all the time, faucets run... there seems to be an abundance of water, but some houses don't have running water.
The young men wear american looking clothes. Young girls wear jeans, ts and fancy heels, and most are very dressed up with dress shoes on uneven sidewalks and roads with manure all over the place, and still dressed to the nines.
Unemployment is 60%. One day by the square in Vardenis, Evelyn counted 60 men sitting around smoking, and most men smoke.
We were 6 kilometres from Turkey at one point, and 3 kilometres from Azerbaijan. They have underground gold mines. Lots of gold teeth here, too.
Cathedral of Talin, 7th century. Destroyed by earthquake in 1847.
Started restoration in 1947 and abandoned.
Inside the ruins with peace corps volunteers.
Khor Viarp, south of Yerevan.
The 4th century founder, Gregorie the Illuminator, of the Armenian Apostolic Lutheran Church
He was imprisoned in a deep pit for 13 years before beginning his ministry to convert the kingdom to Christianity. He survived because someone fed him. This area where the church is is called Atashat City. The ruins had temples, workshops, residences, roman style baths, a monastery, and pit.
The bathroom was "attended" by a woman who collected 100 dram to go potty.
inside the monastery walls
The Monastery is built right into the hillside.
This is a door opening onto a vast, beautiful scene of farm lands and mountains.
Looking up from the bottom. Joyce and Evelyn ran up the stairs.
Marg and I strolled slowly up the road.
Going down into the pit. A 2 foot step across an open hole to the ladder on the wall.
The kids didn't let me go down. I'm too old.
Going back up the ladder, 27 steps straight up the wall.
The pit was round, 4.4 meters, had blackened walls, and a small altar.
The ceiling was 6 meters high.
