last day on site, house blessing and farewell barbeque

Today was our last day on site.  We had just the top of the walls to finish plastering and only 3.5 hours to get both coats done.

We hustled along and were able to finish the plastering by lunch time.  We ate a small lunch and then cleaned up after ourselves and got changed for the house blessing.

We also wrote small prayers and left them in the ceiling to watch over this new construction.

Habitat Armenia brought one of the 2 priests in the village to bless the house and the new construction.

After the blessing was said and the bread blessed, we all partook in eating some.  The priest then presented Yura with a Bible and a separate book for him to read to help keep him well during these tough times.



After the blessing, we headed out for a little tour of the area.  It was nice to get to see up close and personal the places that we drove by every day.

First we stopped at the Noratus cemetery, which is fabled to house the most khachkars than anywhere else.

There is a bit of folklore surrounding this cemetery that states that during the times of Turkish invasion, there were not enough soldiers to defend the town.  One priest from a local church ordered that the khachkars  needed to be dressed like soldiers to hopefully fool the Turks.  The legend states that they took one look at Noratus and saw what they thought were soldiers and left the area.


After that short trip we headed over to Hayravank monastery to do some sightseeing.  We drove past it everyday and it was nice to finally get to visit it.  It was old and very beautiful.

After that, we headed over to Sevanavank monastery.  There was such a beautiful view of Lake Sevan and the surrounding area from the top.  Another beautiful piece of an ancient history that we were able to experience.

After all that sight seeing, we went just right down the road from Sevanavank and had a barbecue with the family right on Lake Sevan.  They cooked us fish, pork and chicken and we stayed there until night fell and talked about our experiences.  Many toasts were made from us and from the family and a great time was had by all.

Today was a very full day, both spiritually and emotionally.  We met with the members of Habitat Armenia for the last time, we had our last meal with the family and saw many beautiful places.

Day 4 on site

Today we arrived on site after a day off to find that the family had finished digging the drainage trench and laid the pipe and filled the trench back up.

 We only worked a half day today, and had to focus on making lots of plaster and finishing first and second coats of plaster to the remaining parts of the walls.

This involved getting the scaffolding set up and getting lots of plaster mixed up.  There was great progress made today, with only one corner needed first and last coats, with some finishing left on 2 walls.  

We will complete this tomorrow before we have a priest come and bless the house and have a farewell dinner with the family.

We spent the second part of the day visiting with 2 families in the area who had been recipients of Global Village volunteers and got to see the work that was completed.

Here is Nora, who had received a Global Village team from Canada who worked for 2 weeks plastering the walls like we are doing here.  Her 3 sons work in Russia as migrant workers since there is little opportunity for employment here at home.  To see more of her story, click on the link below:

Nora's story.

We also went to another family's house, to see the work that was just done in June by an affiliate from New Jersey.  Malania and her family received a 3 bedroom renovation with plaster walls.

Be sure to check out Habitat Armenia's Facebook page to see more behind the scenes pictures of our trip here!

 Habitat Armenia Facebook

Habitat Armenia YouTube page

Garni, Geghard and meeting Habitat Armenia staff

Today was half sight-seeing day, half meetings.  We were scheduled to see Garni and Geghard.  On the way we stopped at the Ararat Arch.

It was a clear day, and we were able to get a great view of Mount Ararat.

We stopped at Garni to see the only pagan temple remaining in Armenia.  It was so beautiful and the views were amazing.

 While in Garni, we were treated to a small impromptu duduk concert from one of the local tour guides.  It was an amazing treat. The duduk has such a haunting sound, which was a great accompaniment to our setting.

After spending some time taking in the scenery, we headed out to the Geghard monastery.  This monastery was built in the 13th century.  The name Geghard means "spear" in Armenian.  It is believed that this is where the spear that pierced the side of Jesus was kept.  It is also partially carved into the mountain, which is where the original name Ayrivank, "Monastary of the Cave" came from.

There were khachkars carved into the walls, inserted into the walls and free standing everywhere around the monastery.  

After all this traveling, we headed back to the hotel to get changed and head over to the Habitat Armenia office here in Yerevan.  We were given a presentation on the finer points on how the affiliate uses the mechanism of micro finance to serve the community. 

 A lot of great questions were both asked and answered, and we all feel like we can speak to their procedures and be a better advocate for their work when we return to Colorado than if we didn't have this meeting.  We hope to continue educating each other during this partnership and bringing visibility to each other in our respective communities.

After the presentation, we presented Luiza, the executive director with a gift from us for their office. 

This was an art piece that was put together by Sydney, pictured above.  There are 9 houses with each one signed by one of us before we left for our trip.

We went to dinner with the staff of Habitat Armenia and went home to rest up for our return to the site tomorrow to finish our trench and plastering.