First day on site

Today we headed out to the chosen work site for the week.  Our site is located in the village of Noratus, off the coast of Lake Sevan, approximately 59 miles northeast of Yerevan.  We got to learn about the family we would be helping before we arrived on site.

3 generations of Yura Hovhannisyan's family share a home in Noratus.  Yura is a 62 year old widow whose wife passed away from a brain tumor.  He himself was just diagnosed with a malignant tumor in his lung and will be starting chemotherapy in the coming weeks.  Yura has 3 sons and daughters who are all married and have children.  According to Armenian tradition, one of the son's should live at home with the parents to help take care of them and their ancestral home.  The family's main source of income comes from cattle farming and agriculture.

Arthur is the middle son and has chosen to be the one to stay at home.  He is married with 2 children, Yura who is 9 and Eric who is 6.

Recently the family has made some renovations due to the growing size of the family and increasing lack of privacy.  They added a kitchen and a bathroom, along with new windows and doors, but could not afford to finish the interiors.  With the help of Habitat Armenia, friends and family, we will be helping to finish the interior of the bathroom.  We will be using a cement sand plaster, mixed all by hand to help finish the walls, and if time provides we will also be helping dig a trench for the new drainage system.

We were greeted by the family upon our arrival, and given the traditional Armenian welcome of fresh bread dipped in salt.

We then got to sit in on a Safety meeting before being shown what our assignments of the day were going to be.

Some of us sifted sand to be used in the concrete.

Some of us mixed the concrete.

Some of us got to sling the freshly made concrete onto the walls.

We were treated to homemade pastries, fresh fruit and Armenian coffee for our first break.  It was all delicious!!

For lunch the family cooked a meal consisting of freshly made cheese, kefir, roast chicken, tomato and cucumber salad and fresh yogurt.

We spent some time during  the day talking with the family and interacting with the children.

By the end of the day we had gone through 3 batches of concrete and almost finished plastering the walls.

To learn more about what our partners in Armenia are doing, please click here to check out their website and feel free to follow them on Facebook to see more pictures of the work we are doing here!

First day in Armenia!!!

The team arrived safely in country and we had a very full day ahead of us!!!

First, we had lunch with 2 of the Habitat Armenia staff where we were given a presentation of what types of work they do in country.

Then we went on a walking tour around downtown Yerevan, going through Republic square.

After that little tour, we made our way over to the Genocide Museum for a long, contemplative experience.

The spire in the foreground represents today's Armenia, and the 12 sided monument in the middle represents the old Armenia, which houses the Eternal Flame inside of it.

The wall alongside of it has the names of towns that were lost and destroyed during the Genocide.

There is a small cemetery there that houses the remains of some of the heroes of the Nagorno-Karabakh War.

Above is the entrance to the museum.

Here are some photos from the inside of the museum.  

I believe that it can be said that most of us left knowing far more about the genocide than before we came here.  It indeed was a very emotional and moving experience.

To learn more about what we experienced and to take a virtual tour, click here.

 After that experience, we continued on with our tour, heading over to Victory Park.  We saw the statue of Mother Armenia and and the eternal flame.

After we went to Victory Park, we headed over to the Opera House and Freedom Square to complete our walking tour of Yerevan.  There were some very interesting sculptures and art pieces to see and interact with. 

Then we went out for dinner with our Habitat Armenia counterparts at a restaurant based off of the Russian movie "Kidnapping Caucasian Style."  The lead characters can be considered the Russian equivalent to the Three Stooges.  

All of the food we have eaten today tasted amazing!!!  All in all, today was very full with learning, sightseeing and eating.  Tomorrow is our first day on site, where we will meet the family that we will be helping during our time here.  We look forward to getting down to work after such a great day getting to know Armenia.