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.
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