First day in Armenia!!!

Today was our official first day in Armenia!  We started the day with a trip to the Armenian Genocide Museum. Our tour guide, Nara, walked us up to the the memorial and explained to us the symbolism in each structure.

 The spear is split in 2, standing for the the violence and dispersion of the Armenia people and the unity and future of Armenians.

At the end, there is the housing of the eternal flame, which is surrounded by 12 pillars, which Nara stated stood for the 12 apostles.  Other sources state it represents the 12 territories lost to Turkey.  Haunting music plays lightly in the background, like a constant prayer to the 1.5 million Armenians lost in the genocide,

After we spent some time at the monument, we headed inside the museum.  The museum covers 2 floors, in which walk you through the timeline of the genocide.  Inside the museum there are artifacts in glass cases, photos and quotes printed on the walls.

The museum is truly something to experience if you are ever in Yerevan.   If you would like to take a virtual tour or the museum, click here.

After the museum, we headed over to the Cascades, which is a sculpture park at the base of a museum/waterfall staircase.  The Cascades were originally designed by Alexander Tamanyan in the early part of the 1900's, but not actually completed until the 80's with a renovation in 2002.

After the Cascade, we went to a traditional Armenian restaurant called Lavash, which is also the name of the Armenian bread. We then headed over to the Habitat Armenia office to meet their team and an overview of what the week was going to entail. 

 

We had a full day of sightseeing, meetings and food. Tomorrow we are going to head over to two different houses that have had recent renovations done and learn about the solar energy initiative that Habitat Armenia uses.  We are also going to be seeing the Habitat Armenia Restore and help them with refurbishing of some donated items. All in all it was a good first day.