My last day in Yeghegnadzor

Yesterday, friends from Yerevan came over for a visit. It was interesting to speak to them. It was also interesting to eat croissants and baguettes that they brought, as I have only been eating local breads, cheeses, greens, meats, etc. Meeting them offered me a taste of what to expect in cosmopolitain Yerevan.

I have not written for several days now because I was busy, but I have a moment now and wanted to write a brief post. I have a lot to say and information to give, several pictures to post, and a lot of reflections to share... I will surely do so in the coming days. I don't expect my days in Yerevan to be as full as they are now. Or perhaps they will be: I really don't know what to expect.

Speaking to Raffi Niziblian and Lara Aharonian, my guests at the Terjanian residence, yesterday and today offered me a more interesting, layered, complex, educated and experienced view of the country. They are Canadians who have lived in Հայաստան for nearly 18 years now, and two of their four children were born here. Unlike so many of us in the Diaspora/Սփիւռք, they intimately live and breathe all that this country has to offer; with all of the beauties, difficulties and the everyday problems included. The longer I stay here and the more I learn about the realities here, the more I realize how little I know about this place.

On Sunday the Syunik NGO staff offered to show me around, and took me to the touristic and beautiful 13th century monastery of Noravank, which I have written about before, and I was then invited for a lovely supper at Tatev Harutyunyan's house. She is the Social Development Program Coordinator at Syunik NGO, and seemingly, the glue that binds everyone together as well. By chance, I found out that some NGO staffers had planned a visit to Camp Siranoush before visiting the Vank, where I was taken by the Bishop a week earlier (it is one of the places where food aid for Artsakh refugees is stored), so that they could distribute food to the three families still at the camp, as well as food for workers at the camp who are building the small portables to be turned into Smart kindergartens, which I have written about. This was a Sunday, and as far as I know, they were not exactly paid to work on weekends... I asked if I could tag along and offered some help: there wasn't too much to do, we weren't there for too long, but I tried not to be in the way and helped a bit, otherwise snapping a lot of pictures.

Armen filling bags of potatoes to be distributed

Stores to be distributed to refugee families

A list of stores to be distributed to the on-site workers,
which needed to be signed by those who receive it

Hasmik and Armen, working on a Sunday...

A list of food aid for refugees, to be signed by those who receive it

More food stores in another location

Food aid came from a variety of different sources,
I didn't catch all the names but several bags
were written in Russian or Armenian

 I did see the logo of the WFP (World Food Program)
It says lentils (Ոսպ) - 25kg - not for sale

Some wall art from when about 130 refugees were there over two months,
between September and November

"I read your writing
and became your beloved"

"Whoever reads my writing
will become my beloved"

Yesterday (Monday) I again went to camp Siranoush, this time helping to convert 25 or 50kg bags of split peas, lentils and buckwheat into 3 or 4 kg bags for distribution. They had large stores of food, which they have been distributing to refugee families from Artsakh for months now. It was easier, I imagine, when the refugees lived in the camp: now, many have returned to Artsakh to live in other villages, some stayed here and were put up in houses in various villages within the provinces that are currently empty, I believe rent free, and (or) free from having to pay utilities.

Gevorg, Mariam and Hasmik, filling small bags of food aid from the larger ones

Hasmik and I worked together, and these are part of the bags of buckwheat
(they used the Russian word, Gretchika) which we filled.
It was backbreaking work, which they have been doing for months.
We had a little competition going with Mariam and Gevorg to see
who would fill bags the quickest (of COURSE we won :-) ) 

I arrived at Syunik NGO at around noon today (Tuesday) and again helped a bit with food distribution for refugee families from Artsakh (this time in Yeghegnadzor, and then in the nearby towns of Vayk and Zaritap), specifically for those who had 6 or more family members. Many others came out as well, having heard about the distribution, but needed to be turned away as they were not called or on the list: their turn will come. Today's distribution of food aid came from the Armenian Apostolic Church.

The Syunik NGO staff work hard, trying to keep up with the demand. They really do good work for people who need it. I hadn't see them a lot in my time here because they always seem to be on the go. I got the distinct feeling that they were or felt under-appreciated, even by those receiving the aid. I could imagine many burning out, for a variety of reasons that I might get into in a future post.

Food aid distributed on Tuesday

The Armenian Apostolic Church logo on today's boxes of aid

Mariam and Tatev, hard at work

Tatev and Mariam, enjoying a much needed break

We are about to go to the village of Vayk to distribute food aid to some people from there who could not come pick it up from here themselves. It's nice to personally participate in these endeavours, it allows me to see both the people who are receiving aid, and more interestingly, the work done by these wonderful young and energetic staffers: joking, singing, telling stories as they pass the time. I have since the weekend felt more "accepted" by those I worked with, i.e. they seemed more relaxed and were being themselves, I no longer felt like I was merely the foreigner bringing aid money... which was nice.

I will post this now and add captions for the photos later: if you are reading this and there are no captions, please check again later: gotta go!