Back in Armenia

I’m back from vacation – everyone tells me I look refreshed and happy, which leads me to wonder what I looked like before I left. I won’t go into any details of the trip here (that’ll be for travelsintheoffseason.blogspot.com – eventually) except as it relates to my time in Armenia. As I was on the way to the airport, I passed some of the familiar sites and streets of Yerevan, and I had a beautiful view of Mt. Ararat. I felt happy to be going away but also happy that I would be coming back – which is a good way to be. There were some Armenian connections – but of course, since there seem to be Armenian connections everywhere! And there were some current Armenia PCVs on the return flight with me – we took the marchutni back into town from the airport. So now I have been on my first marchutni! It’s not that big a deal – after all, I’ve been on a lot of developing-country public transport at this point – but I am glad that I can walk most everywhere in Yerevan. When the time comes to travel out to the regions, to visit PCVs or tourist sites, I’m still not sure I have the language for it. I guess if I know the destination that may be enough (I do know how to ask the price and I know my numbers). But we learned this weekend that outside of Yerevan there’s still snow and slush, so I may not be going too far just yet anyway.

We went hiking on Sunday! I had heard about this hiking group; Jeanne and Gordon went on an outing with them last Sunday and they, Brian and I all went this past Sunday. We went to the ruins of an old fortress (a short hike), an old monastery (a long and at times muddy hike, thanks to snowmelt – but there was also still snow), and Khor Virap, an important church that was built on the spot where Saint Gregory the Illuminator was imprisoned for thirteen years in a pit filled with poisonous insects. He stayed alive because he was secretly fed by Christian women. When the king at the time started to go mad, Saint Gregory is said to have cured him, and in gratitude, the king adopted Christianity and Armenia became the first Christian nation (in the small world department, Gregory was from Caesarea, which I had just seen while on vacation!). You can climb down into the pit – apparently it’s well-lit – but since I had hiked so much, I didn’t do it. I’d like to go back there anyway – there’s an iconic shot of the church with Ararat (or, if you’re at the church, an unobstructed view of Ararat) and we didn’t see it because it was cloudy.

There’ve been some April showers this week – I didn’t think it would rain anymore at all, so I welcomed it. More, spring arrived while I was away! Flowering trees are in bloom – apricot and plum and some cherry, I’m told. On the way to our hiking spots we passed several orchards with rows and rows of flowering trees – so beautiful!

Saturday I got back in the Yerevan swing. I had plans for breakfast at Artbridge with some PCVs I’ve befriended. I got there a little early (and they were a little late) and who was there but the Country Director and his family. It was nice to talk with them about my work and about Armenia. They were with another family – I thought I recognized the woman and she thought she recognized me; turns out she works at the Embassy and she had seen me at the event I attended before I left. But wait – there’s more! She was a PCV in Morocco – in Azrou! My site! The Country Director (who had been Country Director in Morocco just before coming here and had also been a PCV in Morocco) never put us together until we were together. Very cool!

After breakfast I met another set of current PCVs and we went to the Vernissage – I’ve been there now with several people, and each time I go with someone different I see new and different things. One of the people I went with is thinking of forming a women’s cooperative at her site, so Brian and I talked with her about it over lunch; maybe we’ll go down there and meet her artisans.

And Saturday night was capped off with an orchestra concert – Mozart’s Jupiter Symphony and Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade. A fine welcome back!