From Culture Smart Armenia - General Info

I read Culture Smart Armenia on the way here, but now that I have been here for a while, I've been looking at it again. I'll note some things here and add my own observations. Culture Smart is a great series – it’s a quick read. Culture Shock is more detailed – there isn’t one for Armenia; for Morocco and the Philippines I read both. Opportunity? I think you have to be here longer than I am going to be to write Culture Shock Armenia!

One thing that struck me in both readings is the golden summer light around 3:00 pm to 4:00 pm. Yerevan can be very dry and dusty in July and August (it is already very dry now!) but "a phenomenon that shouldn't be missed is the gold-tinged light of the Caucasus region on a summer afternoon. Around 3:00 pm, one is treated to an amber glow that is uniquely special to this part of the world." I look forward to seeing that! That sounds like the time to take an exercise break and walk up the Cascade. Or maybe I will enjoy the light from the office window if it is over 100 Fahrenheit.... Yerevan is located in the Ararat Valley, which has the lowest elevations in the nation and is also the main agricultural region. Here, crops enjoy the longest duration of sunshine in the world (2700 hours a year).

The book says the economy is 17% agriculture, 36% industry and 46% services - without a mention of the high unemployment rate. It also says that 64% of the population lives in cities and towns - based on what I have seen that seems like a reasonable number, but I wonder how that compares to other countries, developing and developed. Literacy is 99% and life expectancy is 73 years.

Armenians call themselves Hay and their country Hayastan, after Haik, a descendent of Noah, who rebelled against the Babylonians and led a return to the land around Mt. Ararat. One of Haik's descendants was said to be Aram, a military leader who expanded the borders of his country; the Greeks and Persians began to refer to the land as Aram's country, which is one interpretation of the origin of the name "Armenia."

During the early days of Christianity in Armenia, masses were sung in Greek. The king wanted to develop and promote the Armenian language, so he assigned the task to Mashtots, who developed the alphabet. In the end, he not only created the language, but also provided one of the first translations of the Bible into a modern language; his translation is considered one of the best in history.

One thing that was mentioned by Peace Corps when we got here is the amount of foreign aid – for a while, Armenia received more money per capita than any country except Israel. The diaspora is still responsible for a lot of money pouring into the country – without it, Armenia would be much poorer. The global economic downturn, therefore, has hit Armenia hard. Another thing noted by Peace Corps is the effect of the war with Azerbaijan – 750,000 Azeris left Armenia for Azerbaijan and 400,000 ethnic Armenians left Azerbaijan for Armenia; of those, 35,000 (if it’s not a typo) have accepted Armenian citizenship – meaning that the rest have not accepted that they may not be going back.

Another thing that I may as well note here is that when Georgia was invaded in summer 2008 (I remember watching coverage of that when we were at COS conference in Morocco – at the restaurant at the American Embassy), the Peace Corps volunteers in Georgia were evacuated to Armenia. They stayed for a few weeks until it was safe to go back. Amazing, to me – yet just the other week there was a big protest here, one of the biggest in a while (we have received texts to stay away from the area when a protest is scheduled and somehow I seem to end up walking near them – this might have been the third since I’ve been here, but this seemed the biggest and most serious), so who is to say that something requiring evacuation won’t happen here?