DAN & WHITS GENERAL STORE IN NORWICH VERMONT HELPS SCHOOL CHILDREN IN ARMENIA WITH PEACE CORPS VOLUNTEER

I am a Peace Corps volunteer in Hrazdan Armenia. I teach English to school children in grades three through eight at one of the local public schools, School # 14.  My home town is Norwich Vermont, where I shopped at Dan & Whits almost every day for one thing or another :-)  When I came to Armenia last August I brought with me three or four Dan & Whits reusable shopping bags thinking they might be useful.  In fact, I used them to carry around from classroom to classroom the white boards I purchased for the children to write sentences and do other exercises relating to our English classes.

The Armenian schools are not well funded. We have no electric lights and very little heat in the winter, so the children wear there coats, hats and mittens in the classroom all winter as do I. The blackboards have holes in them as do many of the walls. The only classroom materials the children have are their textbooks and a copy book (notebook to write in). They have nothing else. So, I purchased 13 whiteboards so each pair/table of children would have a board to write on.

Eventually the Dan & Whits reusable shopping bags began to wear out. So, I emailed Dan Fraser and asked him if he would send me more bags for carrying the whiteboards around school. The children actually argue over who will get to carry the bags.  A few weeks later about 20 Dan & Whits bags arrived via the Hay Post :-) So, now I carry and keep all of my school supplies in the Dan & Whits bags.

So, just wanted to say here thank you to Dan Fraser and Dan & Whits for helping the children of Armenia. Your thoughfulness and generosity is so appreciated.

Here are some pictures of the inside and outside of School # 4 in Hrazdan Armenia.

The outside of School # 14 built by the Soviets in the 1980s.  Yes, just one old Russian

car parked there during the school day. The teachers do not 

have cars. 

Inside of a typical classroom . . .

Also thank you to Nancy Osgood and The Norwich Public Library via Nancy for sending me children's books and magazines :-)

I love my friends and neighbors and Dan & Whits General Store in my home town - Norwich Vermont....

LEDJAN - LIFE IN AN ARMENIAN VILLAGE

Ledjan is the village of my LCF (Language Cultural Facilitator) Satanik Papyan. Satanik was my LCF during PST (pre-service training).  She was in her third trimester of her first pregnancy during our PST time and I was monitoring her blood pressure and fasting blood sugar during that time.  Since PST I have visited her and Abel, the baby, and husband Gorg three or four times since last November. This little family also has a small apartment in a soviet high rise in Vonadzor. I have posted other blogs about my visits there.  Now that it is warmer months we visit in Ledjan.

Ledjan is a tiny village in the mountains of northern Armenia just outside of the town/city of Steppanavan.  It is a lovely little village where life has remained the same since Soviet times.  The cows are taken to pasture every morning by one of the village. The old houses each have their own garden and most have livestock. There is one school in the village.  Heat is via old tin woodstoves and usually only one room is heated where the family congregates in the winter months. The bedrooms are not heated. Families have lived in this village for many generations. There are one or two marshutni per day that go in to Steppanavan where one can get a taxi or another marshutni to Vonadzor or Yerevan.

Village life is getting up early to milk the cow and farming all day. Each family is virtually self sustaining for food and subsistence. Most men do not have jobs and if they can they go to Russia for work/labor and the wife/mother takes care of the farm and the children by herself.

I will tell a story in pictures of life in Ledjan.

This is Satanik's mom and dad, Edward and Larissa.

They purchased this home about 30 years ago, 

It is the in the village of Ledjan, where Edward grew up.

The couple first lived with Edward's mother a few houses down 

the road.

Edward's mother, Satanik's grandmother and

Abel's great grandmother. She is in her early 80s. 

Armenian women age quickly due to their lack of

medical care and extreme hard labor in the village home.

Edward's brother, Abel's great uncle, who still lives

with his mother in the village.

Edward and his grandson Abel. Edward is a PhD

engineer with no work in Armenia. So, he is now a 

bee farmer.

Satanik, Abel, and Satanik's brother.

I bought Abel this jumpy chair.  He is also

this weekend getting his first solid food at 6 months old.

Me holding Abel . . . .

View of back yard bee farm and water tank.

Another view of bee hives.

Edward dressed and working with bees

and repairing old hives.

The old smoker thing Edward uses to quiet the 

bees while he is working with them.

The morning I arrived a sheep was slaughtered. This is

the horovats place where they barbecue the meat. This

morning we had the heart, lungs, liver and kidneys. Barbecuing

is called horovats in Armenian.  I could only eat the heart

and liver.... lungs and kidneys were not for me.

Shots of village vodka and salads are had with

the horovats as soon as the horovats is ready. We just

sit outside the horovats shed and eat on makeshift

benches and table.  Neighbors come over and few liters

vodka are consumed with the horovats.

Village road . . .

Village house . . .

Neighbors gardening . . .

Edward's tractor and wagon. . . .

Pig stall in barn . . .They also have a few cows...

Pasture. . . They still use

the very primitive scythe with long blade

and handle for cutting hay.

Marshutni to go in to Steppanavan and/or Yerevan.

Notice the pressurized gas tanks up top.

Back of marshutni...

View of the mountains from a high pasture.  These

must be crossed to get to Vonadzor and Yerevan.