MY NEIGHBORHOOD SUMMER CAMP

This summer, feeling as though I would die from loneliness when home alone in Hrazdan, I took my fiddle, guitar, crayons, paper and story books out to the vacant areas outside of the old Russian high rise apartment buildings.  I just showed up and the children started gathering. We met every evening at 6:00 p.m.  It started with one child and ended up with sometimes thirty. 

Outside of the high rises in the summer is like the old US projects (as we called them) in the 1950s. Children playing outside on summer evenings.  Here, no-one worries about child abductions. Children are just outside playing. There are no organized neighborhood activities here.  So, we sang, we danced the hokey pokey, Old MacDonald, I read stories, and the children colored pictures.

 

Coloring . . . At this point no place to sit or a table...

 

A young PC volunteer Andrea Grant was visiting

and she was great with the kids....

 

Andrea teaches the Hokey Pokey while I play the guitar.

 

Fine Artwork :-)

 

Time with the children...

 

And more....

 

I finally confiscated the table in the little park where

the old men smoke, drink and play cards. I persuaded them

to give me the table with much difficulty... Armenian

women do NOT tell Armenian men what to do.. But being

an American woman I did it and they left...but not happily..

 

My dear Armenian friend Gayane translates for me while

I read a story and then start an activity.. you can see the

men in the background waiting to get their table back :-)

 

 

 

When school started September first I ended the evening camp.  However, the children still came knocking at my door, asking if we were going to sing and color.  

 

 

 

 

 



MORNING WALKS AROUND THE VILLAGE OF MAKRAVANK

All summer, whenever I was home in Hrazdan, I would take an early morning walk around the village of Makravank, just behind Hrazdan where I live.  Other seasons I walk late afternoons. I will take you on a pictorial journey of this walk which is about two miles. It is mostly up hill to the monastery.  You can find the village of Makravank on Wikipedia if you want to read more about it and get the details. I don't know - I find it a very peaceful place - especially up at the monastery. Difficult to walk in the winter because of mud and the roads are not plowed of the snow.

 

Shooka just outside of my steps... All this

food is put out, and then taken in in the evening -

an incredible amount of work done solely by old women.

 

Old women who sell at the shooka.

They are both 75 years old. They dress like this

all summer. The one on the right was upset because

I took her picture. They dress very Russian. I love their

old and warn faces.

 

Rest shelter make of branches

and twigs just inside the village.

There is a bed/cot type thing in there

 and an old old table and chair.

 

Road leading into the village.  The pipe lines across the

road are gas lines. In Armenia they are all very old and

all are above ground except for in Yerevan, the capital city.

 

Barn in foreground and house after...Almost all

families have a cow or two, chickens, goat and maybe

a few sheep.

 

Here you can see the extreme poverty and harsh

living conditions.

 

All roofs are old metal, single pane old windows, no

insulation in the homes.

 

Typical village house.... Usually only one room

is heated in the winter and the family lives and sleeps

in this room with wood stove or gas heater - very old.

 

Most fences are made of bedsprings and/or bedsteads

i.e. old iron headboard/footboard as seen here.

 

Livestock are taken up to the field

every day by the old people. Sometimes

they stay with the animals or go back to

get them later in the day.

 

His beautiful old face...

 

Virtually every home in the village has a garden with

potatoes and beans. Notice the bean poles.. There are an

incredible amount of fruit trees with peaches, plums, apples,

pears and apricots.  The women can everything for winter and

potatoes are kept in the barn or root room above ground.

 

Livestock are also tied up everywhere and anywhere

with pieces of rope and somehow attached to the ground.

 

Hrazdan/Raykom as seen from up by the monastery.  I live

down on the left. Used to live in a high rise but now

on the third floor of a small building over a small

neighborhood grocery store.

 

Close to same view as above, only winter time.

 

 

Approaching the 11th century Makravank monastery.

 

View of the monastery...

 

Sculpted gravestones of priests from early centuries.

These are called khachkars and  there are thousands

of them all over Armenia.

 

Side door of monastery. It is locked. Families

in nearby houses keep the keys and if you can

find them home they will give you the key.  Inside the

tapestries are all tattered and torn and people often

light candles inside and little religious relics.

 

Another entrance. One time I saw blood in the snow

where a sacrifice of some animal was made.

 

Alter area inside of the monastery...

 

Another view of the alter area...

Notice the colors - paint.

 

Peace...I love this place.

There are hundreds of these monasteries

built almost the same, all over Armenia. The

architecture is the same with the round steeple design on

all of them.  They are always built in places of high

elevation - up on a hill or mountain. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



FULL LIFE CAMP - DANCING WITH DISABLED CHILDREN

My first summer in Armenia was filled by bringing American contra/barn dancing to the children of Armenia. I attended numerous summer camps, but by far the most moving for me was Full Life Camp in Stepanavan, northern Armenia. Here the children were all in some way disabled. They had Down's Syndrome, Cerebral Palsy, Spinal Bifida, club feet, profoundly deaf and other cognitive disabilities. There were young children and young adults.
The camp consisted of just a few buildings with bunk beds tightly arranged. There were handicapped access bathrooms and one big room that served as the dining hall and a place for other bigger events. Outside were picnic tables that served as places for the children's activities.
There were four weeks of camps, six days each. I went for two sessions. I taxied each day from Vonadzor, staying with my friend Satenik and her baby and husband. It was a one hour ride over the mountains. It was incredibly hot. I held three dance sessions each day with about 15 children in each group. The children loved the dancing. For many of them this was there first experience outside of their village. For many it was their first experience with other children in a group setting. Many of these children never leave their homes.  My little friend Gorg, from my PST village in Berkanush wash there  in his wheel chair with his mother and little brother.  Here, the children have a chance for a full life.
There was usually one Peace Corps volunteer there each week and other volunteers from all over Armenia, some dancers, musicians, artists, woodworkers and others who came to work with these children.

The first week we danced out under the

shade trees. It was really hot. The kids

took quickly to the dancing and loved it.

 

Dancing with Gorg in his wheelchair... He was so

happy to be with the other children and to be dancing :-)

 

Dancing La Bastringe . . I always taught this dance first.

 

And it's a 'swing' move :-)

 

La Bastringe with Gorg...

 

Singing outside with hand motions . . .

 

Brother and sister dancing. Many older

siblings would come to camp with their

disabled sibling to provide the care they

needed for the week. There were few counselors

for the children.

 

After the third session of the day I would play fiddle

tunes on the porch while the children waited for lunch.

After the first day they all wanted to hold and try out the

violin. I was happy to make this happen for them.

 

One on one with my fiddle....

 

The second week I was at camp they moved me

inside where it was so much cooler for dancing.

We had children in wheelchairs dancing too!!

 

If they were unable to dance, the children

were happy to add percussion to the recorded

music. I brought tambourines, spoons and shaker

eggs from America to Armenia with me.

 

I also brought my guitar to camp and we did singing

of American kid tunes i.e. Old MacDonald, If Your're

Happy and You Know It, etc etc. The children and young

adults quickly learned the tunes and loved them.

 

The favorite dance by far was Un, Deux, Trois, Poussait!!

Only in Armenian, Make, Yerkoo, Yerek and PUSH!!

We danced this to music of The Joys of Quebec. They

would ask to do this dance over and over again.

 

More of the Poussait dance!!

 

 Next summer I will return for all four sessions of Full Life Camp. Finally, I have found some real meaning in my time here in Armenia.

 

And lastly, this is me and Gorg in early

 fall back in his village. He now

smiles and talks non-stop. He is 12 years

old. Notice his chair has no foot pedals and his

legs, ankles and feet are permanently as they are

seen. He has never had physical therapy.



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



MY GREEK VACATION

So, I left Armenia for 10 days and went to Greece. It was lovely. I stayed 10 days in Athens and 7 days on Crete in the seaside down of .  I saw the Acropolis and other Greek ruins, ate wonderful food, did a botanical garden tour on a Segway (the most fun), and swam in the Mediterranean every day while on Crete.  I walked high up on a goat trail every morning in Panormos.

First restaurant where I ate Greek food - on the Platka..

Temple of Athena, or Aphrodite, cannot remember . . .

Nightlife on the Platka - area surrounding below the Acropolis..

There are outdoor restaurants/tavernas and shops with

everything to be found... The platka is open until  well after midnight..

The flea market as they call it . . .

On the Acropolis . . .famous goddess temple . . . 

The Parthenon on the Acropolis . . .

Parthenon - under renovation/construction

Amphitheater seen below the Acropolis

Acropolis Museum pieces . . . 

Walkway leading to apartment where I stayed in Athens

just below the Acropolis . . .

The original Olympic stadium . . .

Changing of the guard, Greek Army regulars in front of

the president's house  . . .

Me on my Segway . . . I loved this thing . . . It was the best . . .

View of the Acropolis from a nearby famous mountain where

I had dinner one evening . . . .

Car I liked and wouldn't mind having :-)

Favorite taverna for dinner in village of Panormos on Crete . . .

Panormos seaside village . . . Taken from cliffs on

morning goat walk . . .

View of the Mediterranean from goat walk cliffs . . . 

Favorite taverna sign . . .You had to go in and look in the

oven to decide what you would have for dinner.... opened at 6 p.m.

Kitty City station . . . cats everywhere and all well fed

at the stations and in the tavernas and restaurants. . .

Favorite cafe for morning cappuccino after goat cliff walk . . . 

Cats getting fed at the taverna . . . Everyone feeds the cats. . .

Got inadvertently caught up in a demonstration in front

of the president's house the last evening . . . 

View from my balcony in Panormos . . . .