October 3, 2009

My family hosted a party today, a baptism celebration for a fifteen-year-old boy who lives in Tbilisi, Georgia (about five hours north of Gyumri.) I attended the baptism this morning in a Armenian Apostolic Church. It was a small celebration. I asked about the age of the boy because I have seen a few infant baptisms. It was explained that during Soviet times and in the hardships that followed until 1995, baptisms were infrequent. As a result many older children and adults regularly get baptized.
(Youth at baptism. His pants legs are rolled up so that his legs can be blessed to help him walk a straight path.)

About ten am this morning, I went down to the party room, a large concrete room with no amenities (i.e., heat or water) that is directly under our living quarters, to help with setting the tables and putting out food. Albert, my host dad, was in a small kitchen area that was originally part of a lavash bakery. He called me and I went into the room. There was a goat head on the table, and he was cutting up the body. All the organ parts went into a huge vat for broth and the meat parts were cut up for barbeque (horovats.)

(Albert with his goat head.)

After the ceremony we returned to my family’s home for the party. About 65 people attended, mostly relatives, though some were very distant relatives. After the earthquake in 1988, several families moved to Tbilisi because their homes had been destroyed (and several family members died.) Some moved back to Gyumri after conditions improved several years later. So this party was a reunion of these two family groups. They said that even though they had a place to stay in Tbilisi, conditions were very difficult. They had to learn to speak Georgian, which is not related to any other language (as Armenian is not related to any other language), jobs were scarce, and then when the Soviet Union collapsed there was tremendous suffering.


The food was quite an experience. We had:
Russian caviar and shredded cheese
Cold fish plate with salmon and sturgeon
Cheese plate with five very varied kinds of cheese (including delicious blue cheese)
Greens: green onions, basil, dill, and parsley (put out at nearly every meal)
Fried eggplant wrapped around cheese with walnuts and pomegranate seeds (yum!)
Bread: 3 different kinds of rolls and lavash (like tortilla bread –Armenian style)
Shredded chicken with walnuts and lots of mayonnaise
Black olives and lemons
Georgian chicken – chunks of chicken (with bones) in a light curry cream sauce
Sliced sausage/meat platter – 7 kinds of sausage and meat (one was black, one was dark brown with a red trim, and the sausage was very fatty)
Veggies – tomatoes, cucumbers, and peppers
Pastries – three kinds; a baklava, and two kinds of very sweet cookies
Fruit bowls: grapes, pears, and apples
Broth with goat organ meat
Horovats – barbequed goat (skewers), and barbequed tomatoes and eggplant

(Cooking the goat.)
I had decided to eat lightly because my stomach does not like all Armenian food, but to no avail. I was “forced” to try everything. All the food was placed on small plates so that there were hundreds of dishes on the table. (All the women brought dishes and stainless to the house.) The food had been prepared over several days by several women. We started eating at noon and finished at seven pm. During this whole time, there were multiple toasts offered, and lots of vodka, Armenian cognac, and Georgian white wine (terrible) were consumed.

Several things impressed me. Older adults (65 plus) were making all the toasts, leading the conversations, telling the funny stories, etc. The younger crowd really looked up to them. In the family group, there are very few children. Families have one or two children and there were several older never-married adults.
(Albert and Emma, my host "parents".)

I talked to two Armenian women (early thirties) who travel extensively in their work with a non-profit. Both are fluent in English as they studied in the US at community colleges for one year. One was telling me that a single co-worker is trying to adopt a child under three, and that she has cleared all the Armenian hurdles, but that they cannot find a child for her because the organizations that handle adoptions would not get the huge fee they get for placing a child in the US. She said that placing children for adoption in the US is a huge business.
(Young Armenian guests.)

It was cold today, though clear and sunny. But I seemed to be the only one with cold toes and fingers at the party. I should have had more vodka!

Peace,

Barbara