Two days ago, on September 28th, it snowed here for the first time this season. It snowed for about seven hours. Only one inch accumulated because we were right at the freezing point. The next day when I left for work, it was 28 degrees. My host mom is worried about the local apples, local potatoes, and her tomatoes. This area is heavily dependent on crops and the weather has been a disaster this year with a very late summer, and heavy hailstorms that leave black spots on the fruit. A few people mentioned global warming, and wonder if it is affecting this area. Everyone was caught by surprise by the early snow and all say that it has never come so early.
Just before the snow I was on a scouting trip to our huge fruit and vegetable market. Every stall sells the same items. Right now there are huge quantities of apples, eggplants, turnips, carrots, potatoes, and cauliflower. There is actually very little variety. Because small growers cannot afford either fertilizer or insecticide, the vegetables tend to be small and not as pretty as you would wish. I bought carrots and beets. The woman I purchased them from insisted that I buy a kilo’s worth (2.2 pounds). The cost was 40 cents. It is impossible to buy just a few, or one or two pieces. If you try, they will give them to you and will not accept money.
I made an apple crisp for my host family and was lamenting to other volunteers that I had to use 25 very small spotted (from the hail) apples from our garden, which was a lot of work, when six Washington State apples would have sufficed. My host family was not too sure about the crisp as Armenians never cook fruit, they just eat it raw, and this was a novelty for them.
Two weeks ago I took a shared taxi to Yerevan. (You show up at the bus station, and when three others who also want to go Yerevan show up, the taxi leaves.) The taxi had several Christian religious pictures in it. As we’re shooting along on this two lane road at 140 kilometers per hour, the driver crosses himself four times. I took this as a sign that I was about to die, and said a quick prayer. As in all cars and buses, the gas gauge reads empty as we’re powered by two benzene tanks in the trunk (which means that there is no trunk space.) We stop to fill up at a station that sells diesel and benzene. There is no unleaded gas in this country. Filling the tanks reminds me of putting air in a tire. The hose is about that large and seems to clamp on the same way. A five- year-old girl is riding in the car and her father offers her breakfast, a Snickers bar and a Coke. As we drive along I become aware of lights flashing at us periodically, and then we slow way down. Oncoming drivers (bus and taxi) let each other know where the police are patrolling. (Benzene, a known carcinogen, is added to gasoline to reduce the engine knocks. Armenia is supposed to be moving away from the use of it by 2014.)
(Gyumri city bus. Note benzene tanks on top.)
On the two-hour trip home by marshutni (a 15 passenger van that costs $2.50 less than the taxi) a Russian woman boards with a four-year-old boy who has three toy hand guns, two of which look like the real thing. One is a flashing noisy Stars Wars weapon. He spends the whole trip aiming his guns at the passengers, and “shooting” us. I appear to be the only one who is annoyed and because I’m trying to be culturally sensitive, I don’t say anything. Then she offers him a snack, a Coke and a Snickers bar! There is no schedule for these marshutnis. They leave when they fill up with passengers. The seats are designed for five foot, 100-pound passengers with no packages, which is why I often take a taxi, to spare my aching back.
(Gyumri city water truck.)
In Yerevan, I saw the Russian-trained Armenian dentist, to have my two new crowns set. For anyone who needs two new crowns, you could fly to Armenia and have the work done by this fabulous dentist for thousands less than the cost of having it done in the US, and enjoy a unique travel experience to boot!
With another volunteer, I went to visit a day care center for older Armenians, which accommodates about 125 people at a time. Because of space limitations, the elderly can only visit every other day, MWF one week, and TTh the second week. They are served one hot meal, but most importantly, they have a place to stay warm. A poll showed that their greatest wish was to have showers there, though this is impossible because of the cost. So the center gives them vouchers to take to public baths where they can get a shower. Then it turned out that there are about six public shower houses that they can go to. These accommodations were set up because many people do not have bathing facilities in their homes (or any type of heat.) It costs less than one dollar to go to a shower house, but many of these people are living on less than one dollar a day so the vouchers are important.
With yet another volunteer I went to a large public orphanage. (Some are privately run, and some are state-run.) About 100 kids live in this orphanage which is a few blocks from my home. There are several orphanages in this city. About 70 of the kids were from 13 to 17 years. The place was chaotic with about eight girls or boys sharing a room. And it had a very sexually charged atmosphere, which I found disturbing. The volunteer attempts to run an English club there for the few kids who are interested. Many of these kids are not true orphans; they have families who cannot afford to keep them, or have parents who are in prison, on drugs, or have abandoned them. In Armenia, orphans are looked down on because they were abandoned by their families, and “family” is the central structure of Armenian society.
Brrr…. I’m waiting for my heavy coat and long underwear to arrive, and its two days too late!
Peace,
Barbara
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