September 13, 2009
For all my Catholic friends,
I’ve been going to Mass at a Roman Catholic Church in Gyumri, and it is such a trip that I thought I’d share the experience!
The church is very modest and from the outside appears to be a house. Services are held in a large room in the basement. Around the walls are several pictures with the same themes of Christ (hands outstretched, gazing up) and Mary (with the Christ child) by several different artists. Approximately 150 people attend the services.
Yesterday Mass was celebrated by the bishop of Armenia. This kindly-looking 65-year-old man is not over five feet tall, and came out wearing robes and a mitre and holding a staff, that outdid anything I’ve ever seen the Pope wearing. He was wearing a very large and ornate gold pendant around his neck, carrying a beautiful six inch gold square cross (in the Eastern tradition, ornately carved with religious symbols) and with tassels hanging from it. He had on a huge ring that caught the light and flashed around the church. If it was a diamond ring, it was at least ten karats! On his mitre was an ornately pictured Christ on the cross. His robes nearly overwhelmed him and the servers helped him move around the altar by picking up the robes, as is traditional anyway. The robes were ornate and beautifully embroidered. The gold staff was gorgeous, intricately designed and just his size! As he moved on the altar with his back to us, a very old little lady crawled up and straightened out his robes.
The service was in Armenian, with the bishop’s back to us most of the time. The priest does not face the congregation. Twice during the Mass a red curtain is pulled across the altar; so that the congregation is not distracted from the preparations, and then when the priest receives communion in private. During the “kiss of peace” greeting, people who have received the kiss from the priest pass it around. You hold your hands together, and they stroke the outside of your hands, then you turn around and stroke the held-together hands of the person behind you. During communion, women must wear veils to the altar. On my first visit, I was rejected for communion by the priest, and had to borrow a veil from someone else. The music is beautiful, and very Armenian. “Amen” is recognizable anyplace and they sing it with beauty.
After the service, everyone went up and kissed the bishop’s cross (as they do with the priest’s cross).
The congregation is made up of several orphans (most of the choir) and two nuns from Our Lady of Armenia Convent (see note below), several very old people, and a few young families. And me. Yesterday there were six nuns from Mother Theresa’s order (Sisters of Charity?) who run an orphanage for disabled children in Yerevan, and an orphanage in Spitak (a very small village). They wear very distinctive habits with a navy blue stripe border. What amazed me were their nationalities. There appeared to be two Africans, a Korean, two East Indians, and two European Caucasians. (These two Africans were the second and third black people I’ve seen in Armenian. The first is a truly special Peace Corps volunteer with our group!) And the congregation was excited to see them. Mass begins ten to fifteen minutes late, in Armenian tradition with the pews about half full. During the next hour and twenty minutes, the second half of the congregation dribbles in.
Of course I can only understand a fraction of what is going on. Last weekend I “stole” a missal book (I was shocked to find out that I had walked out with it when I found it in my bag) and I’m going to have my Armenian tutor help me learned the Lord’s Prayer. (She also attends this church.) One of our “tasks” as Peace Corps volunteers is to integrate into our communities, and attending Mass is one way I’m doing it. I now know several people who make a point to say hi. A few speak English, but most don’t. And I’m hoping that this “integration” will lead to a wonderful Christmas celebration (when I’ll miss all of you), and maybe a lead on an apartment, and leads on meaningful work!
Peace!
Our Lady of Armenia Orphanage. “Perhaps the only woman in Armenia government officials are really afraid of, Sister Arusiag is relentless in her work to give destitute children a decent life. She has worked miracles in Armenia, creating an oasis of security and hope in a sea of misery. Never afraid to ask for help, this Philly native leaves no stone unturned in her efforts to protect the children that cross her door.” (Rick Ney)
September 12, 2009
I’ve spent several weeks both reading and talking to people here about the status of women in Armenia. I think that this is a subject I will change my mind on several times as I come to understand it better. From the first day I moved into Arzakan village, it was apparent that males held a revered place in families. There were simple things; most homes only had pictures of the patriarch displayed, women did not drive, girls helped their mothers, and then were ordered to wait on their brothers. Boys did not appear to be as disciplined as the girls. Male volunteers had the benefit of host moms washing their clothes because they could not imagine men doing so, but not the female volunteers. Many of the men were unemployed or under-employed yet they seldom help out with the tedious household chores.
Then we learned about the marriage customs. As a result of the strong family culture, a family must approve of a marriage. A couple will not marry without this approval. We heard stories of families encouraging a girl to marry because “he comes from a good family” even though she did not love him. The family spends a huge amount of money on the wedding. When married, the girl usually moves into the home of the boy, and becomes part of that family. On the morning after the wedding night, the boy’s family delivers a red apple to the girl’s family signifying that there was blood on the sheets, as a sign of virginity. Then the couple is expected to produce a child within the first year or two. In my Arzakan family the beautiful 25-year-old daughter (with a 2-year-old child) is divorced. Her chances of re-marrying are almost non-existent because a man’s family would never accept “spoiled” goods and another man’s child. People in Yerevan have told me that this is not true, but outside of Yerevan in the villages, it is absolutely true, and she lives in a village.
Several times I have heard Armenian women “defend” their culture and emphasize that they like the way things are. There is a huge felt-need to protect their culture. One woman said that she likes having a lord and master. Another worried that if the Turkish-Armenian border were opened; there would be inter-marriage and a loss of their cultural traditions. (This notion seems so absurd to me because the Armenians are Christian and fiercely nationalistic and I can’t imagine a family approving of a Muslim Turkish boy.)
When you walk down the streets of Gyumri, you see lots of young Armenian girls (university students) trendily dressed (in the Russian style) with lots of makeup and inexpensive jewelry holding hands as they parade. In the US much of what they are wearing would be inappropriate (tight, low-cut, and suggestive), and it would be closer to what we imagine streetwalkers wearing. And yet in spite of this highly visual sexuality, there is no information disseminated about sex. Teachers and volunteers I have talked to mention that a huge issue in the schools is not being able to give any information about healthy sex, disease prevention, and AIDS. Abortion is the method of birth control. Armenia has the second lowest birth rate in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet republics, after Moldova.
On August 23rd, there was a report in the New York Times mentioning the missing girls in the Caucasus: Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia. Through neglect, selective abortion, or child murder, the ratio of girls to boys does not reflect what we know birth patterns should be. I forwarded the article to a volunteer who works with an NGO on trafficking issues. He asked his co-worker about it and she said that she personally knew a woman who murdered her third child, a girl. The story seems believable when I consider the preference for boys. I noticed a report that said that 24,000 students started first grade this year and I’ve been trying to find a breakdown between the sexes.
Another large issue here is human trafficking. Especially vulnerable are girls from poor rural villages and girls just exiting orphanages. Foster families are an unknown concept here and children are not adopted into Armenian families. (“It’s not part of our culture.”) So most girls leaving orphanages at eighteen have little support of any kind, and it is nearly impossible to get a job. Traffickers (often women) target these girls. Most of these girls end up in the UAE. The US Embassy has declared trafficking in Armenia to be a serious problem and is devoting resources to get existing laws enforced. Unfortunately it is often difficult to get girls to testify when/if they return. In poor families in the villages, it is not unusual for a mother to push a girl into the arms of traffickers in order to have the girls send remittances home. And to compound the problem, the girls are not welcome home when they return as they have shamed their families by selling their bodies.
So I am confused. I constantly hear how proud the Armenians are of their Christian traditions, though very few people attend church, and it would appear that they don’t support life. In a culture that prefers boys, it appears that it is easy for the authorities not to enforce trafficking laws that are for the protection of girls. Teenagers and young adults give off a sexual message that is at odds with their culture, according to their parents. Armenia does not admit that it has an AIDS problem though it is increasing as men migrate to Russia for work (and Russia has one of the fastest growing AIDS populations in the world) and come home on vacation.
It does not feel as if Armenians are in any sense “Westerners.” They are heavily influenced by Russia, and most television is in Russian. (I am shocked at the amount of graphic pornography from Russia that is available on television.) Their preference for boys, their lack of openness to adoption and neglect of the most vulnerable in their society, and the fact that they don’t volunteer or contribute to needy causes is difficult to digest. Much of the problem can be traced to Soviet rule for 70 years when the government took care of all needs and paid well. But this planned economy went bankrupt in 1992 and led to the downfall of the Soviet Union. Since then there has been a huge decline in Armenian living standards. And I almost feel that they are waiting for some institution to cover this gap. They are having difficulty pulling themselves up and are dependent on foreign remittances and foreign aid.
I’ve over-simplified some of these problems. There are really two Armenia’s; the capital city of Yerevan with 1.2 million people and the rest of the country with about 1.8 million people. The second largest city, Gyumri, has a population of 150,000 people. Both of these “Armenia’s” have huge problems, with institutionalized corruption probably the biggest problem in Yerevan, and abject poverty (lack of work and opportunity) in the villages and towns outside of Yerevan. Armenians I have met on a personal level are wonderful, welcoming and warm. But they don’t know how to tackle their huge problems on an individual level. Hopefully this is where the Peace Corps is helping.
I’ve spent several weeks both reading and talking to people here about the status of women in Armenia. I think that this is a subject I will change my mind on several times as I come to understand it better. From the first day I moved into Arzakan village, it was apparent that males held a revered place in families. There were simple things; most homes only had pictures of the patriarch displayed, women did not drive, girls helped their mothers, and then were ordered to wait on their brothers. Boys did not appear to be as disciplined as the girls. Male volunteers had the benefit of host moms washing their clothes because they could not imagine men doing so, but not the female volunteers. Many of the men were unemployed or under-employed yet they seldom help out with the tedious household chores.
Then we learned about the marriage customs. As a result of the strong family culture, a family must approve of a marriage. A couple will not marry without this approval. We heard stories of families encouraging a girl to marry because “he comes from a good family” even though she did not love him. The family spends a huge amount of money on the wedding. When married, the girl usually moves into the home of the boy, and becomes part of that family. On the morning after the wedding night, the boy’s family delivers a red apple to the girl’s family signifying that there was blood on the sheets, as a sign of virginity. Then the couple is expected to produce a child within the first year or two. In my Arzakan family the beautiful 25-year-old daughter (with a 2-year-old child) is divorced. Her chances of re-marrying are almost non-existent because a man’s family would never accept “spoiled” goods and another man’s child. People in Yerevan have told me that this is not true, but outside of Yerevan in the villages, it is absolutely true, and she lives in a village.
Several times I have heard Armenian women “defend” their culture and emphasize that they like the way things are. There is a huge felt-need to protect their culture. One woman said that she likes having a lord and master. Another worried that if the Turkish-Armenian border were opened; there would be inter-marriage and a loss of their cultural traditions. (This notion seems so absurd to me because the Armenians are Christian and fiercely nationalistic and I can’t imagine a family approving of a Muslim Turkish boy.)
When you walk down the streets of Gyumri, you see lots of young Armenian girls (university students) trendily dressed (in the Russian style) with lots of makeup and inexpensive jewelry holding hands as they parade. In the US much of what they are wearing would be inappropriate (tight, low-cut, and suggestive), and it would be closer to what we imagine streetwalkers wearing. And yet in spite of this highly visual sexuality, there is no information disseminated about sex. Teachers and volunteers I have talked to mention that a huge issue in the schools is not being able to give any information about healthy sex, disease prevention, and AIDS. Abortion is the method of birth control. Armenia has the second lowest birth rate in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet republics, after Moldova.
On August 23rd, there was a report in the New York Times mentioning the missing girls in the Caucasus: Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia. Through neglect, selective abortion, or child murder, the ratio of girls to boys does not reflect what we know birth patterns should be. I forwarded the article to a volunteer who works with an NGO on trafficking issues. He asked his co-worker about it and she said that she personally knew a woman who murdered her third child, a girl. The story seems believable when I consider the preference for boys. I noticed a report that said that 24,000 students started first grade this year and I’ve been trying to find a breakdown between the sexes.
Another large issue here is human trafficking. Especially vulnerable are girls from poor rural villages and girls just exiting orphanages. Foster families are an unknown concept here and children are not adopted into Armenian families. (“It’s not part of our culture.”) So most girls leaving orphanages at eighteen have little support of any kind, and it is nearly impossible to get a job. Traffickers (often women) target these girls. Most of these girls end up in the UAE. The US Embassy has declared trafficking in Armenia to be a serious problem and is devoting resources to get existing laws enforced. Unfortunately it is often difficult to get girls to testify when/if they return. In poor families in the villages, it is not unusual for a mother to push a girl into the arms of traffickers in order to have the girls send remittances home. And to compound the problem, the girls are not welcome home when they return as they have shamed their families by selling their bodies.
So I am confused. I constantly hear how proud the Armenians are of their Christian traditions, though very few people attend church, and it would appear that they don’t support life. In a culture that prefers boys, it appears that it is easy for the authorities not to enforce trafficking laws that are for the protection of girls. Teenagers and young adults give off a sexual message that is at odds with their culture, according to their parents. Armenia does not admit that it has an AIDS problem though it is increasing as men migrate to Russia for work (and Russia has one of the fastest growing AIDS populations in the world) and come home on vacation.
It does not feel as if Armenians are in any sense “Westerners.” They are heavily influenced by Russia, and most television is in Russian. (I am shocked at the amount of graphic pornography from Russia that is available on television.) Their preference for boys, their lack of openness to adoption and neglect of the most vulnerable in their society, and the fact that they don’t volunteer or contribute to needy causes is difficult to digest. Much of the problem can be traced to Soviet rule for 70 years when the government took care of all needs and paid well. But this planned economy went bankrupt in 1992 and led to the downfall of the Soviet Union. Since then there has been a huge decline in Armenian living standards. And I almost feel that they are waiting for some institution to cover this gap. They are having difficulty pulling themselves up and are dependent on foreign remittances and foreign aid.
I’ve over-simplified some of these problems. There are really two Armenia’s; the capital city of Yerevan with 1.2 million people and the rest of the country with about 1.8 million people. The second largest city, Gyumri, has a population of 150,000 people. Both of these “Armenia’s” have huge problems, with institutionalized corruption probably the biggest problem in Yerevan, and abject poverty (lack of work and opportunity) in the villages and towns outside of Yerevan. Armenians I have met on a personal level are wonderful, welcoming and warm. But they don’t know how to tackle their huge problems on an individual level. Hopefully this is where the Peace Corps is helping.
September 5, 2009
Hi All,
This has been an interesting week with everything that has happened.
Tuesday I went to Yerevan for my second dentist appointment. Somehow I broke two teeth shortly after getting here. While I was waiting at the bus station for enough passengers (four) to fill a shared taxi, a woman started talking to me in Russian. (Do I look Russian?) I told her that I spoke a little Armenian. She told me that her daughter, who was going to ride with me in the taxi, was going to medical school in Yerevan. She was in her last year (sixth) of medical school and would be a cardiologist like her mom. Then she wrote her numbers down for me so that I could contact her if I ever had heart problems. (I assured her that I had none, in Armenian.) Then she suggested that I should call her anyway and visit. What was running through my mind is that the Peace Corps medivacs all persons needing surgery to Washington, DC if at all possible, and that I was already stressed out about going to a Russian-trained dentist with whom I have a communication problem. To add to that, I was angry at myself for judging this woman because every other tooth that she had was gold, so I was wondering if she was up on the latest cardiology practices.
From my doorstep in Gyumri to the dentist in Yerevan is three hours of treacherous travel. (Other volunteers have assured me that I’ll get used to taxi drivers going 140 kilometers an hour over pot-holed, cow and sheep-obstructed roads. I doubt it!) At the first visit, the dentist decided that I needed a root canal on one of the teeth before he put on a new crown, because if I needed a root canal later, it would not be possible with the crown. So that procedure took two hours during which he consulted with another dentist constantly because my actual root canal was so narrow. I felt that I was getting excellent care though I kept thinking that this would never fly in the US where endodontists see a patient every 15 minutes. Tuesday’s appointment was to prepare the two teeth for crowns and take impressions. And that took two hours. I felt that he did a more-thorough job than I have ever had. I have two more appointments; one to fit the crowns, then they will be sent back to the lab for polishing, and they’ll be set on the fourth appointment. And they’ll be white zirconium (vs. gold). So I’m happy. I had stressed-out too much about this whole dental thing! In the meantime I’m not smiling, and am walking around with two ugly stubby teeth, because in Armenia you do not get “temporaries”.
(Nice home in Gyumri.)
Last night two volunteers and I went to the home of a woman who runs an NGO, for dinner. It was the nicest home I have visited in Armenia, and the food was some of the tastiest. I tend to look at everything from an economic perspective and it was wonderful to hear her view on several subjects. There is talk of opening the border here between Turkey and Armenia. Armenia is land-locked for starters, and its east (Azerbaijan) and west borders (Turkey) are closed. So trade is limited to using the Georgian boarder and the small mountainous Iran border. Interestingly, the schools opened on Tuesday the first. Last weekend I was walking around the market watching kids buy school clothes labeled “Made in Turkey”. And the prices were outrageously high, and the quality outrageously low, compared to the monthly wages here. (A teacher makes $200 per month. Most workers make substantially less.) Bundled clothes enter Armenia through Georgia in huge convoy trucks. The vendors then buy a “bundle” and do not specifically choose each item that they will sell. If the border opens, this woman was saying that Turkey would benefit the most because Turkish goods would come into Armenia by a much shorter route. I think that this is true, in the short run. Her real problem is that she’s afraid of Turkey. I think that Turkey has a population of approximately 70 million, and Armenia has 3 million. She thinks that Turkey will “overrun” Armenia in terms of Turks moving here (Why? There are no jobs.) and that Turks will marry into the Armenian population. (This seems impossible to me given the fierce nationalism of Armenians. Families would not allow inter-marriage.) This is a highly educated woman who was articulating her issues with Turkey. Of course she brought up the genocide issue. There is not popular citizen support for opening the border either in Turkey or in Armenia. There are political and economic reasons to do so but there are huge cultural barriers. Another issue is that Azerbaijan has large oil reserves that are enabling it to beef up its army at a time when Armenia is struggling to get enough troops because of a low birth rate vs. a high Azerbaijan birth rate. (Military service is compulsory for two years.) Turkey closed its border in support of Azerbaijan. I think that opening the border would weaken this alliance.
A few nights ago a group of us got together for dinner with a former Burkina Faso PC volunteer who is now working as a structural engineer in Ireland. He “crashes” at PC volunteer homes as he travels the world, because building has come to a standstill in Ireland and his company is encouraging everyone to take leaves. So this young man was fascinating as he described his most current adventures (Georgia, Turkey, and Armenia) and his next trip (Thailand, India, and China.) The most interesting part was the insights he had because of the fact that he stays with people who actually live in these countries. Many of these trips are arranged through a website (Couch-surfing?) which many volunteers are hooked up with. Hostels are out, couch surfing is in! At this same dinner, volunteers were talking about getting “ready” for winter. This blows my mind. It is September 5th, and we were talking about covering the windows with plastic, heaters and wiring, and storing water. And one volunteer needs to buy wood for her wood stove! But January and February average below zero for the full two months!
(Nice street in Gyumri)
Take care all! I’m still trying to figure out my Blogspot with limited Internet access.
Barbara
Hi All,
This has been an interesting week with everything that has happened.
Tuesday I went to Yerevan for my second dentist appointment. Somehow I broke two teeth shortly after getting here. While I was waiting at the bus station for enough passengers (four) to fill a shared taxi, a woman started talking to me in Russian. (Do I look Russian?) I told her that I spoke a little Armenian. She told me that her daughter, who was going to ride with me in the taxi, was going to medical school in Yerevan. She was in her last year (sixth) of medical school and would be a cardiologist like her mom. Then she wrote her numbers down for me so that I could contact her if I ever had heart problems. (I assured her that I had none, in Armenian.) Then she suggested that I should call her anyway and visit. What was running through my mind is that the Peace Corps medivacs all persons needing surgery to Washington, DC if at all possible, and that I was already stressed out about going to a Russian-trained dentist with whom I have a communication problem. To add to that, I was angry at myself for judging this woman because every other tooth that she had was gold, so I was wondering if she was up on the latest cardiology practices.
From my doorstep in Gyumri to the dentist in Yerevan is three hours of treacherous travel. (Other volunteers have assured me that I’ll get used to taxi drivers going 140 kilometers an hour over pot-holed, cow and sheep-obstructed roads. I doubt it!) At the first visit, the dentist decided that I needed a root canal on one of the teeth before he put on a new crown, because if I needed a root canal later, it would not be possible with the crown. So that procedure took two hours during which he consulted with another dentist constantly because my actual root canal was so narrow. I felt that I was getting excellent care though I kept thinking that this would never fly in the US where endodontists see a patient every 15 minutes. Tuesday’s appointment was to prepare the two teeth for crowns and take impressions. And that took two hours. I felt that he did a more-thorough job than I have ever had. I have two more appointments; one to fit the crowns, then they will be sent back to the lab for polishing, and they’ll be set on the fourth appointment. And they’ll be white zirconium (vs. gold). So I’m happy. I had stressed-out too much about this whole dental thing! In the meantime I’m not smiling, and am walking around with two ugly stubby teeth, because in Armenia you do not get “temporaries”.
(Nice home in Gyumri.)
Last night two volunteers and I went to the home of a woman who runs an NGO, for dinner. It was the nicest home I have visited in Armenia, and the food was some of the tastiest. I tend to look at everything from an economic perspective and it was wonderful to hear her view on several subjects. There is talk of opening the border here between Turkey and Armenia. Armenia is land-locked for starters, and its east (Azerbaijan) and west borders (Turkey) are closed. So trade is limited to using the Georgian boarder and the small mountainous Iran border. Interestingly, the schools opened on Tuesday the first. Last weekend I was walking around the market watching kids buy school clothes labeled “Made in Turkey”. And the prices were outrageously high, and the quality outrageously low, compared to the monthly wages here. (A teacher makes $200 per month. Most workers make substantially less.) Bundled clothes enter Armenia through Georgia in huge convoy trucks. The vendors then buy a “bundle” and do not specifically choose each item that they will sell. If the border opens, this woman was saying that Turkey would benefit the most because Turkish goods would come into Armenia by a much shorter route. I think that this is true, in the short run. Her real problem is that she’s afraid of Turkey. I think that Turkey has a population of approximately 70 million, and Armenia has 3 million. She thinks that Turkey will “overrun” Armenia in terms of Turks moving here (Why? There are no jobs.) and that Turks will marry into the Armenian population. (This seems impossible to me given the fierce nationalism of Armenians. Families would not allow inter-marriage.) This is a highly educated woman who was articulating her issues with Turkey. Of course she brought up the genocide issue. There is not popular citizen support for opening the border either in Turkey or in Armenia. There are political and economic reasons to do so but there are huge cultural barriers. Another issue is that Azerbaijan has large oil reserves that are enabling it to beef up its army at a time when Armenia is struggling to get enough troops because of a low birth rate vs. a high Azerbaijan birth rate. (Military service is compulsory for two years.) Turkey closed its border in support of Azerbaijan. I think that opening the border would weaken this alliance.
A few nights ago a group of us got together for dinner with a former Burkina Faso PC volunteer who is now working as a structural engineer in Ireland. He “crashes” at PC volunteer homes as he travels the world, because building has come to a standstill in Ireland and his company is encouraging everyone to take leaves. So this young man was fascinating as he described his most current adventures (Georgia, Turkey, and Armenia) and his next trip (Thailand, India, and China.) The most interesting part was the insights he had because of the fact that he stays with people who actually live in these countries. Many of these trips are arranged through a website (Couch-surfing?) which many volunteers are hooked up with. Hostels are out, couch surfing is in! At this same dinner, volunteers were talking about getting “ready” for winter. This blows my mind. It is September 5th, and we were talking about covering the windows with plastic, heaters and wiring, and storing water. And one volunteer needs to buy wood for her wood stove! But January and February average below zero for the full two months!
(Nice street in Gyumri)Take care all! I’m still trying to figure out my Blogspot with limited Internet access.
Barbara
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