Vartavar - Also Known as Water Day

Water Day in Armenia is where people of all ages drench each other with water. Its name is a derivative from “vard” in Armenian, which stands for “rose” in English.

Origin

Although now a Christian tradition, Vardavar's history dates back to pagan times. The ancient festival is traditionally associated with the goddess Astghik, who was the goddess of water, beauty, love and fertility. The festivities associated with this religious observance of Astghik were named “Vartavar” because Armenians offered her roses as a celebration.

The Festival

The Festival Vardavar is currently celebrated 98 days (14 weeks) after Easter. During the day of Vardevar, people from a wide array of ages are allowed to douse strangers with water. It is common to see people pouring buckets of water from balconies on unsuspecting people walking below them. The festival is very popular among children as it is one day where they can get away with pulling pranks. It is also a means of refreshment on the usually hot and dry summer days of July.

Between Church Meetings today there were a group of kids outside the church just waiting for us.  They kept motioning for us six missionaries to come outside, we motioned with our heads, NO. 

By the time church was over, Elder Jones and I took a back alley avoiding the kids with buckets and made it home DRY!  One bucket of water was thrown at us from an upstairs apartment building, but they missed. Whew!

Shopping, Outside, 100+ degrees, NO PROBLEM!

Always remember, "A Girl Just Can't Have Too Many Doilies"

I guess there isn't a word in English for the beautiful stitching done on this doily.  But it definitely not

crochet. 

 

It was a very hot Saturday, over 100 degrees. Elder Jones was a trooper. This was outdoor shopping at the Vernasage. I  bought beautiful handiwork.

 Even though I don't speak the language, we agreed on a price, after this little lady showed me the tips of  her fingers explaining how long and painful it was to do all the stitching.  She was very happy to have her picture taken with me.

A lot of the ladies were trying to get me to buy crosses (see behind me), because of my name badge.

-Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints-

If I could only speak their language.

A Night at the Opera House!

We were walking to the Opera House and found this in the park. WOW!

This picture shows the shape of the piano better.  I want one of these in my backyard!

We went to a Folk, Ballet and Contemporary Dance evening at the Opera House. A very old building in Yerevan. I'm sure at it's peak it was beautiful. It is a little worn but has loads of character.

The chandeliers were beautiful, but in the lobby area a lot of them were only partly lit.  Downright dark walking up to the balcony.  Guess it just costs to much to maintain.

One thing it does not have is AIR CONDITIONING. It was a VERY warm evening, but enjoyable.

Here we are before we knew it would last nearly three hours. 

We went with President and Sister Carter and Elder and Sister Watkins.  President saved the day when during intermission he bought us water and a candy bar.

How come these dancers always looked so cool?

They bow a lot and for a long time.  

 THE END

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LDS Charities & Neonatal Training

I thought I would share with you some of the wonderful things that the Church is doing here in Armenia and Georgia.

The middle of this map is the Country of Georgia.

Through the humanitarian arm of the Church, there was Neonatal Training in Georgia recently. In case you ever donate to the Humanitarian fund, you might be interested in how some of your money is being spent.

Elder and Sister Reese are Senior Missionaries that serve in Georgia. Weeks after the training the Reese’s delivered a Neonatal book to this lady (black dress in pic) who is a nurse that had gone to the training.

Sister Reese sent me this story from her journal.

“She was delighted to get the book and we talked about how the training had helped her. She works in a maternity ward. She said that she used the training every day and figured she saved 4 babies a day using it. (She said that before the training they just threw cold water on the babies to try to get them to breath.)

 Elder Jones and I have not been to Georgia yet, but we hope to get there before we return home.  Georgia is North of Armenia.  It is an ancient country of rugged mountains and the western edge borders the Black Sea.  We have ten missionaries currently serving there as well as one amazing Senior Couple.

MEANWHILE, BACK IN ARMENIA - - -
Elder and Sister Rich are the Humanitarian Missionaries running LDS Charities here in Armenia and have a team of people working with them. One of LDS Charities main functions here in Armenia is helping the villages with their water problems. There are 933 villages in Armenia. The water systems, pipes and valves, in 600 of these villages are owned by the government. LDS Charities works with the other 333 drinking water systems.

In most of the villages the pipes were installed 40 or 50 years ago and they have long since rusted out. Many of these villages have had no water in their homes for 20 or 25 years. LDS Charities provide new pipe and money for the construction, the villagers provide most of the labor. They run the pipe down the streets and the villagers make their own connections to get the water into their homes. Prior to this they had to walk to some water source, fill up containers and carry them back home. Needless to say, they do not have indoor plumbing.

The evaluations as to which villages are selected, depend on the need. A village with no water will have a higher priority than one that does have some water. This year they selected 31 villages to work on with a cost of about $600,000.

MEANWHILE, BACK ON THE RANCH- - - 
LDS Charities also donated this cow.  Elder Watkins (who has had many years of experience)
made sure this cow knew what to do..... Success!

That is just a taste of the many good things that LDS Charities is doing here.

The Long and Winding Wonderful Road - Part 4 FINAL

KAPAN and Davit-Bek
Kapan spreads for miles along valleys beneath Mt. Khustup. Some of its industrial outskirts and concrete apartment blocks have a harsh appearance, but the town center, where two rushing rivers meet, has leafy parks and squares.
The reopening of the copper mine has helped the local economy after a decade of jobless isolation. A Canadian company has taken control of the mine and more rigid environmental controls have been implemented making it safer for the people to work there.

Throughout Armenia the Apostolic Church buildings have similar architecture, but this one had a pretty pink hue.

This is a Statue of Davit-Bek.  He was a prominent Armenian military commander during the 17th Century.  The street that the Bed and Breakfast we stayed in in Goris was "Davit-Bek" street, this is a statue of "Davit-Bek". 

AND the village where we had Sacrament Meeting was named "Davit-Bek."

Some maps don’t show that the road wriggles through occupied Azerbaijan in several places.  (We weren’t aware of that while we were traveling). YIKES!  The task of removing minefields continues on this border, and there have been injuries and deaths among civilians at villages like Davit Bek as recently as 2002.  Kapan was shelled by artillery in the early 1990’s, with the border only 1 km from the eastern suburbs.

This is the home in Davit-Bek where we had church.

This is our little church group.  We had a wonderful experience meeting with these good people.

At church we had three members, Violett, who is going to the Kyiv temple in August, a grandma, Gabriela and her daughter-in-law, Nora and three of the tatik’s granddaughters,  

These three little girls sat quietly throughout the Sacrament Meeting on a wooden chest.Afterwards I tried to talk to the girls, but they were very shy, maybe even afraid.  I gave them a pencil, a ring and some candy. As we drove away I think I saw a smile.

President taught us at the church meeting, that there are two things you can do even though you are far away from the church, read the Book of Mormon everyday (two chapters a day, as the Area Authority has asked us to do) and pray. President Carter promised these sisters that someday there would be a temple in Armenia.  He also thanked the Lord that he kept his promise, "that when two people gather together he would send his Spirit."  We all felt that happen.

I am so grateful that I get to take the Sacrament every week.  These members only get to take it once or twice a year.

If you want to learn more go to http://mormon.org/

   This is the garden outside another home we visited. 

The gardens in this village were wonderful, every corner of the property was utilized as these people depend on this food to live on for the year.

 Naira's relatives with Sister C. 

 Before Church up the hill. 

After Church, down the hill.

A concrete outhouse, right next to a pig pen.  It was a hole in the ground with a basin on the floor so you had to crouch down.  But they had built a flush contraption, and when I flushed, the water came out at such a strong force that it splashed up on to my legs and feet.  I smiled! 

We were very close to the Iranian border and we saw a lot of trucks that said this: IRAN

We didn't follow it home. 

I loved this journey, the people and the places and most importantly my Savior Jesus Christ.

THE END

The Long and Winding Wonderful Road - Part 3

GORIS

Leafy Goris stands on a grid of streets in a deep valley. White volcanic pillars spear through the steep grassy slopes of Old Goris, east of town.  Goris boasts fine stone houses with arched windows and balconies on tree-lined avenues. 

We stayed at Khachik’s Bed and Breakfast.  It was built right into the side of a hill.  He actually had a small museum at the back of the dining area.  His wife cooked us a wonderful meal of dolma, a rice and lentil soup, bread cheese and a homemade raspberry compote drink.  They were the most gracious hosts.

We went for a little drive through the city in the evening and ran into a church, that this lady graciously unlocked for us.

Locals say the cave shelters and stables of Old Goris carved into the hillside on the east side of town were built and inhabited in the 5^th century.  We wandered around on these hills going into one of the caves and watched locals herd cows along the hills.

I loved Goris.  It was beautiful and quaint. 

President was doing a little missionary work with this papik.

TATEV

Tatev is built on a natural fortress of rock on the edge of the Vorotan Canyon. There is a beautiful deep gorge with a river at the bottom. About a year ago a tram was finished and is now in the Guinness Book of World Records as the longest tram ride in the world. It is very modern and sleek and more importantly very safe.
When we arrived to take the tram ride a helicopter had just landed. They told us it would be a long wait while the important officials traveled on the tram. So we had Ruben drive us to the other side and after touring the huge monastery we took the tram back.  .
At the bottom of the canyon are mineral springs and Satan’s Bridge. Legend tells that villagers fleeing to Tatev were blocked by the raging river. Before the invaders attacked, a bridge was magically created by a huge falling rock and the people were saved.



 The great fortified monastery’s main church of St. Paul and St Peter was built in the 9^th century. There is a 11^th century church next to it.  At the monastery’s peak some 600 monks lived and worked at Tatev.  The church is still used today.

The dining hall???

Priest 

The views were spectacular on the ground as well as from the tram. 

 

Well maybe not this view.  Me and the Outhouse.

Throughout our journies, there were gardens everywhere.  Many of these people have to live off the land.  I hope their harvest is bountiful.