Blogs from Armenia, Asia
Depression
1) Picture number 12 shows a picture of Cristians protesting against Muslims during a prayer in Cairo. This is significant to me because I am a Muslim and I find it very disturbing when things like this happen because that is just wrong in several ways. People should keep their thoughts to themselves because Muslims have every right to pray without disturbance. My first impression when I say this picture is that this is normal comming from stereotypical Christians, especially since the Semptember 11th attack. This picture makes me want to ask: Why do people stereotype against different religions? 2) Picture number 16 illustrates a police officer pepper spraying students during their sit-in protest. This is sigificant to me because I like to protest for things I believe in like Muslim's rights. I think this should ... read more
Garni Temple
It had been a tough walk. In fact it had been one of the most difficult one-day walks of my life. It began inauspiciously when our 5am taxi ran out of fuel halfway up the extinct volcano. For some reason he tried to chug the ancient Lada – the only car to be seen in in Armenia – up the rest of the steep winding road using the fumes in the carburettor. Finally we drew to a standstill, although it was hard to tell as we had been progressing at less than walking speed anyway, as a potentially lift giving minibus crawled up the road behind us. We paid our driver anyway; out of sympathy because I had no idea how he would get back to civilization. However, I didn’t have that much sympathy as he ... read more
The Manuscripts Museum
Thursday, September 1, 2011 - Yerevan, Armenia After 17 days and 6,800 kms on dirt roads through the mountains, combined with our final night celebration party, I'm exhausted!!! I was up at 6am, took Shelly to the Airport, and went back to bed until 11am, then joined the remaining Team members in the lobby. As you probably know, this whole Challenge was to benefit the Armenia Mission - an NGO that helps refugees from the war, earthquake victems, and the poor and homeless. Attila (our Leader) organized a visit to a refugee school in North Yerevan. We jumped into our cars and convoyed to the school. We entered to school armed with toys, clothes, school supplies and checks. There were about 30 children aged 5 - 15. They were very quiet and didn't quit know what ... read more
June 2011 Armenia doesn't get along with Azerbaijan to its right or Turkey to its left -borders closed. With Iran to the south, that leaves a US passport holder with Georgia to the north. Moscow–Yerevan, Armavia Airlines I felt like the only non-Armenian on a plane full of super-sized families. At the airport in Yerevan, as the ONLY person at the visa window, it was fact. Yerevan had lots of character. Kind of rough, but nice architecture characterized by reddish-brownish stone construction on most buildings. Nice parks, good restaurants, Cafesjian Center-Hanging Gardens very nice with great view. Found a great place to sit on the street and sip beer on a perfect evening. Watched Armenians walk by for a couple of hours. Yerevan Hotel Villa Delenda was very cool, an old residence, in an ally in ... read more
Monastery
Hey everyone! Sorry we didn't write an entry yesterday- we were tired out after a day of travelling. Anyway yesterday we travelled to Yerevan, and on the way stopped at another beautiful monastery high upon a mountain. Today after we had breakfast, we went to visit the genocide museum, which really opened our eyes. We reccomend you read about the Armenian Genocide. Then we visited the Saryan museum. It is an amazing museum which holds the fascinating works of Saryan, an Armenian painter. Later in the day after a late lunch, we walked around Yerevan some more. We found the city really nice and loved the elegant architecture. We returned to the hotel after our long walk, and decided to settle down with a movie. -The Lost Tribe... read more
rossana's house
Parev everyone! (-Alicja) Today was our last day in Dilijan. Yeterday we visited a wonderful monastery called Gosch. We also visited the lovely family that dad is renovating the house for. This morning as Dad set off for his last day of building, the rest of us went for ANOTHER art lesson! We were drawing some lilac flowers, which we will post later. :) Later in the day, we (me, mum, and the kids) braved th rain to go for a walk and get some lunch. After lunch we went to a pottery shop and then made our way to the orphanage. It was sad to say goodbye to the children who we had made such good friends with, but we will hopefully stay in touch. Then we met with dad in a beautiful monastery called ... read more
Us and Some of the Team Members
Hi everybody, Emma here. Today after dad left for building we had just had a breakfast of eggs and pancakes. We were drawing and reading in our rooms. We slowly made our way to the restaurant where we were going to meet the orphans. We wandered around the market, being careful not to step in the huge puddles left from the rainshower in the early morning but of course it was too tempting!!! When we met the children at the resturant we played a variety of games, which were mostly inspired by yesterdays games, including about ten rounds of charades! After being stuffed with salads, kebabs, pork, ice-cream and cake. Unfortunately we looked out of the window and realized the weather channel really did live up to it's expectations as we saw rain and thunder coming ... read more
charades
Hi guys, Alicja here! Today we all got up bright and early (well.... at least dad!!!) for a yummy breakfast of crepes stuffed with mincemeat and coriander. Then, after dad left to build, the rest of us went for our second art lesson. It was great and we were drawing still life using special techniques, which, sadly, did not make our drawings look like Van Gogh but they were close enough! Later in the day, dad met up with us and we went for a fantastic lunch with some kids from the orphanage. We had a really fun time with loads of laughter, photo taking and playing games such as charades where we had to say the word in Armenian or English. We regretted to say goodbye, but we will see them again in a few ... read more
